Category: crafts

Build Your Own Castle

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

Have you ever wanted to build a castle but didn’t know how?  I was doing a search on the internet for stained glass window patterns because with my new Versa-Tool I can solder and it says you can make stained glass windows.  I was thinking a regular piece of glass, maybe like from a picture frame and maybe Plexiglas or something.  Put it in a frame then make shapes with wire or something and solder it to the glass then use that gel paint to add in the colors and texture.  Viola you got stained glass.

But I found this instead.  It’s a website that has these molds you can buy or they teach you how to make your own molds.  You buy or make the molds then you pour either plaster of paris (which is cheap but chips easily) or the more recommended dental stone into the molds and you let it dry and it pops right out of the rubbery molds.  Then once you have all of your (let’s just say) bricks hardened and out of the molds, just bake it and it’s all dry and ready to build your castle.

They have detailed instructions on how to do everything like putting the bricks together to form a building and how to glue it all in place and how to paint it all with 3 different colors so it looks authentic.  There are videos too.

It’s not just castles, it’s also regular houses and space ships too.  It’s really cool.  If this is your hobby, like building little houses for your train sets and stuff (like Alec Baldwin in Beetlejuice) then you’ll love this website.  You can just use your own imagination and build whatever you want.

Their website addresses are:  www.hirstarts.com and www.castlemolds.com

The molds are not that bad in price if you think about the time it takes this guy to make the molds and the cost of the materials for the molds plus the very fact that he took the time and talent to make all the items that you make from these molds you are saving a lot by buying them from him.  I’m really thinking about buying a mold here and there as I get money for it.  Then just make tons of stuff and put them in buckets as if they are Lego’s so when I’m ready to make something I have them all ready-made.

Michael’s

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I know the economy is bad and most businesses are suffering greatly because of it.  I’ve gotten a coupon just about every day for the last 2 weeks from Michael’s.  This is a company who I hardly ever get coupons from but maybe 4 times a year.  They are so hard up for business they are practically giving away their merchandise just to keep their stores in business.

I really do have some things that I want to buy but I just can’t afford it.  I want to buy the wood burning kit along with some plain wood boxes and trays and round pieces of wood and rectangle and I would like the grease pencils that you use to color the wood when wood burning.

Wanting however and needing are 2 different things.  I can’t afford so I don’t need.  I want sure but do I need?  No.  I want them so I can learn how to do it so hopefully I can sell some stuff and make some extra money for the household but can I afford to find out if it’s my thing, if it’s not going to turn out to be another craft fad that I won’t be able to figure out and it will sit in the corner?  No.  I can’t afford to take that risk right now.

I think 6 months ago we were there so Darrin could buy some painting stuff and while we were there I bought some drawing stuff that was on clearance but I knew I wouldn’t get that into it so I didn’t buy much.  Needless to say I didn’t get much into it.  But I can see me using that as a tool to sketch out ideas for wood burning.  So who knows, I might not have wasted money on that stuff.  But for now, I did waste money on it because it sits in a drawer.

Sorry Michael’s, your name is my name but that just isn’t enough for me to be able to spend money to keep you afloat.  I really do wish this economy wasn’t in the toilet though because if it wasn’t believe me, I’d be there in a hot second buying stuff.

Oh, with this economy people aren’t going to buy art so buying wood burning stuff to make money isn’t going to work.  People are burning through their savings account to keep from becoming homeless, I highly doubt they are going to buy a wood slab with a picture of a horse or a dog on it.  And the people who still have their jobs are probably having to save all that they can just in case they lose their job.  Or their spouse is out of work so they are scraping by to make up for the loss of their wife or husband.

Plastic Bag Crochet

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Plastic Bag Crochet – CRAFT Video Podcast

Last night I was looking around for recycling ideas and I found a way to recycle those plastic grocery bags you get from the store.  Instead of just throwing them away you can create things with them like you can make a more sturdy grocery bag by crocheting pieces that you cut.  I didn’t cut mine in such big pieces but I did more thinner pieces but I was able to crochet a granny square (see below) to see how easy or hard it would be.

I think this is a neat idea if you are obsessed with recycling.  As you can see in this image I didn’t finish the square but the amount you see is from exactly 1 plastic bag not including the handles.  But I did what the woman in the YouTube video (in the first paragraph) did by looping the pieces.  Since my pieces were much thinner they were also more fragile and I’m not sure how durable this square would be if I were to actually make something out of it.  I’m not sure if I turned it into a grocery bag that it wouldn’t break since the pieces are thinner.  If I wanted a grocery bag out of it then I’d cut the pieces in 1 inch pieces like she did just for the durability.

plastic-bag-granny-square

Check this out.  These women in Kenya gather plastic bags that have been dumped and they clean the bags and dry them then they crochet them into different things.

Plastic Bag Crochet Project

Patterns

Christmas Crafts

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, HolidaysLeave a comment

I was looking through a drawer today and came across some plastic canvas books that were given to me last year and there are 5 books with Christmas ornaments.

I’m going to try out some of the things that I have yarn for since I have a crap load of plastic canvas to work with but I don’t have the yarn to do everything.  Some of these need gold thread which I don’t have.

It’s not all plastic canvas though, there is 1 book with filet crochet projects like an angel that stands up (which means when you finish crocheting I guess you put glue on it so it stands up.  And there are stockings and ornaments which are both crocheted and knitted.

One of the things I think is cool are the 3D christmas trees.  One of them is furry so it looks really neat.  It has little miniature ornaments sewn into the tree.

If my Kodak all-in-one printer didn’t require ink to be able to scan then I’d have pictures available but I don’t have any ink right now.  Maybe once I get some things done or a bunch of things done I will take pictures and put them in the crafts section of my main website.

