Science/Space Swap!

Geek and Sundry Swap

Crafting Hiatus....Kinda.

Greetings!

Lately I've been in a bit of a crafting slump, and really I'm not a fan of that at all.  I always put a lot of time and effort into the things I do, and I very much enjoy putting together swap packages, selling things on Etsy, and making things for friends.  I always profit from these endeavors as well, so it's definitely taken a lot of time for me to come to this rather difficult decision.  I've taken a bit of a hiatus from crafting with a deadline.  So, for now, there will be no more swaps.. they tend to cost me A LOT of money, and while I enjoy getting things as much as sending them, I feel like lately, I'm not as happy with the process.

A few weeks ago I came upon a situation I didn't truly think I'd ever come across in my little crafting adventure, but it happened, and it's what's spurred this hiatus.  I was contacted by a lovely lady who ordered one of my chevron necklaces at the same time I was struggling to get a swap package done, and also dealing with a lot of stress at work.  Needless to say, I was overwhelmed.  All I wanted was to say no to this lady, but she'd already paid for it, and she was so excited to purchase more than one of my necklaces.  I struggled through it, but I was able to finish both the swap package, the necklaces, and able to defeat my work nightmare.  I put my shop on vacation as soon as I filled her order though, for fear that I might get another one.  Yeah.... FEAR that someone might want to buy something from me.  What??  But it's true! I didn't realize how much work this little business of mine was going to be!  I'm so grateful that my friends and coworkers have loved my items, and I'm so happy I've been able to sell several of my items online.  So, given my burned out feelings, I thought both a mental and physical vacation from doing ANYTHING craft related with a deadline would be SO worth it.

It's been about two weeks, and while it's been nice, I've gone a little stir crazy, ha ha.  So, I've completed 4 or so projects, and also got around to tailoring my pants.  Nothing major, just some little stuff to keep me occupied, and absolutely nothing with any sort of deadline.  I made a cute hat for my friend Taylor with yarn she bought last winter, and I came up with a new bow pattern, which has made me rethink a lot of things about my shop as it is now.  I'm going to redo basically everything in the shop, and make it more me, rather than just for the customers I thought I wanted.  These bows are pretty awesome, though, and I actually sold one today, ha ha.  Anyway, here's some pictures.  Updates soon!

Two Swaps, One Day.

Two Swap packages received in ONE day omfg.

8 Bit Swap

Marvel Swap

I Don't Even Know...

I wasn't sure what to put as a title there, so I went with my general response to the feeling I am experiencing right now.  "I don't even know..."

In general, I'm frustrated with a lot of things right now, and I was really hoping it wouldn't do as it unfortunately has... it's killed my crafting motivation :(

Of course this happens when I'm actually on a deadline of sorts for this swap, too.  Dammit.  I'm so close to being done with this project I can feel it but the last sixty some odd rows are just a struggle.  I managed to get all of TWO done last night.  The night before I got like five... bleh.  I mean, they grow each time, so they take longer every single time, which makes it really obnoxious now... I'm up to like, 195 stitches per row, with a metric fuck ton of yarn overs, knit two together's, slip slip knits, and other lacy crap that I am currently not a fan of because it makes me a big ol grump.  I'm realllyyyyy hoping I can get some solid work done on Saturday and tonight because I really don't want to stay up all Saturday night knitting and wake up and knit all day Sunday either... I was really hoping to have an actual day off and sleep in and do NOTHING and maybe have a date or something with a cute boy but this is not looking good.  /End rant.

Keeping Busy!

Woops, it's been awhile!  Sorry bout that, kiddos.  I've been kinda busy with things here lately, and haven't had much crafty going on because I've been working on the same project for quite some time.  But, now that I've made some significant progress, and have come up with a couple new projects, I'm ready to share!!

Here's the progress on the Bat Shawl I've been working on for over a month, maybe two now?  I haven't gotten as much done as I wanted... I was really hoping it'd be closer to done now, but, I'm doing really well the last two weeks.  I got 14 rows done last night, which took like almost 2.5 hours!! I am going for another serious knit session tonight pending some social events.  Either way, I'm hoping to have the bulk of the shawl done by the weekend and then doing the edging over the weekend in one or two sessions and then washing/blocking and plenty of photo taking and then feeling quite accomplished and then never knitting a shawl again hahaha.

