2015 Resolutions

Hello! Happy 2015 everyone! I'm going to write a short post about what my 2015 resolutions are going to be. Hopefully, I can stick to these or actually accomplish them by the end of this year!

1. Exercise consistently - I have a terrible habit of exercising for about 2-3 weeks and then quit for months. After feeling bad about myself, I pick it back up and then quit again. You know the endless cycle. This year, I want to exercise at least 3 times a week and just keep it up! I've actually be working out for 12 days straight since December 23 (only took a break on Christmas Day) so I can look good for my cosplays for PAX South on January 23-25th!

2. Finish projects/cosplays I start - Yes, I am a procrastinator. I admit it. I love to start projects, but I never finish them. This year, I REALLY want to try hard and get the top priority projects and cosplays done!

3. Blog more often - This blog has had ups and downs of activity and inactivity. I need to keep it going and keep it interesting while trying to build up my audience.

4. Draw more - Art is the one thing that got me started in the creative world. I haven't drawn consistently since 2006 so it's about time I pick it back up.

Well, that's all my 2015 resolutions! They're bound to change or I may come up with even more along the way. What's y'alls resolutions for the new year? Feel free to share in the comments below! Thanks for reading! :)

I'm published! - CraftFail Book

Good news, everyone! I forgot to mention this, but I have been published!

Well, actually, one of my craft fails has been published in this new book: CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong by Heather Mann (creator of Dollar Store Crafts). So, if anyone ever wants to write an essay or research paper on craft fails, I technically can be cited as a source! So exciting! 

I was contacted by Heather in early July of this year and told me she was interested in putting my DIY Translucent Faux Pumpkin [Part 1] post in her upcoming CraftFail book. 

Of course, I agreed and here it is in all its glory!

My original post did end up as a craft fail, but it was salvaged in DIY Translucent Faux Pumpkin [Part 2]! 

The rest of the book is filled with other craft fails from craftsters around the internet. It is HILARIOUS. Seriously. I laughed till I cried!

If you're interested in purchasing this book for your own enjoyment, here's the link: 

CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong

Disclaimer: I have not been paid or sponsored to write this post. I also do NOT receive any profit from the sale or promotion of this book. All opinions are my own.

Hunger Games Mockingjay T-Shirt [Free Stencil Design Download]

My husband and I went with our friends to see the Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 movie last night! It was SO AWESOME. I got to fangirl it all out and wear my custom painted Mockingjay shirt!

Long long ago (2 1/2 years ago), I began making a Hunger Games fan t-shirt. I drew up a design and made it into a stencil to be painted on the back of the shirt.

Well, I DID manage to finish painting the back design, but due to life and circumstances, I completely forgot about this shirt until I found it in my "never-to-be-finished-crafts" pile a week ago. Realizing that the next-to-last Hunger Games movie was about to come out, I figured it was about damn time I finished this shirt. So, I pulled up Photoshop and made a design for the front of the shirt. I had this design (minus Smaug the dragon) kicking around in a sketchbook for a year or so.

I printed out the design on 8x11.5 printer paper and traced it onto some freezer paper and then cut out the design with an X-acto knife. I kept the middle parts of the "O" and "D's" and "R's".

Then, I ironed the stencil onto the shirt and painted numerous layers of metallic gold acrylic paint. Of course, the paint leaked under the stencil because I am impatient and can't wait for layers to dry, but thanks to a black fabric pen, it covered up the mistakes nicely.

And there you have it, folks. The finished product:

Front of shirt

Back of shirt

I didn't get any photos of me wearing it because the lighting in my house was atrocious. I did get to finally wear my mockingjay pin with the shirt though. Now, I just need to iron it to set the paint and actually wash it.

If you would like to make your own version of this shirt, you can download the FRONT design here:

[FREE STENCIL DOWNLOAD]

Just remember to "Print Actual Size" so that the text is true to size. What about the back design? Sorry, I don't have that stencil any longer. :(

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed this post. :)

New Jewelry!

I have been slacking at posting..... very badly. I apologize. I would say that I've been busy, but that hasn't really been the case. Fiberluxe and I have signed up to share a booth to be vendors at the Starkville Holiday Bazaar in November so I've been making lots of jewelry. If you saw one of my older posts, you'll probably remember I was working on some swag for my husband's fans.

But I finally finished them! 

Woaaaah...... Double Runboooowww

I'm so excited, you guys! My husband, a bunch of friends, and I are going to be participating in The Color Run in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this Saturday, October 6th! Proceeds from the race will go to funding school libraries affected by the last year's tornadoes which is run by Read Bama Read.

