Our friends at Hobbycraft recently sent us some items to review for them. What I love about them is that you can be as creative as you like. For those that have little patience or imagination they have kits for everything and for those who like a challenge, all the basic ingredients you need to start most projects from scratch – and all things in between.

I didn’t know what decopatch is until I was sent some pieces of water resistant thin paper. This is applied to papier mache items to decorate them. Hobbycraft sell preformed shapes, piggy banks, books and the like but I decided to do things the hard way and make my own shape (I consider myself to fall in the half way between no imagination and lots of it!).

I began by finding a heart shaped ballon, some newpaper, brown paper, wall paper paste and a brush.

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I blew up the balloon and began sticking small pieces of newspaper to the balloon to cover it completely in several layers and then added a final layer of brown paper to give an even coloured finish.

I tied the ballon up over a radiator and waited… for about 4 days…. (did I mention my lack of patience) until the whole thing had dried and gone completely hard. I then had something akin to a large, hard jacket potato. From time to time I did give it a blast with the hairdryer too, but this didn’t speed things up much.

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I then set about decorating the ‘potato’.

Hobbycraft sell a range of glues and varnishes. I used UPVA glue to stick the paper gown and would recommend varnish for a lovely glossy look at the end. I popped the ballon, added a little water to the PVA and tore the paper into little pieces before sticking on…

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I am not sure I created anything of use, but I could see some great homemade Christmas tree decorations being made using some of the lovely Christmas papers that they supply!

If you would like to have a go yourself just click RIGHT HERE.

Penny x