Back from Limbo!

Yep .. the madcrafter is baaaaack!  Hope you miss me ... ;)

I wanted to start the new year with something worth sharing, and I think the following story would fit just nicely.

It all began when I found a stack of old baby wraps in the storage, belonging to Nafisa, my youngest.  Now a toddler, she hardly uses these wraps - they're still in good condition and actually were leftovers from others I had donated. Then, the idea hit me ... why not make them into something she could still use at her current age? 

Ooookay, so first, I thought about the stuff she loves the most --> soft toys, so one possible 'future' outcome of these wraps could be one of these. 

Second, she loves bunnies.  Aside from our real bunny 'Olaf' that she adores so much, she has this tiny, rather lumpy 18 cm bunny softy that big sister Zadia gave her (it was Zadia's many years ago). And here she is ..

I thought it would be great if I could make her a bigger huggable bunny to play/sleep with from the old wrap, as it is very soft and nice to the touch. Perfect!

So I scoured the internet to look for a cute, whimsical bunny pattern on the internet and voila!  Found it! Check it out: a Modern Folksy Bunny by Gingercake at Fairy Tale Frocks and Lollipops! 

Isn't she a cutie? And the best thing was, the e-pattern was 'oh so simple' and ON SALE! Hurrah!

With my (very) limited sewing skills (I have a machine that I hardly touched), I dared myself to make the bunny doll. It was a 'now or never' situation, so with a small prayer I went on and start cutting the old wrap. 

And, tadaaaa ... the green bunny from Naf's most favorite wrap (or so I thought)!  Not too bad, eh?

[I modified the look a little bit by eliminating the pompom tail (simply because I don't have a thick yarn) and simplify the bow piece.  I had this stash of flower embellishments that I bought many months ago that I hadn't use (and now I had an excuse! Yay!) So I sew together a string of velvet pink ribbon and attached the shabby chiffon flower. For the tail I stitched on another part of the wrap which I filled with polyfil / dacron.]

When the bunny was finished, I proudly presented it to Naf, told her I did something to her green wrap as a surprise.

She took one look at it and said, 'No, Mom .. not green .. PURPLE ...!'  And then she left me, unimpressed, totting her little old bunny with her.

DANG.  Completely forgot that her favorite wrap was the purple one, NOT green!  Arrghhh ... felt like my heart just got torpedoed and started to sink. [Blup blubup blup blup ..]

"Can I have it, Mom?" 

Suddenly her big sister Zadia asked me out of the blue.

"Of course!", I nodded (a bit surprised because I didn't think she would want it).

She then happily adopted the green bunny and gave it a loving squeeze - which made Zadia's bigger sister, Dinda, a bit envious ... and wanted another one made for her too! Du'oh!  

It was then that I realised, when they were younger, I NEVER had a chance to make anything for my older girls, I spent too much time at the office.  Every toys I bought for my girls were all factory made. Now, as a stay at home mom, I have all the time in my hands to remedy all that ... no wonder they were so enthusiastic about the homemade stuffed bunnies! 

To make the story short, I gladly repeated everything and made a blue bunny for Dinda, and on this second try, I think my sewing skill is getting better (well, maybe just a tiny bit, heh heh)!  Here it is ...

And now my house is full of bunnies - stuffed ones, real ones - hamsters, cats, and of course, kids. Lol! 

My  slice of heaven .... ;)

Thanks for reading friends, hope your day is as lovely as mine (or even better!)! ^_^

Preparation for a Craft Fair

As you can tell I'm very excited with my upcoming participation in the June Festival Palang Pintu Fair in Kemang (Jakarta, Indonesia). It's going to be my first craft fair - and I'm glad that I'll be sharing the booth with 3 other crafter friends (with me being the most inexperienced one). I know it's way over one month away, but being the Mad Crafter, I always LOVE to prepare ahead of time. So, after a bit of researching here and there, here are the list of things that I'll need later:

