Crafting - Tumblr Posts
Holy heck this is amazing...
Titanosaurus, my beloved, my dear, a kaiju from Terror of Mechagodzilla that i needlefelted in 2022.
It almost looks like I know what I'm doing. Tried my hand at paper quilling
So my Christmas Tree was crafted from popsicle sticks two years ago, thanks to my nephew picking out awesome geeky ornaments it needed to be made bigger
Local event this weekend. Bennington Quiltfest 2022.
I have been working on this project for 8 years and it's FINALLY DONE!!!
Look. Look at my labor of 8 years. LOOK AT IT.
The pattern is Neat Ripple. I used Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in lots of various colors. If you'd like specific color names, let me know. I'm fairly certain the lighter orange is discontinued, named "Conch".
Rejoice with me!
For I have acquired equipment that enhances the functionality of two different crafting devices!
Specifically, I bought a second-heddle-block for my rigid heddle loom, which will allow me to weave new and interesting kinds of cloth! And I bought a spinning wheel repair kit, so I can refurbish my new-to-me spinning wheel!
Rejoice! For now more things will be made!
(I am soooooo thrilled 😁 )
Very first attempt at a cross stitch (I think that’s what this is called?). I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not quite what the package displayed… but it’s cute anyway 🤷🏻♀️
Yes, yes, it’s November, but I didn’t have good photos of these until Sunday night, so you’re getting a last taste of Halloween two days late.
We moved to a new house last year just after Halloween, and our new place has more than double the number of windows the previous one had. I had several of these pieces up in the windows at the old house as part of our Halloween decorations, and wanted to continue that, so I had to spend some time expanding the collection to fill the new windows. And that means a crafting post to share.
Here you can see a bit of the process behind making these window silhouettes. I didn’t take progress shots while I was working on the pieces themselves (I was busy trying to get these done in time), but I did snap a photo of my project notebook (a single-subject spiral notebook in which I plan out any number of projects in ballpoint pen before I try knocking them out in person).
I started with some basic notes on what I wanted to get out of this. Specifically, nine windows, and the most basic composition idea behind them. I’d already spent time prior contemplating the basic composition, but if I hadn’t, there’d be more lines of brainstorming as I worked out on paper how I wanted to do this.
Once that was jotted down, I drew out nine frames in which to doodle ideas. I knew what pieces I had already, so I drew those in (the three tombstones on the top row, the pumpkins on the bottom row, the hand with the skull, the owl and the raven), then doodled other ideas as I went along, including some additional basic tombstone shapes. You can see on windows 2 and 5 where I scribbled over one idea with another, and the cat on window 9 was an afterthought (I already had it, but had forgotten to include it on one of the windows until one of my kids pointed it out). There are also margin notes clarifying beyond my doodles.
Once that was done, I broke out the poster board. The additional elements ultimately took six sheets of black poster board, and the original silhouettes I had were probably another four or five (I don’t remember at this point). I had a tape measure from the tool box for comparing poster board against the windows themselves to make sure things were cut out at the correct size, and I used a ballpoint pen to draw on the poster board before cutting, as it wouldn’t show if the pen-drawn side had to be facing outward. Start with large pieces first, like tombstones, and remember that things can always be pieced together out of larger sheets as needed (the crypt on window 5 and the Celtic cross tombstone on window 2 are both pieced together, as is the Reaper and his scythe on window 6). The tree branches were the last thing done, and they were cut as a series of lots (and lots and lots) of single wiggly sticks that were then assembled like puzzle parts to create branching shapes. I also ended up making an extra raven at my younger children’s request. It’s important to remember to save any parts you cut out of larger pieces in case you can use it for something else—case in point: the skull in the hand is cut out of one of the tombstones, and the cross on top of another tombstone is cut from a tombstone. Exacto knives are helpful for this.
Once all the silhouette pieces were cut out, I made the backing panels for each window. In previous years, I taped the silhouettes directly to the window panes, and then added orange backing material on Halloween itself so we could have the silhouettes up for more of the month, without blocking our view. This was not feasible in the new house, since the windows are made up of small panes of glass in wood framing, and taping directly to them wouldn’t work so well, so I decided instead to tape the silhouettes to the backing material, and only put them up the day before Halloween. It’s fine. They look better lit up anyway.
The backing panel material is orange plastic table cloths from the dollar store. It’s thin enough to let light through, while still providing a pleasant orange look to the windows when backlit. It’s also very cheap, so you have to handle carefully or you’ll end up with nicks and tears in it. Ask me how I know. I used clear Scotch packing tape to affix the silhouettes to the backing material.
At the bottom of my diagram, you can see a house shape I drew with windows numbered. That was me planning out where the silhouettes would end up on the house face once they were assembled. That done, we put them up on the windows with packing tape, and left the curtains open so the light from the room could illuminate the silhouettes.
In the photos of the windows, you can also see where I put handprints in the small panes to either side of the front door. These were done in black cardstock, by tracing my children’s hands. The panes were already frosted with privacy material, but I’m thinking of using some of the extra orange table cloth material to help color the panels next time.
Maybe sometime in the future I’ll do a mini tutorial on how to make the cutouts themselves, at least.
The latest geeky decor in our collection, inspired by Outer Wilds. Spoilers, probably. Sorry.
