Shrinky Dink Charms: Downton Abbey Peeps

Making shrinky dinks is not just for kids, although they would have fun making them.  This site has a good tutorial, but you can just buy a package (six sheets per package) at your local craft store, instructions included.

These are Downton Abbey characters downloaded and printed on to the special paper (remember to dull down the colors as they become brighter once they are baked).

They are stitch markers used for knitting up this sock which is in progress.  Sock pattern here.

Linking to WOYWW.

Church Decoration for Ordinary Times

Recently, a post about Church Banners was written here with pictures of sunflowers on silk fabric.

Now all panels of fabric have been hung.  The resulting wall looks thusly:

Green Man Show & Tell

A follow-up on Wednesday's post:

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Sheep on the Wall

Why not have some sheep to keep me company in my craft room?  And maybe they could knit along with me. There's an idea.

Folk art has easy lines and is fairly quick to draw.  Inspiration came from Kathy's Needleworks in the form of canvases for needlepoint.  I copied John Blake's sheep from a canvas available at the needlework site.  After sketching them onto the wall, I then painted them in acrylics.  It is about half finished in the above picture.  If the next owner of the house does not want sheep in this room, a quick primer and another coat of paint will cover over the critters.

(Finished: inside dimensions 40" x 32")

Rough cut 2 inch firring strips frame the sheep; they are stained and add a barn-like touch.

But for now, those woolly gals are just making me happy and keeping me company while I knit Piper's Journey Shawl in a celestial blue that is 15% cashmere and 85% merino wool.

 The sheep approve.

Silk Painting continues

First posted here with an excellent tutorial on painting with silk dyes referenced here (including steam setting the dyes), this picture is the fifth dining room chair seat now finished.  The size before covering the seat was 25" x 25", with a bit of waste allowed on all sides for wrapping around the sides of the cushion.

Embroidery: Urban Themes

Spending time over at the Flickr group on Urban Embroidery, some amazing artwork can be seen.  Here are some examples:

Sarah Walton has these pieces:

(I love the dimples in the back of the knees and the pensive look on the face of the dog.)

(Does this not just scream BFF! and dogs that are wary)

(Do you see these two out for coffee and the pup waiting for a bagel bite?

And from Lucky Jackson on Flickr:

You can purchase Lucky's embroidery patterns here.

Reupholstering Dining Room Chairs with Painted Silk

Supplies Needed to Reupholster Six Dining Room Chairs:

Silk Paints (Jacquard Brand), water based resist (note to self: purchase heavier gutta next time) and six yards of12 mm raw silk (only available on line): slubby and heaviest available.  The silk was ordered from Dharma Trading for about $6/yd.  Wash the fabric and dry in dryer on medium heat.  The product says there is an 11 percent shrinkage fabric on this silk.  This is correct!

Process: silk fabric was cut larger than the chair seat and a large canvas frame was turned over and re-purposed for stretching the silk canvas. A heavy staple gun was used to attach the fabric to the back of the canvas frame...the staples are easily removed after the project is completed.

Resist was applied and painting started.  Note: Allow paints to dry thoroughly and then steam following the technique using newsprint for wrapping and steaming (three hours).  I used this tutorial from Dharma.  Newsprint was purchased from the local art supply store.

As a learning experience, I used two types of silk fabric paint.  One product for painting on silk must be steam set for three hours to set the dyes.  The advantage of this type dye is that it allows colors to flow into one another and results in greater control of the colors.

These are a couple of pictures using this steam set type silk dye and paint brushes with the too-thin resist that spread much too freely, creating large areas that were barriers (resists) to the liquid paints.

Finished piece of painted 12mm thickness of silk before the steaming process:

This is the finished silk painting on the seat of one of the dining room chair cushions: steamed, dried, cut and stapled onto the bottom of the seat cushion:

The second type of silk dye is set by heat only (simply pressing on the back of the painted fabric with an iron set to the silk setting). This type of paint is thick and requires a $13 bottle of formaldehyde based thinner which some painters might not desire because of the associated negative environmental factors.

 

The above picture shows the same type resist was used (I was too frugal to purchase another gutta for the second chair cushion and wanted to start the second cushion while the first one was drying).  The paint is the heat set type product, with little room for blending colors.  Instead, the colors were applied one on top of the other.

Finished but not yet applied to the chair cushion: (note that the background is the natural color of the silk fabric):

Completed chair cushion with poppy motif:

Four more chair cushions to complete.  I will continue using the dyes requiring the steam method.  These cushions will NOT be matchy-matchy.  For people with OCD, this might make you squirmy, but it is OK in this household.

Update on 2/16/12, third chair cushion finished:

Update on 2/18/12, fourth cover completed with heat set dyes and little blending allowed:

5th chair cover:

Last one...a bird of paradise.  Who wants to sit on the bird of happiness?

How to Make Modge Podge

Buying Modge Podge can set you back a few bucks more than making it yourself. Since it is used in the craft room about as frequently as scissors, here is a recipe for a home made brew, courtesy of thekrazycouponlady:

1 jar (An old pasta sauce or salsa jar will work)
1 bottle of Elmer’s glue
 water 

Empty the glue into the jar. Add water; you will need equal parts water and glue, so you can even use the (now) empty glue bottle to measure your water. Now, shake the jar until it’s well blended. You will need to shake it a lot, so pace yourself!! This recipe will make Mod Podge that is a little on the runny side. If you want yours to be a little thicker add more glue.

