December

So, having only been home for a week after going to Joburg, I've been crazily busy, with Christmas, Boxing Day, a stay at a brand new five-star hotel in town and some year-end crafting.

For the last few days, I've been working on a set of Adventure Time Finn and Jake keyrings and writing a tutorial on them.
If you want to see the tutorial, you can find it here. I had loads of fun making these, and I think they turned out very cute.

I also posted a tutorial for a lace gift bow this week. I made one of these about two years ago when wrapping a friend's birthday gift, and she loved it. I decided that Christmas time would be a good opportunity to post a tutorial on making one of these. :)

This past week has been pretty exciting for me, as I've had three of my projects featured on Cut Out + Keep:
My shark sweatshirt,

my Jake plush,

and my lace Bat glasses.

So, it's been a pretty happy crafting week for me! Though, for what feels like the first time in eons, I'm not working on a craft project. I feel quite lost without a half-finished something lying on my desk (among the chaotic mess). I just need to find a new project to work on, now!

x

Read All About It

When I was working on my galaxy-print collar, I started playing around with other collar ideas, too. I love the look of newsprint, so I desided that newspaper would be a fun idea for a collar, as well as an ideal opportunity to play with some Modge Podge.

Here's my tutorial on how to make this collar. I used faux leather and some newspaper, so the materials aren't particualrly obscure. 

I'm not at home at the moment, so I haven't been crafting, but I have been catching up on posting some tutorials, such as this one on how to make a Jake the Dog plush from Adventure Time (I'll devote a full blog post to him another time).

I also played around with a pair of Bat-symbol lace glasses, because I was bored with the plain old yellow glasses I had lying on my desk as the remnant of some hippie party or another.

I'm still thinking of what I can make as Christmas gifts (I put off gifting until I was sure that the world wouldn't be ending today), so hopefully I can still write a few more tutorials to enter into the Cut Out + Keep Secret Santa Contest.

Good luck with not ending today, world.

Live Every Week Like It's Shark Week

Forever ago, I saw a few shark sweatshirts swimming about the internet, and I couldn't help but want one. As usual, I chose to DIY rather than buy, and I set about making my own version of this cute piece.

I made the grey sweatshirt from scratch, and then added the shark jaw using felt and fleece fabric. Unfortunately I didn't think to take photos while busy with it, but I wrote a vague tutorial on how to make your own over on Cut Out + Keep.

Yesterday, I also finished my first bikini, which I've been working on for, quite literally, about a year. I'm really excited to wear it, but the weather here has been so cold and miserable lately - it's raining right now. Where's summer?

I'm busy working on a plush Jake from Adventure Time and writing a tutorial on how to make your own. I'm quite excited about how he looks so far.

I need to get back to working on Jake's arm now.

Teeny Tiny Yoda

Being on holiday until the beginning of February 2013, I'm trying my best to get as much done and made as possible. I'm terrified that I won't be able to take all of my crafting stuff with me when I go into a university residence next year. I'm also trying to write more tutorials of the things I make, rather than just finishing crafts - it's always fun to share the pattern for something I've enjoyed making.

On that note, here is one of my most recent crafts - a teeny tiny felt Yoda keyring.

It was a pretty quick project to make - it can easily be finished in a single afternoon - and I think he turned out super cute! I hand-stitched the whole thing, so you won't need a sewing machine to make this. I mostly just used scraps of felt, so it's a great stash-buster kind of project that costs almost nothing to make. He's 4.7cm tall.

I drew up the pattern while I was making him, which you can find along with the full tutorial over on my post on Cut Out + Keep. This is a perfect geek-gift, with Christmas so nearby.

I'm thinking of making another slightly larger one as a normal plushie, but I'm not sure I'll have enough green felt, so we'll have to see.

Also: it's already December. I mean, I suppose everyone knows that, but it scarcely feels so. This year has flown by, and the summer weather still seems to be taking its time - it was pretty cold this evening, when it's usually warm by this time of year. 

Cosmic Collars

I've seen so many Peter Pan collar-style necklaces and so much galaxy print floating around the parts of the internet devoted to fashion lately that they've finally lured me in, and I had to try them out for myself - so I put both of them into one item. And, thus, I present to you:

To make this, you're going to need:

• Leather or faux leather
• Acrylic paint
• Modge Podge
• A punch (or something else to make holes in the leather with)
• 3 jump rings
• A clasp
• A piece of chain

Before you start, find a collar template online or draft your own. For my rounded collar, I drew my own, but for the scalloped one, I went here.

1. Cut out your template from leather/faux leather. I found that the best way to do this (without sticking pins into it) is to use masking tape to stick down the outsides of the template, then cutting through the masking tape.
   
2. Paint your collar pieces black (my leather was already very dark brown, but I painted them black anyway).
   
3. Punch holes in your collar pieces. Make one hole at the front (where the two pieces will join in the centre) and one hole at the back of each collar piece. I used a 2mm punch, but what size you want is up to you.
   
4. Sponge some white acrylic paint onto the collar pieces. I just used a torn-up piece of kitchen sponge for this bit.
   
5. Keep adding various colours, mixing and dabbing them together until you finally get a galaxy look that you're happy with. It's a good idea to have a visual reference for this part, so Google some pictures of galaxies.
   
6. Add a few white dots for stars.
   
7. After the paint is dry, add a layer of Modge Podge to seal it. Wait for the Modge Podge to dry.
   
8. Connect the two collar pieces by putting a jump ring through the two holes in the centre.
   
9. Add some chain to the back of one collar piece.
   
10. Add a lobster clasp to the back of the other collar piece.

And you're done! 

The trickiest part is trying to get the paint to do what you want - galaxies can be pretty frustrating to paint, but it's also a fun challenge.

I also posted this tutorial over on Cut Out + Keep, which you can find over here.