6/6/2014

Happy Etsy Craft Day, everyone!

If you follow my Facebook fan page you might have heard that I had been planning a party for today. Unfortunately scheduling with my work did not work out and I was derailed in some of the planning process due to my depression. Hopefully, everyone has a great day full of crafting anyway!

I'm currently working on recreating the dress I had made for my Maria doll. A friend, who has ordered from me twice before, fell in love with the ruffley dress and wanted it for her latest doll. It's definitely going to be a learning experience since the original outfit is a physical part of the doll and must now be made removable. I can make a simple dress, so the skirt and torso part will be a breeze. However, the off the shoulder ruffle and sleeves will need some thinking.

I'm excited to see the finished dress though since I'm using a lovely dark green and the doll will have a mass of curly red hair to really set it off!

Original Dress

Yesterday, I made a trip to my favorite store, Micheals. My bank account isn't completely empty, but I'm really excited to get into my purchases! Since my interest in embroidery is expanding, I picked up some transfer paper because my drawing skills have really declined. I also picked up an iron transfer pen to make my own transfers from illustrations I have around the house.

For my first transfer project, I am going to use a white string knapsack that I also bought at Mike's to make something for myself. Which is completely unheard of. I can't decide if I want to make it something to advertise my Etsy with or to just have it be all queer and angry.

I also bought a cross stitch apron pattern to make for my sweet Alice. It has three cupcakes and says the "Sweet Life." She seems excited by it, so I'm eager to start it so she'll have a cute apron to wear. She currently has a mustard yellow apron that I've been saying I'll embellish, but haven't been inspired.

So, with all these things to do, I've decided to add more to my weekend projects. Today, I listed a set of three crocheted rice balls for play food. This has inspired me to make actually onigiri! The recipes have assured me that it isn't too hard, but I'm still very excited!

Like a lot of modern American teenagers, a lot of my exposure to Japan came through anime and manga. Rice balls stuck out to me because of how common they were in any book I picked up- but they were legit customizable! I plan to make them for the first time ever on Saturday, so look out for a blog post covering them in the next few days!

This is going to be an interesting/busy week. And Orange is the New Black is back today!!!!!! This is a great Friday!

Happy crafting (and Netflix bingeing!)

Bertie

Burgers are good, burgers are great

It's summer time, folks! Time to wheel out the grill and show your buddies who makes the best burgers in your area. Kids can have the pool and the sunshine, you have what's most important- burgers.

Burgers come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. You can have a quarter pounder with cheese, a beltbuster with guac, or a turkey burger with chipotle mayo.

I love burgers. I love turkey burgers. Bean burgers. Veggie burgers. Chicken burgers. Nothing beats a solid patty loaded up with lettuce, bacon, tomato, and sandwhiched between Brioche buns. (They recently started serving one of my favorite chicken sandwiches on those at Jack in the Box. Soooo much goodness.)

 I recently made a burger similar to this one. Just gonna make a few changes to the ingredients list.

Fiesta Turkey Burger

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 small white onion (though I would have liked to use 1/2 of a red onion)
• 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced green onion
• 1/4 of a cup minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano 
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 slices pepperjack cheese, cut into quarters 

Literally the best burger ever. I had brought it for lunch at work and I could not wait to eat it!

Speaking of burgers, I just put up a crochet version of yummyness in the shop. Feel free to show off your love for burgers in a healthy way or use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about what makes a good burger so tasty.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/xBlueUnicornCrafts/stats/listing/191489049#

Happy grilling!

Bertie

Update!

I'm finally done with all things school related for the semester. Got out pretty good- one B amongst a sea of A's! :D Even managed to dig myself out of my project hole.

Got my Mother's Day stuff done:

This is for my Mother in Law.

This is for my Nana. Used her favorite bible verse

My mother is pretty hard to craft for so I took the easy way out with flowers and lunch with my sister in tow.

I did a patch for a friend to get some practice out of the way. I found a 10 pack of rectangular patches for a $1 at Wal Mart. Didn't know what to put on them until her!

"Octocutie" patch!

Still got a few projects I'm working on. One is Gunter from Adventure Time! Hopefully he'll be done by the weekend. Here's what I got on him so far.

13" on SC in black -.-

There's some more needlework in my hoop. This is meant for a friend's house warming- so hopefully I'll get it done by tomorrow. I need to add a frame of flowers and birds.....need to get an actual frame too.....

