Fancy Feather Markers *3*

It's back to school time! You on a budget but still want to be fabulous? Say no more, because have I got the perfect craftista project for you! Feather white board markers! AHHHH!!!!! *C* They don't take very long to make nor do you require many materials. All you need is a pack of colored feathers, a roll of masking tape with a colorful print of your choice, a roll of clear scotch tape, sequins to match the feathers (again I just recommend buying a pack of mixed colored sequins), and of course white board markers. To make them, first start by taping on feathers to the last inch or so of the marker end. Do this using the thin, clear scotch tape. After it has been feathered to your liking, wrap the marker with strips of the patterned masking tape, I'd say with at least two layers to give it an even thickness throughout. Finally, hot glue matching sequins to line the borders of the markers (see the pictures) to give a final finished look. And that's it! They're lots of fun and give you something colorful, bright and sparkly to start the school year with :-D. 

Oh So Pretty Picture Frames

Some time ago I had a number of picture frames lying around that I wasn't so sure what to do with. By now I've taken lots of photos that I would like to frame in them, but even if that wasn't the case it is still a lot of fun to think of ways to jazz up picture frames. What you see below are the results of my picture frame makeovers (well technically one of them is a mirror but you know what I mean). I painted and embellished the wooden frame on the top left and embellished the remaining three which were plastic. The pictures that follow are close ups of my hot glue gun embellishments to give a better view of the gems and buttons used. I think that the frames turned out well and are pretty enough to hang on the wall even without any pictures inside. ;D b 

Pretty Watercolors

Here are a couple of simple watercolor paintings that I did on a small watercolor painting pad. The first one is of a black cat and the second of a mountain view. After the main parts of the paintings were done I outlined parts with black marker for added definition. The cat painting I made to look similar to a much larger one that I did on canvas as an undergrad. I wasn't sure where I placed it though, which was partly why I wanted to create it again. Anywho, here they be, and I must say that they look really pretty when taped onto a window where the light shines through. 

Soft Doggie Blankets *3*

Everybody likes soft, comfortable things, animals included. From having pets, I've found that animals, hedgehogs, chinchillas and dogs alike love to cozy up to a soft piece of fabric (e.g. my hedgehog Fiona loves to ball up in some crushed velvet). So far I've made a couple of blankets for dog friends, the one in the picture being my most beloved dog friend Penny. I had made it sort of a tradition to give her pink gifts in the past, and wanted to make a soft blanket for her with the same color scheme. The rainbow hello kitty fabric I already had and used for the quilted scallops. The hello kitty fabric I found at Wal-Mart, which ended up looking great with the scallops! To give the blanket a finished look I sewed fabric tape to line the edges along the scallops. I think I can safely say that by the picture the blanket was most certainly dog approved. :-) That and the pillow that I made to match it (to the left of Penny on the blanket). 

Some Home Decor for the Craftista Part 3

Essential to any craftista is the desire to create. Couple this with other interests like fashion and home decor and you get the typical Tanya posts: embellishment projects, home painting, and pillow making! Yup ^c^ I got some more pictures of things that I made, not very recent but I'd say from the last year or so.

The shelves were originally all white. They were already painted which made painting them easier. I wanted to do something blue but with a splash of color so I paired it with some bright pink paint that I had lying around. The two colors go really well together and I really like how the pink looks on the inside. It adds a nice extra bit of cheeriness to the cute items on display. Next is a small thrift store end table that I jazzed up with the same blue metallic paint of the bookshelves and (of course) gems. I also painted the handle and the inside of the drawer gold. Following that is a really nice green plastic jewelry box that I found some time ago at a thrift store. Now what could be better than green? BLINGED OUT GREEN! For this project I simply hot glued a bunch of bright green rhinestones to the box's drawers. I just embellished the front of the drawers, partly cause I ran out of rhinestones but also cause I wanted to add a nice rhinestone touch (not overkill!). Oooooh the sparkleeee *C*. 

And let's see.... what else? Oh yeah! pillows! The circular pillow was made from a blank white cotton sheet that I colored to give the appearance of a little fish bowl. It was the perfect project for using up some plastic fish beads that I had lying around. Embellishing the sand, seaweed, and bubbled with pearls helped finish it off. The remaining pillows were made from thrift store scarves, easy to sew up since they're already perfectly cut squares. Pretty huh? They're also extremely comfortable, stuffed to the max with cotton fluff. I keep some around my house and another in my school office. I have a few more vintage scarves that I plan on making pillows out of as well. Trust that those pictures will be posted when complete! :-)

End of Summer Painting Project

I decided to end the summer with a pot painting project from my to do list. Like the other small painted pots featured on this blog, I wanted to create something pretty and personalized for my plants. It took a while trying to figure out what sort of design I wanted to paint, but eventually I settled on the idea that I would paint

something blue and white. I picked out the unpainted pot and so-called patio paints for this at Michael's. Patio paint is a special kind of paint for things like pots that you plan on keeping outdoors. The paint has been made in such a way that it will not wear or wash away from the rain or snow. Great for those like me who like keeping lots of plants out for patio gardens! After applying a couple base coats of off-white patio paint to the mid section of the pot (used blue for the lid and drainage dish), I lightly sketched out a leaf pattern over the white with a marker. Then I just lightly dabbed the leaf outlines with small amounts of blue paint and as a final touch put a little orange inside the leaves to add a splash of color. Note to self: white, blue and orange look awesome together! Now I just have to decide what kind of flowers to keep in this. :-) 

Lovely Dress Embellishment

Although it's been a while since I've embellished clothes it's something that I really love to do. Once I get into that embellishment mood it's one of those things that'll take over my whole day. I get so absorbed in my work and am so curious to see the end result that I'll usually work on an embellishment project nonstop. Then before I know it it's all done! :-) It's fun and

relaxing for me as well so it doesn't really feel like work to me. Anyway, it was recently that I got into one of these embellishing moods, which I did along with cutting and hemming a dress. The green dress that you see in the pictures was originally much longer. I'd say that I cut off at least six inches worth of material. That involved cutting both the outer cotton fabric and an inner polyester-like fabric that was used as an inner skirt for lining. I didn't want the fabric to fray after hemming so I first folded over the fabric on the outer and inner skirts and then hemmed them. Those details aren't shown in the pictures but I just thought that they were worth mentioning. Anywho.....as far as the embellishing goes, it was simple, just time consuming. I had a bunch of really pretty green glass beads that I sewed in layers of two for a couple of rows on the dress bust. After that I thought that a thinner layer of beads would be a good way to trim off the embellishment. I didn't want the dress to look like it was too heavily beaded. I also didn't want it to literally be heavy with beads to the point that it would be weighed down at the top.

You usually don't think of things like that when you start to embellish, but after doing it a few times you learn to factor in the weight of your beads against the fabric. It helps to avoid what I call "the droopage". :-)