Easy

Happy Halloween! I didn't really dress up today, I just threw on my default costume, Cho Chang/asian girl from Ravenclaw, and went to work.


Last week (I think) Perry asked me to help him with his Halloween costume. With help from Dawn, he decided to be the Staples Easy button. I agreed to help, because how hard could an easy button be? Well, it wasn't that easy.

To start, I first researched a picture.

That was easy.

(I haven't charged my camera in awhile... so I have no idea where my charger is. I had to settle with using my phone. It was also nighttime, and I have terrible lighting around my work space.)

I had all the material from Plushtography. Lots of scrap material. Benson cut the circle from red fleece. His scissors weren't sharp, so I fixed it.

I drew out "easy" to scale.

Traced the letters onto leftover stabilizer.

Cut the stabilizer letters out.

Pinned to and cut out of leftover white felt.

Glued onto circle.

Simple (suggestive) costume.

Me: How was the party?

Perry: People kept punching me.

Success.

Blue shoes, you saw me standing alone.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (yet). I've just been too busy for personal projects. 


Last weekend, Alane and I were bored, so I decided to finally glitter my old flats. I've been wanting a pair of multi-colored glitter flats, but just never wanted to spend the money on a pair. I follow a few (well, many) craft blogs, and I recently stumbled upon one dedicated to Mod Podge. What is Mod Podge? I didn't really know until a few weeks ago. You have to understand decoupage to understand Mod Podge, and basically the art of decoupage involves taking paper, fabric, leaves, glitter, whatever you want, and gluing/sealing it to another object. I've always wondered what kind of glue people used for decoupaging. Well, now I know.


I have a pair of Target flats that I got some time during college. They were my first pair of flats, and were always my go-to pair of flats. Now they're kind of dinged up, so they could use a little make over.

Flats. Mod Podge. Paint brush. Glitter. Sadly, Michaels didn't have my multi-colored glitter, so I settled for blue.

I was working in Alane's garage. Hello Toffee.

To start this project, I mixed my glitter into a bit of Mod Podge.

And paint, paint, paint. I don't remember how many layers I painted, but I just kept going until my shoes were covered. I forgot/didn't have the hands to take pictures of the painting process, so here's a picture of Alane's puny candle flame that died as soon as she picked it up.

Tah-dah. They are super blue and glittery, and very pretty to look at in the sun. Overall, I'm satisfied, but am having trouble pairing it with clothes.

Like the opposite of Dorothy. Speaking of Dorothy, there's a girl I see every now and then at BART who wears red shoes and carries a dog that looks like Toto in her bag. I guess if I were to look for a scarecrow, tin man, cowardly lion, and wizard, I would start in San Francisco. On an even stranger note. I walked to Powell from work the other day, and I was two blocks away from Powell when a stark naked man casually crossing the street walks past me. I was too busy checking the stoplights to notice everything, but he was definitely sans clothes. There were a few people waiting with me to cross the street, and we were all confused.

Anywho, now I have an excuse to find another pair of black flats.

Rose

Liz has been crazily working on my Ravenclaw bracelet, and if you haven't seen her work before, you should definitely check out her awesome shop on etsy. Well, I wanted to make something for her too. I think Liz is the only other person who shares my love for cats :) During college she fostered two little kittens she named Captain and Rose, so I thought it would be cute if I made them into little kitty plushies.


The difficult part was deciding what to make. As you can see, I like big heads and small bodies. Originally, I was going to make two kitty plushies, and place magnets in their hands so they could "hug" or at least "hold paws," but that didn't work out too well. So I stuck with something more simple for now.

I chose to make a keychain, which ended up just being a little plushie, because Kevin said it would "melt" if she hung it in her car.

I made a template, and traced it onto black fleece.

Then cut the kitty out of the fleece, and began hand-embroidering all the details.

Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. I use to say that a lot during elementary school. Who thinks of these things?

Cute.

I ended up not liking the nose white, so I changed it to pink. Well during that process, the nose also got bigger. urgh. The only other thing I wish I could have changed was the size of the pink part of the ears, they ended being too big.

I forgot to take a picture of the back. I had embroidered her name, Rose, along the tail. I shall make a cuter Captain later, and maybe even a Buzz (her new kitten)!

Happy Father's Day

I've been wanting to make my dad some kind of iPod cozy. Not that he really needs one, but I just thought it would be cool and fun to make. Originally I had wanted to make him a Raider's one, but then the game mah jong crossed my mind.

My dad's Chinese name includes a character used on a mah jong tile, so I thought it would be cool to make that tile into an iPod cozy. Check out the mini tile, it's roughly 3/4 in. tall.

I bought green felt and red satin embroidery floss. I just learned about embroidery floss, and to think I've known how to embroider all along, but have been using regular sewing thread. Oh well, my motto has always been: do whatever works.

The beauty of embroidery floss is that the thread is thick so you don't have to double up like with sewing thread. However, the downside is that you have to separate the strands. So. Much. Tangling.

The outline itself looked pretty cool.

A few hours later.

 It's bit off center though. sigh.

I sewed the back and front together using the buttonhole stitch.

I also included some wallet sized photos, but failed to take a picture of the iPod cozy in use with an iPod.

I need to make myself one next.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!

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I also did some surgery today. Mr. Froggy was missing an eye. I made him a new one by using white felt and black thread.

Eye surgery. I use to want to be an ophthalmologist.

Good as new.

Personally, I'd throw up if there were coins in my mouth.

Hmm, this post is very green, red and white.

Hello Class of 2011

This week was filled with graduations everywhere. Congrats to you all! Yesterday, I attended my cousin's graduation in Davis.

Before her graduation, she had asked me to decorate her graduation cap :) I had so many options. Do I use rhinestones? Paint? Should glitter be involved? How about just the ears and bow?

I stuck with something simple: her face with a cute bow.

I drew out a template.

Made her face using some shiny scrapbooking paper.

Made her bow out of red fleece.

I didn't have red thread, but I figured if I sewed well enough, you shouldn't notice.

Nothing goes to waste. The scraps that were left over from cutting out the bow pieces were used to stuff the bow.

Used the embroidery method to sew the indentation in the bow.

Aw, it's cute already.

I didn't want to cut a hole in her head, but the tassel had to go somewhere.

lol, she looks funny. I just drew her eyes in with a pen and sharpie, and colored her nose with a gold gel pen and nail polish.

Time to sew the bow on her head.

I wanted to be done here, but she's kind of naked without her whiskers.

Took me awhile to think of a solution, but I managed to find some black yarn around my house. I wrapped the yarn around some pipe cleaners to make her whiskers.

And, done.

Hello Kitty in action. Can you spot it?

Hello Grad

LOVE YOU, JACKIE!

French Horn Cake

I know I've been lagging on my 30 day challenge... or what has now turned into a 30-drawings-to-do-whenever-I-have-time challenge. haha. I've been busy working on side projects which have piled up this week, because it is the last week of school for most people.

Aside from plushtography stuff, I've been working on graduation gifts.

My brother asked me to make a cake for his friend who wanted to surprise the graduating seniors. It just had to be the most complicated instrument.

So much tubing. 

I tried to make it as accurate as I could, but the tubes ended up being a little thin. sigh.

Congrats to the graduates everywhere!