Crafts from the Past!

I know it's past the holidays, but as I suck at posting regularly, and am trying to improve that, I think I'll start off easy with some stuff I made a while ago.

I made an extra effort this year to make some really pretty and meaningful gifts for my sister. Here they are!

Me, being the weirdo I am, am always prepared with my handy-dandy emergency tin. I really don't use it that often for myself, but it seems in the past two years (since I made mine) she used it every time we were together. We joked about this a lot. I decorated an altoids tin with some decorative paper, using Mod-Podge and basically decoupaging it. I made a base of white paper first, as the tin is colored and the purple paper was translucent. Then I put a few basics inside, including band-aids, matches, and alcohol cloths.

Here are some links if you would like to start decoupage. It's really simple, and can quickly transform any piece. I was lucky to find an almost full, large bottle of Mod-Podge at my local Arc, which was marked down to less than half of what it would have been at the store. It's still not very expensive, the original tag said something like $5.

Martha Stewert Decoupage Projects

HGTV Decoupage Projects

Here are her two gifts together. I made a matching keepsake-type box for the tin. This was actually a box for an Hello Kitty PuzzleBall that she got me for my birthday. I decoupaged a white base with plain printer paper and then added the purple paper on top. I didn't plan to leave the top white, it was a mixture of laziness and just seeing that it looked nicer.

The bow is made pretty simply. Just sort of fold the paper over and glue it down Then add a little circle of paper in the middle. I made a few other bows from magazines for decorating other gifts. I don't know if I'll use them but at least I made them! Update, the bows are now taped on the side of my bookcase. They add a touch of whimsy!

She loved the gifts, but is having a hard time finding tiny things to put in her tin. Which is ironic, because she literally has a collection of tiny stuff! 

Some summer crafts...

As I said, I didn't have my computer for a lot of the summer, so that made me pretty busy!
I have the nicest neighbors upstairs, two retired twins, Janet and Judith O. They're so cute! Anyway, Janet crochets A BUNCH, she's really good. She gets a lot of practice crocheting afghans for her 7+ grandchildren every year. She's given us a few gifts of her creations, and over the summer she gave me some yarn, needles and crochet magazines. I saw she had the perfect colors for chocolate-chip cookies, and I busted these treats out in a day. I gave them to her as a gift, and really need to make more. They were so easy but came out so cute! Here's to this years Christmas gift...

I just sort of free-handed the design, making simple circles of different sizes. Then I sewed 'em up, stuffed them with yarn and fabric scraps and they were ready to eat! The "chips" are actually just glued on in little spirals. I free-handed the bowl too, it sort of starts of small and gets wider at the middle.

I'm also thinking these would make really great key chain charms on their own. I have never seen (at least that I can remember) key chain pieces at the craft store... I must find some!

There were some other things I made over the summer, like some great clothes and a bicycle bag, that I need to take some pictures of. Coming soon!

 I've known for some time that I have very low chance of getting a "real" or steady job in this economy and with my lack of experience, but it really sunk in recently. My only experience is working at a haunted house! Scaring people only works one month out of the year. Anyway, I sold this zombie-deco mirror in August for $20, and it really encouraged me to try harder and sell my creations/tutorials on how to make them. Hopefully this works out and I can start making a bit of money! I want to use my blog and youtube to make more tutorials and things, and etsy (at least at first, then maybe create my own website) to sell some things I make.

 

 This is something I made last week. These were first just brains and bows separately, for deco, but then my boyfriend said the most wonderful thing, "Are you going to put those bows on there?" This is much better than having them seperate! The brains are zombie-eaten... I can't get enough of zombie stuff! I'm thinking these would make really cute necklace charms or rings. They're a bit too big for using a lot as deco pieces. They are not baked yet, but after I'll paint on some blood and other good stuff like that. Cute! Or is that gross? Whatever.

So I'll keep an update of how my "business" is doing. Hopefully it starts doing something soon! 

Love, 

Lily Aurora

It's been so loooong!

