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Bergamot Bunny Pocket Warmer Tutorial (Also Bergamot Shop Update)

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 17, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

Quick update on the Bergamot store, it is happening just slowly! I’m waiting for quotes from a couple of companies which might be able to solve the postal issues I’ve had and I’m also looking at professional production. So don’t worry I’m still working on it!

This tutorial is probably not something which is useful for me in the middle of a hot Summer here in Aus but I think the majority of you guys are in Winter now and I was making presents for overseas friends so here’s a Winter tutorial in the middle of my Summer… if that makes sense!

This is my little Bergamot pocket warmer ^_^

You need:

Polar fleece
Lace
Needle and thread
Embroider thread (optional)
Lace
Rice or something similar to put inside.

Gather all of your materials together and sketch out the shape of Bergamot’s head onto the polar fleece.

VioletLeBeaux-DIY-handwarmer-685_1401 copy

Basically it’s an oval with two ears on the side, don’t cut between the ears.

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Cut out two pieces in this shape. Of course you could make them any shape you want… I just have a serious Bergamot obsession!

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Put the two pieces good sides together and use the needle and thread to blanket stitch around the outside, stop when you have 2cm gap.

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Flip the whole thing inside out. through the hole.

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You should have something like this…

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Fill the head with some rice. You don’t need more than a handful, just enough so it’s not flat.

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Stitch the hole shut completely. I also stitched across the ears and up between them so they look more like ears.

VioletLeBeaux-DIY-handwarmer-696_1402 copy

To make it a bit more Bergamot-ish I added a little lace bow and then her V as a nose. I completely forgot the hearts in the ears >_< I’m planning to make a whole lot more of these so hearts next time haha!

So there you go! Perfect for Winter, just make sure you don’t use anything meltable/flammable in the construction then pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm up. Keep it in your pocket in winter or make two and pop them in your slippers 😀 Now if only I could come up with one of these that was cooling, it’s sooooooo hot right now ;_;

Someone want to come to my house and pour ice all over me? Or bring a snow machine and turn my apartment into a winter wonderland? Yes please!

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Bergamot Bunny Clay Magnet Craft Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 13, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

Food Friday will be back next week once I get some more ingredients for baking 😀

So until then I thought I would show you how I made some fun little Bergamot shaped magnets out of paperclay! Paperclay is such a fun and challenging medium, even after playing around with it for so long I still find it hard to get it to do what I want, I think that’s half the fun though!

There’s a video of this coming too soon ^_^

You need:

Paperclay (I’m going to try out a recipe I found to make my own next time, tutorial on that to come!)
Magnet
Hot glue
Watercolour paint

This is the paperclay I’m using, it’s from Tokuya.

VioletLeBeaux-bergamot-clay-magnet-0562_1389 copy

I like how fluffy and tearable it is.

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Start by making a ball for the body, it should be around 2cm wide. Press it so it sits slightly flat.

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Press your thumb into the top to make an indent.

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You should get something like this…

VioletLeBeaux-bergamot-clay-magnet-0567_1389 copy

It helps to do all of this on a flat surface that you can easily peel it off later. You might want to put some cling wrap down to make it easier later.

Now make two long slightly flat sausages for the ears and place them down here…

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Press the ends down again with your thumb.

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Make a nice big slightly oval shape for the face and lay it over the top of the body/ears. The head should fit easily in the indents you already made. You should add a tiny bit of water to the indents so the head sticks down.

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Let’s make some arms and legs! Make two little balls and squish them into ovals, smoosh the ends with your thumb again and using some water, stick them to the sides of the body in this area:

VioletLeBeaux-bergamot-clay-magnet-0573_1390 copy

And do the same with two smaller balls on the front of the body. With the legs done you should have something like this:

VioletLeBeaux-bergamot-clay-magnet-0574_1390 copy

If you find any cracks or odd things out of place just dip your finger in a little water and smooth over them.

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Also add a little bow to the front near the ears. Wait for the front to dry a little bit and flip Bergamot over. Now smooth all of the back joins with a wet finger so it’s really well stuck together.

VioletLeBeaux-bergamot-clay-magnet-0575_1390 copy

Leave it to dry completely and then hot glue a magnet to the back.

The last thing to do is paint on some details. I used watercolour paint because it was on hand already and soaked into the clay easily. You could also use a marker or pen.

Bergamot has little hearts in her ears, big black eyes, blushing cheeks, little mouth and a V on her foot.

And that’s it! Little Bergamot magnets to live on your fridge 😀 These are so much quicker to make than actual Bergamots so I want to make some other animals now as gifts!

How to Turn a Dress into a Belt – Quick Craft

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 10, 2012 | Craft

So I found this dress in my clean out which doesn’t look as good on as it should.

I love the detail around the bust but the rest is just unflattering on me.

Bust smocking is really pretty so I wanted to save it. Easiest fix=turn it into a thick belt

So to start I cut all of the smocking off…

and cut the seams out too so I could make it more “waist” width rather than “bust” width.

