Jewelry Making: Another furious phase of crafting

I have the tendency to exhaust a hobby quickly. Once I settle on a project I work on it almost constantly, only stopping to pee and eat. Then, once I've created a few pieces in that medium, I stop. And then never do it again. Such is the case with my newest obsession : Jewelry making.

Long story short; I had some crystals. In a giant bowl in the jewelry counter at Goodwill was a pile of stones and crystals. It was as if a life long collector threw his hands up in the air one day and said "THAT'S IT. I'M SICK OF THIS ROCK SHIT!"  Well their trash is my supplies. Using Aluminum wire and leather laces I turned my impulsive and thoroughly satisfying purchase into pendants.

Ooooo

Ahhhh

Gasp! 

Swoon

On that back of each pendant is a metal loop through which one could put a chain. So there you have it, another furious wave of productivity to no end now to be followed with a long period of idling around.

Dog Crap

OH MY MY. It has been months since I last posted. Not the best way to keep readers, I know, but I have the mother of all excuses; I got a puppy. I'm a first time dog owner and it's been a dream come true, kinda. I have wanted a dog since I was three and twenty years later of pleading I finally got one. Her name is Hattie and she's a precious pup that takes up every single second of my life when I'm not at work. So crafting hasn't been an option. I've been able to pawn her off on my mother for an hour or two so I have been able to sew a couple things up....for the dog.

Okay so if I'm going to have to look at her cage I figured I would at least make it pretty. 

 I figure that heat rises so this keeps her warm right?

 Okay so she wouldn't stay still but I made her this wittle coat.

So there you have it. I HAVE done some stuff but you know all crazy dog obsessed type of things.

A Monster Undertaking

I mentioned a while back (in this post) that my aunt had asked me to make her four plushes. At the time I was working as a part time secretary with ample time on my hands to do whatever. That lucky, lazy, in the past me. I now have a full time job at a school so I've really let this project drag on. To date I have three finished and with only a week left to finish the last one. Damn it, even typing that is making me panic. ANYWAY the second one I did was also for a little boy, though a bit older than the child getting the Puppy-saur.

Who wants a hug? 

Bring it in, bro. 

This is the hug monster. He's shaped like a pillow and a darn soft. His big arms are great for giving a monster hug or for smacking around any bad monsters you might have lurking under your bed. Once again, I hope this kid likes this. It's hard to make things for children I've only met once before. The next set is for two girls as soon as the fabric paint dries on the one I'll have it up. 

Why did I take on this many projects? I still have two other gifts to make for people. Am I insane? I'm insane. I'm tired and insane! 

Halloween Costumes!

It's raining! And I'm drinking, time for a blog! On Saturday night me and my friends got together for a Halloween/My Birthday party and party'd it up costumed style. Me and Anthony went as Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Right away I started looking in Goodwill for pieces for our costumes. Perhaps I hadn't thought things through in the beginning because if I had I would have realized that there is no such thing as a long red men's coat. All there is, especially in Goodwill, are red 1980's women's coats which were pretty much the opposite of what I was looking for. So I had to make most of our costumes from different pieces from goodwill. 

This used to be a really nice polo.

Pirat-ification process. 

Peter Pan beginnings 

I had to make a pirate hat because guess what? I'm not paying 20 bucks for one! Spirit of Halloween shame on you.  This was once an ugly women's sun hat. To make the trim I crocheted two chains of yarn and hot glued it around the edge and then hot glued the sides up to make it more piratey and less lady on a beachy.

Peter  Pan hat.

This was the easiest to make. I just googled a how to make a Peter pan hat and BAM made one. Put all these parts together and you get:

And this:

So there you have it! Our totally mind blowing costumes! Now back to drinking and looking at the storm roll in. WOOO! 

Treasure Hunting

A lot of the stuff I end up re-vamping or crafting with I find at my local Goodwill.  I live right around the corner from one so I spend a nice chunk of my time picking through other people's stuff/ treasure hunting. There's usually a lot of great stuff to be found as well as a lot of weird things. One summer when I was a cashier at Goodwill, someone donated a prosthetic leg. Raises a few questions doesn't it? 

Anyway, I've found a plethora of great materials in thrift stores including the figurine from my mutant army. Here's some other things I've made using second hand shop finds.

A wreath made from a plain straw circle wreath.

The base of this wreath I found at goodwill. I wrapped the wreath with ribbon, fired up the hot glue gun and stuck on a bunch of fake flowers on to make this. 

Another thing I made from a goodwill find is my earring holder: 

I also have some pretty sweet earring.

Screen staple gunned to a frame. 

For this all I needed to do was staple gun on a metal grate I got at the Home Depot to a nice frame I found. There are always old wreaths and frames at thrift stores just ripe for messin' with. Or Figurines of furniture that just needs a new coat of paint. Some see junk, I see potential. So yeah, maybe one day my house will be so stuffed with crafts and stuff that I can't get out of bed but until that day I'm going to be under the impression I'm being productive.