Kitschy Kitschy BOO

Welcome to Terrorific Tuesday 2009!!!
Week 4

Add some Halloween flair to your day with this cute kitschy bracelet and earring combo!


Materials

• 1 bag of plastic dollar store Halloween rings with removable rings - $1
• a bit of chain -$2
• jump rings - $1
  
• head pins and eye pins - $2
  
• a clasp of some sort - $1
  
• 2 pairs of pliers, such as flat nosed and round nosed - if you buy just the two sets of pliers, the price could be about $6. I went to my local hardware store and got a set of 5 different pliers for about the same price.
  
• some acrylic faceted beads - $4 (I had a big bag of them)
• earring wires - $1
  

I want to make one! How much did it cost you?
If you have none of these items on hand - $18 plus tax
The items marked in green were purchased for this project, and the purple items were on-hand.

Let's Craft!!

Measure your wrist, so that the bracelet with be comfy. You don't want to meausre too loosely or too tightly, because you're going to be adding a clasp which is going to add just a touch of extra length. Most standard bracelet sizes are between 6 and 8 inches long. Cut your chain to this length.

Pick out the rings you'd like on your bracelet and earrings. Remove the ring part. If you have a drill, use it to put a small hole in the item. If you don't have a drill, you could probably use a safety pin to CAREFULLY poke a hole.


Once you have the holes, open a jump ring and throw those bad boys on the chain. If you don't know how to open and close a jump ring, Margot Potter has an excellent video on youtube that shows you how! You can also use a jump ring to attach the clasp. I just used the chain itself.

Put some beads on your head pins, attach them to the chain as well.

For the earrings, just follow the same steps as the bracelet. Except this time, we're going to use the eye pins and thread some beads on them. Use a jump ring to attach your kitch to the eye. Create a loop at the other end for the earring wire, and add the wire.

Voila!

A fun Second Life necklace

My BFF Lil got me hooked on this online virtual world called Second Life (SL for short). It's hard to explain. I sometimes tell people that it's like the Sims, but online. But that's not quite right...

In SL, I am a Neko (that's japanese for cat). Neko is someone on SL who maintains a human body, with cat-like additions - usually kitty ears and a tail. I have several different tails, but I prefer my red fluffy tail. I have ears, of course. I also have whiskers and orange cat-like eyes. M calls it "playing dollies" because he doesn't understand it. That's ok.

In SL, there is a keyboard shortcut that brings you to your home spot, and I was inspired to create this necklace for my friend.

I dismantled a keyboard for the Ctrl, Shift and H keys. These keys are pressed to bring you to your home spot within the application.

I drilled holes in the keys to connect them with copper wire. I used Blue Moon silver plated chain, and attached a lobster claw clasp at the side. In the picture below, you can see that I usd copper wire to create a wrapped dangle with red glass beads. I used two 1" lengths of chain to create the little loop and heart dangle.

The circle is shrink plastic. On the back, I used lavender and baby pink to create swirls. Hot pink paw prints are also on the back. On the front, I created a red heart outlined in purple and wrote the letter I above the heart and NEKO under it. A blue fish skeleton is on the side of that.



It's to remind her that she always has a home, no matter how far she may roam - in both Real Life and Second Life.

I <3 U Lil :D

This little light

Welcome to Terrorific Tuesday 2009!!!
Week 2

Have you seen this pumpkin?
Be on the lookout for cuteness!

If you google Jack-o-lanterns, you will find so much information that it will make your eyes pop. Everything from carving patterns to several stories of its history to a college humor magazine.

The story I've always heard about it's orgins start in the "old country" (not sure which one), where lanterns were created not only from pumpkins, but turnips, and potatoes. Many people believe that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest around Halloween time. The purpose of the lanterns was to light the way for the beloved spirits to find their way home. The original lanterns didn't have faces carved into them, just a simple hole or design known by the family.

No matter what you believe, Jack-o-lanterns have become an integral part of Halloween. What better (and less messy) way to light up the night for spooks than a candle holder?

I'm still trying to craft with items I have on-hand (or with very little spending!) I learned quite a bit from this project.


Materials

• white tissue paper (if you don't feel up to a challenge, get at least 1 sheet each of orange green, and black) - $1
  
• If you use pre-colored tissue paper - skip these: orange, yellow, green, and black pigment or permanent stamp pads (or permanent markers). Do NOT use dye based stamp pads. You'll see why in a sec.- $4
  
• Newspaper or some other method of protecting your work surface - $1
  
• Decoupage medium (or if you don't have any, mix white glue and water equally to get a milky consistency medium)
• a glass "ivy" bowl - $1
  
• 20 gauge craft wire - $1
• plastic faceted beads - $4 for the big bag
  

I want to make one! How much did it cost you?
If you have none of these items on hand - $12 plus tax
The items marked in green were purchased for this project, and the purple items were on-hand.

