Tiki's DIYary #3 ^-^...today : ~~ "Good Morning, Mr.Magpie" Bag ~~

Say hello to Mr.Magpie!
. . . I'm really excited to present my third  Making-Of to you guys! *yay* ^^

This time I tried something else and am not un-proud to upload my first DIYary VIDEO! . . . ;)

As in the last DIYary, it shows the steps from a plain blanco cotton bag, to a unique accessory tote,

that you can even purchase in my shop !!! =D)

Hope you will enjoy. . . 

(and maybe feel inspired to try it yourself, when you see how easy it is;)

in case the Video below isn't shown right .. check out directly on YouTube, HERE

If there's anything you like or didn't about this, or you have any kind of tips and critique - please feel invited to shout it out in the comments!

<3

Tiki

Tiki's DIYary #2 ^-^...today : ~~ Chevron & Arrows doodle Bag ~~

Want it?...get it HERE

Hey fellow crafty-lovers!
. . .Finally I'm able to present another Making-Of! *yay*

This ain't really going to be a tutorial, because it's just too easy to do. . . ;)

But in case you're interested in watching the steps from a simple plain 1€ cotton tote to a unique handmade piece of Accessoire. . .

(that you can even purchase in my shop !!! =D)

. . . you might hopefully enjoy the following images. ^-^

All you need. . . (besides LOVE & fun ;b)

a plain natural white (or whatever uni-color you like) cotton bag   
(You can find these easily on the internet, or at the  supermarket,. . . you know, the stuff the have under the checkout counter, where the plastic bags are,too. But maybe you need to search a little, till you find a supermarket that has NOT already prints of their logo on the bags. In Germany I found them in Kaufland stores.)

textile / laundry marker
(There are two different types. Next to the usually sold pens, that come in various colors and are washable till 30-60°C, there are these laundry markes, which are mostly black and withstand up to 90°C. I recommend those for durability, but you need to know, that they're not as saturated in color as the others! )

ruler (optional)

iron (for fixing the marker)

On one side, I wanted a chevron pattern.

. . .Simply started out with the first ziagzag lining.

Next thing is to decide about the width between the lines.

I made little dots for every edge point. (Think I measured it with the ruler. . .)

. . .That way you can simply connect the dots afterwards and draw

nice and straight lines without much effort.

. . . FOR THE COMPLETE ARTICLE :

Grand opening of Tiki's DIYary!!! ^-^...today : ~~ Hand-painting a color lined Shirt ~~

So here's the first CRAFTY POST I'm sending out. =D
I'm really excited to publish this! ^-^

Actually it's nothing special for you Readers, but since I'm new to the Blogworld, and still got a lot to learn, this Project - or more precisely: its documentation - took me a lot of work and time.
The making of the shirt itself, took only a few hours (plus drying time), but it was a long road to the point I'm writing this. Exams in college and the start of a new semester afterwards kinda got me stuck in a whole lot of other things to do than blogging. :/
But as I tried to introduce in the latest post on the whole idea of that DIYary section here, I'm gonna just try to go through the making of that crafty stuff here, documenting what happened, and maybe shouldn't have happened. You can re-craft this, or improve the idea for your own needs, learn from my mistakes, or just scroll through the pictures and think what a fool I am thinking this would be interesting at all...
whatever you like - hope you enjoy it.
And please feel free to leave critical comments...;)

BEFORE         -            AFTER

For the design I roughly played around on Photoshop to get an idea.
I saved pics of basic shirts from the H&M online shop before, so I can
digitally paint over them to try out how designs will look in the end  and how big I should make them.
This was the 5-minutes messy sketch I made for this graphical top.

Here's the raw materials I used. 

• a plain white cotton shirt from our favourite swedish fashion empire;)  
  (I love these, because they're incredibly cheap (about 5€), available in various colors and - which is crucial for me personally - long enough!)

