Reflecting on Reflections

One year ago today, I met the drummer for The Cure that I had had a crush on at the age of 14.  The meeting happened, and for a couple of minutes I was in Heaven.  Great memories I'll keep with me until my end of days.  Thank you JC!

Jason signed my concert ticket

Monday, Monday...

After I sent the Niece her cupcake bra (for her Cabbage Patch), I got a call from her requesting the glittery bottoms.  The bottoms were super easy to make.  I got a pair of denim baby shorts at the thrift store and covered them with blue glitter.  The glue I used (regular Elmer's glue) made the shorts a bit stiff and didn't really hold the glitter well.  I found that a coat of crystal white glitter fabric glue made an excellent sealant without adding additional stiffness.  The completed shorts are being sent off this week just in time for the Niece's 5th Birthday!  

I never overlook an opportunity to be crafty,  so I added a little flair to the inside of her birthday card with a pug cut out.

  

Homie Halloween

During my middle school years, some of my classmates were collecting little, plastic figurines called "Homies".  The figurines were only a couple inches tall, came in both male and female and were dressed in the fashions made popular by movies like Mi Vida Loca.  So here it is, my best attempt at having a Homie Halloween 2012.

Yola The Drummer

One of Adam Ant's drummer (he has two), is a petite blonde named Yola. It's hard to ignore the attractive woman in the baby blue leather cat suit. Anywho...I want to be her when I grow up!

Cupcake Palooza

A couple hours north of Atlanta, there is a town that has a Cabbage Patch Hospital. It's a very cute place.  When our family last visited the CPH, my niece adopted a CP toddler which she named after one of her favorite singers, Katy Perry.  I don't know too many Katy Perry songs, but I did see/hear the song, California Girls. From the California music video, I did take a vivid memory of the cupcake bra worn by the singer. I think you can guess where I'm taking this....I wanted to make my niece's cabbage patch doll, a cupcake bra. The craft turned out to be quick and easy. I crafted the cake part of the cupcake from poly clay and stuck that on to the lid from a Poweraid bottle. I used some food dye to color silicon chalking, pink.  Sprinkled the whole thing with glitter and of course, topped it all off with poly clay cherry! I had some extra cupcakes at the end of the craft so I stuck one on a headband. The finished projects are so realistic looking, I'm going to have to remind my four year old niece, "Do not eat!"

Hippo modeling the cupcake bra.

They look yummy but do not eat!

Cupcake headband

Cell Phone Makeover

Starring at my phone, I realized it could do with a bit of a make over.  Here's what I did to personalize it.

Popped the back of my cell phone case off , primed it and spray painted it pink.

Thought about adding sparkles, but also thought about all the stuff that would get hung up on them.

So then I had the brilliant idea of using rub-on transfers! However, the transfers wouldn't transfer.

Decided to go with some cool, clear, plastic stickers. 

Awesome finished project. 

Jason and The CUREonauts tee

Alright, this is another craft done with The Cure in mind.  I'm not usually this fanatic, but with all their current SummerCure festivals in play, I have to do something to take my mind off not being able to attend. So...here is my attempt at making a space/galaxy shirt with the text of "Jason and the Cureonauts".

Plain, black, cotton tee (I grabbed mine from the thrift store)

My shirt had a fancy neck, so I taped it up because I did not want bleach or paint on it.

Follow Galaxy Shirt Tutorial

While the galaxy paint job dried, I began making my text stencil. Freezer paper makes a good, cheap stencil and is very good to use when you're making an original.  Freezer paper has two sides, a plastic side and a paper side-draw your text on paper side. 

Once you get all your text cut out, use HOT iron to melt the plastic side of your freezer paper on to t shirt. Use brush to dab fabric paint on to shirt/stencil. I peel stencil off while paint is still wet.  When fully dry, your shirt is complete!

*I plan on hand washing this shirt...not too trusting of all that bleach used early on

Rhinestone Headband

On one of my regular cruises through Hobby Lobby, I came upon one of their weekly sales--A HUGE bucket of  plastic rhinestones! I didn't know what I needed them for, but at fifty percent off I had to have them.
When I got the sparkle home, I was itching to cover something in rhinestones. This is one of the ideas I came up with.
Very simple Sparkle headband

• Felt
• Glitter Glue
• Headband
• Rhinestones
• Exacto knife or small scissors

Glue rhinestones on to felt in a haphazard, organic shape. 