The fun thing is that you get to form teams in The Color Run. Our team is called "The Double Runbows" which is a spin-off of The Double Rainbow video that I hope everyone has seen. If you haven't, go watch it now or I will criticize you for living under a rock. Here, I'll even embed the video into my blog so you can watch it.

Current Works In Progress

I apologize for the lack of posts over the past several days. I was sick for a few days and it's been raining so I holed myself up in my craft room and crafted away.

One of the reasons for the sudden influx of crafting is that Ashlei of Fiberluxe and I are going to be selling at our local Holiday Bazaar (this is last year's article) at the end of November! We'll be sharing a booth and selling our jewelry! I can't wait! :D

Here are a few photos of my in-progress works and how my desk looks when I go into crafting mode.

Crazy, isn't it? That's only a portion of my desk too. The other half is always messy so it doesn't count as crafting.

Short post for today! Busy busy! Gotta go back to crafting! Before I go, here was the outfit I wore today! Isn't it so fall appropriate? I made the hi-low skirt myself! :)

Converse white button-up - thrifted
Tan leather braided belt - Dirt Cheap
Floral print hi-low skirt - handsewn
Brown espadrille wedges - Dirt Cheap
Copper Native American cuff bracelet - vintage

Thanks for reading! Have a great night!

DIY Translucent Faux Pumpkin [Part 2]

I have managed to fix this pumpkin! Hooray!!! You may need to read Part 1 of my adventure so you can understand what's going on. After much contemplating and scouring my house for supplies, I managed to come up with a solution to fix my almost craft fail.

I've photographed the rest of my project so you guys can see what I did. I suppose it's like a ghetto tutorial. 

Anywho, here's the result!

DIY Translucent Faux Pumpkin [Part 1]

The autumn themed crafts continue! This is supposed to be the last project to be posted, but it's taken me forever to get done and I found another project to make after this one! It's been quite a hassle to work with and I ran (and currently still running) into a lot of pitfalls. As with most of my craft projects, I usually fly by the seat of my pants and hope for the best. In the process of imminent fails and shaky recoveries, I learned a lot!

This post will be in two parts since I technically haven't finished it. It's not really a tutorial per-say.... more of a step-by-step photo documentary of the process and its trial and errors.

I was originally inspired by Martha Stewart's translucent pumpkins tutorial that I pinned on my Pinterest board. Martha used real pumpkins, of course. I have only carved one real pumpkin ever in my life and it was a mess and a half. I decided to try a faux pumpkin instead. (No seeds!) I bought mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon which came out to be about $25. It's the Funkins brand, which is pricier, but higher quality and more realistic looking than other faux pumpkins. I figured it would be a long term investment.

DIY Dryer Hose Pumpkins

The autumn themed crafts continue! I did not make my own tutorial for this post, but I will provide links to the two blogs where I found the tutorials. The good thing is that these are pretty cheap and quick to make! I made 2 pumpkins from 5 feet (4 inch diameter) of dryer hose and it cost about $7 total for the hose and spray paint.

Aren't they cute? I'm currently obsessed with white pumpkins. I really don't like the color orange in general, so I chose ivory! Plus, ivory pumpkins are really unique! I know they exist, but I've never seen one in real life. The stick for the "stem" was found in my backyard and I had some leftover gold organza ribbon from an old project that I tied around the stems.

Here's how they look before painting and after hot gluing together.

Autumn Wall Decor

More autumn themed crafts! Yay! This time I made something to go with my front door wreath! I was originally inspired by this pin from Pinterest (of course) and wanted to do a slightly different take. As usual, I made it more difficult than it had to be and took photos of my progress.

Here is the final product.

Faux autumn leaf wreath I made last year... from a pool noodle!

And here's how I made it.

Autumn Leaf Bouquets

I can't believe it! The weather here is finally under 90 degrees! It is simply amazing! I can go outdoors and breathe normally without feeling like I'm breathing through a warm, wet sponge. (Ugh.)

I love fall. :)

Since the weather has been nice, I've gone into craft overload. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a Fun-kin faux pumpkin to carve! I haven't started on that yet, that will be another post soon. I've also started working on my Christmas wreath (crazy, I know.) and I've actually run out of thumbtacks, so that's on hiatus for now. That is also another post for another day.

I saw this amazing post on Pinterest about making pumpkins from dryer hose so I went out and bought ivory spray paint and dryer hose and I'll have another post on those soon! (AHH so many blog posts!) For today's post, I decided to make some indoor autumn decor since I put up my autumn wreath on my front door. I made the wreath last year from left over faux maple leaves I had bought for my wedding decorations. The wreath base is a pool noodle!