New Crafts

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I haven’t been able to do crafts since around November or December 2007 because my hands would get numb and I would even feel some pain when crocheting in my wrists so I was forced to give it up.  Not too long after that I was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome after harping on my doctor every time I went 3 visits in a row.  He told me it’s probably carpel tunnel but sent me to a neurologist to get a proper diagnosis.

Ever since then I haven’t been able to do any crafts at all.  I’ve had to wear wrist straps every night to bed which helps for some strange reason.  Also not doing any crafts helped too.  I still type because I don’t feel that I can use voice recognition because when I do talk my voice is carried into the living room so nothing is private.

Since I haven’t been doing ANY form of crafts I’ve been going nuts.  Last week I picked up a crochet hook and some yarn and started crocheting.  I’ve actually done a good amount of a new blanket.  I went looking in my closet to see if I had more of the avocado color but instead I found these embroidery Christmas stockings that were given to me last year that I knew I couldn’t do.  I gave 1 a chance and so for the last 2 evenings I’ve been working on it and I have to say it’s not as hard as I thought they would be.  I’m actually having fun with it.

My left hand has been getting numb while holding it and my right hand was getting a little bit of pain here and there and so when I get the numbness and pain I stop for a while.  This stocking obviously will not be finished within the next week and half so I’m going to just keep working on it at my own pace and hopefully it will be done by next year.

There are 3 stockings (below) and I would eventually like to have them all done but I gotta do baby steps here lol.  1 at a time for now.

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Skill Going To Waste

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When I was 17 years old and my sister found me in Simi Valley after being homeless for nearly a year and let me move in with her I decided that after seeing my first boyfriend Robert crochet that I wanted to learn how to crochet too.  I bought a couple of books about learning crochet and knitting as well as some knitting needles, crochet hooks and some yarn.

I learned how to knit but I never really liked and I learned how to crochet and found it was a lot faster to make something and I could read the directions easily and so I got hooked (pun intended) on crocheting.

Over the next 20 years I had made many pillows, blankets, lots of coaster, a sweater during the Rodney King riots and even a bed for my kitty.  But last year I had to stop because my hands would get numb after only a few minutes of crocheting.  I involuntarily gave it up.

Chips and his moms friend Julia had passed away after Halloween in 2007 and her niece was going through her house and found tons of yarn and gave the majority of it to me knowing that I crochet.  Well, I was very happy to get it all but I knew that I wouldn’t have much use for it anymore due to my numbness.  I wasn’t exactly sure otherwise I would’ve rejected it which would have meant it would all go to the trash which would’ve been a total waste of good yarn so I accepted it.  At Christmas 2007 I brought a lot of the yarn that I didn’t care about with me and gave it all to Chips niece and another family member as well as all these knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Well, even though I had a good 20 years of crocheting I’m not ready to give it up because I’ve been dying to crochet hehe.  Even though I know I shouldn’t do it because I don’t want to flare up the carpel tunnel syndrome, I’m doing it little bits at a time.  It’s not going to hurt if I do little bits at a time.

I just think it’s a total waste of a great skill because not a lot of men can or want to crochet.  Some men think that if they crochet they aren’t men but lots of men crochet like Rosie Grier the football player, my Uncle Ron who is probably the most masculine man I’ve ever met crocheted in his earlier years, the private detective on the tv show Pushing Daisies knits and crochets and they are always showing yarn on his desk in his office.  So it’s not a skill that is female specific.  But it is a waste of a skill if you can’t do it anymore.  I would’ve liked to be able to do it all year because that is usually the source of christmas presents from me.

New Sewing Machine

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

Darrin bought a sewing machine the other day at Sears because we really need one. I hate to sew things by hand. I have these pajama bottoms that have holes in the left leg for some reason. It’s only the left leg in both pajama bottoms too.

Anyway, I don’t like to wear them because of the hole because every time I put them on my foot goes into the hole making it worse. So I wanted to cut the legs off and make them into shorts. They would actually look more like boxer shorts than anything.

So I was able to finally do it and the ones I did look funny lol. 1 leg is higher than the other. That’s ok. It was my first attempt. I didn’t use pins or iron them where I need to sew them, I just cut and went from there lol. Next time I will do it right.

New Afghan Project in the Making

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, TVLeave a comment

A few nights ago I was watching tv, mainly flipping through channels and I came across a british comedy show on HBO. I don’t recall the name of it but the two characters were in bed (twin beds in the same room) and one of them had a crocheted afghan on his bed. They were squares and I was able to see the pattern when they went close up on the guys face when he was talking so I pretty much know what to do.

Each color was different and the squares all had a black border (used to sew the squares together). I thought it was so interesting and I have tons of yarn that are all different colors so I thought that since my hands are doing much better that I would do 2 squares a day until it’s all finished then I can sew it all together. I’m sure that it will be finished by the time it starts cooling off after summer. And since they are squares I wont worry about crocheting for too much time per day because it doesn’t take that long to make a square.

I can’t wait to see the finished product.

Craft-Lite Cutter

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Products I LikeLeave a comment

I bought this Craft-Lite Cutter from Publishers Clearing House some time in December. Yeah I know I could buy it at Walgreens and save money on shipping but I was trying to get good credit with PCH so hopefully some day I might win. I will be in shock if I ever do win.

But anyway, I ordered it in December with the mail in things they send me which by the way I stopped sending in because of that one thing that I never got. Well, I finally got it today in the mail. I do like it, it takes 3 AA batteries but since i have a solar charger it powers it up so no need for batteries. Sorry battery industry. I’m not going to waste good money buying batteries to cut paper lol. I’d rather the sun took care of that job for me.