Monday Presents

Every May it is the same story, crazy lot of birthdays and other parties. And with every party you have to show up with a present. About a year ago me and my friends made a painting for a birthday, and since then we already made 2 more paintings.
Usually we don't really have a plan, we just start to paint and the idea is to just create an amazing combination of ugliness. And of course the person who will receive this beautiful piece of art has to hang in in the middle of the room :)


These 2 weeks I had 2 housewarming parties, and as you might have guessed, for the first one we made a painting.

It was my friend Romi's housewarming and we went all out on this one. But for some reason we are getting better at the painting, it is still a clash of 3 total different styles but the end result (I think) is quite awesome :)

The second housewarming was for my friend Noortje, as we already gave her a painting we had to think of something different. She really likes ceramics from a brand called Blond, but that is crazy expensive. Then one of my friends came with the brilliant plan to create our own kind of 'Blond', decorate plates and cups with paint and make our own crazy designs on them.
It turned out to be a crazy collection, and I do hope she liked it ^^

Oh and yes the naughty plates are not my design, just so you know.

Sunday Containers

Everyone knows the problem with a big handbag, a lot of stuff go in and it is crazy difficult to find the thing you need in there!
That is why I love little pouches, I have a little container for everything, pencils, glasses, creative supplies (yarn,(crochet) needles, beads) electrical wires, make-up. Most of them are just from the store, but sometimes I can not find the perfect one and end up making one myself.

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This Sunday I created a long rectangle envelope, super handy and can be used for everything!

I hand stitched the fabric with a hot pink thread and added a black-pink-white four-strand braided string.  I used a  bright orange bead as a button, it is not the best solution but the best I could find.
The fabric is from IKEA, sometimes they have
a bin of spare pieces which is where I get half of my fabric collection.

I think it took me little over an hour to create and it was totally worth it. Maybe the braid is a little childish but I still like it.

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A different approach is to find new use for an old container.
My friend really wanted this little box but I couldn't just give it in its old ugly state.
I drew on my design with pencil and traced the lines with CD-marker (these work great on any kind of plastic). I added color with commercial markers, they cost about 4 euros a piece but the color is amazing, worth it.

I am really proud of the design I made and I think it would be great to make a t-shirt design out of this. Just keep an eye on my blog and it will come up some day, promise :)

Thursday Posting

Oh it is really hard to remember to post on your blog.. But good news, I have been doing a lot of things and finished my long time projects! So let's get straight to it.

20120316 - Friday Nails.

This Friday I had a family dinner and afterwards a crazy party, I thought I would do some nice manicure. (Also I was crazy tired and it was either that or just lying in bed till 6 ^^).

It may not be the prettiest thing but the effect was quite awesome, as I put Aluminium foil on my nails!
The first layer was a base coat (I always use it and without it my nails would have looked a whole lot worse) and a second layer of random nail polish. With the polish still wet I put on small pieces of Aluminium foil (which I wrinkled before) and stuck it on.

Stupid me didn't make a picture when it was all fresh and perfect and the Aluminium got loose on some places, it might be better to put actual nail foil on, but for now this was a nice experiment.

20120317 - Saturday Turtle. 

As seen in last post I have been working on a new crochet figure shaped like a turtle.
and Saturday I finally got to finish the little creature, without the shield it looks a little sad, and it might be a little tiny but with the shield it is the cutest thing ever!
I haven't decided on the face yet so for now it is just a faceless monster (still the cutest thing).

20120318 - Sunday Bracelet.

Sundays are for cleaning my room usually, and as always it will take up all day because you just keep finding interesting things! This time I didn't find that much but it was just a crazy mess, it happens sometimes ^^
What I did find were two small pieces of embroidery thread in a salmon/pinkish/orangy color (I have no idea what to call it, but it is perfect for Springtime).

I thought it would be cute for a tiny bracelet so I braided it in a four-strand-braid, started with a loop and ended with a button I found while cleaning - in the exact same color! Sometimes when you create something you just know it will be good, even if it is simple ^^

Thursday Writing

Yes! Time to do another post,
some interesting weekend that was with party,,,
and friends..
and also a lot of THIS... haha

But as this blog is about the things I create I will now get serious ^^

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I visited my friend Jeroen to for some drinks and to give him his very late birthday gifts. I gave him socks and the drawing from last post, and,, I think he was very pleased with the gift.
And he also had a gift for me.
 Jeroen is not just my friend and an interesting person, this man is the creator of the Munnen.
Munnen can best be described as,,,, ehh,, well just check them out on http://jompie.deviantart.com/

Inspired by his creatures and a Mun made of fabric a friend of his created, I decided to make my own Mun in crochet. I made the shape first and after that I put on the black lines with a sewing needle. Maybe not the straightest line but I like it still ^^
As I am getting better at the technique of crochet it was time to go free-form and create the shape without any guides, and it worked out really well!

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Another thing I created this weekend was a bracelet.
I found an interesting braiding technique called Kumihimo. By using a tool called the Kumihimo board you can lock the different strands of wire. When you move the wires in a certain order a nice tight
braid can be made, this technique works on a lot of different materials which makes it very interesting.
As I do not own a Kumihimo board I created my own from some Styrofoam (but for next time I will make a cardboard one) and an ornament to weigh the braid down. I used embroidery thread because of the brilliant colors, I found the braid a little too thin and therefor I decided to braid around a thick piece of string. 

I am pleased with the result, when you get the hang of it the technique is quite easy and I definitely think I will use this technique another time. 

As I left the bracelet(/friendship band) at the party I can only show a picture of the Styrofoam creation and the colors I used. Sorry for that ^^

I will post a picture when I get it back.

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And sunday was a day of rest. A lot of sleep and slowly cleaning out my room.
For some reason I decided to move a little cupboard from the wall in an angle in the corner and it changed the whole feel of the room, maybe some sort of positive feng shui? I don't know :)

The creation of the day was an old cute silverish necklace I had tweaked by adding a red heart-shaped bead.. As my mood always changes the way I look to color, now that Springtime is so near somehow my colorstyle of the moment is very orangy/ red, any color in that range. 

Might be noticeable in the things I create, who knows!

Friday Finishing

So, today is the day,,
finally i found the peace to create my first real official post, starting with a new fun way of 'keeping myself busy'.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I found a nice book: crochet miniature dogs, by Mitsuki Hoshi. Lucky me found it for 2,50 euro and the little book is just amazing.
Because the technique is described in the book getting started was very easy. I do love handwork and I think crochet is just the easiest thing to do!
With just some leftover balls of wool or cotton and a crochet hook I can just sit in the train, or where ever! ^^
Today I finished my second doggy , I am very proud of it and am eager to start a new crochet figure!


Ohh! If you want to find out more about making figures using crochet, or check out some brilliant figures already made by other people, just Google Amigurimi :)