Sunday, March 31, 2019

Metallic Thread Experiment: The Booty!

So, I feel like a bit of background is needed on this one in order for it to make absolutely any sense whatsoever. I follow a band called Planet Booty and I've been a really big fan since July of last year. So much so that I actually just finished seeing them five times this month during their Southwest tour with TWRP. (It was a blast and if you ever get the chance to see either of them, you should.) But I digress.

The point is, I'm a big fan and there is a large community of other fans like me that are all over Twitter and Instragram. We're like a family. There's this girl named Katie who does perler bead art that actually made a perler bead version of Planet Booty's Booty. It immediately called to me. I had to cross stitch it. So I reached out to her and she very kindly made a pattern for me.

Originally, I followed the pattern exactly, but the perler design didn't translate to cross stitch the same way, so I ended up tearing everything out and starting over with metallic silver thread. Now, I'd never used this stuff before and I likely never will again. It is an absolute PAIN to work with. It splits and it frays and it hates me despite all the tricks I looked up online and tried to make work for me. My piece ended up a mess, but I'm still happy that I made myself a Booty. I have one now and I never have to make another one again!

I probably wouldn't have it done today, though, if it weren't for Josh Cantero's birthday. He's one of the Planet Booty band members and an absolute sweetheart. If you get to meet him, I almost guarantee that you'll get a hug. My point, though, is that with today being his birthday, I finally got motivated to finish the Booty and post it online to say happy birthday. Since I can't draw and I can't paint and XC is one of my main creative outlets, that's how I decided to show my appreciation. He liked my post, so hopefully he actually liked it, but it's the thought that counts, right? Here's what the Booty turned out like along with a few pictures of Josh from PB's NYE concert. Let me know if you have any suggestions on using metallic thread. Any and all help would be appreciated for the future.



Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Cardmaking - Party Animal Edition

A dear friend of ours just had a birthday on Friday. (Happy birthday, A!) And true to tradition, I made her a birthday card. This one I had a specific idea in mind going into it which was nice, but what made me really happy about the whole thing is that I was able to use a lot of scrap paper. (I have a ton and it really needs parring down.) This little card is by no means perfect, but the recipient loved it and that's all that matters. Hope you like it, too!