Lately I've been having trouble with my glue gun. You may have noticed how sticky it looks in some of my pictures... As I was standing in the craft aisle at Walmart, I decided there had to be another solution. After all, though my gun was thoroughly destroyed, I had only had it for a few months (what can I say, I am hard on my stuff). So I opted to try to clean my gun instead of buying another (mind you, I am talking about the cheapest version that they sell at Walmart). After some internet sleuthing, I found this tutorial from Instructables.com which shows IPA (rubbing alcohol) to be very useful in separating objects from the thugs to which they'd been glued. Using this method as a guide, I started by rubbing cold IPA on the outside of the tip, where the metal meets the plastic, to try and remove backed up glue. This did not really work in my situation (there was just too much glue!), although it did help me to remove some of the glue that was smeared on the table from previous projects. WARNING: the next steps attempted involve the use of heat, and tools to take apart the glue gun. It is likely that the following steps are not recommend by the manufacturer and they may void any warranties under which your equipment is covered. I then attempted to use the IPA while the gun was plugged in. Please see the above warning if you haven't already. I used a cotton swab to remove glue from the crevice between the plastic and the metal tip. As I was doing this, I noticed that glue was dripping out of some of the holes where the gun was screwed together. I turned the gun off and let it cool back down. I then grabbed a screwdriver from the garage and removed all of the screws from the device, taking it completely apart (actually it sort of sprang open and fell apart, but it sounds better if I say I took it apart-ah well, I guess the jig is up). Just don't forget to remove the electrical pieces. With the gun open, I was able to remove the most solid pieces of glue from the holder (there was a significant chunk in the rubber piece that sits between the metal tip and the plastic holder. I then soaked the pieces in IPA, to hopefully dissolve some glue. After an hour or so of no real progress with the soak, I decided to try to boil the metal pieces, since these were the culprit of the glue gun failure. I have to again point you to the above warning. I placed the metal tip in a pan with a decent amount of water and brought the whole thing to a boil. After a short while my progress was clear. I could see bubbles being released from both previously glue plugged ends. After boiling the metal for a little while, I took a bamboo stick and used a pair of prongs to remove the metal tip from the boiling water. I inserted the bamboo stick into the wide end of the plug and scraped any remaining glue from the inside of the tip. Since the tip was in boiling water, the glue is very pliant and easily removed. I let all of the pieces dry for about an hour before putting it back together. Luckily the gun has many notches and it is pretty easy to see how it all fits together. Once back together, I tested the gun---voila! It works perfectly (albeit still a bit dirty looking) and I saved my $6!
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Originally posted 02/15/13
I have been browsing lately, looking for a good tutorial for paper flowers. I see them everywhere and love them always. They are excellent on top of a simply wrapped package, beautiful paired on long stems in a vase, and elegant on a wreath. They dazzel in brilliant bright colors and understated ivories, with script or type-face telling secret messages, they can be tailored to interests--being made out of maps, or favorite photos. Best of all, they are easy peasy to make. I made these using a very nice template, (lovely prints!) from Ellinee.com but they can be made without a template easily enough.
Sketch (if you're the type) a "flower" shape, think simple to start, onto regular weighted printer paper. On the ellinee.com blog, you'll notice the petal layers (flower shapes that you drew) have v shaped cuts in them (see above). This helps you later on in getting the right shape from each differently sized layer. If you're not using one of ellinee's fabulous templates, cutting a V shaped slice out of your petal layer is good enough (don't bother with the "glue tab" appendage on the side of the V). You can later hot glue each half of the V into the cone shape.
Also, if you've bravely decided not to use the template (you should really try it!) it may be easier to cut out the desired shape in a heavy cardstock material and trace this onto the lightweight flower paper. Each layer should be slightly smaller than the next so as to allow them to nicely fit together. I recommend cutting many at once to save time. I think it looks very nice to curl the sides of the individual petals in each layer and it gives the effect of an opening flower. This can be done pretty easily using scissors--as long as you are careful not to shred your petals in the process (after doing this several times, I discovered that the rips can be rather easily repaired using hot glue). But do be careful to try and cut the glue strings, and hide these layers best as you can, because it is pretty obvious, (see if you can spot the tears in the finished product-it's like a game!)
