Betty the Bear Stuffed Plushie Doll from Spoonflower - The Costume Collection

Everyone loves playing dress up, including Betty, who loves to dress up as her favorite animal - a bear.  Betty is dressed up as a dark grey bear with purple accents and is ready to be brought to life by a loving friend. 
Betty the Bear is a great beginner project for both adults and kids that can be sewn either on a sewing machine or by hand. 

Make your own Betty from StargazunDesigns on Spoonflower or purchase a pre-made one from StargazunDesigns on Etsy.

Green Colorized Mold SEM Image

Click HERE to vote for my design! (username = StargazunDesigns, picture is the one below, right)


I've been eyeing Spoonflower.com for a while now waiting to figure out what I want to create for my first fabric.  A couple of days ago I noticed that the weekly contest for this week was Microorganisms.  My husband just started his own SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) rental business so I figured this was a sign to get myself in gear and try to lay out my first fabric.  After going through a number of my husbands pictures I decided on trying to use this image he took with his new microscope as my inspiration.  We've gotten images of a number of different types of mold but I thought this one was particularly interesting (and I also think the spores look like little coffee beans).  The images are all taken in greyscale and I added in additional color with Photoshop.  To make this image into a step an repeat I cut out individual spores in Photoshop, created vector images out of each in Illustrator and kept adding and arranging them until I had a pattern.  I found that I felt like my Illustrator images were coming out as desired but when I uploaded the files to Spoonflower I had trouble getting the colors/design to look the same.  In my first attempt, the "mold beans" somehow became neon green when uploaded to Spoonflower. I also felt like a lot of the detail in the original image was lost too. I created a TIF as my first file format so the conversion from a vector image should have already happened before it was uploaded. (Left = TIF, Right = After Upload)

I had tried a number of different exports (formats and settings) and eventually found that the least amount of change happened when I darkened the image a bit (which I think is really what helped it) and exported as a jpg file. Its still not as good as my original but much better.  (Left = JPG, Right = After Upload)

Cross Stitch Wooden Blank Necklace and Brooch - Mollie Makes Free Gift

Issue 51 of Mollie Makes came with one of the best free gifts that 

Crochet Cherry Motif From Mollie Makes Issue 43

I was looking for an easy project to work on last night so I went through my assortment of Mollie Makes free projects.   Issue 43 included this project from Next To Nicx which fit the bill.

Handmade Aqua Nightstands

This weekend marks the 7th anniversary of the day we bought our house!  We looked for a long long time trying to find nightstands that we liked that matched our bedroom furniture, and eventually my husband decided he would make his own.  Between working full time, doing housework and starting his own business it took him about a year to make them, but it was worth the wait! 

We found the direction on Ana White's blog and found hardware to match the furniture we already had.  As you can see in the first picture, our dressers are an off-white color (almost a light yellow) that are a very hard shade to match so we decided to go with a coordinating color.  The color's a bit off in both of the pictures- theyre actually a light aqua color.

Crayon Heart Valentines Tutorial

My sister, who teaches first grade, came over last week to have me help her make Valentines for her students. She had picked up some small Valentines Day themed pads of paper and she wanted to make multi colored crayons to go with them. I happened (because I'm a crafty hoarder lol) to have a silicon heart chocolate mold sitting around the she used to make her crayons. They're easy to make and they are the perfect way to reincarnate old broken crayons into something awesome!

Crayon Valentines Hearts

Supplies Needed:

* Old Crayons

* Silicon Heart Mold

* Cookie Tray (for stability when taking mold in/out of the oven)

* Oven

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 230 degrees.

2. Cut up old crayon into small bits.  If you are making these with kids, they can break them into small pieces with their hands. 

3. Put an assortment of colors into each heart mold. 

4. Place the silicon mold onto a cookie tray for stability putting the mold in and taking it out of the oven. Put the mold into the oven for 15 mins.

5. Take the mold out of the oven and let the mold sit for 10 mins. 

6.  Stick the mold into the fridge for a couple of minutes and the crayons will pop right out!

7. Enjoy!!

SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) Photoshop Colorized Mold Images

My husband just launched his own Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) rental business a couple of months ago. He works at his full time job with SEMs and so I've been exposed to some of the images before but anything he took was technically owned by his company. 

His new microscope takes black and white images up to 45,000 times zoomed in by shooting electrons at the sample.  It also can tell you what elements the sample is made of by collecting X-rays.

To tell the truth the whole process baffles me but what I do know is that the pictures are absolutely fascinating blank canvases.  I took some of the more interesting ones and learned how to artificially color them in Photoshop. Here are some of the pictures of typical food mold that I've colored.

