Needle felted Piranha Plant and other gifts

Hello! It's time to show you some more of the Christmas gifts I made! I have a couple more to go, but they haven't been gifted yet (I believe in a very extended holiday period) so I'll show you those next time ^___^

For Scott I made this needle-felted Piranha Plant, of Super Mario fame. To make this, I used a very similar technique from when I made Oscar the Grouch. I used my scalpel to cut out a wedge from a large styrofoam ball which was to become the ... head (???) of the plant and then covered the ball in sheets of red felt. I needed felted the felt together where it overlapped to create a tight casing of felt around the ball. 

 

I cut out small triangles of white felt and used my needle tool to attach them to the mouth area. I also used my needle tool to ensure the bottom of the mouth was more sharply defined.

 

I rolled wool fibre into loose sausage shapes and felted them onto the ball to become the lips. I didn't felt the tops of the lips much, but was sure to felt the edges to create a more rounded shape.

 

To create the spots, I rolled fibre into loose balls and then felted them on. The balls are slightly 3D because I really wanted them to have solid colour so they are made up of a few layers of fibre each.

 

For the stem I used regular sheets of felt. I cut out a long strip and wound it around a wooden chopstick, needle felting where the sheet overlapped itself. I used a scalpel to cut a hole in the bottom of the head of the plant and inserted the stem. I needle felted where the stem met the head so that the felt wouldn't come loose and expose the chopstick.

The leaves were cut from the same sheet of green felt and needle felted only at the bases onto the stem. This gives them a nice curved shape, which I think helps make them look more leafy.

Once the plant was done, I hot glued the bottom of the stem into a paper mache flower pot that I had painted green. Then I stuffed the pot with variegated green chunky wool; this stabilised the plant so it doesn't wobble around but it's also very light. Scott really liked it and my parents thought that I had brought it. Two lovely compliments for any crafter! ^___^

My dad, Kevin, is pretty difficult to craft for since he mostly likes trees (I really should just stick to buying him a new tree every year). However, he does also like camping and happened to mention that soap on a rope would be useful for washing in the desert.

I used the instructions in "A Little Bit Crafty" by Frankie Magazine for these but they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped; they are a little bit bumpy and a little bit cracked.

 

If I were to make them again, I would ensure that my soap was in much smaller pieces before attempting to shape them into balls. I think the chunky flakes that I started off with didn't assist with the making of smooth soaps.

 

I braided cotton string to use as the ropes, which worked out well because all other actual ropes that I had turned out to be way too big. So, another suggestion: either make bigger soaps, or buy smaller ropes! 

 

For my Nana Alma and my mum, Anne, I made some lavender sachets using vintage look (but not actual vintage) handkerchiefs, ribbon, and lavender (bet you guessed that last bit, huh).

 

To make these, I cut the handkerchiefs in half, folded them in half again, and then sewed around three of the edges. You could hand sew these, but I used a sewing machine because it is so much faster (and I'm pretty lazy!).

 

Then I filled them with lavender and tied them closed with a length of ribbon. Easy peasy!

I also made these ink smudging tools for Anne; they are apparently used in scrap booking. I started off with two lengths of pine, one wide and flat and the other not so wide and not so flat, which I glued together.

I used Kevin's bench press to cut them into smaller segments and then stained them with wood varnish. I originally tried to use a saw and failed miserably. Power tools, people! They rock. I used stick on velcro dots cut in half to attach lengths of felt on and around each segment. They were a little time consuming, but once I had a little production line going it wasn't too bad.

My next post won't be until next year ... which starts in one day! OMG! It's time to start thinking about a whole 'nother years worth of crafts to create ... but, until then, Happy New Year and thanks for sticking with this little blog of mine for another 12 months. I hope we can do it all again next year!

Catch you on the flip side!

- Lisa xx

Companion Cube Plushie

Hello! How are you? I'm getting down to the business end of semester and I'm currently working on three final assignments - argh! Today though I gave myself a break from studying to go and see my optometrist (my scrip hasn't changed, so yay!), redye my hair, and finally share photos of my latest project with you! ^___^

Scott decided that his birthday present this year should be a Companion Cube and, as a fellow fan of Portal, I was happy to oblige! ^___^

  
The Cube is made from a polar fleece and felt cover over a foam square, and is about seven inches tall/wide.

