So, here's a couple of my Christmas prezzies for some friends. The journal in a jar has been on my mind since I first saw it on my friend's tumblr, and I guess I just kind of ran with the whole gifts in a jar idea.
Here's the prezzie I made: So, I took the idea of a journal jar and ran with it, adding some extra little things she might want to use into it and I used a large jar so she can add put a lot of extra stuff into it throughout the year. The ornament (decoration?) and oversized ribbon is reused from Christmas presents to our family (I like to grab ribbons from presents and add them to my stash and they tend to turn up everywhere).
Here's a closer look at the journal tags I made:
I made 52 journal tags so she'd have a tag per week for the whole year. I traced a cardboard tag (which I got attached to a pair of pants we bought) onto various bits of paper and cardboard I had in my stash and cut them out, punched holes and added hole reinforcement stickers to them.
I completely forgot to take pictures of the cards and everything before I tied it up. I cut up note cards that were a Christmas present to my dad which he had no use for (because the other half had his name on them) and wrote inspirational quotes on them. I made 25 in total and put them into little envelopes and put them in the jar. The shredded gold foil, ribbon, and decor are all reused.
Last is this chocolate chip cookie mix in a jar: Here's the recipe I used: http://www.meals.com/recipe/chocolate-chip-cookie-mix-a-jar-32260 I decided to go with a cookie in a jar because I remember how my friend once made a cake from a mix one dinner we had at their house and I wanted to help her make cookies almost from scratch. Here’s the recipe I used. I decided to go with a bigger jar because I wanted them to use it as a cookie jar after, I just added foil and some chocolates on top so the contents wouldn't shift. I added more ribbon from stash and tags with the recipe and also with the contents of the mix so she could make some from scratch if she ever wanted to.
I put chalkboard labels on all of them (but you can't see them in the first two). I got a roll of chalkboard sticker from a sale last year (I think it was 70Php or ~$2) and stuck them in the jars. I did the first two with silver Sharpie, but the cookie jar, I did it in chalk so if they use it as a cookie jar, they can change the writing on it.
Thanks to the bag I got from the whendonverse swap, I saw the potential in making bags from pillowcases. I found the one I got really useful because it takes up so little space in my usual bag, but it's really useful during shopping. I decided to make one for one of my girl friends who just had her birthday last November 8.
I cut a pillowcase in half and used the bottom half to make her bag. (I'll probably make the top half into another bag). I zigzagged the raw edge, folded it down and just stitched around for the top. I sewed a couple of inches from the corners of the bottom to give it a squared bottom. I sewed gold ribbon as handles.
This started out because I love sneakers and I have a couple of pairs of them, but realized about a week ago that I'd stopped wearing them when I got a pair of slip-on Toms. I was going the lazy route and because of having to tie laces, had actually stopped using my beloved sneakers.
I knew there are some slip-on Converse shoes and decided to search for a tutorial online about making slip-on sneakers. But I found this tutorial and decided that her way was better than my original idea of remaking those slip-ons because there was less sewing involved.
I bought some 1/4" white garter, took off the laces on my sneakers and cut some garter slightly shorter than the laces. I laced them up while I was wearing the sneakers, and tightened them as much as I normally lace my sneakers.
Instead of sewing them to the tongue of the sneaker, I just hand sewed them to the side with thread the same color as the sneakers.
I wore them on a trip and I love how easy it is to just slip them on and off at the airport, but they still have the fit that laces give to shoes. I may have to convert all my sneakers into slip-ons.
This is my first real sewing project using a machine, and I'm pretty proud of it.
I actually remembered to take before pics of this one (albeit blurry ones)
This was actually a pair of slightly longer than knee-length shorts I used to wear when I was still in uni. But a couple of years and some weight gain later, I could not even zip up the side any more. (These before pics are embarrassing, gosh)
I ripped the seams out of the inner seam and sewed the fronts and the backs together. Did these with french seams because that's how the original seam was and I decided I had to do it. I admit that the seams aren't as neat as the original, but at least I did them.
I used the original hem and hiked it up since there was more width to it at the lower end. I decided how long I wanted to make it and chopped off the excess up top. I put back the pocket into the right side seam. I was going to reuse the zipper, but realized that I wasn't up to measuring and being accurate about it. So I decided to just fold down the top and put garter in.
