Felties - Blog/Pattern

When coming up for the idea behind this post, I could not think of an appropriate name for these little guys, so I called them "Felties" which sounds completely bonkers, but fits the purposes.

When I first came up with the idea to make my nephew a buzz lightyear scarf, I envisioned a little buzz on the end. It tuned out as such:

Then, I thought, "A girl buzz would be cute," and thus this Feltie was created.:

Afterwards I was so into it that I made iron man and started princess peach, but ran out of scrap felt before she could be finished....

Aside from peach, I found them adorable and figured that I could most likely adorn them onto things and sell them in my shop. I'll add a pattern soon, so that my fellow crafters can make them for free, but please don't sell them.

See? She isn't cute, just odd looking...


Have fun crafting!

Hand-bound Sketchbook

The cover.

So in two weeks my nephew is having a birthday... He's turning six, so I figured it was time to get him actively engaged in various art forms. I'm starting with drawing.

Following a lovely tutorial I found on dA here, I bound a sketchbook for him and covered it in denim. After playing around with sharpie and rubbing alcohol, I finished it up and threw in a pack of roseart crayons.

Here is the side view of the book.

Seeing as my nephew loves nascar, I made a gift tag, as demonstrated in this tutorial, with nascar pictures. I wrapped the package in brown paper and tied it up with string. I can't wait to give it to him!

Here is what the opening and ending pages look like, I "collaged" some magazine bits.

Tutorial - Buzz Lightyear Child's Scarf

“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either.” ― Elizabeth Zimmermann

 KNITTING, KNITTING, KNITTING; WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? 

As you may have already guessed by the pictures/quote/scream-type-thing, I, teenage-crafter have taken up knitting, a craft I thought I would never understand. 

To me, knitting seemed like an obnoxiously long way to make something that most likely would look pretty lame to on-lookers. Of course, I thought this, because I was jealous of knitters, and the knowledge that they possessed. In fact, two years ago, I attempted to take up the hobby, only to find myself with a skein full of knotted yarn, two hours worth of sleep, and NO nice little scarf... Unfortunately for ME, I had promised my nephew a lovely scarf made by his favorite artist. (Child-hood forgetfulness did not work in my favor, here, as he still remembers the promise nearly three years after the fact.)

Therefore, on Saturday, I went out with the goal of a love-able scarf set in mind. To accomplish this, I decided to make it in the image of the hero of all children's toys, Buzz Lightyear. Since I couldn't find an acceptable way to do this on the internet, (And, I'm not nearly skilled enough at knitting to make my own pattern-y thing.) I decided to sew on a life-like Buzz unto the scarf with felt in just the right colors. :)

See, Buzz is excited about being made into a scarf!

Materials Needed:

• Yarn of some sort (I used "I love this yarn" #201/Greybeard size medium.)
• Knitting needles (I used US size 8/5.00mm needles)
• The Recipient's height
• Felt (Peachy, green, red, purple, brown, white, blue, black, yellow, and gray.) [For this, it might be simpler just to buy a big pack of felt, which is what I did. :)]
• Sewing needle
• Thread (I personally prefer for this to be in the same color as the yarn, but it's up to you. )
• Scissors
• Fabric Glue (I used "Aleene's OK To Wash-It" Glue, so that my sister could wash the scarf without Buzz, falling off.)

Let's KNIT!

• First thing's first, gather your materials... If you are making the scarf way before it is going to be gifted, as I am, you can probably save some cash, and just purchase the yarn and needles. (Unless, you just want to be prepared, that's good too!) I got both of mine at the Hobby Lobby, where my yarn was priced at $3.99, and my needles were priced at $4.09, this was pricey for my jobless teenage self, so I printed the weekly coupon and brought my sister, and I ended up spending $4.85 total. (GOOD DEAL, right?)
• Now, all you have to do, is learn how to knit.... WELLLLLL, considering that I just started, I'm not exactly the best person to be teaching you, however, I can give you the link to the tutorial that taught me, which was literally one of the easiest tutorials to follow. Here it is:

[You can make your scarf as wide or thin as you'd like, for the one I made I cast on 25 stitches, making it just about 5 inches wide.]

• Wasn't that EASY? Now that you're knitting up a storm, it is the perfect time to bring in the child's measurements... The reason I had you get those, was because the general consensus for how long a scarf should be, is how tall the recipient is. However, kids grow like bean stalks, so it is good to add a good four inches to the length, in order to better ensure that is will (hopefully) make it through the cold season.
• Continue knitting until you have reached the desired length and then bind off. Wasn't that fun? Mine took me about five days to make and ended up being 60 inches long!

