Wedding Wednesday - Silk Bridal Bouquets

This was my favorite wedding project - making my own bouquets!

I used "silk" flowers from Michaels. I figured I probably couldn't get the blue color I wanted from real flowers! Since they aren't real flowers I was able to make them all myself, months ahead of my wedding date. I was also spared the hassle of dealing with delicate flowers and finding a way to store and transport them. These bouquets could easily be tossed in a plastic bag without suffering.

After placing all of the stems together the way I wanted the bouquet to look, I wrapped them together with masking tape and then hide the tape with green floral tape. Then I cut the stems with a wire cutter (this was the difficult, time-consuming part!).

Once all of the bouquets were made I created silk wraps with pearl buttons to disguise the wire stems.

I love how they turned out! Two anniversaries later, my bouquet still looks gorgeous in a vase in my kitchen!

Cosplay Progress - Final Fantasy XIII-2 Lightning Armour 0.4

Because these tutorial is already so long I’m skipping the details of obvious steps.

Painting with two colours of metallic grey will give it depth.  Just layer it on top of each other.

I made the basic shape of the front my guessing.  Added the gold embellishments

The collar.  I thought this was going to be hard, to by surprise it’s much easier than real sewing.  I started with a single sheet of foam and cut an ovalish shape out of the center.  Here I’m testing it’s fit.  Similar to a pencil skirt, don’t make the hole as big as you will assume you will need.  Because the material is malleable you can wiggle your way in.  A smaller hole will make it look more fitted.

Started to attach my front and back pieces to my collar base (which will later be painted).  I also made a neck collar which I wrapped around the opening.

I forgot to mention, those studs are just scrapbooking pearls.  I used all weird wild colours, but one spray paint makes them look like rivets.   BoYa!

 Time to attach the shoulder pads.  I use more foam to anchor the armor and the shoulder pads together.  It’s strong enough that it won’t fall apart, soft enough that the ‘heavier’ piece will weigh it down lay and move naturally with your shoulders. 

Ok now to attach this bottom piece (I don’t know what to call these random sections).  When you look at Lightning’s outfit closely you can see that these bars are actually separate pieces.   I wanted to keep that look so I used hot glue (solid and clear) to give structure to it on the backside.  Also notice that (in the picture below) that the foam I used was a lot thicker, also for structural integrity.

Here’s the finished piece.  The red pieces won’t be noticeable because those will be facing my skin.  Although I will need to go through the edges with a silver pen because it’s still weird to have random colours outlining your outfit like a cartoon character (which even Lightning is not).



There is such a thing as to much embossing powder

I was experimenting with clear embossing powder.  For those who dont know what embossing powder is, it's a pigment plastic powder that melts at a very low temperature.  Popular for card making and scrap booking.  Hmmm I guess I should make a tutorial on how to use this stuff.

To come, a Tutorial on how to use embossing powder.

On with the story . . .

I wanted to see how CLEAR the clear embossing power really was, so i tried melting it onto one of my glass pendants.  This way I could test the clarity of my picture (in my glass pendant) and see if it has become foggy or warped.

Results:  Great
Well let's give a shout for Clear embossing powder because it truely is clear, it barely affected the visual appearance of my picture.  There are some weird blue lines though, but that's actually from the stamping ink I used to get the powder to initially stick on.  I'll need to get a different ink pad for the future.   And now my glass is coated in a plastic, you can feel the texture has become different.

Ok here's the word of caution.  You CAN use too much embossing powder.  As I melted the embossing powder I kept adding more, so I could completely cover the entire surface in a thick coat of this stuff.  Well as it kept melting and running down the side and adding more and melting and running down the side.  I melted a lot of plastic.  I couldn't move it while it was hot, for two reasons 1) too hot, 2) if i used any tools I'll make markings in the plastic that will be left there as it dries (like those kids who put their hand print into fresh concrete, and it's there for 30 years).

Well it cooled and hardened.  And I couldn't remove it!  The plastic had run onto the wood board I was working on and fused to it.  ~sigh~ my tray has a random marble stuck.

Easter Cards

Bunnies and eggs are for kids! I decided to stick with a spring floral theme for these Easter cards. Pastels and bright colors helped bring Spring to the cloudy gray rainy Sunday.



Cards are a great craft project for a crafting party! My friend Karen put the cupcake and chick designs together for her crafting party and then I got to make them and take them home. I love the little chick.



Little chick says "Cheep!"