1. Cash - in various denominations - need this incase I need to make change - plus a waist bag or apron to hold them.
2. Receipt book - to record my sales, duh ...
3. Business Cards - lots and lots of 'em .. and/or other promo items such as a DIY bookmarks/mini calendar as giveaways, etc.
4. Cardboard sign 
5. Notebook + pen + scissor - a must
6. Calculator - I'm not my best when it comes to math, will certainly need this
7. Merchandise bags - I'm planning to use recycled paper bags for this, got to order some soon :P
8. Tape
9. Rubbish bags
10. Camera for documentation
11. Wet & Dry tissue
12. Mobile phone - can't do without it
13. Containers/Cardbox/Suitcase to carry all my stuff.
14. Table cloth
15. Display sign & Price Tags
16. Displays to showcase my items
17. Chair/Stool
18. Food and water
19. Craft Work - that I can work on to pass the time
20. Inventory list + of course, the stuff I'm going to sell + extras.

Now, for the number 15 and 16, I did a couple of research on several olshops in FB to get some displays for my accessory items, but heck ... the prices just blew me off the roof!  

God, they're expensive!

SooOOOooooo ... ooooo ....

to make the story short I made my own thang ... (so to speak) ;)


[Note: I got a lot of inspirations from the pins I saw on Pinterest.  It's truly a key to a lot of great ideas where we could work on, not to copy, but if possible, make a better version of (that's the spirit!)]

Made my own DIY - Display Tag from stock card, a jumble of vintage images plus printer

inspired by:

here's the link

also made this DIY - Accessory Display 'Tree',
(although I still have to wait for my daughters to come home w/ a perfect light weight tree branch to put in, lol!)

inspired by:

here's the link

aaand, TA-DAHH ..
a DIY - Makeshift Display Board from my son's 7th grade art assignment!

inspired by:

here's the link 

Next step, make a simple cardboard sign for my part of the booth, or if my other partners in crime agreed, a communal board instead! ^^

Stay tuned! ^^

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found."

— James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)

Happy Crafting!

Mad Crafter at Work at Craft Gossip :)

Remember my Felt Label tutorial?

I followed an advice from a good friend of mine, mba Dini Capungmungil, to submit it to Linda Lanese at the Craft Gossip and here it is! [mba Dini had her own tutorial featured here earlier]

Mad Crafter at Work has a FELT LABEL – Just for the Fun of it tutorial that may get your creative juices flowing.  This is an adorable project we can all do. 

Thank you, mba Dini and Linda^^

Want to share your own original tutorial at Craft Gossip?  Just submit by clicking this 'Send Us Gossip' folder. You would need to fill in a simple form (i.e.: email, link to your blog, simple description on your tuto. etc/ :)) and click to send ^^ 

Happy Sharing (and crafting!)

DIY - Glass Pendants Tutorial

Every Friday we share crafting tutorials in the Indonesian Crafters group on Facebook, and today I'm going to share mine.

You have probably seen my store updates on the latest Sister Love Collection glass pendants, and this is how I made those darlings:

awesome, this had just arrived yesterday!

my favorite supplier always give a top notch service. i totally {heart} this

i forgot to include the cotton bud, but it's readily available in you household [i hope!]

if you're using a purchased collage sheet, make sure it's okay for commercial use, always check the seller's TOU!  NEVER use something that's not yours to sell.

sorry for the blurry pic, I was half asleep when I took this :P

leave it until the glue is completely cured ... for smaller tiles it's okay to leave them sunny side up:)

[i always glue at night and let them out to rest]

i used a different glass tile just to illustrate

i'm sure you could trim better than this, lol!


note: the sealant would make your image looks a bit darker, but if you're going for that vintage / old feel then just go for it, if you don't want a darker shade, just use modpodge

yay, you're almost there!

just add another coat of modpodge lightly onto the back and place it firmly on the frame setting/bezel, and have another coffee/tea/jog around the yard

when you return, check if the glue has dried off and no stain appears on the image [when it did, just wash everything in the water, peel the sheet off and do it all over again :P]

... and VOILA!  there you have it! ^^

if you had purchased one or a couple of my glass pendants, and had accidentally took them for a swim/bathe, just peel everything OFF and place your favorite photo/picture as replacement. 
it will go on and on like this and you will have so many memories that you could share with others through a simple glass pendant.


oh I almost forgot, as the nature of glass is prone to chipping/cracking, these pendants are not suitable for children. you could replace the glass with a resin sticker instead ^^

happy crafting, y'all!

