Freebie Friday: Elsa of Arendale

Who doesn't love Frozen? I loved the song even before I watched the movie (thank you , spoiler ex co-workers) and while I love all my animation movies this was probably one of best and possibly all time favourite. I love the ever optimistic and happy Anna but I felt that we can all relate to Elsa who goes through various stages of fear an uncertainty and ...shame of what you were born with. The journey to finding ourselves and to self love is a hard one, one most of us struggle with.

I found a pattern of Elsa unlike any other - it flip/transforms between the two Elsa. She called it "transformable Elsa" which is essentially a topsy-turvy doll.
The instructions are in Spanish and I found it to be a little bit difficult to understand at times but, not impossible to follow. I am going to see if I can clean it up so I can share it one day but don't quote me on that yet :) Head's up: its a lot more work than you think it may be.

The hair was the most challenging part for me but it worked out pretty darn well, and now that I've done it once, I will surely be able to face it again. It wasn't as tedious or hard as I thought it was going to be. In fact, dare I say I enjoyed making this doll?

As the doll was intended for a little girl, I didn't end up putting in the embroidery detail as instructions and the original doll had, but I will make one available on my Etsy soon with the completed details :)

This Elsa is SO CUTE.
perfect for a little girl... I want to make this doll one of these days possibly for a little girl :D I love the details of the facial features.
 I just don't know if I  can survive making something so large...and so much hair to stitch......O...ammm...geeee .... I do feel better better about attaching hair but I am not sure if I can deal with this much hair. Not to mention the embroidered eyes!!! omg what  will I do with that? how LONG will I procrastinate before I give this doll eyes?! (I still have a doll that is bald due to my "fear" of hair attachments). Having said that, I also like a challenge so it will probably remain in my bucket list lol.



Anyhow that is all for this weeek, hope you like and keep on hookin' :)
Love always,
Shines.

HELLOOOO 2015

OKAY.
So clearly I fell off the blogging bandwagon once again (it seems to be an annual event at this point) except this time, I don't feel so bad because this time it wasn't life that caught up to me and drove me up the wall (although that's still ongoing) but it was creative adventures. At last, the year started on a creative note.
The many adventures I've been involved in include the world of Documented Life Project, Amigurumi, scrap bookbinding and return to coloring; soon, I am going to explore the world of need felting. Everything I have been interested in but "never had time for" - This year is the year I will try them out ! So far, the journey has been more than fulfilling and supremely addictive.  Here is a "brief" summary of how I got to this beautiful mess.

ONCE, when I was 8 my mama (also a DIY fanatic) introduced me to the calm world of knitting. I made a scarf and that was the end of that. I make scarves annually because I just can't find scarf I like enough to buy (super picky) and knitting truly is a slow and calming activity. Unfortunately, knitting wasn't my calling. I enjoyed things that are...less functional, cute and pretty things really... which made me feel bad...then I saw this meme which made it alll better; happiness and sense of accomplishment provides priceless intrinsic rewards!

ANYWAY.
I went to my first "Stitch & Bitch" session with a friend who LOVED knitting, hoping that it would kindle a spark. I was looking for a pattern to knit until I came across this cat cave crochet pattern which looked simple enough and I randomly had a crochet hook lying around.  Unfortunately at this time neither of my cats understood the concept of cat cave ,so it ended up being a cushion after days of trying to coaxed them to love the cave. They love the cushions though!

 This sent me whirling into the world of crochet, in particular, amigurumi (which means small handmade toy in Japanese, I think). There are tons of generous and talented souls out there that share the pattern they made. One of my favourites Stephanie of Amigurumei , who makes the easiest patterns for the cutest things! This thoughtful woman has even made a Patterns page on her blog for easy access.  This new hobby turned into an obsession really, and I was a serial hooker for a while there - eat, work, crochet was a daily thing until recently - now I sleep sometimes XD
You can see all the stuff I have made so far on my Amigurumi album on my FB page, if you're curious.