Cut around rhinestones and similar shaped felt for rhinestone backing.

Apply glue to wrong sides of felt and then sandwich headband between felt .

When glue is dry, trim around rhinestones with Exacto knife 

Princess For a Day...Everyday!

Necklaces inspired by The Cure

At the beginning of June, a Cure friend, Katie T. and I decided we wanted to work on Cure band inspired craft. We settled on making necklaces. Each person would make their own Cure inspired necklace and upon completion send the craft to the other person...A Cure crafty swap! The Cure have so many iconic designs and album art that I love. I thought this craft swap was gonna be a breeze, I could knock out a necklace overnight. Things would not go so smoothly. So many doubts, so much desire to represent The Cure in a fashionable design that Katie T. could enjoy. So, I finally decided on dark, Gothic roses with a band symbol from the album, "The Cure". Everything but the black beads, were made with polyclay. Three weeks later, that necklace was packed and sent to its owner.

The following week, I received my Cure necklace designed by Katie T. I was so excited to have my very own Cure necklace. Katie did great things with beads, color and texture. The necklace was so professional looking, like something I could have bought straight from TheCure.com store.

I'm also including a picture with the flash, so you can really see the texture.

Here I am wearing my COOL necklace, made by Katie.

Katie T. was kind to do a write up about her creation...a more in depth process of her magical, creative ways. :)
  When I first started the project, I wanted to make a necklace with the entire "Cure" written out with the Wish-era "C" symbol. This proved to be too technically challenging--if I made it small enough so that it wasn't tacky, it was too difficult to cut out the letters. I decided that I would just do one "C" instead. I drafted the design in Adobe Illustrator, and then printed it onto poster board to make stencils. Then, I used the stencils to cut the shapes out of polymer clay and texturized the "C" and the blue background before baking. After a light sanding around the edges, I painted the clay with liquid acrylic paints to give it an "antiqued" look. I decided on a bronze theme, so I finished the necklace with Vintaj brass chain and accent beads. I believe the black beads are onyx, but it's been so long since I bought them that I can't remember! I really wanted just a touch of red and blue in the beaded chain, so I added red seed beads for a little "pop" of color. I went to a couple different bead stores looking for the perfect blue beads. I wanted a natural stone with swirls of blue, white, and black, and right when I was about to give up, I found these sodalite stones! The project was such a blast!

 I would really like to expand this craft swap idea. I want it web out as far as it will go. Doesn't necessarily have to be Cure inspired crafts...but would be cool if it was.

Love Cats Toys

This week, I took on the task of making a couple of cat toys for some furry companions. Since these toys are for Cure friends, I wanted the toys to have a Cure theme. I took a design from my favorite album artwork off of The Cure album, Wish. I first made some quick shape templates on scrap paper and found bright colors to match the artwork. It was fun trying to use felt and floss to re-create drawn artwork; but I did use a NON-toxic paint to add cloud detail on the blue felt.

I think the hardest thing I encountered was finding a plastic filling with enough CRINKLE sounds to keep a cat inerested. I ended up using a cut up water bottle. I made sure all sides of the plastic were smooth to the touch before anchoring it on my felt with a stitch. The eye layers were layed out on the blue felt, and stitched down with the black (pupil) lines. With plastic between black and blue felt; I stitched all together with a simple back stitch all along exterior.

*Not pictured is my last minute addition of sporadic black fringe on hearts' exterior. I'm not sure about the size of the finished project, I kind of think it's a bit on the big size (4 X 4inches). Even if it isn't the cats' favorite toy, I know it will be the best looking toy.

*my hand sewing got a little wiggly when I tried to multi task by sewing AND walking on the tredmill.

Jason Cooper Pin

At the age of 14, I had a crush on the drummer from The Cure- Jason Cooper. I did the typical, posting his picture in my locker and on my notebooks, telling my friends to call me the future Mrs. Cooper. As I grew older, my crush for JC turned in to more of an admiration of. Admiration for his success in life, his hard work, his adventures...as a cool person. So, together with another, I helped to dedicate a facebook page to Jason Cooper. The FB page has to date, 50 members...and growing. As a way to say thank you to those supporting me and The Great JC, I put together a pin one can wear to show their support. Minimal in design, I used masonary nails, bronze wire and gold embossing powder to make the following:

I am offering the pins for free (one only needs to cover shipping).

