some nifty things

Autumn Candle Glass

2011-10-30T19:02:00.000+01:00

Want to catch some cozy autumn feeling in a glass?

I have found this great idea on some crafting blog. Sadly I lost the link when my old laptop crashed and I couldn't find it again.

So today I took a walk through the beautiful autumn forests and collected some coloured leaves.

I really love those on the left because they are bi-coloured. Also, I noticed that you get the most beauitfully coloured leaves from very young trees.

Well then I took them home, washed and dried them, and started crafting.

I thought I could simply attach them to the glass with the glue-lacquer, but the surfaces really didn't work well together. Too smooth.

So first I applied a whole layer of glue to the glass and the leaves I wanted to use and let them dry. Then I applied another thin layer on the leaves and attached them to the glass, holding a hairdryer in my mouth, directed at the leaf, while I pressed it onto the glass with both hands. Must have looked hilarious.

It really was a rather tricky procedure. But I love the result.

I applied like two thick layers of the glue-lacquer on top and probably will apply another one tomorrow. I just want to make sure everything it absolutely airtight and I hope this will prevent the colours from fading and the leaves from drying.

The glass on a mirror.

I think the yellow and red also make for a nice Christmas decoration.

Donkey Piñata Time!

2011-10-30T18:47:00.000+01:00

I made a piñata! Yay!

I wanted to make one for some time now and last week I spontaneously decided to try it for a birthday. Since I had no experience whatsoever I decided on a rather simple design without any fancy extras such as limbs.

The inspiration was my favourite star model: Eselchen

All I used was a balloon, an IKEA catalogue (I didn't have regular newspaper D:), and acrylic colours.

For the glue I tried a simple recipe I found on the internet. One part flour, two parts water. Didn't work too well, so I added decoupage glue-lacquer to it and it worked just great.

I really wouldn't recommend shiny catalogue paper. Real newspaper is the best because it soaks through really fast and is very hard when the glue-mix is dried, but I had to make do with what I had at home.

I made about 5 - 7 layers, I think, and it had some stability in the end, but not as much as it would have had with newspaper. When everything is dry you can make the balloon pop.
But seriously, make sure it's dry, otherwise the air that is forced out by the explosion might blast a hole or two into the damn thing :D.

I used some paper to form the ears, painted them, and attached them to the painted "head" afterwards.

After the colour had dried I filled it with sweets
When I bought all that stuff the cashier asked me if I were preparing for Halloween... what a funny woman! I don't share my chocolate with strangers :p

I couldn't figure out an intelligent way to create a construction to hang it up on. But then again it's too cute to beat it with a stick anyway.
I have a tendency to make things that are too cute to throw away but too useless to keep. But in any case, you can use it as a vault for sweeeets and chocolate :D

"Am I not cute?"

Anniversary Quilt

2011-10-26T20:06:00.000+02:00

My very first quilt project was to be an anniversary quilt for my parents. I wanted it to be SO awesome, but it turned out to be harder and more time-consuming than I thought. It sure isn't perfect and I'm not really satisfied, but I think it is presentable and my parents were very happy about it - which was the intention really. So I didn't totally fail :) And I sure learned a lot.

This project was planned some time in advance and I worked on it over a long period of time with long breaks in between. So no picture tutorial, sorry. But the text will reveal some of the problems I had in the process and might be helpful for starters who don't want to make the same mistakes as I did.

Of course I first made a lot of sketches with elaborate quilting patterns until I realised that I should probably start with something simple. But even those rectangles didn't quite turn out as I had planned them.

Then I went to buy fabric. And believe me, quilting fabric and wadding for a 2x2m quilt is not quite cheap x_X But it was a special present, so I wanted to use good fabrics.
I think I screwed up the colour mix and pattern a bit, especially with that ochre-coloured fabric. Oh well...

Then I started to cut the rectangles.

Please, if you ever cut fabric for quilting.... use a template to draw the pattern onto the fabric, use a rotary cutter for cutting. I HAD a pattern, but missed out on the seam allowance, so I added that by guessing. Of course, it became irregular. And I didn't have a rotary cutter. Two mistakes I WILL NEVER MAKE AGAIN.

It could have saved me so much pain to just cut a new template, but I was too eager to start.
Damn you, enthusiasm!

Here's the crumply quilt in all its mighty glory. After I had cut out all the rectangles, I sewed them together. The borderlines don't fit exactly because of my guessing work on the seam allowance. Meh.

Afterwards I ordered a very large and very warm and plushie microfibre blanket from ebay for the backing of the quilt. I adjusted all three layers - the backing, the wadding, and on top the.. well, top of the quilt, the patterned fabric. I secured them with saftey pins and started to sew all of it together.

First all horizontal lines, then all vertical lines. Of course always along the lines on the fabric, which didn't always work, but most of the times.

At the end it became quite difficult to fit everything under my sewing machine. And I'm glad about that walking foot I bought two years ago.

After I had sewn all the lines, only the borders were still open. That's when I discoevered I had to sew 50% of the binding by hand x_x That's about 8 meters!!!
Anyway, I found this tutorial incredibly helpful.
Since it couldn't be helped, I sewed the rest of the binding by hand. And surprisingly enough it took me only two long evenings. And was kind of satisfying... really.

And the icing on the cake is the "25" I stitched into one corner of the quilt, which took me another two evenings. Without an embroidery frame. Again, something I won't do again.

Although the fabric is a little crumply around the edges, I still think the 25 turned out beautifully, I really like it.

Actually, I like the whole damn thing because its cozy and incredibly warm and it doesn't fall apart :'D

I sure will do more quilting projects now that I know which mistakes to avoid, but not until I bought a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. Seriously.

More Papercraft: Gift Boxes and Pencil Box

2011-10-26T19:18:00.004+02:00

I recently made two gift boxes for friends' birthdays. Actually, you can never have too many boxes, can you?
It's easy as pie and I used the same technique as with the cardboard drawer.

Here's what I used... default boxes and paper from the crafting store.

Before applying the paper I painted them with brown acrylic paint. I just thought it has a nicer look and texture.

Afterwards I really just cut out paper, glues it to the boxes with the glue-lacquer and occasionally added some fancy.

#2

Duh... the lid has eight sides I made take a picture of the one where the ends of the paper strip meet... Yeah, that's me.

Inside this one is some leftover and very nice petrol fabric and a kind of pocket watch on a necklace.

The second project was the pencil box. I had this one for ages, really. It was still fine, just needed a new look.

That's it. More papercraft sure to come!

Penroll / Brushroll

2011-10-25T21:42:00.010+02:00

Hey.
Here comes my little tutorial for sewing a penroll or a brushroll.
It's very nifty and cute as well. And the best: very easy to sew.

I settled for a plain black fabric on the one, and a fancy red fabric with black velvet on the other side.