Sister Love Collection - Newest Member

Yep, it had finally arrived ... 

the elusive 18mm adjustable antique bronze rings {heart}!

These are the perfect match for SL - Set A, B, C, D

Currently available at a very affordable price at my store

(but maybe not for long, they usually disappear very fast ;))

s.o.  c.o.m.e.  a.n.d.  g.e.t.  i.t.

End of 2011: A Rollercoaster of Emotions - A New Passion was Born

I knowww, I know ... guilty as charged ...  it's been quite awhile since my last post - so many end of year happenings happened last 2011 - some good and some bad sad. Very sad.

Maybe some of you knew that last November my dear sister Reny passed away - the hurt from losing someone so dear to my heart was so great, it stopped me from writing for almost 3 months ...

but it didn't stop me from crafting.

It was from this life experience that my 'Sister Love' collection came to be (a dear friend later told me that it was a beautiful way of remembering my Reny).  Instead of using my usual media of felt or cotton fabric, I used glass and digital images ...

Here are some of them:

My inspiration came from here, a tutorial from F Yeah Lolita blog, later on I learned more techniques from the tutorial videos found on YouTube (yay for YouTube!).

One thing though, as I prefer using transparent glass dome instead of epoxy resin, and glass by nature, is a fragile material prone to chipping or cracking, so my pretties here are NOT suitable for children :P

Up to this time, I used ready made collage sheets that I purchased online, but being the madcrafter, I wanted to create MY own digital images, madcrafter style! hehehe ... so here they are - some from my own design and some using altered cliparts from other artists, hopefully they're not too bad for a newbie ^_^

It's actually easy, you could do it too ... [so here's to you Reny, love you always Sis!]

Initials - 'M'

Matryoshka Doll - Green

Happy Crafting ^_^

DIY - From Trash to Treasure ep. 2

Last Sept. 19, I posted this picture of my 'On the Go' Mini Pincushion on BBC's status, entitled 'Recycle - from trash to treasure'

Quote:

'Dari rol karton bekas gulungan benang smok, sisa kain katun print dan flanel, satu kancing kayu uk. kecil dan kertas karton, hotmelt glue, sedikit dakron dan jahitan, jadilah kreasi seperti ini .. :)'

And from my last post, I promised you some quick trash to treasure tutorial, so here goes:  

Mini Pincushion Tutorial

1. Collect the materials that you have on hand: scrap cotton fabric, used cardboard tube, 2 pieces of felt scraps, leftover lace for decoration, wooden button (if available), and some polyfill (dacron) and a length of thread;
2. Measure one of the felt to fit the bottom of the core - trim it nicely;
3. Cut the bigger felt scrap into a rough circle, doesn't have to be perfect as you will sew up the bottom  anyway (see step 4);
4. Sew the felt (see pic. 4) and pull the string - filling the felt with the polyfill as you go ... make sure to make it nice and round;
5. Place the core on the wrong side of the fabric to measure up the length needed for wrapping;
6. (I used zigzag fabric scissor on one side of the fabric, to prevent fraying) - place a double tape on one side (yep, I used double tape - or you can use hotmelt glue instead) and roll the core to a perfect wrap;
7. (picture of a wrapped core - don't worry about the excess fabric on the sides)
8. Line the inside of the core with hotmelt glue and tuck in the excess fabric, be careful when using your fingers to do this as the glue is very hot (duh, that's why they call it 'hotmelt glue'!), I prefer to use a stick to press down the fabrics instead.  When done, add some more hot glue on top of the tucked fabric and pop in the round felt 'ball'. Push it in and check if the glue had secured the 'ball'  perfectly - then finish up the other end just like the first;
9. Lastly, add some hotmelt glue to the end part of the core and place the felt from step 2 (see pic. 9).

There, all you need to do now is add some embellishment as you like (I used a stretchy lace that I bought from Irmawati Sewcraft, an FB onlineshop!) plus a green wooden button to add more charm and ... VOILA!!

