Shrinky cell phone charm tutorial.

   Greetings! I’m back, with a tutorial this time. For this particular blog, I think this is a first, since the mix up with my first blog.

   I love to express myself, and for people to see what I like and what I’m passionate about, without me having to say anything. One of the many ways I can do this is through my clothes, and accessories. A bit trivial, but I still like to do it.

   Cell phone charms are really cute. I’ve bought three, but none of them have lasted for more than a month. Either the actual charm broke, or the chord broke. Either I’m waaaaayyyy too harsh on my phone (which could be the case) or the materials suck. So I’ve acquired the materials to make my own.

   You’ll need :

1.      Shrink plastic (brand name shrink dinks)

2.      Drawing materials, pencils, pens, markers, whatever you want to draw with

3.      Scissors or exacto knife.

4.      Method for attaching, a chain, or strong chord.

   I chose a design of one of my current obsessions. I’m obsessed with University of Nevada, Reno right now. I’ve been accepted as a transfer student and start in the fall. So I copied one of the logos on to a piece of paper. Choose any design you like.

   Shrink plastic can be found in almost any craft store, and sometimes Wal-Mart. It’s often known by the brand name Shrinky Dinks. I’ve heard it called Shrinkles, and shrink plastic too. I spent $5.99 for six sheets.  Make sure to read the directions on the back, not all of these cook at the same temperature. Trace your design onto the shrink plastic. The instructions for mine state that if I’m using colored pencils to sand one side.

 I trace the design lightly on top of the plastic using a sharpie, then go over the lines again a little firmer, and color in the wolf. There’s really no limit with color, you can be as creative as you like. I colored in the blue twice to make sure I got everywhere and the color was even.

 Cut you’re design out. If you’re using scissors, please be aware of your plastic. This is the type of plastic that if bent will turn white, or completely break. Cut the design out as you see fit, and be sure to punch a hole in the place you later intend to thread the chord. I used a hole punch.

   Now preheat your oven according to your instructions. I preheated mine to 325. You can place your plastic on tin foil or cardboard, I don’t recommend anything metal, or anything you intend to cook on again. I try to have cardboard on hand for such occasions.

   You’re plastic will curl while shrinking, so to prevent it from sticking to itself and remain flat, I put a piece of tin foil over it and tucked the edges under the cardboard to stay in place. Place in the oven for the time instructed. Remove from oven and let cool.

   The method of attachment is up to you. At first I used a strong chord found in my mom’s craft box. It could be a thin twine. But I wasn’t happy with the result.

  After some thought, I decided to go with a different attachment.  I attached an overly large jump ring to my phone. I attached a smaller jump ring to each end of a scrap piece of chain. I attached one end to the shrink, and the other to a lobster claw closure, then the lobster claw to the oversized jump ring on the phone. 

   There you have it. Pretty simple, and you now have a customizable phone charm.

 So, have you tried this? Even done a project with shrink plastic before?

   I’ve been joining link parties, slowly but surely, after watching them for ages on the blogs I follow. Today I’m linking up with Night Owl Crafting in the most recent Hoos Got Talent post. To find out more, or find more cool tutorials, go here

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

If you haven’t yet, check out my etsy shop. www.etsy.com/shop/ButterflyDark.

I’m hoping to have more jewelry up. I’m venturing into shrink jewelry, among other things.

If time finds favor with me I’ll be posting again before Valentine’s Day, so until we meet again, Love Music and Feathers People!!!!!!

My first link Party, and some awesome news.

So I'm joining a link Party, for the first time. I love browsing link parties to find new ideas for crafts. Today I'm joining Night Owl Crafting's Hoo Are You. Each week questions are posted, I answer them, and link the post to her page. Networking at its finest. So before I answer the questions, go ahead and check out Night Owl Crafting, and have some fun. www.nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com

1. Are you married/in a relationship/single? For how long?
I'm in a relationship, with a wonderful guy, Mark Dimpfl. We've been together for over three years, and been engaged for two. We're saving to get married next year.

