Finally, a sewing machine!

I've wanted a sewing machine for quite some time now, and I FINALLY managed to get my hands on one. I found it at the local Salvation Army for $30. I set myself up a little sewing area in my living room (my bedroom/craft room/office is already full, so it was the only spot left in the house --- in between the TV and the bookshelf). So far it has been working quite well for me, minus the fact that I'm a little... 'rusty' in the sewing department. However, I've been making tons of zipper pouches for myself and friends, and I'm finally getting myself back into the swing of things. I've spent quite a bit of money on some awesome fabrics, mostly stuff imported from
Japan, and lots of colorful zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. Once I start going, I will hopefully be making a lot, so be sure to start looking for zipper pouches in my shop! I also have a pile of clothes that have been waiting for me to get a sewing machine so they could be fixed but... well, fixing pants is just not nearly as fun as sewing zipper pouches!

I posted a picture of one of my pouches on my Flickr, feel free to judge my awesome skills! I'm making Dave a padded case for his Nintendo DS for Valentine's Day, so I will post pictures of that as soon as I get it done. I'm also going to start trying to come up with a pattern for some of those mini business card wallets that everyone seems to have, and of course I will be making some buttons with some of my scrap pieces of fabric.

I also have ambitious thoughts of making myself and awesome skirt, and a messenger-style sort of purse, but I think I need to stick with the slightly more simple stuff for now...

A new love...

As part of my "expanding" into new hobbies, I decided to take a step back into my childhood and start playing with Perler beads again. You know, those colorful little tube-like beads that you put on the pegboard and melt with the iron?

Yep. Those.

Well, thanks to a fun little ebay shopping excursion, I have about 20,000 perler beads in a variety of colors to play with:



I picked up some peboards and ironing paper at Hobby Lobby, and I've been searching for fun patterns and ideas online for a few days. So far some of my favorites have been various video-game sprites, especially pacman and old-school mario. I don't have any finished products yet, as I'm still waiting to get my iron back from someone that I loaned it to, but as soon as I do you can bet that I will blog about it! I plan on making magnets, coasters, boxes, keychains, necklaces, earrings... Pretty much everything.

If you know of any good patterns or have some crazy ideas, feel free to share!

Matchbook notebooks!

Ok, so I've seen those cute little matchbook notebooks all over Etsy, and they seemed like really fun, cute, easy-to-make things that I could use for promos, or to just keep in my pocket (I love making lists, writing random notes, etc, so it's convenient!). So I ventured to google to search for a tutorial, and found this one on greetingarts' blog.
I read through the tutorial, whipped out my supplies, and made one of my very own! I used brown cardstock, because I love brown/tan/other 'natural' colors, then stamped a red dragon on the front for decoration. Just stamping something on the front seems pretty boring, I know, but this was my first one! I have all sorts of ideas for decorating other ones :)


I only put twelve pages on the inside, because I'm not really sure how much my little mini stapler can handle. I recycled paper though! I have a huge stack of paper in my room, mostly from articles I have printed off for research papers or other random papers I have that are only printed on one side. I've been hoping for something to come up to use those for, and now I have something!


These little notebooks are so fun, I'm off to make a few more for myself before I have to go to class! Be sure to check out greetingarts' blog and take a look at the tutorial to make some for yourself!

To continue...

I found the button maker that I want on eBay. It's the Tecre 1.25" model -- $210, new, comes with 100 button parts. I'm still on the lookout for a used one, but if that fails, this is what I'm going with. I managed to spend nearly $50 at hobby lobby last night (oh so much beautiful paper and stamps and punches!!!!), so I really can't just go out and buy this button maker right now. I made myself promise to myself (trust me, it makes sense) that I wouldn't buy it until I had at least $50 in my paypal account to cover part of the cost. So that means I have to CRAFT CRAFT CRAFT and SELL SELL SELL. I'm taking tons of pictures today, hopefully, so I will be able to list some new stuff tonight and tomorrow :)

Well, that's about it for now. I'm in the midst of doing laundry, cleaning my room, and emailing my professors, and I have a meeting in 2 hours, so I should go get everything done.

Mommy, I want one!!!

So I've wanted a button maker for a rather long time, because I have all sorts of ideas in my head for cute, fun buttons to make and sell. Plus, I'm a button whore (you should see my purse/backpack/etc). But button makers are SO expensive... (for anyone who's never looking into getting a button maker, new ones start at $200 plus...) I want to make sure I get the right one the first time, so it's worth the investment. I've been poking around the Etsy forums, and it seems that nearly everyone prefers Tecre brand over the Badge-a-Minit ones, so it seems like that is the one I will be going with. I'm also pretty sure I want to go with the 1 1/4" sized buttons, although I'm still toying around with the 1" ones. I think those might almost be too small though -- I know for my "personal " use, I tend to prefer the slightly larger ones. However, I also need to know what will sell better... If I'm shelling out over $200 for one of these machines, I need to at least make that money back on it. I'm not sure how well buttons will sell on Etsy, I think it's kind of a hit or miss, but I am pretty sure they will go pretty well at some of the craft shows I will be going to during the summer. I live in a college area, and lots of college and high school aged people like spending a dollar or two on their own little 'pieces of flair.'
Ugh... there's just so much to think about. I'm going to keep poking around on Ebay and hoping that I can find a used one, because that will save me at least $50. It would be awesome if I knew someone personally that didn't want theirs anymore and would be willing to sell it to me for fairly cheap, but so far it looks like I don't know anyone that makes buttons, or used to make buttons and doesn't want to anymore...