March Recap

Recap:

Read:
1. Gold Rush Baby by Dorothy Clark
2. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

Stitched:
1. Loving and Faithful by Little House Needleworks
2. Snow Bunny by Hob Nobb Designs
3. Mockingjay by Forever Young Adult Designs

Crafts:
1. Soulless resin charm pendant
2. Clock parts & gears resin bezel bracelet
3. 6 steampunk magnets
4. 8 resin charms (failure! O_o")
5. Alice in Wonderland charm bracelet
6. 11 cell phone charm lanyards
7. Robot Love watch keychain
8. 60 Shrinky Dink charms
9. 2 Soulless-inspired tote bags

Felties:
2 stars
2 Totoru
1 breakfast pastry
4 toast with butter or jam
10 mustaches
1 cupcake
4 kitties
1 egg
1 bacon
1 onigiri
1 panda
3 bunnies
1 girl octopus
1 donut
1 pig rabbit
1 snow rabbit

Egads! It doesn't seem like that much until I wrote it all down.......O_o"

>____<

This next month will be more of the same. I don't think I'll get any cross stitching done in April because Kristina and I will be getting ready for the convention in May.

But that's ok! I hope to work on some nice cross stitch patterns after May ;)

The one goal I do have for April is finishing Apollo's Angels. It is still on my bedside with a bookmark in it! Shame on me, I know!

Until next time ^____^

I LOVE ROBOTS!

I have been eyeing this robot watch charm at Hobby Lobby for a while now. Today they finally had a sale on Metal Gallery jewelry so I bought this and a red glass heart to make a nerdy keychain! LOL You can tell what time I took the photo! >____<

Until next time ^___^

Too cute!

This afternoon I decided to make some of my Shrinky Dinks into cell phone charms using the beads I got in the mail this week from eBay!

I love the bow beads! They are so adorable and work well with the charms! I also used some of the stars I got too :)





I'm almost out of the bow beads O_o" I'm definitely going to order more soon >___<

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend with all your plans :)

Until next time ^___^

Storybook bracelet

Close-up (Sorry for the horrible color; the colors in the first photo are closer to the truth!)

This evening after a trip to Hobby Lobby I decided to make an Alice in Wonderland bracelet. Over the weekend I had made several scallop edged charms with holes on either side with the idea of making them into a bracelet.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought the larger jump rings. I wonder if I might impose on my friend Amanda and see if I can send the bracelet to her for a makeover with the correct rings? She's a beading/jewelry expert and has all sorts of findings. I think I should have bought oval shaped jump rings......assuming they even make those!

Until next time ^___^

Resin Experiment

Yesterday morning after I finished reading The Hunger Games, I decided since it was lovely weather outside that I would experiment with some Easy Cast resin that I bought at Hobby Lobby a while ago.

What a disaster!

1. While mixing my resin I accidentally knocked over the cup and poured resin in my mold.
2. Starting with a new mold, I poured too much in each mold because of how fast the liquid came out of the cup. I had to use a spoon to scoop some of the resin out of each mold.
3. Letting the resin get tacky, I left out my cup of resin for the next layer. It hardened completely!
4. Due to the spilled resin (see #1), my ice cube tray stuck to the wax paper.

So yes, quite an eventful morning!

But after curing the resins overnight, I got these results this morning.



Since this was my first experiment using the Easy Cast resin, I didn't go further with other layers in the mold, I poured only one layer. I waited about an hour and half for the layers to get tacky before adding stickers.

So researching this morning for troubleshooting on using Easy Cast resins, I found out why my resins still set up correctly despite spilling some of the contents while stirring. Apparently if you mix a large batch of resin, you don't have to measure exactly. If you make a smaller batch, the measurements must be exact.

Silly me! I only wanted a small batch of resin, but I poured 3oz of each mixture out in the cups......and so the resins set up correctly!

I also found out why my resins came out cloudy. When you stir your mixtures together, you must stir for two minutes and transfer the mixture to a new cup and continue to stir until the mixture becomes clear. I was so flustered by knocking over my cup that I neglected to stir completely.

Despite all my mishaps, I hope to experiment with resin charms again in the future! I just have to wait for another weekend of nice weather!

Until next time ^____^

Steampunk Love!

Yesterday afternoon I was able to make this steampunk bracelet using Magic Glos resin, a square bezel bracelet, a silver glitter heart, and clock parts.

I used a hairdryer to get rid of the tiny bubbles in the resin before setting it in the sun to dry ;) The only defects were some flecks in the square bezels.

I'm happy with the results of this resin experiment ;)

Until next time ^____^

Mockingjay

Design: Mockingjay by Forever Young Adult
Fabric: 28ct Cashel Antique White Zweigart
Threads: DMC 310, 400, 436, 680, 781, 782, 3820, and 3857
Start/Finish: 3/25/2012

Charms Trois

Snow Rabbit

Pig Rabbit!

My friends and I are K-drama geeks and one of our favorites is You're Beautiful starring Jang Geun Suk. I found a tutorial for making the pig rabbit doll from the drama and had to try it for myself.

I finished this cutie last night. I'm not impressed with my stitching when it comes to adding the additional parts, it's hard to be neat when stitching them on. This morning I found some tiny safety pins to attach the plaid fabric bows. It is a temporary look for the pig rabbit until I can go by the store and find some plaid bows or some decent ribbon to make them.

Once I've done that, this little guy will be a gift for my friend Kristina since she absolutely adores anything and everything that Jang Geun Suk stars in!

Until next time ^_____^