Rainbow cloud ribbon hairbow holder

Hello! As you probably know, I really like hair bows. I like wearing them, and I like making them and this has resulted in me having *a lot* of them! I was keeping all of my hair things in a plastic cauldron on my dressing table but it was really getting much too full and so I decided to make some hair bow storage.

I've had clouds on the brain for some reason lately so I pretty quickly settled on a cloud shape with rainbow ribbons to attach the bows to. I went and visited my dad a couple of weeks ago and while we were doing some shed work (this is code for mainly drinking cups of tea while looking at blue prints and throwing the ball for the dog) I explained to him my idea. Despite seeming somewhat confused why a grown woman would want, let alone need, a hair bow holder, dad dug out a scrap piece of wood for me to use.

I drew out a cloud shape with a pencil, and then used my jigsaw to cut it out. It looked a bit rough though, so dad and I used some small files to shape the puffy bits (that's the technical term) a bit better and then I sanded down the whole thing so it was nice and smooth.

 

I gave the cloud a coat of flat white spray paint, added a smiley face, and then used a staple gun to attach ribbons to the back of it. I also added a hanging wire by hammering in two small nails and wrapping picture wire around them. 

I used about a metre of ribbon for each colour; my collection has definitely got room to grow now! Please excuse my small bookcase butting into the photo here; it's made of jarrah and is therefore waayyy too heavy to move. 

I made most of the bows on here; but the clover and cupcake clips at the bottom are made by Twinkie Chan, the Catbug, BMO, Bee and Puppycat, and LSP bows I brought from Oz Comic Con, and the white and black polka dot bow was made for me by Bec ^___^

 

It looks good next to my hoop wall, and now I can actually see all my bows at once which I think will make choosing them to match outfits much easier ^___^ I will admit that this project would also look pretty at home in a little kid's room but, hey, there's no reason why grown ups can't have rainbow clouds too, right? ~___^

I'm so excited for Halloween this year, I've got a project planned for each week of October and I can't wait to get started on them and share them with you! I'm thinking zombies, witches, vampires, monsters, bats, skulls ... no wonder this is my favourite holiday! ~___^

Until then!

- Lisa xx

Shrinky dink puppy dog necklaces

Hello! I'm a bit unsure of showing you this project as they are gifts for some friends who may or may not be reading this ... well, if you receive one of these in the near future, just pretend to be surprised, ok? ~___^ I know cats are all the rage these days, and while I do have a soft spot for the neighbour's kitty who sometimes visits me, I must admit that I am a dog person at heart. So when I found a whole heap of puppy vectors, I knew I had to make something! I decided on necklaces because I really don't wear them a whole lot, but I am seriously tempted to make mine into a brooch. Which would kinda defeat the whole purpose of making necklaces ... Hmmmm, anyway.

To make your own puppy necklace, you'll need;
- shrinky dinks
- scissors and a scalpel
- a pencil
- silhouettes of puppies (I scaled mine to be the width of an A4 piece of paper and could fit two dogs on each sheet)
- an oven
- E6000 glue 
- jewellery findings, chain, and pliers

The first thing I did was print out my silhouettes and use my pencil to trace the shapes onto the shrinky dink sheet. I used white shrinky dinks, but they are not totally opaque so it's really simple to trace out the outlines of the dogs.

Then I started cutting out the general shape using my scissors. Keep in mind that shrink dinks can split pretty easily; I find that for corners, cutting from either direction into the corner is much neater than trying to cut in one direction all the way around.

 

I used my scalpel to cut out little details on the dogs, like the ears and a curly tail that would otherwise just look like a strange growth.

 

Once they are all cut out, erase any left over pencil marks and then pop them in the oven. I put my shrinky dinks onto a sheet of baking paper and baked them at the lowest setting.

 

And this is how they came out; it appears they've contracted boneitis. Oh dear! So, I repeated all the steps above, except this time I baked them on a tray, on a sheet of baking paper, with another sheet of baking paper on top, and another tray on top of that. Those puppies weren't going anywhere!

And they turned out perfectly, hurray! ^___^ Except that I was distracted while cutting out the second Husky puppy and forgot to use my scalpel to include his tail details. Opps. I think I'll need to keep him for myself and make another for my friend. I'll still love you, Husky-with-strange-growth-on-your-back! To give you an idea of size, the Husky is about 8cm wide and 7.5cm tall.

I also made a Beagle who is just a little shorter at 7cm tall ...

 

 ... and a Dachshund, who is longer (8.5cm) but also shorter at 4cm tall ...

... and a Labrador who is the longest at 9cm, and is also 7cm tall ^___^  I glued bails onto the backs of the dogs with the E6000 and then it was a simple matter of threading through some chain and adding the clasp.

