Tag: craft

Crochet Brontosaurus

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on Crochet Brontosaurus

I made this.

It is a crochet Brontosaurus. I used Benet Baby Velvet yarn. It is VERY soft. The pattern is from Palana Design on Etsy. It’s the No Sew Mamenchisaurus. I wouldn’t say it was easy. That might have been my yarn choice though. This velvet is crazy hard to see your stitches in. She has videos that are much needed. Especially when I realized she was crocheting in a different direction than myself. That matters. I think the pattern could have been helped by naming where you were (“like 8 stitches around the leg” or “decreases should be on top of the tail”). So my body was a big attempt at me mathing it even so the legs were spaced appropriately. My stitch counts pretty much never matched up, so there was a lot of winging it.

I would also note, this might be considered yarn art and not straight crochet. That’s because I went back on the tail and neck and heavily altered them with stitches after I was done. I made the neck thinner, chiseled the chin, and made the tail taper a lot more. The neck suffered from my stitch count problem. So it was narrower at the base than at the head. So I tightened it up to match the base width. The yarn is so hard to see stitches in that I can get away with it.

That said, I would totally make it again. I would stress less and I would watch more of the videos because yall, she’s not crocheting in the same direction as me and that matters on some parts. I feel like the directions are so confusing because there are so many increases and decreases per row with no indication of where you are in the row. So If I do it again, I’m winging most of it. Now that I know the basic happening, I could wing the body and tail and neck. And if I was focusing on winging it to make it look good and not following the pattern exactly, maybe his head wouldn’t be turning just a little. It doesn’t look bad at all, but that wasn’t something I was aiming for.

This took about 5 sessions. I did the feet with K and K2 while watching a Christmas movie. Then I did the body which picks the feet up (no sew). I did the tail one night. I did the neck and head last night. Then this morning, I shaped it up a bit and highlighted under the eyes.

I love it. He’s may happy purple dinosaur.

Oh and no knocking the pattern! I didn’t design this or figure out how to do the shapes. I love the hump on the back, I love the clever neck hole situation. It’s adorable as fuck. Theirs looks way better than mine! I bet if I didn’t use such a hard yarn, it would have been better. But damn this velvet is so soft.

I would also say that since this is no sew — meaning everything is fully crocheted together, this would be an indestructible kids toy. There are no seems to be torn. Of course you would need to stitch the eyes and not use the plastic ones. But yeah, without the plastic eyes, I’d hand this to a baby no problem.

Pawprint Keepsakes

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 2 Comments on Pawprint Keepsakes

I’m finally painting the paw print ornaments we did last year.  I did a set for Louie and I did one for my brother-in-law’s dog.  Here’s a picture but they aren’t finished yet.  The clear coat was a disaster.  I gotta get it off, touch up paint as required and use a new coat. 

But I wanted to show them to you.  These insanely cheap kits are AWESOME:

These kits are under $10 bucks.  It’s an extremely lightweight air-dry clay.  Lighter than playdough.  You make a little paw print and it dries and boom, paw print forever! 

Now at just that, they aren’t awesome.  You can see one I have one not painted in that grouping.  The all white.  It’s fun but not attractive.  It doesn’t stand out.  And Lord knows it’s not gonna be pristine white after you wrestle a fuzzy animal’s paw on it. 

But… Look at them painted! I use an enamel model paint kit and they look like really nice ceramics.  Of course they’re light as a feather and unbreakable, but that’s great for hanging on the tree! 

Here’s the initial kit with everything I bought years ago to paint some game tokens:

Testors Enamel Paint.

I’ve done these paw prints three times now.  Back in 2020, I did Jack.  Look how big his paw is compared to Louie!  Jack is the red and green and Louie’s are the other three small ones.

I’m repainting two of Jack’s.  This red one always needed a touch up on the back where I put it down too wet and some paint stuck to the surface.  His silver one has been a little totem I sleep with sometimes.  Perfect size to hold in my palm and press a finger into his little print. 

That’s another reason I think everyone needs to do these.  It was adorable when Jack was alive.  But after he died, it was a piece of him.  A tangible piece.  The vets did an ink print and even a sand print post mortem.  But I can’t touch those.  Also, that’s creepy.  I have the good memory of making this with him. 

Speaking on that memory, I have lessons.  Listen, I don’t know if I didn’t read the directions or they weren’t there, but with Jack I just smushed out balls of clay and stuck his foot in it.  But this shit sticks to everything like crazy.  So I ended up on the floor with flour everywhere pressing his foot into flour, then clay.  It was a mess.  And they are clearly not circles. 

The kits come with one big circle, but it’s way too big.  Even for the dog print I did there in red and black. 

So for Louie’s I used a very small glass to punch it out.  And this stuff takes forever and a week to dry, so if you fuck it up, mix it around and do some more!  I did a bunch for Louie and punched out the 5 best ones and am painting the best three. 

And this time (last year), I read the directions!  Everything sticks to this shit BUT NOT WATER!  So you get their paw wet (bowl of water) then press it down.  Bam!  Then get something with a circle, get it wet and cut it out.  The dog paw is lopsided because I used a bowl and couldn’t see the print.  And he thought it would be too traumatic to do it again. Which is kinda BS cause dogs love attention.  I did Jack’s like 10 times LOL.  I think Louie made out a little better. 

Oh and the nice clean ribbon holes? A straw.  Yep.  Wet the straw and stab it.  If the clay doesn’t come out, no biggie – you can still do more. 

So yeah, last year we did Louie and BIL’s dog.  I’m finally getting around to painting them so they can go on Christmas trees.  And, like I said, touching up two of Jack’s.  That silver enamel paint is my favorite but it just doesn’t dry solid like the others.  So after two years of me rubbing it in my hand, it needed a reshine.

