Iron Craft ’14, Challenge 2

Before I get to the 2nd challenge for Iron Craft 2014, here are one set of earrings I finally finished from the first challenge!
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I added some swarovski crystals and they have a nice sparkle. It’s too bad the photo can’t really show the opalescent sheen from the paint. The paint, btw, is Pebeo Fantasy Moon paints in Metal Blue. I really like these paints, especially in combination with other colors. I’ll post some of what I did with them in another post.

Now on to the 2nd challenge! Get It Together! As you can guess, about organizing. I am constantly trying to organize and keep organized. If you know me, you know it is not easy! I tease hubby about his endless lists but now I have started doing lists too and yes, it is very helpful! One of the problems for me is if it is out of sight, it is out of mind. And with all the craft supplies I have, it is hard to keep it organized and know what I have! Sigh…constant battle!

Anyway, a lot of my craft supplies is in my studio (the extra bedroom) but it does make it out to other areas of the house, much to Yves’ dismay. He has the closet in the bedroom for his clothes but a few of my (and Sienna’s too!) supplies take up the big shelf. He decided to just give over the whole closet to me (to be fair, it’s not a very big closet considering it’s in the master bedroom!) and get a wardrobe/armoire type thing to put in the corner of the bedroom. We are still waiting for it to arrive and to make room, our 4 drawer metal file cabinet is going to move into the studio (big purging of papers in there!) and 3 of the 4 drawers will hold craft supplies! My jewelry box sat on top of the file cabinet and now that it’s going to move into the closet of my studio, I wanted to rethink how to store my bracelets and pendants. My earrings were already hanging up as seen here. Being able to see all my earrings is so helpful so I thought I would make a hanging jewelry organizer to be able to see the rest of my jewelry! I pinned 2 tutorials to get ideas but really just sort of winged it. I am so proud to say that I made it in ONE day!! I started it in the morning and finished it up after dinner LAST WEEK!! Can you believe it? Me? The procrastinator?! I was really revved up with the idea and knew I had to finish it that day as who knows how long it would have sat, half finished, otherwise? And here is my pride and joy!
FinishedOrg
Originally, I was thinking of making it double sided but after starting, realized that I would be making it harder on myself to do that. It wasn’t very hard at all but the vinyl definitely proved the most challenging even though I used a teflon foot! Here’s some photos to show my process. The fabric I used is a heavier weight cotton that a friend gave to me when she moved and unloaded all her crafty good intentions on me. It has been in my stash at least 3 years!

Hangar Fail! Realized using a standard shirt hanger was not going to work! Decided on pants hanger instead.

Hangar Fail! Realized using a standard shirt hanger was not going to work! Decided on pants hanger instead.

Dealing with the big role of vinyl. I had bought this vinyl online years ago at the beginning stages of my sewing and clearly did not know what I was ordering! I didn't realize it was going to be so big and come like this! I cut off a big piece for my project and then cut that down.

Dealing with the big role of vinyl. I had bought this vinyl online years ago at the beginning stages of my sewing and clearly did not know what I was ordering! I didn’t realize it was going to be so big and come like this! I cut off a big piece for my project and then cut that down.

Laying out each piece of vinyl for placement.

Laying out each piece of vinyl for placement.

Sewing on the bias tape (also from my friend) to make the vinyl look prettier.

Sewing on the bias tape (also from my friend) to make the vinyl look prettier.

After doing all the vinyl, I thought it would make it easier to sew the rows together at the same time and taped it down. This is paper tape that I thought was low tack. It ended up getting stuck on the vinyl so had to clean it up with goo gone. Some spots took quite a bit of elbow grease. Not sure if taping it down really helped me in the end.

After doing all the vinyl, I thought it would make it easier to sew the rows together at the same time and taped it down. This is paper tape that I thought was low tack. It ended up getting stuck on the vinyl so had to clean it up with goo gone. Some spots took quite a bit of elbow grease. Not sure if taping it down really helped me in the end.

Finished the first row!!

Finished the first row!!