  

 

Peacock Inspired Ombre Subtle Manic Panic Blue and Purple Dyed Hair

With 30 right around the corner (RIGHT around the corner) I have found myself reflecting back on how I've changed through the years.  Its almost been 13 years since I was in high school!  That is absolutely mind-boggling since in a lot of ways I feel very much the same.  My interests and hobbies haven't changed very much and with many I doubt that they ever will.  In fact, many things I enjoy today I've enjoyed since way before high school.  This past Halloween I found some awesome pins of people with funky colored hair and fell back in love.  In high school/college I would periodically dye my hair red, blue and purple with Xtreme Effects semi-permanent hair dye.  I have fairly dark brown hair and I loved how the "weird" hair colors over my natural hair produced a subtle but noticeable change.  My friend Kelly recently came into work with the ends of her highlighted hair dip dyed in a purple/pink color and it was a great reminder of how much I loved dying my hair.  I originally got only "Purple Haze" purple dye from Manic Panic. I loved the color but  I found it didn't really last too long and it was super subtle- only noticeable in sunlight.  I went back again and got "After Midnight" blue Manic Panic dye and was a little disappointed with the results - I guess in the front of my head my hair was a bit lighter and while the dye was dark blue, it came out teal when my hair was lighter.  I over dyed the blue tips with the purple (I still have tons left of both) and it came out awesome.  It only lasted about a week and a half but I will most definitely be doing it again.

Vintage Bright Colored Glasbake Mugs With Matching Vintage Pyrex Bowls

Moss Terrarium With Mini Mushrooms In Oranges, Ferns And Clovers

Ratatat - Loud Pipes - I am loving this song right now

Moss Terrarium With Planty Aliens

My friend Kelly went to a craft fair a couple of weeks ago and bought a moss terrarium with very cute mini clovers.  After looking in her yard and realizing she had the same clovers growing all over the place,  she's probably made 20-30 of her own.  This one that she made for me resides on my desk at work.  The little planty looking aliens are my addition.

Handmade Flannel Baby Burp Cloths With Cute Giraffes

We've had a lot of friends and family having babies recently, so I have been looking for different things I can make and add to a gift.  While sitting at a baby shower recently, a family member mentioned that she couldn't have had enough burp cloths when her kid was a baby, so for the latest shower I went to, I made some with some cute giraffe fabric I had in my stash.  

Purple Clematis From My Yard

 When we bought our house, the front walk had a trellis with purple clematis growing on it.  Since it does so well, we've not only split the vines but have also added other clematis to the yard.  The flowers are so pretty I had to cut a few and take them inside to enjoy.

Dr Rupple Clematis From My Garden

Rhinestone Cup Wrapped Bracelet and Round Braided Teal and Blue Bracelets

Pink Satin Singed Flower and Purple Crystal Pin

Black Satin Metal Snap Top Frame Purse With Pink Lining

Black satin snap top metal frame clutch I made for my sister in law's birthday (not the best angle of the bag).

A better angle of the bag- photo taken with the flash on.

I had leftover scraps of my bridesmaids dress for her wedding that I used to make a flower pin for the outside of the bag. The scraps weren't big enough to line the interior of the bag, but I was able to find fabric to match. 

Off White Silver Metal Snap Frame Wedding Clutch Purse With Singed Flower Pins

I've been wanting to make a metal frame top purse for a while since I love the clean finished look but it always was intimidating to me.  My sister was in her good friends wedding this weekend, so I figured helping her make a bag for her friend and having a deadline would force me to finally learn how to do it. I did a trial run with some black satin scraps I had hanging around, and it was much easier than I thought (which is good since I bought my metal purse frame in a lot of 5 from Upstyle on etsy).  I've been making bags with zippers now for a while and this process is much easier and the sewing is much faster.


 

To make the bag I sort of followed Dear Stella Design's tutorial with some modifications.  I made both of the flowers as pins, so either one (or neither) could be used.  The purple was the fabric I used for the lining, and it was also the same color as the fabric of the bridesmaids dresses.  I had never made singed flowers before (never really even heard of it until I was looking on pinterest for something to add to the bag) and that ended up being fairly easy too.  I made the off white one with a tutorial from Just Between Friends and the purple one loosely from Think Bowtique's tutorial.

I luckily had some heavy duty glue on hand from a bead embroidery project I was working on to attach the frame to the fabric.  Getting that just right is probably the hardest part of making the bag.
My sister originally wanted the bag to not sit much below the bottom of the frame, but I think if I did that, it wouldn't hold much.  
Now that I have a pattern I drafted and know what to do I'm excited about making a bunch for myself!

4 Strand Round Braided Bracelets in Shades of Pink