I know it's been a L-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g time since I've posted. I've not been doing much in the crafty way of life.
But. I signed up for two swaps. So I'll be posting about the process here.
Swap #1: PostSecret. I'll be creating 5 postcards with my "secrets" on them. I'll probably post a few but not post a few too. Some of my secrets are really secrets. Some aren't.
Swap #2: It's an ATC swap but instead of "C"s, it's going to be puzzle pieces! You create 3 (or 4?) separate pieces for three different people based on a theme. Then you get back 4 (I think?) pieces that go together based on a theme. All I wrote for my "receive" themes were colors: lavender, cerulean. I think I also wrote "dogs".
I'm really excited because this will give me an excuse to get out and explore the crafty/thrifting side of my new city. I will need to locate an old used puzzle. And I know of some great antique shops in my current city that have awesome vintage postcards. I could have myself a hunt in the new city searching for vintage postcards.
So I know it's been a long time. But I should be posting *some* of my stuff in the next week or so.
First attempt will be this little Magellan guy. I collected felt today. I am going to use pipe cleaner for the eyebrows and mouth. I have red felt for his little jacket. I need some gold trim. I have no idea how I'm going to make his little hat. He will be the size of a notebook paper, 8.5x11.
Also pictured, Lewis/Clark-style expolorer (I'm calling him Davy Crockett)
This guy is Christopher Columbus, but you can see he's basically the same as Magellan (save the hat)!
I've been watching season 1 all day brainstorming. No pics yet.
I am thinking:
- a little fork guitar
- something with an orca
- a funky funky eyepatch
- a mirror with "you're so beautiful"-phrases all over it ("you could be a part time model", "you could be an air hostess from the 60s", "you could be a waitress"...)
- "the tape of love"--something creative there. paper dolls, retractable pencils, tape, brown paper, white paper. . .
That's all I got so far. I am pretty jazzed about this swap. I should probably look at the requirements again; I'm not sure I'm prepared to make a bunch of "large" items. I would like to design some stationary. That would be fun!
So I saw the movie last night. It was pretty scary!
Generally, my partner and I hate seeing movies at the theatre. The seats are really uncomfy, people are distracting and noisy... generally not a fun time. I haven't had any restlessness in my legs since I quit drinking caffeine but last night I had an attack.
I think I want to try using clay. I want to make a praying mantis photo holder like she had in the film. The photo sat in a simple frame on the forearms of the mantis. It was really neat!
It appears it would only be one color. She had it on her nightstand at her real parents' house. I think it might have had yellow eyes and/or black accents.
I shipped out my tin earlier this week.
I am going to start on my Decemberists projects this weekend. I'm thinking a Decemberists hoodie (grey) with a huge stencil on the back and mermaid zipper pull (I'll be hitting the bead store today).
The goal is one medium and two smalls. I think the hoodie will be a "large" and I have no clue for my smalls. Maybe a set of a few glasses, etched.
My other swap is a cookie swap. I'm making just chocolate chip, I think, for one of the dozens and I'm not sure on the other. We have to craft a small item and my partner is into zines too, so I might construct another small zine.
I got my partner tonight. So here goes the brainstorming.
She likes magnets, the Smurfs, charms. She doesn't have a wist, so I'm doing the Craftster stalking. Bowling, fairies, scrapbooking (meh), animals. Hmm. Sounds pretty vague...
I will start decorating my tin, possibly tonight, probably tomorrow. Work zonked me today. I'm going to work out in a bit.
My bookmarks are sent out.
My zine is about half done.
And, because I am a true addict: I signed up for another swap. That makes four at once, a new record. The new swap is due Feb 3rd--it's a Vday cookie swap. You make two dozen, craft a small item and purchase a small item and ship it off. The good thing about the cookies is you get a dozen and your SO gets a dozen.
It's a flipping addiction. I am nearly done with my little zine, "zineswap" and I signed up for another swap: book marks. You craft 4-5 book marks and send them out. You receive 4-5 book marks back. I figure it will be a good chance to do some embossing!
I can't decide how I want to upload my little zine. So far, it's all original writing (poetry, short essay) plus an easy sudoku from websudoku.com. I think I'm going to include a little mix cd too (I wrote my 2008 anthem playlist up in my zine) but not sure how that plays into copyright laws.
Yeah, so the writing is good. I went back as far as when I started college. I have my high school journals that I might be able to salvage some good pieces. I also want to do a few etymological pieces. "did you know that ______ came from _____?" I love etymology.
I'm starting on Greg's shirts. Additionally, I'm making a shirt for him a la Crackdown that says, "Skills for Kills, Agent."
I am probably going to make 3-4 Jesse and the Rippers shirts. I mean, really, who doesn't love Full House?? Awesome.
I was just brainstorming some ideas for my sister for Xmas and I thought I'd make a record in case I need to come back to it later.
I'm thinking I'm going to make her 4-5 candles in a set that are themed. The theme will be Saves the Day, one of her favorite bands. I was googling their lyrics and found a few songs I thought could translate into fragrances. I also thought I might create her one or two solid fragrances in some kind of cool little alternative looking tin that would echo these fragrances. I thought a good tag for outside of the box would be "Do You Know What I Love the Most?" as a nice little teaser.
