Hello everyone, today I will be making some lovely glam vintage style acorns to hang on my tree, they are deceivingly easy with the help of Helmar glues.
What you will need:
Helmar Tacky Craft Glue and 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, a foam (or paper mache) egg shape, acrylic paint in a dark colour, fancy trims, thread for hanging, beads and bead cap and either guilding or foiling paper.
To start with you will paint your egg shape in the dark colour. I am using an old foam Easter egg I had in my stash, it is glittered but this will not matter, it was also on a stick and this came in very handy. I removed the little bow.
You will need to give your egg two or three thick coats of paint and allow to dry between each coat, this will help form a barrier and also peek through the foil/gilding.
Now that the paint is dry you will apply Helmar Tacky Craft Glue to the lower two thirds of the egg shape and then smooth is out with your finger.
Allow this to 'tack off' just a little bit and then using the 'dull' side of the foiling paper start to apply it to the egg. If you are using gilding paper you can just stick it on. You may need to do this twice depending on the coverage you get or want. You do not need a full coverage of the foil as we are looking for a 'vintage' look, the dark paint colour will show in places giving it an aged appeal.
Decide on the fancy trims you would like to use for the top of your Acorn, I'm using a little rhinestone trim and some silver beaded trim. Once the egg is completely dry apply a bead of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive around the egg above the half way mark to the wider end of the egg. Start to adhere your trims one row at a time.
When you get to the top of the egg you will need to make a hole all the way through the egg, use a large needle (or similar) for this. You can then either glue your large bead cap into place or thread it as you thread your smaller beads.
It's important to note here that you shouldn't press too hard on the trims to the egg, this strong glue is not generally used on foam (that is why we paint a few layers to form a barrier) and will soften the egg slightly when the glue is still wet. Be sure to allow plenty of time for your trims to dry before threading it off.
To thread your Acorn, cut a generous length of your desired thread, it has to go through the egg twice and have a hanger (more than you think you need) and thread on one smaller bead (and the larger bead cap here if you chose to), take the needle through the egg and thread on another smaller bead.
Now take your need back through the bottom hole, back through the egg, the larger bead cap and the smaller bead.
Gently tie a double knot at the top of the smaller bead to secure everything in place and then tie it off in your desired hanging position and trim the thread ends neatly.
And there we have it, a lovely Vintage Style Acorn to hang on your tree or just make a few and place them in a bowl for a pretty decoration.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try, you can make them in any colour or style of your liking, burlap and string would give a lovely 'natural' look which would be great for that farmhouse appeal.
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.
Thank you so much for joining me this year on the Helmar Blog 🙂
Take care
Jeanette xx
