Thrifty Wrapping Paper

I made some wrapping paper to wrap the present up for Pea's Mum, I had some brown paper knocking around and already had some stamps and ink I got for Christmas last year.

I just cut out a sheet of paper and stamped Happy Birthday all over it in different colours, easy and cheap!

Hand Made Gifts

I love giving and receiving handmade gifts, a lot of thought and love goes into them which makes them that extra bit special.

I always try to make something small for everyone I give gifts to as a compliment to their store bought gift, this week was Mr. Pea's Mums turn, in the past I have made her amigurumi bunnies, she loves bunnies so it's a win. This year I figured I should present her with something different.

I had a look through Pinterest for some inspiration and kept coming across jam jars with tea light candles in or potted with flowers, each style adorned with cute crocheted jackets. 

How could I resist such a fun project? I couldn't of course!

All I had to get from the shops was a large Kilner jar and a house plant, I managed to get both items in Wilkinson (or Wilko, not sure what to call it these days). The plant I got was a Bromeliead, makes for a good house plant apparently, it's big pretty flower was the main selling point for me.

For the jar jacket I already had some balls of Rico essential cotton from my last Deramores splurge, I chose pink and red, I originally made one in green but found out Pea's mum hates green with a burning passion, so I had to decide again, I figured pink and red would be a good choice as the Bromeliead had a red flower! I made it just the right size to fit into the lines on the jar where I guessed a jam label could go, Pea's mum makes jam, a crochet jam label jacket seemed a fitting choice.

It's so easy to make, there are loads of different stitches which can be used to make the jacket, I decided to use the shell stitch as I love how it looks when 2 colours are used, the stitch is pretty basic so it was a nice easy make!

Crochet Jar Cover

Shell stitch for anyone who landed here in the hopes of finding the pattern:

Chain desired amount, shell stitch is worked in multiples of  6 + 1

1st Row: 1sc in 2nd chain from hook, *skip 2 chains, dc 5 times in next chain, skip 2 chains, 1sc in next chain* Repeat from * to * if you are changing colour for the next row do this in the last part of the last sc in the chain.

2nd Row: Chain 3 and turn, dc 2 times in the stitch in the chain 3, *skip 2 stitches, sc in next stitch (which will be in the middle of your shell beneath), skip 2 stitches, dc 5 times in next stitch* Repeat from * to * when you get to the end dc 3 into last stitch instead of 6.

3rd Row: Chain, 1 sc in next stitch, repeat 1st row from * to * continue to alternate between rows 1 and 2 to desired length.

Hyper Japan 2014

Oh my, we haven't had a new post for a long time!

Had to post about Christmas coming early for us this year, Mr. Pea and I went to Hyper Japan on

Sunday at Earls Court Exhibition Center in London and it was amazing!

Hyper Japan is a exhibition of Japanese culture, food and kawaii awesomeness all in one

massive location, Earls Court One.

The place is massive so there was loads to look at, the most prominent place was the Nintendo zone right in the middle so we made a beeline for the Ninty banners hanging from the ceiling, we watched a bit of the new Super Smash Bros game due out this winter, had a photo with Mario and Luigi and we did some shopping in the Nintendo store!

Super Smash Bros at Hyper Japan

Pea with his heroes! Luigi kept stroking his hair.

On our search for food we came across the Hyper Fringe stage where Yanakiku were performing,

they are so cute, their outfits were amazing, especially when they dressed up as Mt. Fuji! We saw a bit of karaoke on the fringe stage too but we were too hungry to stay.

The food stalls were just across from the stage and it smelt so good! We had a look about what was on offer, there was so many delicious options, sushi, takoyaki, fried chicken, fish and chips and yakisoba, we went for plain yakisoba which is fried noodles in sauce, there was some grated pickled ginger on the side with those which I wasn't very fond of! Mr. Pea however mixed his in with the noodles and said it was tasty, maybe I was eating it wrong. Pea decided tried out some frozen beer, the froth was a bit like a Slush Puppy made of beer, it was actually quite nice, I don't drink beer but I found it quite refreshing.

