craftgrrl | I have been busy!

I've been crafty lately, check out what I've made ^^

First, my friend's birthday was coming up and what he desperately wanted was a pirate flag. One black pillowcase, one bottle of acrylic medium and one of white paint, and a few hours later..

The bones got a little blurred because I didn't have a stencil for them; I had to paint them freehand. I made the skull stencil by printing out a picture from the 'Net and freehand enlarging it onto some cardboard from a cereal box, which I then covered with contact paper and cut out with an xacto knife. I think it turned out really well, despite the little accidental smears.

My other friend's birthday was coming up too, and her request for a gift was "Something cool I can take with me to college". o_O Okay, not very specific, but I ended up getting her a cheapo frame from Michaels (it was $1 and ugly as heck), painting/decoupaging it, and making it all pretty.

This is a picture of the entire thing; I painted the sides black and then decoupaged gold tissue paper and pages from a crappy old book on there. Then I stuck up pictures of Zwan and the guy (I think he's the bassist? I dont' really know) from Nada Surf, since those are two of her favorite bands. I printed the pictures of the bands from my computer with crappy ink in the *hopes* that the ink would run for a cool effect and everything, but this time the pictures decided to be stubborn and stay put. Oh well, I still think it looks cool and she liked it.

This is a closeup of the lower left corner. Her name is Libby obviously and that metal thing is a star charm that's supposedly for putting in greeting cards. I just got out a small nail and a hammer and smooshed it in there. I hope it doesn't fall off. o_O Oh yeah, and the text inside the frame is a Googlism on her name--I couldn't think of what else to put in there as a placeholder until she gets a better picture.

Oh yeah and these were both very thrifty presents. The flag set me back $5 for two pillowcases (the other one is becoming a skirt :D) and $3-something for the fabric medium. I already owned the brushes, paint, contact paper, etc. The frame was $1 and the charm was $4 for 2 (anyone want the other one? It's identical except gold and I have no idea what I could ever use it for)...so yay for budget gifts. :D Of course, the whole "budget" thing doesn't work so well when you also leave Michael's with $15 in OTHER stuff that you just couldn't live without...oops. That store is going to be the death of me.

Aaaaand lastly, I made a Pucca hat! If you don't know who Pucca is, you can see a picture of her in my icon--she's basically a character invented to sell merchandise (like Hello Kitty) but she's cute as hell. http://puccaclub.com is her website where you can watch flash cartoons of her chasing her "boyfriend" and trying to kiss the crap out of him.