Homemade And Crafty

My Christmas Ornament for 2012

2012-12-28T16:57:00.001-08:00

This Christmas, I made a star ornament. It is made from baking soda/cornstarch clay. I rolled out the clay and used a star cookie cutter. I let the ornament dry on the cutter to create a dome star. After a day, the star was completely dry. I started by rounding the corners, and then carving the details. Then I coated the star with sealant and sponged the edges with yellow acrylic paint.

It is just lovely. I love it. Dropped the star a few times too. ^_^ Didn't crack. This clay rocks!

Recycle : Notebook Wire - Bracelet

2012-07-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

NOTEBOOK WIRE FUN

I am making a bracelet from notebook wire, and some old purple crafting string.

Measure and cut the wire.

Now for the old crafting string.

Cobra knots all around.

Lovely purple bracelet. Arm candy for going out.

Recycle : Notebook Wire - Mini Tophat

2012-07-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

NOTEBOOK WIRE FUN

So much wire. What do I do with it all? It is wonderful. I finished classes, and dumped old notes. I have so much wire now.

This stuff must be galvanized or something, because it does not rust. Look at it. It will be perfect for bracelet or jewelry making, sculptures, or my project today. LOL. I made a mini top hat.

Not very hard. Directions courtesy of Threadbangers' lovely Corrine.

For my hat, I recycled some old t-shirt, and spam mail (you know those stock-paper advertisements). I used the notebook wire for the rim. Got one of my scrap ribbons and tied it on. I am gonna use this for one of my plushies, or maybe a future Alice in Wonderland costume.

Kumihimo Japanese Braiding

2012-07-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Quick History

Kumihimo is a name given to Japanese Braiding. This started as finger braiding, much like the knitting nancy. Then tools were developed to speed it along. This tools are stool or table like with holes in the center. They are called marudai and takadai. They can produce round, or flat braids quickly. Historically they were used by the Japanese samurai for functional purposes, much like para-cord to our army troops. They have also been used decoratively for jackets, and kimonos, and creating charms for special occasions.

Summary

Kumihimo is great. Simply it is rope or cord making. This is very ornate that the Japanese would make for special occasions, and for armor.

Links

http://www.weirdollsandcrafts.com/kumihimo/braiding-card.html
http://thegenieslamp.com/kumihimo/
http://www.kumihimo.nl/eng-begin.php

Lets get started

Beginners don't need much. You can checkout YouTube or Google to see all the wonderful stuff created from the cords you can make. You can start by buying a kit or just make your own beginner's kumihimo disc. I recommend making it.

You will need cardboard/foam, scissors, braiding materials, and creativity. You can use spools, and some kind of weight, like beads.

First cut your nice sturdy cardboard or foam into a circle or square. Then cut slits around. You can either decide to start off with 8 or 16 slits. (I think 16 looks better for a beginner, but 8 is easier to learn.) Then poke a hole in the middle.

And to braid, you can use any type of thread. Yarn, embroidery thread, silk, recycle t-shirts, recycle plastic bags, or any thread like material you can knot and poke through the middle. For 4 strands, you will need to place one strand at 8, 2, 6, and 4 positions. Then you do the following:

2 to 5
6 to 2
5 to 6

8 to 5
4 to 8
5 to 4

repeat until you obtain desired length.

The cord will grow through the hole in the middle. It may help to put a weight in the middle, so you don't have to constantly pull it through. Spools also can help you keep the strand neat and free of knots.

There are many other braiding patterns. This is just one. You can look up other designs, or you can experiment on your own. I found a few places you can check out in the links.

Mine

After many trials and errors, I have perfected this Kumihimo braiding tool. Cardboard was too squeaky, or too flimsy. Paper was weak. The best cheap free way is leftover packing foam. LOL.

I just cut a circle out, cut the slits, and poke the hole. It is perfect because it does not damage thread, even this embroidery thread. I don't have to worry about string breaking. I just wish I can put more weight on the strands. Check it out. I am trying to finish a whole skein to use for bracelet making. I think the colors are beautiful.

This is 16 slits, for 8 strand braiding. My pattern is just grabbing one strand over 2 strands. Then grab the next, and go over 2 strands again.

Broken Scraps, Butterflies, and Arm Candy

2012-07-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have been cleaning up lately. I threw away so many old notes. I have so much junk. I just went through a drawer with old jewelry. My god, old times. I haven't seen some of this stuff since middle school and high school.

Anyone remember these butterflies.

I have so many ribbons. LOL! I have more not shown.

I have an old cheap charm bracelet. And a broken chain of rhinestones. Look! I re-purposed it. I think it looks very fashionable, and very cute on me. New arm candy for free. Yay.

