the colourful curio

An old, ugly curio shadow box has mastered a colourful re-imagining.  Once an outdated shade of brown with kitschy heart-shaped doors, it was reduced to a simple shadow box reminiscent of old fashioned herb drawers.  Colour was added with simple acrylic craft paints and then challenged with sandpaper for some serious distressing.   Through the mysterious alchemy of re-imagination, it began to capture some of the magic of ancient herbalists and tug on the power of the elements present in the colours.  Now it burns with the fire of a thousand rainbows in a place of honour upon the wall.

Linking up with the Funky Junk Upcycling Party

a not-so-sweater coat

I have long admired sweater coats by Katwise.  Her sweater coat tutorial (available on etsy) has gotten much wear and tear since I bought it over a year ago, but I haven’t yet created a coat with it.  So when we were hit with 3 intense blizzards last March, I decided to spend my snowed-in hours doing just that.  But that’s the thing with blizzards; you can’t just run to the local thrift shops and stock up on materials.  So instead, I busted into my ever-growing stash of denim (thanks to everyone who keep donating their old jeans).

The resulting coats caused many blisters, a few tears, and yes, even a few curse words as the filter on my front-loading washer clogged with tiny bits of blue jeans and flooded the laundry room.  It then proceeded to attempt arson from the lint trap in the dryer, but I was on it.  In the end, it must be admitted that this particular coat is dangerous.  But I absolutely love it.

Sharing with Sew Darn Crafty

huggable, lovable, and soft

Jersey seems to be overlooked in the land of dolls, but it’s very soft and washable and that’s perfect for little ones who love to hug and drag their stuffed friends everywhere with them.  When a certain toddler fell in love with Patchy Patch from Toopy and Binoo, a few old t-shirts found their way into the sewing basket and fashioned themselves into her very own Patchy Patch.  This guy (?) was fashioned mainly from t-shirts, with a tail made of braided child-safe hemp twine and a bit of yellow sweatshirt for the end.  His plaid patches came from an old burp cloth we have grown out of using.

This particular upcycled creation received the honest honour a toddler can bestow ~ she insisted on having it with her to cuddle with when she went to bed.

Patchy Patch is a licensed character, so I can’t share the pattern I made for him, but if you can sew a round head and an oval body with a little bit of creativity you’ll be well on your way.

Linking with the We Made That Wednesday party.

Jet-Pack!

It’s not every day you can honestly say you spent an afternoon making a jet-pack.  This is the best kind of jet-pack as well, because it has zero emissions and it runs on imagination so you very rarely have to worry about running out of fuel.

This particular jet-pack was created for a young friend’s birthday present, based on this tutorial I found.   The fuel cylinders were made from plastic apple juice containers, painted a steampunk copper.  Plastic generally needs to be primed before spray paint will adhere to the surface, so be sure that you have some on hand.  The straps were cut out from an old backpack that had a broken zipper and a few holes, and will allow my small pal to adjust his jet-pack so it’s comfortable.  The juice containers were fairly sturdy, so I was able to drill a hole into the plastic and screw the straps into place, which should also add to the life of the toy.   The flames were cut from felt scraps and both glued and stitched into place (with the help of a craft drill).  The back plate is made from two pieces of cardboard with a bit of painter’s tape along the edges.

This post is linking up with the We Made That Linky Party