ALTOID TIN

[thechristianmrs.livejournal.com]

This is the inside cover of an altoid tin I am altering into a guitar pic keeper. =)

Creepy Doll

[tatteredrags.livejournal.com]

My latest rag doll... she's all hand stitched and one of a kind! Click her picture for a larger one!

Hi....

[dietcokehed.livejournal.com]

I'm new, single mom of Leap Year twins, art lover, collage maker....
I looked in the FAQ for book recommendations but couldn't find any.

I'm looking to invest in a few good books about collage. Techniques, rules about copyrighted images, examples,  collage artists, etc.
I've been doing collage for years and didn't know it was an actual art form until a few years ago. I started out with no poster of my celeb crush at the time...so I made one! :)
I'm finally learning the correct glues (rubber cement does NOT hold up over the years, heh)

I could go to a bookstore...if the twins were not three and loud >.<
So I'm an online shopper for now....

Thanks in advance :)
Glad to find an active community!

fabric

[sillyaly.livejournal.com]

Hi!  I have been sewing for a couple years on and off and I just recently got into another sewing fix.  I am having a slight problem-- I have fabric EVERYWHERE!  So, my question is, how do you guys organize your fabric?  I just have mine shoved into some grocery bags right now.  Any suggestions?  Thanks so much!
x-posted to sew_hip & craftgrrl

Craft news

[absinthecity.livejournal.com]

There's a UK-based rival to Etsy launching. What are your thoughts? As a British crafter, I'm pretty pleased about this, although I don't think I'll ever abandon Etsy! There just aren't quite so many good craft sites over here...

The Table Project

[halofire.livejournal.com]

I got our old family dining table and chairs when I moved out of the nest and Mom was ready for something new. It's an awesome huge, hulking oak thing and I love it. There are two leaves for it, which were very boring boards we just covered up with a table cloth whenever we had company or a large spread.

I hate table clothes, so it was time to spruce them up. I did the first one this weekend.

My stencil pooped out after three uses (it's just contact paper, and it was 98 degrees outside yesterday, it warped when I peeled it off). So right now the design looks a little...off.

I didn't care to match the table's finish, the boards weren't oak so matching it was going to be a pain. The leaf sort of doubles as a runner this way.

( Prettify me! )

livre

[unicornstories.livejournal.com]

a book i made for my friend who is moving away :'(  but i screwed up and didn't bind it tight enough.

( ^ )

 

Reflective Yarn!

[laciebug.livejournal.com]

I'm helping a bike friend make a trike canopy for his ric-shaws and came across reflective yarn! I thought this might be something the knittty/crocheters would like. Reflective arm bands anyone?

Here is the main site: http://www.king-tech.com/
Here are the specifications for the reflective yarn: http://www.king-tech.com/new/RYarnIcon.htm

+LBD+

Wood Stained

[drowningmermaid.livejournal.com]

While staining a chair/bench/table thing I've been working on, I suppose I got a little overzealous. The can said to brush a coat on, let it set for 5-8 minutes and then to wipe it across the grain, then with the grain...

However, I THOUGHT it would be better to get a coat over the whole thing and THEN wipe it off, so it wouldn't overlap or whatever.

Well, at least a half hour went by on some areas, so when I tried to wipe it across the grain with a cloth, nothing really happened other than some stain getting on my cloth (no big deal, just a rag). But it didn't lighten it or let the grain show through or anything.

So now, I've got this really flat looking, dark mahogany stain on this bench thing and I've never worked with stain before.

What do I do?

It's intention is a time out chair for my kid, so it's going to have a lot of pretty pink dresses plopping their heinies onto it. I don't want the stain to actually stain her skin or clothes. I'm sure a clear varnish isn't a bad idea, but I don't have any (I thought I did).

The can of stain says to leave it to set for 3 hours or so before it's touched (it's been that long) but... I'm just concerned about my kid's clothes and stuff. I don't know what to do.

After the 3 hours, is it officially okay to sit on since it's dry?
Can I wash it or rinse it off with the hose to remove some of the stain and give it a more 'weathered' look (and then let it dry again)?

Staining it wasn't the last step I wanted to do.
I also wanted to put some paint (you know... COLOR) on the seat.
But now, I'm scared to touch the thing for fear of screwing it up.

So...
Help? Advice? Information?

1940s Merchant Navy Sweater -- pattern error?

[elfie-elfie.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure this one isn't in the archives here. :-)  I'm knitting the Merchant Navy sweater from my baba's pattern books, dating from the 1940s, and the instructions in shaping the front neck don't add up to the number of stitches on the needle.   I posted the message below in the Organic Gardening Crafts forum because a lot of the people I know there are knitters, but I know I have a wider audience in craftgrrl, and hopefully a deeper well of knowledge to draw on.

Edited August 7: No need to click under the cut.  I am terminally embarrassed by my uber-noobness, the nightmare tech-support customer quandary.  Problem solved, wet-cat-attitude will lift only after I've managed to backtrack a few thousand stitches and fix my careless error.  If you wish to snicker or commiserate, however, I am open to such comments.

( Detailed message below )

Seeing as I can't just call up an image of this sweater online, because this pattern book was published back when you didn't need postal codes to mail packages to places, you'll have to wait for me to get around to scanning the pages I'm using, plus take a picture of the finished garment, should I ever finish it.  (I tend to run out of steam with knitting projects, and end up frogging it -- learned that expression here, and I LOVE it! -- for mittens and hats.)  Thanks for any help you can give -- and I have to boot off to my writers' group meeting now, so I can't sign up for knitting and cross-post there just this instant. :-)  But the cross-post may happen.  Don't let that stop you from trying to help, though.

(no subject)

[stargazercrys.livejournal.com]

Talk about recycling things...


This bag was made from a Palenta bag that my boyfriend brought home from the restaurant he works at. I washed it a few times and then made the following:

( Enjoy! )

Let me know what you think!!

It's MEEE!!!!

[art-lurker.livejournal.com]

self portrait
( Read more... )

(no subject)

[http://users.livejournal.com/______andmaps/]

Has ANYONE heard of/have the Brother XR7700 machine?? I saw this at Costco and it looked like a pretty good machine, and I wanted to do more research on it.. and the only thing I found when Googled was just the link back to the Costco website itself! Not even the Brother website! And this worries me, does this mean it's not a good machine?? :/ Help! I really just don't know if I should buy it now, it unnerves me how I can't find ANYTHING about it online.

the link to the machine is HERE.

xposted to sew_hip, etc

(no subject)

[jaie.livejournal.com]

Envelopes I ran out of envelopes along with other supplies. I'd grabbed card stock at the local dollar store, and the blue envelope is the result. It has tiny cut outs, with hot pink paper glued behind the cutouts. The white is a regular card envelope, and the yellow is a Chinese menu cut into the same envelope shape as the blue one.