Tea cup candles

Hello! Today was a crafternoon day - huzzah! Rebecca, Colleen, and I made these *awesome* teacup candles ^_^

We used soy wax and melted 1500 grams of it! Whoa! Our wicks we brought from Spotlight, but they didn't fit into the extenders we brought, so we just tied a knot in them and stuck them to the bottom of the cups with a bit of extra wax. We held the wicks in place using some wooden pegs, so they didn't move while pouring in the wax and/or while drying. They dried pretty quite though! In an hour and a half they were solid (we were a tad concerned how we were going to get them home right after we made them!).

 

We also made quite a bit of a mess! Oh, well, that's half the fun, right? ^_^ One good thing that we did was put out baking paper, which made a lot of our little spills very easy to clean up. We need a better pouring device though! We used a saucepan and a funnel, but the wax dripped down the edge of the saucepan quite a lot. Also a tip - do this on the sink. Boiling water cleans up spills wonderfully, and it's easier to do that on the sink than on your benches ^_^

 

Bec and Colleen made two each, and I made one in a teacup and two in lightbulbs which aren't finished yet because I spilt them (oops!) and so need to melt some extra wax to top them up. We have plenty of extra wax though, so I suspect I will have to make quite a few candles before it is all used up! Do you have suggestions for what one could make candles out of?

And in case anyone is worried, Colleen's cups and mine had cracks and chips in them, and Rebecca's were cheap Made in China ones from the op-shop. We didn't ruin any really nice vintage ones, promise! ^_^

I hope you had a great day today!

- Lisa

 

The Epic Sculpey Drama

Hello! Gosh, is it really November already?! I woke up this morning and realised that I am super far behind on posting, so hopefully I will be able to make it up this weekend. Get ready for lots of posts!

First cab off the ranks is a wedding present that I made for my friends Sian and Shaun who recently got married! Hoorah! I had brought a present, but I really wanted to make something, so, after much brainstorming (you should see my notebooks one day - they are a bit all over the place) I decided to make some pretty little trinket dishes. Sian is a seamstress and loves vintage style, so I was sure she would have some nice little things that needed a place to stay.

So, I made three dishes, stamped them, baked them, and painted them with white acrylic. Apparently, painting sculpey with acrylic is not actually the best idea. They were STICKY! And had brush marks on them, so my poor painting skills were visible. Not a fun combination. But, the wedding was that weekend, and I didn't have time to do over so I pouted a little and then thought I would just hope that they would loose the stickiness by then.

That weekend I was meant to go to the wedding on Saturday and a craft day on Sunday and, wouldn't you know it, I got SICK. Arg! I missed out on everything fun, and instead spent the weekend with my old friends Ms. Painkillers and Mr. Lots-o-naps. Very uncool.

But, there was an upside! Sian and Shaun had gone on their honeymoon (to Disneyland! Very awesome) and so I had time to repaint the trinket dishes! Yes! 

I chose silver spray paint (because spray paint is awesome, and everything looks better in metallic!) and it turned out really well! No stickiness at all! You can still see the brush strokes, but they are not as noticeable, and Pip and Bec have assured me that the juxtaposition of metallic paint and handmade looking brush marks and wonky edges looks very nice. You two better not be lying! ~_^ 

We even came up with a new style: glustic = glam + rustic. We are such trendsetters, this will be the in-thing now, for sure ~_^

Ok, if you're still here after that epic spiel, well done! And here are the photos!

This bowl says "we put a ring on it". I used my Kikki K alphabet stamps for the letters, and the top of a bottle for the rings.

 

This one is "we tied the knot" and I used an actual piece of string to make the stamp. I was really pleased how well that worked actually, and you can see the texture of the string if you look closely which I think is rather nice.

 

And this one says "we said I do + I do" and the heart is a stamp that I carved a while ago.

Phew - so that was pretty epic, wasn't it? I'm just glad it had a happy ending ~_^ 

 

And to finish off, here are some pretty rainbows that I saw while walking home the other day. We have been having summer showers a lot lately, but that makes pretty rainbows so it's ok with me ^_^

 

Have a great day!

- Lisa x

Softie Making Marathon!

Yesterday Pip, Bec, and I had a craft day. A *whole* day of craft. Well, no, that's a lie. We also spent two hours on breakfast ~_^ It was epic, but I didn't take any photos. You will just have to imagine bacon, sausages, hash browns, eggs, mushrooms, fresh juice, tortillas, and toast on a tiny table and the three of us going "nom nom nom". Paint that picture in your mind.

We also made softies. Pip's was a tiny, complicated elephant, which isn't finished yet, so no photos. But soon! Hopefully she will post them on her blog. We shall see.

We made these softies to donate to Softies for Mirabel - you should make a softie too! It is for a very good cause!

Anyway, I made a another jackalope! This one kinda reminds me of ravers, because she has so. much. neon. I love her ^_^

I used a bit of IKEA that I had leftover from covering a massive canvas. The bunny pattern doesn't use a whole lot of fabric, so I had heaps leftover.

