29/?/12 - Gettin' Stuff DONE

Forget what month it is...

I'll figure it out later

Well hi ^-^ it's been forever, hasn't it? I might seem unusually unstable right now because Pencil just crashed on me (I'll explain in a minute). So I've been doing a lot of crafty stuff lately. Got a sewing machine from my neighbor (THANK YOU!), a shitload of material, and the animation program Pencil. Yup, after searching the web for a few months looking for a free animation program similar to Flash, I found Pencil.
 I really do like Pencil, and not just because it's free. It's really easy to work with after you read the unbelievably short user manual. I only got it a couple of days ago, but as soon as I started the download I started making a story board. Because what do good animators do? They make a story board! My "beginner" story board is really simple. It's just my BattleAxePirate character (that I FINALLY designed) sewing a dress and dancing to PONPONPON by SeeU o.o It's actually a lot easier than you would think. Though I'm dreading the dance sequence. SO. MUCH. FRAMES. But yeah, it'll be fun. I can't wait to finalize the project and upload it to Youtube. I think my account will finally have a purpose now so long as the file process works on my computer. Yeah. The way you save the files in Pencil is really tricky, and I may have to do some reading up on file types to find a way to make it work, but I'll find a way. I swear it.
 But yeah, I'm ticked. Got about 25 frames into my animation and Pencil CRASHED. 25 FRAMES! And like... 3 story board panels, THREE! But at least it only crashed on the opening sequence instead of half way through... I swear from now on I'm saving after I finish a panel from the story board *fuming*
 On another note I can learn how to sew stuffs now. I got a sewing machine for FREE from my neighbor (yay, free shit), it works AWESOME. Now I just have to find something simple to sew. I'm thinking arm warmers. Flarey ones. With ribbon. LOTS OF RIBBON.
 So mmhmm. That's about it. Looking forward to school. Not looking forward to losing sleep. Might start a couple Youtube series later on down the road with Pencil. If you'll excuse me I'm going to take a shower, relax, and start on my animation... AGAIN. Later~

5/7/12 - Accessory Crafts!

Hei everyone~ It sure has been a while, hasn't it? Summer is slow... But I'm finding ways to speed it up~

 A little while ago (I'm writing this at like, 3 in the morning) my mom came in and told me to get off the computer. So I did. But instead of going to bed I stayed up another two hours constructing a little accessory craft XP Sorry Mama. I've never actually done this before so I'm really excited to see how it turns out. I got my old music stave cloth, a paper bag, my scissors, a pencil, some white dry-clear wet glue, and my mini sewing kit (out of it I only actually used my measuring tape and safety pins).

 I measured my wrist with the tape, marked a corner of the paper bag with the right measurements, cut out a corner of the bag, and ran it through my fingers to soften it up. Then I measured the cloth so that it would wrap around the strip of paper bag almost perfectly. I cut out the material I needed, set the strip of paper bag in the middle, put a thin line of glue down one side of the material, spread it out with my pinky finger (so that there were no hard bumps when it all dried), and folded it over onto the strip of paper bag. Then I did the same thing with the other side of cloth, just using less glue because some of the glue from the first use kind of soaked through the cloth Xl After that I carefully folded the second half of cloth over onto the first and pressed on it gently. Then I turned it over to make sure the stave design on the outward facing side of the bracelet was straight, and fixed the slight wave in the pattern.

 I wrapped the strip around a candle I had sitting on my desk, and pressed small but heavy items on three sides; the left side, the right side, and the area where the two end sides of the strip meet. This way, the strip will dry stiffly into a bracelet shape, instead of straight, if I were to just lay it down flat and put something on top of it. Doing that might make it hard to bend into the circular shape I want when it is finished drying.

 Later in the morning when I get up I'm going to put the final (and my most favorite) touch on this craft; silver safety pins to hold the strip ends together. This will give it a nice goth look, as well as serve as a nice decorative accent (the same way a charm would). I'll be sure to put up pictures!~