Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Great Pumpkin! Cute Thing of the Week!

I always see these plain plastic pumkins at Micheal's that you can take home and paint yourself. Sadly, I'm not much of a painter, so I know I could never come up with something as awesome as this. This great Charlie Brown tribute comes courtesy of Craftster user MissKerouac. Click on her name to see more amazing pictures of this one from other angles, and check out that little polymer clay Woodstock hanging off on the right. Great attention to detail!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Potato the Squirrel - Dressed for Halloween! Cute Thing of the Week!

There's no way I could let Halloween go by without a nod to Glee's Potato Squirrel, all dressed up for Halloween. I've been in awe of these critters since I first saw them on Craftster many, many months ago. They are one of my inspirations for getting into this whole world of amigurumi in the first place. Just don't ask me to pick a favourite because I really can't decide, they're just too cute. Many months ago I invented this pirate variation for a friend and right now I'm making the ghost squirrel, but I don't think I'll have it done in time for Halloween. Oh well, I'll just add it to my growing collection of unusual Christmas decorations.

Want the Pattern?

The Halloween costumes are an ad-on, (Dare I say, expansion pack?) for Glee's original Potato the Squirrel pattern which is sold through her online shop as a pdf file. The original Potato the Squirrel pattern is $4.50 US and the Halloween variations are $2.50 for the set. If you want to make the Halloween versions you'll need to buy both patterns since the basic body shape instructions aren't included with the Halloween instructions.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

They're Huge! And They Glow...

Everything is better when it glows in the dark, isn't it? And yes, I'm slightly obsessed with the going crafty MST3K chart because it is so versatile. In the back of my mind I still have plans for a giant tunisian crochet afghan made with this chart. I could then snuggle up in that afghan while watching MST3K and enjoying tasty beverages that are safely nestled on my new MST3K Glow-In-the-Dark coasters! These were made with yellow glow-in-the-dark perler beads and black beads. I bought a bag of 1,000 yellow beads and making these nearly used all of them. I have maybe a hundred left. I haven't put cork on the back of the coasters yet because I'm still toying with the idea of making them into fridge magnets. I like the idea of seeing their eerie glow everytime I pass by the kitchen when the lights are out.


I've discovered that with a basic digital camera and very little knowledge about photography it is very hard to take good pictures of things that glow-in-the-dark. Please excuse the blurriness of the photos, I just wanted to give everyone an idea of what the coasters look like when the lights are out. The top photo has been enhanced with Photoshop to show you the glowing effect. The second darker picture shows you what my photo looked like without any enhancements. In real life the glowing effect is quite nice and easy to see in the dark, especially if you let the coasters charge up for a few minutes in bright light.



Want to see my colourful set of MST3K coasters?

Friday, October 17, 2008

The Swamp Witch! Cute Thing of the Week!

I just love the idea of crochet books having expansion packs. After all, the expansion packs are my favorite part of The Sims.

Creepy Cute Crochet author Christen Haden has created this adorable expansion for her collection of crocheted zombies, ninjas, robots, vampires and more. You'll need the original book for the basic head, body, and arms. Once you have that, surf on over to her site to get the free instructions for how to make this wonderful swamp witch. Haden was also kind enough to include some wonderful photos to show the visual learners out there how to assemble all the pieces once they are crocheted. You can also scroll through her archives to find further tutorials to help you understand some of the more complicated instructions in the Creepy Cute Crochet book.

If I had time to make a swamp witch mine would wear a black hat and dress and have purple hair! Or maybe she'd just have purple trim on her dress. I'm still pretty intimidated by the hair making process.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I Guess I'll Call Him Corny

During last week's Cute Thing of the Week I provided my readers with two blank canvases that they could turn into their own cute masterpieces. Here for you now I have my own sample of how you can add a little personality to Lion Brand's Candy Corn pattern. I managed to put this little guy together in less than an hour last weekend. What a great pattern. It's very easy to follow and very quick to work up. (Although I have to confess I didn't use the recommended Lion Brand yarn.) Corny here was made using some left over scraps of Bernat Satin.

I'm not the only one who has been enchanted by this quick and easy pattern. I also found these adorable marching candy corns that were posted by kala on Craftster.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Glow in the Dark Yarn Revisited

A few weeks back I was speculating about glow in the dark yarn and wondering what it would be like to work with. While I was able to find a few pictures of finished products made with the Nightlights brand, I wasn't able to find any realistic photos of finished objects that had been made with the new Bernat version. Now thanks to crittendawg I have this wonderful sample:

I have to admit this is a lot more glowy than I expected an item made from this stuff would be. Crittendawg was also kind enough to share a few thoughts on my original post about what she thought of working with this stuff. Just in case you don't feel like clicking back and searching through the comments, I'll save you the trouble by reprinting her thoughts here:

I have tried out the Bernat yarn, it's not bad. The texture isn't that great but hey, it is glow in the dark! It gets stuck sometimes on the hook and isn't as flexible as other yarns but by no means is it impossible to work with. I love Bernat Berella 4 for amis because it is easy to work with, but this one feels more like Caron's Simply Soft.. it feels a little weird.
I made a couple things that I put on my flickr page with it, and here is a link to a photo of a star I made, glowing - http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyssacritt/2893589965/
So anyway I agree with you that it is good for amigurumi and other small things because it is pretty expensive. Also I'd like to point out that only one strand (I think) actually glows, so you get an interesting glowing texture after you crochet with it. Let me know if you've got any other questions?

Friday, October 10, 2008

Free Candy Corn and Pumpkin Patterns! Cute Thing of the Week!

Consider the Cute Thing of the Week a bit of a blank canvas this week. Two basic Halloween related patterns that you can add your own creativity to. Add eyes and other facial features to make them into amigurumi or just leave them as is and use them as decorations or quick Halloween gifts. The pumkin comes courtesy of PlanetJune and I have to give honourable mention to her PocketAmi Set 3: Halloween (Ghost, Witch, Black Cat) which is also an absolutely wonderful creation and a great deal at only $5.

The Candy Corn is a free pattern available from Lion Brand. Every time I look at it I want to sit down and crochet some for myself, but sadly I just don't have the time this week. Hopefullly, sometime before Halloween I'll get a chance. You'll need to sign up for the free membership to access this one, but it's well worth it. It gives you access to hundreds of free patterns on the Lion Brand site and the only downside will be all the time you spend looking at those patterns instead of doing the other things you're "supposed" to be doing online!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Eyeball Door Knob Cover - Free Pattern!

You'll have to excuse the pun, but I've had my eye on this little creation ever since it first appeared on Craftster last year. I still haven't had a chance to make any of these though. I got all excited about it then looked around my house and realized that all but one of our doors have handles instead of knobs. Of course I'm sure that one lonely door knob could use a little cozy, right? This clever little eyeball was made by bella_domanie and you can view the free pattern for it here.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Little Bat Pattern! Cute Thing of the Week!

Welcome to October! Since my tastes tend to run towards the strange, the unusual, the creepy and the cute, I'm really looking forward to seeing all the creative things people put out there this Halloween season. Time permitting I'm hoping to get a Cute Thing of the Week out every Friday in October and with luck most of these will be projects that have free patterns or at the very least, are relatively cheap. That way if you feel inspired, you can get working on them right away and have them decorating your home or office space before Halloween.

To start us off I thought I'd feature shala_beads adorable Little Bat Pattern. This is a free pattern that you can view here. How great would it be to have a few of these guys hanging from the celing or in your doorframes?