Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Panda Bear Mittens :)

I know it's probably a little late in the year to be making mittens because *hopefully* winter weather will be subsiding soon, but I can always save them for a fall craft fair!
I'm really excited about how these came out.  I worked on them both at the same time (working a row of one, then the other) so I would finish at the same time and make sure that they were identical in size.  Then I just estimated sizes of ears, eyes, and nose, and tried them out until I found ones I liked (which luckily didn't take too long).

I would have loved to show a picture of someone wearing them, but they're kid sized, and it's a little more difficult to find kids here than at home in Maine, where I could just go get my nieces!

I'm probably going to try a pair of penguins next. If you have an idea about another type (or questions), I would LOVE to hear it, just leave me a comment below :)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Bottle Caps!

Hey Guys!
As a result of my past attempts at rock tumbling bottles to make sea glass, I had a few of the bottle caps lying around, so I decided to give some earrings a try!

It was a fairly cheap project, I bought some spray paint for about $3 and Mod Podge for $5, which are both reusable for many projects. I already had some earrings that I wanted to recycle to make then, so then I just had to print out a picture that I liked that went with the black paint.

My Dremel came in handy for this little project, and it made a hole in the caps so easily.  I put a few coats of spray paint on each side, and after waiting awhile put the picture on and covered it in the Mod Podge. 

They came out pretty well for a first try, but I definitely need some practice! Some places of the paper darkened a little more than I would have liked.  I do have some ideas for bottle cap necklaces and magnets also, and I'm thinking about using my duct tape skills for some of the pictures, instead of using printing paper, to make it more unique. 

Did you notice that picture behind me in the first photo?? I didn't make it, my sister did, but I love it!  I asked her to make me a picture of an octopus hatching from an egg, and she did it! It's pretty much the first thing I see when I walk into my room.

Well I suppose that's it for now! If you have any thoughts or questions, leave me a comment :)

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Pendants!

Happy Valentine's Day! (A few days ago...) As the best fiance ever I got David a pack of gum at the check out counter of a craft store...  Go me! Maybe next year I'll even spring for TWO packs, we'll see...
I have a lot of different crafts and ideas in the works right now, which hopefully means lots of posts in the near future! The last projects that I finished were awhile ago (and I've made some in the past). Here they are:

Just a few new wire-wrapped star pendants! So, if you feel so inclined to check them out on etsy, or tell a friend about them, here's a link;)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/123301398/wire-wrapped-sea-glass-star-pendant?ref=v1_other_2

And I'll be putting a few more up on etsy soon!

I love these little pendants because, not only are they one of the only pieces of jewelry I'll wear, but I feel so accomplished when I'm done making them. Almost every time I make one, (no matter how careful I try to be) I drop a tiny pieces of sea glass on the ground and have to spend five minutes feeling the rug until I find it.  To finally get it wrapped up and secured, knowing that I won't have to search the floor (at least for that particular piece) ever again... Well, that's an accomplishment!

My Dremel has come in handy for some of my recent crafts, including my work with bottle caps.  That, it so happens, will be the discussion of my next post, so stay tuned! :)

Sunday, February 10, 2013

New Backpack

Guess what everyone!! I finished that backpack I was working on :) Turns out, I didn't have too much to worry about when using the dorm washing machines!

I put it in for two cycles, (but I might want to put it in one more time after I've fixed up a few things).  For one thing, the straps are way too long (as I expected they would be) because I knew it would be way easier to sew them to make them smaller than try to make them bigger!! I also want to sew on a magnetic snap and some buttons at some point.  There were a few places around the bottom of the bag that I wish had sealed up better while felting, but I don't see any reason this won't work as a backpack for me as long as I don't start carrying a hundred pounds of books... I'm very excited to finish it up and wear it to classes for the first time tomorrow, and this gives me hope about felting here in the future! (Though the paying for laundry thing still sucks).

Well, unfortunately I have a ton of reading and studying to do tonight. Despite the storm here in New England keeping me pretty much held up in my dorm, it didn't inspire me to do my homework any earlier. Instead, I did crafts until I ran out of materials, then watched movies! At least Billy Joel tells me that I don't think too much;)

"Should I try to be a straight 'A' student? If you are then you think too much." - It's Still Rock and Roll to Me



Thursday, February 7, 2013

Starry Night

Happy Weekend to you all! No? Just me, the college student with the sweet schedule? Well, sorry, the weekend will come soon enough for the rest of you!! So yesterday on my day off (I promise, I do take 4 classes!) I spent most of the time gluing on small tumbled sea glass pieces to a 9" by 12" canvas.  I was a long process gluing piece by piece, and making sure everything was exactly where I wanted it, but finally I finished and can show you!
As most of you can guess, this is my own little version of 'Starry Night'.  What do you think?? And I promise it looks better in person when you can really see the textures!  I want to put this up on etsy.com soon, but I'm thinking about covering it in a resin first (which would create a clear, glossy finish to the piece). I'll let you know what I end up doing!


