Lady bug

Hello everyone!!

I hope you all are fine and enjoying your life to the fullest because, there is no tomorrow, just "NOW" ! :P Stole my friend's status but yeah its true. So whatever plans you have in your mind, do them right now, express yourself and just enjoy every moment!

Okay okay that was way too philosophical, but anyways lets move on to today's project! You know till now I have worked with paper but I never got a chance to work with fabric and I desperately wanted to do something with all the fabric that I had. So I yesterday when I was googling, it just clicked me, why not make a soft toy or you might say a mini mini soft toy. And here is the result :D 

So now lets get to work!

Materials required:

• 2 different colored fabrics
• Pair of scissors
• Sewing kit
• Cotton
• Buttons or googly eyes for eyes (whichever you may prefer)
• Fabric glue

Step 1: Okay first of all make sure that your fabric is nice and flat so its easy to cut and draw. You can iron it if necessary. Now I have used black color for the base and pink for body. You know if you have a polka dot cloth, then its best for the body but I didn't have so I had to paint the dots.

 Now for body you will need 4 petal shapes as shown below. Now before cutting make sure to leave some seam space for sewing. My petals are 6 cm long and 6.5 cm wide.

Step 2: Cut 4 semicircles (1.5 cm radius) from base material for ears and a circle of 4 cm radius for the base. And a small rectangle for making the tac.

Step 3: Put the two ear semicircle with right side facing each other and sew only the curve part. Repeat for other pair. And turn them inside out.
If you don't want the ears then its okay don't add them just like I did in the red one.

Step 4: Fold the tac as shown in figure. Use the scissor handle to level it if necessary and sew only the open length part.

Step 5: Now for the main body as you can see I have marked a boundary of 1 cm for sewing  for ease. Put the two petals together , right side facing each other and sew only one curve as I have shown. Now repeat it with other petals making a chain and don't forget to add ears (on two sides of same petal). You can use office pins to hold your fabric in place. Just leave the last curve open , i.e. don't join the the last two edges. You will get something as shown below.

leave 1 cm seam space

sew only one curve as shown

adding next petal to the chain

adding the ear, see how its placed with curve inside

eras are placed on two side of same petal

result of step 5

Step 6: Now sew the base with the bottom of petals as shown , beginning from one open side till the end. Add the tac on the opposite side of the ears. 

see that the eras and tac are opposite to each other

Step 7: After finishing the base , sew that open curve but leave a little gap at the end.

Turn the fabric inside out.

Step 8: Stuff it and close the open edge. You won't believe how much cotton this ladybug will eat :P

Step 9: Paint the face and spots and place the eyes and wooppiieee your own stuffed toy is ready :D

Isn't it cute?? You can use it as a key-chain, or just hang it on your bags or it will also look cute just lying on your desk.   

I had also made these owl ones few months back. Tutorial for those are easily available on Google. :)

Go on and make your own lady bug and remember there are no boundaries to imagination ;)

love

kruti :)

Pirate's treasure

Ahoy , mateys!!

I hope you all be doin' fine!! :D

HAAHHAA!! You must be wondering that why the hell this girl is talking like this?? Well its all because of what I am going to show you today. Don't worry, don't worry, we are not going for a treasure hunt or to steal ;) . But today we are going to make our own treasure chest.

This idea came to me when I was thinking about my future. There is so much left to do in my life. I want to travel the whole world, have my very own Volkswagen Beetle and so much more. But all this will need money and the only way to have money is working hard and saving. So today I am going to show you how to make a base for your future plans.

For making this you will need:

• An empty bottle (preferably glass)
• Craft paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Colors and brushes
• something to decorate ( I have used keys)
• and of-course some money :P  

Now lets start

Step 1: As we all know all the bottles come with some labels on them, you can remove most of it through peeling but some part still remains. So to get rid of it completely just put your bottle in water for some time and the glue will come of and you will have a brand new bottle. 

Step 2: Before starting to work on make sure that the bottle is clean and dry. Now first of all measure the bottle or exactly speaking measure the height of the flat surface of the bottle as shown in image. So that you know how big your drawing can be.

Step 3: Now take a plane paper or you can directly work on the craft paper. 

<Tip : I always prefer to draw on rough sheet first so that any errors can be corrected.

But if you are confident enough then you can directly work on the craft paper.>

So, make your favorite pirate picture or you can also print it out. Cut it out and color it.

