Here I will show you how you can quite easily pull together your own Christmas light Garland like the one on the left.

I hope you enjoy making your garlands.

Wealie x

What do you need?

• covered bells in silver and/or white.
• 15-20 medium coloured metal bells.
• 6mm Jute string – approx. 6 metres.

• 6mm christmas style butcher’s string – approx. 6 metres.
• One set of LED Christmas lights approx. 4 metres, with 80 bulbs and preferably battery operated.
• Approx. 15 Christmas wooden shapes – I used three different types, but you could use more or less.

Putting it together

Cut three lengths of the Jute string approximately 2 metres long. Knot the three lengths together at one end leaving about 5 cm of string above the knot and plait together. You could also substitute one of the lengths for butcher’s string for a different effect.

Leave about 5 cm of string free at the end of the plait and knot the lengths together - you should have around 1 – 1.5 metre plait length.

Attach the light furthest away from the battery pack to the beginning of the plait using the 5 cm of free string. Weave the plait over and around the lights. At the end of the plait tie the closest light to the end and then turn the lights, tie down the first light after the turn half way between the next two lights. Weave the rest of the lights in and out of the plait and lights so that they are evenly spaced and you have lights on both sides of the plait. Tie the final light to the plait using the free string at the end.

Cut a length of about 1.5 metres of the butcher’s string and tie it around the first light on the plait leaving about 10 cm of string free. Weave the string around the lights tying it around every second light until you reach the end of the plait and tie it around the final light and again leave about 10 cm of string free at the end. Cut off any excess string and knot the 10 cm ends so that they form loops for hanging the garland

Using the jute string attach one of the small coloured bells aroud every second light. In the lights without bells proceed to knot your shapes and the larger bells in sequential order.

You’ve now got your very own Christmas lights garland!

For extra colour why not incorporate some ribbons or faux berries and holly.

Where to buy the materials

If you would like to make the same garland as me you can buy all the materials I used here:

• You can buy a variety of pre-cut wood shapes on Amazon
• Buy three rolls of  the jute twine string on Amazon
• Buy the red and white butcher’s twine on Amazon
• You can buy two sets of the battery operated christmas lights on Amazon
• I bought the coloured small bells in my local Rymans stationers
• The large white and silver covered bells I bought in Waitrose, red and white versions are available to buy online

All materials are included in the price and of course you get to keep your finished artwork and the opportunity to buy additional materials to create more art. These prices are based on me coming to your home or a pre-paid location and there may be an additional charge for fuel and materials, which will be discussed at the time of booking. See the sections below for more details about the types of arts and crafts activities I can do with you.

Abstract Mixed Media

Whether you want to make a canvas, a box or maybe a mask; I will teach you my all in one decoupage technique.

We’ll be using tissue paper, textured materials, fabrics, ribbons, re-purposed jewellery, oodles of glitter and sequins and anything else you can think to find in your craft draw!

Organic Ink Art

Using glossy card and high quality watercolour spray inks and shimmering mica powders, I will demonstrate how to manipulate the inks and mica powders to create gorgeous one off organic designs

You’ll make excellent abstract pictures and take home some ready made greeting cards to share with friends and loved ones.

Tangle Patterned Piggy Bank

Using ceramic paint pens I will demonstrate how to draw intricate designs onto the pottery piece of your choice from: plates, mugs, bowls, cup and saucer, tea pots, plant pots, piggy banks, etc.

We can also personalise your design with a name or special words or saying of your choosing.

Tangle Pattern

Using high quality Indian rag paper or quality card stock with water colours, water colour brushes and micron fine liners and specialist gel and alcohol ink art pens.

You can explore your inner patterns to create intricate designs remincient of paisley and zentangle art. These designs make lovely pictures and greeting cards and are a very therapeutic art form.

Using quality card, aluminium plumbers tape and some standard embossing tools I will demonstrate how you can make great embossed metal designs on a budget and how to colour them with alcohol inks to bring them to vibrant life.

These designs are affordable and make great pictures, greeting cards and bookmarks with very little materials.

Geli Plate Mono Print

Using a gelatin plate I will show you how to make great abstract acrylic mono prints using a variety of tools and materials.

These make excellent tools for those interested in art journaling and wonderful backgrounds for zentangle pattern makers.

If you are interested in arranging an adult workshop or children’s party please email me at info@wealie.co.uk with a contact number so I can call to discuss your requirements.

