Still here!

Sorry for the hiatus.  I just wanted to post something letting anyone who reads this know that I'm still alive and sorry for not posting anything in a while.  I've been pretty sick for a little while and now that I'm starting to feel better, I have a few things in mind for my next few posts.  Stay tuned!

Spreadshirt Blanket Coupon

Stencils

This is the first of what will probably be several, at least a few, handmade stencils... especially since this tutorial isn't going to be technically complete.  I'll explain at the end.  You'll see why.  What I will describe will work best for hard, non-porous surfaces like glass or ceramic tile.  You could use it for fabric, but freezer paper works much better for that... a post for another time.

This type of stencil is handmade from contact paper.  Which, if you don't know, is roughly similar to wall paper.  Major differences are that this is removable and it isn't used to cover walls.  Most people use it to line shelves and drawers.  It comes in a variety of colors and textures, including clear.  You could use a dark color for stencil-making so that it's easier to see against whatever it is you're stenciling on, but it requires an extra step or two.  I got clear for two reasons: one, it was one of the cheapest; and two, even though it has paper backing, you can still see mostly through it unpeeled, which makes for easy tracing.


The first step is to get the images you want to make a stencil out of.  This can be a lot trickier than it sounds if you have to make it yourself.  You can do a Google image search of the design you're looking for and add "stencil" to the parameters.  You will probably get a decent amount of pumpkin carving designs in the batch.  However, if you can't find what you're looking for, you might have to Photoshop a black and white version of whatever it is you're doing.  There's a lot that goes into that, steps and rules and whatnot.  This is a tutorial on someone else's site, on how to do just that. Too much to go into here. 

More Crochet Stuff

I went on a little hiatus from posting so I thought I'd put a couple quick somethings up to satisfy readers while I work on the next few projects.  I thought I'd start by sharing a couple of crochet projects I did last year.  

Pumpkin Amigurumi

The first is a little pumpkin I did before Halloween.  The pattern was actually a Jack-O-Lantern, but when I finished the main pumpkin (including the stem and leaf), I decided that I liked it the way it was.  My cat agreed.  She kept jumping on the shelf I had it on and knocking it down so she could play with it.  

Another thing I did before Halloween is a couple of baby bibs for my boss's new baby.  I got these patterns at Lion Brand Yarn, like most of my patterns, and there were a lot of characters to choose from.  I did the Jack-O-Lanterns because it was so close to Halloween and the froggie because, well, I like frogs and I thought it was cute.  Also available were a ducky, owl, piggy, and a whole slew of classic Halloween characters.  The frog required embroidering the mouth on and I had never been taught "proper embroidering technique" so I kinda just winged it.  I also added an extra round to the pupils but I don't really like the placement of the left eye.  Mine looks nothing like the picture on the pattern.  Looking at it now, it's a bit freaky looking... oh, well.  Still mostly cute.