 

I really like how crisp the plain white shrinky dinks look, but I think these would also look great as metallics. Golden retriever, anyone? ~___^

- Lisa xx

 

"Don't let the muggles get you down" scrapbooking paper quote banner

Hello! Have you ever tried to write a analysis of your own fantasy story? That's what I'm doing for my homework right now, and I've gotta tell you, it's tough. Anyway, I took a break from research and writing today to finally finish and hang my Harry Potter inspired banner.

 

I have a lot of scrapbooking paper, but I don't do a ton of scrapbooking (full disclosure: I used to do heaps of scrapbooking and cardmaking in high school when it was cool ... or at least I thought it was. Was it really ever, or was that just me?). I keep on buying scrapbooking paper though because it's just *so pretty*! I have a real problem with buying pretty stationary products; I also have too many gel pens for any one person to own. Scrapbooking paper is great for backgrounds for small project photos, but that doesn't really use it up! So I decided to actually put some of this stuff to use, and make an oversized quote banner.

The first thing I did was to create some templates using Adobe Illustrator. I used the Bell Gothic font in 800 pt size, which made each letter fill up one A4 page. I wrote out the whole quote on a scrap piece of paper and counted up how many of each letter I would need, and then I cut out all the repeats at the same time.

 
After I had all the letters cut out, I layed them out on my dining table to make sure they looked good in the order I had them. I used a lot of patterns and colours to make a banner that kinda clashes ... in a good way, you know? I used regular sticky-tape to attach the letters onto blue and white baker's twine and then attached them above my big bedroom bookcase using washi tape. I used washi because it doesn't take off paint, but this wasn't the best idea. The banner hung up for a couple of hours ... and then it started to slip. I'm going to buy a couple of removable wall hooks and give them a go instead.

My only other tip for making a banner like this is to make the baker's twine much longer than you think it should be! I thought I would have heaps of string on the ends, but as you can see, the string next to the first letter is a tiny bit too short >___< Nonetheless, I'll take my banner's advice and not let the muggles get me down. Even if the aforementioned muggle is me ~___^

- Lisa xx

Bats on the belfry: plastic bat headband

Hello! You probably didn't know this, but I have a very mild super-power. If you give me a range of objects and ask me to choose one, I will instantly gravitate to the most expensive one. Oh, wait, are super-powers meant to be useful? Hmm. I may need to rethink this. Anyway I saw a picture of this really cool bat headband on Pinterest and instantly decided I needed it. And then I saw the price tag and instantly decided to make one instead.

So I had a dig around in my craft room and found some black plastic bats leftover from last Halloween, some silver spray paint, and an old headband. The headband was one that originally had some ribbon on it so you could tie a bow at the back of your head, but I wanted to wear it as a hair tie instead so I took the ribbon off and then I had a kinda gooey headband left over. I tried to clean it off with Goo Gone, but to no avail. So I had another little dig in the craft room and came out with a nice thick piece of ribbon which I attached using my hot glue gun.

I coated the bats in silver spray and then left them to dry. For AGES. Seriously, these things were sticky for WEEKS. They kept leaving traces of silver on my fingers whenever I tested them and so I thought putting something that did that in my hair wouldn't be such a good idea. Again, to the craft room. I found some spray varnish which was meant for painting and papercrafts, but figured it was worth a go anyway. And it worked! Yay! I still let them dry for a couple more days to make sure, but it worked well.

I used E6000 to attach the bats to the actual headband. Seriously, I love this glue. I know it's probably the most toxic stuff ever, but it works so well. I would kiss it, but it would probably kill me to do so. Anyway, the finished head band doesn't really look at all like the inspiration picture. But, you know what, I think I like it better this way anyway! And a $193.10 saving is nothing to scoff at either, right? ~___^

I'm working on another stash craft at the moment, so hopefully I'll have that to show you soon. And I've also got two birthday gifts in the works, and a wood working project, and I think I have to make a zombie project since I'm doing an assignment on them and now I really want to craft zombie things (again). I think we can safely say that my craft list is never getting any shorter!

- Lisa xx

Hair bows and awards!

Hello! It's officially the first day of study break - yay! I was sick at the end of last week and I was so so hoping that I wouldn't be spending all of this week in bed and generally useless. I mean, I'm still a *bit* useless since I haven't done much except read and do the grocery shopping but, hey, small steps, right? ~___^ However! I do have some more hair bows to show you. I kinda went a bit wild after making the first batch; it really is a great way to use up bits of fabric that aren't really big enough to do much with.

I made these little bows by reducing my bow pattern by half and although I think they're cute, they're a bit harder to make than the bigger ones because the small tube is itty bitty!