After you have your shapes cut, you can fold them into little cones, or cups, which will be nestled like Russian dolls. I like to build my cups so that the petals curl underneath the cup, and folding allows you to see the shape of your petals before you secure them, thereby allowing time to trim any excess etc.
To make the center of the flower, cut out the shape of a single petal, you can make several of these to change the way the center of the flower looks. Curl the rounded edges of the petal to add dimension and roll it into a tube shape (you can use a pencil, or bamboo stick as a way to hold the shape). Glue the tube closed. I suggest cutting glue strings and trying to be relatively neat, but you'll see I've made even this messy center passable in the end...
With the center glued, add additional petals in a spiraling pattern. I suggest doing this loosely, unless you're going for a "closed" flower effect..this can be a little tricky so I recommend holding (or temporarily sticking) the petals in place so that you can look at the overall affect before gluing them in place.
Now let's return to the petal layers; secure the pre-folded cup shape with hot glue (be careful, or maybe buy the low temperature hot glue to spare your fingers...paper is very thin). After you've glued all of your petal layers into cups, stack them to visualize the end effect, make any edits to the design now before securing the layers. I trimmed a few petals, and glued a few I ripped while trying to increase the curl.
After you are happy with all the layers of your flower, secure them together with a dot of hot-glue in the center. Note that the glue doesn't dry immediately and adding too much will cause your layers to slide in and out of place, this is helpful if you want to adjust/rotate the layers, but can be a nusiance if you've set it to dry leaning on one side. I left these alone overnight to dry, since I am eapecially clumsy with drying (must be the millenial impatience), but they're likely dry in less than a half hour if you haven't splurged on glue.
If you'd like, you can add some leaves to your flower (I've cut some for this display but didn't bother attaching, you can see them at the top). They look nice peeking out from the large base, especially if you fold them with lovely dimples down the middle... In any case, you're done now! And that didn't take too long did it?
Updated: 3/12/13
I have been working on a LOT of these guys lately for some various projects, and along with applying for various part time jobs, have been lagging in my blogging...soo sorry to my random occasional (likely accidental) viewers (haha!). So in the delay, I've decided to share some more paper flowers! Get pumped! I made a few roses with the above template in different sizes and colors, but i really love the ivory ones on the left (get the pattern for free by ellinee.com). Unfortunately, these rosesgot squished in my messy crafting bin, so, after fluffing a bit...I have found a new place for them! I intend to use these guys in a wreath, maybe with some blue ribbon? Or some burlap?
Anyway...the little guys in the front are spiral roses, for which you can find a super simple tutorial on ellinee. I love their idea for sticking these to branches, and will be stealing it (thanks for sharing!) I have these annoying tumbleweed-esque brambles that continually blow against my house and are just begging to be torn up, sparkled, and thrown in a vase. So look forward to that happening in a post near you...as soon as I find one the dogs haven't peed on...(yucky) I used the above template to design a few of my own patterns and color arrangements. You can find free vintage sheet music printables over at Tip Junkie if you don't want to waste your sheet music. And I recommend mixing colors and patterns--I like the way that the blush and green look in the above flower.
I just had to share this technique I've discovered for making your own glitter and jewels using ingredients in your kitchen cabinet!