The Caterinas

All you have to do is download the entry form, print it off and colour in the design. Once it’s coloured in fill in the form and email a picture of it to info@wealie.co.uk by 31 June 2014. All entries will be displayed on the Wealie Arts section of the website and the winner will be announced by 12 July 2014.

Thank you to everyone that entered the competition I had a difficult, but fun time judging, so much so that I couldn’t decide on just one winner, but more on that in a minute.  As the standard of the entries was so high I will be emailing a pdf copy of the halloween colouring book to everyone who entered.

There are three winners in three different age brackets, Millie Claridge in the 5 to 6 bracket, Sean O’Sullivan in the 7 to 8 bracket and Ashley Knight in the 9 to 10 bracket.  The winners prize is to request for me to draw their very own zentangle doodle art design on whatever subject they would like.  Once I’ve completed the drawing requests I will post the pictures on the website and then post the originals out to the winners

The Winners

I really loved how Millie incorporated some mixed media elements into her design and at 5 years old I think she has done an excellent job of colouring it in so brightly.  Any witch would be tickled pink to wear a hat like this.

Millie Clardige - Winner 5-6 age group

What I liked best about Sean’s entry was his great use of colour and how he really gave the hat a face with his bold and bright use of colour.  I also liked how Sean used vibrant wax crayons.

Sean O'Sullivan - Winner 7-8 age

Ashley really went to town on her design using sequins and glitter mixed media elements, but also colouring in the background, which I thought was really wonderful and she even sent me the original picture in the post when she must have really loved it.

Ashley Knight - Winner 9-10 age group

The Runner Ups

Tia’s entry was lovely and bright and again made some great use of mixed media.  I really liked how Ruby Elena went with a colour scheme and made good use of white space. Ned used cooking oil to give the paper a translucent effect when put up to a window or the light and I really liked his witchy green colour.

Tia Claridge

Ruby Elena Williams

Ned Roberts

Joelle used pencils and created a beautiful colour scheme.  Isobel had a great use of colour blocking that really made elements of the hat stand out.  Charlotte went for a bright and vibrant colour scheme and I liked how she incorporated her own patterning into the mix.

Joelle Chow

Isobel Stevens

Charlotte

Anya Daburn

Amy Moore

Olivia Daburn

Eleanor

Lauren Welsh

Thanks again to everyone for entering the competition

Wealie x

Hypnotica - Abstract fine liner doodle art zentangle

I’m looking forward to tomorrow as I get to have fun demonstrating my art at Hobbycraft Bristol, Cribbs Causeway as their Artist in residence.  I’m going to be doing some dylusion ink art, mono printing on my Gelli Arts Gel plate, see some examples of the different types of art I’ll be doing throughout this article.

Wealie Arts Halloween Colouring Book Cover

Dylusions Ink Art Design

I’m also going to be doing some abstract doodle art, or  zentangles as they are sometimes called and I’ll be launching my very first abstract doodle art colouring book, a snap at just £3.50  Don’t despair if you won’t be able to make it to pick up your copy, keep a watchful eye on this space as I’m hoping to upload it as a downloadable pdf at some point in the not too distant future.

I’ll also be launching a halloween colouring competition for kids up to the age of 13 to submit a coloured version of one of the designs (the witches’ hat) from the colouring book, with a prize of their very own zentangle doodle art design of whatever subject they would like me to create.

Firery Waves - Mono Print

The deadline is 31 October so there’s plenty of time for the kids to get colouring and you can download a copy of the competition form and rules here.  I’ll post the entries I receive on a special blog post on 05 November together with the announcement of the winner and will post a pic of the winner’s doodle choice once I’ve completed it.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

R
x

Just lately I’ve taken up crochet and I’m really enjoying it. It turned out to be a lot easier than I had originally anticipated and I’ve already made a number of items from scarves to crochet flowers and the beginnings of a granny circle blanket, though I do find following patterns a bit challenging still.  I’ve mastered the basic stitches and played around with some special stitches all of which has been great fun.   I bought myself quite a few good books for learning to crochet, learning different stitches and some lovely patterns and designs to try out.  I also used some of the great videos from crafters on YouTube and have pinned many, many great crochet designs from Pinterest, all of which you can find on my Arty Crafty pinterest board.

As a left handed person from the UK (US terms for many basic stitches are different to the UK versions) it was a bit more difficult to find good books and instructions on how to learn crochet, follow patterns, complete certain stitches, but there are a lot of good resources out there if you look.  The book I found most useful in helping me to get to grip with the basics of crocheting UK style was Crochet Unravelled: A Clear and Concise Guide to Learning Crochet which you can buy on Amazon for just £6.29.  I highly recommend this book, it had instructions for both left and right handed people and explained the basics very well and is an excellent starting point at a reasonable price.