It's laying out really nicely, and you can see the bat motif pretty clearly, so I don't think too much blocking will be necessary, but I feel like the edging will be far more complicated.

Another project I've completed as of last night, a sort of "in between" project to break up the monotony of me repeating "knit three, yarn over, knit two together, knit.... crap, I missed one FUUUUUU," or just purling like 200 stitches while watching tv, I made another piece to my super hero swap package I'm nothing but super excited about ooh my goshhhh.  Are you ready?  .....

Wolverine clock!!!!  So that was a tutorial I kinda just fell across and was like, I MUST MAKE THIS.  Here's the linky.  Gosh, it turned out sooo welll.  I didn't use the cork in the original tutorial, but I used a pre-cut wooden face I found at A.C. Moore for like $4.  There were some smaller ones with the hole already drilled in it, but I wanted the biiig one to get all the comic book goodness on there.  A few coats of tacky glue, some finicky comic book pages, glitter sealer, a date with my Dremel and several coats of paint sealer later, this beauty came about and man, I am just so happy.  The clock parts were like $7 and I had a coupon, so the total project cost me under ten bucks with the inclusion of purchasing the comics.  I was thinking I could use some of the National Geographic magazines I've been hoarding for the past couple of years to make a sweet as dino one or something for myself, and maybe look into making a couple more.  I'd make a few changes... I'd cut the comic pages down a little more to create a thick black line simulating a panel around all the edges and to prevent some peeling.  I gave it plenty of coats of an exterior paint sealer, so I can't imagine it'll come up, but it'd definitely be a cleaner application and risk less butchering of the comic page when I'm doing finishing with the Dremel.  I ended up having to repair the two bottom panels with some savvy pencil and sharpie work, but thankfully I got skills like that. :)

Questionable Crafting Series, Excuses, and More!

Woops.  It's been awhile, sorry!!  But, I'm back, and really happy about it.  My schedule at work has been hella wonky, and it's gotten HOT outside!  Today is pretty decent, though!  It's windy now, but my lovely bike ride home was nice and sunny and breezy and nearly perfect.

Anyway, yesterday's random craft project prompted a pretty awesome idea that I think I'm going to go with because why not? Hahah.  I try to work on a "big craft project" every week/month and on a mostly weekly basis, I try to complete one or two small projects that only take a couple hours at most.  Yesterday I had one that was quite.... well, questionable, as it were.  :)  So that prompted the idea about other random crafts I've done and how I don't necessarily display/talk about them as much as I do my other projects, but I thought it'd be kinda fun.  So, here goes!

Questionable Crafting
First Installment

My roommate is a drag queen.  It's a "questionable" lifestyle to some (and honestly, me included, but, not for reasons you may think) but it makes him happy, so I'm in support.  There's a big craft element to what he does... he has to take an idea for a concept and make it into a "look," complete with hair, make up, jewelry, clothing and accessories.  Some of them are over the top.  Actually, most of them are, but hey, that's what makes it fun.  So basically he comes up with a concept, sets it to music, makes a costume, gets into a persona and parades around a stage lip synching to a pop song and collecting dollar bills from strangers in a night club.  So... growing up how I did, I'm very unfamiliar with this concept, but, living in the city has definitely brought a lot of things about that culture to light for me, and it's been an interesting experience to say the least.  Last night, a more well known drag queen, dubbing herself, Alaska Thunderfuck was making an appearance/doing a show at a local night club here in town, and of course my roommate got himself tickets.  I did not attend this event but I have been to similar events with him, but I did decide to do a little project for him to take with him, and give to her, mostly because it turned out really funny.

The drag queens do their own make up, make their own costumes, choreograph their own routines, purchase all the materials to put on their show, and most times, especially for amateurs, the clubs don't pay them.  They depend on and appreciate the tips given to them from the crowd (think strippers, only a little different...) Mostly given out are single dollar bills, sometimes larger amounts.  I've always wondered how a stripper or someone who works in the same sort of scenario reacts when given a dollar coin, such as the Sacajawea dollar coin?  I know as a server, they're mildly annoying, but easy to cash in... I can imagine they're hard to hold if you're parading around in stilettos and a wig, though... But, nevertheless, I felt that Sacajawea could use a bit of a makeover, and with nothing more than a couple sharpies, some old nail polish and a right liberal dash of glitter, we get the fully "dragged out" coin perfect for a gift, right?  Here's a photo, sorry it's a little meh... It's the only one I could really get of it, but, it says "TRASHY BITCH" over Sacajawea's terrible makeup and baby carrier, and on the back, it's colored in all pink and says "THUNDER FUCK" in black with a streaky looking finish and coated in glitter polish and then coated again in a clear varnish for some durability.  My roommate gifted it to her during a meet-and-greet after the show, and we're hoping for a twitpic of it or something of some appreciation of it :)

