Victorian/Steampunk crochet

[bobandiarepals.livejournal.com]

I attempted something fancy for the first time! I sat down and just crocheted for 9 straight hours. I know, that's pretty nerdy. Also, my mom taught me how to knit, so I made a combo knit/crochet beret. The gold buttons are from my mom's stash. They're from the 70s!


( Read more... )

It's that time again...

[faerieariel.livejournal.com]

I made the thank you notes for my xmas gifts, ( Some gaudy, some not so gaudy )

( edited three times to get the darn photos in there... )

Family Jewelry Christmas Tree

[circleofharmony.livejournal.com]

I realize the holidays are over and everyone is probably tired of anything Christmas related at this point, but I thought I'd share this anyway because it could be adapted in other (non-Christmasy) ways.

( Have no fear... No Santas here! )

Your favourite craft books?

[mscate.livejournal.com]

Do you have any favourite craft books that you go back to time and time again? I'm planning to expand my library...

And so this isn't text only, here's some gloves I embroidered:



:
 

Where Vintage meets Reclaimed

[cyprith.livejournal.com]

So I was thrift store hopping this weekend, and I bought a bunch of shirts. One of these shirts happened to have shoulder pads and that gave me an idea.

( Shoulder Pad Sue! )

Epoxy resin necklace

[fera_festiva]

Hi all! I've been lurking here for a few months, but this is my first time posting anything of my own. (If I've made any n00b errors, please forgive me - I've read the rules and lurked, but I'm also a bit paranoid!)

( A necklace I made for my mother's recent 60th birthday. )

Rat fink guitar

[amburr.livejournal.com]

For christmas I painted my dad a guitar, with Ed Roth's character; Rat Fink. My dad grew up with him, but it's pretty near impossible finding any old figures or merchandise, without paying a pretty penny... needless to say, it was worth it to see the look on his face! haha. it's now hanging in our living room, with four of our other guitars.

( Read more... )

Another tee shirt

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

( Oh you minx )

Decorative earring holder

[chicagojacks.livejournal.com]

Idea stolen from my roommate!

Its an earring holder that also serves as a pretty wall decoration. I've added a necklace holder below, along with a few nails to hang some hair wraps around the frame. I love it- it makes sure I wear earrings or a necklace every day!

Its just a wooden frame covered with two layers of tulle. The frame was super cheap too because its this put-together-yourself type. Not totally sure how to describe it, but one of the Michaels stores nearby me has these frames that slide together. So you can buy any sizes you want, from 4" to 30+" and mix/match them. The fit isn't perfect, but because these get covered with fabric it works out great. And it only cost me ~$7 for the frame. This one is a 16" by 22" square on top (I think). The bottom one has simple hooks screwed in to hang necklaces. Its a bit ghetto-fabulous, but I just inserted some nails here and there to also hang some bracelets.



( Click for one more close-up photo )

Felt Birds

[blueathena.livejournal.com]

I favor birds.  Lots of birds.  All things birdie.  I'm going a little nuts about it.  I have a poet friend to blame for it all, as his collection of poems is called Little Birdie, Little Birdie, and I hope that he manages to get it published in this big competition he sent it to... but that's all beside the point. :)  BIRDS!

I I made a bunch of felt birds, 23 to be exact.  I would like suggestions or other ideas about them if you please.  I won't be making any more of these particular ones for a while, but I think soon I will make some hearts because Valentine's is coming soon.  Yep, I do sell and you can ask me about that privately if you are interested.  But since I will be making hearts soon, I'd like any suggestions or ideas.  I got a lot of red felt and pink felt and some little trinkets.  I can't wait.  :) 

So how I made them? I cut out a bird pattern in a shape I liked. Some people recommend using a cookie cutter shape. I pinned it to the felt and cut two in the same fabric.  Then on one side I added beads and buttons in a design I thought complimentary to the color of felt I chose, pinned them together, blanket-stitched the outside, stuffed it with poly fiberfil, then stitched it closed.  My mom suggested the ribbon hangers after I had already made them all! So I went back and added the ribbon (only one of the below images show that).

By the way, where/how do you find the ecospun or eco-fi fiber?  The kind that's made from recycled plastic bottles?!  I want to focus moreso on recycling through my crafts than using brand-new materials.

So, under the lj-cut, take a peek at three little birds. :)
( See Three Little Birdies! )

Change for the better?

[cyprith.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this falls under the no pimping rule or not, but I hadn't heard about this before today and thought other people might be interested/horrified by it too.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

Apparently, because so many large companies have been hiring lead paint weilding Chinese companies to make their toys, the US government has decided to pass a blanket law that "mandates third party testing and certification, and requires manufacturers of all goods for children under the age of 12, to permanently label each item with a date and batch number."

