monopoly earrings

Upcoming exam brings the promise of procrastination and therefore crafting. I made these babies today.

(click for big)

Monopoly earrings, ladies and gents! The perfect solution for what to do with the Travel Monopoly set that's no longer in its box (but scattered all over the inside of a chest of drawers).

There's no way I'd ever be able to sell anything like this because of that annoying thing they call copyright, which is a shame because I could probably develop it into something quite good.

The money - two little Monopoly twenties - were trimmed and stuck onto white card, then "laminated" with sticky-backed plastic. An actual laminator would probably work quite well. Then, using a large pin (heated over a tealight) and a pair of pliers, I poked holes in the playing pieces/houses/hotels. I found it's actually neater to poke holes through from the back of the pieces. Then just pop them on jump rings and wah-lahhh! Your very own Mini Monopoly earrings.

I think I need to start investing in more travel board games, this could be the start of something good, people!

Some other plastic toys I've turned into jewellery:

Skittles from a cracker = chandelier earrings.

Compass pendant! It's a tiny little plastic compass, and yes it really does point North...

My personal favourite, a tiny tiny dinosaur on a jump ring. I felt bad poking a hole through his head. That's a 7mm diameter jump ring, for an idea of the scale.

Domino pendant. This one is glued to the pendant hook. I'm planning to make some matching earrings too, as I have quite a few of these - they also came out of a cracker.

No point beading around the bush, etc.

I never realised quite how many beads I had until, late one night, I decided it would be a good idea to sort through the big tub of assorted-things-with-holes-in and arrange them in little bags in an embroidery box. Where all the various garish plastic things came from, I've got no idea, but they're now neatly sorted and waiting to be used. Or something.

The thing is, what would probably have seemed like a treasure trove of delights when I was younger is actually a bit of a nightmare now. It's nice to have all these beads at my disposal but what on earth am I actually going to do with them? How many alphabet bead bracelets am I going to make now that I'm not twelve any more, and walking round wearing a bracelet proclaiming my love for some baby-faced actor is not a possibility? How many words can you spell with a bag of metal Gs and Js (maybe I should start up a new language. Gjggjg gj!)? Bags and bags and bags of little tacky-looking pastel-coloured flower beads; lots of pretty glittery stars and dice beads which would probably make me look like a scene kid if I attempted to make a bracelet out of them; copious amounts of glass seed beads that give me the fear just to look at them. I wish that I could wave my hands and do wonderful things with beads, but fortune doesn't seem to be on my side with this one. Instead, it seems, I'm doomed to spend the rest of my days dropping tiny beads in between the floorboards and accidentally letting the end of the thread go.

I don't know. I like to think that one day I'll look at my beads and think "Hey, those would look great strung like this, with one of these on the end and arranged like that..." instead of taking apart three bracelets only to later assemble one bracelet which looks just like the first three.

Just you wait. In ten years, my glorious beaded creations will be available worldwide, and, armed with my pliers and 0.4mm wire, I shall, er, ply my way to world domination. (How's that for comma splicing?)

I am still alive

OH GOD I AM SO LAZY. I haven't actually done anything recently. You'd think, with all the procrastinating I've been doing recently, that I've been busy knitting, sewing, gluing - alas not.

Although I did do some late-night collaging in the journal (which is fast becoming more of a mindless distraction than anything else - I suppose that's a good thing....). And doodling. Maybe it'll end up like Faris Thingy from the Horrors' oh-so-indie-hipster Moleskine notebook. I should start wearing a bird's nest on my head and some super-skinny jeans, and THEN I WILL GET CREATIVE Y/Y??

The skirt fabric is still in its bag, I haven't even started that yet. I can't even blame the weather any more because it's been so sunny recently. I've been feeling quite summery, maybe I'll make some interesting beads out of FIMO and go all "new-boho" on your asses.

Mary jane slipper project abandoned: I forgot to start decreasing after however many rows and I ended up with a small knitted sack. Got frustrated and unwound it. However, we've got this French book of adorable baby knits and I'm determined to knit this jumper in it with a great big anchor on the front. You know how much I like anchors - and this forthcoming niece/nephew is going to be super-stylish, I'm going to make sure of it...

So Jealous messenger bag

Made for a (Tegan and Sara-obsessed) friend's birthday, this is the So Jealous Messenger Bag.

This is the original album cover, artwork by Emy Storey:


Took about five hours to do, and I used this tutorial by gloriana at Craftster.org. It's lined with red satin, but I'm an idiot and forgot to take pictures of the lining. The hearts were made from red felt (just like in the real thing, baby!) and sewn on by hand.

....Is it a bag? Is it an album cover?


Yes.

rethink

Okay, seriously, screw this "serious blogger" shit. I'm not serious, for starters, and I haven't got the exciting life/staying power required to be a blogger.

I think I'm going to turn this into a craft blog... I've discovered that crafting helps me switch off and it's so good to just immerse myself in something for a few hours. I swear, I don't even notice the hours go by, and that's in a good way. And you know what? I've been sticking bits of paper to other bits of paper for about four hours and I don't even care that I have two assignments and plenty of revision to do in the next four days! :D

That's right, kids. Crafting makes you fail at college, but at least you get some pretty things at the end. I'll be the most stylish worker in McDonald's, with my knitted apron and reconstructed t-shirt.

Unfortunately the aforementioned lack of staying power means that I usually have several projects on the go at once. Current projects include:

Fimo: mini food, mainly doughnuts. (started bloody ages ago, been doing it sporadically ever since, when I remember)
Knitting: mary jane-style slippers from this craftster post (started on Tuesday)
Paper crafts: paper journal. well, more of a "life book" really, because I can't be arsed with any of that 'dear diary' crap, it's just an excuse for me to make lists obsessively on some pretty pages. (started today)
Jewellery: If it's small and will melt when I poke it with a hot pin, it is going on a jump ring to become a pendant. So far, victims have been a very small plastic dinosaur and some plastic skittles from a cracker. (ongoing, whenever I find something small and plastic)
Sewing: there's some fabric from IKEA sitting in the bottom of my wardrobe which needs to be turned into a skirt, but it is TOO BLOODY COLD so I won't get any wear out of it at the moment anyway. (not started yet)

I'm also tweaking the layout, so please bear with me and excuse any eye-hurtiness :)