Here's one of my bouquets!

I also made a short tutorial on how to make them!

DIY Regular Scarf to Circle Scarf

Instant gratification crafts. We all like those. You make them quick and wear/use them quick. I remember seeing a tutorial on transforming a regular pashmina scarf into a circle scarf, but I can't seem to find the link. I was rummaging through my scarves and found one that I did not wear much because I hated the dangl-y ends getting in my way. 

So, I turned it into a circle scarf! In 5 minutes!

[TUTORIAL] Removable Shoe Wings

Some of you may know the Greek messenger god, Hermes. He's best known for his winged sandals that allowed him to move quickly and even fly. I am a fan of anything with wings. Birds, angels, bats, you name it. (Well, maybe not bugs.) I've always been fascinated with how birds and bats fly and been trying to draw them for years.

I saw these shoes on eBay last night and I remember pinning The Dainty Squid's removable shoe fringe tutorial and an amazing idea formed in my jumbled mind...

REMOVABLE SHOE WINGS!

GENIUS! I haven't had an original idea in awhile (crafting wise) so I immediately dropped everything I was doing (aka making more cigarette ankle pants) and dug through my fabric stash for some faux leather and grabbed my black oxford ankle booties from the closet. And thus, these were born:

I love them so much. I might even make bat wing ones for Halloween.

Here's the tutorial (and pattern) for it!

[TUTORIAL] Hooked on Fishtail Skirts

I'm at it again! Ever since I made that fishtail skirt the other day, I've wanted a lighter, flow-y one that would flutter behind me as I walked.

Outfits I devised to go with my new fishtail skirt. I like the far left and far right best.

So, I decided to use some vintage floral lightweight fabric I found in my stash that I inherited from my grandmother. I have devised a mini-tutorial of sorts on how I made it.

There was a lot of flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants in this post. I made up stuff on the fly and nearly literally set my skirt on fire. We'll get to that part in the tutorial....

Fishy Fishtail Skirts

You guys. It's freaking HOT! So my air conditioning has been broken for over 24 hours now and our landlord won't send anyone to fix it till Monday morning! UGGGH... I know I grew up without A/C, but I'm now spoiled by it's goodness. I would like it back, plz. :(

My craft room is sweltering but I shall keep on crafting!!!! I have managed to make one using Morning by Morning's maxi skirt tutorial.

I didn't want one maxi length so I made a shorter version above the knee length that tapered to right above my calves in the back

[TUTORIAL] Dress Pants to Skinny Ankle (Cigarette) Pants

Woah! I've been up FOREVER! Well, since 1pm yesterday, took a small nap, but I've been up since! I even ran this morning at 6am!

So, this post is about what I've done all night. I'm a little slow on fashion trends, but I LOVE those ankle length skinny pants, otherwise known as "cigarette" pants. While I was studying abroad in London in June 2007, these were already in style and I saw them EVERYWHERE in Camden Town. The one thing that's different with these new pants are that they're more sleek and office-approved than the skin tight cigarettes of the UK.

MONTHS ago, I bought 3 pairs of dress slacks at the thrift store: navy, black, and grey. I had the intention of making these into cigarette pants, but I FINALLY got around to trying one this morning. I found Miss Allie Jane's tutorial and was inspired! Don't get me wrong, I love her tutorial, but it didn't seem to go into deep detail so I decided to make my own tutorial covering all the little things.

DIY Sweetheart Bandeau Top [with link to tutorial]

Strapless tops were never one of my favorite pieces of apparel. I was a bit self conscious about my shoulders and since most of them were tight fitting, it made me dread my lower stomach pooch.

This summer, I've been looking for new pieces to wear and I found this tutorial by fake-leather via Pinterest. It looked pretty simple and I tried it out on a spaghetti strap tank I already owned but never wore.

The verdict?

I LOVE it! I've made 5 of them in different colors! The tops look especially cute with skirts and a big belt so it hides my stomach pooch quite well.

There are a few steps not covered in the tutorial that I'm going to run through.

I started with this coral colored tank:

In fake-leather's tutorial, it doesn't seem like her top had a built-in shelf bra. I really hate shelf bras with a passion and despite looking high and low for a tank that DID NOT have one, all I found were ones WITH shelf bras.

So, I'm going to show you how to cut out that shelf bra and take off the straps! All you need is a pair of sharp scissors, a steady hand, and patience. 

First, find the side seams and pick which ever side to start cutting.

Next, start cutting from the bottom where the elastic is. Cut along the seam and then veer off either left or right. Your preference.