This mandatory testing costs as much as $4000 an item and a whole lot of small businesses will die because of this. After Feb 10, 2009 any uncertified/handmade toys in for sale will be required by law to be distroyed or land filled. 

The link is to the change.org website where you vote for the petition and it gets to go up in front of a non-idiotic (hopefully) judge that will think a minute or two about the little people before passing down a blanket law like this. Please vote. It'd be horrible if this actually happened.


(And I apologize for interrupting the flow of cheerful creativeness)

Baby Booties

[jishii.livejournal.com]

My friend is gonna have a baby, and she asked me to make her some baby clothes. (Little did she know that I had started plotting, er, planning to do that the moment I heard she was pregnant.

I finally got around to making something after I saw a tutorial for reversible baby booties on
Cut Out + Keep!

( Pitter pat, pitter pat... )

Amigurumi Christmas Gifts

[betheliz.livejournal.com]

I craft a lot and read a lot, but I believe this is only my second post. So hi! I'm Elizabeth, I crochet, knit, scrapbook, make cards, and sew. (I think I got them all, I dabble in things a lot.) I also work with kids (children's librarian, former camp counselor, Sunday School teacher, etc) so I've done just about every children's craft out there.

Recently I've been having fun experimenting with amigurumi, that is the Japanese art of crocheting cute creatures. (You probably already knew that.) Well you can crochet or knit, but I'm a much better crocheter than knitter so that is what I do. All of these little guys stand between 7 and 10 inches tall. They were all (or will be) Christmas gifts, I'm just behind on posting.

I've been working off some free patterns I found online for these guys. I just requested some books through interlibrary loan on amigurumi creatures, and I think I'll make a few more to practice and I'll be able to free form and create my own patterns. I love making them and they go over really well as gifts.

( Amigurumi Creatures for Christmas )

I am thinking of a monkey for my next little guy. Any thoughts?

casting resin + bottle caps

[eissirk.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to do this FOREVER and finally did it! I'm still in the experimental stage, so I'm having trouble with the backs of the bottle caps. I put them down on an index card to harden, and the index card won't come off the back, hahah. any advice?

well, here's the picture!

One of those annoying question/answer posts..

[roanna.livejournal.com]

Not so long ago i posted photos of some christmas wrapping paper, and clay cupcake keyrings i'd made. They were a hit at Christmas, i was so chuffed. Mum's been whipping her keyring out to show every second person, and trying to get people interested enough to buy one off me, haha.

The thing i wanted to know was, what is the name of the screw-like hook that you use to hang the clay? The one you stick inside them when baking. I remember someone asking this not too long ago, and at the time i *knew* the name of the darn things but somewhere between then and now that part of my memory disappeared. I blame New Year's celebrations ;) I've searched various online craft/jewellery stores that i know are New Zealand based (where i am, funnily enough) but to no avail.

I had just used hooked headpins, and they held pretty well up till now. Maybe Mum's 'whipping' got a little too much for it, but a doughnut slipped off it's hook. Which brings me to another question - what would be the best way to stick it back in without making too much of an adjustment to it? I've attempted superglue, but it doesn't seem to like the small space + slippery metal + no pressure to stick together. Any ideas would be great, thanks!

shinky dinks!

[lil-bella-girl.livejournal.com]

I went a little crazy with the shinky dinks a few weeks ago... I still haven't had the urge or the creativeness to really asemble them into anything... but look how cute!


( Read more... )

My fleece runneth over...

[bugguh-buggs.livejournal.com]

I made up a few of these hats with some leftover fleece that I had laying around from previous projects. The basic concept is from the craftgrrl memories under hats/millinery-->animal hat instructions. Beware! There lurks many large pictures behind that thar cut. (is it talk like a pirate day yet??)

( brocade is purdy )

pics x-posted to my journal

A commissioned tree painting

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

I still have to give the black a second coat but it's pretty much finished so I decided to post it now. The image is quite large.

The center panel is 48" x 16" just so you can get an idea of the size of this piece.
I used all auto airbrush paints.
The tips of the tree branches at the top are red as are the hearts and the suns are red and black. The red is quite dark and I couldn't get it to show up in the photo save at the bottom of the painting, the true colour is the red on the left, though not as crazy shiny as seen here. I have since gone over the red swirly bit on the right to match it to the left side.
The background is done in a pearlescent silver (it looks grey in the photo but it's not I swear and it's really pretty!) and the black is very dark with just a hint of shine to it.
Taking photos of art is so hard!!

Thanks for looking!

( ... )