Costumes and Dress Up Fun, Now at Piddlestixs!
At Piddlestixs we try to get the cutest, rarest and most enchanted items into the store, our latest obsession is collecting costumes from vintage to new, handmade to up-cycled, if its cute and unusual then we want it for the store.For those of our readers online who can't get to Piddlestixs due to location or distance, we are trying to upload a lot of our inventory to our online sites:
artoperanj.com
moonfairesworld.com
artfire.com
So that everyone has a chance to visit and shop at Piddlestixs, which also houses our line of exclusive products including our tea, coffee, cocoa and candy lines, the Lisa Kettell Designs Line and Aurora-tique line.
We will be adding more costumes to the online store this week, check back often as we add to our store every day and every night!

Magic and Joy,
Lisa!

Carnival Clown Bulb Doll!

Here is a great recycle project using left over carnival bulbs, vintage cake toppers, chenille, crepe, buttons and my scrapbook paper!

I received a vintage one in a circus swap I was in last year, I loved my box of goodies I received. Then the other night my girlfriend Tiffany came by the store to play, she was throwing out ideas to me and pointed to something, when I looked up, next to my painting I saw the vintage bulb ornament I had which used a vintage clown cake topper, crepe paper, buttons and chenille.

Well at my store Piddlestixs, I have tons of vintage clown cake toppers in all colors for sale, vintage chenille, crepe paper, buttons and bulbs. So I walked downstairs and picked up a topper, crepe paper and buttons. I decided to leave my old chenille for sale and create my own version.

In my left side bar of this blog I have a quick demo on aging new tinsel chenille stems. However I'd like to update that version using new store bought chenille!

Here is the project for aging store bought modern chenille aka pipe cleaners ( I grew up buying these stems in cigar shops, they came thin and in multi colors and were used to clean pipes hence the name pipe cleaners.)

Aging Chenille:
-Package of white chenille stems (any size width)
-Acrylic paint in color of choice
-Petal Porcelain, Plaid
-Liquid starch
-Tim Holtz Distress Re-inker in Tea Dye
-Used Paint brush, water, paper plate

1.Squeeze a little acrylic paint onto plate, add a drop of petal porcelain, liquid starch and a tiny bit of re-inker, mix thoroughly.
2. Paint the solution onto your chenille stem using a old used paint brush, let dry.

Tips:
-For more grungy aging add more re-inker
-Use this solution on fabric and paper

The Carnival Clown Bulb Project:

-Christmas Bulb in color of choice
-Old Clown Cake Topper ( I have in stock in my store, etsy and artfire)
-Crepe paper cut into a 12 inch by 3 inch strip
-Crepe paper streamer cut into a 20 inch strip
-Colorful or old buttons
-Aged chenille stem (refer to above technique)
-Scrapbook paper cut into a small rocket shape, Candy Stripes Paper, Lisa Kettell Designs
-Tim Holtz Distress ink pad, Linen
-Glitter
-Kids Choice Glue, Beacon Adhesives
-Hot Glue and glue gun
-Scissors


1. Remove the cap and hook from a Christmas bulb, insert clown topper into hole, secure with hot glue.
2. Paper pleat the cut piece of crepe paper, secure in place to the end of bulb near the cake topper, with kids choice glue. Paper pleat and fold the cut strip of crepe paper streamer in half, attach to the top of the crepe paper, under the topper.
3. Age the crepe with the linen ink pad.
4. Attach the chenille to the back of the clown, fold, bend to desired length and glue in place with hot glue.
5. Add glitter, lettering, etc using kids choice glue

Tips:
-Use china doll heads, sculpted doll heads, foam balls or other toppers in place of the clown one.
-Experiment with piano paper, browns, beige and vintage white buttons.