"THANK YOU, CHRISTEL JENSEN!'

Often times inspiration hits when you least expect it and this is how it happened to hit me.

 While spending valuable sleeping hours surfing through the internet and of course Pinterest, I chanced upon a tutorial by the well-known and incredibly talented Fimo artist, Christel Jensen.  This one was on YOU TUBE, which I hadn't scanned for a while so I decided to watch Christel in action once again, as I really enjoy her videos.

 CHRISTEL JENSEN HAS THE NICEST VOICE! 

 I watched tutorial after tutorial just so I could listen to the sound of her voice.  She is  so unhurried and treats her craft with the utmost respect and gentleness that is inherent within her.  After watching about 5 of her How-To's I decided that I wanted to give it a try.  She made a wonderful little tea shelf with the pot and the tea boxes and other cute little pieces. all out of Fimo and all of them were wonderful.  I, however, do not have a pasta machine and I don't cut straight either and this tutorial required both.  (SIGH)  I decided to try my luck and do a shelf anyway but my way.  My way required only one teeny tiny cut and NO fimo and NO baking!  In fact almost NO skill and it took me all of around 15 minutes to put them together.   So are you curious?

Then come right this way.......

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This is the shelf!

And this is how I did it

These are the tools
tweezers, snips, needle-nosed jewelry pliers and a pair of scissors

Then we have the pre- cut wood pieces  They are WOODSIES  and they come in a package from Michael's craft store but they are pretty common.  The package is RECTANGLES ONLY.  You can buy a mixed bag but for $5 dollars I want what I use the most and so I bought the assorted rectangle and there are tons of them in different sizes in the bag. These ones are 4cm long x2cm wide or
 1 1/2" x3/4".  I'm sorry that I didn't show the package but I threw it out long ago. Also you will need a wooden stir stick.  I bought a huge box of these years ago and I can't remember where but there were 1,000 in the box!  They come in handy for many things but for this tutorial you don't need 1,000, you only need 1.  That is you will only need one if you are NOT ME.  I not being able to cut a straight line had a few slips and needed a few tries before I got it right!  That is why I have shown more than one stir stick in the photo. hahahha    You will need glue and because I am impatient I am using Quick Grip and it holds fine for this project.  You will also need sandpaper and that is about it.
WHOOPS!I nearly forgot these.... decorative brads from the craft store.
I bought mine from Michael's in the scrapbooking section.
When I first saw them I thought they looked like wrought iron and I wanted to use them some how.  I decided to use them for the brackets for the sides of the shelves.  Christel used fimo cut outs for the sides of her shelf.  For me this was easier.

In the package there are only 2 styles and they all face the same way.  So there is going to be a little cheating on the application of them to the wood but more on that later.  I decided to use the bigger of the two styles but I am demonstrating on the other one.

This is what it looks like out of the package.

Spread the prongs apart because you are going to cut them off.

I used the metal snips but the prongs are thin so they are easy to remove.

This is what it looks like after the prongs are removed.
DO NOT THROW THE PRONGS AWAY!

So this is what the shelf is made of
 let's begin.

Lightly sand the wood pieces smooth.

Glue the longest edge of the woodsie and but the other shelf piece to the top to form a right angle.
Let dry. 

When dry sand the edges smooth and make sure that there is no glue globs any where.  I say this for my benefit.  I have been known to try and ignore excess glue and to paint over it, trying to hide it.
More grief when you do it the lazy way. So take a lesson from me the Queen of the Short Cuts.  Clean up the glue, you'll be happy that you did.

Here is where the stir stick comes in.  Measure the length and cut the stick to fit the length of the back of the shelf.  I used scissors for this which is why I needed to re do it so often.  Sand the edges of the stir stick and then stick the stick onto the back of the shelf about 1/2 cm from the bottom. That is approximately 1/8 th inch in Imperial measurements.

Should look like this

Now you take one of your metal filigree brads and glue it at 3 points to ensure the most stability.
Again, I am using the Quick Grip glue and it works well for this.

Both sides done.  Notice that the outside of the right bracket is indented.   All of the brads faced in the same direction and so I had to accept this minor flaw. It is what it is!

Now here is what you do with those cut off prong pieces.
You are going to form coat hooks and you will need 3 to 4 of them.
They will be made by wrapping them around the needle nosed pliers.  You will need to have a little
bit of a lip on the back end of the hook.  I forgot to measure the length of the metal before I began to shape them but you will be able to adjust them if you get it wrong.  Don't worry about it not being perfect ... I didn't!

This is why you need the lip on the back of the hook.  You will want to have it hooked to the top of the stir stick that runs across the back of the shelf.  The hooks will be glued on but they look more secure with the little bit of extra metal.

Glue the hooks on with Quick Grip and leave to dry

And there you have it!
All done 

They were so easy that I decide to make some MORE!
I even made one with cut down decorative toothpicks.  For that one it did take me longer than 15 minutes but that was the only one.  I placed the band of the stir stick up under the top shelf.

The rest of the shelf process was for fun and experimentation,  In her tutorial, Christel Jensen made a tea shelf for the kitchen.  I was still undecided as to what I was going to put on top of mine so I tried a number of different finishes and not all of them were pretty.  I made some big messes and had to try and fix them afterwards.  I began by painting the whole shelf with a base coat of off while acrylic paint.  Then I decided to try Dale Flutey's school glue crackle technique again.  I had used it on the shutters of "#43 Green Dolphin Street" and also on the interior door.  On the shutters the crackle was ultra fine, on the door Wow!  Did it crackle!  There was so much crackle that the door was looking derelict and I had to sand it down and repaint it in the blue, which it is now, so I know that this will work..... 

Yup,  it Crackled

I then decided to make it look really old and I added brown glass paint and  you don't have to say a word.  It is looking GREASY and Nasty!  Would I want this is in my kitchen!!!???
NO!
I had to scale back the aging business because the cute little shelf was now looking very
 Skid Row.
Back to the sand paper and a lot of buffing and white washing and a restoration of
 'Shabby' once again.

And this is what the final collection looks like
So what do you think?
  ***
I still wanted to try a tea shelf

I have some paper doilies that I had purchased at the March 2013 show and so I pulled them out and this is what the package looks like.  This is how much I paid for them and it seems pretty steep but I like them and I knew that I would use them so, LIVE DANGEROUSLY.
The sticker shows the vendor that I bought them from and gives you the phone number if your interested.

These are the variety pack that I have used in the Victorian Sea side Cottage.
I really like the fine detail in these 

These are the second package that I purchased and they are table runners and napkins.
I used one of the napkins for the shelf.

I folded the napkin over the shelf and let it fall over the front edge of the shelf.  In hind sight I will not have it as long in the front as it is.  It is just a fraction too long when I see it in the photo.

Although, I make my own teapots and have used them many times for the tea trays that I make to sell, I decided to try and use up some of the surplus perfume bottles that I have stockpiled.  I had fun filling the shelf with items that are far removed from a kitchen tea shelf but I still might do one with the other 7 shelves but I like the look of this one it is very romantic.

The mirror is made from a hair clip also from the dollar store.  It used to have big bright rhinestones in the centre, which I removed and inserted an acrylic oval mirror also from the dollar store.   I added a bit of extra gilt using nail enamel and then touched the edges of some of the perfume bottles to add a little PIZAZZ!

This is the lower part of the shelf with a bracelet on the hook and also a pink hair ribbon

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT!
project complete
Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely sources,
from tea shelf to boudoir...... Go figure?

Thank you
Christel Jensen!


elizabeth