Tutorial - Bee Magnets

I have been playing around with my felt stash lately after remembering a cute little bee I used to draw in my school diary.

The result is my crazy eyed bee magnets!

They are really easy to make once everything has been cut out. If you have little kids you could cut all the pieces out for them, then they can just glue it together.  To make it even easier, you can print the template at a bigger size.

Print your template through google docs here.

Now lets get started with the tutorial:

1. First you need to gather your supplies:

·         Printed template

·         Fabric glue

·         Super Glue or PVA/Hot/Tacky Glue (I used super glue as it dries fast – however it does show through the felt)

·         Felt – Black, yellow and white (or any colour you like – who says a bee has to be yellow?)

·         Magnets (I bought mine on eBay – they came with sticky back, precut in big sheets – mine are 3.8cm x 2cm)

·         For the eyes – either a hole punch for the black felt or googly eyes

·         Cardboard

·         Scissors

·         Washable marking pen and chalk

2. Cut out you cardboard backing template piece. Tape it onto your piece of cardboard, making sure to tape down all the edges.

3. Now simply start cutting out your cardboard backing. By taping down the template you can easily follow the template lines. This is easier than trying to trace the image onto the cardboard. Best of all, the template can be used over and over – the tape just makes it stronger.

4. Cut out the body template. Trace onto your yellow felt, then cut it out.

5. Cut out the wing template. Trace onto your white felt, then cut it out. Repeat for the second wing.

6. Cut out your stripe template. Trace onto your black felt, then cut it out. Repeat for the second stripe.

7. Cut out the eye template. Trace onto your white felt, then cut it out. Repeat for the second eye.

8. If you are using felt eyes, use your hole punch to cut 2 circles out of black felt.

9. If you are using googly eyes, it is as easy as picking the size you want!

10. Lay out all of your pieces to make the glueing process easy. This way you won’t be searching for any of the pieces you have cut out.

·         You will notice the cardboard backing piece is smaller than all of your felt pieces. This is so it will not show around the edges of the felt.

11. Start by applying your super glue to the body section of the cardboard.

12. Place the body piece onto your glued area, ensuring it covers the cardboard edges.

13. Now glue your wings into place, ensuring they butt up to the body and cover the cardboard edges.

14. Apply your fabric glue to the stripes and stick them in place.

15. Apply your fabric glue to the white eye pieces and stick them in place.

16. If you are using felt eyes, use your fabric glue to stick them in place.

17. If you are using googly eyes, use your super glue to stick them in place.

18. After your glue has dried you can simply stick your magnet on the back and pop it on your fridge!

Try not to use excessive amounts of glue as it will soak into your felt and show at the front (see the red bee). I did use super glue on one complete bee; however I would not suggest using it between two pieces of felt. It does hold it in place, but pulls off very easily.

You can use 3D fabric paint to draw little mouths on your bees like on my red bee.

If you don’t have any felt just use iron-on interfacing on fabric in place of the felt. The interfacing will stop the fabric fraying and you can glue it all together just like the felt.

You could even use coloured cardstock or paper for wall decorations.

* Edited to add this image of the template so you can simply right click and save as...

Love Silhouette Art

I have finally finished my love silhouette pen drawing (in my head I still call them blobby drawings). 

The original hand drawn picture was started about 5 years ago. Unfortunately I was handraising a baby peachface at the time who decided to poo right on my drawing. Because of that bird I started the drawing all over again. 

It was only November 2011 that I decided I would take the drawings and edit them in photoshop. Now that I edit my drawings, every time I smudge a drawing, mess up a line, my arm gets bumped or a baby birds poos on it, it isn't such a big deal because I can fix it later.

So I reveal to you my love silhouette pen drawing...

Love Silhouette Pen Drawing

Do you see it? I have added this drawing to my CafePress store on some shirts and some bags. But I have a feeling it isn't obvious enough for people to notice without being told to look for it.