Of course every other shirt will do. But be sure it is 100% cotton or linen or other natural fabric. I experienced that the paint doesn't stay well on synthetic fiber like polyester or something like that. That is true even for mixed textiles, that contain just about 5% spandex, like a lot of basic shirts unfortunately do. Another point is, that you need to iron the fabric with maximum heat to fixate. Some materials get ruined by that.
 So just check the label before you start.

• self-adhesive book foil        (it's my first try working with this foil as stencil material. It's simply that transparent stuff you can wrap around your study books or something, to protect them from dirt, liquid, scratches and co. You'll find it in any stationary store or supermarket)
• textile paint (I like Javana Tex or Marabu, which are both similar in prices and I never made bad experience with those. They're available in almost every arts or hobby supplies shop)
• two simple brushes - 1 bristle brush (for tapping the paint onto the stencil) and 1 thin brush (for the manual corrections afterwards)
• scissors & cutting knife (crafting scalpel)
• cutting mat
• triangle ruler (suggesting a big one - 30cm)
• big sheet of cardboard (cut to size, that fits inside the shirt - covering all the area you want to paint)
• ball-pen or pencil
• a sheet of backing paper
• flat iron

Huh, what?! DIYary?...

or: an Introduction

     Though I happen to be an architecture&design student, I find myself still quite far from being a professional crafter.

So I thought ..well, wouldn't it be kinda strange to start acting like a tutor here? 

Here in this huge web-world, that's packed with skilled experts in just about every topic and niche…

     ' How could I dare teaching anyone anything?!...'

For I, myself are still a regularly peeking DIY-tutorial-student!

     But then,… that thesis came to my mind, that I'm actually somehow incapable of doing things exactly how they are described anyways.

Seriously, I got some issues there…

     It's just a quirky fact, that I really seem to be off my head when it comes to recipies and similar guided instructions! Something inside me vehemently strives against it... and thereby against my will, too.

     So I regularly end up making things by my own Trial&Error and succumb to the force to take various, often painfully idle alterations, no matter how great the tutorial …

     (making me also an unbelievably bad cook and forced-to-eat-my-food-aloner)...

No matter how much I really want to make that [bag/crochet/papercut/print/cake/drink..etc.] e x a c t l y  how they show it (for it looks just wonderful!), I just can't!

'..whoops!' I go, and find a handful of frozen raspberries in my glass of  "Caipirinha" that I was just happy to have ready to serve… 'Damn, who did that?! =/' … 

     I don't know if there's someone out there, who might recognize this pattern..

-- if so please mail me! Maybe we can start up a self-help group ;) --

     Now, taking into account that - as in case of the raspberries! (try it!!) - these alterations do sometimes bring out splendid results, I thought I could maybe make something like a DIY-diary of my trials through creative crafting. ('hey, wait: DIYary! nice…')

     I'm not sure how far, or actually IF this will significantly differ from a DIY tutorial anyways, but I'm pretty sure  I'll make mistakes during the documentation of things, and also (definitely) change my mind at the very doing moment more than once… and this, I'm going to let you see and maybe be warned better to avoid producing a mess like I'll certainly do.

     So… long story short: ^-^

What you can expect from my DIYary pages will be roentgenized trial to (hopefully) nice & beautiful  "stuff" that bring a little more fun into everyday life. ^-^

     There will rather be craft-storytelling, than before-after short-cuts. (Though I might give those, too, for those with short time or temper;)

      I will (not on purpose) make mistakes here and there for you, so that you can do it right in the end. ;)

Meaning that I'll hide no accidents, slips or faults from you, and try to share my experience and thoughts about it as good as I can, giving tipps, tricks and suggestions on variations, too. ^-^

    

     Hope you're gonna enjoy it.

...to be continued

Though my blog here is very young and there might be not a single regular reader just yet, I want to state briefly, why there have been no recent posts for the last 10 days or so. I'm currently stuck deep in my semester-ending exam phase and really busy&stressed with that right now. But I think by the time of the upcoming weekend, I'll go into posting here again. I plan to finally bring my first DIYary share on then! =)
I'm really excited already... So if you like, check back in on the weekend! ^-^//
Cheers,
Tiki