The start of the Companion Cube was this pattern by Eyespiral-stock; I just printed it out at full size and and used it for my paper pattern ^___^

 

I was feeling lazy, and I didn't want to cut out lots of little shapes from the light grey polar fleece so instead I cut out two squares of the light and the dark grey fleece and pinned them together, right sides up. I cut the paper pattern so that it was missing the parts that would be where I wanted the dark grey to show through, pinned it over the two fabric squares, and starting sewing around it. Then I cut through the light grey fabric, exposing the dark grey fabric. I think this was a good way to do it, because I didn't have to keep track of tons of little cut outs! ^___^

I did buy some pink polar fleece for the heart and the thin lines, but it was so flimsy it started coming apart without me evening cutting into it! It was "nursery" fabric, so I guess it's just really, really soft? I don't think making fabric soft enough for a baby to gum through is a really great idea, but I guess that's why I'm not a fabric manufacturer ~___^

 

 

 So instead I used some acyclic felt, which was much more structurally sound ^___^

 

Probably the trickiest part of this project was trying to get the lines matched up, and, as you can see, I didn't always succeed in this aspect! I'm not sure how I could have improved here though, and I'm fairly happy with how it looks nonetheless.

This Cube is also not completely square, because my foam cube ended up being too big for the cover I had made! That's what happens when you're not very good at maths ~___^ Instead of remaking the cover, or using a different filling, I took a knife to the foam and slimmed it down. It's still square-ish, and it's lopsidedness is less apparent in real life ~___^

I'm still working on my knit tea cosy for the Giant Pineapple Cosy KAL, and I'm hoping to finish in time for the deadline on June 2nd! If you're a fast knitter or crocheter (or just don't have university taking up way too much of your crafting time ~___^) you've still got time to join us! And then, after that ... maybe a potato GLaDOS to go with the Cube? ~___^ I've still got a list of 57 (!!!) projects that I want to complete this year but, like every year, I really don't think I'll finish them all! Especially since I keep adding things to the list ~___^

- Lisa xx

Spawn more Overlord (plushie)!

Hello! Gosh, only a day between posts? What's happening?! I figured that since now I don't have uni *or* Christmas to spend time on, I'll upload additional posts whenever I have them ready! So, the posting schedule is going to be kinda weird for the next month or two, but I'll still post a least once a week so you really just have to worry about getting sick of me! (Which could totally never happen .... right?) ~___^

Anyway, here is Scott's Christmas present - an Overlord plushie! Yay!

 

He's got kinda funny face, huh? ^___^

 

 

I used a sewing pattern from Arixystix which required more skill than I have! I'm not that experienced making plushies, and so I had some troubles with the pattern which is an advanced one.

But I finished him, and Scott's happy, and that's really all that matters, right? ^___^

Anyway, Scott has named him Gasbag; apparently Overlords are basically full of hot air? *shrug*

 

 

 Here's Gasbag with Squishy, for size comparison. They're totally buddies now! ^___^

Our wedding anniversary is coming up soon, so I'll have to hunt around for another Zerg plushie to make for Scott! It's good to have a go-to theme for gifts, don't you think?

So, what do you think? Do you have a thing that people always make or buy for you? For me, it's craft supplies; surprising, huh? ~___^

- Lisa xx 

Space Invader cross stitch brooch and Wesley Crusher's sweater inspired hat

Hey! Have you had a good weekend? Mine has been really good! Pip and I went shopping yesterday for craft supplies which was super fun, and today I finally got around to taking photos of some of my finished projects ^_^ Time for show and tell!

I cross-stitched this Space Invader brooch. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I used black aida cloth (which I finally found in Bunbury, of all places!) and hot pink thread. I've been really into pink lately, which is very strange because I think my last pink phase was when I was about six ~_^ I used a self-cover button to make this, and then glued a badge pin on to make it a brooch.

I've been playing around with my digital SRL (which I finally got working again) and I am in love with the super macro feature. Isn't it cool? ^_^

 

Next up, I made a beanie for the 100 Beanie Drive, taking inspiration from Wesley Crusher's awesome striped jumper (see above)! But, I think I made a bit of a mistake ... I thought the third stripe was green, but then someone told me it's actually blue >_< Urgh! Is there such thing as blue/ green colour blindness? I get those two colours mixed up constantly!

But, I think it's a pretty nice looking hat anyway, so I guess it's all ok ^_^ I made it with 100% wool, and I really hope it's soft enough!

 

I've got a couple more projects that are this close to being finished, so hopefully I'll have more photos to share with you soon!

Lisa x