DIY Kitty Cat Flats from Kittenhood and Scathingly Brillant!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! A post was pointed out to me on the Kittenhood blog where Kate from Scathingly Brilliant guest blogged about some cute DIY cat toe shoes! Of course, being the crafty person that I am, had to give these a try myself! You can click the link to the Kittenhood blog above and it will take you to the original post. 

For the face and ears, I hand painted them on freehand and for the eyes, I used the other end of my paintbrush! Lastly, I also added on a coat of Modge Podge to the design to help seal it a bit. 


Here is my visual step by step:

                                     

These flats are so adorable, I can't wait to wear them! Thanks to Kittenhood and Scathingly Brilliant for giving me a cute new pair of shoes to add to my wardrobe!

DIY Katy Perry Candy Buttons Costume!

As I've written in past posts, last year I went to a Katy Perry concert. So when it came time to find a costume for Halloween, I knew just what I should be, but picking just ONE outfit out of all the fun costumes she wears was pretty hard! All the packaged Katy costumes were pretty pricey and I wanted something I could get more than one use out of. I'll note where to get the same or similar items at the end of the post so you can put your costume together too!
I wanted this look:

So I ended up getting a petticoat tutu from the Leg Avenue brand, this is especially useful because you can decorate it up any way you want. I got some colored sheets of sticky glitter foam from Michael's, then cut them into circles and sewed them on with a couple of stitches since the sticky backs weren't enough to hold them on.

And voila, there's the main part of your costume! Now you just need to add a blue wig, sparkly shoes and fun candy accessories and you're done!

Here was the final product the way I wore it:

And here are the sources for my main items!

*White Petticoat tutu: Party City
*Colored glitter foam sheets: Michael's or most any craft store
*Headband: Katy Perry Web store (not necessary but held my wig on nicely!)
*Candy Buttons Jewelry: I made my own and wrote a post about it last year, seen HERE.
*Glitter Heels: I wore silver sequin ones from Rampage, style name: Greer
*Blue Wig: I got mine from a random store here quite cheap but Party City has them and I've also seen them on eBay.

A note about the tutu petticoat, the tank top part is rather thin so I added another white tank top under it. I also suggest a pair of white bike/running shorts under the tutu as it's quite short.

I hope this helps you come up with a totally Katy costume for Halloween or other fun events!

DIY Coming Up Roses Earrings from P.S. I Made This!

I was approached by a friend who saw the post for these earrings on the P.S. I Made This' blog to see if I could make these earrings since I'm craftier than she is.
I ended up making two versions and even a pair for myself!
Here is the original blog post with visual instructions:
http://psimadethis.com/post/19396064783/everythings-coming-up-roses-sweet-smelling?a0da1b90

I only changed a couple of things. First, I did not use fishing wire to attach the earring backs because it was too hard for me to tie and place properly, so I just used super glue and glued the earring posts/clips onto the back of the flower. I had to rough up the back of the flowers a bit to get the glue to adhere better. Secondly, one friend wanted them with pierced backs rather than clips and with smaller flowers and those are pictured as well.


And here are my final results!


These are the smaller flowers with pierced posts:

Turquoise and peach clip versions with larger flowers:

My Own Take on the Galaxy Nails!

Since joining Pinterest, I've come across all kinds of fun things to try out, from recipes to nail art. One that particularly caught my eye was "galaxy" type nails, where you give your nails an ombre effect, going from light to dark. I wanted to try it out and obviously I knew I wouldn't get it to look this good (picture courtesy of spoki.lv via beautylish, click on the picture to go to the site):



Obviously I'm by no means a nail art expert, I just like trying different looks. So I have quite a few choices to use for this look, didn't realize I had so many shades of blue!



And I decided on using NYC's "Skintight Denim Creme" as a base, quick splotches of Sinful Color's "Gorgeous" over that, OPI's "Happy Anniversary" fine glitter and Sinful Color's silver glitter followed by a topcoat. And for the white dots for "stars", I used Nailene's tip pen but you can use any white. I think if I did it again, I wouldn't do the white dots.

