Random Tip: Craftster is for freely sharing how to make things! Don't post pics of things you sell in hopes of getting some sales or we'll have to bust out the LIMBO stick on you!
Total Members: 290,249 Currently Running With Scissors:
887 Guests and 49 Users
wow - the links you guys have been posting are cute cute cute!!! makes me wish i had a lil more time to make some more stuff!!! i've been bookmarking frantically and hoping i'll remember to hunt some of this down next year.... thinking i ought to just print a bunch out and start an "ideas" file.
i've had a very productive couple of days.... only got a few last minute things left to do til i'm all finished!
that leaves me with one or two more eggs to carve, one small fabric collage left, and a jumbo batch of decorated sugar cookies.
oh, and i need to prepare 2 dishes/casseroles for the night of the 23rd. people are already bringing hash brown casserole, squash casserole, and sweet potato casserole, so i was thinking something either green and/or fresh, but not really wanting to do a green bean casserole (made one for thanksgiving). anybody have any favorite recipes? doesn't have to be a "traditional" christmas dish....
so i've got 4 complete fabric collages. plus 2 that the fabric part is all done, but i haven't added the button bling, and two that i've just laid the foundation layer of fabric.... got a lot done on that today! got a few more eggs left to do, but i've scaled back on that project a bit, so it's not a huge deal...
here's a quick pic of the first three i did... they're gradually getting cooler and more detailed as i get more efficient and practiced at making them. will post better pics of each when i finish...
ps i totally have to brag... was talking about how many buttons i've been using on these projects and that i needed to go buy some more.... my dear sweet mommy dear brought me a present to work the next day!!! apparently she's been sitting on this collection of my grandmas buttons for over 5 years now - i didn't even know they existed!!! of course, i'm totally not using these buttons for this project.... too stingy, i guess... i think i'll make some of those button display wreaths/shadowboxes, 1 each for me and my mom... for next christmas!!!
i've spent the last 3 WEEKS painting ornaments for the PTO to sell at a fundraiser they do each year. so when one of the other pto ladies contacted me just as i was FINALLY finishing up the last batch and asked for a custom ornament, you'll forgive me if i wasn't super enthusiastic. so i got to thinkin, there's gotta be some other way i can do this..... and here's what i came up with!! it was super easy, and seriously came together from a few scraps of felt i had laying around in maybe 10 minutes. then i have to thank that button stocking ( http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=365725.0 ) for giving me the idea for the sprinkles, and i then decided the rest of the ball needed a little excitement, so i used a tube of irridescent glitter glue to pipe swirlies on the rest of the bulb. under 15 minutes, bulb was done! finished it off with a handmade bow decorated with some press-on rhinestones i had laying around. next year, i'm doing all felt ornaments for the pto and leaving the paints in the box!!!
the pto @ the school my kiddo goes to does an event called "cookies with santa" every year. at this event, they sell christmas ornaments to raise money so the pto can buy christmas presents for underprivileged children within the school district. i managed, somehow, to volunteer myself to do a bunch of ornaments for the sale. here they are!
(these are my favorite. on the back they say "santa knows that you've been naughty, but here's the inside scoop- he's running out of coal this year, so you get snowman poop!" and they're full of mini marshmallows)
Here is a painting i did from a tattoo pattern. I had a client come in and tell me he wanted me to design a sort of patron saint for the working class. He really kinda just left it at that and let me run with it. It was so fun coming up with the design, and i was so peased with the finished sketch, i asked if he would mind if i held onto it and made a painting from it. he said that would be fine. (unfortunately i didn't get a picture of the finished tattoo itself.) Anyways, here 'tis!! =)
It's canvas stretched over a cradleboard made from 2x4's and masonite. finished dimensions are somewhere around 3' x 4'. the paint is acrylic, and i've also used sharpie, metal leaf, and acrylic gel medium. Actually, the gel medium idea is my favorite thing about it and, i think, a stroke of genius!! i wanted to add some texture to the flat pink area, but i wanted it to be subtle. then i got the idea to put gel medium into a frosting bag and actually pipe it onto the canvas! then i went back after it dried and made a wash with thinned down white acrylic and put it overtop. i'm so happy with how that came out and ever since then have been having visions of frosting a big canvas the way you would a cake; adding different pigments to the medium and literally piping the design right onto the canvas! add that to my "one of these days" list..... =)
so i went to the thrift store a while back and came home with a dead fish. why did i come home with a dead fish? honestly, i have no idea. he was cheap, and he spoke to me. so i brought him home, and put him on the kitchen counter, and there he stayed for a good two weeks, until he spoke again. what did he say? he said "Luca Brasi sleeps with tha fishes!!" I'm the last person who's gonna argue with a statement like that. now he hangs on my living room wall. I'm just waiting for him to tell me what the banner's supposed to say. So far he's been pretty quiet. (anybody know how to say "he rests" in italian?)
