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!

Monster High repaint: Third time's a charm!

A couple of months ago, while browsing the internet, I came across the magic world of doll repaints.
Specifically, ball-jointed dolls. And even more specifically, Monster High Dolls.

As an adult, I never thought I could have an interest in fashion dolls, but seeing all those beautiful pictures of repaints (and re-roots), I got excited and, as with everything new arty-crafty I see, I just *had* to try it for myself!!

So, I ordered a cheap Monster High doll from China. Or, so I thought, apparently the cheapest ones are the same price, here -- and mine came without a box and shoe-less!! But, since it was just for a test I didn't mind.

And so, when my doll came, after a month or so, I set to work researching on what I'd need and got all sorts of paints, pencils and varnishes.

I decided to take a before picture, to remember what I ruined - heh.

Her factory paint and clothes.

I read the paint is easy to remove with acetone, or nail polish remover. Since, I had some nail polish remover which, as it says on the bottle, is suitable for artificial nails, I decided to use that.

See the remnants of gold dust over her magically disappearing eye.

I used a few cotton buds with nail polish remover and scrubbed until she became the faceless one.

When I started it was kind of scary how her face became smudged, and I feared I'd never manage to clean it up. The gold dust over her eye was mixed with some glue or something like that and needed even more scrubbing and even then the gold dust would just stick to other places in her face.

But, some washing with soap fixed that.

Even without eyes it's like she's staring at you.

And, voila! I had a blank canvas to work on!

I applied a layer of matte varnish on her face to protect the plastic, before starting the painting.
Soon, I started painting the outlines of her eyes and eyebrows and coloring in her mouth with some colored pencils. I didn't have anything suitable, so I shaved a bit of the red colored pencil and applied it on her cheeks and nose as blush.

Unfortunately, my first attempt didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so I decided to clean it up and start fresh.
But, even though I was careful and tried to protect her face, the blue I had used on her eyes leeched into the plastic and stained it.
Oh, well, at least it's in a place well it will be covered up!

For my next try, I decided to use watercolor pencils. In most tutorials I've read people use watercolor pencils, so I thought I'd give it a try, too.
But, I'm not used to them (I'd never used them before) and the face came up smudgy and weird.

It was worse when I tried to apply varnish -- I had gotten a brush-on varnish and, my god, her face was coming off.
So, scratch that, let's try again!

Third time's a charm though, because I'm satisfied with how it turned out for my first doll. I used acrylics and a tiny brush and instructions I found in a wonderful tutorial here. Obviously, the artist there is much more skilled, but the instructions are great and even a newbie like me managed to make something presentable. :)

I must say, I like those eyebrows!

And this is the final result! I used the brush-on varnish again on her, but even though it was supposed to be matte, it turned out shiny. So, I borrowed from my sister's husband a matte spray varnish specifically made for plastic figures and hopefully soon the shininess will be gone!

As you can see, I also made her some clothes, and a matching belt and headscarf.

What is not pictured is her blue right hand. I tried to make sleeves out of the dress fabric, but... as I was trying to get the sleeve over her hand I realized the blue had rubbed off on it and apparently it won't wash off...

I'm now thinking of getting another doll to try and put to use what I've learned on this one.
Until then, hope you enjoyed mine and Ms. Draculaura's trip through repainting. :)