Of course such a small painting project will go fast!  Nope:

Why do all craft projects end up vomiting over an entire room? 

Then, you ever have a jar that is stuck shut but you will have the last word so help you god? Fucking red. 

The jar opener and pliers combo started tearing into the metal lid.  So I was like fuck it – I’m stabbing it. 

And it was bone dry.  You win this round, Testors. 

So I had to use regular red paint to be redeemed with the clear enamel finish.  Only… The finish was way too old.  I mean this kit is over a decade old so the fact that only the gloss was messed up is a great testament.  I had just used all the red.  So now I ordered more clear gloss (and red – plus a few others I was low on).  When it gets here I can try to get the gloss coat off with paint thinner.  Then, I assume, touch them up before the new gloss.  I hope not too much because I did so good writing the names and dates on the back with the black paint marker!

But yes, this year MAKE THESE.  It’s adorable now and a precious memory when they are gone.  A little paint and you’re golden!  If I like you enough, mail it to me and I’ll use my enamel paint supplies to paint them and mail the back.  (Becki, you can have your kids paint them! Then after Christmas of them hanging on the tree, you could send them my way. I could fill in the printed part (if needed) and give it a few enamel coats for permashine)

I have three for each.  One for a Christmas ornament (Jack is green on red, Louie is red on gold).  One for the living room (Jack is white on black, Louie is white on dary grey).  Plus a bonus extra (Jack is black on silver and Louie is black on blue). 

BookNook!

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 2 Comments on BookNook!

For Christmas this year, K gave K2 and I booknooks! And the gift of making them together. It took us 2 full days a month apart, but we did it, yall! Here’s the kit I was gifted:

The Rolife Booknook and Wonderland Garden House. I’ve seen it under two brands on Amazon and non-branded on Etsy. My little stickers even had “Rolife” printed on them so I think that’s the real brand. Plus it was on the box.

We started them on February 10th. It took us a month to be able to get together again and we finished them yesterday. March 10th.

I’m pretty sure my kit was by far the easiest of the kits. But dang, yall. Miniatures are hard. Here’s me questioning if my eye doctor was correct that I should start considering bifocals. Cause good GOD. That shit is so very tiny. Of course that’s what makes the book nooks awesome. The insane amount of details. And this kit was not short on the details. Look at my little shelves!

There are little wooden books wrapped with sticker labels and spines. Flower crates, pictures with frames, tiny flower pots (all 6 pots are different), the tiniest blue rose known to man… Look at it! The window even opens and closes!

Cause, I’m extra, I did do a few changes. Especially today. One, that chair is supposed to go inside and it is just not to scale. No. It is an outside chair now. I also added some extra “area rugs” to cover the marks on the floor where things were supposed to be placed. The basket of rolled papers goes in front of the stairs. Well, that blocks the stairs! How is that functional? And the chair fills the whole thing up. I like it much better less crowded and where I can imagine walking into it. And who doesn’t like an outside chair?

I also added and switched somethings around. Originally, all of the rolls of paper were stickers rolled together. Well, I apparently can’t do that without making them look like shit. So first, I got out some nice paper I had in my craft supplies and used it instead of the bright gingham colors that came with the kit. For the ones with the flower stickers, I put the sticker on the paper and gave it a good roll with the sticker ending up on the outside. Excellent. Oh, and speaking of stickers, I love that little detail of the tulip sticker that looks like it’s a poster that is just draped/fallen over the shelf there.

All of the pictures and intricate details are stickers. Much better than having to glue paper. But MAKE NO MISTAKE, you need glue for this bitch. It doesn’t come with glue, but it is required. Thankfully, I read a review about how you have to turn it over to wire it. Literally almost the very last step is turning it over to wire it up underneath. (Better pray those lights work when you connect the wires!) So everything needs to be glued the fuck down.

The first day, we had to make do with the gorilla glue I had in a junk drawer because only K2’s kit came with glue. For our next round, I ordered fast drying craft glue and tiny pinpoint dispenser bottles so we all had a bottle. PRICELESS. Absolute requirement for this. You think that door had that “glass” in it and trim on it? NO, it didn’t not. It had to be glued on. Parts of these kits expect you to glue a piece on the wall and then stand it up immediately. EXCUSE ME? No. Also, I ordered another pair of longer tweezers. Such a necessity here. I have gorilla fingers, or something. Who the hell can pick up those micro stickers on the drawer labels? They’re so tiny they didn’t even print 1, 2, 3, 4 — they’re all “No. 1.” So, be prepared.

In my extraness, I beefed up some of the plants with fake grass blades. I also added dried moss to all the planter boxes and pots. And do you see my Peacock Ore chips as rocks on display? I threw in a big clear quartz crystal too!

Then today, I saw some of the purple flowers I had dried in my collections of rose petals and it was ON. I ripped out a lot of the 1-dimensional paper flowers and replaced them with the real dried flowers. And where I left the paper flowers (like on top of the blue bookcase), I tucked them in various nooks. It adds so much texture! I even tucked a few petals in the boots with the sprig that is totally Wall-E vibes.

There’s actually a lot of depth in here too. There’s a whole second level balcony in the back with it’s own chest and flower box on top. And a cute railing all around. It’s the layers and layers of details that make it so cool.

Well, plus the lights. The little lamp works and there’s a utility light hanging from the ceiling.

Yesterday, we were exhausted. K2 was here until 9pm. So almost 9 hours straight or work to finish them. But yall, I kinda want to make another. I don’t need one or have a place to put it — but I really enjoyed putting it together! IT’S SO PRECIOUS!