To make the blue glitter above I used sea salt and mixed in a few drops of blue food coloring. I then placed the salt on parchment paper on a baking tray and cooked at 350 for about 10 minutes...where in I discovered that the yellow, sugar based glitter had turned into ribbon candy and so, nervous, I took both sets out. The yellow was malleable while it was still hot, and so I bent it a bit and eventually, as it cooled, I broke it apart and stored it in a little tubby. After seeing these pop up on pintrest a few times, I decided they were just too cute to not try! So after a few days of collecting toilet paper rolls (sad to think it took little over a week), I was ready to give it a shot. For this craft, you will need some leftover paper towel and/or toilet paper rolls in addition to whatever you will be using to decorate your bunnies. I made a few of different sizes, in different colors, using tissue paper and construction paper to create polka dots (for the tallest bunny). I also used tissue paper to make the little bow ties for my bunnies and duckies. If I make more of these, I would consider using paint, or decoupaging with magazines or written words, which I think might look very nice.(Also a burlap bunny would be pretty cute--but I never seem to have any burlap) To begin, assemble the cardboard rolls to be used for your paper animals. You can cut paper rolls to make animals of different sizes. Since I did this both ways, I would recommend cutting before decorating (it's just easier when you have the forsight!). Once you have your cardboard for your animals, spray some adhesive onto the entire surface of your cardboard and roll it onto the tissue paper, completing covering the roll. You could probably use mod-podge if you don't have spray adhesive, but be careful, since tissue paper will not be able to be moved once placed ontop of the mod-podge (it may rip if you try to move it!). Alternatively, you could also place a few dots of hot glue onto the seam and wrap the tissue paper around, pressing into the glue seam to hold in place (just don't burn yourself!). Trim the ends of the tissue paper and tuck into the tube. Press the tucked paper into the cardboard, if you've sprayed the tube thoroughly, the paper will probably stick. If it does not, you can use some dots of hot glue to hold the paper in place. Now that your bunnies (or ducks etc) have their faux hair, cut the ears, feet, noses, eyes, whiskers, and wings (for the ducks!). You can use construction paper, cardboard or cardstock paper to make these details. I had some scraps leftover from my paper heart garland, so I used cardstock that had been sprayed and stuck to tissue paper, which gave my ears a fun, funky look, but I realized I wanted a bit more detail, so I sprayed adhesive and stuck a lighter piece of tissue to the ears. I recommend stacking paper to create matching pairs of ears, feet, etc. this helps ensure unique shapes are about the same size and look even. It also allows you to make more decorations, easier. As another time saver, (as mentioned above)I used a lot of scrap material for decoration, including for my noses, whiskers and feet. I suppose they might be cuter with shaped feet (big rabbit feet or webbed ones for the ducks) but I was feeling pretty lazy, and so scraps were soo good enough for these little guys. I did, as an afterthought, give them big bunny teeth and poofy tails that I made out of a bit of cheesecloth I had lying around. If you're really up for a challenge, try making your own pattern using cut up paper and hot glue. You can make polka dots, stripes, or decoupage written words or photos or something to add extra preaonalization. For this bunny, I stacked a few colors of tissue paper, folded it into a square and cut the square into a circle to make polka dots. I then got glued these to my tube. Be careful at this step, since its easy to burn yourself... I guess you could use mod-podge or regular craft glue to stick these (the spray adhesive would work nicely too), but where's the danger in that? Also, I like the way the paper sinks into the hot glue, making it look like buttons. After the tube is completely decorated and has dried, you can cover it in mod-podge to finish it, but know that you will need to let it dry before any other decoration can be added, and really it might make more sense to finish decorating (add ears, eyes etc) before sealing with mod-podge...which is of course not how I did it. Learn from my mistakes ye clumsy crafters... Add decoration to your animals using hot glue. Be careful not to burn yourself, and keep a pair of scissors handy to take care if your glue strings. Try not to overdo it, I constantly use too much glue and end up with a very whiskery end product...but I figure that you don't often pick up nick-knacks and so as long as they look good from the shelf, I am generally statisfied. I think that the animals look better with more detail so I suppose a little hot glue is the price we pay... Add as much detail as you have the energy to craft...my tolerance was pretty low when making these, oh well, they still look pretty cute...and I'm glad I added the tufts of hair to the ducks, I really think it adds something. Maybe next time they will get little tuxedos...I've also thought about making them little baskets to carry out of cardboard. So have fun with these little guys, they're easy to make and soo customizable. Plus you can use them as little containers for Easter candy, and who doesn't love that?!
