Laura Crafts: DIY MSI Tiara

Hey everyone!! Yesterday I posted about a concert I went to in April and I wanted to make a follow up DIY post spotlighting the tiara I was wearing to the concert. The headlining act was MSI short for "Mindless Self Indulgence," one of my favorite bands. They encourage fans to dress up as crazy as they please so I made a custom tiara for the affair:

I posted it on my Facebook page and got a lot of compliments so I figured I would make a how-to for anyone curious about making their own version of the tiara. This project came together with things around the house and started with a tiara from the dollar store. I drew the letters M-S-I out on leftover foamboard and cut them out with an exacto blade.

From there it was time for paint. Go bold, or go home when it comes to shows!! I had leftover "Scribbles" 3D Fabric Paint in "Flourescent Neon Pink," color from another project. With random brushes I applied coat after coat of the paint until it was blindly pink. I painted them on top of an old magazine and once done laid them out in front of the tiara before attaching them.

 

At first I was going to hot glue the letters to the tiara. But when I found some leftover pink ribbon in a drawer, I decided to tie the letters on instead. I laid the letters one at a time against tiara and weaved ribbon around the letters and between the openings in the tiara. Once the letter felt secure I knotted the ribbon in the back and moved onto the next letter.

After weaving, tying and knotting all the letters through the tiara for extra EXTRA reinforment and I went back and put hotglue over all the knots. And voila! There you have it! A custom tiara. It held up the entire day AND night at the show.

 

Try spelling out the name of your favorite band at your next concert. Or maybe your friend's name for their birthday. A lot of the stuff I already had around the house but I'm sure you could make it for around 5 dollars at the most. The possibilities are endless for this extremely cheap and fun project!!

Marvel Comic's Revisable Bag

September is always a tricky month for me. Why? Because so many people I know have birthdays in September. And there's nothing wrong with that . . . don't get me wrong. BUT that means I have to get that brain buzzin with gift ideas!

My friend Chelsea (pictured above) loves the Thor and Marvel comics AND is also very eco friendly so I decided to go about making her a re-usable grocery bag for any produce she just happens to stumble upon at a Farmer's Market IN an Thor printed fabric.

I grabbed a pattern off the verypurpleperson blog that looked easy enough and went about sewing. I was lucky enough to find a great Marvel fabric from Joanns fabrics and crafts that didn't skimp on the Thor. We tried to center it to feature maximum Thor.

The bag didn't take very long. At most, maybe 2 sittings total. I haven't sewn in awhile though so my mom was able to help me. The first sitting we got everything but the handles done. The handles were probably the only challenging part. Well that and the top stitching around it.

(Yes my table DOES have a glittery table cloth) I forgot to take a photo of it reversed, it is reversible after all but if you can't tell it's yellow on the inside like Thor's hair. Overall it came out great though and is definitely a bag I would make again. Maybe Hello Kitty on one side and Batman on the other. . . hmmmmm.

If you want to try making the revisable bag yourself be sure to check out the craft tutorial here: http://verypurpleperson.com/2010/04/making-reversible-bag/ I hope everyone has a great day!!

How to Sketch a Crowd

Hey everyone I just wanted to share a tutorial that helped me draw the Alice Glass Illustration. When you are drawing something, it is always good to use other things as a point of reference to make sure what you are creating is still relatively accurate. I recommend taking your own photos so you can get EXACTLY what you had in mind.

Sometimes though it's pretty impossible to take a photo. I mean, where was I going to gather an entire crowd to photograph and illustrate?

That's why I was happy to find this tutorial:


How to Sketch a Crowd -- powered by eHow.com

Getting myself re-acquainted with the proper perspective to use really dug me out of a ditch. I highly recommend you watch this video if you are dabble in drawing :) maybe you'll learn something new!

Have a good day everyone!