At first, you have to cut two squares (or rectangles close to suqares) of your preferred size. Mine were about 30 x 30 cm long. Then you have to sew the left sides together as if you were making a pillow slip.
Then you turn your piece to the right side and iron it.
Now you decide what should be your outer and your inner colour for the roll.
My outer fabric is the red one.
Lay the piece on the ground so that you only see the inner side and fold it so that you have about 20 cm of your outer fabric now on the inner side.
Sew the edges.
Then you decide how large your pipes for the pens or brushes should be (I made different sizes) and you sew a straight line on the 20cm where the back (outer side) is on the front.
Nearly done. Just add a ribbon on one side so that you can tie the roll later.

Here is a visual instruction:

Have fun sewing!

DO THE KLIMT

2011-07-31T12:36:00.008+02:00

I just reported of the cheap crafting sets...Here is the result

Here a photo of the whole set.... the things are worth a lot more than 4€ I'd say.

And this is what I made of it. Really like it...beautiful for jewellery... and Klimt is one of my favourite artists, I like Art Decó very much.

2011-07-28T18:53:00.006+02:00

For all Crafing-People a shopping hint: At the cheap store "Zeemann" you can buy now Crafting Sets for only 4 Euro from a good crafting supplier called Crea Donna (see, only for women XD)
The Items are normally pretty expensive (like varnish or colour from Marabu)
I bought Sets for
- jewellery box with Klimt Napkin-Technique
- Picture Frame with Craquelée technique with potpurri
- Ceramic figures from natural elemetss (like a bowl that looks like a lettuce leaf)

I'm speaking of these

Steampunk Clock

2011-05-15T16:28:00.001+02:00

Sometimes I create things that simply turn out to look crappy when I'm done. I usually throw them away. This time I created something that didn't work. I decided to post it anyway because it still looks pretty, which makes it even worse because it's useless :/

This was supposed to be a birthday gift for a friend, and it worked fine until I decided to disassemble it...

The watch was a giveaway, but it has a Quartz clockwork, so I thought it would be rather long-living.

I bought some nice steampunk-themed paper craft paper, took of the clockhand and started to decorate the watch. Really very easy, nothing elaborate. Afterwards I drew the 3, 6, 9 and 12 onto it.
Then I bought a new set of clockhands at added them.
I put the battery back in and that's where it stopped working.

I don't know what went wrong, it worked perfectly before that. Maybe some of the glue got into the clockwork but I don't think that's possible. Anyway, it's broken and makes for nothing more than decoration now.

Anyone want a free, decorative, broken clock? ^^;

Well, I guess things like that just happen.

Skirt Alert

2011-05-15T16:09:00.003+02:00

I wanted to post some pictures of my skirts for ages now, but somehow I forgot to... Anyway, here are my two latest pieces, very very simple, and no tutorial. However, it's very easy to figure them out for yourself.

The first one I made last autumn or winter. It's a very soft and thick cotton skirt and I have to admit it's my favourite since the first time I wore it. And the pattern is lovely, though I wasn't sure about that back when I bought it.

Sorry for the bad image quality ^^;

As you can see in the picture below it's simply a square to which I attached two trapezes (no rectangles because of the slanted hip line).
Finally I just added a zipper. Done!

The second one is a double-layered skirt made of creme-coloured cotton with a lovely flower or rose print on it. The underlying layer is made of creme-coloured IKEA cotton fabric. It's nice because it's robust and cheap, but I won't use it again for a visible layer because it crinkles heavily and I hate to iron my clothes. Such a waste of time...

It's really just 4 trapezes again (two for each layer) with a zipper at one side and one layer being, obviously, longer than the other one.

Love the pattern!

That's it :'D More to come? We'll see. The next weeks I'll be busy working on the axolotl tutorial and on sewing my very first quilt. The fabric I've bought so far already makes me despair. Lot of fun ahead!

Kitchen Wall Decoration

2011-05-15T15:29:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I get the inner urge to decorate something new....

Last week I walked through the household section of the local "Müller" store and fell in love with some decoration elements in light brown with antique forks and knifes. I like this motive since I got napkins for my birthday with this motive.
I bought a little cupboard for kitchen utensils (only 6€, reduced ^^) an the canvas (3€, also reduced) and for the background I took silk paper from "Galeria-Kaufhof" since I have no possibility to get real wallpaper here in Halle without a car.
I really like the result. ^^

[PS: The rest of my kitchen looks very ugly, so at least this side had to become pretty]

You like?

Book purse

2011-04-04T20:20:00.018+02:00

As some of you may know, I make my income supporting my studies by making purses out of books.
Well, as I don't want to adorn myself with borrowed plumes, I have to admit that this beautiful accesoire is very common in the United States.
If you want to sew such a purse too, just look behind the curtain.

I think it's pretty easy to sew such a purse.
At first, you look for a very beautiful old book and some fabric (about 40 x 110 cm) thats fits to the cover of the book. Cut out the pages with a safety knife and keep it for further information ;-) Also you need about 1,50 of cord and other things you see in the picture:

Now we need a pattern. Use baking paper. I normally take the normal size of the book when its opened, add 1 cm seam allowance and then we put wings in the middle of the book, wide as the spine of the book an the sides have to be as long as the half of the long side of the book minus the half of the spine. Then draw a line at each side with around 65 degrees, you may need a set square to be exact. Also add a litte seam allowance here around the wings.

Then cut out the pattern, put it on the doubled fabric an eventually use "flieseline" on top to make it a bit stiffer.

Cut out the pattern with the fabric and don't forget to have four squares to attach the handles.

Iron the fabric with the Flieseline, sew the sides of the squares together and turn it around to the right side, also iron it.
Now we need the glue. Put a small amount of glue in the corners of the book and blur it with a Q-tip, put the strips on and give some glue onto them, to attach the cord on them as handles, close the strips an glue them on the book. (pew, that was hard to describe)
Then make it fix with clamps.

Now we sew the inlay. Put the fabric together so that the wrong sides look at each other and sew around the borders, leave a little hole.

Now make a little crop with a scissor in every corner which goes inside, that there are no wrinkles later on.

Now we turn the inlay to the right side by pulling one wing through the hole on the other side and also the rest. Now we iron again to have the inlay flat.

Attach the wings on the sides by sewing with a criss-cross-stitch and you get an inlay that looks like a hat XD.

It's nearly done. Just glue the inlay into the book.

Also fix with clamps and let it dry.

To close the purse, you can use satin bands and make a ribbon, or buttons on the one side and an elastic on the other. I normally make a "tongue" where i put a magnet inside and another magnet on the front of the book inside.

There are a lot of variations to make it pretty.

Thats the result:

More on my homepage.

