Monday, January 28, 2013

Recycled Dreamcatcher Tutorial

I'm back with another recycled project and tutorial in one.






How about a dreamcatcher?







The only money spent on this project was for the glue, and even then I already had that on hand from last school year. 

For materials, I used bakers twine that I won last year from Melissa at Handwork Chronicles.  You can visit her etsy shop here.  You can read about my win here.  I also used a ring from a mayonnaise jar and an old birthday card envelope.





For basic supplies, all you'll need is a pair of scissors and glue.  I also used a rotary cutter, mat, box cutter, a very large blunt needle, tweezers, and because I got impatient, a paper shredder.  Whatever works for you is fine.

I started by opening the flaps on the envelope.  Using the rotary cutter, I cut one flap off and laid it aside.  This will be used for the feathers.







Normally, I would have just used the rotary cutter and cut about 3 or 4 strips from the envelope, but as I already said, I got impatient and used my handy dandy shredder.  Oh well, I now have plenty ready for a future quilling project.





If you look closely at the ring, it is kinda split into two connected rings with the inner one being a little slanted toward the inside.







Using my box cutter, I cut the rings apart.









This gave me two rings.  The one on the right is the slanted one.  I just discard it. 








I then wrap one of the strips around the flat ring.  No glue needed at this point.  The wrapping will hold the strip in place.







I continue wrapping all the way around.  It took three strips.  When completed wrapping, I glued the end down.  It kinda looks like silk ribbon, doesn't it?






Now, using the twine, I measured three times around the ring and cut for length.  This will be used for the inside web. 







I took the twine and tied it onto the ring, leaving about a 4 or 5 inch tail.








Run the twine under the ring, then over the ring, then under the twine.








It should look like this.








Move the loop back or forth to where you actually want it to be, then hold the twine tight to keep it from moving.  You can actually put the loop anywhere you want.  Closer to the left will give you more loops, and the right will be less.  With a little practice, you'll be able to judge where you want it.




Continue making loops all the way around the ring.








When you get back to the beginning, just continue looping onto the tight part of the twine, as you can see in the photo.







It just occurred to me that I am left-handed.  You may have to reverse these instructions.







I stopped at this point to make the bead.  A dreamcatcher is nothing without it's bead!







I took a strip and cut it down the center to make it thinner.








Using my needle, I rolled the strip and glued it down.  This needle is my favorite tool in the world!  It's what I use for my quilling.  You can just use a toothpick, or anything small.  Just be sure that it leaves a hole big enough to thread the twine through.





Once you thread the bead on it is time to end the web.  You can just tie it off and cut the excess twine off very close.  What I do to make it look a little more uniform is weave it back up to the beginning point.






I give it a loop at this joint.








It then looks like this.  I continue up and tie it off at the beginning tie.  I then cut the twine the same length as the beginning tail.  Then I tie both tails together to become the hanger.





For the length of twine for hanging the feathers, I circle the ring one time and cut.  For feathers, I use the envelope flap that I had laid aside.  I didn't measure, just cut the shape of two feathers.  Then clipped all along both sides to kinda feather it up.





I ruffled the feathers up a little so you can see what I mean.  Sorry about such a bad picture.  It was supposed to look better than this.







I folded the feathers longwise to get a line down the middle, glued the twine down the back of the feathers and then tied it onto the bottom of the dreamcatcher.






Finished and hanging.











So, what do ya think?  Recycling at it's best!

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Nano Nano



Welcome to the My Favorite Martian blog hop, hosted by The Geek Twins, Just a Dash of Geek, L.K. Hill and Comic Book and Movie Reviews.  I hope you're enjoying the hop so far.  You should have landed here from Jeremy's site at Jeremybatesbooks.com.  If you are one of my regular followers, you can back up to the first blog in the hop by going to Maurice Mitchell.  And if not, I hope you like my site enough to follow.  Just check my sidebar for your favorite way to follow.

Who is my favorite martian/alien?  Well, that's not so easy to narrow down.  I mean, I love watching most any alien show.  I guess if I had to choose, these would make my list:

First, there's Marvin.
Marvin The Martian
Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian is from Looney Tunes in case you didn't know.  I mean, he's been around like forever.



Then maybe Zoot.
Zoot.jpg
Zoot

Uncle Martin's spacesuit from the remake of My Favorite Martian.


And who can forget ALF.   
ALF
ALF
This series ran from 1986 to 1990,  about a furry, obnoxious creature who crashed into the Tanner family's garage.  They affectionately called him Alf (for alien life form).


Then there's Blarp.
Blarp (Lost in Space) image
 Blarp











The little monkey-like creature from the Lost in Space remake.  He was too cute to not like.


I gotta include Thor.

Thor.jpg
 Thor









Thor was the Supreme Commander of the Asgard who sometimes helped Jack O'Neal and SG1 on Stargate.  Of the series (trilogy?), loved Stargate, liked Atlantis, tolerated Universe.  Just my opinion. 

But my all-time favorite alien would have to be..........drumroll please.........



Mork
Mork and Mindy













Mork and Mindy was a spinoff from Happy Days, and was on ABC from 1978 to 1982.  Oh yeah, I was around back then.  And before.  I'm ancient.

