15 Coats of Magnetic Paint

Followed by three coats of paint

Magnetic Paint Disappeared

Invisible powers hold up the current gallery displays:

Magic Gallery

Now I can change the exhibits without having to mar the walls. According to the manufacturer of the magnetic paint, the current version of the paint is stronger than my leftover can. Basically you have to add as many coats of paint as you need to built up a density of iron shavings that will be strong enough to hold your magnets. My next project is to attach magnets to some wooden trim and create a removable picture frame. I’ll keep you updated. . .

I’m ready to give my blog some love again and will start with a series of posts I wrote for the now defunct Crafty Daisies in 2007 and 2008. Here is a tutorial for a Pokemon Pencil case. My darling child has since moved on from Pokemon to Minecraft. Maybe it’s time for an updated pencil case for her.

As you may have noticed by now, we are a Pokemon household. So when my daughter’s teacher specified a zippered, soft pencil case as part of the school supply list, we obviously couldn’t just buy one. What do you think about our cooperative effort?

Materials

To make this pencil case you need:

For the applique:

• an Image
• Transfer Paper
• White Fabric
• Fusible Web
• Fabric Markers

For the pouch:

• 2 10″x 6″ pieces of fabric, I used denim remnants from another upcycling project
• a Zipper
• optional: 2 9″x 5″ pieces of heavyweight fusible interfacing,
  • 2 10″x6″ pieces of lining fabric.
  • Because the denim felt a little floppy, I used fusible interfacing to give it more body and added a lining.

Creating the Applique

To do it the right way, i.e. not the way I ended up doing it, cut the fusible web to approximately the size of the applique you want to make. Iron it to the left side of the white fabric. Leave the second backing of the fusible web on for now. Then transfer your image to the right side of the fabric and color it with fabric markers. Cut out your applique and set it aside.

Preparing the Fabric

If you are using fusible interfacing, follow the manufacturers instructions and iron it onto the left sides of the outer shell fabric.

Turn the fabric around. Remove the paper backing from your applique and iron it onto the right side of the fabric. Using the zigzag setting on your sewing machine, stitch all around the image. I set the width to 0.5 and the length to 2, but play around with it until you get the effect you like.

Inserting the Zipper

If you are not using a lining, switch to your zipper foot, align the right side of the zipper with the right side of the top of one of the fabric pieces and sew it together on the left side. Repeat this with the other side of the zipper and the second piece of fabric. If your zipper is longer than your fabric, just let the bottom end stick out. On the right side of the fabric sew a top stitch along both sides of the zipper.

If you are using a lining and have never done this before, take a look at Lisa’s Sewing zippers in bags tutorial at U-Handblog starting with Step 4. She has great instructions and is my crafting hero.

Here it goes:

As Lisa puts it, you make a sandwich. This is the order when the right side of your outer fabric faces up: right side up outer fabric–wrong side up zipper–wrong side up lining. (My picture ended up being the reverse of Lisa’s, so if you are looking at both tutorials, you are thoroughly confused by now.) Put the sandwich together and sew along the top edge through the lining, zipper, and outer shell fabric. If you unfold the whole thing, it should look like this:

Repeat with the other side.

Sew a top stitch alongside the zipper on the right side of the outer fabric through the fabric, zipper and lining. Repeat on the other side.

Putting It All Together

Very Important: Open the zipper at least halfway.

If you are not using a lining, put the right sides of the fabric together and on the left side of the fabric, sew the sides and the bottom of the pouch together. Turn the whole thing right side out. Phew, you are done.

If you are using a lining, remember to open the zipper at least halfway. Put the right sides of the lining together and the right sides of the outer fabric. Pin the whole contraption together and leave an opening at the bottom of the lining. Start at the beginning of the opening in the lining and sew all around the side of the lining, outer fabric, other side of the lining, ending at the other end of the opening in the lining.

Then, turn the whole thing right side out through the opening in the lining. (By the way, if you didn’t keep the zipper open, you are now saying some not so very nice words.) With everything turned right side out, close the opening in the lining, stuff the lining inside the pouch, close the zipper, and you are done. Yay!

And Sunshineandshowers also included this wallet in her treasury entitled Where is the Love?

Thank you for all this love. It’s been a great week

What is an Etsy Mini

Featuring upcycled bags and accessories

This is my Etsy mini that is auto-generated by Etsy. It shows four items in my shop with a direct link to the store. For Etsy to auto-generate this code for you, you need an Etsy account and then follow this path: Your Etsy -> Etsy Mini, which will take you to this screen:

Here you find precise instructions on how to generate a mini from either your favorites, or your store. Favorites can change and I plan to showcase a permanent list of vendors independent of the whimsy of my favorites, so I have to tweak the code.

Step 1: Creating the Table

I like the table format for minis. You can either write your code from scratch or auto-generate a table with the appropriate rows and columns using the 2create a website table generator.

You’ll get this code:

<table border=”1″ bordercolor=”ffffff” width=”200″ bgcolor=”ffffff”>
<tr>
<td> row 1, column 1 </td>
<td> row 1, column 2 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> row 2, column 1 </td>
<td> row 2, column 2 </td>
</tr>
</table>

Which will look like this

Step 2: Insert the Vendors or Products

Log into Etsy and generate a 1 column by 1 row Etsy mini thumbnail. The java script generated will look something like this

<script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://www.etsy.com/etsy_mini.js’></script><script type=’text/javascript’>new EtsyNameSpace.Mini(5059326, ‘shop’,'thumbnail’,1,1).renderIframe();</script>

The number I highlighted in bold 5059326 is my user id.

