Earrings and sewing and T-shirts, Oh my!

I'm not focusing these days.  I have completed several small projects though.


I've had these beads since about November and finally got around to making earrings with them.
The crystals in both pairs glitter beautifully.  Unfortunately, it is a bit overcast today so there isn't any good light for them to reflect.

I made myself a geektastic Iron Man 3 t-shirt.  Too bad I haven't seen the movie yet!
I gave up trying to take a good "selfie"  I took lots and this was the best.

Hopefully Robert Downey Jr. would be impressed.


And I sewed my self a swimsuit cover-up.  I got the tutorial here, at Grits and Giggles.
My only problem with this was that I eyeballed it.  Don't do that.  Use a tape measure.  I had to pick the seams and redo them! 
I think it is really cute.

Next up,  a tablet cover.  Hopefully that will be done within a week.
Thanks for looking!
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How to Make a Glass Tile Pendant

I have been making glass tile pendants for years.  Above are a few of them.  But I have only made one for myself!  My friend Leah made a cross stitch that I really liked, and I decided that I was going to shamelessly copy her idea, except in glass tile pendant form.  I hope you don't mind Leah!!!!

First I had to find a picture of the lips.  Then download the font. Go here if you want the font.  I had no idea that there even was a font available!  I laid it out several different ways.  I couldn't decide how I wanted the words.  Then I printed out my pictures and gathered my supplies.

I settled on a design and carefully cut it out to fit on my glass tile. Then glued it to the tile using my triple thick glaze.

 I set it on a piece of wax paper to dry.  You can see the glue that seeped out around the edges in this picture, but that stayed behind on the wax paper when I peeled my tile off.  I let this dry for about a day.

Then I took one of the paint chips I had and chose the red colour that best matched the front and cut it out to fit the tile.

Perfect.  I glued that to the back with an ordinary glue stick.  No waiting for it to dry that way!

 Then I put a nice thick coat of the glaze on the back.  I haven't learned the art of getting the glaze nice and even, I've always got brush strokes.  *sigh*

Then after letting that dry.  I glued my pretty little heart-shaped bail onto the back using E-6000, let that dry and put a chain through it.  Sadly, I managed to do a great job smearing glue all over the place.  Luckily it is the back, so we are the only people who will see it.  If it was a gift, it wouldn't do.  But I  can live with it.

Ta-da!!!!!! 

Thanks for reading!  :)

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Graduation earrings and "un-paper towels"

I haven't been working on my Monster Book of Monsters.  I just haven't felt like it.  But that does not mean I haven't been doing anything at all.

My daughter asked me if I could make her some earrings to go with her necklace for graduation.  This is what I came up with.  I used up almost all of the green/blue beads leftover from the necklace.  I used seven in each earring.  (For anyone who is a Harry Potter fan, the number seven was totally intentional because 7 is the most powerful magical number.  My daughter is a huge  Harry Potter fan.)  I also included one pink bead since there is pink in her necklace and to break up all that green/blue.   She loves them.  I will get to see everything all put together tomorrow night when she graduates.

I have also made myself some "unpaper towels" after being inspired by Jill from One Good Thing by Jillee .  Mine aren't as pretty as hers are, but I have no intention of leaving them on the counter and I think white would be horribly stained in no time.  I found some absolutely beautiful  all cotton dishcloths at the grocery store.  I'm pretty sure I paid $3 for the pack of 10.  So they will have paid for themselves in about three rolls of the paper towel I buy.  I am still using paper towels for gross messes (like animal messes and raw meat juice messes) but my plan is to use these for pretty much everything else. 

So far I have used one. 

My youngest knows all about my plan and we are going to do this ourselves and gently recruit my oldest daughter and husband.

So, I started out with 10 ugly, square dishcloths (hey, they were cheap and stains won't be as noticable!).

I cut them in half and sewed up the edge I just cut.  Jill had problems with hers fraying because she left her edges raw, so I learned from her and took the time to sew mine up.  After they were all sewn, I tossed them in the laundry.  Wow!  Did they ever shrink!  They are still a great size though.

Then, I folded all twenty of them in half and put them under the kitchen sink.   Maybe we won't go through as many paper towels now. 

Thanks for the idea Jill! Pin It

Graduation accessories

Well, my youngest is going to be graduating from elementary school at the end of the month.  Grade eight graduation is a big deal.  Naturally she wants to look perfect.   She has had her dress for a while, and her shoes as well.  She dyes a streak of bluey-teal in her hair every few months and plans to have a bright, fresh one for the ceremony. 
She needed a necklace. 
I happen to know how to make necklaces!  She chose the design she wanted (which just happens to be my absolute favourite, I have made three for myself!) and her bead colours as well.  For the main accent bead, she chose a colour close to the colour of the streak in her hair.  If you want to make one for yourself, the free, downloadable PDF pattern can be found here.  I am so happy that the designer, Jann Christiansen, shared it and that I stumbled across this pattern years ago because I love it.

The beads have a blue or green hue depending on the light.  Awesome!

Against a white background.

Against a black background.

The original pattern calls for using a button for a closure.  I didn't like that so I covered a bead with more beads to make a ball instead.  I learned how to do that using these free instructions.

Apparently 14-year-old girls like clutches this year.  My daughter mentioned in passing that so-and-so was getting a clutch.  I asked if she required one.  Her answer was "no, but it would be nice to have somewhere to put my camera and phone".  I found a tutorial for a very cute one.  I felt that it had  to have a zipper closure.  We can't have a snap popping open while she is on the dance floor!  That really limited my options.  I used the tutorial found here if you want to make one yourself!
Her dress is black and I managed to find some pretty taffeta that is blue or green depending on how you look at it.  Perfect!

I was trying to show the different colours in the bow.  It looks way better in person.

I placed the necklace inside and presented it to my daughter when she got home from a school camping trip.  She knew I was making her a necklace (obviously, since she chose her colours), but the clutch was a surprise.

I love making things for my daughter.  She is always happy and appreciates everything.  This was no different.

Thanks for reading!  :)

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