The Prizes have Arrived

My Crafty Chica bobble head arrived today, apparently it was a rough trip.

Don’t worry a little tacky glue fixed her right up.  I thought about using glitter glue, but I was afraid it wouldn’t hold. ;)

  I have also picked and received my prize from MakerShed, it’s a knitting/felting kit.  I’ll share more about that once I get the chance to knit it up.  Now I just need some shelves to keep all my crafty pretties on, I think I’ll have to check the thrift stores.

The Crafty Chica Bag Challenge Results

The results are in, I am one of the runners up! (read the full article from Craft here).  What did I win you ask?  A Crafty Chica bobblehead and a gift card to MakerShed!

Image from Amy Cluck of Peptogirl Industries photo stream on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/peptogirl/3579765791/

It was really exciting to be a part of the contest, of course I wish I would have won, but I was recognized for my efforts, so yay!!!  The winner was my favorite (besides my own bag).  I love the dimension of the ruffle and the ball fringe!

Image from dntblvedahype 's photo stream on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisdm1979/3750938269/

Congratulations to all the other winners and thanks to all my friends for all your support.

What I Do with My Free Time

As most of you know I love Halloween and the season has officially started, there are decorations and crafts in the store.  Every year I see some really great stuff, but it’s the same stuff everyone has.  This year I wanted to get something different, something crafty.

Last year craftster started a 13 days of Halloween swap (similar to the 12 days of Christmas), but because we were moving there was no way I could join.  This year I’m in, I missed the swap deadline altogether, but was able to pick up an angel spot and I am super excited!!!  You can read all the swap-y details here.

I have warned my partner that I will be posting projects to this blog, so if she wants to be surprised no peeking.  I have my days planned out and I am working on two projects (more on those later this week).  I am hoping to make duplicates of some of my projects, so I can keep one for myself, but we will see how that goes.

I also have been busy with new house stuff.  Our neighbors are going to tear down this adorable shed.They have said we could have it if we can move it.  I think we are going to have to rent some heavy duty equipment to pull this off, but I really like this shed, doesn’t it look like a chicken coup!  A coat of paint and a tin roof would make it super cute and maybe some window flower boxes.

I have been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Crafty Chica Bag Contest winner.  I feel like I’m stalking Kathy on twitter hoping that any day they’ll say who won.  She tweeted yesterday that they were going to decide, but they haven’t announced anything yet!

And my son is going to start kindergarten this year, so we have been getting physicals and shots, it’s been fun!

If you have any Halloween suggestions or links please let me know and if you know the best way to move a shed I’d love to hear from you.

Freezer Paper Stencils, Mini Tutorial

I am still embellishing my Crafty Chica bag and I decided that the lining needed a little something. I didn’t want to hand paint something that is only going to peek out when I’m digging around in the bag, so the answer was freezer paper stencil. I love this technique and it is sooooooooo easy!

Get a big roll of freezer paper from the store, mine cost about $9.00 at a “big box” store. (I know it seems pricey, but it is worth it and it was also a really large roll.) There are images everywhere that can be used for stenciling, for my bag I googled “nautical star stencil”. I cut my freezer paper to match the shape of my bag and then traced the star images where I wanted them, make sure you trace them on the matte side of the paper. Since my design was simple it only took about 10 minutes to cut everything out with an exacto knife. Using an iron fuse the freezer paper to you fabric, it’s easy, just place the shiny side down and press with you iron until the paper sticks to your fabric. Make sure your cut edges are stuck down good!

I like to use a cosmetic sponge to stencil with. Dab it into you fabric and pounce it on to the fabric in an up and down motion. Don’t rub it around, just up and down. You can always go over an area again, so don’t slop the paint on, I can’t say this enough, just dab! Remember to put scrap paper under you fabric incase the paint soaks through.

Wait a few minutes for your paint to dry and then carefully peel off the freezer paper.This was what I was going for, but it still needed something, I know, glitter! I used red dimensional glitter fabric paint to accent the lines of the stars and once the bag is finished and the edges are wrapped in red binding it will really pop.

I need to finish some outlining and cut out the pockets and bottom and then I will finally be ready to sew!

More of The Chica Bag

I worked on my Crafty Chica bag all day yesterday.  Layering the paint to get solid bright colors over that turquoise fabric took forever, but once I was finished with that I couldn’t wait to start embellishing!  I even went outside to take a “well lit, non blurry” photo for you to see. I am still finishing the lettering and the buttons on the banner.  I also have to finish the lettering on the back piece, I might even have time to work on the lining.  Then I will be able to stitch it all together.  I’m sure by the end of the week everyone will be sick of seeing this bag, but I can’t help it, I’m obsessed.  See the other entries on Flickr.

More Bag Sketches

After considering the advice I received from Christy and Ashley I decided to redesign the front.  I pared it down a little bit (I was sad to get rid of the sparrows), so I could make the banner and skull larger.I think I almost have it.  The skull needs to come down a bit and I might try to squeeze some scissors in there too!

I think the other design had too much going on and since it was smaller it would have been harder to embellish and there will be some serious embellishing!

Let me know what you guys think!

Sketches for the Crafty Chica Challenge

I am working on the painted design for my beach bag for the Crafty Chica Challenge.  I have the bag pattern all ready to go, but first I need to paint the design.  I want to use the “tattoo flash” style that I used for my back patch, but I wanted a new design.

This is what I have for the front, but I think it needs something else/more/different.  I like the top and the bottom, but I need to work on the middle.  I can’t decide if I should add more stuff, start over on the middle portion, or revert back to the design for the back patch. I like the back, maybe the front is just too busy.  I need some advice, what should I do with the design for the front and how does the shape of the bag look?  Leave me a comment and help me decide!

Kind of a Long Story

Bear with me here, I promise there is a point to all this.  I was on twitter and Kathy Cano-Murillo (the Crafty Chica) tweeted about how this Sunday is Worldwide Pinhole Camera day and shared a link to the Craft Magazine blog for a template to make pinhole cameras and a great link to photojojo for more info on pinhole cameras.  Turns out that Craft Magazine is linking to Corbis Readymech Cameras where the actual templates are available for download.  I got a little side tracked looking at all the great stuff and while I have printed out my camera template that’s about as far as I’ve gotten, so I will just tease you with a picture of the camera that I’m working on.

Oh and you can follow me on twitter here.  I’ll let you guys know how the camera turns out and I dare you to not get distracted looking at all those links!