My 'makes'

Last Tuesday I had a job interview. I didn't get the job, but I'll tell you about it anyway.

It was to be an art assistant on the children's television show Mister Maker. Guys, it would have been perfect, but nevermind.

In preparation for the interview I had to come up with two 'makes' suitable for the show.

This is what I came up with.

I had fun making these. Especially doing the colouring for the theatre backdrop.

Sometimes it's nice to just colour.

Maybe I should print these out and get my colour-on

Aliens

If I'm going to be making planets, then I'll need some aliens to live on them.

Check out these little guys!

I got the idea from this website.

If you make the alien by wrapping the pipe cleaner around your finger then it doubles as a finger puppet.

I experimented with putting tissue paper over the string balloon which creates an interesting texture for this guys to hang out on.

Miley Filey System

The other day I was walking through my favourite 99p shop and was stunned to see many copies of the Miley Cyrus book, Miles To Go. And they were the hardback edition!

She is worth so much more than 99p.

So I bought a copy, which is fair enough, except...

...I already own the book.

The paperback edition which has a different cover and an additional chapter.

And is quite the entertaining read I might add!

After joking that I now have a home copy and a uni copy, I then explained to people that I'd bought the hardback copy for a craft project.

And this is it.

An expander file.

Here's how I made it.

I cut out the pages of the book with a craft knife.

I'm sure I'll find a use for them, even if it's just anonymously mailing my friends a page or two where I've highlighted a hilarious section.

Then I cut two pieces of thick paper with the length of an A3 piece of paper and the same width as the book cover. Mine was 15.5cm

Then I folded the paper concertina style with each fold being 1cm which I measured out first.

I attached some ribbon to the inside of the book cover using strong glue. 

I glued the folded paper to the edges of the inside of the book cover and stuck another piece of paper on top, over the ribbon, to keep things neat.

Gluing the paper to the other half of the book cover can be a bit tricky because that folded papers likes to flick out.

Then I cut out rectangles of paper, mine were 15.5x23cm, to be the dividers in the folder.

I put them in every other fold and glued them in place at the edges.

Then my folder was ready to fill with photos, leaflets from things I've been to and general life ephemera.

I want to come up with a clever name for this project, something that plays on the fact 'miles' rhymes with 'files'....

Miley Filey System?

We'll go with that for now.

I heart books

This term I've really been loving on my university's library.

I've been there more times in the last few months than I have in the whole two years previous.

Not only that, but I've taken books out. Multiple books at multiple times.

And read them.

This was mostly due to my dissertation but then I stumbled upon the craft section and decided to take a couple of books out for recreational use.

Shocking, I know.

I don't really like how-to books because I prefer to figure stuff out myself or just get tutorials off the internet, so the following books are more focused on the artists/crafters themselves and their practices.

A couple of artists I wanted to share from Indie Craft are;

Diem Chau embroiders on silk which is then adhered to crockery to make it look like it's sewn porcelain.

If you know my art work then you know I'm into cute/creepy so I love the crocheted work of Patricia Waller.

Cross-stitch on a car! That's just cool.

Severija drills holes in all sorts of metal to cross-stitch.

And Handmade Nation has lots of photos of studios/craft spaces which I always like to see.

I found it really inspiring reading through these books and I made sure I had a notebook handy because lots of ideas came to me which I'm hoping to work on during the Christmas holiday.

So shiny!

I made a new necklace and it's super sparkly!

I used the same wooden disc as in this necklace along with a wooden ring which I painted with nail varnish to match the glitter.

I drilled small holes in the discs and then covered them in PVA glue and glitter. Lots of glitter! 

T-shirt dress

It started with a large mens tank top.

Which is just (just!) long enough to be a dress on me. When worn with leggings.

So how to make it look wearable?

First up I gotta belt it!

If only more problems could be solved by throwing on a belt.

Then decorate.

I attempted the multiple necklace print that's been going on, and referred to this tutorial from Jen at My Own Road.

For the big beads I used the bottom of a pen to get perfect circles and then filled them in with a paint brush.

For the long chain I cut a thin drinking straw on an angle so it was an oval and used it to print the pattern.

The heart locket was just done freehand with a paintbrush.

After ironing over the fabric paint for 5 minutes it's ready to wear.

(Who can spot the photo me and Anthony Head from Buffy)

I think I did the beads a bit too wide across the shoulders so it looks a bit odd, but I've got the techniques down for doing more.

