Bags' Out of the Cat

After stumbling upon this little Upcycled Wipes Container craft, I realized what I can finally use my kitty for!

I bought this kitty tissue dispenser when I went to China two summers ago. I've tried placing both tissue and toilet paper in it, but they never dispensed nicely. So it's just been this cute little ball of fur on my desk for some time now.

Like most, I have a lot of plastic bags lying around. I carry reusable fabric bags nowadays for shopping, but use whatever plastic bags I accumulate as garbage bags. Now I have a way to organize them!

I followed the instructions given in this blog.

Fold your plastic bag in half.

Fold up the handle in the first bag.

And roll.

Add a second bag with handles overlapping the first bag, and continue rolling.

A bunch of bags later...

I placed my rolled up bags into my kitty tissue dispenser

and pulled the first bag handles through its paws.

It was a success!

NATM: 41 - 43

October 4

Zoya Keiko

October 8

Zoya Bevin

Zoya Opal

October 12

Sonia Kashuk Scarlet Starlet

Polish Count: 59

Air Max Mickey

I wanted to make a little something to thank Phil for all the driving, the walking, and the wine-ing that took place during our Disneyland trip. I noticed that he liked the Mickey prints by the artist Jerrod Maruyama, so I decided to draw one that was inspired by Phil himself.

I randomly asked Phil what his favorite pair of shoes were, and he replied with either the Nike Air Jordan Grape V or the Nike Air Max Infrared 90. I went with the latter, because it was more Mickey-like, and I just preferred that design more. I chose the "hi" hat, because it was one of the ones he wore during our Disney trip. The challenging part of the design was deciding what Mickey was going to wear. I knew I wanted the shoes to stand out, so I went with a simple, casual outfit.

I drew the Mickey on an ~ 8x11in. sheet of 4 ply paper, because I wanted it to be as sturdy as a real print.

Apparently, the only picture I took of the finished pencil drawing was on my phone.

When I was satisfied with the drawing, I outlined Mickey using a pen and sharpie.

Looked pretty cool without color.

I colored Mickey using my Prismacolor colored pencils and chose to color him flat, because I wanted it to look more print-like.

Phil said his favorite colors were purple and teal. I chose teal to be the hoodie color, because I felt that it went with the outfit a bit more. The one thing that didn't make sense about the drawing is his left hand -- it inaccurately disappears into his pocket.. shhh.. it was the only pose that I felt suited the drawing.

I brought the drawing, along with my other little gifts, to Jaime's dinner party, and presented it there. Phil was thoroughly surprised :D

Thanks again, Phil!

D-Disney Crew MousekeEars

My D-Disneyland crew and I were hunting these mini MousekeEars hats down while we were in Disneyland. We looked everywhere, but could never find a complete set of the fab five, because apparently Minnie Mouse was sold out everywhere T_T. So we had to leave Disneyland without them. However, they were all available online, so I made an order a couple weeks later.

After Ronnie suggested I turn everyone into Disney characters, I set out to make each hat a little more personal by including a little drawing of each person as their character. I based my designs on our day 1 outfits since Oliver was only there for the first day.

I had to mix my day 1 and 2 outfits, because I was wearing black the first day, and since Minnie has a black body, she'd be topless. Can't be having that. Plus my day two outfit included a red bow and Minnie wears a bow, so it worked out nicely.

I researched the Disney characters to find a pose I liked, and tried to find ways to make them more cutesy. Mickey and Minnie were based on the designs by an artist named Jerrod Maruyama. His artwork is so amazing! My friends and I bought a couple of things by him while we were at the WonderGround Gallery in Downtown Disney.

I used Mr. Maruyama's design as inspiration and gave the other three characters large heads and small bodies. Large eyes and some animated motion always helps to make characters cuter and more alive too.

I drew Minnie on a separate sheet since there was only room for four on one sheet. I had also spilled coffee on my sheet. I'm sure you can imagine my horror, my eyes were literally like O_O. Luckily I missed my drawing and it was just on my own character and not my friends.

After I was satisfied with my drawings, I inked them all in with my pen.

I had lost my pen cap during this process and had to replace it with another that barely fit. Don't you hate it when you drop things and they never fall where you think they'd fall? And then you just never find them again..

After I inked them all in, I colored each one with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I wasn't sure if I was going to color them flat or with value at first, but in the end decided that they'd look better a little more realistic and colored them with some value.

That Indy hat gave me the most trouble. I searched through so many hats online to find the right angle and lighting. I think I'm fairly satisfied with the result. I didn't try as hard with the turkey leg though lol.

I had the most difficult time with designing Pluto. It was difficult trying to think of a pose for him, because he was a dog and he was quadrupedal. All I knew with what I was going to do with Pluto was that I wanted him to be laughing and wearing Oliver's shirt and shoes. After many drawings and erasings, I found a pose I was satisfied with.

Like the others, I gave Pluto a larger head and smaller body.

After I colored everyone, I took side by side photos of the finished drawings with their original drafts. (Pluto is not photographed, because I forgot -__-)

Being the only girl, I'm obviously Minnie. My drawing of her is dressed as Snow White holding her first Dole whip and wearing her 5K medal.

Phil is Mickey experiencing brain freeze while drinking the Red Apple Freeze from Cars Land.

Sean is Donald enjoying his turkey leg. I realize there's cannibalism going on in this drawing.

Jaime is goofy and Goofy. He's whistling "Heigh-ho, heigh-ho" while wearing an Indiana Jones hat. He didn't actually do this, but they did sing it when we went to the animation studio and he can whistle a tune. Also, I realized I had the notes flipped after I had inked them in.. whoops.

I forgot to draw in Minnie's tail. Oops. I added it in later on when I remembered, but didn't bother to rephotograph.

These photos were very last minute, because I had to deliver them the next day, so the lighting was not so great.

I had wrapped each hat in paper before gifting them, and I don't think my friends noticed my surprise drawings when they unwrapped them, so I went around turning the box so they'd see them. They were all very surprised :D I wish I had gotten a group photo with them, but I forgot. haha, oops. Can't wait until our next trip!

Avenger Cupcakes Assemble

DOC has been planning on assembling as the Avengers since the premiere of the movie in the summer of last year. And now over a year later, we were able to for Jaime's birthday.

I had these cupcakes planned for our previously planned assembling which was also to celebrate Sean's birthday.

I designed the cupcakes by following these Mighty Mini Muggs.

I changed some of the features, and had to create my own Black Widow. The complimentary cupcakes were either logos or iconic weaponry.

I had very limited time to make these, because of a lot unplanned things that went on during my week, so I only made time to take one process shot and omitted the complimentary cupcakes. The cupcakes I made were from a box mix and they were vanilla cake with a chocolatey center.

Avenger cupcakes assemble! I arranged them in descending ages, which coincidentally landed Jaime right in the middle. These were kinda rushed and not my neatest work, but collectively, they look pretty cool. My favorite ones were The Hulk and Iron Man. My least favorite was Black Widow.

Birthday boy enjoyed them!

Happy birthday, Iron Man!