2. What are your plans for Valentine's Day?
Probably working. I'm a cashier for CVS/Pharmacy, and all the guys will be buying last minutes 'cause that's normally how guys are. Plus its truck day.

3. Do you have any Valentine's traditions?
Not really. I spent almost every Valentines Day trying to pretend it didn't exist until I was 17.

4. What is your favorite Valentine's candy?
I'm just gonna say it. Candy is candy, and I like 95% of it. Being a semi-normal woman, Chocolate is amazing. Add caramel and I'm happier than a bird with a french fry.

5. Name 3 things that you LOVE!

Oh this is hard. Obviously Mark. My friends, who are stuck with me til either I die or they die, whichever comes first, and my huge family, who couldn't get rid of me no matter how hard they tried.

So now the big news. Butterfly Dark is now open on etsy.com. I've only got a few things listed, since work has been really insane this past month. Today will be my sixth day in a row. I'm not complaining by any means, I like my job. I'm just a little tired and miss my studio time. But for now, you can check out the etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButterflyDark, and the facebook page.

Here's a sneak peek into my next project.

Love, Music, and Feathers people!

Happy New Year!

 So, its the new year! Thank Cheese, 'cause for me 2011 seemed to drag, especially when I found out that I couldn't walk last May, and that I had been waiting since February to take my vacation in July, back to Nevada, which I had been putting off for three years.

 Anywhoble, what has everyone been doing? I've just finished the courses for my Associates Degree at Ivy Tech, something I'm very excited about. Its taken three years, and the failing of only two courses. Since i can't walk until this comming May, I'm taking this semester to relax, work full time (if my boss can give the hours) start an etsy shop, get things in order for our move to Reno, and work on shedding the college weight I've gained. Which brings me to my resolutions.

 We all have a resolution. Well most of us anyway. I have several. First being time management. I want to better manage my time, now that I actually have time to manage. I want to get up earlier and be more productive. Which brings me to what I want to do with that time. I want to open an esty shop and sell some of the stuff I make on line. I need to produce some sort of inventory in order to do that.

  I want to do something about my weight. For Christmas, a friend gave me an exercise hoop by a company called Hoopnautica, with a dvd. The hoop is weighted, and comes apart in segments and a velcro strap so that its portable. I discovered hooping as en exercise when I first moved to Indianapolis. There was a young lady in my class who was a part of a proformance group of hula hoopers, I noticed that she was in shape. I did the research and hooping is a good low impact exercise. I'm excited to to hoop three and four nights a week. Another thing I've started is to eat better, now that I have time to cook something. I've also cut down on pepsi, my biggest vice. These are all things I want to do, with more time.

From the hoopnautica website, thier portable exercise hoop.

 So what are your resolutions? Have you already fallen off the wagon? Its ok. Each day is a new day, one day at a time.

 Holidays are the time to spend with family. I am very thankful that my younger brother, Jeremy, was able to come home for the holidays. He graduated from Basic and Infantry training on December 9th, and left for airborn training yesterday. We're very proud of him.

Graduation Day

Trying not to cry the day he leaves

 Jeremy has been dating Jessie for about nine months now. We've known Jessie and her family for about 13 years now. Her grandmother, Mary Simon and her mom, Peggy are two of the women I look up to most. They're strong, spiritual, beautiful women. Jessie's brother, Cheyenne, was my best friend. I was grateful and overjoyed that she could spend some time with us.

Jeremy and Jessie

 So do you spend time with families? Do you have to split time between families during the holidays? Do you even celebrate holidays? My younger siblings in Hawaii don't celebrate holidays due to thier faith. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The world is full of different religions, some do and don't celebrate certain holidays. If you don't celebrate Christmas, what do you celebrate, if at all? To me family is very important, and I was blessed to have a new family member this Christmas. My younger sister, Clarissa, got married, and I'm very excited for her.

My exceptionally pretty sister, and her husband.