CloseUp1CloseUp2Close up shots. I’m so happy with it and now I can see most of my jewelry (there are a few stragglers that I don’t know if I am going to keep.)

Iron Craft ’14, Challenge 1

I have joined Iron Craft 2014 and the first challenge is leather or crystal. I have chosen to do leather. I have had this noodle bead bracelet tutorial on my Pinterest board for 51 weeks! Who knows when I bought the materials for it but I finally decided to do something about it! It really was easy peasy and the most difficult part about it was waiting for the glue to dry on each end cap and to be safe, I let each end dry overnight. I used black and silver leather cord and also hematite and silver noodle beads. I like it!
NoodleBead
While technically, I did not make this next bracelet for this challenge, I did fix it!BeadWrapI made this last year sometime, maybe even a little over a year ago, and I only got to wear it once or twice before the thread came loose. Thankfully, the whole thing did not fall apart as it was just the end part where I guess I did not tie it tight enough. It sat in my jewelry box waiting to be fixed. It finally saw the light of day when I was working on the noodle bead bracelet. Yves got me these sexy visors for Christmas:

sexy, right? So now I could see!

sexy, right? So now I could see and able to fix the thread easily!

I actually might end up pulling this bracelet apart. I’m not crazy about the color combo I picked and it is also a bit too big. These leather cords stretch real easy.

Ok, so I was going to call it a day with this challenge but then I remembered my old leather shoes.
FullShoesMy beloved Danskos that I practically wore almost everyday for a year and a half. Supposedly, they are supposed to last longer than that but maybe I have weird feet. I realized that they just couldn’t be fixed and finally let them go. One foot had a split on the side and the other had a crack on the bottom.
SideSplitBottomSplitInstead of throwing them away, I decided I wanted to make them into something else but they sat for months and months…Until this challenge, well, challenged me!! I decided to cut them up and make earrings out of them. They have been granted an afterlife.
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Not sure what to do with the other foot. Maybe a leather flower brooch?

Not sure what to do with the other foot. Maybe a leather flower brooch?

Technically, I am not done with them as I decided to paint some of them to see how they will turn out and they aren't fully dry. I like how the bottom left looks and do not like the top right at all! I left one pair as is and not sure what I will do with the blue/purple one. I can add more layers of paint too.

Technically, I am not done with them as I decided to paint some of them to see how they will turn out. I like how the bottom left looks and do not like the top right at all! I left one pair as is and not sure what I will do with the blue/purple one. I can add more layers of paint too.

Winter: Iron Craft Challenge 6

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Ready for the cold!

So this week’s Iron Craft Challenge was Winter. I have a bunch of old t-shirts, a lot of them concert shirts. Some I wore a lot and some I barely wore. But I saved them. Some may call me a hoarder (that would be my hubby) as some of the shirts are OLD but I call it being sentimental. I’ve was trying to figure out what to do with them and I’ve seen on the web people making quilts out of their old shirts. That wasn’t for me. Somehow I got the brainstorm to make a scarf out of them. That brainstorm occurred in early fall and it’s been on my list of crafty things to do for a couple of months now. Finally, an opportunity to get my ass in gear! Overall I am please with how it turned out but I think for my next t-shirt scarf (I should have enough shirts for another one!) I would make one side facing the opposite way of the other side. Not a deal breaker since I will see the shirts the right way but people looking at me will see some shirts upside down.
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It was hard trying to get a good shot of all the shirts. Sienna, such a ham, wanted to help out.
Here are all the shirts I used. 13 shirts with only 1 shirt using the front and back so I guess 14 pieces in total.
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Don’t remember what year I got this! Definitely in the 90’s
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Also probably gotten in the ’90s
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Amsterdam was part of our honeymoon back in 2001
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Madonna’s Like a Virgin tour 1985! One of the best shows I went to because my friend won front row seats at the Garden and the Beastie Boys opened up (before they hit it big.) The oldest shirt of the bunch.
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Early 90’s. I saw INXS at Radio City.
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I had 3 Morrissey shirts to choose from. This is from the 90’s.
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First year I went to Coachella in 2005
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I don’t remember when I got these but definitely early 2000’s…I think!
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Austin City Limits festival
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Ahhh, The Lost Boys. What can I say? Second oldest shirt from 1987.
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I had to throw in a Brooklyn shirt!

