Thursday, July 5, 2012

Purses and Super Heroes!

SQUEE!!  So, I think we all know of my love for Shiny Happy World by now.  I made Mom a cute little zip top purse from a fantastic tutorial on Crafter.org, using an adorable little applique from Shiny Happy World.  "Anywhere Bear". Links below to each!

Here is the front of the purse on the non zip side.  I did a raw edge applique on all of this, and hand stitched the balloon detail and strings.

And here is the back.  Same balloons, and hand stitched details, but this side has the zipper.

Not pictured is the recessed zipper, but let me assure you, it wasn't hard to do.  And I'm a total zipper noob.  They terrify me, and I feel like I'm flying off into the great unknown every time I install one.  lol.  But honest, it was super easy.



The link for the applique and my fave website for newbies, is:   Shiny Happy World

And the fantastic purse tutorial is here:  Craftster.Org - Cross Body Hipster Bag Tutorial

And...now...on to the pin cushions!  

You know I have this fascination for them.  2 of the one's I made (just like those pictured below) are on their way to new homes in Texas, as we speak(or type)!



These were both made from the same pattern as my Eyeball pin cushion, (Dimple Pin Cushion), of course from my fave website, lol.

I had some left over Marvel Super Hero fabric from when I made some appliqued towels this last Christmas, so I fussy cut Spidey and the Hulk, and made 2 super cute pin cushions.  I even weaved a crochet thread web on the Spidey one.  And the Hulk got strategically placed buttons on his biceps, lol.  Both backs are red, tho there are 2 yellow buttons on the back of the Hulk that look a little like Mickey's britches.  lololol.

And there you have it!  That was this last weeks adventures.  Though I am still fussy cutting and making super hero pin cushions with the rest of my scraps, lol.  Thanks for reading!  <3

Happy Crafting!
<3 Adi







Saturday, June 23, 2012

Mom's new Mickey & Minnie Curtains!


So there was this fabulous tutorial on Fabric.Com, one of my fave places to buy fabric, for Mickey Mouse Pants Cafe Curtains.  So of course when Mom & Dad recently redid their kitchen, we had to make them!  The original plan was for both windows to be Mickey, but we decided after finishing the first that it would be super cute to make Minnie for the other.  I had just the perfect fabric on hand.  All we needed to do was add a little bit of eyelet lace to the bottom, and WAH LAH!  Minnie!  Thanks bunches to Fabric.com for the fantastic tutorial.  =)


Happy Crafting! 
Adi 

P.S.  Valances to match on each window, coming soon, lol.  lololol.

Stick a needle in my....OUCH!!!

So, ya know that super crazy awesome website I mentioned previously?  (Shiny Happy World) Well, Wendi, the author of the blog posted a FABulous tutorial on making a pin cushion, (easy for beginners too!) which I simply HAD to try...AND <does a little happy dance> she featured my eyeball version of it!! Yes...Eyeball...I know...I have issues...lol

You can check out my eyeball, the website in general which is fantastic for beginners, and the wonderful tutorial by clicking the magic link here:  Adi's Shiny Happy Eyeball

Happy Crafting!!
Adi

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Mickey Mouse Bulletin Board Tutorial!!


Alrighty, welcome to the tutorial!!  This is super easy.  Mostly done with mats on hand.  I bought a package of 4 cork board placemats from Ikea for less than $3 a few weeks ago.  I still have another 2 of these that I plan on making into another bulletin board, in an as of yet unimagined theme!!  lol







I had some foam board tossing around, purchased for a poster mounting project gone desperately awry, and because I almost never throw anything away, lol.  I fear being exposed on hoarders one day!









 So I glued the 2 cork boards together with E-6000, placed them on a flat board, put a flat of water on top of it, and let it dry over night.  In the mean time I outlined and cut out the foam board, so I could glue it on the next day.  Then back to the flat board and flat of water on top for another night.

<---You can also see here that I marked the area on the board where I wanted my holes to hang it from.  Dad came up with the fantastic idea of using a leather punch to punch out the holes!



 Using painters tape, I positioned the fabric where it would be glued, then flipped the board over, lined up my trim on top and bottom, and used Aleene's fabric glue to stick it in place.

This is a fabric scrap with Mickey Mouse icons all over it.  My apologies for not knowing who to credit on that, other than the obvious Disney Co.  Clearly any fabric can be used to do this project, but mine would be ending up in a Disney decorated kitchen, so it was PERFECTO!




I didn't use the flat of water that night, but I did let the fabric glue on the trim, dry over night before proceeding.