For those of you who are a little rusty with their skills (like myself), I recommend checking out this post from Instructables, which gives lovely how-to tips and tutorials for using your sewing machine. The tutorial from Humblebee & Me says to use a zig-zag stitch to secure the fabric and lace together, if your machine does not have this setting, or if you forget to set your machine like I did for half of my scarf, you can use a regular stitch (so far mine has not fallen apart). With your edges sewn, you should now have a loop, which you can wind and wear as a scarf. You could probably stop here, or you could add a top-stitch to finish the edges. I attempted the top-stitch... let's just say it looks better on one side than the other. To create the top-stitch, I recommend checking out this blog post from the mother huddle. I attempted it and, after completing one side, realized I had done it backwards, but since it worked, I will share my clumsy mistakes. With a warning that, as usual, it could be a bit more polished... Anyway, to make the top-stitch, I folded the excess seam allowance on top of the t-shirt side of the scarf. Try to hide the rough edges of your scarf and any uneven stitching (if you can) to give it a finished look. Sew a straight line down the length of the seam allowance, holding it in place. Do this for each side and you're done! Now that you've finished with your topstitch, you're done! That's really all it takes to sew your own infinity scarf. Now for styling tips (which I admit to not having mastered) I recommend looking at this site I found on pintrest....and good luck!
The concept is easy enough, an instructer leads the class in painting by example. The company has a selection of paintings from which you can choose (either in a private party or by the night). Our class was a rare example where the instructer was new and hasn't actually done the painting, let alone teach it. We all made it through easily enough, she had a script to read and we diligently followed her instructions. The paintings and style of the class are designed to be done by a person of any skill level. Some steps were a little well...duh...for me and my oh-so-obviously-superior skills (is the sarcasm too drippy for you there?). For instance, one of the first steps for "whimsical fall" was to paint a yellow line, using your medium-sized brush, three-quarters of the way down the length of the canvas. The next step was to fill in the space below the painting with yellow paint, using short horizontal swipes of your brush. I finished these steps rather quickly and had a little too much time to drink wine, which made some of the later steps a little difficult, or sloppy, I should say. After the ground had been painted yellow (think filtered sunlight), we painted a blue sky above it and using the flat side of the brush, painted leaves in purple, red, orange, and even pink so that the colors blended and became lighter from left to right across the sky. (This step seemed to take forever---although maybe that was the wine). With the leaves in place, we all painted three long stripes which would become trees. I got pretty annoyed here and my trees ended up a little "halloweeny" as my friend Lauren proclaimed. The rest of the class was spent adding detail, in my case, this meant a bit of drunken water marks and smears to my as-good-as-it-was-gonna-get version of the painting. All in all, it was a terrific way to spend a girls night, and we got a better souvenir than the regular hang-over (although there was some of that as well haha!). I highly recommend this venture, for anyone considering---it would be a great bachelorette activity or for birthdays! And if you don't have something like this in your area, why not just grab some cheap supplies at michaels and host the party yourself? I suppose if you were investing-inclined, you could open your own franchise! Pinot's Pallet Portrait Library
https://www.pinotspalette.com/fortcollins/Painting-Library Pinot's Pallet Photo Gallery https://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer#albumlist/117693561176047603899 Mod-podge is one of the best tools in our crafting closet. It can be used to adhere and seal many different types of crafting projects. I used it to decoupage a fun collage for my little sister, too many photo frames to count, and even my floral placemats. Some thoughts for we clumsy crafters: Firstly, unfortunately mod-podge can be rather, well, sticky (go figure). So it's best to attempt to be careful while waiting for it to dry, and not do things like lay your wet craft on a dusty floor where your doggies can tramp all over it (not sure if you can see the hair stuck to the photo trio below) . It can also discolor fabric and thin paper as in the above frame, if you use too much of it.