Doily bowls

2011-04-04T19:45:00.017+02:00

Heyho, this is my first contribution to the blog.
As easter is coming, I wanted to craft something for my family and I found an instruction for beautiful little bowls.

At first, I bought some air-drying clay and a cute doily, the latter was hard to get. I looked for it in every 1€-shop in Halle and found nothing, till I had the idea to go to an antique shop where they had the famous "Plauener Spitze" even for a good price.
So at first, you get something to put under the clay, then you roll it out with a rolling pin till it's very flat, but not too flat to break later. Then you get a small dish to get the round shape and you cut it out with a stump knife and remove the rest.
After this, put on the doily, but do not cover the clay fully, I let the doily cover around two thirds of the circle and then you use the rolling pin again to get the pattern into the clay.
So, it's nearly done. Just put the clay circle into another bowl and let it dry (mine was about 24 hours).
If you like, you can use a rasp to make the edges a bit smoother, but be careful!
Finally, I had some spray-on white I used to make the "not so white"-white of the clay a bit brighter.
My clay was enough for 5 bowls.
I will decorate these bowls with some light-green grass for easter and some chocolate eggs to have a pretty nest.

Here the original DIY from Dawanda.

Have fun doing :3

Axolotl Plushie

2010-12-28T12:30:00.000+01:00

"I am cute!!!"

Now this was a Christmas present I made. I was very eager to keep it for myself when it was done, but I gave it away in the end XD

Things you need:
- paper for a pattern
- fabric for the body and the dorsal fin (or whatever that is)
- yarn (don't use cotton! I did...)
- fuzzy wool for the gill rakers
- eyes
- stuffing

Basically I just made a pattern out of copy paper and newspapers based on some axolotl pictures I found.
I bought some really nice and fuzzy fake velours leather and used it for most of the plushie.

I bought cotton yarn, but that was not a good idea since it's not very tear-proof. I noticed that during the stuffing process. So maybe you better stick with synthetic yarn.

After cutting out all the pieces I made the gills from small fabric straps and added the gill rakers by attaching some fuzzy wool at the sides.

The rest is basically just thinking about in which order to sew the parts together.

Axolotl picture taken from here.

Be sure to leave a hole through which you can stuff in the stuffing. I'm still not too good at that. Somehow it never becomes a really smooth stuffing, some parts are always crumbling together. Oh well...

Anyway, this is it!

You know you can never grow too old for plushies.

It's just a piece of cake!

2010-12-23T14:11:00.005+01:00

Hello fellows, here comes a very sweeeeet possibility to create a present for your loved ones (if they like sweet things, of course).

I took a photo of the pattern I used and tried to mark it for better understanding. Sitting at my parents home I can't use another program to draw on the computer, which would not be any better, anyways. >D
(click to enlarge)
I acutally used a pattern, decembersong got from some friends a little while ago. It was a Japanese handicraft box including the pattern plus felt.

So this is what you need:
the pattern
different colours of felt
some wad/cotton wool for making plushies, e. g.
scissors
needle/s and threads in matching colours
maybe some glue

I used
middle brown as 1st dough colour
light violet as 2nd dough colour
white for the cream topping
dark violet and light violet for the blueberry
red for the strawberry
light and dark green for the leaves

First, cut out all the patterns. Then start sewing the side parts of the cake. Sew the part of the 1st dough colour with the gaps and the littler 2nd dough part together using a thread coloured like the 1st dough. Sew the side parts on the side where the gaps are, together. You may add some little dots in a different (darker) thread-colour onto the the 2nd dough colour to make it look like there were pieces of fruit in it.
When finished attach the side parts to the bottom part, then add the back part (it's the biggest square on the pattern labelled 1st dough colour, 1x).
Start sewing the top part onto the cake, but leave a little part of it open to fill in the wad, until it's a puffy piece of cake, then close the gap.

Now you can start making the decoration:
Use some yellow thread to apply little dots on the red strawberry felt, then loosely sew a thread through the round part of it. Leave some thread at the end and don't make a knot. Then bend the felt, so it looks like a little cone and sew the straight parts together. After that stuff some wad into the cone and pull on the thread you left at the round part of the strawberry, it will kind of riffle right now and close around the wad. Pull tightly and then sew through the bottom part of the strawberry to ensure that it won't open again.Now attach the strawberry leaf with green thread.

For making the blueberries, cut the cross in the middle of the bigger circle, then sew or glue the little circle onto it. Now sew a loose thread round the edges of the bigger circles each and leave some at the end, not making a knot again. Fill in some wad and pull the thread like you did with the strawberry.
For the little leaves use some lighter or darker thread to sew a line on them, so it looks like a leaf vein, then attach them to the blueberries.

Now you have to sew the cream topping. Sew 3 of the drop-shaped white felt parts together by sewing a line from one end to the other. Then add one of the 3 "half-drops" at the top. I guess you will have to twitch a little until it looks nice.

When finished, add the decoration to the top of the piece of cake.
First, sew the cream topping onto the back edge of the white cream top part. Then place the strawberry and the blueberries in the middle.

Tadaaa~ finished.
You can either give this away as a present or decorate your home with it. :)

Here you can see the cake, decembersong sewed:

Paper Butterfly Collection

2010-12-15T22:29:00.003+01:00

Very animal-friendly :D

Things you need:

- butterfly stamp
- magazines
- a frame
- paper

I got the idea from this blog and wanted to make one myself.

So I ordered a butterfly stamp from ebay and bought a colourful girlie magazine (and felt quite ashamed for it).

Then I just stamped out about 60 butterflies. I only needed fifty for the collection, but it is always nice when you can choose.

I bought the beautiful frame at Xenos (sadly it is made of plastic and while trying to clean the fake glass it [the glass] broke and gave me a nice and clean deep cut in my finger :'D).

Now it's a nice decoration for my mirror corner.

It's a very fast and easy one-evening-project. Try it!

Book Decoration (Paper Craft)

2010-12-02T17:44:00.000+01:00

More paper crafting!

This time I decided to start a larger project I had in mind for a while - a photo book. Have I thought this through thoroughly? I don't think so. That's why I bought a sketch book and some paper crafting paper and simply started. I wonder how many photos I will be able to put onto the pages before I won't be able to close it anymore... oh well.

However, the decoration at the outside of the book is the smaller part which I would like to present here.

All you need:
- a book
- paper crafting paper, napkins, whatever
- special glue lacquer for paper crafting/décopatch
- book corners or better (see below)
- scissors, brushes
- transparent glue, depending on your kind of book corners
- acrylic colours (maybe)

Here's my stuff. I used more graphic45 paper, including the leftovers from the cardboard box project.

