(no subject)

[madamjolie.livejournal.com]

Can you dilute Mod-podge with water to make it a little thinner?

I love mod-podge, I'm about to start drinking it I love it so much, but it's a little tacky for what I'm doing right now. It doesn't say on the bottle if you can thin it out or not :(

(no subject)

[vassalage.livejournal.com]

Ok so I like to freehand paint on shirts and I have been using a mixture of acrylic and fabric paint but i still find that the texture is too rough and stiff. I was wondering if there are any other methods out there to make shirts that the paint is thick enough so it isn't transparent but it is smooth and flexible? Any suggestions would be great thanks.

Great new earrings

[fragglefemme.livejournal.com]

So, I made these earrings last night from two beads and some metal tops I got at the store with my butch over the weekend. They're simple, but I think they're AMAZINGLY wonderful looking :D Maybe I'm biased cause I made them, I dunno...but I'm especially proud of the loops connecting the ear hooks to the beads *pride* Using my new loop wrapping tools makes it so easy and they look all nice and clean and professional

*happy new earrings fraggle dance*

( See the beauty that is my new earrings )

(no subject)

[njadean.livejournal.com]

One of my many new earth pendants:

Featuring lil dragonfly charms

adding glitz to a pre-made dress

[wolfden.livejournal.com]

Hey Girls!

I have a question regarding adding crystals or rhinestones or something to a pre-made ice skating dress for my daughter.

Here's the deal. She's almost seven. She is just starting to ice skate in competitions and such I bought her a pretty stretch velvet skating dress that has pretty open criss-cross straps in the back. Because she is going to wear the dress in exhibition and also in a competition I need to fancy it up. Her music is from Anastasia so she needs to look the part of a little princess.

The dress is this color and has the same back. The skirt on her dress is velvet no chiffon. I've not had luck finding the same dress.

So here's the question. What's the best way to add some glitz to this dress? Do I get glue on rhinestones or am I better off getting crystal beads? One thought I had was doing some embroidery with gold thread and adding crystal beads to the design. I'd need to develop a pattern to do that and I'm nervous about anything I do wrecking the dress. I worry about glued stones popping off. I want whatever I do to stay on through her series of skating steps, spins, hops etc.

So what are your thoughts? I'm open to suggestions. I just want her to look good and I can't spend $500 on a custom made dress. I really need to learn to sew so I can make her dresses but I don't have time to do that before April 22nd.

Thanks.

(no subject)

[howcanueatthat.livejournal.com]

This may not be the key place to post this, but I trust you guys' judgement.

I've been selling some of my stuff on ebay and so far, everything's been going very smoothly. Except with one customer. The auction for my pirate dress ended on March 5th and I immediately sent the following invoice:

Thanks for buying a ELPHactory design original! This is the invoice for your item. Please pay me via paypal, my ID is stephaniewallace@gmail.com. Thanks for your business! Your item will be shipped within three days of your payment. stephanie
Please email me at stephaniewallace@gmail.com if you have any questions.

After nine days, I had not heard from this person, so I sent them another invoice, on the 14th stating the following:

I still haven't recieved ayment from you for this item. Please contact me as soon as possible! Thanks for buying a ELPHactory design original! This is the invoice for your item. Please pay me via paypal, my ID is stephaniewallace@gmail.com. Thanks for your business! Your item will be shipped within three days of your payment. stephanie
Please email me at stephaniewallace@gmail.com if you have any questions.

After still not hearing from this person for another three days, I sent yet another invoice, which I forgot to send myself a copy of, stating that I would report the item as unpaid to ebay if I didn't hear back from him/her asap.


Guess what? That's right. Still nothing. So the item ended on the fifth and it is now the
twenty-first. The total cost for the item was about 15$, which is a good bit of money when you're saving every penny you can possibly get your hands on. Should I report the item as unpaid or chalk it up to a bad experience? Should I leave negative feedback for the person? I have 100% good feedback right now and I really don't want someone to leave me negative feedback as revenge for me doing so. Would/can they do that? What should I do?

I started typing up another invoice to send to them, but I haven't sent it. If you guys do think I should report it and send them another invoice about it, this is what I typed up:
The item you bid for and purchased from me ended on March fifth of this year. I have sent you multiple invoices requesting payment and have yet to hear back from you. It has now been seven days since I sent the last invoice to you and I still have yet to recieve notification of any kind of payment. That said, as of today, I am reporting the item as unpaid. You will be getting an email notification from EBAY regarding this issue. I'm sorry that it came to this and I sincerely hope that everything is okay with you and yours. ELPHactoryDesign

Thoughts? MEh...


Thanks,
Steph


EDIT:

I called him and got the answering machine. I didn't leave a message, as I'm long distance from him, so I doubt he would end up calling someone he doesn't know. That, and I wasn't really sure what to say. After reading what everyone had to say, I went ahead and sent the last invoice and also reported the item as unpaid. I haven't left negative feedback yet and if he actually pays for the item, I probably won't, just to avoid that whole thing. Any other thoughts?

call for submissions

[pinkveneer.livejournal.com]

RECLAIM THE NIPPLE!

Send us your nipple! Submit your own hand-made artistic interpretation of your nipple or of someone’s nipple you love. Send us a nipple made out any material that can be woven or sewn into a large wall installation. We are creating a community based art installation consisting of 3-dimensional craft media such as knitting, crocheting, beading, sewing, and felting. Other alternative materials such as gourds, leather, metal, wood and other fibers are welcomed. The final piece will include all of the nipple submissions sewn, wired or stitched together to create a large hanging wall installation.
x posted to my journal + elsewhere

Brownie camera questions

[missh.livejournal.com]

hi -

I think this is relevant, as it deals with the crafty art form of photography; also xposted to "classic cameras"...

