[bold]

Post your body-positive goodies here!
(Don't forget to PM me when you send and receive!)

Original thread here.

PARTNERS bold = sent italic = received underlined = sending late, but communicating red = you need to PM me!
Dorkariffic <-> Krafty KT
shewantsxglamor <-> ambervacation
StrwbryMlkmmmmmm <-> veganxwater
shiftychica <-> ophelias_lost_dream
Shimmer413 <-> edel
shylitlegoddess <-> crumpet13
defying gravity (flaker)[/color] <-> DharmaLei <- rockmygypsysoul (angel)

I'm helping my brother Joe make a Christmas gift for my brother Dan, and what he wants me to do is decorate the cover of the book type thing he's got. It's a textured plastic report cover, kind of like this.

I was thinking of stencilling or stamping on it, but when we tested the stamp, most of the ink rubbed right off, and I'm afraid the same thing will happen with paint from a stencil.

I was wondering if there's some kind of fixative we could use to make it stay.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

[bold]

Swap name: Body Appreciation Swap
Craftster member who is organizing this swap: Dorkariffic
Sign-up date range: 11/1/06 - 11/15/06
Date to send item by: 12/15/06 12/22/06

Limited to a certain number of people? (optional): Nope.

Restricted to people who all live in the same country? NO

All ages allowed? Or 18+? All ages, but if you're under 18, please get permission from a parent/guardian.

Swap Organizer himself/herself meets these conditions:
- Has fully read the Swap Info Guide: YES
- Has successfully completed two swaps as a participant: YES
- Is not organizing more than three swaps right now: YES
- Will recruit a co-organizer or give all details to a Swap Moderator if this swap has more than 25 participants: YES

Swap Organizer will check each participant to make sure they meet these conditions:
- Has been a member for at least one month: YES
- Has posted at least 15 times: YES
- Has completed one swap successfully before signing up for multiple swaps at a time: YES
- Is not currently signed up for more than five swaps: YES
- Does not have any negative feedback: YES

Details of swap:
I'm sure EVERYONE has, at some point, been put down because of their bodies, no matter what they look like. This is a swap to celebrate all our bodies - fat, skinny, tall, short, freckled, big noses, thin lips - whatever you think deserves a bit more love.
Possible craft ideas include (but certainly aren't limited to!):
T-shirts, bags, buttons, coin purses, jewelry; anything that can be emblazoned with body-positive pictures and messages.
Mirrors whose frames have positive messages on them.
Art that features people of our body type.
Journals made for recording exercise/diet notes, or more likely, recording thoughts and feelings about our bodies.
Mix CDs with songs like Christina Aquilera's "Beautiful", or Sir Mix-A-Lot's "I Like Big Butts."
I'd suggest crafting one "big" item and 2-3 "small" items, but people can talk with their partner and decide if they want to do more or less than that.



If you want to participate, information to send to organizer:

QUESTIONNAIRE TO ANSWER:
Name of swap: Body Appreciation Swap
Craftster username
Email address
Your real name
Mailing address
Would you be willing to ship to an address outside of the US?

Which things do you want to be appreciated? (Please give more than one):
Do you have any phrases, slogans, mantras, images, etc that you like?:
What kinds of crafts can you do well?:
What kinds of crafts would you particularly like to recieve?:
Is there anything you would NOT like to recieve?:
If you'd like to receive clothing, please list your sizes here:
Do you have any allergies/aversions/sensitivities?:
Favorite (and flattering) colors?:
Favorite or least favorite fabrics and materials?:
Anything else you'd like to add?:



IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE, REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR INFO TO ORGANIZER VIA PRIVATE MESSAGE AND NOT TO REPLY WITH IT HERE.


Also remember to read the Swap Info Guide to find out how to ship your item and other details about participating in a swap.

AFTER PEOPLE HAVE SIGNED UP AND BEEN APPROVED, LIST THE PARTICIPANTS HERE AND WHO IS SENDING TO WHOM:
Dorkariffic
shewantsxglamor
StrwbryMlkmmmmmm
shiftychica
Shimmer413
veganxwater
ophelias_lost_dream
shylitlegoddess
defying gravity
edel
DharmaLei
ambervacation
crumpet13
KraftyKT

PARTNERS bold = sent italic = received underlined = sending late, but communicating red = you need to PM me.
Dorkariffic <-> Krafty KT
shewantsxglamor <-> ambervacation
StrwbryMlkmmmmmm <-> veganxwater
shiftychica <-> ophelias_lost_dream
Shimmer413 <-> edel
shylitlegoddess <-> crumpet13
defying gravity (flaker)[/color] <-> DharmaLei <- rockmygypsysoul (angel)


The GALLERY is here.

***IMPORTANT*** The deadline has been extended by ONE WEEK, to Friday, December 22nd.
Happy crafting, and good luck to those of you taking finals this week!

I've seen lots of fabulous re-done dolls on Craftster that've inspired me a lot, but, I'm at a loss as to how to do my own.

I currently have two dolls that I want to work with.
One is a thrift-store find, a life-size baby doll with a cloth body and a plastic head, hands, and feet. It's not terribly clean, and soap and water did absolutely nothing to clean the marks off the face. I didn't get the cloth wet at all, since I don't know if that'd damage the stuffing, but I'd like to wash that, too.
The second is an old Kelly (Barbie's sister/daughter?) doll that's in great condition, except that the hair is permanently pulled up and bent, since she used to have a ponytail.
For both dolls, I'd like to redo their makeup, but I'm not sure what to use.