 On the craft front, who made things for people as presents? I honestly wasn't able to do too much this year. I made ornaments for co workers, and a custom laptop case for a friend. That was about it. However after the holiday, I learned how to make a particular scarf. Its super easy, and hopefully later, I can make a tutorial.

Custom laptop sleeve

 Do you wear scarves? As a fashion accessory, or to keep warm? This one can function as both.

Its actually made of t shirts

  Another resolution is, I want to write in this blog more. I want to post more tutorials, and other things. I want to hear about other people's lives too.

 So until later, good luck with your resolutions, if you have any, and I hope the new years finds you well.

Love, Music, and Feathers people!

Preparing for Christmas, I give you Candy Wreaths!

Happy November!

It’s the week before Thanksgiving, I have the weekend off, and I have a ton to do. Not including my homework. Three papers due the week after Thanksgiving. But right now I don’t care, I’m putting it aside and getting some much needed crafting done.

Now I normally don’t like to have anything to do with Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Working in retail, we jump from Halloween straight to Christmas. I don’t like that Thanksgiving is skipped over. However, I’m having to plan out getting gifts, so I’m starting on things early.

 A few weeks ago I learned how to crochet on youtube, and decided that everyone is getting scarves for Christmas. I’ve been working on that between classes and on the bus. Another project that has been floating in my head is wreaths made of candy. These are actually really cheap to make, festive, and you can make them in a variety of colors.

Gather your materials. I went to Dollar Tree for my materials. It cost me four dollars for the materials, if you don’t include glue. You’re going to need a wreath. I chose a wicker wreath. The Dollar Tree also had floral foam circles, which a lot of people prefer for a more flat surface. Ribbon in any width you’d like, just make sure you have enough to wrap your wreath. I chose a wide white and silver ribbon. Glue. You can use super glue, hot glue, or rubber cement. I used E6000. This stuff is thick, sticky and takes forever to set. But when it does set, it will never come apart. Finally you’ll need candy. Whatever candy you’d like. I chose peppermints and cinnamon disks to go with a red and white theme.

Materials

 Start by gluing one end of the ribbon to the wreath. If your glue takes a while to set use a straight pin to keep the ribbon in place until it sets. Wrap the ribbon around the wreath entirely.

Now glue your candy to the front of your wreath all the way around.

If the glue takes a while to set, and you find your candy moving and slipping, and it comes individually wrapped, keep it in place with a straight pin.

You don’t have to do a pattern like I did, you can arrange the candy any way you like. Half and half or randomly. When you’re done, you should have candy glued the entire way around the wreath. You can stop here if you feel the need. I wanted to add a little bit more, so I added a row on the inside of the wreath. If you do this be sure the glue sets before turning the wreath to glue on more candy.

You don’t have to stop here. You can add a layer to the outside of the wreath too. You can also embellish your wreath with a bow if you like. I didn’t go any further. I like the simplicity of the two rows. Make sure you have a mechanism to hang your wreath. You can purchase a hook at a hardware store, or even the seasonal section at wal-mart to hang it. I attached some left over iridescent ribbon. I made this wreath in particular for my “adoptive” grandma Mary. I hope she likes it.

So is anyone else crafting gifts for the holidays? Does anyone have an interesting family traditions? This Christmas will be interesting. My brother, Jeremy, will be on leave before going off to Ranger school. His girlfriend, my “adoptive” little sister Jessie, will be joining us for a little while. I’m very excited.

Anyone have any Thanksgiving traditions? Anyone watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Or any parade?

I probably won’t be able to post again until class is out on December 18^th. If I pass all my classes then I will officially have completed the courses for my Associates of Fine Arts degree. Squee! Until then.

Love, music, and feathers people, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Halloween fun, anyone?

