March 2008 – Dabbled

Tutorial on Henri the Hexapus

Dot — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:56:00 +0000

Enter the April Fool Contest! Just a few more days!!

Finally! the ‘how to’ on how to create Henri! a fun little puppet made out of recycled sweater sleeves – more on Henri here.. I’ll post some pics of the finished Henri in action tomorrow.

So, I promised instructions, hopefully these are understandable. This can be modified to do a stuffed toy rather than a puppet by simply stuffing the head fully, and then sewing up the secondary sweater where the legs meet.

Click through to see/download the full size instructions.

Materials needed:
Two coordinating sweaters, felted. 1 sleeve from each.
Felt for eyes
Buttons (if you’re up for the fun of sewing on all those suckers!)
Embroidery thread
I sewed everything but the embellishments on the machine.

Prototype Henri:

If you try him, please let me see your results, and you can post to the new flickr group : http://www.flickr.com/groups/dabbled/

Illustration Friday – "Pet Peeves" and "Heavy"

Dot — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Pet Peeves

The Pig is Peeved.

My IF for this week is late, because I hadn’t finished last week’s, so I’m posting them together.
I decided to play off the theme I had started in Leap .. Mother Goose nursery rhymes– and to try to replicate the style.
So, what do you think? Cool?

Heavy

The queen is not a small woman, in fact, she’s quite heavy from her diet of bread and honey.

Henri, the Octo-puppet – prototype almost done!

Dot — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Don’t forget the April Fool contest — deadline extended to April 1!

OK, he’s actually a hexapus, since he only has 6 legs. And he was named after the Hexapus discovered in Britain (Henry), except for some reason my hubby keeps calling him Henri, so that is his name. I guess he’s french ;)

He’s entirely made out of two recycled sweater sleeves, a ton of buttons, and some scrap felt. I had the idea back in January and had made progress on actually doing something in early March

I was planning to make this a stuffed toy, but my toddler got ahold of the partially finished Henri and proclaimed “Muppet!!” while sticking his hand up the center. (He’s addicted to muppets and sesame street on youtube). So a puppet Henri shall be.

I’ve still got one leg of buttons to finish (what a pain!) and to stuff him slightly.
I’ll also be writing up a tutorial on how to create your own… :)

Tornado/storm pictures

Dot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Pictures of the storm clouds and the tornado in Atlanta over St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

This was on friday. Note the funnel cloud in the center and the sunlight on the ground.

I think this was the Saturday storms.

Click through for full size..

Tornados, blackouts, and other points of interest

Dot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:37:00 +0000

On Friday @ 11:00 a.m. my dear sweetie decided we were going to drive down to Savannah to party with several of our good friends for St Patricks Day. So we packed up the car and the 2 year old, and headed out on the 4 hour trip. Leaving behind a defenseless Atlanta to be attacked by a marauding tornado. The tornado hit only a few miles from us, so I was pretty glad to be out of town. Then Saturday night we’re hanging out wandering around downtown Savannah (looking for a gay kareoke bar–don’t ask) when all of a sudden we see lights going out down the street, and we find out that the entire multi-county area around Savannah has lost all power. We never did find the place we were looking for, but we ended up finding a cool little bar (Pinkie Master’s) that was serving beer by candlelight for cash. So, not your typical night out, but much fun was had by all.

So that’s my long explanation of why I didn’t finish any projects this weekend and haven’t done my Illustration Friday pic yet.

So, to tide you over, here’s a nifty instructable on how to make a childrens board book! (via Parenthacks)

Orange Infused Vodka and Apple Martini

Dot — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:56:00 +0000

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Orange , originally uploaded by griegatlanta.

Nope, this is not a how to make killer martinis post, just an appreciation of these very cool photographs by Grieg

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Apple Martini, originally uploaded by griegatlanta.

Apple Martini! YUM!

How to Make a cute Kids Stove (Upcycling Tutorial)

Dot — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:18:00 +0000

Make a Fun Kid’s Playstove from an Old Side Table

Check it out – I plied the husband with much beer to get him to document the process for creating the Playstove, and the full Tutorial with lotsa pics and diagrams, is available on Whip Up. The theme for Whip Up this month is kids crafts, so be sure to check out all the other cool stuff.

Get the .pdf of the Tutorial here!

April Fool Contest Update

Dot — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:10:00 +0000

Hi all,
We’ve gotten some good interest in the April Fools Contest–email or post here if you have questions. I can’t wait to see what everyone does! So spread the word, the more the merrier. Remember it’s crafty stuff, art, or food this time. You’ve got two more weeks, so get crackin!

I’ve updated the orginal post with the announcement of our third judge:
Lenore from Evil Mad Scientist

Our other illustrious judges include Alice of Futuregirl and kathreen of Whip Up !

Cool stuff roundup

Dot — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:32:00 +0000

Love this tutorial from Jim Zubkavich (it’s 3 posts, read them all). (via Drawn!) Some great technique. I’m definitely going to try some of his tips on my next piece. (Alot more detailed than my own little pencil sketch to line art tutorial)

Also, CleverDad created a really cute dinosaur onesie using the Freezer Paper Stencil technique. I love his design, and I love it when I can provide inspiration for others to do cool craftiness! If you create something inspired by something you found here, be sure to let me know!

In other news, some highlights of stuff I found recently on Make: (a favorite website of mine)
Make links to a cool tutorial on how to make Slime!
and also Citiscapes made from kitchen stuff
and.. A cool staircase/bookcase
and.. Paper Jewelry
and… The Better View curtain
and last but not least… Nifty jewelry and other stuff made from computer parts

Illustration Friday – Garden

Dot — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:20:00 +0000

Don’t forget about the April Fool contest!
(Click through to see the full illo)

Anatomy of a Doodle, part 2.
Worked out nicely with this week’s IF theme, it’s the (in)organic garden. I like it! Surrealism is one of my favorite genres, and this was fun to color. The light sources are totally inconsistent, intentionally.

Pencil sketch, scanned and colored in photoshop.