I made this by stitching pop tabs to black paper, then setting it into a frame (I moved the glass behind it so it won't get scratched). You have to alternate the top and bottom of the tabs to keep them lined up because they are slightly larger on one end. They ended up fitting perfectly inside a paper-sized frame.



Orginally I was linking tabs together with wire to make a large wallhanging, which I thought looked pretty cool but the husband vetoed that idea. Oh well, I've got some ideas for some future Pop Art projects already in mind. ;)

Here's my newest pants-to-skirt creation. These are a stretchy corduroy (a pain to work with) and had a couple of places on the leg where they have been pulled on something & become over-stretched & ripply somehow. So I turned the legs into crazy patchwork, with every seam zig-zag stitched to lay flat.



The seams are a little wobblier than I would like because of the stretchy corduroy, but not all that noticable. I'm pretty happy with the result & like how subtle the patchwork is.


Last night I made Bucky Katt & Smacky from the "Get Fuzzy" comic strip. (Any cat-lover should check out that comic, even though the cat is evil he is still adorable!) I started painting them today, & will post pics when finished.

Here is a custom bear I just finished up today ~


I really love the way the colors turned out on the belly.
I want to buy some fabrics in these colors to make a dress. ;)

Originally she wanted a bear in the colors of this monkey,
but since the only orange I had was this color she chose brown instead.
I'm really glad it ended up being brown with autumn patchwork.


While I was working I had my measuring tape around my neck and absent-mindedly tied it around my head. It turned out way too cute, I should wear it out sometime. ;)

I am addicted to wearing my long dangly earrings & so I had to make up some more...

These are not all that special ~ glass beads with a red core & bits of silver leaf. I only had four of these beads left & was happy to find a nice project to use them on. They turned out pretty long & I am happy to have another red pair to wear ;)

This was the first pair I got a little artsy with... I took some large teal seed beads & wrapped all around them with wire to create a wire bead (with a little bit of the teal peaking through). The other beads are wrapped around four times & lay on their sides to show off their circular shape. The wire bead balls were pretty fun to make ~ and just think of what you could do with different colors of beads and colored wire!

And these might be my new favorite pair! XD My husband took our broken tv to school to dissect it for his science classes. I came in afterward & snipped out all of the little capacitors. Then I wrapped the tops of them a few times(there was a little dip near the top to hold the wire in place) and put them together in a dangly bunch. I've been dying for a new black pair, and the capacitors make them even more fun!

In other news... I also went through all of the earrings I've made & put a dab of silver nail polish on the openings of the jump rings. Not that it substitutes for a good soldering, but hopefully it will keep anything from sliding off & getting lost.

I also finally got around to adding a ruffle onto a low cut shirt. I had a beige shirt that I usually wear under it (with the ruffle), but it got a spot on it, and wasn't that cute anyways, so I cut off the ruffle & sewed it onto the other shirt. It was not a huge project, but I've been putting it off *forever*, so I am proud to have finished it.


And... I've lost over 20 pounds! Woo-hoo ;) I still haven't gotten my reward for 15 lbs. because we never really have any money, so I'm not really trying to come up with a reward for 20. The reward is how skinny I am! :D

Last night I patched up the remaining holes on the inside of the fabric strip bowl
~ so here are the pictures!





I took both bowls & fixed up the edges of the bowl so they are nice & even, but that was before the pictures. (You can see the glue sticking out from the bowls on the side views) Now I need to put the black rim on the yellow pages bowl & then let them both cure for a few days before I put a clear coat on, then they will both be finished!

I'm not sure what the next design will be, but I know I do want to make one based on these boxes I saw a while back, that are decorated with magazine clippings.

Well, my search for a free-time craft has ended, and I think I will be entertained for a while. It is a compilation of several ideas I've been throwing around ~ I've started making bowls out of various recycled items. Very soon I will be making vases as well, and who knows what other shapes, but for now I just have a bowl to work with.

My first bowl, made with an old phone book ~

( ...the inside view )

I have a few more finishing touches to add to this one ~ a good coat of clear coat & I need to clean up the rim a little. I am thinking a black rim would look very nice. I also have a fabric strip bowl (same colors as the bag & wallet I made recently) made up, but the inside is not finished yet. I will finish that tonight & try to get pictures up tomorrow.

It is just the perfect use for the waste paper & fabric strips I've been wanting to use in something. I don't make recycled paper enough to use as much scrap paper as I produce at work. But there are many layers of paper in each bowl. (I don't really want to give away the secrets of making them though, since I am going to try to sell them.)