To the FELT and Beyond!

• Now that you have finished your fabulous scarf, it is time to add on our good friend, Buzz Lightyear! I will provide a template below, for Lightyear's pieces. (When I get around to it....) Just adjust to your width and get printing!

My scarf ended up being about 60in in length, and is very warm, with the exception of a few holes from where I started and dropped stitches.

Tutorial: Homemade Gift Tags

There are many ways to make tags for your gifts, so that your loved ones can see how incredibly crafty you are.... This, is the method that I use, which I find to be very effective.

While nursing today's sunburn, before my upcoming trip to the beach where my family and I will celebrate my dad's birthday, I decided it was time to make my dad's present.

However, I had no idea what I wanted to give my dad, so I decided to make the wrappings and tags first. Since I planned to just use an old paper bag for the wrapping, all I had to do was create the cute little tags.

What you will need is:

• Desired Images
• Printer
• Scissors
• Glue
• Hole Reinforcements

Step One:

The first thing you need to do is find your images, I used some stock images off of Google. Then, take the images into Photoshop or another image editor and desaturate them. Print them out.

Step Two:

Now cut one little pentagon out of the image, you can do whatever shape you want, but I prefer pentagons or circles.

Turn the shape over, and set it face down on the rest of the image, cut out a second shape using your first as a stencil.

As you can see, for this tag, I used two different images.

Step Three:

Now take your shapes and apply glue to the white area on the back. Then, press the two together and allow to dry.

Step Four:

Once your tag has dried, punch a hole though the top and add the hole reinforcements to the front and back of the tag.

Viola! You are done. Add fun string, an perhaps the recipients initials in paint, for more personal touch.

Here are all the cool little tags that I made, the reinforcements will really help them last!

Five Little Updates July-2012

Hello there, if you have visited my blog before (Which you probably haven't..), you may have noticed a few changes to the site. If you are new, stick around, because I'm going to go through the changes.

Number One:

This change is minor, in fact, you might not even notice, I've added a personalized favicon that depicts me sitting on the initials of my blog. Here's a higher quality picture. 

As you can see, I'm very content in this picture...

Number Two:

This second change is bigger, and far more useful. I've added a link bar, so that you can get to all of my little useful links with ease from the top of the page... I link to my home page, my about me page, and my deviant art profile.

Number Three:

This is another small change, but the background of my blog is now a water color mixture thing that I made. :3 It looks like this:

Number Four:

You can now grab buttons for your blogs or websites, whenever you've recreated something I've done, or if you just like my blog. :3 They look like this:

I'm thinking of making another, that is round. 

Number Five: 

There are links to specific things now, such as updates, tutorials, and blogs. :) My blog's interface is now much easier to get around. (Of course there is still the archive that will get you to where you want to be as well. :3

Tutorial: Leopard Print Nails

Tutorial: Leopard Print Nails

After recently purchasing three new OPI colors in 'Wocka Wocka', 'Kyoto Pearl', and 'DS Classic', I've been looking for new interesting ways to use them... I discovered that 'Wocka Wocka' looks pretty good on its own, along with being very pretty with 'Kyoto Pearl' and Sally Hanson's 'Cherry Nice' in water marbling... 'DS Classic', however, is more of a muted gold that by itself while beautiful remains somehow quieter than I expected.

I put my mind to finding a way to use the polish in a creative way that wouldn't diminish the beauty, but rather make it more noticeable, so that I wouldn't grow tired of it so easily. It suddenly hit me after scrutinizing Pinterest last night for DIY things to try, LEOPARD!

What you'll need:

• DS Classic OPI Nail Lacquer(Or another glittery gold color.)
• Any black nail art polish. Alternatively, you could use black nail polish with a toothpick.)
• Clear nail polish. (I used Mary Kay: Quick Dry, which was..... interesting.)
• OPTIONAL: White nail polish.

Let's Get Started!

• First thing's first, begin with clean nails that have been removed of oils, and paint a coat of clear gloss over your nails to protect them from discoloration that can be caused by the lacquer.
• The second step is optional, paint a thin layer of white polish on your nail. (This step will make the color a tad bit more bold, but will also make the polish easier to peel off.)
• Then paint the glittery gold color, in my case I'm using 'DS Classic' by OPI.
• Once the gold is dry, using the black nail art brush paint organic looking 'c' like shapes on your nails.
• Once that is dry paint a clear coat on top to protect your design. 

A good pattern to base your nails off of.

GOOD LUCK!