Of course this drove me into googling arm candy. Lots of DIY. So beautiful, and then I remember para-cord bracelets. They are so nice. They remind of of macrame or tatting. Found some rope like string and did a cobra braid on a piece of ribbon. I think this makes a cute bracelet. I just need to finish the ends.

I think you may enjoy this. My sweet mother got me this. We went to this jewelry store that does DIY bracelets. I picked the string color, crystals, and design. The gentlemen tied everything together. It is beautiful.

Art Journal

2011-09-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry I was gone for a while.
But today I will be talking about Art Journaling.
If you are stressed out and need to meditate to calm down, art journaling is great. It gives you relief and allows you to be creative too.

To start you just need a medium to start your work of art.
* Use recycled paper. Bind any way you want.
* Use software on the computer.
* Use old books you will never read anymore and can't donate.
* Use cheap composition books, notebooks, or journals.
* Or you can even use the nice journals, and art books made for painting and such.

Then your tool, your imagination.
You can use anything to mark your paper with. You can be free and place anything anywhere. Just as long as you are happy with the image.

If inspiration is needed. Watch some youtube videos. There are many wonderful journals online you can watch.

Uses for Wax

2010-08-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

Lately, I been obsess with wax. Wax have many uses. I even brought a kit and played with a few recycling methods. Some of this is really fun. First there are different type of wax and their properties. When you want to use wax for different projects. The wax consistency and price need to be kept in mind.

Wikipedia have a lovely list of waxes people can use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax#Uses_of_wax

The wax you usually find in stores or craft stores.
Paraffin-Basic candle wax, and can be use as a good hardener.
Beeswax-Natural wax, often used in balm.
Soy Wax-Soft wax
Jojoba-A bead of this wax can be used to color or scent.
Bayberry wax
Gel Wax
Petroleum Jelly

Candles

If you have any leftover wax, they can be melted down into new candles. If you have wax leftover in glass containers, a double broiler method can be used to remove this wax. Once the wax melted in the boiling pot, you can pour the wax through a raggy cloth, like an old cheese cloth or old hosiery. If you don't have any craft containers for melting wax, soda cans, and canned food cans can be used to hold the wax. Once the wax is filtered, melt the wax again in a boiling pot using the double broiler method with the tin can. Pour the melted wax in the desired container and stick a wick in. Wait til the wax cool and pour more wax in to cover the concave dent that is formed after cooling.

You can buy wicks, or you can use birthday candles. You can also make your own wicks by braiding thick string and socking it in wax.

Leftover wax can also be made into beautiful jars to place tea candles in. This method is base off of making a chocolate bowl. Fill a balloon with water and dip in candle wax a few times to built up a shell. Once the wax cooled, pop the balloon and cut the shell to the length you want. These gives off a lovely glow, but they may need to be place on a place or coaster to avoid wax dripping on the table or carpet.

Basic Lip Balm Recipe

Everyone buys chapstick. Some of the most popular ones contain methol, camphor, and phenol. Methol, and camphor are for pain and healing. Phenol is an exfoliant, and breaks down skin of badly chapped lips. Now adays people want more natural, or simple. This recipe gives you a good basic balm, that can be place in a chapstick or balm container. This balm will keep your lips moist, without unwanted, excess ingredients.

*Mix Bees' wax with lotion for chap stick or balm.

*Just Petroleum jelly works as wonderful chapstick substitute.

*You can add coloring for fun. Vitamin E, and vitamin A can be mixed in to help your skin.

Basic Lotion Stick

A lotion stick is basically a chapstick for your skin. This will resemble a bar of soap you can roll around in your hands, to moisten skin. Not only that but it can contain fragrance and become solid perfume.

Wax Sculpture

Lots of people carve wax. They carve models of figurines, rings, and many more. These wax models can also be place into modes to make a prototype of the object.
Wax is very easy to carve. Use leftover notebook wire to form into a carver. If the wax is very soft, wax can be carve using a pencil, or pen. If there is a spare dull butter knife, that can be use to carve the wax.

Wax Stamp

Now that I think about it, you can use wax for a stamp. Beside using wax to make a seal for scrap booking, or envelops, a stamp can be carve out of the candle, or block of wax. Just carve whatever design you want, ink it, and stamp. If you want different designs just remelt the wax, and let it cool in the can before popping it out for a new stamp. Of course make sure you use the appropriate ink or paint due to wax slick nature.

Wax Paper

I am pretty sure you can wax paper but I don't see how that can be helpful. It may be useful if you want to waterproof a special piece of paper.