8 Bit Swap Complete!

Well, almost!  I sent out my package (finally) last week, and it was the FIRST one received!  I think we all had way too much fun doing this, so we took our sweet ass time getting things done and packed up and sent and over spoiling, as I totally did :)  Pictures she posted!!

Temp

Pac-Man Posted!

Fun little tid-bits, my Pac-Man earring sets were posted last night, got a couple hits, and started up some search ads today. Hopefully, I'll come home to a sale!!  I baked some more this morning, pending some orders, but, even still, I like to have a little in stock for future orders.  I'm wearing mine again today, hopefully someone will want them!!

Pictures!

Bottle Cap Projects

Hey there! So, new fun things I'm working on, painted and embellished bottle caps!!  I've always loved the idea of recycling and reusing trash or discarded objects to make fun new projects.  So, bottle caps seemed a perfect project.  I made some fun ones over a year ago that I've wanted to try to recreate, but, haven't gotten back into clay yet.  They bake well, though, so I'm hoping I'll find some fun new things to make.  I might re-do the existing ones to make them nicer.  (Possibly sell-able??)  Anyway, here are some new things I came up with.

A few tips, first.  So, I bought a silicon mat/pot holder thing to help me after the first round of terrible pounded out caps, but, no go on that, either.  So I gave up on hammering.  I have a regular hammer, not a rubber mallet.  I feel like one of those would work best, but, this method I use works perfect for me, and is more controlled, and you can customize it much better, in my opinion.  I just use round and regular? jewelry pliers.  These ones.  I used both.  Anyway, I just used the tip of the non-round ones and lifted up one of the edges of the side and alternated around the entire cap until the edge fanned out a bit.  Then, I took my round pliers and pulled it out more, to even it out, and to curve it back just a little.  Then I took my Xacto blade and lifted the plastic seal out of it.  It doesn't matter if you scratch the cap if you're just painting over it or putting an image in there, but for some of them, I had to be really careful to not scratch it.  It isn't that difficult, just took a more careful hand.

I used regular dish soap and a scrubby pad with bristles to clean them up and make them shiny.  I found that PBR caps and Heineken caps work best for my purposes, but feel free to experiment!!  If you're using acrylic paints, I used several coats of paint to get a nice opaque cover.  The image is the most difficult part, really, to size it down and still have it clear and sharp, but that depends entirely on your skills with images.  I've seen fun stickers and things that fit into bottle caps as well at craft stores, or you can draw your own!  I've used a combination of printed images and hand drawn applications to clear mine up.  Here's some fun photos!

Here's the back of the PBR cap, a custom order.  Clear gloss and made extra shiny!

Here's the "front" of the cap, I filled in the heart, and painted it to make it fancy :)  Filled with epoxy for durability.

So this picture is really blurry, but, I really like how it turned out.  My photographer is out of reach at the moment, so I'm stuck with cell phone pics,  Woo. 

Another custom order, a Vault Symbol from the game, Borderlands 2.  Simple, hand painted, but really cool.  I am going to make one in the red/yellow next for myself! 

Sizing the image before settling.  I painted the whole thing BEFORE gluing the image down, because the colors matched, and I wanted the epoxy to set in correctly and not leak under.

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day isn't a big holiday for me, as most of them aren't, despite the overwhelming possibilities for cute overload... :D  I've really found myself enjoying the kawaii and over-cute genre lately.  I'm enjoying being happy, I guess.  Still lovin' on the 8 bit though!  Here are some new projects I've completed this month!  I've spent more time this month on collecting materials (which means over spending woo) and thinking of ideas I'll be working out and fine tuning, hopefully in time for some sweet summer shopping and getting some awesome things up soon!  I'm going to work on keeping updated with shop stuff, moving products around, and hopefully moving more inventory!!  I'm really enjoying playing with clay and other mixed media lately.  I've become more ambitious and more motivated to start just... just tearing things apart. I feel like I've finally got some solid tools going, and I'd like to expand my craft area, but, I really can't justify that right now, haha.  I still need to clean some of it out, and get rid of some things, but, it's a work in progress!!