If I insert this code in my table replacing “row 1, column 1″

<table border=”1″ bordercolor=”ffffff” width=”200″ bgcolor=”ffffff”>
<tr>
<td> <script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://www.etsy.com/etsy_mini.js’></script><script type=’text/javascript’>new EtsyNameSpace.Mini(5059326, ‘shop’,'thumbnail’,1,1).renderIframe();</script> </td>
<td> row 1, column 2 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> row 2, column 1 </td>
<td> row 2, column 2 </td>
</tr>
</table>

it will display the latest item in my shop with a direct link to the store.

To add some other Etsy sellers to the table, I paste the same code into the next cell, but I need to change the shop user ID to that of the next seller. You can find this id on the seller’s profile page on the right side in the seller’s info box under user ID.

New: Etsy’s pages have gone through a lot of changes since I wrote this post. It’s not as easy to find the user ID, but not impossible either. Here are some updated instructions for this process:

Okay here are the instructions for Firefox:

Go to the shop you want to feature in the etsy mini.
View the page source. In firefox that is View -> Page Source or Ctrl +U. This will open a new browser window with the underlying code.
Select edit find or Ctrl +F, this will open the find field at the bottom of the window.
Search for user_id.
It will find a string of code that looks something like this:
<input type=”hidden” id=”user_id” name=”user_id” value=”6363793” />

The value is the user id for that shop.

The second vendor in my table will be Wabisabi Brooklyn. Her user id is 5160480. I’m copying the same script into the second cell of the table, but I’m changing the user ID from 5059326 to 5160480 to point to her store.

<table border=”1″ bordercolor=”ffffff” width=”200″ bgcolor=”ffffff”>
<tr>
<td> <script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://www.etsy.com/etsy_mini.js’></script><script type=’text/javascript’>new EtsyNameSpace.Mini(5059326, ‘shop’,'thumbnail’,1,1).renderIframe();</script> </td>
<td>> <script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://www.etsy.com/etsy_mini.js’></script><script type=’text/javascript’>new EtsyNameSpace.Mini(5160480, ‘shop’,'thumbnail’,1,1).renderIframe();</script> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> row 2, column 1 </td>
<td> row 2, column 2 </td>
</tr>
</table>

The rendered code looks like this.

To complete the table I repeat the process with two other sellers; in each instance copying the java script and replacing the id with the seller’s user id.

This process creates a table that directly links to the sellers you select and displays their most recent product. When sellers update their shops their products may change, but the links to the stores will always remain.

Teachers’ Appreciation Luncheon

For this year’s luncheon we decided to go with a store bought item. Each teacher received a bright and cheery beach towel to kick off the season together with little flip flop soaps from Brown Bag Bath Bars

The towels were “wrapped” up with a Flemish Bend knot. This knot works really well if you’re ever in need of a rope belt.

I think this would also make a cute favor for a beach wedding.

Sorry about the picture quality. I forgot to take my camera and had to rely on my friend’s handy camera phone, or should it be a phone camera?

Kimm of Kimmchi was also kind enough to write up a little something about the drawstring bags we designed together.

Tomorrow I’ll be face painting on the Island. Let’s do a little sundance to ward off the thunderstorms.

Setting Up Shop

Jen of McFlashpants took this picture. We’re getting The {NewNew} Treasure Chest boutique ready on Governors Island. It is soooooo gorgeous there. Have a wonderful weekend.

My friend Kimm of KimmChi came into this funky fabric, and we thought we’d make it into a unique Governors Island souvenir for the store. Tada:

If you can’t make it to the Island, but are longing to transform a special fabric into a bag like this, you can find the tutorial I wrote up for the bag on the {NewNew} blog here.

By the way, don’t use this map to find your way around New York. Williamsburg is NOT next to Chelsea.

Crafts in Chelsea, Courtesy of The {NewNew}

Last Saturday I participated in Crafts in Chelsea, an outstanding market with 100 Etsy vendors to benefit P.S. 11. What started out as a routine day on a picturesque side street in Manhattan turned into a study in sudden climate change. The morning began with a little drizzle that turned into rain. Luckily my tent was up, we were all cozy and waiting for the show to begin. The sun came out. It was a pretty day. Then the air started moving. The tent walls came down and everything seemed peaceful again until a gust tore some merchandise off the table. The winds subsided. A sudden crash, a swirl of wind had turned over the table next to me and the tent on the other side had walked away 10 paces all by itself. At that point my tent mate and I decided to take the whole tent down. We just managed that when another gust pushed over one of our tables. Now we decided to pack it in.

Curiously, as we were walking just a few feet down the street, everything was tranquil again. Just a little breeze here and there, but nothing like the gales we had experienced.  Business as usual. Apparently our spot had been right in the middle of the micro-tornado touchdown zone. Crafts in Chelsea even made the New York Times under the headline Winds Delay Travelers and Commuters.

Which brings me to the point of this post, How does one weigh down a tent.

1. Tent Weights From The Store

There are two types of commercially available tent weights one kind is essentially a bag that you fill with dirt

or actual weight plates with a notch to “wrap” around the tent leg.

2. Tent Weights You Make Yourself

Nordea of Nordea’s Soaperie has an excellent tutorial on how to make your own heavy duty tent weights.

And finally, there is the 5- gallon jug of water solution. Not pretty, not recommended and not necessarily safe.

Don’t forget to check-in with the organizer of the fair. Some organizers have a minimum weight requirement for each leg!!