  Almost done!  I went back to E-6000 and glued the fabric down on the back side, using painters tape to keep it secure...This picture is with it partially glued.  I still had 2 corners to finish.  As I glued, I just used painters tape over the top to hold it in place...and then...you guessed it!!  Back to the board, and flat of water over night!!  lol







 Here we are all glued together, looking sharp.  All that is left to do is cut small slits in the trim (Which is ribbon from Walmart, by the way, by Disney Co.) to pull the black grosgrain ribbon through, which will be used to hang your bulletin board.

This method worked for the materials I used, but this can certainly be altered to whatever method you are using to hang your new masterpiece!!   I debated several methods before deciding on the ribbon. 




 



 

And small slits in the back as well of course(both right where you punched your holes which are now masked by the fabric.)








 



Here it is from the front close up...I also used Fray Check on the slits just to be sure it didn't unravel crazily.  Since it's not going to get a lot of use coming out of or going into those slits, I don't really think it's necessary to do it, but I'm a perfectionist freak sometimes, lol.




And here we are completed, easy peasey!  And I assure you it doesn't take all night for either of the glues to dry.  I was working this into doing other projects as well, which is why it sat over night each time I glued.  I feel confident that one single over night stint with a flat of water or something heavy would be no issue.  hehe.  Just follow the instructions on your glues and you will be fine!!

Thanks bunches for reading, and happy crafting!

<3 Adi

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Cake...

The final touch to Matt's Star Wars Birthday Extravaganza was his surprise Han Solo cake.  I debated for a long time How I was going to attempt it.  First it was a very simple.  Submerge Han Solo in cake and frost it.  Then I decided that wasn't good enough, and started researching others who had paved this path before me.  Since modeling fondant is uber expensive and I had to create this in 2 days, lol...I went the rice crispy treat method!!






Froze it, then wrapped it in fondant, giving texture to pants.  Made a little vest, some minor textures to face with eyes, nose, mouth, hair etc.












His hands were made with fondant and frozen.  It was a lot easier to deal with than I thought it would be.  It was actually kind of fun.  Like play dough lol.








Then I dug a little valley down the middle and placed him in...We ended up making 2 cakes, and pieced it together as one.  It's about a cake and a 3rd long =).  (Made in a 9x13 pan for both)























Then frost!!  I made grey frosting...which is more of a pain in the butt than you might think.  The insanely expensive "black" stuff we got to dye the frosting, ended up a lovely shade of lavender...Needless to say I was REALLY ANNOYED.  At the last minute we actually went to the local grocery store and bought a tube of black frosting intended for writing words or details on a cake.  And wahlah!!  Grey cake frosting.  Easy Peasy...mostly lol.

Happy crafting!!

Cher



Friday, May 4, 2012

May the 4th be with you! Return of the Crafter...

I figure I really ought to get in the rest of the Star Wars craft posts today, given that it is Star   Wars day and all...In addition to the ever so geeky bedding array, I also made a couple of other things I'd like to share.

This is a super plush towel that my cat had been sleeping on.  It was on the stack of things I really need to finish before Matt's birthday, and she adopted it as her place to sleep when she isn't on the back of my chair keeping my shoulders warm.

I wish the pics were a little clearer, but It's the same Imperial symbol as on the comforter, but smaller and using 2 Robert Kaufman space fabrics.  There is also a strip of the red fabric at the top and bottom of the towel in the area where there is usually some racing stripe of interest stitching.

I wonder undered the 2 pieces together for the Imperial symbol, and then stitched it onto the towel. Not EVERY little space is stitched but the main center area and the outside edges are.  We shall see how that holds up!  lol  Matt's great for letting me experiment my man scientisting ideas, as well is Mom.  lol.  The racing stripes on top and bottom were just stitched on after ironing under a 1/4" seam on each side.  Super simple!!



Next up is an uber geeky stitching project.  The template came from here:  http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10263












The magic stitchy wash away transfer stuff that you can print with your standard ink jet printer can be purchased here:


http://shinyhappyworld.bigcartel.com/product/sulky-sticky-fabri-solvy
This stuff is like...shipped directly from Hogwarts school of magic, to your home...it's frakkin amazing.


Here we are about 1/2 way done.  I used 3 different grays on this and stitched it on black fabric.  Looking back on it now, if I ever did another one, I would have gone with a dark to mid grey to stitch on.  But, that said, I'm really pretty happy with the end result, and Matt loved it.