At first I painted the black book with acrylic paints in a dark turquoise/blue/brown mix and added some golden highlights. I thought it would fit the overall colouring of the crafting paper motives better. Of course you can skip that part.
There is not much to say about the process of cutting out paper and creating a design that fits your taste. Anyway, the designs were already so beautiful that the result could scarcely look bad, all I had to do was trying to keep a balance between the different objects. Remember to apply the lacquer underneath and on top of the paper.

The result:

I went shopping for some nice and fancy book corners, but I found only some plain and boring ones. Then I remembered how Glittermuffin once used some metal jewellery to create a kind of fake book corners. I liked the idea, so I bought a pair of cheap and very thin metal earrings, cut them apart with a normal pair of scissors and glued them onto the corners with a transparent glue.

That's it. Happy 2nd December!

Chirashizushi birthday cake

2010-11-21T19:05:00.005+01:00

Hello folks and welcome to another cooking entry. Hah!
Yesterday a friend of mine celebrated his birthday. He loves sushi and therefore I decided to make a chirashizushi cake for him. I was inspired by a video of Runny, a very cool and talented guy, who explains how to easily make Japanese food on youtube. You should check his channel!
Okay, but now to the recipe.

Since I couldn't find all the ingredients Runny used, I altered the recipe a little. But the next time I will try to use the "original" ones.

ingredients:
~600 g sushi rice (I used ca. 2 cups)
~scrambled egg made from 3 eggs
~80 g canned tuna
~50 g salmon roe
~80 g smoked salmon
~mirin furikake
~(sushi) vinegar, salt, sugar
~1 spring onion
~red food colouring

Prepare the sushi rice.
I don't own a rice cooker, but it works perfectly fine with a pot, too. Just remember to fairly wash the rice before cooking and only use medium-low heat.
I don't know what was wrong yesterday, but it took me almost an hour until the rice was finished. <-- Lately rice seems not willing to cooperate with me, so don't be afraid. I'm sure it will work fine for you. Also prepare the scrambled eggs. When the rice is finished you have to cool it down, quickly. Fill it in a non-metallic bowl and turn it carefully around using a wooden spoon. A fan is helpful, too. :) Then add the vinegar-salt-sugar mix. For 600 g of sushi rice you'll need about 1/5 cup of vinegar, a tea spoon salt and a little more than a dash of sugar. After that mix half of the rice with the tuna and the other half with the red food colouring and the furikake (add as much as you need until it meets your taste). Then use a 15cm spring form covered with plastic wrap and fill in the red rice first, then the tuna-rice. Use a table spoon to press the rice into the form. Then turn it over onto a plate and remove the spring form + plastic wrap. The top layer will be the scrambled eggs. You could use some drawing paper, like Runny does, or if you don't have it, carefully drape the eggs on top. The salmon roe forms a circle in the middle, after that roll up 6 pieces of smoked salmon (2x4 cm if you need measures) and drape them like roses on the top of the cake. As a finish sprinkle some spring onion over the eggs. You can add little birthday candles, too. Tadaaaa! I hope you'll find it tasty. For me, it was.. and the birthday boy seemed to be happy, too. :)

Browny-Cheese Cake

2010-11-12T03:07:00.004+01:00

Hello folks,
it's been a while since the last post... Lately I've been invited to eat lots of cakes and finally I got the recipe of one of my favourites: Browny-Cheese Cake.
Hope this recipe will be as mouth-watering for you as it is for me. :D

Ingredients:
100 g butter
300 g sugar
60 g flour
500 g curd cheese (low fat ;D)
4 eggs
10 table spoons cocoa
1 tea spoon corn starch
1 dash of salt

First, stir 200 g of the sugar, the salt and the butter until it gets creamy, then add 3 of the eggs. After that mix it with the flour and the cocoa. Put some of the paste aside (~2 table spoons).
Now mix the rest of the sugar, the last egg, corn starch and the curd cheese.

Fill the brownie paste into a flat cake pan (I used one of my gratin dishes) covered with baking paper, then add the curd cheese cream. At last fill in the brownie paste you put aside before and create some designs on it with a fork or something alike.

Bake it for 35-40 minutes at 175°C.

Bon appétit! ♥

(And thanks again to Doro for sending this recipe to me. ^^)

2010-09-28T16:43:00.004+02:00

Homemade Cosmetics, Part One: Eyeliner

Here it is, finally - the first make up recipe, brought to you by yours truly. By now, there is a number of NC (natural cosmetics) eyeliners out, but being the grumpy Muffin I am, I always find something wrong with them, either texture, colour or price tag. As with everything, purchasing the eyeliner ingredients will seem a bit pricey at first (~10€ max), but then again they will make for a very long lasting supply of eyeliner in your choice of colour. The eyeliner we will make is super matte and looks best over a makeup base, but can be used without one as well. It is not water- and smudgeproof but doesn't crease unless your lids are very oily. Try using an eyeshadow base or skin tone eyeshadow underneath if you have problems with oily lids.

You will need:
- Measuring spoon (doesn't have to be a specific one)
- Empty make up jar (eBay; German readers look for "Acryldöschen")
- Oil of your choice, I'm using Jojoba
- Emollient, I'm using Emulsan
- Distilled Water
- Cosmetic Grade Alcohol, I'm using Weingeist
- Pigment: mixture of 1spoon Magnesium Myristrate of Eyeshadow base and 3sp of matte pigment (either use mineral pigments or crush a suitable eyeshadow; it shoud be opaque and pigmented)
- Alcohol for cleaning, rubber gloves, ceramic cup (suitable for microwave)

Prior to starting:
Make sure you are wearing clean rubber gloves and have properly cleaned all you tools to prevent an eye infection.

How to do it:
If your Emollient is firm (i.e. in bead-form), you will have to melt it first. If it is liquid, skip the following step.
1. Add 1sp (spoon) of oil to 1sp of emollient; in a separate cup, pour some of the water and microwave both until the water is hot and the emollient has melted.
2. Add 11sp of water to the emollient-oil mixture and stir. This will result in an emulsion. If you had to melt your emollient and the water is not hot, the emollient will simply harden again and you start right from the beginning.
3. Let it cool for a few minutes, then add 3sp of alcohol. Letting the mixture cool is important as you don't want the alcohol to evaporate in the hot liquid. It functions as a preservative and will keep mold, bacteria and shroomies out and should, thus, not be used in a too small quantity.
4. Then add 4sp of pigment. If you use eyeshadow that is not pigmented enough, you might need more. Whip the mixture with a spatula or the back of your spoon until no clumps are left (this might take some time). Test pigmentation on the back of your hand (Is it opaque?) and add more pigment, if needed. When you're pleased with pigmentation, pour into jar and let it sit for some time as the consistency might become a bit firmer as the mix fully cools down.