My favourite of the small bows is definitely this frog and insect one; I've had this fabric since I was a small child (when you have a mother that quilts, collecting pretty bits of fabric is really just an inevitable side effect) but I didn't have much of it left. I'm glad that I have this bow because it means I can hang on to it now ^___^

 

I think the mushroom fabric was a fat flat remnant; I once made a Ninni monster out of the majority of it. The majority of the vintage style space fabric was made into a skirt (that is now too big for me and that I must take in ... does anyone else have exponentially growing mending piles?) which I always struggle to match with accessories. I think this will help!

I really like these two bows; the cotton I used has great body to it so they sit really nicely and don't lose their fluffiness ^___^

 

I added one of my galaxy pendants to the middle of this one, after giving it a lick of strawberry scented glittery nail polish. I'm a bit worried that the nail polish will yellow, but it's looking ok so far! My nickname for this bow is, of course, Galactic Strawberry ~___^

 

The owl is from another pendant; I brought myself one, and then was given one as a gift. Ooops! Since I really have no need for two matching necklaces, it's been sitting in my beading box for quite a while. I just used pliers to cut off the hanging loop and glued it in place ^___^

 

This last bow is made from some of my Spoonflower fabric and has a cute little sewing machine charm sewn on. I added a small scissor charm as well, to fit in with the crafting theme ^___^

On another subject, Amy from Perfect Imperfections was kind enough to nominate me for the Liebster Award! I've done this once before, so while I will answer the questions I'm going to put out the award to any of my readers with blog followers under 200. Comment to let me know where I can check out your blogs! ^___^

1) What is your favourite thing about blogging?

This may seem rather cliche, but I like sharing with others! I love to see what people are up to, and see the pretty things you all make ^___^

2) What is your favourite thing to blog about?

I should say this is fairly obvious - craft! I've dabbled in a few other topics, but craft is my number one hobby and I always come back to it ^___^

3) Why did you choose your blog name?

When I was starting my blog I wanted to choose a name that summed up what I, and my blog, was all about. Tea and Craft reminded me of cosy crafternoons with my friends, so I thought it was perfect!

4) Why do you blog about what you do?

I wear the same outfits too often to be a fashion blogger and I don't do enough to be a lifestyle blogger ~___^

5) What type shoes do you like to wear?

I have dreadful feet so I have to wear orthotics. This means my shoe choices are fairly limited! I have two pairs of black mary-janes that I pretty much wear constantly but I'm always on the look out for orthotic-friendly shoes. (If anyone has any suggestions, please do let me know!)

6) Sweaters or tank tops?

It's still chilly here in Australia, so I'm loving my jumpers but I must admit I'm looking forward to wearing singlets again! If I had to choose though, jumpers. I can't resist a good knit.

7) What is your favourite type of book?

I am really really predictable with books. If it's a dystopian novel with a hint of fantasy or sci-fi, I am there! I'm currently reading the last book in the Grisha Trilogy which I *highly* recommend, if you're looking for something new to get your teeth into ~___^

8) What is your favourite app?

Instagram. No question. I may have just a teeny tiny addiction.

9) Cats or dogs?

I like both, but if I could only choose one, I'd pick a puppy. I always had dogs growing up, and I just love them so much ^___^

10) What is the first thing you do when you wake up?

Grumble. I am not a morning person, and my alarm clock is the bane of my existence. (Hyperbole, much? ~___^) After that, it's a cup of tea and breakfast. I'm loving overnight oats at the moment since it means I can sleep in a bit longer ~___^

11) What is the last thing you do before you go to sleep?

Check my blood sugars. Since I developed T1 diabetes, I'm always worried about having a hypo overnight and not waking up. Rather morbid, isn't it? Luckily I normally do wake up if I have a hypo, and I keep a stash of juice boxes and tiny teddies on my bedside table for this very reason!

If you'd like to do this, here are some questions for you!

1. What's your favourite blog post that you've done?

2. What's your go to snack?

3. What's something that you'd love to wear, but haven't or don't often (for whatever reasons)?

4. Favourite type of music?

5. Who's your favourite Harry Potter character?

6. What's a name that you really like?

7. What would you do if you were the leader of your country?

8. What's something that you'd love to learn to do?

9. If you could pick a superhero to have a movie made about, who would you choose?

10. What's your favourite holiday?

I'm working on another project *as we speak* but I do also have a bit of homework to do, so it might be a while until I finish it. I have some boring things (essays and such) but one of my assignments is to write a short fantasy story! I'm so nervous about it since I haven't done any creative writing since high school ... well, any that I've shown anyone anyway! ~___^ It's really tough deciding what I want to do - there are just so many possibilities! I guess I better get to it!

- Lisa xx