"We spend our whole lives in unconscious exercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words." -Vincent Van Gogh

(for more Van Gogh quotes, you can check out http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/quotes.html)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Felting!

So, I made myself a new backpack the other day.

Sure, it's a little too big- and pretty flimsy- now, but just you wait! I knitted this bag with about 7 balls of wool, and the yarn is doubled in a few places to try and give it a little more support. So now it's just a matter of getting it to look, and be as useful as, a backpack.  Which is where felting comes in!
This may be a bit of a challenge while at college for me, where I don't really have the convenience of a top-loading washer (not to mention one I can use for free...) or the ability to boil and put hot water into the washer when I want....

Maybe I should start with what felting is, for those that don't know.  It's when you put something made of wool into hot water and agitate it, which is best done in the washing machine.  The material then shrinks up the size of the item (in my case it's usually purses) and makes it thicker.  When I knit something and then felt it, the stitches aren't even seen in the final product.  For many people, felting is that annoying thing that happens when they accidentally put their favorite hat or sweater in the washing machine, and afterwards find it now fits better on their baby.  But for me, well, it's awesome.

It's a process that can take something and complete it by giving it the a whole new look and feel that knitting alone can't create.  And besides, my whole craft obsession was started after I felted my first purse, and then 'felt' the need to keep on experimenting... (Sorry for the awful pun, I just figured I should embrace it rather than try to find a different way to say that ;p)  Sure, I've had many problems with felting, and I have many stories if you ever need advice, but all in all it's a pretty great technique.

So, back to my current backpack and laundry room problems.  Usually I watch things that I felt all through the cycle, and actually use multiple cycles for bags sometimes.  This will be such an experiment for me, since I won't have any control over what's going on, or see it at all! I guess I'll just throw a few pairs of jeans in with it (hey, might as well get some laundry done too if I'm paying for it, right?!) and hope that nothing super crazy happens... I'm very interested to see how this will work, and I can't wait to show you all the finished piece!

I've also finished up something today that I made with sea glass. I really want to post it, but I want to  show David before the whole internet sees! I think it's pretty cool, but I'll have to see what you all think... I'll write again soon, so keep checking in ;)

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Sea Glass!

Soooo, I just figured out I could title blog posts (I know, I'm dopey) so I'll have to start doing that.... Well, Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! Enjoy your piles of food, funny commercials, and time with some friends and family. Oh yeah, and that football part. And for those of you who don't give a crap about it, Happy Normal Sunday, make it a relaxing one!

As my first-ever title suggests, this post will be mostly about sea glass (duh). Let's start with my attempts to drill holes in sea glass with a Dremel (hand-held drill tool). Things I learned: 1. They are a little loud and annoying to listen to, so if you're in a dorm with lots of people in rooms nearby, make sure they don't hate you 2. Water is a MUST!! -I learned this the hard way. I attached one of my new diamond drill bits into the Dremel, and started to drill, only to literally burn the tip down, as well as snap the glass in half. Continually putting water on the glass will keep it from getting too hot 3. It takes awhile. It might take a few minutes to drill through a piece, even if it's fairly thin, so don't get discouraged that it's not working. In the end, I only drilled a hole in one piece, and I still need TONS of practice, but it still felt so good to finally be successful and see all that hard work accomplish something!

Another topic I wanted to talk about is the rock tumbler I have sitting in the middle of my dorm room that's been on for the last 2 days. Surprisingly, it's not very loud! It's like a white noise machine, and with a bucket over it, it's really easy to forget it's even on. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it'll need at least a few more days, it not more, to actually make sea glass from the broken bottles I put in there.  After a day I could definitely see that the edges were not sharp anymore, but other than that the process is sure taking its sweet time! I'm hoping (if it works) to start using my own tumbled sea glass to make items, since real sea glass tends to be very expensive.

All in all, sea glass and me haven't been getting along too well lately. But don't worry, I'm confident that'll change soon. I have some ideas in the works, and I'll be sure to share once it's done! Next post I'll be talking about felting (very exciting!) so make sure to check back in soon :)