Not bad, eh? You can do this in a jiffy :)

And check out what our friend Mba Ichii from Goodthinks had created, for her version of the mini pincushion:

Total cuteness!!

Hope you like this post as much as I do, and don't forget ...

REUSE and RECYCLE! :)

Happy crafting y'all!

DIY - Vintage Inspired Art

I don't know when did I start liking vintage things - but I do know that my collection is growing more and more each time.  For sure, my mom's antique gallery-like house has the biggest influence on my artistic expressions/collections, if I might say so ...

Oops, wrong house! Heh heh .. :P

It so happen that I didn't marry a billionaire (which is okay by me) - even if I couldn't buy expensive artworks - the solution is actually very simple. 

I make my own art.

Yeah, you  could do that, too - for yourself and for others, even. :)

For me, there's nothing more artfully satisfying whenever I succeeded in turning an empty 'canvas' (or even a packet of white cement) into something beautiful, something that I could appreciate and cherish ...

{aaawwww ... starting to get mushy here! Some one please get me a swimming pool!!!}

Let's start with some of my personal favorites!

My first choice would be this little garden statue - she was born from a mold that I purchased directly from England.  Isn't she a real beauty?  I just love every details on her.

An english garden mini statue - white cement

And here are some  of the collages/artwork that I had done in the past few months ...

in remembrance of my cat, Tigerlily
(been missing since last month) :'(

Two commissioned scrapbook-influenced profile logos that I did for an FB friend

This one was the first vintage logo I made for BBC

Some of my friends had asked me where did I get those honest to goodness, gorgeous vintage graphics ... did I buy them online, googled them, etc. But the answer is a big 

'nope'. 

You could get all the vintage graphics you want for FREE!

Don't believe me? 

Check out the Graphics Fairy. 

It's a very special, special blog managed by Karen - God bless her soul! :)

You could 'process' these images with your favorite program, even a Microsoft Powerpoint would do.  Well, if you're good at Photoshop, that's even better.

You could even make some money selling your art, check out Etsy.com or even Ebay.

So, start creating people!  Your art is waiting for ya ..

My next post will be another DIY - Turning Trash into Treasure ep. 2, stay tuned!

Lazy Sunday Crafting - Bird Mobile

Happy Sunday everyone!

There's something about Sunday mornings that I can't quite pin down - is it because Sunday is a family day, where each family members can fully enjoy each other's company from sun up till bed time? Could be, well, at least it happens in my family :)

It is during this blissful time that I could sit down and browse fresh new ideas from other crafters' blogs for my craft inspiration, and today my attention got snagged on this work of art - it was a bird mobile project, an old post by Laura from Spool Sewing last May 16, 2008.

Check this out:

Bird mobile project from Spoolsewing

Detail on the birds

Use of various patterned fabric for the birds

Luckily, I had previously ordered some fabric pieces from a fellow Facebook onlineshop, Juvin Art Souvenir. They were supposed to be my 'guinea pig' for my headband project but they turned out perfectly cut for building my soft birdies.

Some of the recently bought printed cotton fabric (and buttons)

Laura's blog also include the free PDF pattern for the bird [click here].  This is for personal use only and not for selling.

for illustration purposes only

So I cut the patterns and trace it on my fabric with a fabric marker - [tip: during pattern cutting, I always cut on the sewing line, the additional seam line can be added later during fabric cutting; hence I get a precise trace from the fabric marker when I sew the pieces together. my rule: trace on the wrong side of the fabric]

For the fabric marker, I used my Giotto Decor that I bought from Cici Konde, another fellow FB olshopper who also sells her beautifully made whimsical crafts online.  I use whatever tools I have on hand so the Giotto Decor will do (and to my delight, it worked perfectly!).

Without further ado, I got to work, adding a little piece of scrap trimming and a 17mm heart button ... and VOILA!  My very own bird softie! 

[i know, i know .. I still need to work on the other birds but it's very exhilarating to get your first 'baby step' done, lol!)

Enjoy and happy crafting {while I'm on a hunt for the perfect twigs and branches!