Mork was sent from the planet Ork to study the crazy customs of Earthlings.  His spaceship was an egg.  He was taken in by Mindy and lived in her attic.  Mork was played by Robin Williams.  This was his breakout roll.  It's really hard to explain all his crazy antics and mannerisms on this show.  He mastered one liners and his energy was so intoxicating.  The energizer bunny would come in a far second compared to him.

Every week, Mork would end the show by mentally reporting to Orson, the Orkan leader, what he had learned from the Earthlings.  He would then sign off with "Nano, Nano", which meant goodbye in Orkan.

On second thought, I just hafta mention the following as likes too:

Star Wars' R2D2, C3PO, Chewbacca (Chewy), Yoda, the Ewoks; Gremlins' Gizmo and Stripe; and Men in Black II's Frank.

Didn't notice before now, but it looks like I have a theme.  HUMOR.  I guess that is why I love these aliens!  I do love belly laughs, especially when shared.  I truly believe laughter keeps us young and allows us to grow old.  Look at me, I'm proof of that.  I'm ancient, remember?

I hope you liked my alien favs and I can't wait to see how many of them get mentioned in anyone elses' post in the blog hop. 

Next hop up is Morgan at Morgankatz505.blogspot.com

Til next time, this is Julie signing off saying thanks for letting me share my memories.  Oh... and Nano, Nano!


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Sunday, January 13, 2013

January Blogaholic Blog Hop

Welcome to this months community blog hop: "Tis The Season"

The one and only rule: You must be a member of BSN. If you are not a member you can join here for free.

This month there are no guidelines for posts you link up BUT if you do have a New Years/ resolutions post to link up feel free!

Once you add your blog- stop by a few other blogs on the list to follow and leave a comment, let them know you are stopping by from BSN so they know you are a new friend and can connect with you on the community as well!

Feel free to Tweet about the linkup, post it on Facebook, or even grab the code for your blog (the code is located below the linky list) a great way to fill up a post for a day ;) If you add it to your blog please copy the full post so others know the rules.

If you don't want to grab the full post and linky code feel free to grab a blog hop badge!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Was 2012 A Lucky One?

2013!!!  Another year older, another year wiser.  I know I'm older, I don't know about wiser.  I'd like to think so. 

Are you lucky?  By that I mean do you win things often?  Do you win at all?  I'm usually closer to the unlucky side of the scale.  One of my sons however is very lucky.  He used to win stuff all the time.  It started when he was, oh I don't know, about 7 or 8.  He won a bicycle from Wendy's.  That's the biggest prize he has won, the rest have been small nicknack things.

Well, last year was a good year for me to be lucky.  In the middle of my blog surfing, I was finding so many things to enter to win.  Don't get me wrong.  I lost most of the time, but I won way more than I ever expected to win.  I thought I would show you some of my prizes.  I wish I had taken pictures as I received each item, but I didn't realize that I might do a post about it. Duh, stoopy me. 


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$10.00 to spend at Paper and Present Etsy Shop from Melissa at Handwork Chronicles.  I posted about it here.  I chose the pink twine and large manila gift tags.


240 yards PEPPERMINT Divine Twine bakers twine, red white and pink   25 large MANILA gift tags, 2 3/8 x 4 3/4 inches, shipping tag


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A handmade broach from Melanie of Bear Rabbit Bear and a $10.00 Michael's gift card from Heather of Cupcake Love Affair. I purchased a circle punch and jewelry making supplies with the card.


Very pretty!


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A $10.00 gift certificate from Honey of Honeys Quilling, to be used at her etsy shop, Honey's Hive.  I chose a pair of  Purple Rose Cabochon Earrings.  They were on sale at half price...lucky me!  And just in time to give them to my daughter for her birthday.  She loved them.


Red Rose Earrings Handmade by Paper Quilling   I couldn't find a picture of the purple ones.



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A $50.00 credit to be used at Wholeport.  You can read about it on their blog here.  I chose 5 yards total of Chiffon and Satin fabrics in purple, blue and burgandy colors, a paper craft tool set, and a 3 pack mini plier set.


         



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A theme party ebook from Party Craft Secrets, hosted by Ann of  All Things Paper.  It included a companion printout package.  You can read about it here.


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A 2 pack of Washi Tape from Make and Craft. This was for a launch party forum daily giveaway. I could not find the chat string so I guess it has been taken off by now. They were getting ready to launch their new magazine.


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A book from Amanda of AmandaAddison.com titled Dressmaking, 200 Questions.  This was also during the Make and Craft launch and blog tour.




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Two cardmaking sets from Make and Craft, although I never received them.  But I did win them, so they count:)



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A handmade apron from 3 Partners in Shopping.



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A handmade miniature house from Jane at A Creative Dream.  You can read about it on my post here


Give away alert !









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So there you have it.  Count em, 10 wins.  Was 2012 a lucky one for me?  That's a big, fat yes!  And this just goes to show that the odds are good to win on blogs.  Try it for yourself.


What about you?  Did you win anything last year?



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