My computer was broken practically all summer. It was fixed by my most wonderful boyfriend about a week ago. Finally! It had been so long I almost didn't know what to do with it. I'm not joking, I put it under my bed the first day here it had been while it was broken.

Even though my computer was broken, my spirit wasn't. I did a lot of crafts over the summer. Maybe it was because I wasn't being distracted by the lure of the internet?  I don't have any of the photos on my computer, because I had to format it in order to fix it. My next post will be an update of all of my summer fun and my current projects. Here's a great idea I had yesterday: I'm going to make my own yearbook instead of getting the school's. I think it's going to be great!

Sorry to anyone who was left hanging!

Etsy & Embroidery! Plus...

Here is the status of my Hello Kitty: This is 4 days after starting, I think I worked on it about 3 of those days. It's not much progress, but I guess I'm almost half way done! I can't wait for the bow, I think it will be so adorable.

You can see my current manicure: Cherry blossoms inspired by the Arizona Tea can. I saw this design a couple weeks ago done by several different artists and I had to do it as soon as I could. It's on my toes too!

Since I'm on the subject, here is the manicure I had before this one. This was my first attempt at a newspaper transfer. I didn't have a nude color so I used a sort of mauve color and I think it looks really great. I used a comic picture for my thumbs. I'm surprised that no one has ever used the funny pages before, at least not that I've seen.

Today, while watching the 1st part of the second Godfather movie, I began my father's day present. It seriously took the entire movie just to do this! Hopefully I can get it done in one week... That's when I see my dad! My puddin' is also meeting my father's side of the family for the first time then so I don't want to mess anything up!

I also added a new listing to my etsy, some super creepy-but-cute Zombie Brain Taper Gauge. I'm wearing them right now! The cupcake icing from my cupcake gauges broke off of one so I am going to remake those, and in their place I made these.

This is my first time painting the clay like this, or at all. Usually I just leave it as it is but I love how this came out and I will experiment with painting more in the future.

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Lily

A few very Girly Things and Summer Determination

So, because it is summer, and I am  in many ways a lazy American teenager, most summers of mine have been wasted away with 14 hours of sleep (I'm not kidding, I can sleep forever), TV/Computer use, and general vegging out. This summer I have declared no! I'm waking up at 8, jogging, doing craft projects, reading, and other self-enriching activities.
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It's been going pretty well. It really hasn't been summer vacation very long, so I'd say in that time I've gotten a lot done compared to previous summers. School ended June 6 and today is June 16... Wow! Exactly 10 days of summer. It literally feels like it's been weeks! That's very crazy to me... I'm a little boggled right now! Give me a minute to compose myself...

Ok, I'm back, and ready for action. I spent most of yesterday embroidering while glued to America's Next Top Model, very excited because they ere showing the season with Creepy-Chan! That show and Dual Survival are my favorite veg-out-and-craft shows. Plus classic cartoons! I haven't figured out the schedule for good cartoons yet (just got cable again), but when I do (Here I come, Saturday Morning!) I'll be there with my breakfast and embroidery project.
As I said before, I'm also trying to learn Japanese. The past few days I haven't got any in, but today I'll get back on track.

Here is the little project I was able to finish yesterday. It was just something cute and simple to practice my technique before doing my serious projects later.

How cute is this? I used a random picture I found online after searching "kawaii" (yeah, it's perfect for finding simple, cute drawings). There were other pieces like an icecream cone but I liked these 3 the best. I traced the design from my computer screen then onto fabric using my window (tape it to the window). I did french knots here for the first time, as little decoration on the sides and as some of the eyes. They are fun! I think the left cherry came out creepy though... The smile wouldn't curve right, and the eyes were too big for the face. I should have just used normal stitches.

I want this Hello Kitty to be entirely French knots! It will take a long time, but I think it will turn out really fabulously. Again, this stuff was just as a practice because I hadn't embroidered in some time. For this HK and other bigger projects I want to take progress photos. Right now she looks like she's trying to be Santa.