(the portrait is of Lenny Montana, the actor who played Luca Brasi in The Godfather)
so i was helping my mom pick out a dollhouse for my niece last Christmas... and i saw all these crazy detailed wooden kits and was like... "i want one of those!" ...she got me one. it was lots of fun figuring out how to put the durn thing together, especially since some of the numbers didn't quite match up how they were supposed to, etc. but when i finished it, i was like... now what? so i decided to just paint it totally outlandish/fun... when i finished that, i was like.... now what? after that the project kinda took on a life of its own.... it's not quite done 'cause my whimsy stash is (not surprisingly) totally busted..... and i've reached a point where i'm just not sure what i wanna do with that last room and that last little space on the downstairs porch.... anybody got any ideas? =)
So this is a little project i just whipped out - was very fast and easy, but I was so pleased with the end product I decided to share! =)
This is my son's first school photo (sigh - growing up too fast!) before he started school, he's had the same girl looking after him almost every day for the last two years. About a month before school started, her fiance had a new job opportunity in a city two hours away. They moved. He misses her terribly, and she misses him! She calls him on the phone, he chatters away for AGES! anyways, when his first school photo arrived, i knew i had to do something special with it for her. I pretty much had it planned out in my head for two or three days before sitting down to put it together this evening...
about 20 minutes and only 2 small hot-glue burns later: (trying to get hot-glue on teensy-weensies without also getting it on your fingertips = HARD!!)
finished product = lurve! (at least i hope she lurves it )
uhm... guess there's no snails OR puppy-dog's tails in there....
thanks for looking! any input would be appreciated! (sorry for the not-great photos - phone pics! )
So of course my son Nicholas, being your typical 4 year old boy, is obsessed with Thomas the Train. No great surprise, then, when he requested a Thomas costume for halloween. Built Thomas' "skeleton" by making several cardboard cutouts of cross-sections of Thomas... used these as stencils to cut a series of "slices" of Thomas out of a foam mattress pad. grouped like slices, wrapped & stitched each into a couple layers of batting so they would be smooth when covered in fabric. covered each section in fabric (felt & fleece, which i find to be most forgiving for the lazy crafter!) then stitched them all together. embellished with felt, ribbon, and hot glue! thomas' face is two layers of felt sandwiched around a couple layers of fleece, white felt for eyes, embroidered the face, and basted on the front of his boiler. I also made the hat, from a pattern i found online ( mushroomvillagers.wordpress.com/the-eddie-cap-tutorial/ ) [a super-simple easy to follow tutorial i'd recommend to anyone with little train enthusiasts at home] What started as a fun project costume turned into a nearly-month-long endeavor. Glad i started this one early, as usually i put it off til the last week or two! anyways, this is my first posting here, thanks so much for looking!
okay guess i have to post links to pics since i'm new here....
Show Images
He misses her terribly, and she misses him! She calls him on the phone, he chatters away for AGES! anyways, when his first school photo arrived, i knew i had to do something special with it for her. I pretty much had it planned out in my head for two or three days before sitting down to put it together this evening...
)