I just proved to myself that sewing with a machine isn't so hard and, ohmigod, it was so worth it shelling out the money to get a basic one because of the time saved and I no longer have to put up with all the needle pricks from handsewing everything.
My partner in the whedonverse swap requested for some tall cards. I got a lot of inspiration from the tall card set that someone made for an earlier whedonverse swap and posted here on craftster.
Here's a pic that my partner posted on the swap gallery: And here's a pic I took with the whole strawberry suit (I flipped the middle row so the back could be seen):
So, I couldn't find a picture of the front of the cards, so I just used the image I used for the back of the cards. Also, I don't think it's the exact image on the back of the cards, but it was good enough for me. (Found the image here)
I did a bunch of google image searches for the fruits for the suits and for the phoenix, unicorn, tortoise, and dragon. And a couple of hours working on gimp, I made the cards. I then sized them so that 4 would fit in a 5R (5"x7"), and had them all printed out at a local photo printing shop. Cut them all out, glued them together with a piece of cardboard in between (but afterwards, I realized that maybe even without the middle piece it would have been sturdy enough). The cutting out and sticking them together and trimming edges took the most time and were pretty hard on the hands. But they were so very pretty when I got done. I blacked the edges of the cards with a stamp pad. The tall cards I made using by printing a larger version of the fruits and gluing onto cardboard circles.
So, this is one of the items I made for the Whedonverse swap I just participated in. It's a recreation of a Londinium poster using one of my favorite medium and drawing surface pairs.
Here's a picture I took before I sent out: And here's the pic my partner took:
I wanted to get really crisp lines for the letters and the building silhouettes and experimented with ironing (lightly) freezer paper stencils onto the felt paper. It worked great.
Still on a stenciling kick, and still going with incredibly detailed stencils. Ever since I did my Gallifreyan shirt (lots of tiny islands!), I've gotten hooked with using more ambitious stencils. I've gone on to do my multiple fandoms shirt (lots of stencils + the LotR inscription!) and now this one. My friends and I also did a bunch of shirts for a volunteering gig we have going, but I'll post about 'em when I finally get a decent pic of them. This shirt came to be because couldn't get the idea of stenciling a mix of Lord of the Rings and Doctor Who on a shirt out of my head so I finally did it.
I couldn't find the perfect fitting shirt, so I ended up reconstructing a man's shirt to work with. Still not a perfect shirt, but definitely fits better all around.
This stencil was another PITA to make (it literally took my hours to finish it), but my new swivel knife definitely made it easier compared to my first attempt with the LotR inscription.
Here's a pic of the stenciled design on the shirt:
And here's the pic of it worn (yeah, I put it on the back. It's not lopsided, it's just really hard to take a pic of your own back):
This one owes a lot to my shirt swap partner, Eiseldora. Thanks to the shirt she sent me, I realized that putting multiple fandoms on a shirt is doable and I used the freezer paper she sent me for these.
This shirt made me undergo a lot of stress (mainly due to assuming that the unlabeled metallic paint I had in my stash was acrylic and watching it come out in the wash. I ended up having to redo a couple of stencils. Sooo frustrating). But I am pretty pleased with the end result.
Here's the front of the shirt:
And the back:
And the sleeves (top - right sleeve, bottom - left sleeve):
As for a list of the fandoms: Firefly, A Wrinkle In Time, Lord of the Rings, Stargate: Atlantis, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Harry Potter. I still have some space on the back of the shirt that I'm still deciding what to stencil. I'm thinking anime, maybe something Gundam Wing related, but maybe Ghibli would work too.
This is another one of those stenciling projects that I really, really wanted to get to the final product because the actual making was agonizing. I think I really go for the whole masochistic stenciling. Circles are never easy to cut out, something I picked up from my Gallifreyan shirt, but I still have circles here. And lots of curves. T_T But the outcome is pretty epic. Especially that Lord of the Rings inscription
I'm not sure if ear pins is the proper term, but here are two I've made recently. Just some wire, used my pliers, and a bit of patience and I have these fun word earrings.
So, I was watching this video from New Voices on youtube where they're singing Killing Me from The Hinterlands and I couldn't help staring at how they did the start of the song with almost all the lights off and I just had to draw it.
I haven't really drawn in a while, but I loved making this quick drawing. The words at the bottom are from the lyrics of the song.
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