And then sewed the side seams back with an overlocker.

At this point I needed to decide what to do with the top seam. I didn’t really want to hem it and make it bulkier so decided to just overlock the top and bottom seams too.

Inside out:

Right way out:

I didn’t have any black thread on hand so I did it in white and went over it twice to make it a more dense featured white. I thought about adding some detailed embroidery in white with little beads but it got lost somewhere in my “half finished” pile >_< I’ll get around to it eventually… maybe 😀

How to Make Custom Christmas Baubles

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 5, 2012 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

These are the easiest Christmas baubles in the universe. So easy in fact that I made them on Christmas Eve because it was our first day off.

You need:

Cheap baubles, I got mine in a pack of 30 for $5
Puff paint
A gel pen to draft designs

Use a gel pen to draw the outline of your design on the baubles. This step is optional but I didn’t want to ruin any before I got the hang of working with the puff paint.

Pipe on your design… DONE.

Leave them to dry overnight, I used an ice cube tray and some egg cups to make sure they didn’t roll over during the night. It’s easier to actually paint them if you use egg cups as stands too because I can’t tell you how many I screwed up accidentally dropping them and smooshing puff paint everywhere. Luckily if it’s still wet you can just wipe it off and start again.

Yay for the best Billy Idol Day tree ever 😀

How to Make a Kitty Sleep Mask Sewing Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 4, 2012 | Craft, Other-Accessory-Tutorials, Travel In Style, Tutorial

I made a lot of gifts as Christmas presents this year, a lot of my friends travel often so I thought I could make travel masks personalised to each friend.

The first one I made was one of my favorite shapes: kitty shaped haha!

So what you need:

Black felt
Pink leopard print polar fleece
Ribbon
Thread, needle, scissors
Decoration, I’m using a crochet flower

Start by cutting out the basic shapes. You want it to be as wide as the person you’re making it for’s face and tall enough to get from forehead to cheeks. The basic shape is straight along the top and then with two large curves along the bottom.

Cut one out of black felt and one out of the polar fleece. You will also need two triangles for the ears.

Cut some sleepy eye shapes out of the felt too.

The ears will be pleated so they puff up a bit.

This will be the layout for the final mask:

Stitch on the eye pieces with needle and thread.

Taadaa 😉

Stitch the pleat in the ears and then place them good side down on to the face area like this:

Put the black felt piece on top and stitch around the entire outside leaving only a 3cm gap at the start.

Turn the whole thing inside out through the hole.

And then stitch the hole up.

Add a little decoration to one ear like a flower or bow and it’s almost finished!

The last step is to add a ribbon or elastic to either side so there is some way to actually wear it 😉

And that’s basically it, you just need to find a willing model to try it out!

Shh nap time!

These are so much fun to make, I want to make lots of different shapes now 😀

Stamped Greeting Card DIY Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 18, 2011 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

Greeting card season so I’m going to do some more ideas this year 😀 I did some last year too so take a look at this post for a lace doily version. This one is how I make a bunch of mini cards with a basic design that I can personalise later.

So what you need:

Paper
Hot glue gun
Paint
Scissors
Sharpie
Some plastic hard surface you can glue to
nail file or plastic wrap

VioletLeBeaux-DIY-Greeting-Card_7592_9916

So first step is thinking of a decent design. I wasn’t feeling too creative so I just wrote love with some hearts. You need to write it onto the surface you’re going to stamp with, I’m using some random plastic container. The design needs to be backwards for the stamp to print the right way so I wrote it right way around on the wrong side and then flipped it over so I had a guide on where to lay down the glue.

So flipping it over you create the design using the glue gun to draw it. Where you draw will end up raised so the paint sticks to it and forms a stamp.

Now here’s the tricky part glue guns don’t tend to leave a uniform stream so some parts might be taller and bumpier that others. If it’s not even then your stamping will come out icky and patchy.

So the two options I thought of to prevent this was waiting for the glue to dry and then using a nail file to smooth it all out or putting plastic wrap over it while it’s still pliable and pressing into a flat surface. The second is harder to do because the glue dries quickly but it would provide a lot more even results and probably would be less effort than using a nail file like I did. If you’re going to do a lot of them then I would suggest taking time to get the design right.

Either way once you have your design finished paint over the top of the plastic.

And stamp it on to the paper.

Taadaa very childlike but a nice way to have something personal without taking a huge amount of time doing it. You could make it much more intricate or do something cute like your name. If you didn’t mind waiting for it to dry you could also use PVA glue for the design so it evened out and provided a completely smooth print image.

Cut out the paper into a card shape, fold in half and you’re finished. I like the stamp a bunch of these as thank you cards and then personalise each one with some mini drawings before I send them. I usually draw little faces in the hearts or O ^_^

So there’s one idea and more on the way. I’m pretty much making everyone’s presents this year so lots to share ^_^

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