Owapalooza 3: When Etsy Sucks You In

Ok, I'm a bit of a sucker for a cute owl.
I found these babies on Etsy and had to get them.

How cute is this little jewled owl?! Which actually isn't THAT little, measuring about 2" X 2"

And WHOOOO doesn't need an owl to tell them the time?

OK, so I'm a Harry Potter nerd too, but I had to have my own Golden Snitch when the price was a mere $3.44! It also opens up to show the time.

Yes, my first Etsy purchase was a very pleasant experience! :)

What have you gotten from Etsy?

Fun with Silhouettes

Call me old fashioned, call me romantic, but there's nothing I love more than a great silhouette!
Now getting one of a child could be near impossible if you try to do it the old fashioned way (by tracing the shadow from the sunlight or a lamp). However, with some photo editing software and a picture snapped of the profile, I was able to create the perfect old fashioned silhouette of a child.

This was the picture (I cropped it down to just what I needed, which was basically just the profile bust) we started out with.

As you can see, it is nothing fancy, nothing special. It doesn't even have all that much contrast (which would make it easier) but still works fine. If you want to make it super easy on yourself, have the child stand in front of a sunny window so they're totally backlit. Then you'll essentially have the silhouette to start with, and simply cutting and pasting with a teeny bit of adjusting will be all that is necessary.

What you want to do is take this photo and using your photo editing software, select or manually outline the profile and around the head. Don't worry too much about getting all the hair exactly, just try to use a smooth and continuous line around the back of the head and below the neck. The part you really want to be picky about is following around the face. Don't take shortcuts there, but everything else can kind of be fudged.
Once you have the outline traced, its a simple paint job. Fill the inside of the line with black and the outside with white (or vice versa).
Then you end up with something like this:

I added an embellished T for a monogram. (Parchment font) I thought it looked cute placed there as it could be a barrette holding back her hair. In any case, there won't be a question of who is this in the future.

Now, you can print this out either on colored paper, or white, or whatever you can run through your printer.
You can also print it out on regular white and the cut it out and paste it on a differing background.
I printed out a few as I wanted to try different things to finish them off. I also chose a few different sizes. Silhouettes were typically done on a life sized or smaller scale. Most of the ones I've seen are very small jewelry size. So I used a smaller scale as well. This serves as your friend as it smooths out some of your rough lines, and minimizes any jagged or pixelated edges.

Here are some examples of what I did with the one silhouette:

"Framed" vintage looking photo (foam circle with tulle and ribbon, everything is layered and hot glued in place):

One for Tot to play with as she pleases as she LOVES google eyes:

A modern art version (glued on foam circles that are glued together with a hollow rectangle paper backing:

A framed piece cut from scrapbook paper (I just traced the original and cut it out):

And one for the scrapbook:

And I printed a teeny one to go in my locket.

So as you can see, these babies can be as vintage or modern as you want them to be, and can fill a variety of needs/designs.
It's so fun that they're super easy to do!
So, have fun!

Linked to Tip Me Tuesday

Knot necklaces

So, I found a pin on Pinterest for a celtic heart knot that I thought would be fabulous as a necklace. The guy that makes these knots actually has a book, but he has lots of online tutorials for making his knots as well, which is really cool!
Fusion Knots (Tying it all together on YouTube) JD Lenzen

So all credit for the following goes to him, all mistakes are my own.

Of course when I found the tutorial I wanted to immediately try it. And of course I had nothing proper to try it with. So I tried tying his fabulous knots with ribbon, which did not work because the knots only work on round cording. Since ribbon is essentially flat, there were all sorts of issues, like the strands sliding under one another, and the finished product looked nothing like what it was supposed to. A loose weave with ribbon sort of acheived the celtic heart knot which is essentially a simple weave, however, it was not the correct shape either, and just looked a little funky as the ribbon tended to fold instead of curve around the outside edges.

Next, not one to give up after mere hours of frustration, I tried thread thinking that yes it would be on a microscopic scale (which would be kinda cool in and of itself) but thread is round, so should acheive the proper fitting. Well...I spent a LOT more time trying to do this, and believe me, microscopic doesn't begin to describe it. Just not a good idea, and one I had to give up on after practically going blind and cross eyed. Come to think of it, I've had a migraine for the past two days and this could be what started it!

I didn't want to order paracord off the internet which is what he uses, so I hightailed it down to my local craft store as soon as I could. However, in their jewlery section they only had that plastic stuff, which is essentially flat like ribben, so I imagined wouldn't work. Plus I've worked with it before and it tends to slip out of knots and not stay tight, so I don't like it for anything I want around permanantly. Plus it looks cheap. The only other thing they had were packages of hemp in differing colors, but I didn't want to buy a whole ton of it, I just wanted one or two pieces and wasn't looking to spend a lot of money.

I got some embroidery thread thinking it was roundish and thicker than normal cotton thread so may work. However, that later proved inadequate as it is put together with smaller strands, and the knots still look tangled instead of artistic. Then I got some yards of satin cording in different colors, and some elastic cord in differing colors. These I hoped were thin enough to make into choker neclaces without looking weird, but large enough to tie the knots without going blind.

The elastic cording worked WONDERFULLY, and I was very happy with the end result. Plus, I could finish the piece with no extras, just tying the ends together, and having the ability to stretch it on over my head while still fitting just below the collarbones to sit above the collar of my blouses.

The satin cording was a perfect smaller version of the paracord, but I didn't really like how some of the knots turned out. However, for others, it was really perfect.

Of course, the celtic heart knot was one of the easiest knots on the page, and I combined it with some others to create the choker necklace I'd wanted, but what really made me want to try this guys knots was the sea turtle knot, which was FABULOUS!

I think mine turned out ok :)

So, grab some cording, and get yourselves ready to watch some videos and then try it out! It was a lot of fun, and with the PROPER materials only took me about 2-3 hours in total to tie two necklaces.

LESSON OF THE DAY:  Do things with the proper materials, as it will save you hours of labor and heartache. (Still, don't be afraid to experiment a little!)