The bookbinding thing isn't new. I always enjoyed upcycling scrap paper. My entire art journal last year was made from upcycled Copic Market catalogs. I work at a place where printing is mandatory and scrap pages are available by the mountains. Being a hoard, I kept a lot of scraps but I simply couldn't use them up quick enough and my little apt was getting crammed up with all sorts of junk I had saved (Youtube is REALLY a great place if you want reasons to start hoarding).  After much hmming and haaaing, I bought myself a Cinch bookbinding tool - which turned out the be an excellent investment.  Instead of spending hours hand-stitching and gluing , which left little energy and motivation to actually do the fun bits like decorating, I spent minutes binding the book and hours playing and altering cardboard covers. So far I have made and given away 4 books which are all being used on daily basis. Having less in my hoarder box is good; knowing that the books are appreciated, loved and used daily is awesome; feeling that art/crafting didn't create more garbage is AMAZING. I don't get to make them often (because they're super fat books and takes a while to use them) but I certainly have a whole pile of 'em made for the next person who wants one. You can see what it looks like here.

The Documented Life Project is something I discovered last year. I fell in love with the idea of Documented Life Project 2015 page.

having a sketbook/planner/journal all in one place (deep inside, I am a minimalist. or multifunctionalist- I like things that can serve more than one purpose). In fact, my planner was already a mix of 3 but this gave it structure that it needed. I was bent on taking part this year and although the idea has migrated to more of Art Journaling, I am having a great time playing along. It really forces you to be creative and to play, at least once a week. This project has put my art journalling to a pause but I feel like it will only enhance my love for art journals.  So far, with the exception of ONE challenge (which I will fulfill soon when I have some under paper made) I have been following along. What is most exciting is that I can already SEE myself breaking out in baby steps from the way I have been journaling and actually having FUN.  In a strange way, the weekly challenges really aligned to the experiences I was going through during the week , which makes this even more remarkable journey to embark on! To see the pages of the week you can check out my

At around the same time, I had  become super interested in Wreck This Journal project - which from day 1 proved that I was not as "free flowing" as I was hoping I was. Unfortunate this project will have to hold for a bit as I've piled a ton on my plate already. LOL

Lastly, I have returned to coloring.

I can draw - and I enjoy being able to draw; but, I have always loved coloring and if I could, I would sweet piece of work for Valentines day. I printed it, stuck it on my planner and colored it using my trusty Crayola markers. TOO FUN.   Of COURSE I had to go and buy one of those books I've been pondering on. I debated but in the end the Secret Garden is what I chose - mostly because there are pages filled with doodly flowers I just can't do without. So far, I'm working on a nice little fishy page - I'm getting lost in the details but I LOVE IT.
make a living from it. Its another meditative therapy (apparently I need a lot of therapy these days) that I couldn't get a start on for whatever reason (mostly because I was busy crocheting).  Then, the amazing Johanna Basford who inked "Secret Garden" and "Enchanted Forest" for the kid in us, released this
I forgot how awesome it was to  PAINT SOMETHING.
This book is going to last me YEARS at the rate I'm coloring them which makes it SO WORTH IT! It also put all other coloring projects on hold but OOOH well, it's not going anywhere anyways. lol

getting my crafty on...

WELL.

Summer finally arrived in Toronto and I was trying to get my fill of the sun all last week - it's been a crazy week (and I imagine it will get crazier in the upcoming months) but, I didn't forget to indulge in some art/craft time.  First though, I got myself a 2nd cat - my one cat seemed lonely and I was feeling pretty guilty that I never replaced his friend that he grew up with -and I was able to find a cat that was sweet and cuddly and playful.  So much of past two weeks were consumed in trying to get them to at least tolerate each other (my dreams that they would start snuggling right away didn't happen).  We are finally all getting along somewhat and the new cat was adjusting super well by week 2.  I finally caught up on some missed sleep and had some time to myself to start a couple of small projects - mostly crafty ones this time (which is good because I haven't done any in a while).

Usually I engage with my "crafty" side during the winter/fall season (which just means I'll knit endless amount of scarves) - this year it had started a little early, thanks to a coworker who posted pictures of little elephants she crocheted over the weekend.
Crochet is something I had always wanted to try but it never really made sense to me - but I was encouraged by my friend's post and decided to give it a shot at making a cat cave - I had a cat cave pattern saved for eons and had enough yarn to give it a shot. I had plenty of yarn left over from a previous un-started project and hook to go along with it.

