Needlepointin' fool!

I've been needlepointing like crazy this past week or so. I took a long train ride to Prague (I'm studying in Budapest for the semester, which explains my long hiatus from the world of craftiness) and needlepointed the whole way!

My first needlepoint project was an iPod case for the boyfriend that I started back in August or something. I left for Budapest and didn't have the measurements for the front, so only the back got finished. I borrowed someone's iPod here that was the same generation as Rob's and finished that sucker.

My second needlepoint project was a tampon case. After I got here I started using OB tampons because they're way cheaper... and they're so small and cute, they needed a small cute case to live in!

iPod case - back

iPod case - front

Tampon case - back

Tampon case - front

My tampons look like torpedoes! It fits 5 perfectly... this means I am awesome!

Filet crochet, ghetto fabulous style

After a long crafting hiatus, I am back!


Last week I learned how to filet crochet. Filet crochet is the technique where you crochet mesh and fill in certain squares while leaving others open. It's great for crocheting patterns into doilies... which, of course, gives me a raging she-boner. Just after I learned about filet crochet, I discovered this fabulous page, which gives patterns for the old english alphabet. So what does that mean? Gangster-tastic doilies!

My first attempt at filet crochet was this initial doily for my friend Devon.
I think it turned out quite fabulously, but a little warped.

My next project? A sweet-ass door doily for my boyfriend with his initials going down vertically.

buttons!

i made buttons last weekend!

my favorites: titanic, austin powers, mallrats, curious george playing drums, the guy from 'outside providence', third eye blind, a maple leaf, jack black, rob thomas, south park, and the amazing shirley maclaine.

i used silicone sealant to glue magazine clippings to aquarium stones and then to glue pinbacks or magnets to the back of the stones. magazine material worked better than cardstock. the titanic and third eye blind buttons were made from a magazine insert and they, very sadly, fell apart when i tried to put them on... sad sad sad :(

I love lamp.

Has it really been almost a month since I did anything crafty? Well no, I've been crocheting like a mad fiend, but it's just been the same hats and doilies. Everyone loved their Christmas presents I had hand-crafted for them. Besides the earrings I made my sisters, the hats I made my brothers, my boyfriend, and my boyfriend's roommate, and the doilies I made my mom and boyfriend's mom, I also (a while ago) made a baby blanket for my relatively new neice, Meryl.

The weeks surrounding Christmas were ridiculously busy and included a lot of traveling, then getting sick. But finally yesterday I got to do a real craft project, for the first time in aaaaages (that wasn't related to crocheting). My step sister and I asked my step mom if there was anything around the house that needed to be craftified. After listing off a few things that would have been far too ambitious for us to take on, she also mentioned an ugly lamp she had acquired at a thrift store that was currently sans-shade. And that's where we came in!

Article 1: The heinously ugly lamp.

It just screams "great aunt's house", but my step mom adores it. Yes, that is light pink and with gold curlicues. My step sister and I went to JoAnne's Fabrics to see if we could find something to work with it. After locating the lamp shades in the very back corner of the store, we went to work trying to find a fabric to match it, a far more difficult task than one would think. Any mostly pink fabric was too overwhelming, and most other fabrics didn't look quite right with it. We finally settled on a cream colored muslin. Then we went into the findings sections and found a stencil for curlicues, some gold piping, 9 gold buttons, and some tacky glue. The idea was to cover the (pre adhesived) shade with the muslin, trace the curlicues around the base of the shade with pencil, then sew on the piping in the pre-traced curlicue pattern, and finally sew the buttons around the top of the shade.

And our idea worked!!

Article 2: The finished lamp shade, on the lamp. Our craftiness definitely outweighs the ugliness of the lamp. Yessss.






















Article 3: A close up of the shade. You can't quite tell, but the border actually consists of two strands that curl around themselves and eachother.

Bam!