Better pictures of felt creations

I took some pictures that are a little better, though just a little. I've yet to learn how to take proper product photos. I hope with a little practice I'll get better! :)

Here are the new pictures:

I must find some place in my house that I can take nice pictures. Some place that gets a little sun and looks nice. The kitchen counter only works so-so and only for half an hour at 9 in the morning, while the sun falls there.

Anyway, these items are also up on etsy, in case anyone is interested. :)
Set of 4 felt floppy disks coasters
Super Mario mushroom needle book

Thank you for reading! :)

Some felt things for spring

I've been seeing things made out of felt on the internet and wanted to give it a go myself. So, after I thought up some patterns, I got some felt and started crafting!

The felt I bought is synthetic. Wool felt is supposed to be better quality but it's also much more expensive. To be honest, I'm also always worried about moth when using anything wool. (Also, while researching felt I found some articles about how wool is harvested from the sheep which put me off buying anything wool for a while.) Anyway, as far as I can tell, my felt is pretty nice.

I've made a couple of things as test because I've never sewed with felt before.

After a few tries I decided to make a couple of things for my etsy store.

I came up with a needle book and some coasters. Of course, I couldn't make them plain, they had to be interesting!

So here they are: A super mario mushroom needlebook (I really like the shape of super mario mushrooms, can you tell? :p) and a set of four floppy disk coasters, made to the actual size of a 3.5 inch floppy disk. :)

I'm going to take better pictures for etsy, but I don't get much direct natural light at home these days, so I'll have to see where I photograph them.

The needle book has a sew-on snap button closure and 4 pages to fill with needles. It's about the same size as the floppy disks, which I think is a convenient size for a needle book.

Now off to find where I can take some nice pictures... until next time. :)

Tunisian Crochet Floppy Disk

I've been meaning to try out my new Tunisian crochet hooks, so I started watching some YouTube tutorials. I remembered that I had once read somewhere that color changes look better in Tunisian crochet than in regular single crochet.

So, I thought I'd try and make a simple Tunisian crochet sample with color changes to check it. The result is this tiny floppy disk, which I made up as I went.

For me (and for many other) floppy disks were such a big part of my childhood. I remember looking through the boxes we had with floppy disks and looking for games to play. :) And my first experience with floppy disks came from an Amstrad computer we had (also my first experience with programming :)).

Anyway, I think it turned out pretty well, considering it's practically the first thing I've made with Tunisian crochet (not counting the couple test rows I made) and the first time I've made anything with color changes (other than just cutting the yarn and tying the next one).

Sorry for the not-so-good pictures, it's kinda dark in the house and the lighting is horrible.

I'm not sure how the back should look. I imagine it will look better after I weave in the ends. And I have this annoying problem of the piece curling. Maybe I should use a bigger hook or try to crochet looser. Oh, well! I'll try and make something bigger next time. Maybe a HUGE floppy disk! Or maybe something completely different. :)

Until next time!

More Super Mario mushroom pot holders!

Ah, I've been meaning to make this post for a week now! But for some reason I couldn't take any good pictures. I decided, oh, well, I'll just go with those, maybe I'll just take better ones and post them too at some point.

I made some more Super Mario pot holders, this time in the actual shape of the mushrooms. It took me quite a few hours to make them, as I'm not an expert seamstress, but in the end I think they turned out alright! Hopefully, if I manage to sell those and decide to make more I'll make them faster the second time!

The colors aren't perfectly accurate, because as I said before all the pictures turned out not so good and had to fix them in a photo editing software. In my opinion they look better in real life. :)

Anyway, hope you like them!
Next post will probably be about my venture into cloth diapers for my pregnant sister.
Enjoy!

PS. If anyone's interested, these potholders are up for sale on etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/244014299/green-super-mario-mushroom-pot-holder
https://www.etsy.com/listing/244013743/red-super-mario-mushroom-pot-holder

:)

Super Pot Holders!

It's so hot in Greece at the moment, I want to live in the fridge. So, I decided to take my mind off this feeling of melting I constantly have and post my first finished Super Mario Mushroom Pot Holders, (before I make the next ones, which will be a little different).

So here they are, in all their glory!!

I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but they're about 7 by 7 inches. Why would someone in Greece have a ruler in inches? I have no idea. For some reason the only "patchwork" rulers I could find were in inches. So when I say 7 by 7 inches I actually have no idea what I'm saying. :p (Just kidding, google provides all answers and my pot holders are about ~17,5-18 cm each side.)

I didn't have red thread so I quilted the red one with black thread, also because I thought it would look cool... I'm not sure how it looks, I think red would have been better. (Also, the stitching on the back is not perfect like I would want.)

Anyway, I was quite pleased with how they turned out and decided to try and sell them. So I set up my own little shop on Etsy!
You can find my shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OfflinePixels


I will be making and adding more things, hopefully in the next few days, if I have my materials (and I will be posting about them here, too). :)

(Also, another side-project I will be posting about is the cloth diapers I will try and sew for my sister's soon-to-be-born baby.)


Wish me luck! :)

Easter bubble bobble paper craft box

Hi!

I know in many countries Easter has gone by now,  but here Greek Orthodox Easter is this Sunday.

So, inspired by my niece and the countless Easter paper crafts she's been doing, I made this little box template  and asked my sister to try it out for me (as I don't have a printer).

Here is the template (just right-click on it and save image as...):

And here is the box my sister made with my niece. They filled it with tulle and tiny chocolate eggs and ladybugs, but you can't see them. Sorry for the blurry and not-so-good picture, but I was in a hurry.

If anyone makes this, enjoy!

And Happy Easter!

Second Monster High Repaint

Hello world!

Wow, it's been 3 months since my last post. I really should post more often.
(And I chose to post again on April Fools' for some reason.)

Anyway, I completed this about 1,5 month ago. Then I proceeded to hide my camera for some reason and now I remembered it and dug it out.

So, here is Ms Spectra Vondergeist's repaint.

This time the varnish I used was given  to me by my sister's husband. It's a hobby spray for models and miniatures and stuff like that. I think it worked rather well. Though the only issue I had, was that it was extremely cold outside where I sprayed it and I think it came on as a bit "spotty". But because this doll's so white, you can't see it. Also, I think because of this the blush was a bit strange to apply, it felt like the spots with more varnish on would get more blush. Anyway, I managed to work with it and I think it came out ok.

First I wrapped my doll like a mummy using plastic wrap and paper tape so that I don't get the rest of her full of varnish when spraying.

Reminds me of a twi'lek with one head-tail-thing.

Then, I gathered my supplies. Acrylics, chalk pastels for the blush and shadows, some pencils to try out and of course brushes, extra tiny brushes, q-tips and toothpicks (and a cup of decaf coffee -- I like the taste of coffee, not the caffeine, though this one turned out meh).

I removed the makeup from the doll and left her faceless.

Creepy.

Then I did a few coats of varnish, waiting in between for them to dry.

Afterwards, I started the blush battle.I managed to win, but only barely. As I said before the weird invisible blotchiness of the varnish made it hard for me to apply the blush.

Is this how zombies would blush?

Then a couple more matte varnish layers and on to the acrylics!

Ta-da. I think she has a bit of a ghost bride vibe about her. I thought I had a picture of her unwrapped, but I have no idea where it went. I got some fabric to make her a cloak (yay), so I'll take a picture of her wearing that.

And that's it for now.
I have no idea what my next post will be about. Maybe something Easter themed?

Anyway, until next time!