 

Here we are with the magic Hogwarts transfer stuff all washed away.  In addition to this being stitched, I also got grey glow fabric paint made by Tulip and added some highlights as a surprise when the lights are turned out.  The outer edge of the Death Star, the outer round of the eye, and the 2 horizontal lines through the middle are all painted grey over the stitching (which matched) and glow when the lights go out.






 THEN I decided to mount the it on a thin piece of cardboard and make it an applique for a larger piece.  Which lead to stenciling a space for it to be attached...AND to a silhouette of the Millenium Falcon in the lower left...AND it's all stenciled with Random Glowy Fabric Spray stuff...(forgive me...I don't recall the name and I don't have it before me at the moment but it was near all the fabric paints at Jo-Ann's and is permanent until washed.  Assuming that this won't ever be washed, I figured I was safe lol.)
Sooooo the final product is this!!  Glowing monstrous Death Star of stitched doom with silhouetted Millenium Falcon...this image is so much better than the framed version due to ever so much less glare when I took the pic.  It was dark and I swear every light in the house was on to illuminate the very intense construction of the Lego Millenium Falcon...
 And here is the slightly blurry, framed final version, glare and all, next to an adorable light saber candle stick.  (Purchasable from http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/collectibles/e9fe/?srp=4)

The image of the death star is about 8x8 to give you some perspective on size.  And the Death Star looks more ominous a stitching project than it really is.  I stitched it in about 3 days, but it only took that long due to the fact I MUST take breaks every 20 - 30 mins to rest my arms.  So honestly, it's a very easy project for someone who doesn't have damaged arms or hands, I promise!!

Thanks for reading, and happy crafting!!

Adi <3




May the 4th be with you!

There could be no more perfect day to post this lengthy, picture heavy update!  For the last few weeks I have been preparing a Star Wars themed birthday extravaganza for Matty Watty.  Below are just a few of the things I was up to...
The concept is like that of a rock bands "property of METALLICA" type painted tagging on all of it's precious cargo.

First off...The comforter.  I found a variegated grey striped comforter, bed in a bag deal at Walmart.  $49 for a king size.  The back of the comforter was dark grey, but not so dark as to not work for my project.

2nd, I found an imperial symbol online and printed it to be 40 pages enormous, gather up my faithful assistant Gwennie (as pictured), and took to cutting out my 4 foot round Imperial symbol.


Before I actually cut out the cogs, I took the huge layer of printer paper only imperial symbol and spray glued it to thicker drawing pad paper, so that it didn't just curl up on me when I went to spray it.

Also, not pictured, is the stencil for the "property of" written and xactoed out in Star Wars heiroglyphics which you will see situated in a later pic on the comforter when I go to spray.




The final decision on placement ended here!  You can see the Property Of stencils just to the left of the Imperial symbol. 












And then I used Tulip brand fabric paint spray in red.  Matt has a thing for Darth Vader, so we went with red instead of classic white, which I think gave it a really fantastic subtle look.  I don't know if many of you geeks have attempted to find sheeting or bed spreads that are King Sized and Star Wars, but there is a distinct lack of them, hence this enormous project LOL.






 And here are the finished product pics.  One on the bed, and one still sitting in the sun drying.  The pic inside is just the WORST possible lighting.  Sorry for that.  If you can see in the far corner of the room near the window, I also stenciled the packages for his birthday with the Imperial symbol.
 I let this sit in the sun after it was sprayed for about 6 hours, on a very strange but fortunate 90 degree day wedged between raging rain and thunder storms.  WEIRD weather this year.  lol BUT YAY for sun on this day.







I also stenciled the pillow cases and shams, as well as the bed skirt.  (Sorry no pic of the bedskirt)

All in all the longest amount of time spent was on cutting out the huge stencil for the main image.  The rest was cake.

A few things I would recommend tho.  One is to use cardboard at least as thick as a cereal box for your smaller stencils.  Otherwise they will curl up on you after your first spray.  I made some Imperial geek chubby girl undies and discovered one thin printer paper sheet is simply not enough!!  lol

I would also recommend experimenting with your spraying technique.  I started with the back of one of the shams to be used to get a feel for how it sprayed and how heavy a spray I would need to get it to show on the dark fabric.

And lastly, get someone to help you.  As simple as this project is, you don't want something as silly as a slight breeze to mess things up for you.  Fortunately my Mom is quite an amazing assistant, despite whatever strange new project I come up with, she's always there to help.

Thanks for reading!!  And happy crafting!!
<3 Adi