Anyway, here are some sweet photos!  First up, I'm gifting a sweet little pencil case, along with some earrings and things, to a 10 year old that's spunky and sweet.

 I discovered the little baggie of magical things for the sewing machine, including a zipper foot!  That made this zipper installation a snap!  It was SO much easier than it was with the other cases I made, and it looks SO much cleaner.  Very happy I found that, and was able to put it on without any issues.  I only have this sewing machine a few more months, so I'm trying to use it as much as possible, since with tuition and things coming up, I am not entirely certain on when I'll have a few hundred EXTRA bucks to pick up my own.  Oh well, enjoy it while I can!!

The earrings are polymer clay, hand sculpted and detailed by yours truly, and simply glued onto surgical steel earring posts.  I think I'll need to Dremel the ends down, as they have a bit of an overhang which makes putting the earrings on a little uncomfortable.  Since they're already glued on there and not going anywhere... I hope they turn out alright, and not too sharp.  Totally practicing on a few first.  I didn't notice the overhang before it was too late =\  But, they're real cute, and really easy to make again, if I mess it up.  The sculpture below was inspired by the tiny littles that I'd made a few weeks ago, and I just made him smaller.  I think I'm going to include a little card with it, explaining proper care and an adoption certificate for validation.

Coming Up!

Some fun things are coming soon, and already in the works.  Excited for new shop inventory and learning new techniques for the sake of learning :)  Happy St.. Patrick's Day to you all!  Stay safe, and don't have TOO much green beer, tomorrow is Monday, after all ;)

Refreshed!

Aaaaah, you know that feeling you get when you clean out and reorganize your house/craft area/purse (or in my case, backpack)?  Yeah, I'm working on that.  And, as I go along, I've gotten more and more ideas.  I'm slowly but steadily working on cleaning out the junk and keeping the good stuff.  Every crafter knows that really their craftiness is just an excuse for being a hoarder.  "OH I could use this for....something...." and you end up keeping it.  Right now, I'm thinking of the random jars and coffee cans and everything that I've kept for NO reason..haha.  Except I found a reason for my coffee can, but, that's going to be another project post sooooon.

Anyway, so I have been on my "make x amount of projects a week" thing still, and last night, while shamelessly listening to OneDirection, I made a cute little Perler Bead necklace I wanted to share!  The purple wasn't as vibrant as I wanted it to be, so I might remake this in pink and red or white or something.  Who knows!

Found Stuff!

Looking through my old photos, here's some other fun stuff I made!!

Here's a fairy in a jar with some cute butterflies!  

Polymer clay steam punk style earrings.  Very loosely Steampunk

Hylian Crest Hat for Jarod

Soon...

Today is the day I finish quite possibly the most awesome pendants I think I've ever done.  I've combined all the techniques I've learned, and added some new ones, and have seemed to have great success!  They are so awesome looking.  I used a new technique I was playing with for awhile and then found a couple of videos on how to do it (Of course, cannot find the link for it now, but, if I do, I'll be sure and link it up.) And things I just kinda made up as I went along. 

My original idea was to attempt an image transfer but, the ink I have in my printer, despite it being a special photo printer, was a cheap knock off brand, so it doesn't do what it's supposed to with the photos.  I normally just use it for general printing for school or invoicing or whatever for the shop, so I didn't think to spend the extra on potential crafty awesome things. 

I usually go in with a big plan that I sometimes don't completely deliver on, which, is disappointing sometimes, so this time, I just printed up some clip art for ideas, and went with it.  I used a plain off white polymer clay base, and used layers of paint, sand paper, paper, and my favorite favorite thing ever, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, and the results are phenomenal.  I'm so happy :)  As a note, these pendants are all in the midst of curing when I took these photos, so they're still a work in progress.  All that's left to do on them now is a final coat of glaze to cure, and then making it into the necklace.  But, photos anyway :D

These two got a thin coat of metallic paint that gives them a very lovely sheen.

My Sharpie skills were failing here but, this one got the best coloring, it looks kind of like painted wood.

My favorite one! The butterfly came out perfect, and it looks like it's painted wood.

This is just an idea I'm working on... I was thinking it kind of looks like a sandy beach.  These are seashells and white sand from Virginia Beach!  I have a few more seashell designs, but they were not ready for photographing.