Burning the Midnight... Wood

This year, I received my Mother's Day gift early: a woodburning tool. It's been on my wishlist for at least a year.

Here are my first few projects.

A portable fertility shrine, created for a friend of mine.



A small box for my mother.
(the top)


(the front)

(the side - same design on each side)

MyLifetime Video Link

I thought I'd head on over to mylifetime.com to watch some Crafty Chica videos. I came across this , which includes a really great idea to make an Easter Banner. I'm planning a Luau for this summer, and I think this would be perfect!

Aloha!

Swap: My Favorite Actor/Singer RECEIVED

For this swap, I picked Sully Erna from Godsmack, Milla Jovovich from The Fifth Element, and Gerard Butler from 300. My partner crafted Sully for me!

The top of the tin

The bottom of the tin

All the goodies inside

And the extra goody - a fab apron that says

Swap: My Favorite Actor/Singer SENT

The object of this swap was to craft an Altoid tin around our partner's favorite actor or singer. I thought this would be the perfect swap, since it only required an Altoid tin and an extra goody. My partner listed Pink (Alecia Moore), and John Mayer. I've never really heard either artist, but I at least knew of Pink.

Here are the items I sent:


A polymer clay covered tin, with TLS photo transfer

The inside of the tin, along with three 1" marble magnets

Knit wrist cuffs

Shrink plastic bracelet

Polymer clay earrings, using TLS photo transfer

Polymer clay pendant, using TLS photo transfer

I have yet to send the other part of the extra goody. It goes with the knit wrist cuffs.

Adventures in Polymer Clay

Kathy Cano-Murillo is known for her love of Glitter and Chicano pop-art.
Margot Potter , Jennifer Perkins, and Jackie Guerra create gorgeous works of jewelry.
Twinkie Chan inspires me with her sweet and savory crocheted scarves. (LOVE the pizza scarf!)
Maureen Carlson creates whimsical creatures in polymer clay.
Vickie Howell has gotten me to knit.
Carol Duvall is the queen of it all!

Why can't I just do one craft? I haven't decided what medium I prefer to work with when crafting. I always have to try to do different crafts, I can't just stick to one. Which is why my craft area seems to have overgrown it's happy little corner and is now trying to take over the entire third floor of my house.

But I digress. My adventures this week take me into the land of Liquid Polymer Clay. I saw the Carol Duvall episode where guest Michelle Ross used liquid polymer clay to create a photo transfer for a translucent night light. I decided that I wanted to try this technique as well.

I want to mention that I haven't really worked with PC too much, just a few small things for swaps and one other Altoid tin. I must say that I learned a few things.

Special thanks to @summergirl38 and @penguintrax (from Twitter) for their tips!

Here are some things I learned during this project:

• Don't shake the bottle. I didn't, but I read that doing so can create air bubbles. Bubbles = BAD.


• Use a thin layer of liquid clay. Let it rest after spreading, after baking and any other time you think the clay might need it. 10 minutes might be a good resting time. I don't think it would hurt if you let it rest longer.


• Bake the liquid clay. Yes, a heat gun will work, but I had better results with the oven. It requires a higher baking temp, which seems to give a brighter color transfer. Let it rest.


• Don't use Sculpey Bake n Bond to attach anything that you have to bake more than once. I've been told that the Bake n Bond doesn't do well with being baked more than once. You can use a thin layer of the liquid clay as your bonder. Let it rest.
  

• Gently place the transfer onto the item to which you are attaching it. The last thing you want is air bubbles under the image. I gently "rolled" the image onto the tin, then used an old spoon to smooth out any air bubbles trapped underneath. Let it rest.

Here is a picture of the first tin I tried, without any knowledge. I covered the top of the tin, baked it. Added the photo transfer, baked it. Still looking good at this point.

Covered the bottom of the tin, got lazy and used the toaster oven instead of the regular oven.

See all those red circles? Those are bubbles. Remember what I said about bubbles?

Bubbles = BAD.

There was no way that I could send this tin in a swap. It's sub-standard for the Fearless Crafter. Luckily, I had a second tin on hand.

Just because I was annoyed at the bubbles, I decided to peel the transfer off the tin.

It's still cool that the image transfered from the transfer to the clay. And it had a nice shiny top coat.

Keeping all this info in mind, here are my steps for creating a polymer clay-covered altoid tin with a liquid clay photo transfer on top:

Make sure your tin and work area is clean. As always, condition your clay.

If you're like me, (little Miss Perfectionist), you can create a template.

Roll out your clay, use your templates to cut out your clay in colors of your choice. Cover the entire tin with clay.
Bake the tin. I baked mine at 250 for 15 minutes.

Time to create the transfer!

Print your image onto photo paper. I've been told that not all photo paper works well with this technique. I used glossy photo paper I found at the dollar store. I also used an ink-jet printer. I don't know that a laser printer will give the same results.

