Craftforward!

Now I can post current stuff!

I was inspired by the heart headband that Elsie bought off of Etsy.

This is my version:

Also, in keeping with the owl theme for the shower, I made this owl hairclip:

As you can see, the colors matched BEAUTIFULLY with the sweater that Jeff bought me for Christmas from Anthropologie. (I planned the matching obviously.)

Craftback: Day Seven (Miscellaneous)

Well, friends, the end has come. It is the last day of the craftback. I've enjoyed the daily blog and will hopefully come up with other things to post that will be equally interesting. But for now, back to the crafts!

I crocheted a rug out of plastic bags (plarn). It is suprisingly soft! It was hard to find bright colors, but I still like the final product a lot.

I made this wreath out of a hanger, some paper towels that I dyed with food coloring, and a little hot glue. Rad, right? It's all thanks to this tutorial via Dollar Store Crafts.
I found a vintage hair dryer, took it apart, hot glued a thrifted glass vase behind it (totally hidden of course) and gave it to my beautiful sister, who is a stylist and works for L'Oreal as a coloring consultant. Made a totally one of a kind vase.

My other sister asked for a scarf hanger for her pashminas. I cut out circles of foam core and hot glued strips of fabric around them. (I am starting to think I should have named this post "Hot Glue" instead of miscellaneous.)

Narwhallet. Get it?

My dad was proud to get this novelty item for his desk. Great conversation piece. Super easy.
The rest of the things I am posting had to wait until today because they are being given as gifts today!

This is part of Jeff's anniversary present. I made him a duvet for his bed with a cutout of a telecaster (his dream guitar) in charcoal fleece over the black damask. I just threw it on my bed for the picture; it will look much better in his room. I also bought black faux leather contact paper and cut out that same guitar silhouette to put on the walls around the room. (These are obviously not pictured.) It ended up being a lot of work, but I hope he likes his mini-room makeover.

Jen is having an owl themed baby shower at the local library today. I followed this tutorial in order to make her a bunch of bibs. These photographed TERRIBLY. Stupid shiny vinyl. But they are all clear with cool bits and baubles inside.

The pink one has tulle and felt scraps. The blue one has giant faux gemstones.

These both have bits of matching lace and random buttons inside of them.

These ones have glitter inside of them. The silver one is the one that broke my sewing machine. *shakes fist* Thanks to my mom, I am now using her old one, so all is well again.

I was also asked to make little fabric owls for decorations. Here they are! No tutorial. Just messing around with what I had.

Found out we needed a few extra owls, so I made these paper ones that I found here (via) in a variety of colors. Only took me the length of a movie to cut out and glue all five. They are adorable.

And, of course, I HAD to wrap my gift to look like an owl. I used a brown paper grocery bag, an Anthropologie catalog for the wings, and some orphaned earrings for the eyes and beak.

Like I said, I will miss you, Craftbacks. Looks like I will just have to make more stuff and post about it!!

SPECIAL THANKS:

-my glue gun

-my sewing machine

-all thrift stores

-the craft night gals

-the gift recipients who inspired the projects

-the bloggers who posted the tutorials

-everybody who read my posts! thanks for caring!

Craftback: Day Six (Accessories)

Accessories. Unlimited possibilities.

Ipod case. Made from socks.

Collection of wrist warmers....

Mountain theme:

Ladybug:

Tiger:

Sky:

Monsters:
(The above photo made it into a Threadbanger video after I posted it in a forum. I can't link to it because I have no idea which one it was, but trust me- I was floored!)

Now for scarves...

Fruit salad:

Remote control scarf:

Ice cream cone:

Pizza:

And here are some of my polymer clay creations. They are charms that could be pendants, earrings, etc. All were gifted.

Speaking of gifts, all of "the girls" received personalized slippers. The birdcage and bird were replicas of tattoos the owners have, the camera was for a shutterbug...

Jen loves her morning glories, and since she's got a little girl on the way, I had to make a tiny pair for mommy and baby to match...
and peacock feathers for Jessica. (Not pictured: Glee slippers for Alana.)
By the way, I used this tutorial for the basic idea of those slippers.

And lastly, I used this tutorial to make my sweater boots! This is my second pair.

