by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 12, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
Another very simple paper clay flower tutorial today. This one plays up with one of my favorite things about paper clay: it’s paper-ish tearing ability!
The end result is something along these lines with very ragged deconstructed edges.
This is the paper clay that I’m using, I want to try making my own but I found this for $3.50 at Tokuya the other day.So start with a ball of clay.
Roll it out on a flat surface.
Tear off long strips of clay that are around 1-2cm wide. You’ll see that the clay has really ragged edges like roughly torn paper.
Strips:
Start by rolling an edge of one of the torn strips.
Continue rolling around so it forms the shape of a flower. I found that it felted the shape to pleat the strip every few cm because that flares out the “petals” a bit more. As you go around you might want to wet the strips slightly so they stick better and if you want to you can roll the bottom end between your fingers so it forms a stem.
All finished!
So there’s another variation on a regular rose ^_^ I think this one is more like a carnation. |
by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 9, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
This craft is one for my across the globe friends who are currently enjoying Winter… or for those of us suffering through hot Summer and dreaming of cooler weather!
I LOVE window stickers. All of our windows are covered with squishy gel stars from Daiso and I have some little mini ones like this kitty that I bought at Camberwell markets. I sit at my little desk pretty much all day every day so looking through a window full of pretty stars brings a little cuteness and magic to my boring days ^_^
So being unbearably hot I decided to remind myself of the Winter with some home made snow flakes!
Here’s how I did it…You need:
- Puff paint (you can buy special window paint but puff paint is cheaper and your local junk/craft store will be more likely to have it)
- Baking paper
- A pen/pencil to draw out your design.
When I took the photos for this I was using aluminium foil as my surface but that ended up being quite annoying during the removal stage so I used baking paper all of the other times. If you don’t have baking paper you can just do it on regular paper and then soak it until the paper disintegrates off later.
So anyway back to the instructions 😀
Draw your design on to your baking paper, because it’s slightly transparent you can draw the design onto the back of the paper if you want to make sure no pen gets on the end product.
This was my basic design.
Now draw on top of your design with the puff paint. You want to make the lines fairly thick because it shrinks a bit when it dries.
I experimented with different sizes before I found the best one for the consistency of my paint. My end products were around 5cm in diameter but yours might change depending on the paint you’re using.
Too small and you’ll end up with a runny mess 😉
So leave them to dry overnight, it needs to be completely dry before you try to remove.
To get them off just gently peel an edge of the paper. You may need to be careful with any small edges.
Taadaa!
The baking paper buckles slightly when it’s wet so the back has a cut looking wavy effect.
To stick them to the window just moisten the back and press it to the window 😀
So easy to do and so pretty. You can make any shape you want, I’ve just gotten some new paints so I’m going to make a whole lot of these for all over the house 😀 Haha maybe all of you on the other side of the world can make some Summer themed ones! |
by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 8, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
Here’s another very simple hime gyaru phone strap that I made to use as some inspiration ^_^ Even if you don’t have these exact materials you could easily substitute or just use the base idea to create something much more elaborate 😀
I used an old hair tie with a bow on it and a pretty hair clip which had broken.
I snipped off the hairband and removed the clips.I use felt for the backing of clips like this to cover all of the joins.So after deciding on placement I cut out the shape of felt.
I glued it all together.
Then added a jewellery loop at the top with a second piece of felt to anchor it.
Phone strap attached…
DONE!
Two old hair accessories recycled into something pretty and new which will be a great gift for a friend 😀
I am loving making things like this, I keep fantasizing about when we have a bigger house and I’m able to have a craft room again. I can totally imagine myself sitting around all day and making phone straps and things, who knows maybe I would even have a little shop, that sounds like so much fun 😀 *dreaming* |
by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 7, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
When I got my new camera I decided I wanted it to be as customised as possible. Other than deco-ing it I wanted to customise all of the other aspects as well including the straps, bag and any accessories. The first thing I did was paint the lens flower 😀
James get consistently frustrated by me calling it a lens flower because it’s such a girly way to say lens hood 😉 Now I just do it because I know it irritates him mwahahaha. LENS FLOWER!
I used acrylic paint and nail polish to do it and these are the steps I took ^_^My lens flower:I painted it with several coats of white acrylic paint as a base.
It took 3 coats to make sure it would be completely opaque. Coat 1 was kind of patchy.
But all I really needed was a decent base so the nail polish wouldn’t be lost in black so I didn’t bother making it perfect.
Once it was dry I gave the whole thing a coat with some nude polish.
I gathered all of the polish colours I wanted to use and decided on a design, this one was inspired by a Pucci print.
Then I went colour by colour building swirls up from the bottom.
It’s quite hard to see at this point because the pinks were all quite similar.
All of the base colours are done!
Here’s one with upped contrast so you can see a bit better.
I used a thin brush to paint gold and dark purple glitter around the bubbles to give them definition as well as the top and bottom.
To remove any bits that got a bit out of the lines I just wiped it away using a cotton bud and a tiny bit of polish remover.
All finished! Totally girly and very me 😀
What do you think? Haha an improvement? The next thing on my list is making a nice camera strap to hold it all together 😀 |
by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 5, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
Another random present that I made over Christmas which might give you ideas on something you could make!
James’ Dad is one of the most practical men that I know, he only ever wants practical things for presents. There’s a family story that he once bought James’ Mum a fire extinguisher for Christmas… she was not particularly impressed XD
So this year he asked for a phone case… but we couldn’t just get him a regular one so I set about making him one with his business logo on it.
Take 1 plain iphone case!
Draw roughly what you want the design to look like on the piece of clear plastic that you cut from the case’s packaging. This is important so you get the spacing right.
Draw the design on the case with a Sharpie or other permanent marker.
DONE! Give to recipient and enjoy reaction 😀 Practical and personal all in one!
by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 2, 2012 | Craft, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial
Sometimes I just feel like making a big pile of sparkly pink whipped cream. Those days are when things like this come out of the craft pile ^_^
It’s a ridiculously glitterly pink trinket box of pinkness… and glitter.
It all started with a box and a base coat of acrylic paint.Then several coats of glitter paint.
Then it was just a matter of piling on a lot of cute paper clay food I’d made several years ago.
I did so by layering it all and hot gluing as I went.
You can never have too much whipped cream on a project like this.
Gaps filled with beads, pearls, diamantes and cabochons.
DONE!
A good way to get out the pink glitter that’s been building up in my brain and make a gift for someone I know will love it, now I just need to get the rest of her package together 😀 |