Now here is an important thing I want to tell you. Whenever you are cutting such drawing you might face the problem of cutting the edges. So look at the image below. I have drawn two arrows. So whenever you have to cut an inside corner go from curve and meet at the corner. This will give you a clean and easy cut.

Step 4: I Wanted to add something extra so I colored my old keys. You can even paint a flag or a pirate cap or a lock. Anything that you fancy.

And now that you have your painting weapons in hands , you can even decorate the bottle a little :D And FYI I have used acrylic colors. Glass colors are also available in the market.

Step 5: Now that all your raw materials are ready , its time to stick them together and we all are masters at it, aren't we!! ;) Because when I was young I used to cut all the cartoons from magazines and stick them in a notebook just for fun. 

And yeah while sticking, you might need to hold the drawing against the bottle for some time because of its curvy glossy surface. If you don't have time just put a rubber band around it. That will also do the work.

And yeah don't forget to fill your bottle with treasure so that it can actually become a treasure chest ;) 

I know this is won't be much but it will be a start and all that starts well , ends well. :)

So go on and start saving today 

See you next time, till then keep smiling and stay happy

:)

MJ on T

Hello everyone!!!

I know I know it took a long time for this post but I was so busy in all the college activities. As since its my last year , I am enjoying it to the fullest. So many days, then "streets", then my college's first cooking fest, just wow!! And then a wall painting competition. Although I didn't win anything but I sure did left my mark on LD.

So anyways, this time its all about painting. Painting is such a beautiful art. Even after standing on my feet for 7 hours, I won't stand up to eat but I sure as hell will do it for painting.

 Many of my friends ask me how you do it, so this is for all those. I do most of my work at night after 12 so you know can't call you to watch live but you will get all the information here!! And one more thing before you start, painting or any form of art can't be literally taught, you have to learn it yourself and evolve through the process. Just let it in and enjoy :)

So first of all the materials :

• Acrylic paints 
• Brushes ( I prefer the ones used in oil painting, they are a bit hard so its easy to use)
• Thinner (frankly, its just fevicol water)
• A chalk preferably non dust
• and finally a board as wide as your T

Okay now first of all I would like to tell you that you can use any T-shirt, but through my experience I have learned that those "polo" T's are not good for painting. They consume a lot of color and its just impossible to give a nice outline. So I always prefer those simple cotton ones .

So select your T and well I don't need to say this but a plain T would be best :D

Let's start

step 1: Wash your T-shirt , dry it nicely and iron if needed. So that all the starch is removed and creases are gone and you have a nice plain surface to work on.

step 2: Now when your T is all ready, put it on the person who is going to wear it and make a boundary for painting ( the area which is most visible and all that).

step 3: Take the board and put it under your T, just like its wearing it, so that the two sides of your T has the board between them. And if necessary , fix it with clips or clamps. I have these from my Engineering Graphics classes :P

The reason for this is, sometimes while using excess paint it will go to other side too. Trust me you don't want that. And plus you get a nice platform. And if you don't have a board, newspaper will do.

step 4: You made the boundary, so now you know how much area you have to work with. Choose a picture and if you are going to make it on your own, then well and good. So now draw outline of that picture with the chalk. No details required, just the outlines so its easy when doing paint and there are no mistakes.

step 5: Everything is ready and its time to paint. Now here are some tips before you go crazy

• Whenever painting, start from lighter shades to darker, because lighter shades can be darkened easily but vice-versa is not true.
• Like when I was doing the hand I started from inside.
• Keep a cloth at handy .
• Have a testing paper by your side. Test the shade on that paper before using it.
• Now since my T is black, it takes 2 coats of paint to completely reveal the exact color so its okay do it twice , no problem there.
• IMP -> painting on T is very different from canvas . Here first of all you are using acrylic colors and moreover its a T so it soaks colors so it drys faster, so there will be little bit difficulty in shading part but nothing is impossible.

step 6: When you are all finished with the painting , let it dry for two days and then wash it. Don't iron it and if its needed just do it on sides not on colors. This way it will stay for long.

And remember one thing, you don't need a teacher for everything. You just need some guidance because I believe that you can learn anything on your own and things like this develop over time. For example , I started with handkerchiefs and moved towards T. Start from small and move upwards. 

So best of luck and enjoy painting.

See you next time till then keep smiling and keep spreading love

:)