Either way, I love this drawing. It has taken me the longest time to complete it but I just love asking people to tell me what they see.

And as long as I love my art, that is all that matters. (I wish I was that confident!)

Dinosaur Hats

It is my nephews birthday today! Happy 8th Birthday!

Here is what I made him (as per his request):

If you want to make a dinosaur hat I used this tutorial from Cut Out + Keep.

These hats are really easy to make, especially after the first one.

Originally I made a dinosaur hat for my dad as his Christmas present. When I got a sewing machine, I asked my dad if I made a hat, would he wear it. He said that he would as long as it didn't have ears... this dinosaur hat doesn't have ears which means he has to wear it!

It is far to hot to wear this hat any time soon but my nephew loved it when he stayed at my parents house. So much so that when I got there he asked me to make one for him as well.

So I made one for him and I hope he still loves it!

I also used the remaining polar fleece to make one for my little brother in laws birthday - which isn't until August - I am very organised this year!

I bought half a metre of each of the two colours and made 3 hats, so they don't cost much for supplies since I already had everything else. 

I didn't add the teeth and the only other thing I did differently was to cut the lining piece slightly smaller (about half a cm).

Beaded People

I found my cute little beaded people that I made when I was about 13. As cute as they are, they aren’t good as earrings - my hair was continually getting caught around them! I remember making little beaded people on keyrings to give as Christmas presents to my friends – in their favourite colours of course!

I look at them now and think about how much I have learnt, I really should make a couple just so I can see where I have improved … or how much of a perfectionist I am when it comes to my crafts!

The patterns for these were actually in a kit of my mum’s with the instructions on a little folded up sheet of paper. Needless to say, once she showed me the instructions there wasn’t very much left in her kit! I never did make all of the little dolls as I wasn’t interested in the soldiers and goblins. I will have to make a complete set of these one day. 

Oh and I should give the instructions back to my mum!

Frog Tank

Here is something for animal lovers, or indoor gardeners! I love frogs, so one day I decided to make a frog tank using Ray’s turtle tank (that was actually Mika the snake’s cage).

I made a working waterfall using rocks, aquarium silicone, plastic pipe and a little submersible water pump.

Because the tank was made for turtles it had a pebble coated glass shelf which had the supports siliconed in place. I spent ages scraping the silicone away with a razorblade so it didn’t obstruct the view of my waterfall.

I used the smaller part of the turtle shelf to create a separator between land and water, again using silicone to keep it in place and watertight.

When I made the waterfall I balanced the rocks in position until I was happy. Then I laid them all out in rows on the floor in the order they needed to go back in. To stick them down I just used big blobs of silicone under the rocks, one row at a time. Once it was dry enough I checked the rocks were stable enough and then moved onto gluing the next row.

I left a gap behind the waterfall where the heaters, pumps can fit, as well as my arm for cleaning!

To make the waterfall effect I just used a long piece of pipe and pushed the end into a space I left between the rocks. You can change the way the water falls over the rocks by pointing the pipe at rocks to spread the water out.

The plants I used were mondo grass, bromeliads, Madonna lily, mother-in-laws tongues, ferns and orchids. I also broke up some plastic aquarium plants to poke in between the waterfall rocks.

I used a small piece of log with plants in it behind the waterfall to hide the power cables. All I did was drill a hanging hole, carve out a hole to plant a little fern and peel back the bark to hold some baby orchids.

As for keeping frogs… one day I will!

Even without the frogs it is a beautiful indoor garden, safe from being eaten and destroyed by my cats.

Beaded Keyrings

I have been trying to organise our house a little better to make it look tidier and less cluttered. While going through my boxes I found the keyrings that I love to make so I thought I would share with you the ones I currently have.

I really enjoy this sort of beading as I just pick a theme and keep wiring on beads until I am happy with how it looks!

