Blast from the past: Witchy Constellation Hat

Hello! I was looking for something in my blog archive recently when I realised I hadn't posted it here! Since I think it is time to have all my posts on my blog, I am bringing some of the posts I posted exclusively to other craft sites home ^___^ So, here's the first blast from the past: a constellation embroidered felt hat!

To make this, you will need a black felt hat, some silver metallic thread, a needle, and a pair of scissors. I also needed some black cotton thread because I thrifted my hat and some of the brim needed to be restitched. You could also look up a star map to choose your favourite constellations!

Thread your needle with one strand of metallic thread (there are usually six strands in one length of embroidery floss) and knot the end. Stitch stars by making a cross and then adding an additional diagonal line through the centre of the cross.
 

Use a large running stitch to connect stars to make a constellation and add some extra stars around the constellations to fill in any empty spaces.

Keep going until your hat is covered in stars! I also thrifted this cute little black dress with lace sleeves and thought that together (plus my moon phases necklace!) they make a cute witchy style outfit! 
 

- Lisa xx

WTNV mountains painting and a cussing awesome cross stitched gift

Ok, first of all: the Get Geometric KAL starts TODAY! Eeeep! I've got my needles and yarn out and I am ready to knit! But, first, I want to show you the final Christmas gift that I made last year (it still doesn't feel like it was last year though!) which was this Welcome to Night Vale inspired painting for Rebecca ^____^

 

This was really easy and fun to do! I was inspired by this mountain mural; the first time I saw it on Pinterest I thought of Night Vale and then I simply *had* to make this painting for Bec ^____^

 

I started off by painting the entire canvas with a thin layer of spearmint green. Then, I used a pencil to lightly plan out how my mountains would look. This is not accurate to any set of mountains at all - I just scribbled along going "uppey bit here .... now a downey bit ... time for a plateau ..." until it was done ~____^

Next I poured out a generous glob of "tropical water" by Kaisercolour and painted in the first mountain range. I gave it three coats of colour to make sure it was properly opaque. I have a wet palette which means my paint doesn't dry up between layers. It's probably one of the more awesome crafting supplies I have. Once I was happy with the first layer, I added three drops of black paint to the blue and mixed it all together. I used this darker shade to do the three layers on the second mountain, and then I darkened it again to make the next mountain ... you can probably fill in the rest of this explanation ...

 

Once all of the mountains were done, I painted some chipboard letters white and stuck them on to the bottom on the canvas with PVA glue. Then I used a teeny tiny paintbrush to add in the first part of the quote. So tiny!

And here's Bec with her gift! Isn't her hair awesome?! I'm always slightly tempted to try a pixie cut, but I'm really unsure if it would suit me. It looks so good on Bec though! And even though Bec is a seriously talented artist, she still liked my painting! Isn't she sweet?

 

And this is the Christmas gift Rebecca made me! I think is the most awesome hoop I own ^___^ I love it so so much! The photo above makes me look very serious about it, but all of the outtakes are more like the one below ...

I can't laugh with my eyes open, apparently! I've hung this little beauty above my desk so whenever I'm testing my blood sugar levels or doing an injection or treating a hypo I can look at it ~___^ My diabetes birthday was two weeks ago ... hopefully we're another year closer to a cure! That would be the best diabetes birthday present ever.

- Lisa xx

P.S. I've been thinking about what I'll make and blog about this year, is there anything you particularly would like to see on here? Do you have any favourite parts (or non-favourite parts!) of this blog? I'd love to hear from you! ^____^
 

Perler bead sushi magnets and a felt pug hoop

Hello! I know I said you probably wouldn't hear from me this week but, well, I guess I lied! I caught up with a couple of my friends to exchange early Christmas gifts, so I figured I could tell you about the presents I crafted for them now ^___^

For Philip I made these cute little sushi magnets! ^___^ I used a cross stitch pattern from weelittlestitches for these, but made them from perler beads instead of fabric and thread.

I wasn't going to put faces on these, but they really looked like they needed something so ... googly eyes to the rescue! I think it gives them a really funny expression ^___^
 

I used E6000 to attach the eyes and the magnets and they look good enough to eat ~___^ (Only, you know. Don't).

 

Using a pattern from Urban Threads, I made this felt pug hoop for Phillipa. I think it turned out really cute! Instead of stitching all of the lines, I cut out shapes from felt and stitched them down. I feel like this is a great way to add colour without having to spend an eternity doing fill stitches.

 

Everything is stitched down with running stitch, and the roses are 3D which I thought looked really cool ^___^

I feel like the roses could have done with a few more petals, but I didn't want to make them *too* bulky.

 

I think this pug's silly little face is my favourite part ^___^ The paws are attached with only one stitch so they can be lifted up; I did the same with the tail. I'm not sure why, but having movable parts to an embroidery hoop is so appealing to me. I added some little hearts to the banner because I wasn't sure about the phrase that the pattern suggested ("True Love") but also didn't want to leave it blank.

 

This photo shows the most accurate colour of the background fabric; it is definitely purple even though it looks blue in most of the pictures I took! The back is finished off with blue felt and the same technique I always use. Boring, yes, but also neat which is what I was going for.