We're done! Use a small eyeliner brush or the brush of a used up eyeliner container to apply. Feel free to go absolutely crazy with colours or try some shimmer pigments (they're not everyone's cup of tea, though). Bear in mind that glitter will not stick to the liner as it dries down and becomes non-sticky.

Questions, comments or criticism? Please let me know.

FYI: The original recipe was taken from here, but after some research I found the amount of some ingredients used to be completely wrong (not enough alcohol to preserve the product properly, way too much emollient etc.). The author also suggests using vodka instead of cosmetic grade alcohol. Please don't. Be reasonable, work cleanly and check the list of ingredients for anything that might possibly irritate your skin.

Cardboard Drawer Makeover

2010-09-18T11:54:00.001+02:00

While strolling around in the hobby and art supplies store yesterday I discovered the joy and fun of décopatch. This is so much fun I could spend weeks doing nothing else right now. However, since I have no use for décopatched figures of cardboard animals, I decided to try it on something more helpful: storage space! Again.

I have several cardboard boxes and a drawer that I wanted to redecorate and this turned out to be a very easy and very fun way to do it.

What you need:
- cardboard box or drawer
- décopatch paper, scrapbook paper (you can also use napkins)
- adhesive lacquer (Klebstofflack): this is a special pre-mix of glue and lacquer for décopatching, it will glue your paper to the chosen surface and provide protection from scratches and water
- acrylic paint
- different brushes

The lacquer and papers can be purchased at idee, for example.

At first I applied several layers of acrylic paint onto the cardbox until it was well covered. I added a few drops of water so the paint was easier to apply, but that's optional. If you speed up the drying with a hair dryer, you'll be done quickly with this step.

I bought three sheets of paper for this. Two décopatch sheets and one scrabook paper sheet with a motif on it for the front side of the drawer.

I made a template for the front side of one of the compartments with normal printing paper. Then I cut out three pieces from the motiv paper for the three compartments with that template, leaving little spaces between them for the gaps between the compartments. Now I applied a thin layer of the adhesive lacquer onto the front sides of the compartment, pressed the cut-out paper on it and applied another layer onto the paper.

(As a note: Don't try to completely paint a larger surface with the adhesive lacquer and then add paper because it dries rather fast. Do it step by step. Also, I noticed how bubbles will form underneath the paper when the lacquer is still wet. I tried to press them down, but sometimes they wouldn't disappear. However, after the lacquer dried the surface was completely smooth.)

This paper is from graphic45.

With the same technique I added stripes of décopatch paper to the sides of the drawer and a larger piece to the top.

The layers of paint, lacquer and paper will give some additional stability to the cardboard boxes or drawers, so you don't have to buy the expensive boxes for décopatching. Mine wasn't very solid because it was only a folded cardbox drawer, but it did just fine.

There are billions of possibilities for this technique. Even if you just use it on boxes you can do really elaborate stuff with it, but I tried something simple for the beginning. I think I'll try it on my bathroom furniture sometime soon.

2010-09-13T12:24:00.004+02:00

Making Your Own Cosmetics – Intro

This is going to be the starter post of a series of tutorials on making cosmetics. While it will also feature “classic” home made cosmetics, such as peelings made from stuff you have lying around in the kitchen, it will (mostly) be concerned with making your own make up. Before I bring on the tutorials, I thought it best to put together a post with general instructions, hygiene warnings and tips on where to shop for raw materials. If you are interested in cosmetics making, please read this post first to avoid some major fail, eye infections etc. Thanks.

I. General Instructions

Things you're gonna need:

- Mica – sparkly pigment that comes in a ton of colours. Basic eyeshadow ingredient.
- Matte Pigments – usually metal (mostly iron) oxides, ultramarines, carmine etc. Even if you're not going to make matte eyeshadows, lipglosses etc, these will provide a base to make the micas more vibrant.
- Base powders – these will give your colour cosmetics their texture, which is important. I suggest an equal mixture of titanium dioxide, magnesium myristrate or magnesium stearate, boron nitride (in sparkly shadows) and silica (some people get breakouts from silica, so you might want to test it on a patch of skin first. I normally avoid possible irritants like the plague but that stuff makes for the most silky smooth texture.)
- Oils (jojoba, castor, but foodgrade olive or coconut will do as well), butters (shea or cocoa), waxes (candellila, carnauba or beeswax), emollient (makes water mix with oil), cosmetic grade alcohol (preservative, use in small quantities)
- Alcohol to properly clean all your tools!
- Mortar and pistill, an even plastic surface to work on (should be easy to clean), measuring spoons (preferably in thee different sizes)
- Plastic jars to store the make up in

Generally speaking, all non-sparkly powdery ingredients always should be ground together using mortar and pistill or else you will never get a streak-free mixture. Micas, however, must not be ground! Grinding will destroy the sparkle and you'll end up with dull colours. Look here for an instruction on how to blend micas together (leave out the grinding, though!)

Never fear, you're not gonna need all of those at once. Purchasing those ingredients can be costly at first, but the amount of make up you can make from them will result in very low-cost products (of great quality! I'd never go back to drugstore eyeshadow again).
All tutorials to come will have a separate list of ingredients.

II. Hygiene

In order to avoid possible health hazards, please make sure to ALWAYS work with clean tools only. Wear rubber gloves, a breathing mask and protective glasses (if you can get them) as getting pigment dust into your eyes, nose and mouth is not cool. Clean your gloves prior to working, always use alcohol for cleaning. Clean your jars before filling them. Only swatch your eyeshadows on clean skin. Always clean your brushes after applying make up (this applies to all kinds of make up, no matter if selfmade or store bought! Bacteria will gather in the bristles to cause you eye infections and skin impurities and you want to avoid that. Use mild shampoo or cosmetic brush cleanser and rinse under water.)

Another important hygiene factor are preservatives. You can find a lengthy explanation of when and why they are needed as well as what products can be used here.

Before you introduce any new product into your formulas, make sure it is suitable for whatever you are going to do with it. Read about what it does and how it works FIRST. Don't ever randomly experiment with chemicals or powders if you plan on keeping your eyesight. Thanks.

Other than that, all recipes I'm going to post have been tested on myself. Their basis was taken from existing recipes, which I then altered until I was pleased. Please not that I am no chemist and that you can always react to a product that is fine for everyone else. I do not take any responsibility for things that are going to happen to you when trying out my recipes. I can assure you, though, that neither I, nor the people I gave my products to for testing, have had any bad reaction toward them. I try my best to keep myself informed and updated on the ingredients I use; I avoid irritants as much as possible; I try to keep my products vegan (although I myself am not, but I think that no animal should suffer because I want to paint my face).

III. Where to Shop

Pigments & Base Powders:

I have two addresses for shopping for powders – TKB and Coastal Scents. Coastal Scents also offers premade cosmetics, so make sure you browse the ingredients section. I have also tried other shops but these two were by far the best in terms of service and amount of powder you get for your money.

