Steampunk Hat hair clip

I made a surprise for my favorite Bunny. I hope she will honor me by wearing it to MobiCon. :) And if I am really good, she will send me a picture of her wearing it. hehe

I made this basic hat with this really cute free crochet pattern. I added a white band but wanted to dress it up. :) So I made this 5 min flower with this free pattern. On the inside, I added cardboard from an empty grits box and toilet paper roll and some polyfill to give the hat structure.

It was hard but I found a blue button that matched the color of the yarn. Blue is so varied that if it is too purple or too green, it just doesn't go well together. I also wanted to hint at Steampunk so I added this washer.

The flower is pinned on with a safety pin so she can move it where ever she likes. :)

I added 2 hair clips so that the hat doesn't wobble around. You can't see it because it is hidden by the black felt but I hot glued on a little card board to connect the two hair clips so that you can push them both open at the same time.

Materials:

Caron Simply Soft Yarn in Celestial, White, and Soft Blue

3.25mm Crochet hook

Lock Washer External Tooth SAE #410 

(couldn't read the size)

Cardboard and Toilet paper roll

I also tried to crochet this cute free rose pattern but it was too big.

Good Luck with the booth at MobiCon! I hope all the cute crafts made by my friends and me sell. :)

Saphira Dragon amigurumi

Saphira from the Eragon book series.

When my friend, Rachel, showed her mom my other dragon amigurumi, her mom immediately wanted one because she loves the dragon, Saphira. Of course, being a good daughter, Rachel, asked me to make one in time for Mother's Day. Here she is! :)

Yes, I am currently reading the last book in the series. :)

iPiccy is a free online photo editing site. It has a cool collage feature but I don't like how you can't shrink, enlarge, or rotate the pics within the collage feature. It is very frustrating. 

Materials:

Caron Simply Soft in Celestial

Crochet hook: 3.25mm

Safety eyes: 12mm

white felt

I don't like making the same thing over and over. There will probably be only one more amigurumi dragon from this pattern that I will make for a dragon baby that is coming soon. :) Each time I make something simliar, I like to change things to try to improve on the design or try something new.

This time I used this crochet wing pattern, sort of. I accidentally skipped row 2 so I went with the pattern of just hdc down the row then dec on the last two for each row. I still don't know how to actually crochet 2 hdc together but I winged it (no pun intended. :)). It gives a different look than the felt embroidered wings.

I also attached the arms and tail on before stuffing the body. It made it easier. You just have to know how the body will look after stuffing and position the appendages appropriately. After you stuff, your amigurumi can be shaped a little different.

Panda's Tip of the Day

Use dryer sheets to trap the pellets so they will not slip pass the crochet stitches.

I like the use of these poly pellets to weigh down your amigurumi a little so it can stand a little better but I fear these little balls of plastic might be squeezed out between the crochet stitches. So, I used some dryer sheets to make little pouches with a few simple running stitches. It works really well and I didn't have to go buy some cloth. As you can see in the last pic, that it really worked. :)

Earth Day 2012

So, I am back posting this because on Earth Day, something told me to take the day off from some tech by killing my laptop charger completely. :) After no touching the internet for 3 days, I finally bought a new one. :p I hope you guys had a great Earth Day and did something for future generations. Here is a link to 10 easy ways to be green. :)

http://www.earthday.org/

http://onevelvetmorning.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/6-earth-day-printables/

Bunny Spring Package

Here is the Spring Basket I just sent for my friend, Rachel. Since there are few goodies that I had no idea what was in it, here is a link to her blog post which shows all the goodies unwrapped. :)

Chinese Pineapple Cakes from a famous place in Taiwan

Amigurumi that will be sold at MobiCon. :)

I put them in a Dumpling togo box I had washed out.

Bed of fake grass on tissue paper in a clean Gladware container = Wrapping!

Goodies inside just for Rachel

The milk carton and Steampunk donut you've seen but here's a new guy, Chinese Egg tart. :) I also added some chocolate candies that my Aunt brought from Taiwan recently.

Wrapped with a bow. :) 

Bunny that poops candy! hehe

I peaked in the envelope and it's from 2008 O.o LOL The package with some of these things were thought to be lost but was just hiding in my garage amongst empty boxes. :p

Here's a sock change purse. I love these bc they are so cute! The box inside contained a real Jade bunny necklace that I bought for her from my trip to China. We went to a jade factory on the tour and I knew she would like it. :)

Unknowns until I saw what was in side from her blog. hehe The blue package is from my trip to Hawaii. It contained a bookmark I found in a cute little shop there and some candies and cookies. My friend just got stationed there so more chances to go back. :) The pink is from sanrio and it contains Sugarbunny stationary. And I think the purple has cute witch stationary I found in Little Tokyo here in Cali. The white envelope in front is not white but a pretty green color and contains my Easter card and some letters and a Target bunny gift card that I thought was really adorable. I use used gift cards as bookmarks. :)

I forgot to take a pic of the white fabric lined basket I put all this stuff in. I wrapped the basket in a purple cellophane bag. I also forgot to take a pic of all the reusable shopping bags that I sent her. You can see both on her blog post (the link is at the top of this post). :)

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!!!

My Felties

My friend, the wandering bunny, started making felties so, I wanted to try them. :)

My first feltie

I saw these cute felt bunny key chains and though I would experiment. I printed the pic out and cute out the shapes. Since, I am just starting, I am working out the best way through others. When I get good, then I will start making my own. :) Of course, I won't sell it because the design is not mine but she is really cute. I messed up on a couple of places so her home will be with me. :p

I think if I make another one, I am going to put a strong magnet inside so that it doesn't ruin the cuteness. And the eyes have been giving me trouble because it is hard to clip on the backs and so I have been tearing the felt a bit. I don't think you can tell unless you look very closely.

My first onigiri 

I used the free pattern from Tammy's Blog to make this onigiri. I flipped the seaweed from the top to the bottom.

Panda's Tip of the day:
I didn't have pink felt so I used actual blush from my makeup kit to "paint" on the cheeks and inside of the ears. Use what you have. :p

I also keep all the scraps and will use them to stuff other felties or amigurumi.

Last tip, I used the blunt end of my crochet hook or a chop stick to help get the stuffing in tight places like the ears on the rabbit or around the safety eyes. :)

Happy Mardi Gras!

Lazy day finish 1

So this is the first finish of my lazy day crochet UFOs (Un-finished objects). I made the first pair of hearts into earrings.

As I made the bottom embellishment, I thought they would be cute earrings on their own. So, I made those earrings too. :) I reused the wire from the wire ribbon I used to make the ribbon flowers. Yes, I am a crafter and so I keep just about everything. :P The wire was perfect, thin enough that it made it easier to wrap around the heart and string on the beads.

Sorry for the dirty glass. I used a vase that still had glitter in it from the ornaments that were in there during Xmas.

Have you started your Valentines Day jewelry making yet?