That's all there is to it!

(All pictures courtesy of Pinterest)

Pillow Cases (the tube method)

My SIL gave me the idea of making pillowcases for charity.  This thought then led me to the idea of sewing a few extra for Christmas gifts as well. They will make especially unique gifts for my five CASA (court appointed special advocate) kids.  Each child has something special about them that I can find a fabric theme to match with their pursuits (music, sports, tv characters, etc.).  There are many great fabrics geared to kids.  Here is something I found with the Dr. Seuss theme from Etsy:

If you give it some thought, there will be many people that will come to mind who might appreciate something made by you especially for them.  And who can't use a new pillowcase, especially if it makes them smile?

A very easy tutorial on sewing three color coordinating fabric cases can be found here on YouTube, sponsored by Missouri Quilt Company.  I watched the video several times, took notes, and started thinking about fabric choices that were on hand.  A quick trip to the fabric store, and I came up with more coordinating fabrics.

Then the fabric pieces above were cut.  But wait!  There was more fabric on hand that needed coordinating fabric edges.   And I needed some Mickey Mouse fabric, too, for a special little boy going through some hard times.

Another trip to Hobby Lobby, and behold!  Twelve pillowcases were on the way to being sewn.

YouTube and Missouri Quilt explains it all, and it is not difficult if you have average sewing skills.  Here are several pillowcase ready to be seamed that are on my machine shelf this morning, ready for finishing.

And here are a few already finished:

Thanks, Charlotte, for this neat gift idea.

Bag with Crocheted Hexagons

Loosely based on this pattern for making a shopping bag, and borrowing from this pattern on Ravelry for a hexagon blanket, a new project bag was born.

See the toy ferret and bunny rabbit?  Those belong to The Amazing Therapy Dog Libby, but I actually plan on filling it with a sweater project and swapping yarn for the toys.  Its strap is a knitted icord, and the bag itself is two pieces of coordinating fabrics sewn back to back, folded in half, and seamed together.

Several weeks ago, I was making hexagons from sock yarn, but did not have enough sock yarn scraps to make an actual blanket.   Instead of chucking the project, I used the 20 multi-colored hexagons as decoration for the bag front.  Bling was added in the form of buttons and charms.

The little sheep buttons in the middle of a couple of hexagons make me smile.

Beaded Bracelets

Now that I have been knitting with lots of oranges and red yarns, some bracelet bling in those colors was needed for accessories So I went to Michael Sellick on YouTube for instructions about how to make a beaded bracelet.  (He has over 1,700 videos on YouTube about how to make various things.)

Here is the video I looked at to ensure I was making the bracelet correctly.



Using glass beads, I made two bracelets.  One has a toggle clasp and the other has a magnetic clasp.

For 34 free patterns to make even more beaded bracelets, this site from Favecrafts is an excellent web source.  I especially liked this cluster bracelet:

You might also like the Blue Malibu:

How to Make 3-D Decoupage

A little history about Paper Tole was found here:

There has been much speculation of the origins of the craft of Paper Tole or 3-D Decoupage, as we know it today. The Japanese have for centuries shaped and folded paper into beautiful designs, transforming a 2 dimensional piece of paper into 3-D creations.

Indeed oriental lacquer work formed the basis of the development of the 17th Century art form decoupage. The craftspeople of the day embedded designs into furniture by applying successive coats of lacquer, sometimes using 15 or 20 coats.

The French and Venetian further refined these techniques in an art form called "Vue d'Optique" which is considered by many as equivalent to the modern method of using paper sculpture to create 3-dimensional pictures.

 beautiful example of 3-D paper tole by Susan Lee

A quick tutorial on how to make a tole card is available from eHow, and provides enough information to start you out on this craft.  Here are the supplies you will need:

3 to 6 copies of a detailed image; card stock (optional);  Spray adhesive (optional); Scissors; Silicone adhesive;  (hot glue gun or foam tape); Tweezers; Clear glaze or glitter glue (optional); Well-lit area to work in

This picture is a postcard that I will be using to do my first paper tole project:

Several postcards came in the pack.

Things to keep in mind while making a tole card can be accessed at this site:

There are 3 principle areas that when looking at a 2 dimensional image the crafter must visualize, those being, the background, the middle-ground, and the foreground with several intermediate layers between the background and foreground.

A natural perspective is gained by properly and skillfully shaping each cutout piece before gluing it. In our view, one of the most important techniques that will really elevate your finished tole from being really good to magnificent lies in the skill in which you shape or sculpture the individual elements of the picture.

After reading the information about 3-D Decoupage, I decided to take the princess by the crown and start cutting up those postcards and make that princess come alive.

Her bald head, of course, needed to stand out in all its beauty, so the head and crown were emphasized by building up layers. And of course, she needed pink beads on her tiara, so the bead stash was raided.  Here is the finished product.  I was disappointed because the head-on view did not even show that cutting and gluing job!

This side view displays more of the dimensionality of the card.  (Is "dimensionality" a word?)

Jane Holmes at  Porcelain Painting in Australia  first introduced me to this craft.  Thanks, Jane.

This is part of How Sweet the Sound of Pink postings on Saturday.