I suggest using TKB for when you first shop for mineral ingredients. They have a minimum order of 20$, which is a good base to begin with. Get sample sizes only! TKB's samples are so big (way bigger than the teaspoon size they state them to be) they're gonna last you forever. To this day, I have never used up one of their samples... and I make a lot of make up. TKB has a premade matte eyeshadow base of which I got a full ounce (still super cheap, though) and add silica and boron nitride when using it in my formulas. I find it recommendable for beginners as you don't have to worry about your base.
I furthermore recommend getting the mica sample kit (cheaper than buying them separately). Even if you think you're never gonna make blue eyeshadow and won't need the blue pigment anyway, I can promise you, you will. You may, indeed, never make blue eyeshadow, but you may want to mix your own colours, change their hues and whatnot. As time goes by, it will require all of the sample colours. Also get some black, brown and white mica (I got the pearly one). You can make a ton of shades with these colours already.
In terms of matte colours, get titanium dioxide (white; no need to get this if you've chosen the matte eyeshadow base as it's in there anyways), black oxide (really important), matte red of your choice, matte yellow of your choice, TKB's dark brown, matte blue of your choice (although I can't recommend ferric ferrocyanide (prussian blue), it's a pain to work with and SO not beginner friendly) and, if you wish to, chromium oxide green. A note on chromium oxide: to the US, this colour is suspicious of causing cancer and birth defects, to the EU it isn't and it is being used frequently here. Buy it at your own risk, it is the most vibrant green you will get. Nevertheless, I will in a later post instructions on how to mix green, orange and medium brown (so don't buy these).
TKB samples all cost 1,50$ so you can chose a lot. Try not to exceed the 20$ minimum order too much as to avoid customs, since the cheapest international shipping method is 14$. Nevertheless, the size of their samples will provide you with a good starting point without having to re-order too frequently.

For getting some additional pretties or re-ordering colours without having to spend at least 34$, I recommend Coastal Scents. Their samples are smaller than the TKB ones but still a fair amount and they only cost 1$. Also, shipping is calculated according to the amount you buy and generally cheaper than at TKB. Coastal Scents is great for getting additional colours, colour changing micas and stuff you just want to try out. Colours that have similar names to the TKB ones usually are exactly the same shades, so don't be fooled by the pictures. CS's photos tend not to be too accurate. They did include a free sample in my last order, which I found very nice :)

Oils, butters etc.

I get all other make up ingredients at Spinnrad. They have an online shop as well but many cities have one of those stores in one place or another (the one in Leipzig is at Strohsackpassage, Nikolaistraße). I find their prices quite fair and the real stores usually offer a bigger variety and a larger range of quantities of products (because you're not going to use up 1l of il).
No matter where you buy, make sure the stuff is suitable for making cosmetics. Using the wrong products can seriously damage your health, so be extra suspicious. Some of these ingredients also should be available at your local chemist's, so ask there if you have no Spinnrad nearby.

_______________________________________

So much about general stuff. If there are any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Recipes will come soon, but I want to make sure everyone who's interested reads this stuff first so I'm not posting anything right away. Thanks for your understanding.

Refreshing Strawberry Ice Tea

2010-09-07T14:31:00.007+02:00

Summer's almost over. Nevertheless, I still like a yummy, cool drink every now and then. Super quick & easy!

Ingredients:
- water (1l)
- 2 strawberry teabags
- red grape juice (0,5l)
- strawberry syrup (150ml)

How do to it:
Boil the water, put the teabags in and let it sit until it's ready. Add the grape juice and syrup, then stir well. Put the mixture into the fridge over night to let it cool. This will come out really sweet. If you like to drink it as cavity juice, go ahead, but I prefer mixing it with water in a 50/50 ratio.
When serving, add ice cubes and, if you have, fresh, sliced strawberries. Yum!

Fish do love Coco Milk ---> Gratin

2010-09-03T20:00:00.007+02:00

Welcome to another cooking session!
Lately I'm totally into fish and sea fruits, that's why today's recipe will contain salmon (again) and shrimps.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of rice (I prefer Basmati)
~300 g salmon
~250 g shrimps
2 peppers (yellow and red)
1 can coco milk
half of an bigger onion
2-3 garlic cloves
2 eggs
50 g grated cheese
salt, pepper, 5 spices powder, lemongrass powder, chili powder

Do It!
Put the rice and 2 1/2 cups of water into a pot (plus some salt) and cook it with low heat until the water is gone.
Cut the salmon, peppers, onion and garlic cloves into little pieces.

Heat up a pan, then sweat onion and garlic, put the salmon and shrimps into it for ~3 minutes and use some salt and pepper on it.
When the rice is finished take it from the hotplate.

Now we're going to mix the sauce.
Pour the coco milk in a high bin, add the eggs and all the spices. Stir it, until the eggs are mixed up with the rest.
Use the spices until the sauce meets your taste.

Now pre-heat the oven, 175°C, top-/bottom-heat.

Alternately fill the rice, the peppers, salmon and shrimps plus the sauce into a casserole until it's full. Top the gratin with some grated cheese and put it into the oven for 25-35 minutes.

Tada~!

Antique Book Box

2010-09-02T20:45:00.002+02:00

I store a lot of stuff in boxes because I lack proper storage space. However, I didn't have anything to store my hair stuff in. Originally I wanted to make a music box for that purpose, but I ended up making a box out of an old book. Yay!

Required:

a book (surprise!)
fabric
glue
water
ribbon
cardboard
tape tape tape

So, I bought this book in an antique shop.

I couldn't find much information on it except for the fact that there is a movie based on this novel. However, it had a personal dedication inside it. From 1924.

Touching.

The first thing you will have to do is to DESTROY THE BOOK. Probably the most exciting part for every bibliophilic soul with a hidden sadistic desire. Cut out the binding, carefully, with a sharp knife or a cutter. Make sure you don't hurt the back of the book.

Can you feel how it hurts?
No?
Well, try harder. Tear the pages into little pieces and use them for some layers of papier-mâché. You will need one part water and one part normal white fluid crafting-glue. Then just add some layers of paper and the water-glue-mix for some additional stability since especially the back of the book won't hold a bulimic crack whore after you've removed the binding.

Wait until it's dry (or speed up the process with your good friend, the hair dryer).

Here comes the "I had to improvise!"-part.
I made a little construction out of cardboard and cellotape for the sides of the box-to-be and attached it to the book with more cellotape. I also added the ribbons. With cellotape.

I once heard a saying that went something like this: "If you can't fix it with duck tape, you haven't used enough."

True.

That's why I used some pages from the book and masking tape to stabilise the construction a little more.

If anyone has a better idea for the sides of the box, please let me partake in your wisdom. I couldn't come up with something better in a trice.