Her ears are not stuffed, so they are nice and floppy, and her antlers just have polyfill in them. The first jackalope I made had pipe-cleaners in his antlers, but seeing as this new jackalope is for little kids, I thought forgoing the metal, fluffy sticks was probably a good idea. 

 

Group shot! Here you can see my jackalope, Bec's dinosaur, Bec's plaid Ninni monster, and my blue and red Ninnis. There will probably more about Bec's dinosaur over on her blog.

 

This photo is a little blurry, so sorry about that. I forgot to bring my camera, so we used my phone. I have a smartphone now! I am so excited by it! It runs on Android, and I really want to learn how to make apps. I have actually downloaded the program, but for some reason I couldn't get the emulator to run, and so I had to buy a SD card, and now I have one, but I haven't tried again yet. I will! As soon as this house is clean. <cowers in fear at the giant piles of dishes and laundry>

Anyway - back on topic!

Here are my Ninni Monsters! I love them soooo much! I am going to keep the red one for myself ^_^ That's still two softies for Mirabel though! 

I want to make more of these cute little monsters, so perhaps I will organise a Ninni monster crafternoon for next year. That would be fun!

I hope you have a great day!

See you later ^_^

- Lisa x

How to survive ZOMBIES! Free poster!

Hi! How are you? 

I made this instructional poster in case of zombie invasion. Would you like one? You can! 

I hope you like it ... and that it isn't *too useful* ~___^ Click on the image below to download the poster from my Google Drive! ^___^

- Lisa x

Zombie mitts!

Hello! How are you? I hope you are super. Today I finally finished part of my "work-appropriate" Halloween costume! Hooray! I made zombie mitts and I am so, so pleased with how they turned out. If you would like to make some too, these are based on the Mummy Mitts by Twinkie Chan; so read her tutorial, then read this post and you will know how!

First I crocheted two rectangles. Getting them the same size was the hardest part for me (sadly). I used this really nice green in acrylic, because wool is a little itchy for me, and also I know I will spill something on these at some stage.

Then I crocheted some blood spatter and some stitches. I made the stitches by chaining to the length I wanted, then single crocheting in each chain to make them nice and thick. 

The blood spatters started off with the first row of a circle (i.e. chain four, slip stitch into a ring, chain three, treble into the ring six times, join) then I did a mixture of trebles and single crochet. I made the sticky out parts by making two trebles, then chaining three and making another treble in between the first two trebles, and then slip stitching back down to the base row (i.e. where the first two trebles were made). Er, I hope that made sense.



I also made a long line of blood spatter by chaining to the right length, and then making the drips using trebles and single crochet in basically the same manner as the round blood spatters. For the parts where I didn't want any sticky out bits, I used single crochet.

Next I sewed on the blood spatter and the stitches with single thickness thread in the appropriate colours (red and black, respectively). I used wool and a tapestry needle to sew the lines across the stitches.

Once the embellishments were on, I sewed up the seams, leaving space for the thumb holes.

I can't wait to wear these on the 31st - I am thinking I will need to paint my nails to match ... maybe all in green? Or maybe white with red splatter? ^_^

Anyway, I hope you like them too - and if you do make some I would love to see them!

See you!

- Lisa x

Castiel embroidered canvas

Hey folks! Where has the time gone? I am highly suspicious that my diary is lying to me about it being mid-October already. But not too suspicious, because today is Rebecca's birthday! Yay!

I made Bec a embroidery/ felt/ canvas ... picture. I am so great at descriptions! But that's ok, because we have photos!

This is a little tribute to Castiel - the Trench Coat-wearing, demon-slaying, awesome quotes-master from the TV show Supernatural.

 

Castiel is embroidered with one and two strands of black DMC - he is quite small due to his massive wings also having to fit into the picture.

The wings are black felt blanket-stitched onto the blue cotton.

 

 

The quote is written in fabric pen, because I am generally terrible at stitching letters.

 

The finished piece on cotton was stretched over a blank canvas (I left the canvas material on because it is much studier than the cotton and thus gives it a bit of extra reinforcement) and sewn into place using this tutorial.

 

This picture is a bit hard to see - but basically I hemmed a piece of black cotton and whip stitched it onto the back of the canvas, to cover up the messy looking threads from attaching the blue cotton to the canvas.

The black cotton back has a flat tube (also of black cotton) sewn to it which can be used for hanging by threading a dowel or ribbon through it.

I am about 95% happy with how it turned out (the third line of the quote is slightly wonky which bothers me) but Bec liked it - and that is the main thing!

 

In other news, I got this AMAZING Imperial typewriter from my parents and grandparents. It's in a little bit of rough condition, but after I cleaned it up it looked 100 times better - I love it!

 

I am *still* making zombies ... but very slowly.

 

I made these trinket dishes for a wedding present, but I'm not really happy with them. They're ok, but you can see the brush strokes (which I could deal with, because it does look kind of rustic and charming) and they are still sticky! Ugh! I think I will try spray painting them, to make them a bit more matt and less brush-strokey. Only two are pictured here (the other one had an accident with some black paint ... oops), but they say "we tied the knot", "we put a ring on it", and "we said I do" with co-ordinating images (string with knot, rings, and heat respectively).