Take your time, and paint a thin coat of liquid clay onto your image. Make sure you add about a 1/4" all around the image. If your image is 2" x 3", you want to make sure you cover an area that is about 2.5" x 3.5"

Let it rest. I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I cannot stress this enough. Letting your liquid clay rest will help to eliminate air bubbles. Oven bake the transfer according to the product directions. The first time around, I didn't paint a thin layer and I used a heat gun. And I didn't let it rest.

After the transfer is baked, let it rest. Paint another thin layer. Let it rest. Oven bake it again. Let it rest.

Now that everything has had a rest (hopefully you've included yourself, too!), it's time to bring it all together.

Once the liquid clay has been baked, it can now be cut with scissors. Cut your image to the size fo the tin. I lightly scored the top of the tin before adding a thin layer of liquid clay. I also applied a thin layer to the bottom of the transfer. Yes, let it rest.

Bring it all together!

Slapping the transfer on the tin is not going to yield good results. It's going to produce bubbles. Starting with one end of the transfer, gently "roll" it onto the tin. Be careful that the transfer doesn't move too much. It wants to do that. Use an old spoon to burnish out any bubbles. Depending on the photo you are transferring, you might be able to see any bubbles that may have formed through the image.

Once I was satisfied that there were no trapped bubbles, I oven baked it all again. I had one edge that wanted to raise up and not be flush with the rest of the tin. I baked it upside down, checking that it wasn't burning about every 5 minutes. However, since regular clay requires a lower baking temp than the liquid clay I baked it at around 250 degrees. I also baked it for about 20 minutes.

Here is the second, finished tin!

For pizzazz, I added silver beads that I found in the wedding crafts section of my local craft store. To make sure it's a perfect fit, you can gently press the beaded string into the unbaked clay on the tin to create indents. I used some glue to adhere them after it was all baked. If you like, you can line your tin with felt, or any pretty fabric you may have.

My first Polyvore Set

Kiss Me Deadly by krafter.kat featuring Yves Saint Laurent heels & wedges

This is similar to the bridesmaid outfit I'll be wearing at the end of the month for my friend, Dollie's wedding. I'm hoping that I really won't have to wear heels that skinny...

Link Time!

Knitting is a bit more difficult for me than crochet. I learned to crochet when I was 8 or so. I just learned to knit and purl within the past 18 months or so. I always get the garter stitch and stockinette stitch mixed up.

I am a visual learner, so I googled garter and stockinette. I found another blog called "a year in stitches", that has pictures of all the swatches she created from a pattern book. LOVE IT! There are a lot of stitches I'd like to try once I get better.

Busy day

I'm working on a swap item without a pattern. I recently watched my DVR'd Knitty Gritty episode called Celebrity Scarves. Sarah Rosenberg was the guest, and she makes scarves that have been seen draped around Hollywood necks. She also showed us how to make matching wrist cuffs.

I really want to make the cuffs, however I deleted the episode from the DVR, and the directions for the cuffs aren't available on DIY Network's website. :( If anyone else happened to catch that episode and the directions, could you drop me a line at krafter.kat@gmail.com I'd really appreciate it!

In other life news, I'm trying to start spring cleaning on my craft areas of the house. I'd like to have one central area for my craft stuff, instead of it being scattered to the four corners-literally. I'd love to have a little spot in the house to use as a "studio"

Mobile blogging

I've figured out how to blog from my cell. I am amazed at technology sometimes. I wonder how many characters I can enter? I think I will keep typing to find out. Ok, maybe not. Time to sleep!

Swap: ~ Amigurumi ~ RECEIVED

I'd had a craptastic day, and came home to find a wonderful package waiting for me!

I got some cute little bento picks, origami paper and instructions for sea creatures

Cute little felt whale and dolphin mini clothespins

And a gorgeous whale!

A shot of her from above

A profile view

And her is her closeup and happy face!

Swap: ~ Amigurumi ~ SENT

This swap required a crocheted item, stitched up in the amigurumi fashion. Amigurumi are basically dolls (and other creatures/animals) that are crocheted in single crochet and in a spiral.

I wanted to make a mermaid for my partner, but was not satisfied with any free patterns I found on the web. So I had to create my own.

Here she is, in all her glory!
Her hair is made from about 4 balls of eyelash yarn.

I had trouble with her fins, so I used a fin pattern from a well-known yarn company. (Link will be added later)



A close up of her head. That white thing is a shell




Here is a baby mermaid, again from a yarn company. (Link added later)

Sewing

I had a fabulous messenger bag from the dollar store that lasted quite a few years. One of the seams finally gave out, and I was sad. So I carefully took out the rest of the seams, and used the bag to make a pattern for myself.