After I had used enough whatever-tape, I cut out some fabric to coat the cardboard construction with. I pinned it together and sewed it by hand because it wouldn't fit under my sewing machine.

Then I cut out the fabrics for the inside of the book, sewed them together, trimmed the edges and glued them to the book with some strong glue.

Then I folded the edges of the fabric from the cardboard construction inside the box and glued them to the fabric on the base of the box.

And yeah... that's it. Whoohoo!

Book box.

Put stuff inside to make it happy.

Ancient Notepaper

2010-09-01T22:30:00.000+02:00

Letters are fun. I used to write a lot of them, now the number has decreased a little, but I still like to write and receive them. Also, I'm a sucker for beautiful notepaper. Naturally, when I read saraccino's mail art post, I felt like trying it for myself. Here are the results:

Here's what you need:

paper
mail envelopes
dye (watercolours, coffee, tea, acrylic colours... the possibilites are endless)
stamps
a hairdryer to speed up the process
a flat iron

I tried some experiments with water colours at first, colour gradients and stuff.

Afterwards I applied some golden acrylics with a sponge to get a shiny effect.

And it's okay, but you can tell I have never been very good friends with my paintbox. In addition, I'm more a fan of old-looking stuff. So I tried coffee to give the paper a yellowed and dirty look.

And I do like the results very much. I am sure you can use a variety of different colours in foodstuff and I'm probably going to experiment a bit with fruit tea next time.

At first I brushed the paper from both sides wih coffee (instant coffee works just as fine as real coffee) and blew it dry afterwards (with the hairdryer, obviously). Then I did it a second time to intensify the hue (the lighter papers in the back were drenched only once, the ones in the foreground twice).

After drying them again, I started to sprinkle bigger and smaller drops of coffee on the paper. This time I had them dry naturally for some minutes up to half an hour (depending on the size of the drops) so the characteristic borders around the drops would develop. Then I dried the rest with the hairdryer and ironed the paper and envelops with the flat iron. I felt like it this step further intensified the colours of the coffee, but maybe I was just imagining things. Anyway, it gives you nice smooth paper to write on.

I used these silicon stamps and golden acrylic paint to decorate the paper and envelopes afterwards.

So in the end it's a rather simple design, but I think it's really pretty :'D

tagliatelle with a yummy spinach-salmon sauce

2010-09-01T00:15:00.006+02:00

Hello dudes, this will be my first contribution to this blog and I hope it will come in handy if you're hungry and have less time.
That is if you like noodles... and spinach and salmon. :D

The recipe will work for two persons (or maybe 3 if they're not as hoggish as Decembersong and I were, when I made it :P)

Ingredients:
250 - 300 g tagliatelle (ribbon noodles)
400 g spinach leaves (fresh or frosted)
400 g salmon filet (fresh or frosted)
half an onion
2 garlic cloves
200 ml Rama Cremefine (or anything else like cream, depends on the fat content you prefer)
salt and pepper
chili powder
nutmeg powder

What to do?
Boil some salted and oiled water, then pour the tagliatelle in. Cook them al dente.
Cut the onion, garlic and salmon into (little) pieces, then roast it all together in a pan. Add some salt and pepper as you like.
While you do that, the spinach should heat up slowly in a pot (low heat!).

When the spinach got warm, put the roasted salmon together with the onion and garlic into the pot, then fill it up with the cream. Heat it up once, then use the spices until it meets your taste.

Alright, now you just have to arrange it on the plates and then: omnomnom!

I hope you'll like it! :)

Greetings,
Qan

Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-08-06T17:27:00.003+02:00

If that doesn't sound tasty I really can't help you.
This week Yuni visited me and we made the most delicious cupcakes I ate so far. Everyone who tried them was quite delighted with the taste. They were simply awesome.
So, here is how we did it...

First of all, I didn't come up with the recipe myself. The recipe for the cupcakes is taken from here and the recipe for the frosting from here.
However, I made some minor changes to the recipes due to personal taste and shamefully ignored some of the steps in the instructions.
The cupcakes still turned out great, which either speaks for the great recipes or for my improvisation skills (*cough cough*).

Before we start, here is something that might be helpful:

1 cup = 8 ounces = 226g

Now let's start with the cupcakes.

The amount of batter should suffice for about 15 cupcakes, depending on how brave you are at filling the cupcake cups.

Chocolate Cupcakes
85g butter
230g sugar
230g flour
110g cocoa powder (sweet or bitter, as you like it)
170ml milk
1-2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1-2 tsp vanilla sugar
50g hazelnut brittle

1. Measure flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, milk, hazelnut brittle and vanilla sugar in a bowl and beat to combine.
2. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
4. Add a tablespoon of butter-mix to the bowl with the other ingredients and beat to combine. Repeat until all of the butter-mix is mixed with the rest.
5. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2 full.
6. Bake at 175°C for about 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Attention: If your cupcake cups are overfull, the batter will overrun and you will get some ugly deformed cupcakes. That's what happened with our first baking sheet. So be careful.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
110g cream cheese (room temperature)
55g butter (room temperature)
30g white chocolate (melted)
1-2 tsp vanilla sugar
400-600g sieved confectioner's sugar

1. Cream together cream cheese, butter, white chocolate and vanilla sugar.
2. Add sieved confectioner's sugar until your frosting reaches the desired consistency (the stiffer you want it, the more confectioner's sugar you will have to add).
3. Fill into a piping bad and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Bon appétit!

Striped Flowers dinner skirt

2010-07-30T19:28:00.001+02:00

Oh hi, it's me again with more skirt fun for everyone.

All hail fabric sale, I bought some pretty cheap and nice jaquard fabric and tried to do something more elegant I could possibly wear for a restaurant dinner or whatever.

That's what it turned out like...

Alright, this is another afternoon project and it really doesn't take long.

Because jaquard is not very comfortable right on our skin, I preferred to use a layer of white cotton underneath it.

The first picture tells you what measurements you will need.

Fold your fabric in the middle before you draw your lines on it.

Line AB: Think about where you would like the top end of your skirt to be (waist? hips? somewhere in between?) and get the measurement of that part of your body. Divide it by four. That's your AB line.
Line CD: Your hip measurement divided by four.
Line AC: The length of how far the top end of your skirt will be from your hips.
Line BE: How long you would like your skirt to be.

Cut two pieces, one for the front, one for the back. If you add another fabric, cut two pieces of it as well.

ATTENTION: I added a layer of pleats that is not included in these measurements. You can add it or leave it, but think about that before you cut your fabric. If you add pleats, simply subtract the length of your pleats from your overall preferred skirt length.

Lazy-ass-me didn't iron the fabric before cutting. You might want to do that.