I also have a photo of the keyring I made for myself. As you can see I have three of the lobster clasps on mine – one to hook onto my bag, one for the ALDI trolley token since I never keep coins in my wallet and the other is to hook on the key to whichever car I need to drive. My house keys are threaded onto the split ring since I never take them off. Far easier than having everything on one keyring and as long as I have my bag I won’t forget my keys. The other bonus is that I don’t have a whole lot of heavy keys hanging from the car’s ignition – apparently that is bad for it…

Art Drawing - Female

After posting about my moon cat pen drawing that I uploaded to Cafe Press, I thought I would share with you my first ever commissioned artwork!

While I was still in high school I was working at a restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights. After my shift finished I used to call my parents, then wait for them to pick me up. One night my boss saw me drawing my blobby drawings while I waited and she asked me to paint one of the female figure to replace the artwork in the women's bathroom!

It was all very exciting for me to have someone like my art so much they wanted to pay me to do a drawing for them.

Female Figure Pen Drawing

These drawings used to finish a lot quicker as I used nikko markers, however as my drawings got better the bleeding of ink into the paper was frustrating. Now I use gel ink pens with my no bleed paper which is the reason it takes me so long to complete a drawing.

I drew so many of these drawings when I used the nikkos that they covered a section of my mum's wall, luckily she liked them being there!

Etched Jars

So for Christmas I made Ray's cousins etched jars with their name and initial on it. I filled them with home made rocky road thinking along the idea of a lolly jar. I figure that jars come in pretty handy for pretty much anything and who doesn't love something with their name on it?

On the front of the jar I put their name and the initial on the lid of the jar. I should have thought of this before I did all the Christmas gifts - I could have done it for everyone!

Front of the jar.

Top of the jar - initial etched in the top circle.

Art on T-shirts

I don't know if anyone is aware, but there is a great site where you can upload your art to be printed on a huge list of items - eg. t-shirts!

http://www.cafepress.com/

I have made my own store on Cafe Press, however I have found it a little confusing so far. Add to that I have only edited one of my pen drawings so far, my store is a little uninteresting!

I affectionately call my drawings "blobby" drawings. One day I will think up a far better name for them, unfortunately until then "blobby" has stuck!

My blobby drawings are all done using black pen, normally on my special no bleed paper - it does still smudge which really bugs me. Once I have finished my drawing I scan it into the computer so I can clean it up. The actual drawings take me months to complete as I cannot make myself focus for more than an hour at a time. On the opposite scale, the editing of the images takes me about 4 days as my old job involved a lot of photo editing - I find it easy to spend the day staring at pixels until it is perfect.

One day I hope to find someone who can teach me a faster way to edit these drawings, until then at least I get it done eventually!

This is the first drawing I have completed editing and added to my Cafe Press Store:

Moon Cat Pen Drawing

I only have a few different women's shirts listed at the moment, but you are welcome to take a look at my store: http://www.cafepress.com/krydasu

I hope you like my drawings and hope to have more of them ready to show you soon!

Wire Sculptures

My mum loves mermaids so last year for Christmas I made her a wire mermaid and she loves it so much that I decided to make her another one this year, but a bit bigger.

These sculptures do take a long time to do but are rather easy. They are basically a simple wire frame using 20 gauge wire which I then wrap with 26 gauge wire until I am happy with it. 
For the hair I just wrap the wire around a skewer to make curls.
This is the first little mermaid I made:

This is the mermaid I just made for Christmas 2011:

And here is a little cat I made using copper wire:

It really is a good craft to do while watching tv, it doesn't require perfection or incredible concentration to turn out well, just time and patience!

Paisley Tea Towels

I made these green paisley tea towels for my in-laws Christmas presents and I think they turned out great! Because I used waffle tea towels they were actually a real pain to do, but in the end I was happy with them. I practised on an old hand towel with some ribbon and found that to be far easier and quicker without all the folding and ironing of seams.

If you want to make personalised tea towels, just make sure you sew close to the edges of the decorative fabric or ribbon as it looks much better.