 

- Lisa x

Squid amigurumi

I finished a crochet squid amigurumi today - yay!

I used a pattern from Ravelry, but I changed it a little. Again. I wasn't really a fan of the pattern for the tentacles (really I just am not good at crocheting little tubes) so I brought out my French knitter and used that instead! It worked really well, and it was a lot faster than crocheting all of them would've taken me.

 

I used purple Moda Vera acrylic yarn in 8 ply, a 4mm hook, black buttons (for the eyes), and polyfill. The small tentacles have pipecleaners in them for poseability (is that even a word? Is now!) and the long tentacles are French knitted with crochet spheres sewn onto the ends. Yayness! I'm so happy it's finished.

Have a great evening!

- Lisa x

Felt owls with free pattern!

Hello! Today was a Crafternoon day ^_^

I made these super cute felt owls ...

... which will possibly become a mobile, or maybe just some tiny plushies. 

And I also made this little pattern so that if you want to, you can make some felt owls too! Yay! 

Instructions:
1. Click on the image above to download the pattern from my Google Drive
2. Cut out all the felt pieces, making the body one colour (i.e. pink) and all the body parts except for the beak and eyes another colour (i.e. blue). Make the beak brown, and the eyes black.
3. Sew the eyes onto the eye mask with 6=six strands of black embroidery thread using the image on the pattern as a guide. Whip stitch the beak to the eyemask using two strands of brown embroidery thread. Whip stitch the eyemask to the front body piece using two strands of embroidery thread using the contrasting colour (i.e. pink thread if sewing a blue eyemask).
4. Sew three lines of zig-zag on the tummy patch with two strands of embroidery thread. 5. Whip stitch the tummy patch to the front body piece.
6. Starting at the top of the left wing, running stitch the owl body closed. Ensure the wings and feet are placed so that they will be caught by the closing stitches.
7. Leave a small gap on the left side of the head for stuffing; after stuffing, stitched closed.

- Lisa x

A felt sheep magnet

The IronCraft challenge this week was "Spring", and when I think of spring, I think of sheep.

Growing up in the country, spring meant new lambs and shearing and the agricultural show. Oh, the Show - Highlight of the Harvey Social Calender! ^_^

This sheep is made from felt and is a magnet. She has a pretty blue award ribbon because she has won first prize!

Well done, little sheep! ^_^

Inspiration credit goes to Kate - our sheep don't look much the same, but I looked at her sheep to copy the nose stitching. Thanks Kate!

- Lisa x

Ninja Cake!

 Hi!

Today was Amy's farewell afternoon tea and I made a cake - a cake that *didn't* crumble as soon as I took it out of the tin! Huzzah! This cake is gluten, wheat, and dairy free - I did cheat though ... I used a packet mix. (Naturally Good, Deliciously Free - Moist Chocolate Mud Cake, if you're interested)

I was most pleased with the icing though ...

It's a chocolate fudge icing ninja!

The green icing is peppermint flavoured - and it was all very tasty ^_^

Have you ever had a ninja cake? Do you have good tricks for making non-crumbly cake? Or icing really well? (My icing is still pretty wonky!)

- Lisa x

Harry Potter finger puppets

Hello! Today is a special day - this is my 100th post!

So, Happy 100 Posts-Day! Yay!

And to celebrate, here are some Harry Potter finger puppet patterns - just for you!

 

I've only made Harry so far; but as tomorrow Bec and I start our Harry Potter movie marathan (in preparation for the final film!), I think I know what I'll be crafting during my viewing ^_^

I hope you like them - and thanks for sticking with me this far!

And here's to another 100 posts ^_^

- Lisa x

Agatha Christie mixed medium brooch

This brooch is my tribute to the most wonderful Dame Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime. I *love* her mystery novels, and have an entire bookshelf dedicated to them. I mainly buy them in second-hand shops because I love the vintage cover designs - I have even brought multiple copies so I can have different covers ^_

I used this tutorial for the frame, but I used 3 ply thread, so I have quite a few more "petals". The thread I used is 75% viscose and 25% metallic and it's "Romantic" by Vera Moda.

The scroll is black felt with white and dark red embroidery thread and says (in case you can't read my embroidery-writing) "Long May She Reign" and Agatha is wearing a litte crown made from card-stock that has been spray-painted with bronze. I originally tried to paint on the crown, but it didn't look really good and so I stole some of Scott's card-stock that has been under his mask as he spray-paints. I glued the crown on with mod-podge and then applied another layer to varnish and protect from water and the like.

The back has more felt (covering the back of the picture), and a badge back - simple!

I'm really happy with how it turned out! I can't wait to wear it tomorrow ^_^

Have an awesome night! And I'd love to see any projects *you* may have made for your Idols, Heroines, and Heroes! ^_^

- Lisa x