Tasty Yakisoba

After we filled up on noodles and cleared our street passes on our 3DS's we headed for the shopping stalls and boy did we shop! Tofu cute had 2 mini shops, one just for food and the other was for all the accessories they stock, I got 2 bottles of Ramune, Hello Kitty strawberry pretzel sticks, some pudding chocolates in the cutest packaging and a tote bag with alpacas on, Pea got some Sakura Matcha flavour KitKats, which are cherry blossom and green tea flavour! 

Tofu Cute food shop

Tofu Cute with frozen beer!

At the other Tofu Cute shop they had large alpaca plushes that I really wanted but they only had pink and white ones, I really wanted a light brown one, I ended up getting a lemon coloured one from another stall,

I can't remember the stall holders shop name but they had lots of cool stuff! Pea bought 3 lucky cats from different stalls, we got a few other bits too including a Japanese felt craft book!

There was so much to see and so much we wanted to buy but we had to be good and not bankrupt ourselves for lots of cute things! 

Artbox display

Alpaca army

Alpacas were pretty much everywhere in all colours, sizes and in forms of purses and bags, I got a purse and a mini one for my mum, they're just too cute to resist! I got a few odd looks on the tube back with a massive yellow Alpaca under my arm! 

My haul

We spent the afternoon checking out the traditional Japanese fringe market section, watched some martial arts display and then headed over to SIRO-A on the main stage, they were amazing, we especially loved the video game aspect of one of their routines. 

We had such a great time, we will definitely be going back again next year, there is another one in November which would be awesome before Christmas but work gets in the way, gah!

Gift making is keeping me busy

Gift making and Animal Crossing have consumed my entire life the last couple of months, animal crossing more possibly...Mr.Pea is still waiting for his anniversary pressie I started making in September, eeek.
We've been hanging out a lot on Tumblr recently as well, sharing a few pictures of past crafts but mostly Lee's Animal Crossing outfit creations!
I haven't actually made anything recently that I've finished and been able to photograph, I did make myself an anime canvas a few weeks ago.

I picked up a wallpaper sample in B&Q and stuck it to a canvas, super cheap wall art! I was going to colour bits in with my ever growing sharpie collection, I was worried I would ruin it though so I left it as it is!

Come see us on Tumblr for more updates and super cool pictures of Soap!

Darth Soap

Marvel Decoupaged Acoustic Guitar

We went to a boot sale last week on the hunt for something to decoupage, I had a stool in mind, Mr. Pea suggested mini nest tables, which would also be fun to do, sadly we found nothing suitable.
We decided that a decoupaged guitar would be pretty cool so we went on a hunt for one, suddenly everyone had guitars, so it wasn't so hard, they were pretty pricey though £40-£45 for something I could possibly ruin was a bit steep. We hit the jackpot at one of the last rows of stalls, a man selling a guitar with no strings and a little bit of cosmetic damage for £5! winner! I snapped up that bad boy and covered it with Wolverine pages from Avengers Assemble!

I just need to buy some strings for it now...and learn to play guitar.

Wolverine Guitar

Crafty Presents And Photo Prop Fun For Jen's Birthday

Last week was the birthday of my awesome friend Jen from p.s...it's vegan, I always make her a little something to go with her pressie, this time I made her some coasters in the shape of apples and pears.

I saw the pattern for the apple coaster in Simply Crochet magazine and thought straight away it was very Jen. I got creative for the pear and made up a version myself, I'm not very good at making flat items so it was quite a challenge for something that looks so simple.

The pears are a little wonky but I think that gives them character.

We went out into town on Saturday evening to celebrate her birthday, Jen had mentioned she wanted to have a themed night where we all bring props but I think somewhere down the line we forgot and nothing happened.
Crafty me kicked in on Saturday at 4pm and I decided to make everybody some photo booth props. Amusing shenanigans ensued.

