Ideas for creative use of a drawer?

[gilneas.livejournal.com]

My roommate and I recently parted ways after five years of living together. It was very sad. Even sadder was that we needed to divide up our mutual belongings, including a refinished "pie-safe" (that's what we called it - it's really a glass cabinet on top and a set of drawers in the bottom) our friends gave us for our college graduation. She took the top (cabinet), and I took the bottom (which was a set of drawers).

I don't have anywhere to keep the drawers in my current apartment, so it's living at my parent's house for now. I kept one of the drawers, and would love to make it into something... a shelf? Or a little bookcase? Anyway have any ideas? It's a kind of large drawer, flat on three sides, with a curve on the fourth, outer edge. It's painted in two shades of purple and green, and I have the hardware on the front still (the knobs).

I don't have a picture of the pie-safe when it was together, but here's one my [ex :(] roommate sent me of the top mounted on her wall - it's the green/purple cabinet.

Still looking for shorts tutorial!

[twiggychic3.livejournal.com]

I was just on the other day looking at some posts and I saw a pair of green shorts that a girl made from an old shirt...They were bermuda shorts(hit above the knee) and she did something nifty with the naturally curved seam of the armpit part of the shirt. It also had a link to a tutorial... can someone help me find it?! thanks! =]♥ Annnd...just cause i know you guys don't like text only posts, here are two dresses i made recently. each took me about 30 minutes each! The first one is from a modified skirt that was too big so i made it into a dress...and the blue dress is an original design by me, made completely from scratch.

A Question

[thepinkhobbit.livejournal.com]

We just recently had a puppet show at the theatre I worked at and it's really got me thinking again about puppet making. I've had this idea tons of times but never really followed through. I've decided I want to create a puppet for the next time I Brigade for the Dresden Dolls. Now I was wondering if any of you lovely people on here know of any sites or books that I could look at for more information. I'm interested any kind of puppetry, just to get a feel of it and what goes into making it. There's a plan on what I would like to do for it but that could easily change. I've done a bit of searching (and once I free up some time will do some real hardcore research) but I thought I would ask as well because you never know what little gems people know about that you can just pass by.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

And I apologise for being a text only, I'll create something interesting enough to be posted soon...i hope!

Natural Dyes, Batik Update

[seeinglife.livejournal.com]

Here's my previous post about this.

1)I've decided neither to batik to resist the circles nor to try to make rice paste resist as would have been traditional. Each would have presented several problems. I stumbled on this awesome sounding product, ordered it, and can't wait for it to get here for me to try. I needed something that would be able to withstand hot-temperature dyeing but still come out easily (thus ruling out gutta, which apparently has to be dry cleaned out!) and Magik Batik fits the bill exactly : it's recommended to use a very hot dyebath. Has anyone else ever used this product?

2) I've been poring over two natural dye books. Dye Plants and Dyeing by John and Margaret Cannon turns out to be focused on the dyeing of wool. It contains many example color swatches of the colors you can get with different mordants and with acid or alkaline baths, but presumably they are what the color will be on wool. The text will mention if the plant is known to produce a nice color on silk or cotton or linen. Many plants are covered, but the recipes are often not nearly as detailed as the ones found in The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing : Traditional Recipes for Modern Use by J.N. Liles. The recipes in that book are very specific and usually each plant mentioned has several for different types of fiber/fabric and different shades possible with the same plant. The same goes for their mordanting instructions : detailed, several methods for each fabric for each mordant. Much more talk of silk dyeing with is useful to me.
I've bought a test yard of silk habotai and alum mordant. I plan to mordant it with one of the silk mordanting recipes from The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing, and try to get the "beautiful violet-purple" alkanet root apparently has been use to produce on silk when used with the aforementioned mordant, according to the instructions in Dye Plants and Dyeing. I already actually had some alkanet root... just the right amount for the yard of fabric, amazingly. If a good color is produced in my test run, I will buy more alkanet root to dye the final project. If I don't get the result I need, I will give in and use a synthetic acid dye for silk. I hope the alkanet works. It's the most similar I think I can get to what would have actually have been used to produce that color in that era in Japan. That root doesn't seem to be commercially available, but alkanet, like that root, needs particular mordanting for the right shade and isn't very lightfast. Apparently the not so lightfastness was somewhat desirable.
Pictures of the entire test run dye process will be taken and posted with the results. ;)
I plan on ordering synthetic silk paints to color the circles that the pinwheels will be embroidered over. It would just cost too much and be too hard for the amount of time I have.

3) I've confirmed that the shibori mentioned in the caption is dapple shibori, aka kanoko shibori, and have Shibori : the Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing out from the library instructing me how to create the dapple pattern. I might modify the technique slightly so that while it is based on the same principle it's a little easier and less time consuming. I'm thinking maybe twist ties instead of thread wrapping to make it go faster. >.> I plan on doing a test run of course! Lots of test runs for lots of things.

Eraser Charms

[choco-chippie.livejournal.com]

Aside from giving them away at school, I didn't know what to do with all the cutesy little erasers I've been collecting. Then I got the brilliant idea to poke a jewelry pin in the tops and add a jump ring for super easy charms.

tote

[im--ciinnn.livejournal.com]

new tote i made for a friend.

( stars )

:D

are eggshells flammable?

[arksnay.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch of stubs of big, wonderful candles (beeswax, mainly) that I've been planning to melt down and turn into votives. Last night I had an incredibly detailed and vivid dream in which I decided not to use a mold but ran wicks through holes in the bottoms of empty eggshells, broke off the tops and filled them with wax to make candles. In this dream I then found some very cool antique eggcups to use as candle holders.

Upon waking up, this still seemed like a good idea. Is it? Are eggshells highly flammable? Has anyone ever done this before? Is there any reason not to try it?

(no subject)

[moucher.livejournal.com]

I made this belt!

( the belt )

(no subject)

[homicideisgood.livejournal.com]

hey yall i was wondering if anyone knew a pattern to this kind of hat or whatev--i just want one badly!
( Read more... )

anything helps :)

Swanky scarf

[shananicole.livejournal.com]

Pattern is available at Craftacular.com

Candy Ice! k pix now

[jume.livejournal.com]

I was consolidating boxes of valentine's candy today, and was intrigued by the metallic plastic holder that keeps all the chocolates sorted in the big heart shaped boxes, and on a whim, I poured it full of water and stuck it in the freezer. I was rewarded with adorable chocolate shaped ice cubes xD

Now I've got half a can of fanta cooling its heels in there atm. If it turns out, then strawberry ICE CANDY!

have any of you tried that either? It seems like it'd be more fun to use than boring normal icecubesxD

( Results! )

As ironkit pointed out in the comments, they aren't totally frozen, making them easier to eat than water-ice, I like to think of this as a feature.

(no subject)

[helena-handbskt.livejournal.com]

I've been dyeing some old tops and having trouble getting the exact color I want. Then I ran across a t shirt I used to wear when dyeing my hair and the stains on it were the exact shade I had been trying to get with fabric dye. So, my question is this: is there any reason I shouldn't use hair dye on fabric? I'm not looking for something that will last forever, and it's something with no bleach. Anyone tried anything like this?
Thanks!

New Stuff Again

[giraffecrafts.livejournal.com]

I've been working alot but I still find time to craft away. Pictures of the best stuff behind cut :)

( Clothing, ceramics, Game Case, Valentines )

The End :) Thanks for lookingggggggg! Hope everyone is well!

x-posted to my journal