Monkey Business

I like to add a personal touch to my gifts even if I am buying them and not making them. I got one of my aunts a pair of warm, soft lady slippers for her precious tootsies this Christmas and I clipped this little fellow onto the gift tag. His pattern is part of a Chinese zodiac collection although I modified his design a little from the pattern in the book. Originally, he was supposed to have a face on both sides but that just looked weird to me. His little red nose is adorable and I am thinking that I might want to make a set of three with three different coloured noses. We’ll see.

I modified his ears from the pattern by using larger beads than what was listed in the book. I feel big ears are cuter!

This is what the back of a head should look like - being double-faced is a bit odd.

Dimensions: 5 x 2.5 x 1 cm (not including key chain)

Materials: 4mm light brown, champagne, black & red glass bicone beads, clear fishing line, key chain,

Time to Make: 1.5 hours

Beaded Birthday Presents

It's almost Christmas! ("Deck the halls with boughs of holly... Fa la la la la la la la la!") Time has flown and I can not believe that I have not updated since September. 

This little critter dates back to a few years ago and was a present to a friend of mine for her birthday. She was generous enough to let me photograph him to feature in my blog. One of my early works. Cute, eh?

Front

Back

Left

Right

I always have the hardest time thinking of what to get as gifts for other people. My fall back a lot of the time is to make something. Hmm…maybe I should take up knitting…

Materials: 6 mm blue, white, & pink bicone acrylic beads, 6 mm black round acrylic beads, 0.55 mm clear fishing line, light blue seed beads,

Tools: scissors, ruler,  

Time to Make: To long ago to remember…

Teeny Tiny Turtle

After a summer hiatus due to sheer busyness of life/laziness of person, I am back! I have crafts gracing my shelves but unfortunately, I simply haven’t had the time to photograph them and write posts.

This little guy has been patiently waiting for his time to sparkle. I made him on a sunny Saturday afternoon sitting on my living room carpet. He is so cute that I plan to make a little army of turtles in a rainbow of colours.  (Then I will use them to take over the world! *evil laughter* = P)

Look to the right... (his right ; ) )

Look to the left... (his left)

Hello!

Dimensions: 3 x 2 x1.5 cm

Materials: 4mm white glass bicone beads, 4mm light green glass bicone beads, 4mm black glass rounded beads, fishing line

Tools: Fingers – that’s all you need!

Time to make: ~ 2 hour

Just One Bite...

Several weeks ago, I was picking up the bulletin inserts left on the seats after church service. The backs of the sheets were blank so I thought it seemed like such a waste to just throw them out. The vivid colour reminded me of a bright green apple so this design was inevitable. Mmm… crisp, tart and delicious.

Front

Back

Top

Dimensions: 8.3 (from base to tip of stem) x 6.5 x 6.5 cm

Materials: neon green printer paper (recycled bulletin insert), brown cardstock, tan cardstock, dark green cardstock

Tools: knife, scissors, white glue, gluestick

Time to make: 3 hours

Patterned Star Garlands

I picked up a trick about how to get more out of that expensive star paper you buy in stores. When folded, you really only see the last half of a strip of star paper; the other half is buried inside. So what I do is cut strips of plain white paper of the same wide as my star paper.  I cut my strips of star paper in half. I use the white strips to make the core and then wrap the patterned star paper on the outside. This way I get two stars out of every strip of star paper – neat, eh?

Dimensions: Stars ~2cm wide, garlands of various lengths

Materials: commercial star paper, white printer paper, cotton thread, green and blue bicone plastic beads, green and blue round plastic beads

Tools: safety pin, sewing needle

Time to make: several hours…exact time uncertain…

Louie

This is fast becoming a rather addictive hobby. You would not think so looking at it – tedious more like it – but there is something almost meditative about folding the same module over and over again. I have a friend who has already gone through this phase and she agrees with me.

This fat fellow reminded me of another friend’s cat and so I named it Louie in his honour (Although this friend will be quick to say that her cat is not fat, he’s fluffy! : D ). Like Amigo, this was also an attempt to copy someone else’s design but he did not turn out the way I had envisioned either. I ended up changing the hamster figure into a cat. The assembly is a little crooked but when I put the features on, you do not notice the inconsistencies. Ah the wonders of art and illusion : P! 

Front

Side

Back

Oblique - This shot just looked cute so I decided to add it in. : D

Dimensions: 11 x 9 x 9 cm

Materials: White paper, orange paper, black cardstock, white cardstock, orange cardstock, fishing line

Tools: knife, glue, scissors, hole puncher 

Time to Make: ~6 hours 

Twinkle, twinkle little star...