In other news friends I shall have to take a blog break for at least a week because my poor laptop is broken again.

I'm back to uni this weekend and I'm having to go back without it, so I'll be relying on uni computers and the kindness of my housemates.

I don't know how I will cope!

Bow necklace

I got this load of leather looking PVC type material from The Range the other day for £2.70.

It's another cheap shop but it has a really great art and craft section.

To test out how well I can sew the material I made a little bow.

Because bows are awesome.

I thought it would've been to obvious to make the successful bow into a hairclip so I made it into a necklace instead.

I put eyelets into two of the corners then attached jump rings and a chain.

Eyelets are my new favourite thing and I want to put them in everything. 

It's kinda like a bow-tie!

Craft fair

Yesterday I had a table at a little, very little, craft fair at my local mill.

You know the one; where I held those craft sessions. 

And because of those sessions I didn't have to pay any commission on the things I sold (the table was already free) because I'd already given enough in terms of my time.

Win for volunteering! 

As well as selling my crafty accessories (which you'll soon see on my Etsy again once I get around to renewing) I also had a few little paintings, cards of my paintings, and bigger paintings for sale.

I didn't sell that much, but lack of commission meant I came away with a profit, and it was a good chance to perfect my stall layout for future endeavours and have a good chat with my friend Stef who was helping me out.

Crochet Beads

 My Mum offered to make some crocheted beads for me after we saw some in Hobbycraft (otherwise known as my favourite place ever).

When they were done I threaded them onto some ribbon to make a necklace.

My Mum also tried making one using a ping-pong ball but I can't decide if it looks too big as part of the necklace. 

So I took it off to have it like this.

And I also tried spacing out the beads for a different look.

Which one do you prefer?

Shell necklace

I've had a pack of plain white shells for ages and never done anything with them. Until now.

I made this necklace by drilling a small hole in the top of each shell, which is not easy I can tell you.

Then I painted them with nail varnish so that they'd be shiny.

I think if I make another one I'll pick less random colours. Like all blues and purples. Or pinks. There's always a lot of pink nail varnish.

Decorative tape magnets

I saw this great tutorial on Twirly Betty for making washi tape magnets and decided to make some for the front of my locker.

I definitely recommend checking out the tutorial.

I don't have any washi tape, and I thought regular masking tape would be a bit boring, but luckily the magnetic sheets I have are self-adhesive so I used decorative paper and made it look like tape.

I stuck on strips of paper to the magnetic sheets and cut out strips of that, and then cut the edges to be all jaggedy like real tape.

I couldn't stop as just one lot though.

It's so easy so I made a couple of different sorts with different papers.

Fish craft session

Yesterday was the last of the three craft sessions at the mill.

This time the kids made mini aquariums...

...and paper plate fish.

13 kids turned up which was the most out of all of the sessions, but luckily I just had enough of the containers for the aquariums.

I also have these two ideas featured in the summer issue of Creative Steps magazine.

Puppet Craft Session

Yesterday was the second craft session at the mill and the kids made some simple puppets.

 Sock puppets.

My family had been collecting old socks for months in preparation for this so the children would have a lot to choose from.

And stick puppets.

These are the two I made but the kids came up with clowns, mermaids, and even an alien spaceship.

Robot craft session

Yesterday I ran the first of three craft sessions at my local mill.

First up was robots.

Here's the one I made as an example. It's arms and head moves.

The magic of split-pins.

One of the kids tried to copy it exactly. I take that as a compliment.

And because there's always those kids that finish early I came prepared with some robot colouring pages that I printed from the internet.

There were some leftover so I thought I'd do one. Sometimes it's nice just to colour. And I totally kept inside the lines.

When I was younger and had a day off school because I was ill I would always get out my colouring books and wax crayons. I even had a Sesame Street colouring book. It was awesome.

Bunting necklace

My Dad recently gave me these booklets of leather samples that his work no longer needed.

Tiny bits of leather in all different colours.

I've seen loads of great tutorials using leather scraps so now I can make them too.

I started with this bunting necklace which I love so much.

It was based on this tutorial by Mrs Priss, which in turn was inspired by a necklace from Anthropologie. 

It was super easy to make, and more so because I didn't need to colour my leather like in the tutorial.

I kept mine quite simple with only a few triangles and didn't add any ribbon, but I still think it looks cute.