Here's NYC's Skintight Denim Creme (one of my favorite shades!) with Sinful Color's "Gorgeous" splotched over it. Some sites say to use a makeup sponge but I just barely had any color on the brush and dotted around in random places.


Then the final look with the colors I used:


And a daylight shot since I took the other pictures last night and the light wasn't the greatest!




So for a first try, I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out, though as I said, I probably wouldn't do the white bits next time.

Candy Button Resin Necklace Project!

If you're a DIY-er like me, you're always seeing inspiration everywhere. I'm going as Katy Perry for Halloween this year, probably my most involved costume yet. I'm altering my costume (I got a white tutu and am putting sparkly dots on it) and making my jewelry. So if you want to make your own candy button jewelry too, here's how I did it!

Get your Candy Buttons (the kind on the white paper) and clean them up a bit, as they have a tendency to take some of the paper with them when you pop them off.
You'll want to seal the candies so they don't disintegrate in the resin and the color doesn't bleed. In an area with lots of ventilation, spray them with at least two coats of an acrylic spray, I used Krylon. Let dry between coats.



They'll move around a bit but make sure they're coated well!



Make sure they're completely dry, mix up your resin (I use Castin Craft's clear epoxy) and only fill your molds about 1/4 of the way full, just enough to cover the candies. Put your candies in the resin the way you want them. I wanted them to look just like the real thing so I went with the pink/yellow/blue situation. Let cure for as long as required, most require a day to cure.




Now for your final resin step, you can do this in many ways. You can use more clear resin in the last layer and put glitter in it, sprinkles, whatever you want! I used a resin type that cures white, just because I wanted it to look like the candies were on the white paper tape.
Additionally, I wanted some sparkle, so I used a glittery varnish over the piece.




And just because I wanted something fun on my own piece, I put little crystal hearts on the chain and made myself a ring too!




You can make these your own in so many ways, so as long as you have time (and the patience!), you can make tons of fun, unique pieces!

P.S., if you don't have the patience, I have one made up for you to buy in my Etsy shop!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/84580068/sweet-tooth-candi-button-resin-necklace

A DIY Vintage Inspired Necklace!

I recently came across my grandma's old vintage rhinestone and crystal jewelry from the late 50's and 60's not long ago. I've been wearing the various necklaces a LOT and am now hunting for different colored pieces to complete my color spectrum. But what I really wanted was a piece with stones in different shapes, sizes and colors, which has proved nearly impossible to find anywhere online despite my constant search.

I considered making one and thought it would be impossible until I got myself into Michael's the other day and searched for supplies. I somehow found myself down the sticker aisle and found these great, vintage style stones, even in settings, in different shapes and colors! I then hustled back to the jewelry area and found clear rhinestone chain just like so many vintage pieces have, my only dilemma was how to attach said stones to the necklace.

Lo and behold, I found flatback head pins and figured I could glue the head pins to the stones then attach the stones to the necklace! Granted, this necklace is very lightweight in comparison to real vintage pieces but it serves my purpose and has gotten many compliments so far!

Below is a picture of the supplies I used, obviously not shown but needed are small pliers (I had two pairs of needle nose pliers, round pliers and cutters to cut the wire) and some super glue (I used Gorilla brand super glue). Next to that is the final product!

Huge Supplies Contest at Julie's Bits Blog!

Julie's Bits Blog has a huge contest going on until the end of August! She's giving away lots of great supplies such as what's shown in the picture below. Can't you just imagine all the fun things you can make with your winnings?




Photo above from Julie's Bits Blog

Here's the link to the contest, there are tons of easy ways to enter, good luck!!

http://juliesbits.blogspot.com/p/august-2011-huge-supplies-giveaway-over.html

Semi-Wordless Wednesday for my Artsy Friends!

Making of...JRandall Resin Necklaces!

Being a JRandall fan, I wanted to make something for myself and other fans to help spread the word about JRan! Naturally, I figured a resin jewelry piece. I really need to get another mold because these take FOREVER as I only have one square mold and can only do one at a time. Once you see the steps, you'll see why this is frustrating. So, next step for me is to get another mold! The steps below can be used for any paper item you want to preserve in resin.

