My pokemans!! Jigglypuff Rag Rug

I made this cute lil fella on Wednesday. It's made with the basic technique of "toothbrush" rugmaking. It's called that because traditionally, the tool you use to make this rug is a sawed off toothbrush handle. It's kinda melted and shaped to be a big ol' needle. There are some good instructions on ragrugcafe.com. That's where I learned a few months ago.

This jigglypuff took about 2.5 yards of pink cotton fabric, then I fashioned his eyes, mouth, and ear-blackness out of leftover fleece scraps and felt. I was thiiiinking about handsewing these details on, but after handstitching the eyes together, I thought, "meh" and just used the hot glue gun.

I took it to mutual along with some other crafts, because the yw were having a planning meeting to figure out what things they would like to do for Wednesday night activities. It was a hit, so the girls want to make these things on July 8th. Hopefully I can be a good teacher!

So, for now, this puff must remain unused to be an example...he will eventually find his way to just outside my bathroom shower.

Goodwill Dresses

So ignore my HORRIBLY MESSY craftroom for a second and check out this ridiculous formal dress from the 70's or 80's. The story goes, that I have had my eye on these two particular sequined monstrocities for months now at the thrift store. I was there on Monday to browse, and had to ask, "Do y'all ever have sales?" to which the super-friendly cashier, Tina, responded that since they are so short staffed, they haven't been able to keep up cycling out the merchandise and clearancing stale goods, but asked me what I was looking for. I told her about me lurking these dresses for a while now, and she was SO NICE! She took the dresses aside and told me to call the store in the morning, she would ask her supervisor if she would mark them down. Apparently they had been on the rack since February.










LO! Behold! I called back, the dresses were marked down 50% off! I bought them for $7.50 each! My original purpose for these was to tear them down and reconstruct into multiple handbags with stitched-on felt designs. This dress, however, I think I love. Unfortunately, it does not zip fully, as the dress is a size 8, and my booty is decidedly still a size 12. I could be size 8 again if I lost a measly 15-20 lbs... Easier said than done. I love my eats. But I figure, it's hard to find a modest formal dress, and what if I need one some day, for a princess ball or (more likely) a cruise?!

No, I sha'nt be destroying THIS dress.

THIS one, however, will meet the scizzors. It's such a great color with such intense sequining. Ah, it would look so good on stage. My stage days are over, though, so be afraid, teal-sparkle-dress, be very afraid!

GRATUITOUS SEQUIN SHOT!!!! Wouldn't this look sooo good as a handbag wif mermaid or shark motif?!

Dinosaur Crafts

I made all this crap last week for a Dinosaur swap on craftster.org

I love swapping...It inspires me to craft such fun thingies

This bag was a huge success for me. It was the first project I've done on the sewing machine where I didn't lose my cool. The sewing machine just seems to always be making me so angry... This time, it did not. I used felt for the T-rex of my own design, handstitched it on using embroidery floss. The inside is lined with ivory-colored felt, and there is even a little pocket for your cell phone :)

Envelopes reconstructed from the children's book DINOSAUR GARDEN. They are little, notecard-sized envelopes. Good for writing letters!

Two stuffies, one's a stegosaurus, the other is a triceratops. I hand-sewed the stego, for fear of the sewing machine, but got brave and did the triceratops on the sewing machine. I totally rule.

This is a shrinky dink necklace with all the super0cute dino-designs I drew. I accented the charms with swarovsky rhinestones.

Since I had to send the necklace off to my swap partner, I HAD to make another set of charms. This set is slightly smaller.

Here's a set of watercolor paintings inspired by the artwork of Morgan O'Brien. I was really pleased with the stego.

Lastly, a pop-up notecard with a watercolor-painted stegosaurus. Says, "brontosaurus loves you..." Aw.