*** Safety First!!! ***
and Disclaimer

Because this is a candle holder, I'd like to cover some safety tips.

1. I recommend gluing the paper to the outside of the bowl.
2. I also recommend using tea lights in this project.
   
3. Never leave a burning candle unattended.
4. Make sure the candle has been put out completely before leaving the room.
5. Be sure to keep it on a stable, heat-safe surface.
   
6. Keep the candle away from other flammable objects.
7. Keep the candle away from drafts.
   
8. Keep the candle out of reach of children and pets.
9. Always burn the candle in a well-ventilated room. Well-ventilated. Not drafty.
10. Do not touch a burning candle, play with the flame or melted wax.

I am not responsible for any losses or damage that you may incur while using a candle. If you aren't sure about anything listed in my safety tips, use a battery-operated, flameless candle.

If you would like a printable version of candle safety tips, visit the National Candle Association's Candle Safety Rules page.

*** End Safety Note ***

Let's Craft!!

Step 1

Lay down the newspaper. Place at least 1 sheet of white tissue paper down. Get the yellow stamp pad, and just randomly stamp the paper. Do this gently, especially if this is a brand new stamp pad. We just want to color the paper, not saturate it to the point that it rips.

Once the yellow is dry, do the same thing with the orange - yes, on the same sheet as the yellow. You should end up with a sheet that looks like this:



Do the same with the yellow and green on a new sheet of tissue paper. Because I had older stamp pads, they were nearly dried out. I used my permanent markers to color my sheet.

Step 2

Rip the paper into strips. I ripped my "stem" paper so that the lines would be vertical, to look like a stem once decopauged.

If you don't have any decopauge medium in a jar, prepare some at this point. Just mix white glue with water in equal amounts, to make a milky looking liquid. You won't need as much as you think you will.

Step 3

Gently gently gently start gluing the paper to the bowl. I placed my strips on the outside of the bowl, because I'm not sure how flammable the glue will be once it's dried. Remember how I said to avoid dye based stamp pads? Here is why you should:


The dye started coming off the paper, and leaching onto my brush. It got in the medium, as well. The permanent marker I used for the stem paper didn't do this. Very important to use permanent. Now I'm not really sure how the pigment stamp pad would stand up to the medium. Must test this out later.

Step 4

While it is drying, you can string the green beads onto the wire. Be sure to leave a bit of wiggle room between the beads, because you are going to wrap this around the neck of the vase. Husband said "It looks like the (the beloved soft drink character that breaks through walls saying 'Oh yeah')."

Step 5

He sure does look like that soft drink guy. So I hot-glued some faux-liage and autumnal accents to hide the base. Now he looks less likely to break through my wall.

Spooky Spider Wreath

Welcome to Terrorific Tuesday 2009!!!
Week 1

Welcome your guests with this perfectly creepy spider wreath!

I've been on a kick to create some type of decoration for my door for each holiday or special occassion. Considering my current jobless situation, it's an added challenge to use the supplies I have or get them cheap.


Materials:

• one 9 inch grapevine wreath - $1
  
• two 9 foot purple garlands (mine had sparkly skulls attached) - $2
• one pack of 2 medium flocked spiders - $1
• one bag of little plastic spiders - $1
• 3-pack of Halloween glitter from Joann's dollar bins (white orange, black) - $1
• white thread - $1
• white tacky glue - $1
• glue sticks - $1
• glue gun - $1
• set of 20 battery-operated Halloween lights (the teeny bulbs, maybe called rice lights?) - $2
• batteries - $4

I want to make one! How much did it cost you?
If you have none of these items on hand - $16 plus tax
The items marked in green were purchased for this project, and the purple items were on-hand. You are going to get some more use out of the thread, glue and glue gun (why would you NOT have one?)

Let's Craft!

Step 1

Remove the glittery skulls from the garland. Save them for another craft project. (hey, when you're crafting on a budget - Waste NOT!) Also save the twist ties. You really will use them, I promise.

Step 2

Use the glitter to glam up the spiders. I just added giltter to the circle on medium spider, as well as her leg joints. The smaller spiders got glitter on their abdomen section.

Step 3

While the spiders are drying, use a twist tie to secure one end of a garland to the wreath. Wrap the garland around the wreath. Using another twist tie, connect the garlands to each other and continue wrapping. Use one more twist tie to connect the final ends of the garland, as well as to secure this end to the wreath. Make sure none of the wreath is visible.