Step 1- Find pictures you want to preserve in resin. (Since these are printouts on computer paper, I gave them a little more thickness by gluing them to cardstock first.) Coat the pictures, back and front with at LEAST 2 coats of Modge Podge. I did the first two coats, then cut out the pictures, then did the backs and the edges.



Step 2- Mix your resin according to the instructions. I use epoxy resin, so I mix equal parts of resin and hardener. Fill mold just enough to hold the picture in, then place picture in and gently push down to force out any air bubbles. It looks goofy but I have the stir stick anchored to hold the picture down until the resin has thickened enough and I don't need to worry about air bubbles anymore (usually about 4 hours.)



Step 3- Wait...and wait...and wait until the resin cures. If it was mixed properly, you can usually feel that the piece is solid the next morning, but wait at least 24 hours to be sure that it really is cured.


Step 4- I wanted to use a solid colored back but didn't want to wait another 24 hours for the second layer, so I mixed my quick-cure Alumilite polyurethane resin (again, equal parts A and B), with a bit of shimmery white powdered color (I use powdered eyeshadow, works perfectly!) and quickly poured into the rest of the mold. This resin sets up FAST so you have to work FAST. The fun part of Alumilite is that it cures completely opaque and pastel colored depending on the powdered pigment you add to it.

In 10 minutes, the piece is ready to pop out! After that, I superglued a bail to the back and here is the finished piece!

Etsy Holiday Boot Camp!

This holiday season will be the first that I'm fully invested in my Etsy shop! I opened in 2008 and made a few sales right away, then took most of last year off, so was not really involved in the holiday happenings. This year, I want to make the most of it and of course, make sales! Below is the pledge from Etsy, now I can't wait for the holidays!

I, RitzeeRebel, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere!

Elephants, Oh My!

I have a soft spot for elephants...love watching them at the zoo and I just think they're adorable. Yesterday I added a little elephant necklace to my shop and was notified today that it was included in a really fun treasury! I LOVE everything here, I can't pick a favorite!





Here's the link so you can click and comment until it expires!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c3fbcda92dc6d915435c853/march-of-the-elephants

Hoot Suite for Twitter- Love It!

Once again I've been neglecting my blog; I haven't abandoned it totally though! Twitter is an interesting thing to me, this time last year, I had NO idea how to use it or what "retweet" meant. Now that I do, I'm fascinated by it and am amazed by how fun it can be.
One tip I found incredibly helpful for my Etsy shop was a recent article on the Handmade Spark blog about setting up automatic tweets from Hoot Suite. It's so helpful for scheduling future tweets, but my favorite part is how you can set it up to automatically tweet your newest listings!
I try to list something new, or renew an item once a day, so I won't bug people with frequent updates since I don't add things all the time. It's especially helpful for me because I post my new item links on a few threads I frequent on the Etsy forums, this is one less place I have to worry about doing so since it does it for me!

To read the article yourself and get step by step instructions on how to do it yourself, just click below, hope it helps you like it did for me!

http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/automatic-etsy-shop-updates-on-twitter/

Two More Treasury Easts!

I love finding my items in Treasuries when I'm not expecting it, and it's so fun as well when they're made by people I don't know. It means I'm being found!
Here are the two latest I've been featured in....

Junk Food pins are in this fun "Diet Food" collection:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c0878e2ab056d919ac8eece/diet-food

And my baby whale pin is in this great "One Fish Two Fish" grouping:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c0be46b68f48eefd553e121/one-fish-two-fish


Yay and thank you to the curators!

New Features! I'm on Cuteable!

I was notified by Lynsey at Cuteable today that my torso pendants are part of her Flickr Friday feature! Check them out here:
http://cuteable.com/flickr-friday-part-1-10/8485

Additionally, my cranberry torso pendant was featured in this fun "Pink Tropicana" treasury; one of my Etsy friends notified me that it was on the front page of CraftCult this afternoon too! Wow!



Enough about me for now, hope you have a great weekend and to everyone celebrating Mother's Day, hope it's a wonderful one!