Denim Bow from Jeans Leg

Very easy to make. Find a pair of used children's jeans. Leaving side seams intact, cut jean leg horizontaly on top and bottom (you want a nice frayed edge thing going on).

Distress, distress, distress! I used sand paper to rub out holes, bleach to add the splotches of white and added a bit of dazzle with the bedazzler. Whipstitched an equally distressed band in the bow center to cinch everything together.

Finishing the bow off with a metal hair comb in the back (easily sewn on).

I'm thinking I will wear this as an adornment to a messy bun or high pony tail.

Make white hairs FUN

With my 31st birthday on its way, I've been staring in to the mirror longer than I usual do, doing scans over face and hair looking for minute details of aging. All had been fine until my discovery of a white hair! I let the white hair stay, despite my urge to yank it. Over the following days, I noticed that the one hair started to multiply and the new,white hairs count ended in double digits! To make light of the current situation, I whipped out my pink Sharpie. For each white strand of hair, I ran the Sharpie up and down the length of the strand, saturating it in the bright hue. The depression of the bleak, white is now pink and cheery. This getting older stuff is a breeze (kinda). *Not sure how long the color lasts, although I would suspect the color would come out with ease after a few washes.

Using a tool in a new way

I was using my Fiskar's paw paper punch, with light and dark blue cardstock. With each punch, five, small ameba shaped paper debris littered my work space. At the end of my punching fiasco, I had a considerable amount of debris to pick up and throw away. But instead of throwing the scraps away, I found an innovative way to use them!

Following a (loose) rule of gluing down one light colored spot for every two dark spots, I was able to create a print like that of a lepoard's fur.

I love finding a new use for a tool. Not only do I feel like I've added a new wrinkle to my brain, but that creativity knows no limit!

Egg on your head.

The Secret 7 Talenthouse has posted the winning art of for their Album Covers. In January, I shared my talent house submit. Unfortunately, my art did not get picked for print. Making light of my defeat, I decided to turn my egg art in to wearable art. I pasted my poly clay eggs on to a regular, plain headband. What an egg-cellent statement piece for Easter.

Bacon Fest!

Last Thursday I got to work with Kevin Bacon! I applied last minute to a film extra opening. Because I had no experience as a film extra, I had strong feelings that I wouldn't be getting a call back for the job. So you can imagine how shocked I was when I was given the job! Working as KB's extra was great fun! When the project is released to the public, maybe I'll be able to update here with some pictures.

* In person, he is a very handsome man :)

Out of My Zone- Eye Patch

Recently, my friend's Doctor perscribed her an eye patch to wear. Its black, bulky look was none too pleasing to my friend, nor was the fit. Feeling sympathetic to her situation, I asked her if I might try and make her a patch more "fitting" to her style and needs. She complied and willingly gave me one of her current eye patches from which to make a pattern from. I disassembled her original patch and laid it out on thick, recycled card stock. I traced around it and and cut it out--making myself a pattern.

I decided that two pattern pieces were needed so that any raw edge of fabric could be hidden within the patch. That being said, I traced and cut out two patches from cardstock. To make the concave nature of the patch, I cut the marked center line, making a flap. The flap got pulled over and tacked with glue.

I held the flap in place with a clothes pin until I was sure the glue was dry. Once dry, I sprayed the exterior of one patch and the interior of the other, with spray adhesive. The spray glued areas had an up-cycled cardigan stretched over (or pressed in to) patch. A rough cut seam of approx. 1/8" of fabric was left around cardstock. I used my Tombow Mono Multi glue to go around the very exterior cardstock. When the Mono Multi glue dries, it's very tacky. Those raw fabric edges got turned in to the Mono glue, leaving beautiful finished edges.

I attached one 16 1/2" piece of elastic to both edges of patch and sandwhiched everything together with a strong, clear, flexible glue.

The eye patch came out better than I ever expected, but more importantly, my friend LOVES it! P.S. Since making the first eye patch, I've successfully made more eye patches from felted cashmere, felt and even silk! Trying something new, can be very rewarding in several aspects.