I have a few (stupid) questions regarding Brownie cameras...



I found quite a few vintage cameras at Portobello Market in London the other day. Most were labeled as "Brownie," but I can't find any info on them online; these weren't box cameras, they were molded plastic, brown, looked like they could have been circa 1940s - 1960s...they also had brown plastic molded cases.

so these are my questions.

1. does anyone know where I can find more info on these online?
2. prices ranged from £6 - £12 (which is approx. $11 - $21.60) - is this reasonable? (I assume that being a market, the prices are negotiable.)
3. what should I look for as far as quality, function, etc. when selecting one?
4. does anyone have it? do you like it?

thank you so much! most of my experience is with new cameras, so I don't really know where to start here -

Hillary

decorated paper mache box

[madebycaryn.livejournal.com]

A local craft store was going out of business, with everything 1/2 off, and luckily no one else was buying their paper mache boxes [which are the sturdiest i've ever come across] and after 2 trips left with a little over 20 of them, mostly large ones. I think i floated out on a cloud.

This is one of the little ones, after decoarting:


one side

( more pictures............. )

pictures taken from the 'stretch and sew sewing book' from the 70's, w/ vintage pattern pieces layered over it. Painted green on the outside, purple on the inside. glued and sealed with matte finish mod podge. [and yes, it amuses me that when you take the top off you decapitate the ladies.]

none of the box is actually blurry or wonky, i was just lazy and took the pictures on the auto setting, which gave me a small dof.

HAIR PIECE

[evilpinkbear.livejournal.com]

1 of 5 for my senior year independant body of work.
I had asked a few people for ideas on how to melt fake hair. None of them worked, but I appreciate the ideas.

'Hair Piece', 2006
aprox. 3' x 5' x 1'
( cut for large images )

uh, i guess nobody caught on, but they're the same piece. the second picture is just an uncovered view of what's behind the curtain in the first one. but yeah. thanks for the comments.

i don't know if this counts as crafting or not but, um...

[rottendoll.livejournal.com]

i haven't touched my chalk pastels in a long time
but i just couldn't get this image out of my head.
i'm not sure if i'm finished with it yet.

( Read more... )

mens blazer pattern

[dilemmax.livejournal.com]

I'm looking to make a semi fitted blazer. Can someone recommend me a pattern?

Thanks :D

paper mache box

[madebycaryn.livejournal.com]

here's a larger box purchased from the going out business craft store sale that i finished today. i call it "the cat ladies sewing box"


the top

( more pictures............. )

pictures on top taken from the 'stretch and sew sewing book' from the 70's, w/ vintage patterns underneath it. Painted hot pink on the cover, black on the body and inside cover, green on the inside of the bottom. glued and sealed with matte finish mod podge. heavy duty paper mache box. wooden feet on the bottom.

Pearl earrings?

[beccaqt7.livejournal.com]

It's definitely been a while again since I made anything and decided its time to work with pearls again.  I made an earring but the problem is, I can't decide whether I love it or hate it.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Suggestions?  Comments??  All would be very much appreciated.





x-posted to beccaqt7

Polymer + Acrylic = bad?

[001212.livejournal.com]

I made little charm things from polymer clay, baked it, then painted it with acrylic...but the paint keeps on chipping off. Was painting it a bad move? How can I stop it from chipping off? *siiigh* I looked in the memories but I didn't find the answer I was looking for.. Thank you. :]

Buttercreams

[elainewhy.livejournal.com]

I looked in the soapmaking section in the memories, and I clicked on a topic called "How to make buttercreams like from Lush" or something like that. The link didn't work, and I was wondering if anyone still knows how to make it. Thanks!

Book for CDs and a question.

[cheshcan.livejournal.com]

My girlfriend found the slash_lyrics community on Livejournal. First response: oh my god, it's our dream community! Second response: oh, how woefully incomplete it is! So we all started listing songs that alluded to queer relationships (or just some good old fashioned gay lovin', or used bumsex as a metaphor for drugs or... whatever). Our list came to about 51.

"I've heard maybe nine of these!" said sweet fridge_buzz_now.

Well, we couldn't have that! I had all the songs we were talking about on hand (which says a lot of sad things about my CD collection), but we're both still on caveman dial-up, so sending them that way was out. I decided to burn her a box set because HER LIFE WAS INCOMPLETE. But I had no CD cases.

And so the CD book was born:

Full of lyrics, pictures, and of course, CDs.
( 80KB of pictures and further explanation behind cut )

And now for my question: For those of you that use it: where do you get your grommet tape? I have been enlightened! But if anyone gets theirs obscenely cheap from some kind of crazy fabric speakeasy, I'd still like to know.

Edit: Okay, okay, you dirty girls. The tracklist is ( here )

Altering shoes...

[melly-0.livejournal.com]

Has anyone ever tried to decoupage a pair of boots?
I have a pair of cheap boots (red fake/synthetic leather) I want to decorate. I have a few ideas of how to apply the paper like priming it first & using sand paper to roughen up the surface, but I'm not sure how durable the paper would be & how to seal it afterwards. I don't know if water proofing is possible, I am more concerned with the paper ripping & coming off around the ankle where the fabric moves as you walk.

The shoes would be covered all over, not just a few pictures stuck on. Any ideas?

For those of you interested I have found a few examples:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HANDMADE-DECOUPAGE-SHOES_W0QQitemZ7702966210QQcategoryZ63889QQcmdZViewItem
http://thing.com/steve/events/overlake_shoe_auction/shoes/