Showing posts with label non-paper crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-paper crafts. Show all posts

Friday, December 28, 2012

welcome to matthewville, please drive carefully!

as promised, here i am to show you what was in nephew matthew's BIG... (and somewhat lumpy!) ...package, which i showed in the gift-wrap wrap-up yesterday: one super-deluxe, custom-made bulletin board, on which to hang all of his important school papers: 


i should mention that the creation of a bulletin board was a special request* from my sister amie, who, coincidentally, is also matthew's mom! :) a couple of years ago, frustrated by the fact that there were just not enough cool and decorative bulletin boards available for less than a million dollars, she asked if i could make one for madeline; always game for a new challenge i said, "sure"! of course, something i only realized when i started this second assignment, is that GIRL-themed bulletin boards are actually quite a bit easier to make than BOY-themed ones. at least, they are if you are *ME*... which i am, lol! so i feel quite justified in linking up the results at the fabulous anything but a card blog, where this fortnight's challenge is to show off one's favorite (non card!) "make" of the year!

i mused for quite a while about the design, considering first a dinosaur theme, and then pirates (two of matthew's most current passions) before settling for something i thought might "age" a bit better: cars and trucks! as often happens when i've been pondering something for a bit, when the idea finally came, it turned out that my subconscious had done most of the work. all i had to do was sketch it (in the back of my datebook) when it arrived fully formed, while i was sitting in a restaurant one day with lovely husband jeff. (the curvy bits of road i imagined proved difficult to achieve, irl, so we skipped those!)


i had hoped to find a pre-made board with the right size and shape of frame, which i could paint black to create the "road" around the edges. when that didn't happen, we "frankensteined" a nice big corkboard from one source and an inexpensive (already BLACK!) poster frame from another. where i really lucked out was in wooden shapes to make the "town" at the top: all but the pine trees were pre-finished bits from michaels, which only needed a bit of tweaking!


i painted the (plain wood- also from michael's) pine trees and letters with acrylic craft paint, then outlined them with an ordinary sharpie-- this works wonderfully, btw, but eventually kills felt tips, so have a couple extra pens on hand!!! everything which is attached to the top and bottom of the board was done with a combination of hot glue, and, in the case of the higher layers, some stacks of foam tape to make a better connection between the lumpy pieces. i drew the "passing" lines on road with a white paint pen, and then finally it was time for my FAVORITE bit: i attached a bunch of little metal racing cars to the "road" with black sticky-back velcro, so they can be taken down, moved around, re-arranged, or even-- because it turns out most of them have enough clearance-- even RACED, assuming one is on a hard smooth floor!!!


ok, i believe i mis-spoke a moment ago, when i said the velcro-ed cars were my favorite part; actually THIS was my very favorite part:


matthew immediately NOTICING the velcro-ed cars on christmas day, and taking them down, right away, to RACE!!! welcome to matthewville, little man... please drive carefully! ♥♥♥

*i absolutely LOVE IT when my sister or brother give me a "hint" towards something one of the kids needs or wants; especially when it is something like a bulletin board, which frankly, a non-parent such as myself would never have thought of making! it's always fun to try new things, and all the more so when one can still see the gift in question, happily in use in the child's bedroom, years later! awesome! ♥

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

i made a fortune last night!

two, actually. so of course i had to make fortune cookies in which to put them. see?


stef sent me a link to this tutorial a couple of weeks ago, and i thought it was AWESOME! (also the blogger, lady harvatine, is hilarious!) it was not particularly difficult, either, even for someone with limited sewing skills. (which is pretty much ME in a nutshell, eh?!!) i did make a very small variation to the instructions which saves two steps, that i'll put down at the end of this post; along with instructions to make this 99% a no-sew project. (so if you have no interest in ever making one of these, just skip that bit, k?)

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren! could these *BE* any cuter??!" well, yes, actually. yes, they could:


as soon as i saw the tutorial i thought of the cute "chinese takeaway" containers they sell at michaels, and how adorable it would be to put some shredded paper "noodles" in one to pad the cookies, which now look a bit more like a gift, don't they? (this pair were made for my in-laws' wedding anniversary, so the "fortunes" are love-based, and i used coordinating fabrics.) oriental trading sell smaller boxes made of semi-sheer plastic which are the perfect size for ONE cookie padded with a few "noodles"!

of course i had to decorate the outside of the box a little bit, too...hey...it's what i *DO*!!! :)