Back to my crocheting, below are a few of my creations so far, some are completed, others are still a work in progress, but as I’m having so much fun with the crochet, it is hard to focus on just one project at a time.  To see all my crocheting projects check out my Wealie’s Crafts pinterest board.

Happy hooking!

Wealie
x

My Crochet Projects

1. Sid the Sloth purse - this started out with the intention of being a monkey purse, however as my partner Ben pointed out the purse looked more like Sid, so the ears of the monkey turned into the eyes of Sid

Sid the Sloth purse

2.  Flower motif – I made this motif using a multi coloured bamboo viscose yarn and it will be going on a scarf that I’ve made out of the same bluey-green yarn, but have not yet had a chance to block , so for now it’s just the flower to see.

Crochet Flower Motif for Scarf

3. Granny Circle Blanket – A work in progress as it is more of a dinner plate size at the moment.  I’m enjoying working with the bright and colourful cottons on this project, but envisage that this may take some time to complete.

Crochet Granny Circle - WIP

4.  Crochet Baby Hat – This was my first proper item that I created from following a pattern, which I’m still finding a little bit challenging; so I was very proud when I completed this and the fact that it did in fact look like a hat at the end of the process.  I used a pattern in the UK magazine Craftseller, but changed the motif from a flower to a star and changed the colours to blues so that it would be more boyish for my new nephew Jack, who unfortunately had grown out of it before he got it :-S  It was a great project to work on though and I was very pleased with the end result.

My first crochet baby hat

5. Crochet heart flowers - I found this pattern on the wonderful pinterest and decided to have a go.  Took me a little while to get the hang of crocheting in the different loops on the same row, but once I got into the flow it was quite an enjoyable process and I’m hoping to maybe use this design to make some kind of cushion cover or blanket.

Crochet Love Hearts

6. Crochet pansy – Making up my own patterns here for flowers was an interesting experiment that turned out quite well. I might add a bit of black as stamen detail and yellow pollen stain at the centre to make it look more realistic though.

Crochet Pansy

7. Crochet headband – Having mastered the rose effect I made up quite a few little roses while practising and decided to put them to good use as a head band, which one of my lovely friends Ashlee now has

Crochet Roses Headband

8. Rainbow crochet flower - One of the first crochet flowers that I created using a lovely rainbow bamboo viscose yarn. Haven’t decided what to do with this one. I might make it into a brooch or headband at some point.

Crochet Rainbow Flower

9. Experimenting with Chevrons – I’ve mastered chevrons in crochet, what I found most difficult was keeping the number of my stitches even; on my first attempt the number of stitches per row, increased and decreased alarmingly! This swatch is a bit too small to be a cushion, but I thought I might be able to work it into a hot water bottle cover or maybe a handbag design.

Yay I can do chevrons!

As I add to my shops I’ll update this post, but you can also access all my online shops via the ‘Shop Wealie’ links section to the right of the website.

Happy browsing!

Wealie x

Etsy

Etsy is for those of you that want to buy an original piece of artwork from the Wealie repetoire.

All items listed on Etsy are the orignal artworks and include: Abstract ink art, abstract paintings, abstract doodle illustrations, mixed media paintings.

All artwork is signed and dated by myself (Wealie).

Be sure to check back every now and then at my Etsy Shop as I will be adding new pieces on a regular basis.

Society6

Autumn Doodle - iPad Skin

Society6 has my art designs, scans of abstract paintings and illustrations and some of my best photography that is available to buy on the following products:

Art prints, framed art prints, stretched canvases, stationery cards, iPhone cases, iPhone & iPod skins, Laptop & iPad skins, Tote bags, Throw cushions, Hoodies and T-shirts.

It’s easy to use, simply browse for the design you like and select the product, submit your order, make a payment and then sit back and wait (hopefully not too long) for your Wealie goodies to arrive.

Make sure you check back with my Society6 Shop every now and then as new designs will be added regularly.

Instacanvas

Passionflower on Instacanvas

If you are a fan of my instagram feed under my Rufuswealie nickname, you might like the services that my Instacanvas store can supply.

Basically the majority of my instagram pics are available to purchase as one of the following products:

Canvases, Framed prints, Prism, iPhone cases and Greeting cards, all of course in the trademark square format of instagram.

