I mean, aside from knitting controversial hats.
I got store.craftotaku.com up and running. It’s using Storenvy, which I figured I’d give a shot. It looks like a great idea since it is pretty much free. That is to say, you can choose to use it for totally free. There are optional things you can add to your account, such as a custom domain – which I am using to put it at store.craftotaku.com, for $4.99 a month – coupon upgrades, etc. None of that is necessary to start out, though, so you could wait until you make enough from storenvy to pay for those things if you decide you want them. Continue reading
Triple Thick vs Sculpey Gloss vs Sculpey Satin – Glaze Comparison & Review
Another video! In this one I compare and review 3 different polymer clay glazes (and 2 different methods with one of the glazes).
I forgot to mention it, but the Triple Thick was not sticky at all (after about 10 hours of drying) like some people say it is. I currently have them all sitting in the sun to see if that changes.
There’s actually a video on the Craftotaku youtube?
During the short breaks from knitting those hats, I’ve been playing around with Polymer Clay. Recently my love of the stuff was reignited, and the sale week before last at Michaels fueled that along nicely ^.^
I lucked out seeing the sale; I had no idea ahead of time that it was going on. I was there buying yarn, and just happened to stop by the polymer clay isle, and there it was! I grabbed a few, and just happened to get a $5 off the next purchase coupon! So I and came back a few days later armed with more money and that coupon.
I’m well stocked now, as you can see in this video, where I show my craft area and go into specifics about how I store my polymer clay and related tools.
tl;dr = I’m tired of USPS. /Why I Will Be Sticking to Flat Rate
Warning: long rant.
I’m fed up with USPS. Every time I start shipping, say, more than 1 package every 3 months, there are problems. And since I’ve been shipping more like 3 packages a week lately, there are lots of problems.
Oh, first let me tell you about the fiasco that was getting the PO Box. I got it eventually, yeah… but it was a hassle.
A story about a hat
This is a story about a hat similar to one owned by someone named Jane… not by someone with a similar sounding, but differently spelled, name.
This is also why I will be knitting nothing but hats for the next 2 months or so.
WIP Wednesday 3.27.13
I’m not getting much done this week. It’s spring break, which means Yuji’s friends are all over the place, all day long. Let’s just say I’m getting all the fun of having more kids, with no ability to smack ‘em.
So none of the stuff that I listed as “in progress” last Friday has made any notable progress. The Adventure Time stuff and some yarn I need to dye has to go out Friday, so I need to get my butt in gear with that.
I also started another test. It’s for a crocheted chao!
It’ll look something like this when it’s done. Hopefully.
Here’s how it looks so far.
It should be pretty quick once I have a chance to actually sit down and focus on the pattern.
Oh, and I got a PO box… well, that is to say, I signed up for one. I have to go over this afternoon and get the key and box number. So I guess even that is a WiP! But after I do that I’ll have a nice PO box for you all to send me stuff 
Amazon Craft Haul 3.22.13
I love the fact that with an Amazon haul, I can link to everything and know readers can get it right there, and are very likely going to pay the same price. With physical craft stores, everyone’s store has different things in stock, different prices, etc. But with Amazon it’s all right there.
This craft haul from Amazon arrived Friday, but we had a weekend full of buying fish, plants and large snails and adding them to our fishtank. For the past year our tank has had a solitary fish, a single plant – which the fish had eaten most of the leaves from – and countless small snails (where were plentiful but not very interesting to watch). Now we have 11 fish, 3 large snails, and 5 plants. It’s much more interesting now; I could spend hours watching the fish interact and show their individual personalities (yes, fish do have them!), as well as figuring out where the huge snails have managed to hide! (We don’t have a cover – on is en route from Amazon – and yesterday a snail with a bright, very noticeable shell hid so well that we were pretty sure he’d climbed out! But after my husband thoroughly searched with a flashlight, we found he was just hiding.)
Anyway, about that haul. I got some soapmaking and stamp carving stuff, as well as a tool for making holes in bottlecaps…
The total was $98.33 >.< but none of this was bought willy-nilly - it's all either stuff I can't find at local craft stores, or stuff that I would pay much more for at local craft stores if I bought this amount.