I have yet to cut out any pieces to sew anything together. Mostly because before I can do any sewing, I have to uncover my sewing table. At the moment, it's buried under a mountain of other projects and yarn. ::Sigh::

I swear I'm going to break the family clutter curse!!

Checks n' Cherries Needlebook

Create this handy dandy little needlebook to store your needles while traveling!

Materials:

• Felt
• Bandanna or material of choice, a fat quarter will do fine
• Ribbon of your choice
• Chipboard (the board I used is a bit thinner than chipboard, but serves the same purpose)
• Glue
• Crochet thread or pearl cotton or all six strands of embroidery floss
• Needle
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Cutting mat and ruler

Dimensions:

Chipboard:
Cut 2 pieces - 2 1/2" by 3 1/2"
Cut 1 piece - 1/2" by 3 1/2"
Cut 1 piece - 1/2" by 2 3/4"

Felt Pages:
Cut 4 pieces - 3" by 5"
(mine are red)

Felt "Batting":
Cut 2 pieces - 2 1/4" by 3 1/4"
Cut 1 piece - 3/8" by 3 1/4"

Inside Felt Cover:
Cut 1 piece - 5 1/2" by 3 3/8"
(mine is green)

Decorative Ribbon:
Cut 2 pieces - 6 1/2" long

Let's Craft!!

Step 1

Glue the felt batting pieces to the 3 /12" long pieces of chipboard.

Try to center them as best as possible.

I'd like to take this time to note that while I'm fairly good with crafting and tutorial writing, you can see that my photography skills are still developing. I'll try to get some better pictures later :)

Step 2

Because I'm picky about certain things, I marked the center of the bandanna fabric as well as the center of the chipboard spine.

I then placed the covers about 1/8" from the spine, leaving a 3/8" border of fabric all around.

Step 3

If using bandanna material, do not glue the batted chipboard pieces directly to the fabric. I used Fabri-Tac and it seeped through, leaving unsightly dots.

Glue the corners first.

Now glue the top and bottom, then the sides. Take your time if you want nice, neat corners but it's not really necessary as they will be covered up by the felt for the inside cover.

Step 4

Using the 2 3/4" piece of chipboard, sew it to the felt pages and felt inside cover. Layer it in this order: chipboard, felt inside cover, then the felt pages. Try to keep your knots small because you don't want added bulk in the next step.


Here is a shot of the finished insides.

Steps 5

Glue about 1/2" of the ribbon to both covers

Step 6

Starting in the center, glue on the felt inside cover.

Step 7

Close the book to bring all the pages together in the center. Hold them together and trim all the pages to the same (or close to the same) length as shown below:

Finished!

(I know... I need to take a better picture)

"Debut" of The Fearless Crafter

You may noticed some changes. I've decided to start a new year a bit early. It's been a few days since I came up with my moniker, and honestly cannot remember what sparked the idea.

Basically when I craft, I do it fearlessly. And without directions. That has the potential to be dangerous, and therefore makes me fearless. Ok, I did read the directions once when I started to do resin work but only because its chemicals.

A recent example: I'm learning to knit. My mother gave me all her needles, and that just tickled me pink. I couldn't let them just sit there, collecting dust. I very quickly learned that even though they don't appear to extremely sharp, they can still stick you. So I purchased little pink rubber slipper thingies for my needles while I travel. Problem solved.

I really want to get more bang for my crafting time, and hope to have more tutorials here.

Swap: OYP9 Christmas Edition RECEIVED

I've been feeling a bit down lately, and receiving this package was a perfect pick-me-up!

I am in love with this snowman can! The colors are so much more vibrant in real life.


A gorgeous clear ornament that has "Winter Wonderland"


A darling wooden tree ornament, with glittered ornaments:

A cute little Santa pot filled with candy:

Sparkly glass charms::

A matching bracelet and earring set that makes me think of Jolly Rancher candy:

Swap: Once You Pop 9 - Christmas Edition SENT

My partner's favorite Holiday color combos include red/green, blue/silver, and red/white. Her favorite Holiday motifs are woodsy, traditional, cute, snow (men,flakes), red/white (candy canes). I decided to go with woodsy and the red/white color combo.

The woodsy-country Santa can:

Polymer Clay Ornaments:

Beaded Icicles:

An advent calendar, a la Allsorts. This was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. I also had a mishap with the ribbon between each pocket. I ran out of the original ribbon, which actually turned out to be a good thing because the new ribbon is a red and white gingham print. BTW, 9 feet of ribbon is not long enough for this project... I used almost 18 feet!

A crochet candy cane scarf, that did not want to be created in eyelash yarn so I used regular worsted weight:


I also adorned a black and silver frame with poly clay holly leaves and berries, but forgot to take a picture of it. I hope she is able to get a shot to share with me.