I had some A4 sheets of foam left over from mustache photo props Mr. Pea and I made for my birthday last year and a pack of 75 bamboo skewers Jen picked me up from Sainsburys for 10p (10p!!)

Me and Jen having fun with the photo props

I made 4 pairs of lips, 3 mustaches and 2 bow ties. Foam is really good for making up photo props, it's easy to cut up and doesn't flop around like felt or bend and tear like paper/card.

Sand Kirby On The Beach

Mr. Pea and I popped to the beach last week, as it was such a hot day we figured we should make the most of the nice weather while it's here, luckily we live near a few seaside towns.
We opted for Walton, it's slightly further away but quieter during term time.

The part of beach we went on was pretty good for sand castle building, still being damp from the tide coming in earlier. We took advantage of the awesome sand and made a sand Kirby, I made the body and stuck his little arms on, Mr. Pea sorted out the feet and his face.

Sand Kirby Chilling On The Beach

I popped a Crafty Geeks business card in his hand and we left him there, went we went past back to the car a couple of hours later the tide had come in and washed him away but we have our photos to remember him by.

Max Amigurumi At Last

I can't believe I haven't posted about Mr. Pea's other amigurumi I made him for his birthday (which was in the middle of June, oops!)
I made him an amigurumi of Max the rabbity thing originally from the comic Sam and Max: Freelance Police. We played the new episodes on PS3 together last summer and went retro Hit the Road on the PC recently, his favorite character being Max I figured he would be pleased, he was!

I made up my own pattern for him, I couldn't find any on teh interwebs, it took me a while but I managed to get him done in time.

His hands were the hardest part (Max has such big hands!). They were difficult to capture in crochet, a lot of fingers were made before I had 8 which were pretty much perfect.

Roman Solider Amigurumi For Oxjam

We were asked to make the mascot for the Colchester Oxjam music festival, obviously I was more than happy to donate a custom amigurumi to them.
They wanted the mascot to be something that was connected with Colchester and decided on a Roman solider.
Colchester was the first capital of Roman Britain for our readers who don't know.

I used my basic human pattern, the helmet was the hardest part, I was worried I wouldn't be able to make the fluffy piece on top stick up but it all turned out fine; trial and error being my best friend here.

  

We're looking forward to the main Oxjam event in October, Mr. Pea and I love live music and it's all for a very good cause too!

How to Make a Cushion From a T-shirt

Mr. Pea was clearing out some T-shirts so I nabbed one to make a cushion for him. There is probably a neater way to do this than my method, but it only took about half an hour and all the un-neatness is hidden on the inside!

You will need the following:

• T-shirt
• Sewing machine
• Ruler
• Fabric pen
• Needle and cotton.

First pick your tee; I took this Pac-man one from Lee's pile of stuff for charity.

Turn the T-shirt inside out, make sure it is perfectly lined up so the seam at the top of the shoulders is at the top and not coming forward or back, you can pin it in place so it doesn't move when you put it in the sewing machine.

I marked on mine where the top of the pattern is so I could get the whole thing in, I used a ruler and a fabric pen to draw a line from the mark to the middle of the sleeves, just below the neck hole. This is the line which you sew down with the sewing machine, make double sure the t-shirt is inside out, I nearly sewed mine wrong as I kept checking the location of my line by turning it back the right way.

Once you have sewed down the line it will look like this:

That's the top all sewed up, so now to do the same to the sides. Decide how wide you want the pillow to be and draw a line again going down from the top line to the bottom of the Tee, do the same on both sides and machine those in. Now the only hole left is the bottom, I sewed about a couple of inches away  from the bottom so my cushion wasn't too long, just machine where the size feels good, to close the gap I only sewed half way across, as a cushion filler has to get in there.

Once the 4 edges have been sewn along, lay the T-shirt flat out on a table or floor and cut the excess fabric away.

