Fire n' Ice

[roxy-craft.livejournal.com]

Re-inforcing sculpey?

[ashea.livejournal.com]

Hi, all!

So I've made these pendants made out of sculpey that I plan to paint with acrylics. I need a reccomendation on a glaze or spray that will re-inforce the stability of the sculpey AND possibly give them somewhat of a matte finish. Does anyone know of a good product that will do this, please? Sculpey is fragile, and I'd like to see if I can remedy a little bit of that.

Thanks - sorry for the text only...

EMPLOYEE REWARDS?

[way-back-alone.livejournal.com]

So, I work in a coffee shop and over the past couple months we've had a pretty big change over in staff. Well, a lot of our new people just aren't getting drink formulas down at all, so I am now in charge of a "Drink of The Week." Everyone is responsible for making the drink correctly each week for their supervisor.

After 4 weeks, I want to reward each employee that did the drink correctly all 4 weeks. Does anyone have any ideas of something I could possibly make for each employee? I want to keep it relatively cheap. At first, I was thinking maybe $5 gift cards, but there are just too many employees to do that monthly without it breaking the bank.

If you guys could help me out, I'd really really appreciate it. THANKS!

Dog sweater/coat pattern?

[lovealwaysliz.livejournal.com]

We just adopted a daschund from a rescue.  It's summer now, but in South Bend, IN, apparently there's lake effect snow....we just moved here in April, so we have yet to experience it.  Well, anyway, our dog was rescued from a puppy mill around April.  He has never seen snow.  He spent his first 3 years of life in a cage indoors.  Poor guy was so nervous about going outside that he just shook and shivered at all the sights and sounds when we brought him outside our apartment.  Long story short, does anyone have ideas on making the perfect dog sweater or coat?  Since he has short legs I don't want to buy something that I would have to alter anyway.  I can knit...but I haven't gotten past a washcloth, or a simple stitch scarf (knit every row---I forget the terminology because I haven't been able to find another class to take in the area!)  I can use the sewing machine decently as well.  Suggestions?  And for the AWWWWW factor:


PS: he really likes to sleep inside of his crate...my assumption is because that's his "natural" environment...that will change over time!!!

How to: make your own (simple and cheap) light box!

[twocheeseplease.livejournal.com]

Although this isn't a craft per-se, I thought I would post it here as a reference for everyone because I think it could be handy.

If this isn't welcome here, then please just tell me and I'll remove it :)

*   *   *

I've had a few emails now about how I take my photos. Now, I'm not a photography expert. I mean, I'm really, really, really not a photography expert. I don't even know what apeture means, and my camera is a point-and-shoot model. The things I do know, I've learnt from reading how-to's on the 'net, and so I thought I'd share with you the number one thing that I use when I take photos:

My light box.

Those things can be expensive (you're looking at about $100-$300 dollars for a store-bought one), so I decided to make my own. Basically it's just a box that you put your object into, shine light at it, and snap away. Couldn't be easier, right? And the best thing about my light box is it costs less than $15!

So this is my very first tutorial, and I hope you find it useful (and comprehensible! I worry about how readable the explanation cards are - you'll have to give me some feedback on that, since this is the first tutorial I've ever made, I'm fairly new to the process.)

( Tutorial under here. Warning, large pic! )

Dress Form.

[nerdish.livejournal.com]

I checked the memories/faqs and maybe it's because I'm on cold and pain medication I couldn't find a tutorial for a dress form. I think I saw a post on here many many months ago on how to make one.

So if anyone could send links? Or explain how to do one that would be lovely!


Thanks so much!

Stuff I've Made Recently

[smiling-frog.livejournal.com]

Some things I made recently :)


( Read more... )

Smudge Stick

[dharma-girl.livejournal.com]

I took some photos of my smudge sticks this afternoon. These are made with South Dakota sage and white sage and have hemp or cotton binding.

( Photos and Details )

(no subject)

[typo-13.livejournal.com]

hey everyone!
i'm in the process of cleaning my room, top to bottm. i have found about 5 pairs of worn out pyjama pants. small tears in the seams, worn out in the bum area etc.
theyre all 100% cotton.
What can i do with them? I'm primarily a knitter, but i do sew a bit...

pressing flowers.

[closeto-me.livejournal.com]

so, my sister just got married this past weekend and i was her maid of honor. furthermore, i was the only single woman at the wedding, so i earned the bouquet by default. haha. anyway, she asked me to press her bouquet so that she could keep a couple of the roses..

.. which means i have a couple of questions about pressing flowers. most of the things i am reading say that it is more difficult to press larger flowers, such as roses. can it still be done a simple way, like by pressing them in a book? also, most of them say to press freshly picked flowers, but we bought these flowers from a shop and made the bouquet ourselves. needless to say, they were not freshly picked. furthermore, we bought them last friday and they were made into a bouquet on saturday and then have endured a plane ride from california to texas and much more. since then, they have just been hanging upside down, as i have not quite been sure what to do with them. i am afraid wait much longer in case something happens and i end up not being able to press them because i know it means a lot to my sister.

what would you guys recommend i do to get the best possible pressed roses that i can? it would help if the process was relatively fool-proof, but i can probably endure something complicated if thats what it takes. thanks in advance for your help!