I take a few instagram pics at least once a fortnight, so check back regularly at the my instacanvas shop to see what’s new.

Redbubble

Wealie abstract design T-shirt

Like Society6, my Redbubble shop has my art designs, scans of abstract paintings and illustrations and some of my best photography that is available to buy on the following products:

Matted prints, Mounted prints, Calendars, Canvas prints, Framed prints, Photographic prints, Kids clothes, T-shirts & hoodies, iPhone & iPod cases, iPad cases, Stickers, Posters and Cards.

It’s easy to use, simply browse for the design you like and select the product, submit your order, make a payment and then sit back and wait (hopefully not too long) for your Wealie goodies to arrive.

Be sure to check back every now and then at my Redbubble shop as I will be adding new designs and photography regularly.

I hope you enjoy looking at the doodles as much as I enjoyed creating them.  Why not pick up a pen and do some doodling yourselves, I promise you won’t regret it and if you read up on the meaning of doodles you might even find something out about yourself.

Happy doodling!

Wealie x

National Doodle Day Doodle - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Protect my heart - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Protean - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Doodle Design for Gemma - Copyright R.Weal 2012

When hearts collide - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Hodgepodge - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Swimming in Swirls - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Dearest Ben - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Higgledipiggledi - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Radiating Stars - Copyright R.Weal 2012

Wealie Nice Muffins

I’ve been baking muffins this evening; I find baking very therapeutic and meditative.  The fact that at the end of the process you have lovely yummy cakes to eat is an added bonus to the sense of peace and tranquillity that the act of baking brings.

Anyway I thought it would be nice to blog my recipe in case any of you would like to re-create them and maybe get a slice baking tranquillity too.

Actually this recipe is my multi-purpose sponge recipe, which is good for Muffin’s fairy cakes, Victoria sponge or a drizzle cake, so feel free to experiment .

Enjoy!

Wealie x

Wealie Nice Muffin Recipe

Ingredients

2 Med/Large Eggs (Weighed)
Self Raising Flour (Same weight as eggs)
Flora Margarine (Same weight as eggs)
Golden Caster Sugar (Same weight as eggs)
Generous teaspoon of Baking Powder
Generous desert spoon of Vanilla Essence (Preferably Mexican)
Optional – Heaped table spoon of Coca Powder to make chocolate muffins

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade and make sure the top shelf is fairly high in the oven, but with enough room to get your muffin tray in and out.
• Weigh your eggs and then your flour, margarine and caster sugar amounts should be exactly the same.
• Whisk together your margarine and caster sugar for approximately 3-5 minutes or until the mixture is a pale yellow.
• Sieve the flour into your bowl of margarine and caster sugar.  If you are making chocolate flavour muffins sieve in your cocoa powder at the same time.
• Add in the rest of your ingredients (baking powder, vanilla essence and eggs).
• Gently whisk together the ingredient working in the contents from the edges.
• Once the flour is all mixed in increase the electric whisk to the maximum speed and work air into the mixture for approximately 3 to 5 minutes until the colour of the mixture has turned pale and the volume of the mixture has increased by about one third.
• You’ll know that the mix is ready if when you put a spoon in you can turn the spoon upside down and the mixture slowly drops off the spoon.
• Put some muffin cases into your muffin tray and spoon out a heaped spoonful of cake mix into each of the muffin cases.
• If you are making half and half (chocolate and vanilla) or marble cakes (chocolate and vanilla swirled) only spoon in half a spoon of each flavour.  To make a marble effect use a wooden skewer to lightly mix together the two flavours before you put the muffins in the oven.



• Put the muffins in the pre-heated oven (180 degrees centigrade) for 15 mins and then turn them around and give them another 5 minutes cooking.
• Lightly press the top of a muffin with your thumb to see if it springs back , if yes the cakes are ready to be turned out onto the cooling tray, if not give them another few minutes in the oven and then test again, but be careful not to over cook or check on them too often.
• Once your muffins are cooked turned them out onto the cooling rack and make sure you as baker supreme, scoff a nice hot one, it’s the muffin baking golden rule!

Wealie Muffins!

I hope you enjoy baking and of course eating your Muffins!

Wealie x

Wealie x

Inside the Lily - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Firery Lily - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Yellow Drop Blooms - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Macro pale pink and yellow lily - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Red Poppy - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Pink Lilies Emerging - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Hydranga - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Tiny Pinks - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Light red blooms - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Lovely Lily - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Orange Poppies - Copyright R.Weal 2011