Once all the excess has gone it can be turned inside out and stuffed with a cushion inner, polyester filling, or bean bag beans! Don't forget to stitch up the gap at the bottom, I used blanket stitch, another type of stitch would be more appropriate but my needle skills are limited.

Et voila, finished cushion 

I couldn't find a cushion inner which fitted it very well so it's a bit wonky at the top but Mr. Pea doesn't mind.

Majora's Mask Shrink Plastic Key ring

Long time no see! I've been making, making and making this last couple of weeks. Mr. Pea's birthday pressie, plus a couple of customs to complete, has left me with zero blogging time!
I do however have time to share the Majora's Mask key ring I made for Mr. Pea. He loves The Legend Of Zelda and had sadly lost his wooden Majora's Mask key ring his brother got him from Etsy, so this seemed the perfect choice for a first shrink plastic project.

I bought a couple of packets of Shrinkles shrink plastic from The Range, one frosted and one clear. I decided to go with the frosted for this one. I drew Majora's Mask on it in pencil first and then went over it in Sharpie, the next time I use this I am going to use Sharpies from the beginning as I found it hard to rub the pencil marks off once I had gone over them, and the pencil marks also show through the light pens.

Finished Majora's Mask on the shrink plastic

I cut it out right up to the black outline, I've seen people make things from shrink plastic and leave a white border around the edge, I guess this would be useful for complicated pictures but this is quite a basic shape, even if it is a bit pointy.

Once he was cut out I punched a hole in the corner using a hole punch, the hole isn't as big and garish once it's all shrunk down.

All cut out and hole punched ready for the oven

Next the fun part, popping it in the oven! I stuck it on a foil lined baking tray as per the instructions, as there is no light in my oven I had to shine a torch in there to watch it curl up and eventually flatten, which means time to take it out. The hardest part was getting it out of the oven, picking it up and putting a book on it to flatten it before it goes hard, which happens pretty quickly. The foil is obviously super hot, so I used oven mitts but they were fairly clumsy... I think next time I'll use baking paper, I'm sure it'll work as well as foil minus the heat.

Finished!

There it is all finished and shrunk. The Sharpies darken quite a bit once shrunk, it looks very dark if it's not held up against the light. Next time I'll try either colouring pencils or lighter Sharpies from our increasingly epic collection! Overall I'm quite pleased with my first attempt at shrink plastic and so is Mr. Pea :)

Mr. Pea's Surprise Okami Amigurumi

Mr. Pea has been very spoilt, he has had an amigurumi before his birthday! I just couldn't wait to give it to him.

He has been playing Okami on his PS3 and mentioned a desire for an Amaterasu plush or amigurumi, so I planned for a while and then got to work.

I decided to make him a mini one and to mostly base it on Chibiterasu (Amaterasu's son from sequel, Okamiden) I have yet to play this game so haven't seen him in action, it was free on Playstation plus and waiting for me to start but Mr. Pea seems quite happy that I have got it right, win!

Some Time On My Hands

I have actual free time now! The squirrels are all done and for sale on the All Round website, I have finished one of the orders I received, a fisherman amigurumi, and the other isn't due until July.

Amigurumi Fisherman Done!

It's Lee's birthday in a few weeks, just 5 days after mine! I now have some time to concentrate on making him something as tradition dictates, last year I made him a Pokeball dress wearing amigurumi of myself...as you do.

I have a couple of ideas for him this year, which I clearly can't reveal as Mr. Pea is the other half of Crafty Geeks and most definitely reads our blog! 

I may have some time to carry on with my Duke Nukem cross stitch too! Remember him?

http://craftygeeksblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/size-only-matters-when-youre-full-grown.html

No rest for the wicked

Phew! Squirrels are finished and on their merry way to all round clothing HQ, I had only just put my crochet needle back in it's little case when I got 2 orders for custom amigurumi!