Now, I must continue crafting as I have, once again, left my dad's gift until the last minute. Fingers crossed I get it done!

Best wishes to everyone for whichever holiday you celebrate! I hope you have a lovely one ^___^

- Lisa xx

Death Before Decaf hoop and a Welcome to Night Vale Cake

Last Wednesday was the birthday of one of my most bestest friends, Miss Rebecca. Of course, this meant that a celebration was in order so I texted her asking what flavour cake she would like. I got back "surprise me! But not spiders" and so promptly decided that spiders must be somehow involved (I am cruel in that way). This, in my mind, transformed into spider wolves and from there it was pretty obvious (well, to me anyway) that the cake should be Welcome to Night Vale themed.

 

I do not have a good history of cake making. I think this is mostly because I almost always try to make them too quickly. This means that my cakes are often crumbly, half stuck in the pan, and have a melted look because I tried to ice them without waiting for them to cool down. But not this time! I used my recipe for Anzac Cake but doubled it and made two round cakes. I made two because I was worried one of them would turn out awfully, but, as luck would have it, they both made it out of the oven with only minimal sinking in the middle.

 

I went all out on greasing and lining the pans with baking paper and, lo and behold, both of the cakes were removed from the pans without breaking in half! This is a minor miracle in my kitchen. I let them cool overnight, and then returned with grand icing plans. 

 

Since both the cakes were looking lovely, I decided to use both of them; so I made some coconut icing (desiccated coconut + icing sugar + water) which I added between the two cake layers. It's probably fair to mention at this point that this cake is not diabetic friendly - I had to take a lot of insulin to eat a slice, but it was totally worth it ~___^

 

The icing on the top of the cake is the same coconut icing, but made purple with the help of some blue and pink food colouring. This icing is pretty thick but is only really good for flat surfaces; it will just fall off if you apply it to the side of a cake. 

So for the sides I made another batch of icing; coconut + icing sugar + water + unsalted butter, which I mixed with an electric beater until it was fluffy. I added food colouring again, but made this batch lighter so that the finished cake would have some contrast. I used a butter knife to apply it; I really love the textured look I ended up with.

 

I have seen some amazing Night Vale cakes in my journeys around the internet, but I knew I was going to have to stick to something relatively simple if I wanted any chance of pulling it off. I settled on a view of the night sky above the Arby's with the Night Vale eye added in at the top.

I used tubes of writing fudge for this, because I had them on hand and because I am totally unskilled with a piping bag. 

The tube was a little too thick to properly recreate the Arby's logo, but I think it's still vaguely recognisable which is really all I was expecting anyway ~___^ For the centre of the eye I used a little bit of the extra butter icing and layered the writing fudge on top of it.

 

And when the candles were put in and lit up here's what we have; a view of the lights above the Arby's! ^___^

As you can probably tell, I had a little fun with creating a Night Vale style photo shoot for this cake; I started off thinking I didn't have much I could use as props but after a scout around our house I ended up with my LSP headphones, some plastic spiders from our Halloween decorations, and a tiny chemistry shot glass set (I have never done a shot in my life, but I also can't resist teeny glassware so ...). I also printed out the flyer for Big Rico's Pizza and an Alert Citizen Card which are now on my fridge; I think they really made the scene! I am ridiculously pleased with how this cake turned out. I made Scott and Rebecca admire it multiple times before we were allowed to eat it ~___^ 

And I can report that it was delicious; the cake was moist and held together well, and the coconut icing is a great combination with the Anzac biscuit flavour. It really was a bit enormous though, especially since there were just three of us celebrating that night. As a result, I have eaten way too much cake in the last week. My taste buds love me, the rest of my body ... ehhh, probably not so much. Still, that's what exercise is for, right? ~___^

I also made Rebecca this Death Before Decaf hoop using a pattern from Urban Threads. I think I've mentioned before how much I like their patterns; they have some great designs and I always end up buying more than I need when I visit their site. This hoop is kind of a matching pair with the Eat Your Greens hoop that I made for Bec earlier, but I think the white stitching is a lot easier to read against the purple fabric than it is against the green.

 

As per usual I printed out the pattern onto thin paper and then stitched the main part of the design through the paper. I had to spend a while ripping off the paper at the end, but it really does do a good job of ensuring that the design is replicated accurately. I would still like to try out different embroidery transfer methods, but that will have to wait until next year when I (hopefully!) have a job which allows me extra disposable income to spend on craft supplies ~___^

 

After I had stitched the main shapes down and removed the paper, I went back and did all the little sketchy details and the thicker sides of the "death" and "decaf" letters.

 

The roses are one of my favourite parts of this hoop; I just think they look fab. I also really like the curving ribbon which holds the text. When I first did it it looked a bit meh, but after adding in all those little lines on the back of the ribbon and the little curving details it really transformed into something special.

 

I also really love the cute little skull tea cup. This hoop would be a great present to give with a tea set and some tea bags or coffee beans. (Non-decaf includes tea, right?)