These are several designs I want to do. You can see the HK and kawaii foods. On top is a little rat. I want to embroider this picture of my Octo sleeping. I'm going to use the rat on the left. The heart is an anatomical medical drawing from an old Gray's Anatomy book. I originally drew this when I was like 12 and now want to refresh it. My puddin' gave me the idea to do it on a hoodie in red but I don't have the resources to transfer the design onto it. I'll have to find an easier way or just try and re-draw it. 

 This is the last design. My dad really likes motorcycles, I grew up with a big biker community in Austin, they were like a second family. I know father's day is almost here but I'm taking longer to make it because I won't see my dad until the 27th, when I visit him in Texas. It WILL be done by then!

I need to find a frame for the father's day piece and the kawaii piece, and I guess for HK too. I think the heart on a hoodie would be sooo awesome so I need to do some research for doing it cheaply.


Thank for reading!
xo

Lily

Summer Learning

Today I began my plan of studying Japanese over this summer. I have Rosetta Stone, Japanese 1-3. I do not know how far I will get through, hopefully most of year 1. I completed the first Core Lesson and the first lesson on pronunciation. So far I am impressed with the way Rosetta Stone structures their lessons and sort of lets the user discover the meaning of words themselves instead of tradition American school teaching where we are simply expected to memorize word meanings. I really enjoy this more and I believe I will learn it better. I know so many people who take language classes in public school, myself included, who have been taking the same language for years but can barely mangle out a single sentence.

I am in my second year of Spanish, and the only reason I am slightly fluent is because I was raised in a bilingual community and family. Until 3rd grade I was in bilingual classes, where we learned to read and write our basic English and Spanish. I also try and use my language outside of school, so that is, I'm sure, important for real fluency, and it's something a lot of people disregard. My poor sister took Spanish all the way to college and is not much more fluent than I am. She understands more but speaks it less. Like so many things in public education, this needs a serious reform, but that's another discussion!

My boyfriend is a little jealous that I will be more advanced in Japanese than him by the end of summer. He just moved and can't use his computer. I am sad too because he would be the only person I could have talked too, but now I'll have to find something online or a Japanese friend here. Or maybe I will just walk around talking to myself! Who cares if people think I'm crazy?

Maybe I will write some here as I get more advanced, and I know there is a website where I can blog in a foreign language and get corrected by native speakers. I used to use it for Spanish but I cannot remember the name.

I really need to get off of the computer now and go to bed, but I saw an earwig earlier and I know that's going to bother me, thinking about it crawling around... No! Gross! I killed it though, but where there's one bug, there's probably at least 10 more near by. I heard you are always at least 6 feet away from a spider, isn't that weird? I need to stop thinking about this, it will give me nightmares...

Goodnight!
Don't let the bed bugs bite...

Things I Made Monday, New Gauges

I feel very silly, and I know I was too eager to bust out these gauges. I just wanted them so bad! I couldn't wait to roll them 10 more times to a smaller size... I just sort of guessed and they turned out too big.


Only gives me a reason to size up!

These zebra-patterned gauges are my favorite! Maybe that's just because every new design I make is something new and better from the last. A schoolmate of mine, Saundra, said something a while ago suggesting I do a zebra patter, and finally I took the time to make them (not enough time though...). I can't wait until I can wear these out!

This is a really terrible picture, but I figured I might as well put it up because I made these two on the same day. As I said, these are really bad pictures, plus I forgot to put a lacquer on them (because they didn't fit). They are super cute in my ears, I swear! They look just like studs. My left ear can fit these, but not my right. Is that normal for people gauging up, that one ear is easier than the other?

I will post better quality pictures as soon as these fit in my ears! Hopefully that will be soon, they aren't too much bigger, as I said they fit the left ear already! Currently my ear holds about a 2, I don't have an exact measurement. These are probably zeros, then. I need to find a way to measure them properly, especially if I want to sell them.

Trying to sell my designs on Facebook didn't work, so when I get some money I will post these and several of my other designs on Etsy.

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