Essentially, remember that a little goes a long way. Also, as in many crafts, patience can be a virtue--letting the first layer dry before attempting another coat will help prevent wrinkling, smearing ink and ripping paper. So venture forth and good luck ye clumsy crafter--
After acquiring the new used couch, and telling my dear mother all about it, she promptly went out and purchased a lovely, loosely woven blue fabric (you can see it nicely juxtaposed in the above picture) super cheap and sent it to me in a huge box. It actually cost more to ship than to buy. I think she bought about 14 yrds, which ended up being a little bit too much (but you can never really have enough fabric). Needless to say, the fabric sat in the box for a good week (or three) before I finally got around to doing something with it. At the time I didn't have a sewing machine, so I needed an easy way to handsew the whole reholpstery project. After some extensive googling, I ended up combining several techniques. I began with the cushions--which seemed easiest. I very bravely cut a large square of fabric and placed the cushion in the middle. I folded the fabric around the cushion and cut the excess, leaving a few inches (probably better to leave about 4 inches or more, it sucks to run out of seam allowance). Using a backstitch, I stitched up the sides of the cushion, starting from the L shaped end. When done, I had varying amounts of excess fabric leftover at the top of each cushion, so I folded the available fabric underneath the new cover and stitched them closed around the cushion. The last touch on the cushions was to to tuck the corner pockets into the new cover to make pleated ends. The overall effect was a handsewn border around the cushions (sort of like a box cushion) which is pretty close to what I was aiming for.
By the way, if you've never used a staple gun, a good tip is to try to embed the staple into the hardest surface of your project (the staples just fall out if not secured into place). Also, they make staples of different sizes, so don't be like me, and think about what you are doing and how thick the fabric and or wood is before you begin. Longer staples are more secure but may require hammering down (as mine did), while shorter ones sometimes are too small to penetrate through all the layers of cloth to get to the wood. Not all staples are compatable with all guns, so check before you purchase anything. Lastly, test your gun before using it in your project (it can be a huge pain to remove misplaced staples, which can cause issues with the fabric draping etc.---I recommend using plyers to remove these). To fix it, I simply added another, larger, piece of fabric below the curve of the arm and stapled it to the back of the couch as well as on the bottom of the couch (this arrangement allowed me to hide a bunch of sloppily placed staples)...it also looks pretty intentional--a plus for we clumsy crafters.
I will admit that my sewing was most definitely sub-par on this project. I recommend patiently making smaller stitches, which are easier to hide, and tying very secure knots at the beginning and end of the stitch, rather than my version of loose, large back-stitches and feeble knots. Also, next time I do this (probably again without bothering to measure as I should), I will make the covers smaller...too much fabric leads to a lot of tucking in--which can get tiresome. Alternatively, I might explore using dowels to keep tucked fabric in place, although I'm not sure that would work with this style couch. The last bit to be done was to cover the back of the couch. The original fabric was mostly missing, allowing full views of the the wooden frame beneath. I decided to cut the hanging piece of fabric and then cover over the whole back. I also needed to position the fabric to hide the messy stapling from the backrest cover.
Making stray marks into faux-design elements. This is a common issue of mine, probably because I am constantly painting outside of the lines (when I bother to draw them). For someone such as myself, who is completely lacking in precision, this is a crucial "faking it" skill; a must have in the crafting world. You can see in the above image, I have chosen to "make it snow" on my peacock. Overall the card ended up looking nice enough, my key phrase, though several elements were unintentionally improvised. The snowing polka-dots began when my hand shook, causing some detail I was adding to Mr. Peacock to drip across the page. After carefully drawing little circles around each drip, I added a few intentional silver drips to complement my snowy background...and voila--! Except that I never can stop embellishing once I've begun, and so I started to outline the snowflakes I had painted. while detailing, I smeared ink and had to improvise a little--the result of which is the extra "crystalline" structure on my snowflakes---perhaps not ideal, but better than wasting the whole card for some minor drips and smears! As some of you may know, glitter paint can be very thin (good for top coats) and doesn't always give a good polka-dot effect, which was the intention for this christmas card (above)...so while trying to blob an esecially large glop of paint, I mis-fired and ended up with way too much--so I smeared it into a strip with my paint brush and outlined the stems of the feathers in glitter. Annoyingly, my peacock friend didn't seem snowy enough, so I decided to go for it, and added more glitter paint until it looked sufficiently blizardous--he got a little snowed in, but all in all I think it looks pretty good for beig unintentional, the theme here being: overdesign and save your mistakes--no need to give up and throw it out!
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