The only problem that I might have is if I can not sell them on the site. I've had that problem with most of the extra items I've added on the site (handmade candles, peyote beaded necklaces, etc.), so I've had to stop making them. I really don't need more than a few myself, and don't have many people to give them as gifts to. That is what usually ends up killing a new craft like this, but hopefully it won't be a problem!! I think they are quite awesome myself ;)

Well ~ after much research on basket weaving, I still found nothing I could use. So I finally decided to try to weave together the rolled-up-strips of magazines myself & try to figure it out. I was able to make the bottom roll really well...
( woven bottom )
but I couldn't figure out any way to weave the sides. Plus, it was all taking forever, so I decided that glue & tape would be the way to go.

I made pretty small coils/slats from the magazine strips & spiraled them into shape, using a glue stick & tape to hold it in place. The glue stick ended up being pretty useless, other than closing the last fold of the magazine strip, so it is mostly held toghether by strips of tape along the inside. I made a small vase for my first try, and I think it turned out pretty well!


I could cover it now with Mod Podge or a water resistant glue to make a pretty nice decorative piece. I would like to figure out how to coat the inside with resin (or something else) to make it water-tight & able to hold flowers like the ones they sell on-line ~ but I don't really understand how you would wash out the thing without messing up the magazine on the outside.

As you can see here, there are a ton of holes on the inside ~
( inside view with holes )
I am thinking of coating the inside with something black (maybe black acrylic paint) to cover the holes & kind of smooth the inside. Then I can coat it with the resin. (I would not want to coat the inside with resin as it is, because it would probably leak through the holes.) I think the black inside will look nice too & cover the tape.

So, I have some experimenting to do with this little guy, but I'm pretty happy with the result. I would really love to find some fast drying glue to piece it together instead of the tape, but neither super glue or the glue stick was holding it togeher at all. Any suggestions on anything

We are visiting my husband's parents this weekend, and so yesterday we visited a craft fair in the area. It was so nice to go to one, I haven't been in so long. We visit the fair in our area every year, but after the third year we recognized almost every booth. My mother-in-law felt about the same way at this fair, but there were some things that were new to us.

Most importantly, I saw some baskets that were woven with pine needles. But when I saw the way they were put together it looked jsut like the magazine vases I've been wanting to make. I asked her what the weaving was called (open coil) & looked online a bit. I found one site with a tutorial, http://www.nativetech.org/basketry/coilindex.html, but I also found that they have a book about it at our library. (Also, one of the sites with the paper vases said it is the same technique they used to weave bamboo strips, so I will keep my eye open for something about that as well.)


I've already gotten enough re-make orders to last me through a week of work (hopefully not more), so I think I am going to have to say no more re-makes for now. I knew there would be a rush on them after I added the Re-makes page & made it really obvious, but I need to make sure I have time to make new things for the next batch. Now I have to figure out how to mark the site to say no more orders, and make it very obvious. (I might even take more orders before the next batch, but I want to make sure I have enough time to make a few items)

I am absolutely in love with the vases & bowls made out of woven rolled up tubes of paper. I can't find any information about how to make them though, and have been thinking about them for a while. I know that they are stitched/woven together with white thread, but I can't figure out the best way to do that in my head. I've done searches on basketweaving with no luck, since I don't know what that kind is called.

A girls posted this great tutorial on craftster, making the bowls out of slats of paper instead of rolls. (She was also inspired by the other bowls!) I think the way she put them together is a really neat idea, but it wouldn't work with rolls of paper, which I like the look of better than the slats, and she used tape & glue to secure everything.

I think that they would be quicker to put together with the glue than weaving them with string, and I think it would be about as sturdy, so I am not against that idea. The normaly bowls/vases cost a ton, so I would want to make them cheap enough to sell. I know that some of the rolled paper vases are coated inside with resin so that they can hold flowers, so I would probably be coating at least the inside of mine with that anyways.


So, I guest I am thinking "out loud", maybe ranting a bit, but if anyone can offer any ideas that would be great as well! It seems that all of my crafting ideas are like this right now... I can't quite figure out how I want to put it together, or how to actually do it at all. I do have at least one new idea in progress that I'm very excited about, but we'll have to see how it goes!

Here are two skirts I made from corduroy pants ~

I made the green skirt a while ago & have been meaning to post it for a while, but it got cold before I could take pictures! I made the golden skirt this weekend & wore it, so I made sure to take pictures of both for ya. ;)

For more pics & info, check out my craftgrrl entry ~
http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/7812143.html

These are a few projects I have been meaning to take pics of for a while, and two new ones.

Crafting New & Old
Inside this link are more pics and info for:

Rubik's Cube Earrings	Chinese Take Out Earrings	Crochet Kitty
Crochet Pop Tab Purse	Wallet with Applique