Cutting paper strips can be very tedious. I would much rather have someone or something else do it for me. Hunting through my basement, I found a wonderful old paper shredder which cut paper into even, thin strips. Perhaps not the best for paranoid people’s confidential documents (a really patient person could probably slowly piece the papers back together) but great for cutting star paper. Of course that’s only if you are okay with making tiny stars. A bit challenging and quite fiddly but very cute.

Foil paper can end up getting a stressed look when handled a lot.  Not crisp but the look has a charm of its own. 

I made these from floral wrapping paper from a present that I had given to someone. He thought I did such a nice job with wrapping that he was careful not to tear the paper and then he gave the paper back to me to wrap something else.
: P

Elephants and bunnies were the original pattern of this baby-shower-type wrapping paper. Too bad  you can't really tell now that it has been made into stars.

Dimensions: ~ 1cm wide

Materials: assorted wrapping paper

Tools: paper shredder

Time to make: Length of several movies…though I won’t tell you which ones ; )

Looks Like a Seal, Smells Like a Sheep!

Not too long ago, a friend of mine convinced me to take up felting with her. She had been seduced by internet pictures of cute animal projects and wanted a partner in her madness. Being the wonderful friend I am, of course I obliged. And the pictures were cute after all.  

Felting can be a dangerous hobby if you’re not paying attention (I stabbed myself twice) as anything involving pointy instruments can be. It basically involves taking tuffs of unworked wool and stabbing it repeated with a felting needle to shape it into whatever you want. It feels a bit like voodoo near the end when you’re jabbing a nearly completed animal.  The results can be amazing though, ranging from cute to stunningly realistic.

His name is Philly. Isn’t he cute? He was my first born in my forays into felting animals. He probably would have benefited from a couple more millimeters in length but I think he’s adorable as the short, stubby bundle he is. He looks a little lonely though… I think he needs a friend.

Dimensions: 7.3 x 3.0 x 2.3 cm

Materials: Norwegian C1 natural white wool, Norwegian C1 black wool, black beads

Tools:  40T yellow felting needle from Felt Alive

Time to Make: 2.5 hours

Stars in Jars

The classic stars in a jar. They are just so bright and colourful. They helped me wile away the time during many a boring lecture.

Dimensions: ~1.5 cm wide

Materials: assorted coloured printer paper

Tools: knife, ruler

Time to make: indefinite…whenever the mood strikes

My precious...

During my family vacation to Mainland China, we found out through a friend of a friend of family where we could find some cheap craft supplies. My main goal was beads for my beaded animals. It was a convoluted route (which I don't recommend for the faint of heart) but we found a whole building of craft supply whole sellers. There was a whole floor of stalls which sold only beads. I swear there were over 50 different stands. I was in crafter heaven! There were also pearls, chains, beading lines, etc. It was incredible - I never knew places like this existed! I so wished I lived in China for that reason.

It is times like these that I am very much aware of my magpie-like tendencies. These beads are the newest additions to my collection. Are they not gorgeous? The photos really do not do them justice. If you hold them up to the sunlight, they sparkle like rows and rows of gems. Lovely…

My sister says that it looks like I could open a store here in Canada.

Another friend suggested that I just hang them all in front of my door as a curtain.

I had not planned on buying this many. When I first began selecting colours, I was much more conservative.

Then my mother reminded me that we are not coming back to China any time soon so if I wanted something, I had better get it.

I ended up buying 16 980 beads. 

I love my mother! : D

At least I have no regrets. Nothing worse than thinking, 'Oh shoot! I should have also gotten..."

This supply should last until my next vacation to China. ; P

They are made of glass and you can really feel the weight and coolness of them when you hold them in your hand. There were also crystal beads available in China but I decided to play it safe and not purchase any since I do not know how to gauge the quality of crystal.  These glass beads already add enough sparkle to my projects. 

Card Making

Card making is in.

When I go to the library, I love checking out the newest issue of Papercrafts (http://www.papercraftsmag.com/index.html). These cards are worlds away from the 8.5’x11’-printer-paper-folded-into-four cards that we used to make in elementary school. These are professional looking die-cut-stamped-glittered-quality-cardstock cards. They put Hallmark to shame. 

Over the past year, I have amassed a healthy collection of cardstock (I am completely in love with linen texture!) and was given a variety of different embellishments (ie. Stickers, patterned paper, die cuts, etc.) for a graduation gift. I have also recently bought myself a letter stamping set and a box of ink. So really, I have everything to start my own card making empire. Unfortunately, I have just not made the time to sit down and make anything yet.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did do an afternoon of card making with a friend a few months back (now she has a truly impressive collection of card making supplies) and these are the results.

Blue Thank you card:

Front

Inside

Back

Pink Thank you card:

Front

Inside

Back

I was experimenting with stamping and coloured pencils. A little rough but I think it’s a good start. Personally, I like my pink card better than the blue one - its brighter. It will be interesting to compare these early efforts with my later ones. Soon, I too will put Hallmark to shame!