One more day of craftbacks to go!

Odd Duck

I am so excited! A favorite website of mine has started posting again....

This Peanut Looks Like A Duck! Its simple beauty is in posting pictures of random objects that happen to look like ducks. Such as this yam, for instance:

In other news, I signed up for the Tacky Souvenir Swap. I looooooved participating in Charity's garland swap and couldn't resist another. Also, I even went so far as to post a comment about the swap on my idol's blog: Allee Willis: Curator and Queen of the Museum of Kitsch. If you are ever feeling bored or sad, check out her website. Her parties are killer and her collection of kitsch is to DIE FOR! Plus, she is a brilliant songwriter on top of everything. I want to BE her.

Craftback: Day Five (Puppets)

As much as I love softies, creatures that can actually move and "talk" are even cooler. Puppets can get expensive so I don't make tons of them. But here are a sampling of some from my repertoire.

Here is the sheep whose leftover wool turned into the lining of my hat. It was for my dad. The sheep reminds me of the "Dance Myself to Sleep" sheep on Sesame Street.

I made an abominable snowman puppet... well almost. I don't think I ever finished it. But it did have a working mouth, and arms. And made a funny mask too, apparently!

Not particularly proud of this one, but it's okay to post fails too. My first attempt at a marionette, this was intended to be a goth version of myself. I'll admit that I put more time and thought into her hair and outfit than in sculpting her face. All of the stringy apparatus stuff worked though!

This is my most recent creation. I made it for my dad (again) for Christmas. She was my first official Muppet-style puppet. I learned from watching my friend Dave make them. Watching is so much easier than doing it yourself! I did learn some major lessons with this one and my next one (whenever I find the need to make another) will be much better. Also - please note that I had to use a Trump wig for the poor girl. You use what you've got, right?

Hot dog puppet! Obviously the mouth doesn't move, but you can gesture with the cutlery. Fun stuff! It is hard to see but I sewed on little black beads to make the ants on the tablecloth.

Rooster. I named him Chester.

First puppet I made in my puppetry class. We had to do a basic sock puppet. I did a play on crocodile tears in combination with the story of Captain Hook. (Thus the tears and pirate stuff.) I hand sewed the ridges on his back for effect.

My sister Cana speaks Chinese. I made this dude in her honor.

This is my version of Mother Goose, made for a production at the theatre where I worked in Texas. I made her out of an inside out hoodie. I used a sleeve for her head, and the hood pieces were reattached as her wings. I can take credit for this idea. No tutorial, just inspiration at the thrift store. I was able to find the eyes and glasses on stuffed animals and repurposed them, and scored that great apron to complete the look, on top of the feathers, of course.

Tomorrow's theme is accessories. Prepare yourself.

Craftback: Day Four (Mosaics)

At work we've just started to do mosaics. I used the mosaic look when I decoupaged the plastic drawer units where we store smaller bisque items.

We sell traditional mosaic stuff. Precut pieces in a variety of colors. I've always been more of a "make-your-own-mess" sort of gal. The tesserae (that's the official term) I use are either broken dishes or tiles.

I made this earth (along with some peace tomato pots which are not pictured) out of dishes. I have no idea what I did with it. But I do remember that it weighed a ton.

I made this out of tiles. (It's a great project for updating a thrift store table, especially ones that have insets where the glass was broken.) It was a gift for some good friends.

My favorite mosaic project ever was actually done out of construction paper. I did this while watching the entire Rambo series. I got the idea from a picture on the cover of the pad of construction paper. I love love love the final product. Last I heard my sister had "borrowed" it. Super fun project to do.

I made this little guy this summer. We ran out of glass pieces so I just painted the top and wrote my little haiku to connect the mirror and the penguin imagery. It's very me.

Tomorrow... PUPPETS!!!

I read, I made, I blogged

Tonight I saw this post...


And so I made this project...


I used copper wire instead (because it was what I had.) It was a little tricky to wrap the inside of the letter- I had to break off a piece from the skein and hope I'd grabbed enough. (Luckily I had.) I also think they used thicker yarn than I did. But it was fun and fast! A friend of mine made me dinner tonight and wanted to give her a tiny thank you.