Diversions

Here are two non-knitting bits, just for fun.

The first is from Christmas. I had this idea for a pompom tree. So I made a bunch of pompoms from my leftovers bag.

Didn't they turn out well?

The idea was to make a tree where the bottom layer was 4 pompoms, the next layer 3, the next layer 1, and the top a smaller gold pompom. In theory, it was perfect.

In reality:

Not so much. It just looked like a yarn blob, very home-crafted. The pompoms lost their uniqueness, and they just looked like one large mess. (I think the tree even looks a bit nicer in the picture than it did in real life--why can't all my pictures look that way?)

So I took it apart, but I still have the pompoms. They are sitting in a bowl until I come up with a better idea of what to do with them, something that shows them off in their own uniqueness more clearly.

The second crafty attempt was inspired by this Christmas gift received by a wonderful blogger. I fell in love with it, so I got this hand from Amazon (it is slightly smaller than an adult hand, which makes it perfect for jewelry), and ordered these from Wishy Washi Tape.

I'd seen washi tape from other craft blogs I follow and from Pinterest, but had never used them before.

And here is the result.

Quite a bit more successful than the pompon tree!

Once I realized the tape would slightly wrinkle as I tried to fit it around the curves, and that it didn't matter, I relaxed and just kept adding tape bits until I was satisfied.

I love it, and as a bonus, I have a lot of tape left over.

There may be some plain flowerpots getting some decoration in the near future.