   Its October, my favorite month. For the most part, I love fall. Living in Carson City, NV when I was in elementary school, Halloween was always the best holiday for me. Dressing up, class parties, and trick or treating. I went to Bordewich Bray Elementary School for first through third grade, on the west side of Carson City, which is almost right at the base of C hill and the mountains. The area is lush with trees, and just a few blocks from Governor’s Mansion. Halloween holds a significant place in a Nevadan’s heart, as it is the day the state was established in 1864. Every year Governor’s Mansion and the surrounding area are decked out in their Halloween finest, the trees showing off their fall colors, and many of the homes in this area have historical significance. This is where the historic Ghost Walk Tour usually takes place. Now if you haven’t been on the Ghost Walk, I highly recommend it. It’s a guided by people in period costume, acting as historical figures. You travel from place to place where the actors tell you of the people they portray, the date of their birth, death, place of burial, their significance in Carson and Nevada history, and the history of the building you find them in. It really isn’t scary, but rather light hearted.

    Halloween in Indiana is a bit different. Usually outside activities aren’t possible due to cold or rain. It rains a lot here in the fall. But that doesn’t stop the trees from changing their colors, nor prevent people from having Halloween fun. There are a good half dozen professional haunted houses in the Indianapolis area. I’ve lived here two years, and the past two years I’ve gone to a different haunted house with a large group of friends. Necropolis was where we went the first year, and it was pretty good. Thanks to my friend Lou Lou’s brother, and an actor who couldn’t have had better timing we ended up laughing so hard our sides hurt. The second year, we traveled outside Indianapolis to Anderson, IN to a place called Indy Scream Park. It was late when we got there, around 11pm on Halloween night, and the cost for all five attractions was $25 if I remember right. All I can say is, totally worth it.

   This year the fates are cruel. It’s my last Halloween here, and it falls on Monday. I have to work. But I’m ok with it. I love seeing the little ones in their costumes. Last year and this year, our store had a promotion. Bring your child in costume during the designated time, we’ll put them in front of our Halloween backdrop, take their picture, and you receive a free 5x7 photo of your child. I’m really grateful to my boss for letting me design the backdrops the past two years. He also allows us to dress up, not just for one day, but two. The day before, to remind our customers that the next day is Halloween, and we dress up the day of. I try to wear two costumes to double the fun. I usually make them or come out with something from my closet. The first year I worked at CVS, I was a Geisha with the kimono I had worn to my high school graduation (and will wear to my graduation in May) and a gypsy with a black dress and corset from my closet. Last year, I had been a WWII factory worker, jeans rolled at the cuff, flats, and a cut up button down, and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, a dress I had gotten from the thrift store with different t shirts sewn in patches to it. This year, I’m dressing as a skeleton in tradition of Dias de los Meurtos (day of the Dead), and taking a new approach on the Sally costume.

   That’s what brings me to what I want to show you today. I began planning my Sally costume ahead of time. Right around the first of the month, I started looking for a pattern.  I had taken the t shirt scraps sewn to the dress for last year’s costume off and worn the dress underneath. I find it cute, and kinda makes me feel….well girly. Something I don’t often feel. Anywhoble… I found a pattern during Jo Ann’s Columbus Day sale, and bought three yards of unbleached muslin to make it.

Pattern

   Now you’ll see that the dress is a bias cut dress. Bias cut meaning the material is cut on the diagonal of the grain, sometimes giving the fabric an illusion of length if done properly. When I got home, I did a tracing of the dress, and drew the tracing to look as close to Sally’s dress as possible.

Tracing

   There were several ways I could make the fabric look like Sally’s dress, which is meant to look like several fabrics haphazardly sewn into a dress. I could assemble the dress then dissect it into sections, dye the sections into appropriate colors, and reassemble the dress. I wasn’t sure I could to that right. I also thought I could use fabric markers, but if you’ve ever colored with markers of any type on a large surface, you discover you run out of ink before you’ve finished, and unless you go slowly, your lines are showing and uneven. So my next plan was to paint the dye in the appropriate places. The thing is I noticed while watching the movie that yes the dress is many colors, but they all have the same brownish hue to them. I thought “Why not tea dye over it? Or under it? How will the dye react with the tea?” Has anyone ever tea dyed before? It’s very simple. I’ll explain in the moment.