While I was making this (I had to undo and redo a few times because it was ruffling) I realized because I didn't use a big thick yarn like the pattern said to, my project needed much improvising.

I can't even tell you how many times I've un-stitched this project due to ruffling and curing; I probably could have started and finished another cat cave with the amount of times I spent in redoing the thing. I just couldn't let either of ruffling and curling just pass me by though....-_-  The good thing of course, is I REALLY LEARNED how crocheting works and it allowed me to get a little creative and I added a band of colour using pink and red yarn I had lying around....which gave it the pop of color I wanted, not that my cat is going to ever notice :)
Hopefully I will be able to make two cat caves before winter comes...!!

Another little thing I wanted to get back into was sculpting.
Playing with clay had always been a favourite of mine except the giant mess- not that it ever stopped me. I stopped because there wasn't a kiln facility available and to get one was painfully expensive,especially for a hobby I wasn't particularly talented in.  I remember long long time ago I bought a bunch of Fimo but I never got around to play with them.  Not long after, I had been "forced" to give art as a way of life and entered the business world...I was super bitter then, and threw out everything I owned (I am kicking myself right now).

Anyway.
Awhile ago, a friend of mine from work made me a little chibi figure of Tootless from How to Train Your Dragon (excellent movie btw) while I was on vacation - we had agreed to make each other a little something - and it was a wonderful surprise to come back to.
He recently had gone on vacation ,I wanted to make him a little gift to come back to-- but then Mello & Mamba (my cats) situation took over all things...and I couldn't find the time. However, I was all prepared: I had bought some "Sculpt -it " by Sargent which was air hardening clay (I wasn't sure if my oven worked) and had reference pics of what I wanted to make. Of course, i found that air-hardening was not as easy to work with and hardened while you were rolling :S So I finally got some Sculpey - and popped out a little kawaii lion (he's a Leo) for him to find on a Friday morning.  That was also too much fun that I have little plans for more projects percolating...

That's all I think...Oh, I took up belly dancing but that's another story.

Hope you liked,


Love Always,
Shines.

Paper bead Madness

 *SIGH*
Once up on a time, long long ago when I was a wee lass, I remember spending too much effort buying magazines only so that I can slice'em up into strips to make beads out of them. I wasn't ever really successful and I had little to no patience to make it nice and when I did manage to make a nice bunch, I had no idea what to do with it. I wasn't sure if I liked it but I never gave it a fair chance because my next craft adventure - dried flower arrangement - consumed my brain space.

Recently, my 6 year old fan (who belongs to my craft buddy) became a crafter and went nosediving into paper beading and was all puffed up and frowning because her attention span was as short as mine had been and her beads were...not beady looking, as she so delicately put it. So in my total lapse of logic, so euphoric was I that she turned into a crafter(which meant another craft buddy for me!) I agreed to make her some and send it her way...she asked for the highest number she can count to (200) and I promised double, which was 400. Ridiculous, right? well, I should have known better because her brain soon became occupied with another crafting passion (knitting - which her mama is into now).

 Anyway I gingerly picked up where I left off - I wanted her to have some stars and triangular beads - which I had made hundreds of (because Asian girls love to make stars, crane eggs and cranes lol) but no amount of varnish hardened it enough for it to qualify as beads.
I used whatever paper I had lying around - lots of origami papers I glued together, random scraps, and even transit pamplets and transfers. I found that I particularly enjoyed the transit pamphlets because they were slightly thicker and gave interesting patterns-even the pen marks added a pattern which I enjoyed.

I enjoyed this activity so much that I put nail polish colour on them and goodness knows how many layers of varnish. I sent the first 2 batches of 100 beads away -which she made endless amounts of necklaces with (Apparently that was all that was considered jewelery)- which sent a jolt of excitement and prompted me to make more, better versions. THEN I fell off the crafting bandwagon for a week and during those 7 days her interest had moved on to knitting and I am left with 200 beads. These are them. Oh well. At least this time around I can understand why people love making'em!