So there are campfires in the game where you can pull out your trusty marshmallow-roasting stick and toast a few. The UI doesn't tell you this overtly, but they actually have the mechanical benefit of recovering hit points if they're toasted nicely. Most people just toast them because it's a cute little detail.
The game also has a supernova that happens at a certain point. If you happen to be at a campfire with your marshmallows out when the supernova hits, the supernova will actually toast your marshmallow (it'll go straight to "on fire," but that still counts as toasting it).
So I thought it'd be fun to do one of those "in case of ___ break glass" projects, specifically for this game.
Non-tutorial-style description:
The frame is a 6"x8" shadow box so as to sit comfortably on our bookshelves (we tuck decor among the sci-fi and fantasy novels). Unfortunately I didn't find one I could easily disassemble, so the inner frame (that holds the front clear panel in place) was securely glued. Since the frame was black with a white interior, this meant having to use painter's tape to try to protect the acrylic panel while I sprayed the outside red, and then being careful with sandpaper and a brush as I painted the inside black. You can still see white around the edges. Lessons learned: look for one that can be completely disassembled so I don't scratch/scuff the acrylic or get paint/tape on it by accident.
I don't have a handy vinyl cutter for the letters, so rather than track down someone who had one to cut the letters for me, I opted to have them printed on a backdrop instead. I added a high-res copy of the Outer Wilds Ventures patch from the game, and a starfield taken from the promo art. I'm actually happy with this look.
The marshmallow stick is made from three things. The stick itself is from a decorative apple branch from Hobby Lobby's floral section. I pulled off the apples and clipped off the leaves and extra twigs until I had a good-looking gnarled stick about the right length. Then I hot-glued faux suede around it for a grip. The marshmallow was made from Crayola Model Magic air-dry clay, which is the perfect color and texture if you get the white kind (which is easy to find). I shaped it into a soft cylinder and then poked the stick through it, and let it dry for a couple of days.
Once everything was ready, I wiped down the inside of the acrylic pane with rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth to try to get as much dust out of there as possible (because it sticks to the acrylic like crazy). I put the marshmallow stick in next, then used bookbinding tape (because it's the only acid-free tape I currently have) to fix the printed background to the insert card that came with the shadow box and put that in, then put the back of the shadow box in place and closed everything up. Wiped down the front with alcohol and microfiber as well, and now it's sitting in our living room.
Maybe sometime in the future I'll do a tour post of our geeky decor in the living room.
False and Scott have bonded over their shared love of craftsmanship. They like to work on projects together. I love this idea!!!1
Hey Goblins, uh
Did you know, that you can make an AWESOME journal for your adventures ALL ON YOUR OWN from a cereal box and paper/scraps that you likely have at home/can get from friends or family/you may find around your environment?
They’re called Junk Journals and they’re my entire life.
Im gonna do my best to walk you through how to make one! First, get you a mini cereal box! I use boxes from those cool multipacks of cereal that you can find at Walmart!
And then cut it out so it looks like this! (I already had one cut, so I’m gonna use that)
That “nutrition facts” side is gone become your spine!
Next, find some paper to use to decorate your cover! I was lucky enough to be gifted a bunch of scrapbooking paper, so I’m gonna use that, but you can also use newspaper, paper from books/magazines, junk mail, napkins, paper towels (excellent texture), etc!
Go ahead and glue that paper to your box (to cover the cereal logo) and cut it out! It’ll look like this;
Next you need to find your pages! Again these can be anything! Junk mail, envelopes, receipts, food wrappers, magazine/book pages, scrapbook paper, computer paper, construction paper, ANYTHING. Just grab a whole bunch!
You’re gonna want to fold them in half and cut them to the size of one of the covers of your box, and layer other pages inside of it to make your signatures, like this!
Each signature should be about 7-10 pages. You don’t want them too thick, otherwise the inner pages start sticking out when folded in half. You’re gonna have a LOT of these signatures, as you wanna fill the area in the spine as best as possible. For this one I’m using 7 page signatures. Here’s a pic to show just how much paper you’ll need
Each of these signatures are 7 pages, 6 signatures have only filled about half of the spine, so I’ll need probably 6 more.
Next you gotta figure out how you want them in your journal. Personally, I like to sew them into the spine, but you can also keep them in the spine with rubber bands, so you can have removable pages! (Be weary that rubber bands may break over time! So you may want to always keep extra bands near it to replace in case one snaps. This is why I prefer sewing them in) I find it best to look up on YouTube how to sew in signatures, just because having someone walk you through it where you can see what they’re doing is easiest. If you can’t access YouTube, there’s plenty of text tutorials on how to sew in signatures online, or you can message me! I’m not gonna go too into detail, but here’s the jist;
Okay so I’m a forgetful gob and I hecken forgot to take pictures as I was going along kahshshshsh
But essentially, I sewed in the pattern similar to the one I drew. The dots are where the needle goes all the way through to the back. I also like to use rubber band as an extra mode of support but you can do one or the other. I also like both cuz I can tuck stuff in em between the pages. Since I didn’t take more pictures; I’d really recommend looking up a how-to on YouTube or w/e if my badly drawn diagram isn’t clear enough (heh sorry about that)
Next, I glue fabric to the spine. It spruces it up quite a lot and holds the rubber bands in place, plus it give more support to the spine since there’s gonna be a lot of strain on it.
Only 10 photos per post, so I gotta post this and reblog it with the rest.