DIY: Upcycled Xmas Tree

Tis' the season to be... upcycling!

Christmas is just around the corner! Add a little joy of Christmas around the house by making this little upcycled Christmas tree ornament.

Click on the images to view larger pictures! (^_^)

Tools and Supplies

1 Cereal Box

Scissors

Mathematical Compasses

Glue

Bottle Cap

Plasticine/Blue Tack

Penknife

Drinking straw

1. Get an unwanted Kellogg's Cereal box.
With the help of a pair of mathematical compasses, cut circles of 4.5 cm, 4.0cm, 3.5cm, 3.0cm, 2.5cm, 2.0cm and 1.5cm

2. Cut slits of around 1cm all around the circumference.

3. Your circles should look like this when stacked together on the straw. The circles should fit snugly on the straw if you didn't cut the holes too big.

4. Trace the size of the bottle cap (which is going to be the pot of the xmas tree) on the cereal box.

Repeat Step 3 only for this circle.

5. Position the circles nicely at one end of the straw.Cut long slits of about 4cm at the other end of the straw.

6. Stick a small volume of Blue Tack, plasticine or even sticky tape at the centre of the straw where the long slits stop.

7. Stick the straw to the centre of the bottom of the bottle cap.

Try using long slender items like pencils to help you in this step.

8. Add stuffings of unwanted paper into the "pot". Tear lengths of used, unwanted paper, then twist them lengthwise. Try joining the twisted paper into a circle and stuff it in the bottle cap.

If you have plasticine around your house, use it instead! I think it's definitely a better material for support.

9. After the bottle cap is stuffed full, stack the circle cut to the circumference of the bottle cap on top.

You can add a little glue to stick the cereal box circle to the cap.

10. Apply glue to the area where the straw and the cereal box meets to secure the xmas tree.

11. When the glue is completely dried, snip the remainder of the straw at the top.

Embellish your upcycled xmas tree with stars, ribbons and glitters!

DIY: Recon Tee Sequel - Rose Brooch

Remember the easy peasy recon tee post? Well, like what I always do, I kept the scraps of what I cut out from the tee and now I've made it into a rose brooch! (^_^)

Check out the How-to.

Failed experiment! :(

The other day my mum was asking me to help her make some boiled eggs. No, it wasn't that something went wrong with the eggs. 

As I was going to pour the boiling hot water down the sink, I suddenly had the idea of trying to transform my useless broken 3.25mm plastic knitting needles into a bangle like the ones made by Liana Kabel (here). It was a complete failure! What I got what was an incomplete circle with kinky bends. I didn't even manage to make it into the diameter of my wrist. (=_=)''

Threadless Tees for knitters

I like tee shirts with wacky taglines and cute graphics. Well, I've recently bought a tee from Surfers' Paradise that says, "I LEFT MY HEART IN AUSTRALIA". Though I have not been there - yet, it'll definitely come in handy when I return the next time!

Now, what I want is a tee that tells everybody else that I am a knitter! It'll be kind of crafty-cool.

Designs from:
Threadless Tees

DIY: Origami rose in a stalk

The origami rose is an all-time favourite and it's creation is truly ingenious. But one thing I didn't like about the origami rose is it's hollowness. So I tried modifying it and added a stalk to it.

Make a single stalk or an entire bouquet!

Supplies:

Origami paper
Blue Tack

Green wire (or a wire wrapped with green floral tape)

Pliers

Craft Glue


1. Create the origami rose from the instructions available here:

It can be quite difficult to follow initially, but with more practise it will turn out better.

2. Get a short length of green wire or any wire wrapped with green floral tape.

Make a loop at one end using a pair of pliers.

3.Wrap some Blue Tack around the loop. The amount of Blue Tack should be just enough to fit into the rose to make a sturdy rose.

4.Cut a smaller square piece of origami paper (with the same colour as the rose) and poke through the centre with the wire.

Wrap the paper around the Blue Tack.

5.Then fit the top of the wire into the hollow rose. Adjust the amount of Blue Tack until desired result.

Apply some glue to secure the wire and Blue Tack with the hollow insides of the origami rose.

