My dads got me an iPod Touch the Christmas before last, and they gave me a pink iPhone case at the same time. In the intervening months, the case has gotten dirty and scratched up, and I figured it was time for a change anyway! This only took me about two, two and a half hours, and it was really fun to make.




The colors are quite a bit brighter in real life--isn't that always the case? The bobbly bits on his beak are double french knots--I finally got the hang of them last night, so I wanted to try them out.


Here's the back. Looking at it again, I probably should have used more teal instead of pink, since I used teal for the "feathers" on the other side, but I'm still happy with it!


Close-up shot of the button. I used it even though it's the wrong color, because the design reminded me a little bit of an owl's face.

Last week, I found a cross stitch kit at a dollar store near me, and it reminded me that I've been wanting to learn to cross-stitch for years now. I picked it up and took it home, then watched about thirty seconds of a "basics of cross-stitch" video on YouTube, and away I went!

The kit I bought was huge and pretty boring, even though it's a cute picture, so I put it to the side after only a few sections and went out to buy my own materials. I came up with this design after remembering that my friend's birthday is coming up. She's huuuugely into Harry Potter, and Gryffindor, so...it was kind of a no-brainer.

The colors are a bit richer and closer to the proper "house colors" in person.
Also, I have since ironed it and put it into a little frame. Wheee!

Time: Four hours, tops.

So I got the book in the first picture for Christmas, and in it was a very simple hat pattern. Seriously, this is so simple I was forehead-smacking myself for hours after seeing it. So I plan on making a full-sized version for my boyfriend, but first I wanted to be sure I could make it.

ENTER THE PUPPY!
I made her one to perhaps keep her ears warm in the snow--though of course she'd never keep it on her head. So I added some straps--just single-chains of finger crochet, since I couldn't find a hook.



ACTION SHOT!

One day my dog will rise up and kill me in my sleep.

My sister found some lovely hoodies on sale at Target--they were all $8 and under. As I am of the opinion that one can never have too many hoodies, I bought a couple. When I got home, I wondered what I'd been thinking--I had bought a bright red hoodie: I almost never wear bright red. But then I started thinking about it, and remembered pieces that I've seen online. I decided to give it a try.



I stitched the front pockets by hand (everything else was by machine) so I'm particularly proud of how straight the stitches are.


Shot of the back.


Horns in action!

Oh my god, guys. I received my package today, and I want to grovel at my partner's feet.




A bag! A bag made out of a record sleeve! And fantasticosity. This is the front...


...and this is the back.


And here's it on me! It's the perfect size and the perfect length. I am so using it!


Look! Look at the aliens! I'm so in love with them--they're sitting next to me as I type! Also, various pens and pencils, and a little robot-looking plastic egg thing full of jellybeans! So full that a few fell out when I opened it. (They were five-second-ruled, of course. Nomnomnom.)


Those are my snacks! There are Starburst and Jolly Ranchers and a delicious-looking praline sort of thing, and a bag of Chee-tos and aaaaah my god. Brilliant!


And yarn, and crossword/brainwork books, and plushie fluff and tea!


And here it all is, snuggled up in that adorable bag.

A while ago I posted a question in another forum about watercolors on canvas board. I was worried, but nothing bad happened. Here's the finished work:

Look who crash-landed on my laptop this weekend!
He was easier to make than I thought he'd be.



I wasn't entirely confident, so I made his TARDIS first, to practice.


Here they are together!

[So I'm asking y'all--have you ever painted with watercolors on those canvas panels, and how did it turn out?]

Alright, so I'm currently working on a picture drawn from a reference of my boyfriend and I, and I am drawing it on one of those 5 inch by 7 inch canvas panels you can find in pretty much every art store. When I'm done, I'd like to color it with a watercolor set that I bought, but now that I think about it, the grain of the canvas might act as a channel, and let the colors bleed.

So I'm asking y'all--have you ever painted with watercolors on those canvas panels, and how did it turn out?

Anyway, so this isn't all text, here is the drawing:



(And the reference is: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/corro-con-scissors/kissyface.jpg. )

Last summer I bought a packet of felt sheets, mostly because they were so cute: there were patterned ones as well as a few solid-colored ones. Later last summer, I bought a pack of about 15 of those hair clips. Tonight I got bored, found both in my pile of junk, and decided to go at it.

Here's my first pair:

As per usual, the colors are brighter and nicer in person.

Here's a shot of one of the backs:


Second Pair:


Third Pair:

So, given that I'm a poor college student (who isn't?), I decided to only give gifts to close friends and my family: and even then, I've decided to make most of them. After all, I'm rather proud of my mad stencilling skillz (haha), and my family's pretty appreciative of such skills as well.

First off, for my father. He's always the hardest to figure out. So I just scrolled through the stencils at Stencilry until I found one that he might appreciate:

WHOLE SHIRT:


Stencil Detail:


(FYI: He's actually gay, so the rainbow "happy" under the pocket can be taken both ways: as a reference to the "Is that a banana in your pocket..." and to the alternate meaning of 'gay,' I suppose.

My *other* father used to work for Lifetouch Photography, and every morning, I'd tell him to "shoot" lots of kids. ('Shoot' here meaning...with his camera! I don't condone violence! T_T)

Stencil Detail:


I'm not super happy with this one: it was the messiest shirt I think I've done since my very first attempt with cardboard and spray paint, but I don't exactly hate it. And, yes, that's a paint smudge.

Next up is my little brother. He loved Pirates of the Carribean, of course, so I figured a pirate-esque shirt was required. I made him a shirt last year, with one of his favorite sayings on it, and he still wears it, so I'm fairly sure this one will get at least a bit of wear. I might go back and try to freehand a bandana across the skull, but then again, I might not. What do you think?

Whole Shirt:



My little sister found a scarf on eBay last year, and asked if I could make it for her. Iended up not being able to--couldn't find the material or anything, and by then we'd both forgotten about it. So this year, I tried to make something similar. I actually like this one better. She loves My Chemical Romance, obviously. I freehanded the words, and I'm actually pretty proud, as they look at least a little like the font used on the actual logo, I think. It looks grungy because it's supposed to. Also, because it's really hard to stencil well on a felt scarf. The red stripes go all the way up the scarf.

Stencil Detail:



Finally, my roommate! She loves the color pink and The Beatles/John Lennon, so what else could this shirt have become? I found the strawberries on stencilry, and while playing with a layout for the text, I decided that it actually worked better (and would be easier to cut out) if I didn't put the word "strawberry" in. I'm really proud of this one.

Whole Shirt:

Stencil Details:


(It's actually a brighter pink in real life.)