I've been playing Super Mario 3D Land for the last couple of weeks inbetween crocheting, I want to make everything in it! Mario in his little tanooki suit is super cute so I'm adding that to my list, I especially like the white suit which you get when you die too much, I got to rock that little suit a lot, I suck.

I promised Lee I would make him an Amaterasu from Okami too, I'm going to make the small cute version, which is what amigurumi is all about, not because it's quicker hehe! 

That little lot should keep me going for a while!

Non Geek Chic

Inbetween Squirrel making I knocked up a doily for my mum, she kept hinting she wanted one for her kitchen table, the biggest and last hint was when she purchased a ball of orange cotton yarn.

Despite the fact that my mother taught me to crochet she doesn't do any herself, therefore if she wants something made she waits for me to it for her.

Cute doily!

 I do like this doily, I wish she wanted one with a few colours in though as plain orange was a bit boring to make,  thankfully making one is super quick though so I didn't have to stare at it for too long.
I got the pattern from Simply Crochet magazine, it's supposed to have another couple of rows added onto it but I decided it was about the right size like this and the petals look sweet sticking out of the bottom of the fruit bowl!

Looks like a flower under the bowl!

Deadpool Squirrel

I'm making more squirrels for All Round Clothing, It's great they have been so popular!
Inbetween making batches of the crochet bad boys I decided to make a Deadpool version for my friend for his birthday, He designs for All Round Clothing so I thought it'd be nice for him to have a custom squirrel, thankfully he loved it!

I had to spray paint the eyes white as I couldn't find any white safety eyes, I used Plastikote spray paint which worked quite well, I had to use a few coats as it kept running off the eyes.
His little Swords are wooden skewers which I covered in glue and wrapped the wool around, I was worried it was going to unravel but Pritt Stick worked better than I had envisioned, the glue gun would of made a mess everywhere.

Deadpool Squirrel ready for action

Mr Pea has been creating!

Lee had a burst of inspiration over the weekend and customized a couple of vinyl Munny type figures, we got them out of a Gatcha machine in a Hungry Horse restaurant, only £1 each!
He did himself a vault boy from Fallout and he made me Chun-Li from Street Fighter 2, I think he has done a good job for his first go.
We're going back to the restaurant tomorrow night so we'll get some more for him to play with, I'm quite pleased Mr Pea has found something crafty he likes doing!

Vault Boy and Chun-Li Munny type figures

Wolves!

The wolves for Lone Wolf Mobile Bush Craft are finished! I'm pleased with how they have turned out, I bought a pattern from Raverly for them, I just couldn't get it right on my own!
Pattern is from here http://www.ravelry.com/designers/kati-galusz

It's-a me! Mario!

Such an unoriginal title, I know.
I had a quick little request for a Mario amigurumi in between Wolf making and preparing another batch of squirrels for All Round Clothing
I couldn't say no as it is for my mums friend's son, he's cute, and 6, you can't say no to cute 6 year olds when they want cool Nintendo things! The bright side of making things for my ma is that she pays me in yarn, which bulks up my crochet stash quite nicely!

This Mario is a bit different from the one I made Mr Pea for Christmas in 2011, I followed a pattern to the letter for that one while this one I kind of "winged" as basic shapes are just required to make him really, except the hat, I did have to look up the hat, the hat is from WolfDreamer

It's-a Mario time!

Crochet v's Coding

I fear that crafting has pushed out all the tech knowledge in my head, I've spent a lot of time today watching videos on how to start up a website on Google sites, so far I've managed to create a site and inform any visitors that it's being created....that's a lie, I have given up until Mr Pea can look at it for me.
So soon, hopefully, we will be reachable at www.craftygeeks.co.uk (at this moment in time this URL is still directing to 123-regs, takes a while to do some "mapping" thing)
If anyone wishes to see our site it's HERE for now, very exciting, non?

In Crafting and less Geek related news, I am creating some little amigurumi wolves for Lone Wolf Mobile Bushcraft go check it out and say hello to Bradley, our local Ray Mears!