Step 4

Glue the battery pack to the back of the wreath. Wrap the lights around, then use hot glue to secure the lights where you want them positioned. I added the batteries, so I could see where the lights were going to look best.

Step 5

Glue the spiders to the wreath. To make the hanging spiders, just hot glue the thread to their bellies and to the garland.

For added spidery goodness, I very carefully used the glue gun to produce those normally annoying spider webby tendrils that appear after squeezing out some glue.


Hang, then step back and enjoy your wreath.

Spooky!!

Meet Pook

I finished the Craft: panda Crochet-a-long! I really enjoyed this crochet-a-long, and learned a few things.

I learned how to make yarn look like fur.
I learned a different way of joining the limbs to my amigurumi.

TADA!!

Meet Pook. She is a furry little baby panda. She loves orange juice, and rice cakes. She always looks like she is daydreaming, with her little head turn slightly askew.

Craft: CAL - Brush the Yarn

Panda head in progress!! I'm using Caron Bliss in Snow and Red Heart in Hot Pink.


Week 1 of Crochet-a-long Video

Tamie Snow showed us how to brush the yarn to get a furry look to the panda. However, since I am currently unemployed, I am trying to use what supplies I have on hand. The pattern calls for Lion Brand Alpine Wool yarn in Vanilla. I don't really have money for that, so I used Caron Bliss yarn in Snow. It's a soft, slightly fuzzy yarn. I bought it at the dollar store a few months ago.

After about five minutes of making a video then discovering that I cannot edit the video with the programs I have, I tried to download other programs. Forget it, I have decided to do this the "old fashioned" way. Using pictures.

Youtube finally uploaded the video. Here it is! (with pictures after):



Basically, you use the dog brush to grab the fibers of the yarn. If you use anything other than wool or other animal fiber, you have to be careful to not break the yarn. I learned this from on of my favorite crochet artists, June Gilbank. Thank you so much!

Make sure that you use the kind of brush that has the slightly bent bristles. Like this:

Not this kind of brush:

Although I will be using the dark bristles pictured on the right side of the image above to smooth the fur on the panda. The first brush pictured doesn't have the smoothing bristles.

Angry Face Doll

The moment we've all been waiting for! The debut of my Angry Face Dolls! Here is the first of what I hope will be a line of lovable dolls. I may nix the Angry Face in later dolls. Dolls are supposed to be happy!

How did Angry Face Dolls come to be? I'd been bouncing a few ideas around, when someone said "Why don't you make a doll with an angry face? It would look like you." Yes, even though my profile picture is a smiling face, most of the time I really do look angry. (Another long story for another time.) So I set to creating a doll.

You've seen a few progress steps of her hair, shot with my less than quality camera phone. From her meager beginning as a turnip head, I knew how she was going to look. I never did get around to sketching out my idea of how she was going to look. I just started crocheting. I must admit, I'd never have gotten the hair just right without Owlishly's amigurumi hair tutorial. Here is another shot of her hair, just after I gave her bangs a trim:



Her name is Molly Lynn, and she looks angry.



She stands about 1' tall, has bright pink hair and a red dress, with red hair ribbons that have white polka dots.



Her Mary Jane-like shoes can be taken off her feet. Her socks have a bit of sparkly lace edging.


She likes to take walks through the garden to see the marigolds.




I hope you enjoyed meeting Molly Lynn!

Til next time,
Be Fearless. Be Crafty. Be You!

~ Kiki

She's comin' to a head!

I've been busy, trying to get a bounty of bracelets and earrings whipped up for the Nation's Field Days. When I'm at home, I work on the jewelry. When I'm at work, I crochet our little friend. Currently, I'm working on her arms. Her head is done, and so is her torso - complete with "underwear"!

Here are some progress shots of the head:

Yes, her bangs might need a trim.

The knots inside her head.

Here she is, even showing part of her body.

It's a slow process, especially when I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to crafting. Normally, I float like a butterfly to each craft with which I've burdened my family. I am determined to finish this doll! I can taste the Sun Chips now!

Hair today

This time, I actually read what Owlishly wrote. I removed the mop top, which was not going as well as I'd hoped. You could still see the buff yarn "scalp" through the bright pink "hair". Back to the drawing board! See what happens when you read?

Her head is looking much better now.

Working on crochet hair.

This picture was taken with my camera phone. I was sitting on the bed, cutting lengths of hair, and tying a knot at the end. The original plan was to give her a mop top. Why do I always go for the hardest designs first?