Craft Fail and a Tiny Win

Let's start with the fail - they're not horrible, but these stenciled totes definitely did not turn out like I expected. Here's where both bags started:

Grabbed my seam ripper and took out all the embroidery. Then I traced and cut my freezer paper stencils. When I started ironing the stencils to the bag, I wondered if there would be issues. The bags are made from a canvas-ish type of material and the freezer paper didn't seem to want to stick very well, especially in the areas with delicate cutting. Anyway, here are the two finished bags:

If you look closely, you can see where the paint bled under the stencil. No huge deal, but I'm not thrilled either. I'm also not thrilled with the paint itself. I usually use paint meant for screen printing fabric - I think it's by Speedball - but I didn't want to spend the extra $ to get the super nice metallic paint. Instead, I used Plaid's Simply Screen paints. The paint just didn't give me the solid metallic look I was hoping for. It could just be because of the canvas-ish fabric, or because the fabric is black. Oh well - the totes are just for organizing and carrying various craft projects. At least they weren't gifts for other people!

Here's the tiny bit of win - a fused bubble wrap bracelet:

The bracelet looks kinda sparse - I think it needs some charms or something. Maybe later I'll turn this bracelet into the shrink art playbill bracelet ...

The technique is from this tutorial on Craftster. After fusing the bubble wrap, I wasn't sure I'd be happy with the final look. It didn't seem to look as nice as the fused pieces in the tutorial's pictures. Once I punched out some circles, though, it was all good!

So, July has been going well. This weekend I plan to break out the sewing machine to tackle that tote bag, the wristlet, the agenda cover and maybe even a superhero monster ninni!

Pillows and Dino Shirt

The sound effects pillows are finished! What an adventure - first time sewing piping, first time using the zipper foot, heck it's the first time I've even changed the foot on my sewing machine. Here's the finished product:

And, the close ups:

All three pillows were supposed to have envelope backs. Unfortunately I was too cut-happy on the yellow shirt and I had to stick with a plain old regular back. After learning my lesson, I was able to use the envelope style on both red pillows.

The images are from the pillows at Jellio. Who can afford to spend $60 - each - on those pillows? Mine are better anyway - black piping and colors that help tie the guest room together. Making and using the stencils was fun - I love the reveal, pulling off the freezer paper to find the crisp, clean lines is exciting!

This dinosaur shirt isn't on the list, but I had a spare child-sized t-shirt and my stenciling supplies were out. My nephew loves dinosaurs, so crafting up a quick dinosaur shirt was a nice way to clear another supply out of my craft closet:

It's a size or two too large, but it'll be a great pajama shirt or smock.

Stenciling supplies are still out - now it's time to work on those tote bags!

July's List

The moderator for the 50 Projects craftalong posts monthly challenges. The challenge for June was to craft something inspired by another post on Craftster. Most of my crafty to-do list is inspired from other posts on Craftster, so it should have been an easy challenge! Unfortunately the altered puzzles took longer than I anticipated and I didn't get a chance to participate in the June challenge.

Today, I noticed the July challenge - craft something for the holidays. I don't want to add anything else to my list at this time, but I could definitely finish the little house of horrors! After all, the plan is to use the finished house as a Halloween decoration. Trying to get the house finished will be challenge - there are other projects that have to take priority right now.

So, to help keep me on task and motivated, here's my July priority list:

1. dino shirt for nephew
2. sound fx pillows
3. BSG tote
4. Whedon tote
5. bubble wrap necklace
6. cord tote and accessory bag
7. agenda cover and tabs
8. wristlet
9. horror house
10. sound fx canvases

I'd also like to craft a couple of Monster Ninnis while I have the sewing machine out. I have some leftover fabric bits from other projects, and I'm sure I'll have some leftover fabric from the matching bag/tote/wristlet/agenda set. But if the Ninnis aren't finished for July, no big deal.

The shirt for my nephew is a bonus project. The shirt was leftover from making the pillow covers and since I'll have the freezer paper stencil supplies out anyway why not stencil a dinosaur on the shirt. The shirt will be a little  big, but he can use it for pajamas or a smock. The BSG and Whedon totes - I hadn't planned to work on those projects either, but since the stenciling supplies are out, why not?