6.And a sturdy origami rose is done!

Link: Paper Flower Table Setting

Link

A really simple way of making such pretty roses! I think I'm gonna try making one with magazine paper!

Serendipity Bag

Did I mention that I was busy making a crochet bag?

Yeah, that's what I have been busy with for the past 2 weeks.

I was working on this crochet bag for a friend of mine, Susie, who had left the work at the clinic for another job. I thought a crochet bag will be the best gift that I can give her since she's also my crochet and knitting friend!

Before I reveal the finished product, let me talk a little about how the entire idea of the bag came about. In the beginning, I wanted to make this Fat Purple Bag that I saw on Ravelry. But as I went along with it, I realised that it's really small and not the kind of bag that I want to make for her. So I modified the pattern suing the concepts of increasing stitches for the puffy-look in the Fat Purple Bag. I didn't understand the last part on the basting and the handles, so I made it my own way. The result really wasn't too bad, but it didn't look good enough. Then I tried salvaging it by sewing up the bottom to create the look I wanted to achieve from the very beginning. I altered the bottom of the bag 3 times before I was satisfied with the way it looks. I crochet a scallop edging at the top, attached knitted straps, embellished it with buttons of a contrasting colour, stitched a lining, and this is what I got in the end.

*drum rolls...*

the bag with my noticeboard as background...


And for all that I went through, I think this bag is truly worth the name of Serendipity Bag.
I really like the way the buttons matches the bag


I'm so glad that my mini sewing machine was working! I sewed the sides of the lining using the machine but had to hand stitch the lining itself to the bag.

And the zip...

Ahhh, really proud of this very first bag that I crochet. My hands are itching to make more and more!!!

Stayover with Weiwen and Amanda

I finally got to bunk in with Weiwen and Amanda in their hall last Friday! I know it's been almost a week but I've been rather busy lately to put up the photos and to write about it. Anyway, here goes!

First of all, I finally got the chance to give them the presents that I have knitted and crochet for them.

Please ignore the legs. Anyway it's not mine!

It's the Blanket Buddy as seen in 101 Designer One Skein Wonder and a Cupcake from BitterSweet. Actually I finished knitting the Blanket Buddy a long long time ago but never got around to fill up the head, embrioder the eyes and then give it to Amanda. The cupcake was an easier project that I finished in a single day.

The proud owners!

Hopefully Amanda will feel more comforted during her lonely nights in hall with the Blanket Buddy with her! And I certainly do not wish that Weiwen will get too tempted to eat the strawberry cupcake. She'll be choking on the whole furball!

Then we baked the whole night away in the hall's kitchen. Well, almost. It's supposed to be Weiwen's Double Chocolate Chip Cookie, but really it's simply a recipe she got somewhere and she added double the amount of chocolate chip required. There was so much cookie dough that we couldn't finish the entire batch that we baked that night! I'll try to post the recipe up soon. (^_^)

Hmmmmm...

This is my favourite piece (^_^)

Last but not least, I tried baking my cupcakes (yet again!) using the REAL oven in the hall kitchen. I thought it's gonna come out great. But it turned out HORRENDOUS, and this is not an exaggeration. The cupcakes was dark, flat, dense and tasted rubbery. 

I wonder if it's the problem with the mixture or the heat. The mixture had turned all watery by the time we started pouring it into the paper cups. But it also could have been the heat settings of the oven. Don't tell me how high I set the oven, I really don't remember.

One thing that I have to say is that this is the WORST baking attempt ever for the cupcakes. I kept trying to explain to both Weiwen and Amanda that it really isn't supposed to turn out this way and I've made it 100 times better in my previous attempts using my toaster oven.

Busy, busy, busy!

I will be busier for this entire week so there will be lesser posts for now. But I have great plans in my head for the weeks to come when everything's more settled!

1. finish my knitted Mary's Summer Bag, Hippie Style

2. fix Kelly's beret because it's still a little loose

3. finish up my reconstructed Harley Davidson tee

4. crochet a hair band

5. make macrame bracelets

...

and the list goes on!