   So what I did was I created three different swatches. One swatch will just the dye painted on muslin. One will be dye painted on muslin and tea dyed after it dried, and the last will be dye painted on muslin after its been tea dyed.

To tea dye, brew some hot tea. Enough to immerse your fabric, or whatever you wish to dye. I’ve dyed paper before. Let the tea steep and the fabric dye at the same time.  After the tea cools, remove the fabric and let it dry. Very simple.

Tea Dying

 Here are my results. Not bad. Although it’s a little early to tell, I think I’m going to go with the muslin tea dyed before painting.

fabric swatches. Top: Tea dyed after painting. Bottom: Tea dyed before painting. Right: No tea dye

  I’m not quite finished sewing my dress yet. I still have to finish the sleeves.

   So, anyone have any Halloween traditions of their own? What’s been your favorite costume?

Until later then,

Love, Music and Feathers people!

So what do I do?

Hey everyone, if you're new, I know I haven't shared much, but my life is crazy, especially right now with midterms. This entry is a look into my daily life.

 Here are the basics. I'm a student, a full time Fine Arts major at Ivy Tech Community College. This is my last semester. (I hope.) In December, I"ll have finished my associates degree (hopefully), and walk in May.

  I'm a cashier at CVS/Pharmacy. I work anywhere between 18 and 35 hours a week, depending on what my boss needs. My boss, Brent Bell, is pretty awesome.


  I dont drive. I've been in three car accidents in my life. Two as a passanger, and once as the driver. My best guy friend died in a car accident three years ago. Until recently, I would get very anxious when driving. Shallow breathing, flashbacks, and white knuckles. Thanks to my brother, over the summer I was able to gain confidence in my driving. Indianapolis has a good public tranportation system, so if I need to go anywhere, I take the bus.

   I'm engaged, to Mark Dimpfl, and yes we live together. We met three years ago, when his band was advertising for a singer on myspace, and I was bored. The wedding is tenatively planned for August 10, 2013.

  So what do you do in your daily life to make things interesting? I've never really stuck to a schedual, although now I'm trying, as to add more structure to my life.


 I'm sure I'm not the only person who has a crazy family, but I have an unusual one. I have mom, dad, Lance, and whoever he's married to at the time. Dad has four kids older than me, mom and dad have two kids together, and Lance has seven children younger than me. Altogether that's thirteen siblings. Want one? Lets just say, the wedding is going to be interesting.

 Do you have a large family? A small one? Or a complicated one like mine? What do you do during the week? Find your life boring? What would make it more interesting? What do you do to get through the most boring of days? Or do you find yourself with too little time in the day?


   Maybe I'll share more of my thoughts later, but I have a midterm tomorrow and Finance class starts tomorrow. Hopefully I can post more often soon.

   Love, music, and feathers people!

Technical Difficulties

   Sorry everyone for the issues. There was a mix up with Google+ and my last account, Little City Butterfly, was deleted. So for those of you who have followed me before, this is where I'm at now. Those of you who are just now discovering this blog, let me introduce myself. My name is Britanni, and I'm weird. I'm a full time Fine Arts student working to get an education, as well as working full time. I moved from a very small town called Silver Springs, Nevada to Gary, Indiana when I was 16. Someone put a bug in my dad's ear saying he needed to go to Bible college there. I moved to Indianapolis two years ago to start my own college journey with the hope of someday returning to Northern Nevada. I'll be moving back there in the next year or so.


   So in the mean time, I'm here sharing my thoughts, what I create, and my opinions on most things. I mostly post what I create, but tonight I'm glad to tell people I've decided on a logo for my Etsy shop, when I finally get it up and running. Hopefully in Janurary when I'm done with school and have more free time. So here it is.

So here it is. I'm hoping to have another post up later this week. Until then, Love, Music, and Feathers people!