The Speedball Linoleum Cutter Assortment means I can take back what I said about buying a separate handle for each tip; this thing makes it easy and fast to switch tips without worrying about cutting myself!
So I’m off to start using this stuff. After I watch the fish for just a few more minutes……
Knit and Crochet this year
I just realized that other than showing off my yarn organization (which doesn’t count), I have not posted about knitting and crocheting at all this year! Since I post about it on Ravelry, I forget to blog about it. Bad me!
Here are all my finished objects for this year:
Valentines Nyan Cat scarf, which is for sale in my Etsy shop
Knitted “Vlad,” a vampire that turns into a bat, which was a test knit
That test knit sweater for Yuji. The belt took forever >.<
A baby hat for a swap that ended up not wanting it (long story I’m not going to get into), leaving me unsure what I am going to do with it…
And finally, avert your eyes if you’re in the Reddit Gifts Adventure Time Swap and don’t want potential spoilers.
Among other things, they are also getting a hand-drawn postcard.
Currently in progress:
- A pokemon for a swap, which just needs to be stuffed and sewn together.
- That mystery KAL sweater, which I am way behind on.
- 3 Afghans for the 6-afghans-in-2013-along… they have been very neglected.
- Socks for Chance. He keeps asking me for some, because he hates store bought socks. I have only swatched.
- A commission scarf which I am painfully behind on
- A Jake to go with the Finn.
I was planning on working on the Jake today, but the power went out. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned on here that I got a Kindle Fire, but I did, and I’ve just been looking at the pattern for the Finn & Jake online using that, rather than downloading or printing out the pattern. When the power went out, that meant I had no internet, which meant I couldn’t work on it.
It also meant I couldn’t make coffee nor have my morning smoothie (as I often have for breakfast). Fortunately I had soy Frappuccino, but as that is more soymilk than coffee, it was not a pleasant morning. But I did play around with Mod Podge for the first time, and made an ant charm…
Looking at all my finished knit & crochet objects, I really feel like I have been slacking off! But I have to remember that I have started/re-started several other crafts this year, and so have been learning and practicing those. Now if I would just blog more about them…
Making an Impression & Speedball Stamp Making Kit
For awhile I’ve been disappointed with the stamps the craft stores have to offer. I keep going to look at them every time I visit a craft store, hoping they’ll have something new, something more like I want. Not that the stores don’t have a large variety of nice stamps; they just don’t have what I want. And ordering custom stamps is just too expensive for me. So I was delighted when I discovered I could carve my own stamps! As I said last week (okay, week before last…), I ordered a stamp carving kit and book. To be more specific, I got Making an Impression: Designing & Creating Artful Stamps
Make a shamrock stamp without toilet paper rolls
Lately, everyone is showing how to make shamrock stamps using toilet paper rolls. Who keeps that many empty toilet paper rolls around? If I decided to start saving them now, maybe I’d have enough to make one before St. Patrick’s Day… but then my kids and I would have to take turns. And the stamp would be huge.
While I don’t have multiple empty toilet paper rolls, what I do have is a lot of heart stickers. Last year, after Valentines Day, I got a huge bucket of foam Valentines stickers on clearance. (It’s hearts and bugs with heart shapes – not something that needs to be reserved for Valentines Day, so we’ve been using it year-round for various things… yet we still have a ton.) So when I realized that the toilet paper roll stamps where just combining hearts, I was struck with an idea.
3 hearts and an antenna from one of the bugs (or any piece of a foam sticker that can be cut/torn into a stem shape) makes a perfect shamrock! I simply stuck the foam stickers on to cardboard. I actually put 2 layers, because the stickers are a little thin.
Chance wanted to make his red, for some reason.
The whole toilet paper thing also led me to look up making my own rubber stamps. I have a new hobby now (should it be under paper, or its own category?). It entranced me enough to get me to buy a stamp carving kit and a book about it, which I’ll be talking about later.
After we did the stamping, Yuji made me a Lego sewing machine. That girl is always thinking up awesome things to make with Legos.