So here's what I came up with so far:
- "Hollyhox, Forget Me Nots" (obvi a strong floral)
- "Morning in the Moonlight" (sandy beach smell + night blooming flower)
- "Rocks Tonic Juice Magic" (sounds like a fruity smell to me. the lyrics reference anger so maybe something angry and spicy like cinnamon or ... and it also references lemonade)
- "My Sweet Fracture" (fall: pumpkin, earthy, warm, caramel, something spicy again)
Obvi the packaging could be super cute and tailored to her style (polka dots, pinstripes, whatever kind of scrapbook paper I wanted to use). Smells I know she likes are tuberose and basil/sage.
I haven't looked at all for any kind of tins but I am betting I could find some really cute ones. And I really liked the recipe I used for solid fragrance. I could make it look pretty professional, I think. She might not even know it was homemade until she tried to reorder some.
Here are some tins that are cute. $.42 each. I can get the shea and beeswax for cheapz0rz.
I'm sure I could theme this stuff out to anyone I know. I know what sort of music my friends like and it would be a fun, sneaky way to surprise them with my skillz.
I'm still working on my Gob shirt for Greg. It's got Gob silhouetted on a Segway and the back will say "A trick is something a whore does for money...or candy!" I've got about half the stencil for the words cut out. . .I've been slacking. I've just been busy.
I don't know what else to make him. He wants some homemade stuff from me. I already know what I'm going to do for his storebought stuff.
I've spent part of tonight working on my Dexter clock. I'm going to try to use the yarn blood spatter trackers as the theme of the clock. I painted my numbers and the hands tonight. I glued my background to my backing. I'm just not sure how to create a dynamic piece. I could just do a pinwheel looking randomized pizza type looking thing with the red yarn but I'd like to create some height and some 3-d to the piece to echo the origin more clearly. So I'm stuck at that point.
I have my yarn cut but I'm just not sure how to create pyramidal shape without it looking too bigtop. I just want it to be clear that the yarn spatter analysis was my inspiration, not just, "oh, red yarn. thanks?"
Hmmmmmm....
I'm going to try my hand at clockmaking. I am going to buy the pieces that make it tick in a kit @ a craft store and I think I'm going to make the clock look like the geometric blood representation with red string/yarn. I don't know anymore than that right now but I think I could look really cool.
I finished my top #1 (Anchors Aweigh) tonight. It turned out G-R-E-A-T, especially for me, but really for anybody. I'm really happy with it.
I tried a new method (that's the idea with the swaps for me, trying new things) that involved multiple layers of stencils. I started with the pink as a background then added the blue (the hardest layer; it involved a lot of hand-painting to fill in small spaces.
The anchor came from Microsoft Word's clip art. I just searched "anchor" until I found one that looked feasible. I tried to match the turquoise to the undies, but I sort of failed.
My partner said she likes turquoise and red but I didn't have any red paint. To make red, do I mix pink with black? That wouldn't make red. Yeah, I don't know much about color.
Then I added the black Old English on top. It was "LAMB"-inspired. I just love those Old English letters. Maybe I'll monogram part of her package in some way. Just love it! But I am not sure if I like those A's or not. . .they kinda freak me out. I make them like this-- 'a' -- with the upside down looking g type a, not just an o with a hook. But at any rate, I feel really good about this send out.
All I have left to do is make a cute "owl" top. I think I'm gonna stencil "ORLY" or maybe stencil a super cute owl on the front and do ORLY on the back. Idk.
But I feel super proud of this!
I'm going to be participating in a Dexter swap in the next few weeks.
I'm brainstorming what I might like to make.
I think I'm going to take this image
and turn it into a reusable tote. Just a simple stencil in multi colors. I might invest in some spray stencil paint (or just regular spray paint?) and do iron-on letters in a nice shadow block like that. IDK, maybe even just do a straight transfer from computer paper. I like the newsprint headlines so maybe I can do a transfer of that and then stencil over the top. It'll be a little different but cool nonetheless. If you've never watched Dexter, I'd advise you ignore the current season (it sorta sucks) and start at the beginning. 1st and 2nd seasons were good (really good) but this season not so good, ackshully. Oh, and it's about a serial killer so obvi don't watch if you're squeamish around blood.
On that note, check out this Supermarket Craft winner for the September Craftster swap challenge. It's amazing!
Of course, this is my inspiration for the Dexter bag. But I won't be using grocery store beans. I can't believe how good it looks. She said in her post that she spent a lot of time watching movies and gluing beans in place. I love the little white/pink beans that act as highlights (corner of his eye, nose, chin). It's a perfect representation of Obama in beans. Not that I'm declaring who I voted for or anything, I'm just awed by the talent!
Congrats, boogaloo and your "Barack Bean-Bama" (I would have called it Barack Obama Rama).
Other than the Dexter swap, I'm done with swapping for awhile so I can prepare (financially) for Xmas.
I think I know what I'm getting my sister but other than that, my family is up in the air for gifts. I will probably make Greg a few items. We've been having some good laughs lately, I could translate them into tshirts pretty easily. Books are always good. This year, I am planning on getting my sister's boyfriend something. Maybe I'll get them something they can use together. Yeah, I don't know at all.
