Throwback to my childhood
Last week, I had the unsustainable urge to play with Perler Beads (ya know–those impossibly tiny beads that you line up on a peg board, and then iron to seal). So I went to AC Moore and bought a huge tub of beads—-22,000 to be exact (my mom thinks we should count them to be sure…..). Last night, I sat down with my old box of Perler Beads (I can’t believe I still have it!) that has all of the boards, and “pegged” away. After a few hours, I now have a set of 8 retro Super Mario Brother’s themed coasters, and a perler bead Jeep–fashioned after my own, of course.
Set #1—all of the things that might come out of a question mark block:
I had so much fun with set #1, I went right onto set #2—Mario and a Boo—and my Jeep.
I plan on making even more (Now I’ve got the original instruction book in front of me for inspiration…..) It’s going to be a long day!
How…..’resin’ating
About two weeks ago, I took to the concept of using Epoxy Resin to suspend stuff in. I spent a few days researching the different types of resin and how to use each safely. Then I went around and collected items to be forever suspended in Resin. After purchasing the products I needed from Michaels, I came right home and got to work.
Here are pictures from my first set of resined items. I haven’t buffed them to a shine yet, or decided what type of jewerly each will become, but I’m pretty excited at how well these came out.
The first one comes from my apparent love of all things Disney. It is a Mickey sticker with some hand mixed glitter. I mixed gold star, red and black glitter to achieve the “Mickey Effect”. Of course, it’s poured into a heart shaped mold.
This one is a tribute to my former job at Rag Shop. I took a piece of our lanyard and set it with some glitter. On the other side is a piece of our cut slip. I cut out the area with the decimal to fraction equivalent. Those numbers will be forever embedded in my head, but I thought it was a true geek way to remember Rag Shop.
This one is a throwback to my home—the Jersey Shore. I went to Long Beach Island (in the middle of January, nonetheless) and combed the beach for mini shells. I also took a cupfull of sand home with me to complete the project. The two bigger ones I plan on turning into keychains, and one will be sent to a friend who has had to move away from “the shore”. I can’t wait to see these when they’ve gotten polished—I hope it looks like shells and sand in water.
I call this one “I see you….”. It’s two googlie eyes with scrapbooking “beadies”. I think this one will make a cute neclace. It’s really fun to shake it and watch the eyes move.
This one is for my sister—the engineer. Our tv had broken days before I did this, and in true geek style, my family didn’t throw it out until we could take it apart. My sister took these parts and suspended them in some resin, along with a few beadies from the “I see you…” pendant that snuck in. I believe she wishes for hers to be turned into a neclace.
This one is for me. It is an old sewing machine charm I used to wear, but the clasp broke. Being a crafter, of course I didn’t throw it out, and it came in handy here. I paired it with a mix of blue and purple glitter.
I call it “sew in love”
This is a personal favorite. I think because it’s just so bright–this is another one I can’t wait to see polished. It’s a blue M&M surrounded by non-parels. I might turn this one into a ring.
This is another favorite of mine. Basically I just walked around my sewing room and picked things up off of the floor. In this one you’ll find a few straight pins, a blue safety pin and a purple button. Here’s the front:
And here’s the back. I think I may turn this into a keychain.
I’m happy with the way these came out and I’m ready to expand. I bought ice trays and measuring cups at a thrift store. I plan on using the ice trays to make multiples of the same sized object, and the measuring cups to make coasters. I also want to stick those Disney postage stamps onto wood, resin it, and turn them into keychains.
All of this talk of suspending things in resin reminds me of one of my favorite Golden Girls quotes: (as said by Sophia) “If God wanted peaches suspended in mid-air, He’s have filled em with helium!” She would have been proud of my random things suspended in resin…..
More Sushi!
Can you tell my favorite food is sushi?
Here is my “secret sushi scarf”. It starts out all innocent looking—like some weird striped scarf:
But, lay it flat, and roll it up, and you get a sushi roll! That is where the secret lies….no one knows its sushi until you roll it up for them. I haven’t decided what type of roll this is—I’m going to go with avocado and tuna roll.
Head on:
From the side:
DS Case
My boyfriend got me a Nintendo DS for Christmas (!!!!)
Of course, I needed to make a DS cozy for it…lol. I contemplated between crocheting or sewing one, and decided sewing one might be faster. (I still may crochet a sleeve for it later)
But here’s what I came up with. I had “quilted” this fabric about a year ago, but never made it into anything, so I set to work. It’s just a simple envelope, with all raw seams inclosed in seam binding.
I added two rows of elastic to secure the games onto the front of the case, and a button closure to keep it all shut.
Here it is open and in use
And here it is shut
Now my DS is all warm and padded!
Goya Contest
Goya products was running a “Disney Dreams Giveaway” where the entrants had to create a “Disney Masterpiece” out of Goya products. Any Goya product could be used, but there were a list of things given where at least one of those items had to be used. The grand prize is a trip for 6 to Walt Disney World—-of course I had to enter.
It was getting down to the deadline last week, so my mom and I buckled down to think of ideas. We spent hours online, looking through books, and just sitting in my Disney-filled room, looking for inspiration. In the end, we came up with four ideas, and the Saturday before it was due, we sat down to create.
My main entry was entitled Chef Mickey Says, “Goya makes *juggling* dinner ideas easy!” I spent the most time on this entry (and its the one I hope wins)
Here are all of the goya bags lined up
Here is a link to the website where you can view all of the entries that others did in the Masterpiece Gallery.
The winner will be announced the end of Jan.
And the Mickey that I sketched (to be filled in with rice and beans)
Here I am lining up grains of black dyed rice one at a time with a pair of tweezers to make the outline of Mickey
And here’s mickey all outlined
Then after many many many hours of filling him in with various dried beans, you have this
Mickey as a finished product
Together my boyfriend and I created Figment, and he was titled “The goodness of Goya ~ not just a ‘Figment’ of your imagination”
His head:
Up close of his rice-ness
Finished Figment
I also had another idea—but Mickey took so long that this took second stage.
This one was titled “Disney and Goya go Hand in Hand”
And here is the one my mom did. Hers is titled “Disney and Goya ~ The perfect marriage”
She took a balloon and paper mached it, then covered it with rice. Then she took white beans and made a cobblestone path, dyed rice for the grass, and printed pictures of goya cans for the customary “cans” dragging behind the just married coach. The castle in the background is one I made a few years ago in a sculpture class.
Daner Designs 