Adventure Time Shoes

My son LOVES this cartoon Adventure Time on the Cartoon Network. So I thought after making the Angry Bird shoes for my niece that I would make a pair of Adventure Time shoes for him for Christmas.

I didn't realize how hard it was to find simple white canvas slip on shoes for boys but I finally gave up after the only ones I found were expensive and I would have to pay shipping also. I found these black OP ones at Walmart for only $10.

I was planning on painting a whole setting for the characters on the shoe but since the shoes were black I decided to just do all the main characters with the background the shoe. I think it makes them stand out more and it certainly make the painting easier and faster.

He hasn't opened them yet but these shoes are bound to be his favorite because

1. Finn and Jake
2. something to show off at school and
3. he won't have to tie his laces anymore!!

If you want to know what paint/technique to make these check out the Angry Bird shoes I made.
Hope you all are having a good holiday season!

Apple Ornament for Teachers- Made from a Book!

Doing a goggle image search for an idea for a teacher's Christmas gift I ran across this neat idea from texascottage.blogspot.com. I thought it would be a neat idea for a teacher's gift, I mean what says Teacher more than books and apples!!!

Here's  how I did mine:
First you find a book that you don't mine cutting up. Then remove the front cover and draw & cut out a half of apple shape on to the removed cover.

Use this cut piece as a template to cut the half apple from the book. You need to make sure you place the edge on the spine of the book and not cut this edge.

Use an exacto knife to cut down as far as you can into the book, cutting around the cover as a template.

Continue to flip the cut pages over and cut until you make it all the way through the book.

When done use a scissor to even out the pages and make sure to fold the front page to the back page together make sure that the pieces match, if they don't just trim until they do.

When done it will look like this:

Now is a good time to put the front page and back page together, fan out the pages and see if you need want less pages- really just your preference to how full you want your apple to be.

Next I took red acrylic paint and added water to dilute it. The water will make the color lighter and also let the color bleed into the apple. Now hold the book with all the pages together paint the edges.

After painting you need to dry the pages with a blow dryer so they don't stick together. If you let the pages fan out while drying them it makes the pages spread out nice and evenly- I think it is the heat loosening the glue on the spine of the book.

Next glue a piece of stick into the spine of the book. I used fabric glue because I have found it holds really well and it doesn't make the pages wrinkle. Then glue the front and back pages together and hold them closed with paper clips or binder clips. Only glue the front and back pages together but paper clip more than those 2 pages so that the book drys with the pages spread out.

I let mine dry overnight and voila! A finished book apple! I sprayed mine with clear spray varnish to make the pages a little stiffer.
After making this apple I decided that it would be cuter and more practical to make the apple smaller and into an ornament. So I went back and did all these steps but smaller (I actually fit two onto one book)  and then tied a piece of fishing line onto the "stem" so that this could be a Christmas ornament.

I love the finished product & the teachers loved it too! Might be making these for future teachers for years to come!

Angry Bird Shoes

It's that time again! Christmas is a few weeks away and I am finishing up some of the gifts I am making for friends and family. Here are the Angry Bird Shoes I painted for my niece Kendalyn.

She is 13 and a big fan of her cell phone and Angry Bird app. So when I saw these shoes: Angry Bird Shoes I thought they would be perfect for the really hard to shop/make something for, teenage girl.

All I did was sketch out the characters onto the shoes, paint them with fabric paint, then seal them with a clear acrylic spray paint. (Click here if you want to read up on options to seal your painted shoes.)

I am happy with the way they turned out and excited for the next pair I am painting tonight, after my son goes to sleep,.... Adventure Time!

Mother Bird Nest Necklace

I have been seeing these Bird Nest Necklaces around lately and thought they were really neat! So I was pleasantly surprised when on pinterest one afternoon I found a tutorial on Sarah Ortega's website to make my own.

Off I went to hobby lobby for supplies- chain, 24 gauge silver wire (I also got bronze because it will look more like brown twigs but decided to make my first nest with the silver since it matched the chain) and your choice of beads.
Follow this tutorial here: DIY Nest Necklace

I put 3 eggs in my nest since I have 3 birds. I started off putting the eggs in the color of their birth stones but with 2 blue and one pink (March and October) it looked like I had 2 boys and a girl (I have 2 girls and a boy) so I just picked some colors I liked that complimented each other. I think I will make some more of these charms for Christmas gifts this year!

(Back of the charm.)