We're humorous. ^^

So even without school, I'm a busy little bee. Thankfully, I actually enjoy this. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more cross stitch this summer!

30 Day Crochet Challenge: Day Six

Perhaps this challenge was too much for me? Gotten a little behind, so let's start with day six and I'll answer the others at the end.

 Day 6: What is your favorite piece that you’ve crocheted?

That feels really hard to say. It seems that I always am picking a new favorite with each pattern I complete.

 It's between these two. They were custom designs by me and some of my first attempts at crocheting my own patterns. The newsboy was for my news paper teacher and Prince Gumball was for a friend.

Day 3-5

Day 5: How long did it take from the time your learned how to crochet, to finish your first project?
  
Not long actually. I picked it up really quick and jumped into amigurumi immediately.

Day 4: How did you learn how to crochet?

I pretty much answered this in Day 1. 

Day 3: Do you have any other WIPs (works in progress)?

Don't remind me! xp

May the Fourth be with you!

This is a little late, but I decided to compile a list of Star Wars crafts!

1. Star Wars Pillow Cases
2. Quick Light Sabers
3. It's a trap! Ackbar Puppet

 

4. R2D2 Bra

5. Crochet Yoda

6. Death Star Vases

 

Sadly, I was busy at work today to do much Star Wars type celebration today. :( Hopefully you were able to have a great day and you still have an hour left to do one of these crafts! (However you do not need a special day to get your geek on.)

Tutorial- How to put hair on a crochet doll

Do you love making dolls, but don't know how to do hair? There are many different ways out there, but this is how I like to do hair.

This is a photo tutorial I took while adding hair to a recent order. Here's our model:

   

Step 1: Choose your hair color! I chose a dark brown sports weight yarn. This tutorial should work with any weight yarn. However, when making the wig cap, I suggest you use a medium weight version of the color you choose.  

Step 2: We will start making the wig cap. In this version, I am using an H hook since that is what I used to make my doll. An easy way to make a wig cap is to follow the directions you used to make the doll's head. Keep crocheting in the round until you're done increasing and then do one round of single crochet.    

    

Started out with Ch2 and Sc 6 in the first chain

Be sure to match up the cap with your doll's head as you go along, just to make sure.

It's like making a little hat for your dolly. :)

   

    

Step 3: Once your done with the wig cap, finish off and leave a long strand of yarn for sewing. Sew the wig cap onto your dolls head. You can leave the left over yarn as your first strand of hair.   

     

   

  Step 4: We will be making strands of hair. The easiest way to do this is by wrapping your yarn around a long, sturdy object. This can be a piece of cardboard, a DVD case, or a thin book. It only needs to be as long as you want your hair to be. Remember: the thickness of your object will contribute to the length of your hair. Wrap the object as much as you want. When you're satisfied, cut the yarn off the book.

  

   

I chose my text book for Tech Writing! :D Anyway, wrap your yarn around the book as much as you want. I had to do this a couple of times to achieve thick hair. 

 Step 5: Take one strand of the hair and loop it in half.

Like so.

Stick your hook through the stitch where the hairline and the skin tone meet. This is where we'll be starting with the hair. With your hook, pull the looped yarn through the stitch- BUT DON'T PULL IT ALL THE WAY. Wrap the tail around the hook and pull it through the loop already on the hook. This will make a knot that will anchor the hair into place.

Continue to do this all the way around the hair line. Start and stop where you want the bangs to be. You can go all the way around to cut bangs later. It's your choice!

 If you feel this is the look you want for your doll, then feel free to stop! If not, then continue to add hair around the wig cap as you just did. If you do not want to do the full head of hair, you can "cheat" by adding a row in the middle of the cap and than another row or two around the top of the cap. Since I was instructed to add as much hair as possible, I added hair to every single row of the wig cap.

A thick, lustrous head of hair!

 Step 6: Hair cut! The yarn won't be even when you're done. Also this is your chance to give your doll some style~

Finished!

 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. If there are any questions, please ask! This is my first tutorial.

Happy crafting!

Bertie

30 Day Crochet Challenge: Day Two

Day 2: What is currently on your hooks?

Nothing right now. I just finished a darling doll for a friend.

 However, I am going to get started on a Gunter doll this weekend!