Random Awesome: Batman gloves

This is for any fans of the old-school, live-action Batman TV series.  I found these nifty fingerless gloves on Geek Crafts.  It's actually a knitting pattern, for any knitters out there, on Ravelry.com.  I, personally, don't knit; but they're fun, nonetheless.

Homemade Moisturizing Soap

There are countless variations and recipes for making your own soap.  There are also more than plenty tutorials online that will take you through the process.  I see no reason to spend the time adding one more to the masses.  Do a Google search for "soap making tutorial" and you'll see what I mean.  I will however show a batch I made recently and give a few points to consider before diving in yourself. 

I have very dry skin and live in a cold, dry area; so, I decided to make a batch that was as moisturizing as possible.  I took a recipe that apparently got good reviews (called Sherry's Fantastic Soap) and adjusted it to include even more moisturizing ingredients like olive oil, cocoa and shea butters, castor oil, and jojoba oil.  (I call it my Fantastic Variation) I also reduced the size of the batch, also.  This is actually considered a fairly small batch at only 2.25 pounds, or 36 ounces, whichever you prefer. 

Travel Tissue Case

I've done a couple of crafts in the past few weeks and like an idiot forgot about taking pics until I was finished.  That's okay, because it's pretty easy to get tutorials and all the info you need to do them online.  The first is basically a little pouch to carry a pack of travel tissues in.  For those of you who carry them around, you know how beat up the plastic packaging and tissues themselves can get.  

This is a pretty simple project, whether you're an avid sewer or not.  I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like setting up my sewing machine for something so quick and small, so I did it by hand.  Each line I sewed, I double backed on, eliminating gaps, to give the stitching a more even, professional look.  Even doing, essentially, twice the amount of stitching, and ironing (very important step!), sewing up a strip of fabric instead of using ribbon, and including an interfacing layer, it took me less than an hour.  With a machine, it'll probably take 5-10 minutes.  

You can simply Google something similar to "tissue case pattern" and get half a dozen patterns or tutorials on cases like this or other variations.  The one I based mine on came from here.


Links:
http://verypurpleperson.com/2010/02/tissue-case-tutorial.html

Random Awesome: Doctor Who

I found this YouTube video that made me smile.  If you're a Doctor Who fan, especially of the 10th Doctor, you might like this.  Watch all the way through, there are some good bits in the middle.

http://youtu.be/3s4Czla6tXc
 

Random Awesome: Wonder Woman Apron

I found this apron on one of my favorite sites and thought it was awesome enough to share.  It's perfect for cooking or craft projects.  

http://www.thinkgeek.com/clearance/on-sale/e9e3/ 

Etched Tile Coasters

So, this is a pretty simple project.  You can do pretty much any design you want, as long as your stencil completely seals to the tile.  I used the Star Trek stencils I made for the post about "contact paper" stencils a couple of posts back.  You can also buy "peel and stick" stencils at craft stores like Michael's that are intended to be used for things like glass etching cream, which is what we'll be using here.  


You'll need dark colored ceramic tiles (available at Home Depot type stores), glass etching cream (available at Michael's type stores), appropriate stencils, cork sheeting, strong bonding glue, scissors, and a plastic spreader (not metal or glass) for the cream (I used a plastic, disposable knife).  


This is shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming.  The longest part for me was actually finishing the stencils, as I couldn't cut the inside parts out until I was ready to use them.


First, lay out your stencil on the tile before peeling the backing off, to get an idea of placement.  You don't want to be lifting and replacing it, getting fingerprints all over the adhesive, weakening the seal, etc.  Once you like how it'll look, peel the back, stick it on in the appropriate location, and press.  You'll want to do an extra rub down around the edges where we'll be placing the cream.  It's very easy for it to seep under the edge and ruin the look of the image.

Homemade Poptarts

Getting ready for work, I don't always have time to eat a proper breakfast.  I usually find myself with a glass of juice, an Eggo, and a pop-tart in front of the bathroom mirror while I'm getting ready.  While I pride myself in enjoying the whole wheat frozen waffle, pop-tarts are not exactly high on the healthy-meter, nor the scrumptious factor.  I decided not too long ago, that that needed to change.  My two options were that I could scour the local health food store for a slightly "better for you" option that probably tasted like cardboard (not that the name brand version doesn't) and cost three times as much or make it myself.  I realize that the second option isn't necessarily healthier (most of us know all about pastry crusts), however, making it oneself does ensure that you know what all the ingredients are and can pronounce them.  This is the option I chose the other day.  Unfortunately, I didn't think about taking pictures and posting them until I was done.  So I have a couple finished products, the recipes I used, and some tips/hints I learned as I went.

I combined a few different recipes.  Most of the ones I found were relatively the same.  I also used three different fillings.  The first is a fresh fruit filling I found with this recipe, using real strawberries.  I recommend trying this; it's really good!  It's also one of the very few that called for real fruit, not jam.  Another aspect of this recipe that I used was the colored frosting and sprinkles.  I wasn't going to dye the frosting or use sprinkles, but I saw them in the spice drawer while looking for vanilla and thought that I'm only young once and life's too short not to have fun baking.  Who says I can't be a kid again?  I am making pop-tarts, after all.