Etsy Treasury East...Interesting Concept

By now you've all heard of Etsy's new Treasury East, that allows everyone to make treasuries that never expire, any time you want. I like the idea, but I do think they should expire after a certain amount of time and there should be a limit as to how many T Easts a shop can create. Otherwise, I feel as though everyone will try to promote their treasuries like crazy in order to get noticed...and with the abundance of T Easts, they'll get buried quickly. With that said, for a little while, there wasn't a way to tell if you were in any T Easts or not, until now. There was a link that was active, and has since been removed, however, Craftopolis has updated their site with another feature where you can type in your shop name and see which T Easts you appear in, if any. Here's the link: http://www.craftopolis.com/#com=tt

I'm in these!

Cotton Candy- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/de24b47b5d19c94b10540800

A Little of This and a Little of That- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/e085ea1dc2e4cb4b1e3a9a00

Colors That Warm You- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/b385ea1d1ec9c84ba8a13700

Cute as a Cupcake!- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/7f24b47b77dac84ba3bce100

April Showers Bring Spring Flowers- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/0524b47bc094c84b6c156d00

It's in the Details for the HHU Team- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/0524b47bc7a8c84b1d586e00

Tweet! (A grouping of items from Twitter friends)-
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bdb6d7787808eef65c2a5ea/tweet

Here Comes the Sun- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4be38566138d6d91822b2f00/here-comes-the-sun

In the Pink- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bf1cee04d168eef48c212ea/in-the-pink

Fruit Salad- http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bfe40de3bd46d91449b6cf8/fruit-salad

Happy Treasury East Hunting!

Spam Spam Spam

I had a lovely morning trying to figure out why my mom's email was sending out spam to everyone. Think I got it figured out, hopefully it was a one-off and it won't happen again. If it does, then I'll delve into it more but I hope I won't have to. *fingers crossed*

Other than that...here's a newbie I posted yesterday, a fun "Sorry...closed" sign resin pendant. I think it's pretty funny. Click the picture to be taken to the listing!

New Stuff!

In the midst of lots going on, I've been able to make a few new things. I've been making lots more resin pieces and finished a few that I am REALLY happy with. The heart is kind of an "oops" because there are 2 pieces of glitter in it that shouldn't be there, but it's still cute. I'm partial to all the sign pieces!
Additionally, the felt pieces are of a nesting doll/matryoshka and one of the well known "We Are Happy to Serve You" takeout coffee cups.




I did get my very first resin piece listed on Etsy today, just click the picture to be taken to the listing!

Lots Going On, But a Surprise Feature!

Lots of things have been going on this week, some not so great (relationships, car troubles), others, REALLY great (a friend is engaged!).

Today, Garrick over at the Senioritis/Itmakesyoulazy Blog was kind enough to feature my shop in the Friday Finds blog post!
http://itmakesyoulazy.blogspot.com/2010/03/friday-finds-32610.html


As for the Senioritis Etsy shop, it's one of the most interesting, fun shops I've seen. They have great prints featuring well-known historic figures like Albert Einstein, Lewis Caroll, Dr. Seuss and Babe Ruth in fun ways and including a fitting quote on the print. I guarantee you that you've never seen a shop like this!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/senioritis


I have to say, my favorite is the Jean Harlow print:





Thanks again to everyone at Senioritis/Itmakesyoulazy for the great feature!

Hearts and Hands United Team Project

For one of my Etsy teams, Hearts and Hands United, our latest team project was to create something to fulfill two of the the "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue" categories for the upcoming wedding season.
I decided to make a set of 2 bows, one in white and one in blue, to fulfill the old and new categories.



See what other items the team has come up with here!
First installment:
http://heartsandhandsunited.blogspot.com/2010/03/team-project-no-1-something-old.html

Second installment:
http://heartsandhandsunited.blogspot.com/2010/03/team-project-no-1-something-old_19.html

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Psst, Cupcakes Here!)

Lol, sorry for the weird title. I've been trying out some new stuff besides my felt items, this time I'm trying resin jewelry! I've just been practicing making pieces that are clear, bubble-free and now I've experimented with color! Anyway, I've been meaning to post more but haven't because of that. So sorry!

Just also wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day and post this yummy picture of cupcakes from Sprinkles (Dark chocolate with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting)! If you're in the area of one, have one for me please!