And there you go!

Be Mine

Ok, so I made it through Iron Crafts 1-4, what a great start! I’m really getting my craft on and was really excited for number 5. Oh, a Valentine challenge. Drat. Don’t get me wrong, I love hearts and candy and my husband proposed to me on Valentine’s Day 2001. I was just wondering how I was going to fulfill this challenge and not have my husband or daughter see what I made them since it’s a good week and a half away! Then I had an idea! I’ll make Valentine’s for Sienna’s class and then I wouldn’t have to scramble at the last minute! Yay! (I’m sure I’ll end up scrambling last minute for their Valentine’s anyway!) So, I got this idea from Martha Stewart and Sienna was a great model and helper! So here it is, goody bags for her classmates!
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We did a photo shoot last week and boy, she is a ham. She couldn’t take after me, could she? Here are some outtakes!
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She helped me put the lollipops in the baggies last night and was telling me who was getting which bag even though I hadn’t made the bags specific for anyone. I closed the bag with some heart deco tape and then used my tape runner to attach the bag top. I really like how they came out!
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I was also toying with this idea but wasn’t sure it really looked like Sienna was throwing hearts at you. What do you think?
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I am also counting this as my Thing a Day for day 2! (Keep track of my thing a days here!) Yeah baby! I love it when a plan comes together! 😉

Get Cozy

Last week’s Iron Craft (#4) was Get Cozy. I crocheted a mug cozy with some cotton yarn I’ve been hoarding. I love the bright color and thought it would be a nice perk in the morning to this dreary winter we’ve been having. Anyway, I kinda winged it and it ended up being too big for the mug I intended it for! I remembered I had a bigger mug down in the basement and brought that up, it was still too big! I forgot how easily cotton yarn stretches. I washed it and it shrunk just a tad so it hugs the mug just a little bit better. I might just move the button so it closes it tighter on the top!
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Draft Dodger and Just Bunt!

Here are my creations for Iron Craft 2, which was to make a draft dodger and Iron Craft 3, which was just bunt!

I was really excited that challenge 2 was to make a draft dodger, it’s been something I’ve been meaning to do for the last couple winters! It is really so super easy to make. I didn’t even labor over the fabric! I just looked in my stash and picked this one for some reason. The hardest part was filling it with beans. I didn’t have enough beans so I mixed it with some polyfill. It now sits at the balcony door in the living room.
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Challenge 3 I was lukewarm about. I’m not big on bunting so was thinking of bowing out but then I clicked on one of the links on the Iron Craft blog directing me to a birthday card with bunting. Cute and completely doable! Since the closest birthday coming up was for today (Happy Birthday Alexis!), I decided to make this card for one of Sienna’s classmates. I used fabric paint to hold the glitter and paint the string and letters.
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Lighting the Winter Gloom

Here is Iron Craft’s first challenge! Lighting the Winter Gloom. I came across this tutorial for Epsom Salt Luminaries a day or two before reading about the Iron Craft challenge so when I saw what the first challenge was, I knew I wanted to do these!

I could only find 2 glasses that seemed good to use but only made 1 because I couldn’t get all the goo from the label off one just yet. I am definitely going to make more! I really love lighting candles in the autumn and winter months but put them all away when Sienna was first born. Easy to stay out of trouble that way. Then I just never pulled them out again. I will now!
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Got all my supplies together. The Epsom Salt is to the right and did not make the photo. I could not find the food coloring (where did I put them??) so I used alcohol ink instead.
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I ended up putting a couple of drops in and next time I will put even more drops in as the color is really subtle when it’s on the glass. I also added in lavender glitter although it’s hard to tell.
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All covered up. See how subtle the color is? There is a bit of sparkle that is easier to see in real life
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All lit up! I actually still have to spray some sealer on it but wanted to get my photo into the Iron Craft flickr pool today!