I hate piping.

[unicornstories.livejournal.com]

Hello!  May I introduce you to the worlds most hideous dress, seriously.  And lucky me, I made it!  I had absolutely no idea it would look this ghastly, in fact when I saw the pattern in a thrift shop i thought it would be incredibly easy and may even look somewhat cute, however it does not.  I'm also incredibly embarrassed that I sewed it so horribly, i've never done such a crappy sewing job on anything!  It wasn't even that hard of a pattern, i just started it so long ago, and with my sewing machine constantly eating the fabric, or me having a lack or supples or patience, i wouldn't put enough effort into it, thus it turned out hideous with a bad sewing job.  It looks almost medieval, and its SO HUGE!  Eww.

( ---> )

A little craftyness for your Tuesday

[hkcreations.livejournal.com]

I don't care if the army look is currently 'out'....

( It's a damn nifty bag )

Sorry this isn't exactly craft related...

[twocheeseplease.livejournal.com]

I'm a little perplexed as to what's going on here.

Does anyone here own / run cozmocrafts.com? Because they're posting every post from this community on their craft news page, and apparently the whole lot is © 2006 Cozmo Crafts.com and eBay Inc.

Here is one of my posts, copied and pasted verbatum from craftgrrl, and just from a quick browse it looks like every other post from the community is too.

http://www.cozmocrafts.com/news/2008/05/22/cozy-crazy/

I don't mind that my stuff has been posted elsewhere but I don't like that it's copyright to Cozmo Crafts or eBay, because it's  not. It's copyright me.

Can anyone explain this or give me some suggestions about what to do now?

More pocket Shrine questions...

[drowningmermaid.livejournal.com]

I'm currently making two pocket shrines for Father's Day (for my husband) and I'm curious about a couple more things.

I've basically been using 9001 craft glue and Elmer's for the entire project, but now that I've got some beads glued down (and hardened) to the inside lid of the shrine of my father-in-law, I can't close it. Is it necessary for a shrine to close? Or is there a way I can move the beads around to get it to close?

I tried to remoisten the glue and pulled a couple of the beads out, but it started making nasty marks on the area it was glued to, so I stopped. I can almost fully close it but not quite. I'm very sad about it.

Also, What do you do to the backs of your shrines? Do you always decorate them or sometimes leave them blank? The one I'm doing of my husband and our daughter has turned into a rather simple shrine (which is more like a glorified photo frame, really) and I don't have a clue what to do for the back of it. So far, it's just spray painted silver to cover up the altoids nutritional information and price scan bar... is that good enough or should I do more?

I know I don't have pics so it's hard to tell, but my batteries are dead.
I swear, I'll put up pics once they're both done.

thanks again for any help you can give.

(and I'm going to join the pocket shrine comm and X-post this question there, so sorry if you see this in duplicate)

alot of random things

[mozart.livejournal.com]

( thngs ive been up to )

OK!!!

[amyakieran.livejournal.com]

SOOO! I just got the best idea EVER for how to keep myself motivated to quit smoking. Well, as we all know nicotine perpetuates a reward system in the brain (I have no idea how to better explain that, but yeh you know what I'm talking about, I hope)... And through habit, this becomes a conscious thing. You crave a cigarette, then you smoke one. WELLL I have decided that the biggest thing that would help me to quit is realizing how much it'll save me, and in turn help me to save for some serious long term goals (a kitty, cross-country/oversea adventures, equipment for herbal medicine making, etc). I figured out that each cigarette costs about $.35 so I wrote that on my just finished pack.

What I'm wanting to do, which is why I'm posting this here, is I want something (other than actually using thirty five cents) that I can signify the money I'm saving (and to create an alternative reward system) for each craving I do not smoke a cigarette. I want it to be something that I can take with me everywhere/anywhere (as my previous attempts to quit have shown me that being around other smokers is HIGHLY unavoidable and is really what causes me to fold helplessly) is easy to keep track of, isn't too heavy/bulky/weird, and is more than just doing tally marks on a piece of paper.

I thought about using pennies or pieces of paper, but I'm still wondering what you guys might be able to come up with! (I was thinking about putting them in the empty pack.)

P.S.
I'm totally going to cheat with this... Especially when I'm around smokers... I'll be like putting 23987987 times more than I would in fact smoke otherwise, just to really keep me motivated! :D

THANKS IN ADVANCE and feel free to share this idea for your or your loved ones' quitting endeavors!

Who knew making such a fabulous gift could be so easy?

[wannaseestars.livejournal.com]

Actually, this is simple, but I thought it came out pretty badass for putting little-to-no effort into it. I wanted to get/make something cheap and easy for my  estranged father for father's day.  Michael's had these little ready-to-paint wood photo frames and polymer clay on sale for $1, but I already had the acrylics to paint and the polymer clay at home. 
So I came home and painted the frame a pretty turqoise color to match the interior of his home and used some silver and black dry brush strokes for an added artsy touch. I molded the 'dad' and musical notes out of polymer clay and painted them with acrylics, too. A few dabs of epoxy glue later and....voila! 

 (Click for enlarged image).