My husband, who seemingly can't live without iced coffee, was a big fan of this hoop too; I'm kinda tempted to make up another one for him/ our hoop wall. But I think that will have to wait until I regain feeling in my pointer finger ~___^

I've got one of my final assignments due this week, so I guess I better get back to doing that. However, I will be back next week with more Halloween projects (I realise that this post is not totally Halloween-y ... but it had a skull in it so that counts, right?? ~___^). I hope it stops raining so that I can do some outdoors crafts; but only time will tell!

- Lisa xx

P.S. Another big "Happy Birthday" to Bec; I hope you had a super fantabulous day ^___^

Eat Your Greens embroidery hoop

Hello! I am so glad to have finished this embroidery, because honestly I've had so much trouble with it! Not with the pattern, which is a lovely one from Urban Threads, but with actually stitching it up ...

I started off stitching on a floral piece of fabric, but the thin lines were almost impossible to see, even when you were close up, so I started fill stitching everything. However, fill stitches take approximately a million years to do (hyperbole, me? Never! ~___^) and I still wasn't loving how it was looking so I stuffed it into my WIP box and tried again!

 

 

This time I used a darker, less busy piece of green fabric for the background, and decided to stitch everything in white. I used to do redwork when I was a kid, and this project kind of reminded me of that. Except, you know, in white. ^___^. The fabric was too dark for me to transfer the pattern using a lightbox, so instead I printed it onto tracing paper and stitched through the paper. This technique is not perfect, and there are definitely some wobbly areas, but it is a lot easier than attempting to eyeball it! I do still want to get some water soluable transfer paper to try, but my local craft store doesn't seem to have what I need so I'll have to keep searching.

I think that the hoop this piece is in right now is a touch large, so I'll be sizing that down before I finish off the back, but otherwise this is another completed project. Yay! I've been picking up some relief shifts at work so I'm not doing quite as much crafting as I had hoped for my break, but I'm glad I've been able to *finally* call this design done!

 

I used almost all back-stitch for this project; big surprise, huh? ~___^ I did work in a little lazy daisy chain on the asparagus though, and the petal lines on the pansies are just large running stitches. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, and I really like how the white thread looks against the geometric print on the background fabric. I've got some more colours of this same design, so I'll definitely be using them for more hoops further down the track ^___^

And that's that! Huzzah! This project is a present for Bec, so I really hope she likes it ^___^. And now it's time for a new project - I'm thinking something crocheted this time.

- Lisa xx

Vintage pyrex embroidery hoop

Hello! How are you? I hope you're well. It is my second week of study break today and since I managed to catch a cold on my second day of study break, I have achieved very little! However, I started being able to breathe properly again over the weekend, so I made this little hoop to show you ^___^ 

 

I really like how it turned out, I think it looks so retro and cute! ^___^ I was inspired by this project from Flora and Purl but I'm linking to a pin rather than a blog post because for some reason Blogger will not let me actually look at the website! Silly Blogger. 

 

Anyway, I decided I would try to make an embroidered version of my Snowflake Blue dish, because the pattern is relatively simple and recognisable and because it's one of the few pieces that I have both the top and bottom of ^___^

 

I had a tiny thought that maybe I would continue to make hoops of some of my favourite pyrex designs, so I added a label to this hoop. This way, if I do end up making more, I can have a little pyrex hoop gallery with the names helpfully included to match up to the actual dishes ^___^ Stitching text is still not my most favourite thing to do, so I wrote this out on paper first and then just stitched over the top.

 

This is a 17cm diameter hoop (or about 6.5 inches) so it's quite small and therefore rather cute. The hoop is a (possibly) vintage one that I found at the op-shop; I really love finding embroidery hoops while thrifting because they are usually only a dollar or two each and you can sometimes find some really interesting ones ^___^ I love the faux bois plastic used for the front of this one, and the pretty metal hanging loop.

 

I finished off the back with some red felt and a simple running stitch. This is basically how I finish off every single hoop I do, so nothing really to see here ~___^

 

The floral fabric is 100% cotton and is brand new, although I think the pattern feels a tad retro, don't you think? I only used about a quarter of the fat flat to make this hoop, so I've still got a bit to work with, once I think of another project for it ^___^

 

The pyrex is made from felt and embroidery thread and was really very simple to make. I drew a picture of the dish onto paper and then cut around it to make a template. I made sure to include my slightly wobbly lines, as that was one thing I really liked about the inspiration piece ^___^ I used two strands of DMC for the outlines and the scallops (which is just a modified lazy daisy) and then a single strand for the snowflakes and the dots. I added crosses in the scallops because I can't do french knots - they are my downfall! If you can do french knots, you could probably make a much more accurate facsimile of this pattern ^___^

I'm very disappointed that my first week of study break was essentially a wash, because now I really must spend this week doing all my homework which doesn't leave much time for crafting! I am working on a couple of crochet projects, and hopefully I will have at least one of them finished before International Star Wars Day as it is, you guessed it, a Star Wars project ^___^ I'm doing both these crochet projects in 100% single crochet stitch so they are taking me agggggeeessss. I am a very impatient crafter at times, so it was good to start and finish a quick project to keep my motivation levels up! Anyway, it's time to hit the books!

Lisa xx