OTHER

*Use wax and petroleum jelly to help with squeaky doors.
*Wax thread to help you thread it through the eye of the needle.
*You can use wax as a pencil. People use to draw on eggshells with the tip of a candle. After the egg is dyed, the shell that is cover in wax stays white.
*Beside candle wax, old crayons can be melted into cute little crayons for a lovely treat for children. Star molds make great crayons for Christmas, and Independence day. Ice cream, heart, and moon molds are great for birthdays. You can use any mold, but I prefer the shapes with points that will allow the children to color easier. I remember receiving these baseball player, french fries, etc crayons from fast food restaurants, and the round edges are not easy to use.
*Wax can also be used in fire starters. Boy scouts like to use old egg cartons filled with sawdust, newspapers, and cover in wax. Scouts cut out one egg and use it to start fires, or for grills and fireplaces. Also a petroleum soak cotton ball, and wax dipped pine cones are other fire starters.
*Use chapstick to keep eyebrows, mustache, and stray hairs in place.
*If you are hiking, or cold weather, use chapstick to help dry skin on your face, hands, and lips.
*For grease monkey, rub petroleum jelly on your hands and face to help remove grease easily.
*Horrible chapped hands with calluses heal faster when cover in petroleum jelly.
*Paraffin Wax Dip! These are wax tubs that are great for softening hands, and relieving arthritis. My mother have a wax tub she soak her hands in. The wax is warm and soothing. When the wax harden she just removes it and throws it back in the tub for next time. The wax was really soft at room temperature, and evaporates a little bit every time it was used.

Who Painted My Roses Red?

2010-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Lovely, a rose made from old playing cards and some hot glue. I thought this up while thinking about the Red Queen's roses. I bet she would love to have a bouquet of roses like these.
This single rose was made from one suit, diamond. I just cut petal shapes from each card and roll it into a rose pattern, with hot glue. I am going to try to make some more roses, because not only this will be great for an Alice in Wonderland costume, it is great as a Valentine's gift.

Here are some pictures showing how the rose was made.

Recycle Cards

Roll one half up and glue to form a bud.

Add some petals.

Base. Then glue on more petals.

Final roses.

The French Knitting Nancy

2010-02-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Remember the Knitting Nancy, or the spool with 3-4 nails sticking out. Bet you did not know you can make one out of wire. I recycle the wire from notebooks to make one. It produces a sturdy little knitting nancy, and I can make it as big as I want because it is recycled from unwanted wire.

In order to make it I use some needle nose pliers. If you want to try, I recommend wearing gloves. Bending the wire will be a little hard on your hands. What needs to be made first are teeth, which are the nails protruding out of the spool. We do this by making a bend similar to the following picture. The prongs should be about an inch. It can be longer or shorter. Afterwards you continue to make more prongs. If you want 2 make 4, 3 make 6, 6 make 12, etc. Then you connect the ends by wrapping the long end around in a ring. Then finally you bend the prongs' tip outward.Now you have a knitting nancy. You use a small crochet hook and wrap every two wires. Originally, each prong was suppose to at like a nail, but I find using two makes knitting easier.

My original knitting nancy resemble a mini crown. This is my new one, which is bigger but not as stable. I ran out of wire to reinforce the bottom, but it makes storing it easier.

Amigurumi

2010-02-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Amigurumi!
Where have you been all my life? Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting. Basically it is the cutest knitted creatures you would ever see. Depending on the size they can take from an hour to just a day. Just google it and you will see all the lovely amigurumis there are. I even crochet a bear and an orange. This is such a lovely hobby, and does not cost a lot too. I just used some scrap yarn I had lying around, and old shredded t-shirts for stuffing. For the eyes, I just embroider them on. Warning, embroidering the eyes is hard.

If you want to learn more about amigurumi, you can search for for information or take a look at the following links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKBeu2BlhU
(I adore that last link. She was so helpful.)

Lazy and Cheap

2009-10-26T13:59:00.001-07:00

I am fully capable of cooking for myself and working hard to save money for the most glamorous, and expensive product. But I am lazy, and don’t have a lot of money. Lately, I was taking shortcuts and cook meals in the rice cooker. For example, the one I frequently prepare is the cheap dollar store ramen. You can place all the ingredients in the rice cooker, and plug it in and wait like a half an hour. I can also throw in an egg, or some cut up hot dogs. From my experience it is perfectly safe and the rice cooker seem capable of cooking other things for you. You can be cleaning the house while it cooks, watching TV, reading, or pay your bills.
The result of the ramen cooked by the rice cooker is just as delicious. One problem is that the noodles may be too soft. So you may like to stop the cooking process after like 20 minutes.