On the Dexter swap, I would like to put together a little clip art bonanza here to inspire me.
I'm planning my underwear swap...
I think I'm going to do anchors and owls for my partner.
The anchors underwear will look like this.
The owl pair will look like this.
I got some awesome little "extras": an alphabet stamp set ($1 @ Michaels), an iron-on crystal skull wearing a crown (very biker, very Ed Hardy), a "Grow Your Own" Pirate Treasure (to go with the Ahoy/Anchor theme). . .I did good.
So I have sent and received both my Chuck Palahniuk package and my LOLs swap package. My next swap will be a themed underwear set swap. I sent 2 blue bikinis, a white and a black camisole for my two sets. You send 2 sets of sleepwear (boxies, boyshorts, any type of "bottom" and any type of "top") and 5 themes to craft upon. The themes I threw out to the universe were:
zombies
golden girls
pandas
donnie darko
...i don't remember the last theme i picked. but there are 4/5.
the themes i have to work with are:
umbrellas
anchors
owls
skulls
hedgehogs
My partner sent her clean, new undies to me but I haven't received yet. I'm thinking iron on crystals and/or sparkly letters along with some stenciling.
I will probably pick owls because I myself love owls (almost picked owls for one of my own themes but picked pandas instead) and maybe umbrellas. Anyway, pics to come after I craft up a storm on these.
I'm trying to brainstorm for the swap but I seem to be having a little trouble. My projects have to be mailed by the 15th of October. I might be one of the last ones to ship at this rate.
I know I'm going to stencil a few tshirts (I think the swap has to be 2 medium items [1-2hrs each] and two smalls [>1 hour each] which gives me a starting point but still...). I think I'm going to do something with the Party Crashing theme from Rant. Check that out here.
I'm thinking a Graphic Traffic Radio shirt, made to look like a cheezy radio free giveaway shirt with crazy colors and a cheezy graphic. I will have to brainstorm on that. Maybe come up with a stupid catchphrase of my own. I don't think Graphic Traffic had a frequency or catchphrase listed in the book.
I will probably do another tshirt for the other medium. Maybe a shirt commemorating the opening of the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill (read about Survivor here).
I will dress up (collage, decoupage, modpodge to death) a journal to look like the Very Common Book of Prayer from Tender Branson. And probably another notebook for my other small. Though I'm not sure which novel I shall reference. Maybe just something simple and basic like "Cassie Wright's 600 Man Gangbang!" (snuff
I'm crafting for my partner's boyfriend and he's a musician who write lyrics, so I'm thinking notebooks can't be a bad choice. He also likes hats, I guess. I don't know if I could find a blank hat with much ease. I might be able to find a simple knit hat and applique something on to it. Hmmm...I haven't sewed in a looooong time. But that wouldn't be too hard.
As for me, I enjoy the more obscure references in literature. Something a little less surfacey and little more hidden in the shirts. I like for people to not understand what the shirt means. I made Greg a shirt a few years ago that says, "Sucks To Your Ass-Mar!" which he's worn the bejesus out of. One guy at the mall was a high school english teacher and he was seriously going to stencil himself a shirt. He was totally inquisitive about the method (freezer paper, fabric medium, x-acto knife) and it was a totally cool moment. It's a secret club--wearing these underground kind of shirts. So for me, I'd prefer a less popular thing. I wouldn't wear a shirt that just said "SNUFF BY CHUCK P." It's gotta be something like, "I banged Cassie Wright" or "Mr. 137." Hmmm that's another idea right there.
Jeez! This has been a great brainstorming session!
I'm planning on making a cute tshirt for my swap angel project. It's going to be video game themed--katamari damacy (best. game. evar!!!!)!
The front will say "I like to watch" (a little sexual humor for your Saturday) and the back will be the lovely King of All Cosmos with an excitable "Royal Rainbow!"
The End.
Over the next few months, I have a few techniques I'd like to improve. I'd like to improve my jewelry making skills--most importantly, I'd like to branch into resin. I see so many great projects that look to be totally my style but I've just never tried the method.
I'd also like to try journalmaking. The supply investment is small. An awl, some linen string, paper. I think I could make some fantastic journals.
I would like to improve upon/expand my stenciling. I'm just starting to get back into it after a 2 or 3 year(!) hiatus. It's a great feeling to come up with an idea and follow it from inception to completion. Reading a great book, bonding with a quote whilst you stencil it out with painstaking love and care, applying those coats of acrylic paint. . .it's a good creative process. It's like body art in a way--the creative outlet and physical manifestation of a feeling inside you. But less permanent.
When I'm asked what I don't appreciate, craft-wise, my stock answer is "old lady stuff." No hens, no bears holding hearts, nothing "country". I'm sorry. To me, that's not art or creativity. It's boring and straight-laced and there's nothing personal about it. Hens don't speak to me, creatively.
Hopefully the next few weeks will yield a lot of image-heavy posts--chock full of the delectable crafting I am wont to create.
If not, I've def got some photos on the compy from old projects. . .