♥♥♥♥♥

the slight variation to the instructions which saves two steps...and incidentally makes it easier for newbies to stitch a neat circle: instead of tracing and cutting out the 4.5" circles, just lightly trace a 4" circle onto your 5" square of felt with a pencil, pin it to your 5" square of cotton and machine stitch all the way around the circle ON THE LINE. then cut out the circles close to the stitching w/pinking shears as directed, and keep going from there!

how to make this a 99% no-sew project with no sewing machine necessary: use fusible web (aka "wonder-under" available at most craft stores) to attach the felt and cotton fabric layers before tracing and cutting your circles; then sew the center seam by hand. woohoo! you've got COOKIES!!! :)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

this would've been more impressive *BEFORE* the yarn bus, wouldn't it?

because in comparison, a hand-knitted scarf just isn't nearly as cool, is it?

even if it was made from a cool novelty yarn like trendsetter cha cha, that automatically makes these cool ruffles when you knit it up in stockinette stitch?

so that all you have to do is cast on eight stitches and in perhaps 10 days of intermittent knitting you're at the end of the skein and you've got this fun, ruffly thing that wants to curl in at the edges like stockinette always does...but for once...that makes it look even better!

yeah. it would've been more impressive if you hadn't seen the yarn bus first. that's all i'm sayin'! :)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

ps: i was very excited last night to learn i WON the fabulous ippity stamps at sketchy thursdays! even though it was a random drawing, i was especially proud to have won for this hybrid card that was SO MUCH fun to make! thanks, you guys!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

turns out, the sewing machine works pretty well on FABRIC, too!

go figure.

over the weekend my friend trish and i took a sewing class at flirt brooklyn's "home ec" classroom. we made totebags, from start to finish, using a commercial pattern. it was one of the best craft classes i've ever taken: our instructor, patti, was both knowledgeable about sewing AND great at teaching, and has developed the class so that a complete novice can confidently finish the project, and yet someone with a bit of experience is not dying of boredom. i also liked that we learned the "WHY" in addition to the "HOW" of each step in the process, so that we can translate the same techniques to anything we might like to sew in the future!

so do you want to see my totebag??
(resistance is futile...you know that, right? might as well say yes...)

the outside is the sort of grey-on-grey pinstriped material from which business suits are made, reinforced with iron-on interfacing; the inside is a lightweight cotton; the flower pin--which came from a trimmings shop in manhattan i stopped at on the way home--is layers of velvet, sheer tulle, and silky fake organza.


i have to confess that my expectations were modest: i hoped to have a fun day out, learn some cool techniques, gain a TON of valuable experience, and leave the class with a rather wonky but entirely lovelable item that would inspire me to go home and practice sewing fearlessly on any medium which took my fancy. and i was totally FINE with that. but as it turns out, i REALLY DID IT!!! not only did i achieve all of my goals for the day, i actually walked out of the class with a bag i absolutely loooooooove and cannot wait to use!

{♥WOW!♥}

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

did she say, "CROBOT"?

uh-huh.
as in, "crocheted robot".
you know, kind of like this one:


i got this book a couple of months ago and did all the crocheting part of "mechanobot" (pictured above) whilst we were visiting LHJ's parents at thanksgiving.* it only needed an hour or so to do the making up, but did ~YOU~ have a spare hour between thanksgiving & xmas?? yeah, me neither. so i finished him off on our christmas visit to said lovely in-laws' domicile, where he was admired by all, albeit with some bemusement and ONE quite snarky cousin's speculation that "amigurumi" might be a japanese word meaning "pointless". then AFTER the funeral** we had snacks, so all was well again.

hooray for crobots!!!!! ♥♥♥



*i'm almost exclusively a travel knitter (and crochet-er). because when i am at home there is just waaaaaay too much paper around for me to work on yarn-based projects. but i do LOVE to make these little dudes and whenever we're set to go ANYWHERE my knitting bag is the first thing to be packed!

** i'm kidding, of course. absolutely no cousins were harmed in the making of this crobot, though my conviction that there are some people who will never receive anything i have spent time hand-making was confirmed. in spades.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

look what followed me home, can we keep him??!

the other day while i was out walking i saw this little puppy

he was on his own and seemed a bit lonely, so i called to him

and asked if he wanted a new home

he said yes, so he's going to go and live with our eldest niece, jessica!


(i'm sending this book along too, so she can make him some little friends!)

Sunday, October 4, 2009

happy world amigurumi ice cream sundae making day!

or i s'pose we could just call today:
♥ ice cream SUNDAY!!! ♥
(orrrrrrr...we could pretend this is the blog of someone sensible, and not call it that, afterall...)

witty nomenclature aside, would you like to see the amigurumi ice cream sundae i made for niece lindsay's birthday?!
(say yes! say YES!!!)

TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren! didn't you start that thing in like JUNE??!?!" well yes, i did. and in "real time" it sort of only took 2 to 3 evenings to complete... it's just that there was a 2 to 3 month interval in between my 2 to 3 evenings! and then suddenly it was the end of september and i realized i had better finish this baby before the party next week. so i did. but seriously, the hardest and by far most time-consuming part of amigurumi is choosing what to make next!!!

for those of you interested in the wooly details: the pattern for this--and several other cute ice creams--is available here; the yarn is lion brand's wool-ease; the other ami's i've made since trish & i took a fun class in february can be found here.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

look what followed me home...can we keep him??!

shhhhhhhhhhh...don't startle him...

...but if we're very quiet...and a bit patient...

...maybe we can get this little guy to turn around and say hi...

HOORAY!!!

ok, technically he didn't follow me home. in fact, i brought him along on vacation... (at that point he was a head with 2/3 of a trunk) ...and much to the bemusement of LHJ's family i proceeded to make, stuff and attach ears, feet and a tail over the course of our week in myrtle beach. it's been pointed out to me...more than once...by more than one family member...that said amigurumi elephant doesn't have a *BODY*...he's basically a head with legs on. to which i say, respectfully, and in the nicest possible way,


"PFFFFFFFFFFFT!"

actually, once he was entirely assembled, said crochet-based pachaderm was universally adored by all, and i began to have a few small worries that he wouldn't make it home without being elephant-napped. luckily, we had a safe trip, and now he getting ready to pack his trunk and go to live with baby isabel and her minions. it's a bit sad, really, but i shall have the consolation of visiting often to check on his progress.

anyone know where i can find a pattern for crocheted peanuts??!

those of you interested in these sorts of things, the amigurumi elephant pattern was free from lion brand yarn and can be found here. the yarn is lion brand's wool ease, available everywhere, including michaels.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

♥ hello, cupcake! ♥

ok, remember that "five addictions" poll thingie from the other day? can we stretch it to six, in my case?* thanks. 'cause i think i'm gonna need to add amigurumi. particularly amigurumi food; which is perhaps the only thing on the planet cuter than amigurumi animals!


(told ya!!!)

i found the pattern for this cupcake on nimoe's blog, where there is also a very good tutorial to accompany it. her version has the cute cartoony face sported by most amigurumis. in future versions** i will no doubt assay this, but this time i've opted for decorative sprinkles instead, fearing that the highly mature first grader and supreme court justice*** niece riley, who will be seven on saturday, might find such frivolity beneath her dignity. in these weighty matters, an aunt cannot be too careful! :)

*i could maybe borrow one of leslie's...she only has three, the poor dear sad healthy darling! :)

**and there will be future versions. oh yeah. count on it.

***strictly speaking, riley elizabeth is not yet an incumbent of this lofty office, but she is already practicing a suitably decorous demeanor, just to be safe.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

amigurumi, macaroni, and...JAM...?!?

i s'pose you're wondering what those three things have in common, aren't ya? very possibly, up until sunday, they didn't have *anything* in common, unless you count the fact that they can all be found within a brisk walk of union square. until my friend trish and i changed all that, thank you very much!

we had lunch at S'MAC, where their mission is...and i quote..."to push the boundaries of what can be done with macaroni & cheese"! they are succeeding in that quest, by the way! i had the sampler platter* or, at least, some of it. (even with help, i could not eat more than about half!)


next we made a quick stop at JAM paper & envelope, so i could score some tasty discounts! (if you're flexible & willing to trawl the closeout section, the prices are hard to beat; twenty-five 6 x 9.5's for $4...5.5 x 8's for $6...and you needn't choose white, either; even online this is my first stop for specialty envelopes, but in person is the best deal!)


our last stop was the newly opened lion brand yarn studio, where they are putting a seriously strong "new york boutique" spin on an old craft store favorite! seriously, when you think "lion brand" does THIS pop into your mind?!

yeah. me neither! :)

we took a beginning AMIGURUMI class from will--possibly the world's most patient & polite twenty-something--in which nearly every class member was able to complete one of these little babies:

although mine had to have his wings and tail attached on the train ride home. i'm not sure that i am crazy about his beak, either; i made a dimensional one instead of embroidering...and now he's a bit "cyrano de BIRDgerac" for my taste...i might have another go later!

speaking of LATE...ciao, darlings!!!

*i don't have all that many firm rules for living, but one reallllllllly strong one is, "if a restaurant has a sampler platter, i shall order it!" it's not greed, i assure you. it's the passion of the pure scientist! :)