From here, just cut carefully around the upper part near the top elastic all the way around. Be careful and try not to cut the fabric on the back side or you'll have holes show up when you wear it. A good way to prevent is to take it slow and keep your hand under the bra to make sure the scissors are between the shelf bra and tank fabric. 

After you've finished that, you can cut straight across on the front of the tank (see fake-leather's tutorial) but don't cut the back straps yet! I've found if you just cut it off, it's left with these irritating "nubs" that will dig into your backside when you wear it and makes it 100x hard to sew through on your machine or by hand.

So, take your seam ripper or your scissors and carefully find the threads that hold down your straps and snip them ONE AT A TIME. 

Do this for both straps and now you're just left with the strapless tank body to finish! Follow the rest of fake-leather's [tutorial] and you're on your way to a cute sweetheart bandeau top for summer!!!

Here's how mine turned out! (Disregard the dusty mirror and stomach pooch.)

Long time no see!

Well, hello world! Long time no see! Did I ever tell you guys that I was TERRIBLE at keeping up with blogs? No? Well, I am.

LOTS of things have happened since I last posted. Well, I GOT MARRIED on October 15, 2011 to my amazing husband. He's currently finishing his masters and will be graduating by December. So hopefully we'll be able to move somewhere nice. I don't work at the hospital anymore. I quit in May and was just burnt out on the excessive overtime and long hours and night shift schedule. At the moment, I do not have a real job and I've been bumming around the house and managing my.....

ETSY SHOP!!!

Awesome, right???? I FINALLY got off my lazy butt and opened it! AND EVEN HAD MY FIRST SALE! (Yay!!!) You'll probably notice that there are no products that look familiar to any of my old pictures I've posted in the past (i.e. Sculpey clay earrings and such) because most of the products in my shop are ready-made and ready to ship. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to making Sculpey jewelry soon.

Oh! I actually sold at my FIRST craft fair this year as well! My best friend, Ashlei, who runs FiberLuxe on Etsy, and I teamed up at the Starkville Cotton District Arts Festival in March and did quite well! Ashlei won Best in Category -Jewelry! Awesome, right??? She does amazing embroidered necklaces and earrings so you should go check her shop out right now!

As you may notice, I've FINALLY changed the look of the blog. I really need to get around to personalizing it and making my own header and such, but eh. I'm so lazy. So this will have to do for awhile.

I will TRY to keep this blog updated as much as possible. I may even start a JWo Designs Twitter feed to keep customers updated on new products or possible products for sale. Who knows. I'm trying to work out all these kinks at the moment. Thanks for reading my long winded post. Have an awesome day!

More Free Stuff!

Giveaways galore! Here they are:

Custom bouquet giveaway by Hairbowswonderworld

Autumn of Giveaways by the Etsy Wedding Team:


Personalized Custom Hand Painted Tile by ItzFitz sponsored by Boutique Stitches

TDN Creations: Moebius Flower Earrings Review & Giveaway

Etsy in Virginia Beach Giveaway" sponsored by Confessions of a Bookworm

Have fun and good luck!

Owl pattern & Tutorial

Hey! I'm actually posting a pattern and a tutorial!

This is the pattern for the 003 Owl plush I made for my friend. Please do not reproduce and use for profit purposes. This pattern solely for those that want to make this owl for gifting or personal purposes.

Click on the image for the full printable size or right click and choose "Save link as..."!

Now for the short tutorial!

1. Cut out the recommended number of pieces.

2. Sew the wings first! Put the right (or outsides) of the fabric together and sew around the edges EXCEPT the straight edge (this is where you stuff in the stuffing... if you want to stuff it).

3. Flip the wings inside out so that the right side is now on the outside.

4. Sew up the notches/darts (the V-shaped cutouts) on the body pieces. This will give the body some dimension so it's not all flat.

5. Now whipstitch (or stitching of choice) the belly and face pieces onto the front body piece. You can also sew/insert your eyes at this time too.

6. Put the right sides of the body pieces facing each other and pin the wings and feet.
IMPORTANT! With the right sides of the body pieces facing each other, sandwich the wing (and feet) pieces with the opposite tips facing each other in between the body pieces and pin the wings and edges together. Also, pin the feet pieces facing inward.

Like so: 
7. Sew! Sew like the wiiiiind!!!! Remember to leave an opening for stuffing!!!!
8. After you're done sewing, carefully flip it inside out and you can start stuffing!
9. Sew up the opening and voila! You have a cute pygmy owl!

Yay!

Sorry for the crappy tutorial.... if you have any questions or concerns please leave a comment!