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 ;)