Fold your pleats in whatever way you like and pin down the pleats. As you can see, I only folded it four times and got two pleats this way.

Lay down the pleats on your skirt so that the right side of the pleats faces the right side of the skirt. Make a seam to attach both parts. Trim the ends.

Now sew in a zipper on one side of the skirt. The best way to do it is like this.

Sew together the other side of your skirt. You might want to pin it together first, try it on and see if you want to make any corrections.

Afterwards I added satin bias tape (Schrägband) to the top end.

Alright, you're done! You can keep embellishing the skirt and add lace or whatever.

Halfcircle Skirt

2010-07-21T18:28:00.008+02:00

Hi and welcome to my first entry. This post is about sewing a ridiculously easy skirt out of two halfcircles. It's fluffy, nice and you can embellish the skirt in a hundred ways. I chose to keep the one I recently sewed plain and simple except for a button and a zig-zag braid.

Because I didn't take any progress pictures you will have to bear with my sketches. I promise to take pictures of my next project.

How much fabric you will need depends on how long you would like your skirt to be and whether or not you want to add a waistband.
Let's say your waist measurement is 60cm (you can also take your hip measurement depending on where you would like the skirt to be) and you want your skirt to be about 50cm long and you would like to add a waistband. You should do fine with 120cm x 120cm of fabric.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD SEAM ALLOWANCE WHERE NEEDED

1. Cut the fabric. You will need a piece for the waistband (20cm x (waist measurement + 10cm)) and two pieces for your skirt (60cm x 120cm - varies depending on your waist and your preferences for the length of the skirt).

2. You should have two rectangles for your skirt now, and one for your waistband. Fold those for the skirt in half so you get two squares. Now here's a little maths for you. Since we want to have circles, the scope of the small circle is your waist (or hip) measurement. To get the radius you have to divide it by two and the result by pi, or roughly 3,14. That's the length 0 to 1 in the first image. The length 1 to 2 is the preferred length of your skirt. Transfer the lines on your fabric by marking several points on it and connecting them with a line or whatever way you can think of. Now cut.

3. You should have two halfcircles now. Sew them together and put in a zipper on one side.

4. Now you can add the waistband to the top end of your skirt. Add little cuts to the top end every two or three centimeters so you are able to sew the waistband onto a straight line. Place the piece of fabric for the waistband on your skirt so that the right side of the waistband fabric faces the right side of the skirt. Make a seam.

5. Now fold the waistband fabric upwards and enjoy your invisible seam for a second. By now you should have decided on how wide you want your waistband to be. Fold it again to create a top end and the rear side of the waistband faces the rear side of your skirt. Fold the waistband at the bottom end so it protrudes about half a centimeter over the first seam you made.

6.Pin the folded waistband to the skirt and turn the skirt around so you face the side with the first waistband seam. Sew again into that seam so you catch the folded fabric of the waistband on the other side of the skirt.

7. Now you should have two ends on your waistband, preferably at the point where your zipper closes. Fold the fabric at the ends inside and make seams to close the endings. Remember to keep one end a little longer if you want to add a button. The longer end with the button will be hidden behind the short end of the waistband with the buttonhole. As you can see in the pictures, I did it wrong :'D Please do it better.

8. Congratulations, now your skirt is done! :'D Add buttons, braids, lace or whatever suits your taste.

Painting the Pansies Purple

2010-07-20T18:31:00.009+02:00

Hello everybody,

Welcome to my first craft post on this blog. I hope you enjoy the instructions! In case of confusion, I will be happy to help you and answer all kinds of questions.

Whenever I get a new dress, be it bought or selfmade, I am seized by the terrible urge to make matchy stuff to go with it. Since my latest dress has pansies and I have no cream coloured hair accessoiries, I decided to sew a floral fascinator.

There it is in its colourful goodness. The base is an oval of buckram and wire. It is backed with felt (because buckram is ugly) and attaches to the hair with a little metal comb. The flowers are made from different types of cheapo satin ribbon, which I painted to my heart's delight.

In order to recreate the floral arrangement, I recommend reading Helen Gibb's Ribbonwork - The Complete Guide*. In there, she introduces the so called U-gather. It's a technique to gather ribbon (obviously). You take your length of ribbon and sew gathering stitches to create a u-shape, as the name suggests. This is then pulled together to form single petals and leaves. Make multiple U-gathers on one strand of ribbon to form the pink flowers (they turn out best with 6 Us). Generally, it helps to look at pictures of your choice of flowers to find out how the petals have to be arranged. The huge pansy was make from 5 singly u-gathered pieces of ribbon. Everything was sewn on by hand and then painted with thinned acrylics. Paint one colour at a time and always wait until it's dry to avoid wet ribbon soaking in other colours. Hide the edges with lace and add pearls for decoration. Voilá - crazy headdress.

*I would love to give you more detailed instructions and pictures on Mrs Gibbs' method, but I'm afraid she'll sue me for posting them here. Hope you understand. If you need further help, just ask.

team

2010-07-20T13:06:00.006+02:00

Contributions to this blog are made by the following people:

decembersong

Hello world. This is the blog I created for my friends and me so we can share our creative streak with ourselves and you. I started sewing about five years ago and learned most things by trial and error. I know how much of a help tutorials can be, though, and that is why I wanted to create another one of those countless do-it-yourself pages.
I am a huge fan of country/cottage style stuff. Most of my projects revolve around sewing, but I am trying to do some more knitting and quilting and I also love to cook and bake. Hopefully, you will get some inspiration from the things we will present you here and get started with your own projects. Good luck and enjoy your stay on this blog!

Pi

decembersong asked me to join this blog and well, here I am! Actually I think it is a very good idea to create a large collection of creativity in here~
Personally, I like cosplay and because of this hobby I’ve started to sew 7 years ago. I’ve learnt a lot from friends and my best teacher was creativity itself. In private I like a lot of styles. Right now my boom are sweet Lolita clothes, Gyaru stuff (girlie stuff, I have to admit I so love pink!) and skirts! In addition I do handicrafts, especially when it comes to presents.
My mantra: I can do everything! And you can do it, too (^.~)v

Qantaqa

Yo dudes,
this is Qan. Following decembersong's charming invitation I'm hoping to be able to contribute some cool stuff here. I started cosplaying in 2005 and besides sewing I fancy about making props. So if you wanna know how to make "they don't hurt" weapons and stuff, I hope my entries will be helpful. Furthermore I like cooking and maybe some of my creations will meet your taste.

Glittermuffin

Hi, I'm the Muffin. decembersong asked me to join this blog and I gladly do. I'm pretty much into Lolita and I make most of my clothing and accessoiries myself. Besides sewing and jewellery design, I still work on mastering the arts of millinery, doll- and cosmetic making. I am completely selftaught and my methods are often makeshift. Be prepared.