Thank you so much for your help!
(Sorry if there's a better place for this - I couldn't find one.)

[SIGN-UPS HAVE STARTED!]

I was looking at the Fat Girl Swap gallery, and I thought it was wonderful that there was a swap devoted to feeling good about a body type that's generally looked down on.
And then I was thinking about how often I've been teased for being "too skinny", and told I was anorexic or sickly.

I'm sure EVERYONE has, at some point, been put down because of their bodies, no matter what they look like. So I thought it would be cool to have a BODY APPRECIATION SWAP, like the Fat Girl Swap, but for all bodies.
And it wouldn't have to be limited to fat/skinny/tall/short, we could craft for people who want to appreciate their big noses, or their tiny boobs, or whatever it is about their bodies that they think deserves more appreciation.

So, anybody interested?

SIGN-UPS HAVE STARTED!
Link here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=130700

Okay, this is kind of weird. I want to make a pair of viking helmets for a friend's two cats.
I don't have any pets of my own, so I have pretty much no idea how to do this, or what I should be keeping in mind.
I was thinking of making baby-sized 'helmets' out of felt, and adding a bit of elastic to go under the cats' chins to keep them on. What do you think?

I'm making a purse from scratch, and I want a picture stencilled on it, but I'm not sure if I should stencil it first, after I cut the fabric but before I sew, or after the bag is made.

Any suggestions?

[Saturday]

So, my friend Kasey is turning 21. He really spoiled my boyfriend (and pretty much everyone else at the party) on his 21st b-day, so the two of us really want to get him something nice.
"Buy him booze!" you might say... but he ABSOLUTELY HATES drinking.
We thought of buying him something music-related, but he works at Newbury Comics and gets so much stuff discounted, it doesn't make much sense.
He's an awesome drummer, so I considered stencilling a t-shirt for him that says "World's Best Drummer" or something, but he's really modest and kinda shy, and I know he'd never wear that.
His birthday is on Saturday, so it'll have to be something I can either buy ready-made, or slap together in, like, a day. And my hunny and I don't have a lot of money.

Some of my ideas so far have been:
-"Sex, Drugs, and Rock N' Roll" In A Box, but aside from condoms and lube, I don't know what I'd put in there, and he doesn't have a girlfriend to use them with, so...
-Girlfriend In A Box, maybe a framed picture of a model, or some other things like that...

This is Kurt Cobain:


This is Kurt Cobain as a Sock Monkey:



I used a pair of Kodiak Boot Socks for him, as well as yellow yarn and blue embroidery thread. ALL of the stitching is done by me by hand, both on him and his clothes, and I've never done embroidery (or, for that matter, made a sock monkey) before. His guitar is a printout of one of the actual Kurt's guitars, which was then glued to manilla paper and cut out.

For more pictures of the sock monkey, including before and during pictures, go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79997973@N00/sets/72157594183935803/
And for more pictures of Kurt Cobain, check out these links:
http://www.poster.net/cobain-kurt/cobain-kurt-grip-5001241.jpg (I was trying to imitate this pose in the second picture)
http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~dis90245/nirvana-stuff/kurt/71.jpg
http://brandy.weblogs.us/poster/kurt-cobain-918650.html

I'd like to sell this sock monkey. Would anyone want to give him a good home? (I'll even include a poster.)

[pipe cleaners]

My lovely Kistchflower!

The petals, stem, and leaf are outlined in pink and green pipe cleaners, which were then glued to corresponding-colored construction paper, and drizzed with corresponding-colored glitter glue.
The center of the flower is a yellow pom-pom which was cut in half and half was glued onto the pipecleaners.
The background - which I love, but which doesn't show up very well in the pictures - is off-white construction paper, speckled with pink and green via a variation on candycanechild's Shaving Cream Cards marbling method. ( http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=9922.0 )
In the bottom left corner is pink easter grass, which I am suprised to find was actually held in place by Elmer's glue, and further attached by green glitter glue that I painted on top of them.
The frame is just a plain black wooden frame I bought from Joann Fabrics.
The glitter on the frame, however, is a fun story. I was trying to draw swirly, vine-ish things with the green on the upper left corner of the frame, but it wasn't coming out thick enough, so I squeezed the bottle a little harder... and the tip popped off, spilling about half the glitter glue onto the frame and the corner of the paper. At first I was horrified, desperately grabbing for a paper towel and trying to scoop off as much as possible, but a second later, I had an idea. I grabbed a paintbrush and spread it out, then used the paper towel almost like a palette and painted two of the other corners to match. (And I used the leftovers to paint a couple of construction paper hearts, which I'll find a use for later...)

This whole project has sort of been like that; my original plans didn't work, something went wrong, I had to change direction... For example, there wasn't supposed to be any pink in this at all. But Joann Fabrics had NO purple pipe cleaners, and the only colors I had for coloring for the paper were pink and green, and we had no green easter grass (?), only pink and yellow. And this was originally supposed to be done on the cover of a journal.. but, I had no extra journal and couldn't find one.
All in all, I'm thrilled with the end result, especially because I'm redecorating my room, and this actually matches the decor.

Thanks for looking!