#craft instructions

[repost-this-image]

How to make a tiny TV-head doll

This is a long post, so I've put it under a cut. It's not difficult, it's just fiddly. You need a keen eye and a steady hand to make this project (or a friend with the above, to do it for you). The parts cost less than $20, not counting tools or doll clothes, so this is a cheap little friend to make!

You will need:

This headless doll body from YMYDoll (or a headless Obitsu11 doll body from Parabox) Only use these 2 brands; this is important.

A tiny TV keychain, like this one from AliExpress (no link because the links change practically every week):

A 2mm screwdriver

An Xacto knife or other small blade

(Optional) A hand drill (I didn't use one)

Clothes to fit an Obitsu11 or similar doll

Start by cutting the keychain attachment off, unless you particularly like the idea of a dolly keychain for whatever reason. I don't judge.

Take the entire mechanism (carefully) out of the keychain. Make sure you remember where everything goes, so you can put it back in later. (You can remove the wires going to the tiny round speaker, if you don't want the "static" sound effect. I did.)

Cut or drill a 3mm hole in the bottom of the keychain, toward the back. (On mine, this is the blue part.)

Now for the tricky part. You see the white plastic piece that the LED shines into? You're gonna want to cut the bottom-right corner out of that piece so that the neck joint will fit. See image. (You can remove the back of this white piece, to take the LED out. I highly recommend doing that before you cut.)

This was really annoying to do, but my Xacto blade is dull. If you use a sharp blade like you're supposed to, it should take about 15 minutes. That plastic piece is thick, so go carefully and be patient.

One more step before we put the wires and stuff back into place! You see the extra neck joint that comes with the doll? The one that looks like this?

You want to use THAT neck piece. It has a screw in the top. Unscrew it, and carefully remove the pieces above the round ball.

Stick the peg into the head, then put the top pieces back on and screw the neck piece back together. This will secure the neck joint, so your doll's head doesn't fall off. You can also go ahead and install the neck peg into the doll at this point.

Carefully put all the electrical parts back into your keychain, being careful to put the white plastic piece back in around the neck peg. Your doll now looks like this:

If you want to draw a new screen for the doll, you can absolutely do that! I tried to draw static, but I'm not very good at it. If you're doing that, do it now.

Now, put the front part back on, making sure you didn't lose the tiny rubber button. Screw it in place.

And that's it! Dress up your new TV-head dolly however you want.

[purpledragon-ephemera]

My Closet Full of Hats by Harvey Weiss © 1962 Young Readers Press, Inc.

[nonbinary-octopus]

honestly yeah, fiber arts is magic. you cast spell of warm gloves, spell of nice hat, spell of stuffed animal.

material component: yarn

wand: single hooked wand or double pointed wands, depending on caster's preference

mechanical component: specific motions repeated in a particular pattern

time component: a while

look seriously the first step in a knitting recipe is "cast on", and then it's a bunch of letters and numbers incomprehensible to anyone not versed in the arcane art. that's a spellbook. yes it's a book of knitting patterns but also. it's a spell book.

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

Middle aged men on instructional sites are probably my favourite people on the internet

[lilaco21]

I think everyone needs to have a go at a new hobby every once in a while because:

1. You might find something you enjoy

2. You gain more respect for those who can do said hobby

3. You remind yourself what it actually feels like to not know anything about a subject

[spockandawe]

It's time! for! 2ha!!!!!!! I've had 'the husky and his white cat shizun' on my radar as a bookbinding project basically from the very start, back when I thought it was impossible that any of these danmei novels would ever be licensed for english translations. But this book is so long, and besides, the translation wasn't complete, so it went onto the backest of back burners. Until now! So, the book has been licensed. It's started releasing! As usual, please support these authors, they have a passionate english-speaking fanbase, and I very much want them to enjoy that success in a practical sense and not just an abstract one. And I also want more of these novels translated, haha. But the nature of licensing means I've also gotten a lot more interested in preserving prior translations in formats that can't casually be yoinked from the internet.

Now, this is a big novel. This was 1.1 million words. The stack of pressed text quarto blocks was over 15 inches, and once I added covers (very thick, for reasons I'm about to cover) and boxes, this thing was 22 inches long. Oh my god. This sustained effort naturally overlapped with an international trip and two crucially Important work presentations. I almost died. I had to split it into multiple boxes because I wasn't sure I could laminate boards thick enough to support so much weight at so much length and still cut it with any precision, lmao

And those covers? I took inspiration from notebooks I've sent with cover flaps like these, and also decided to see if I could incorporate the strip magnets I bought for peller box experiments and barely used. The downside that didn't make itself apparent until late in the construction process was that laminating boards to match this depth made the covers REAL thick, and difficult to cover with a crisp finish. Duo bookcloth can get wrinkly and fragile when it's wet, so it didn't entirely take me by surprise, but it's something I'll be accounting for next time I try this construction!

I tried to stick to a black and blue and silver color scheme, because it matches the book, but I also accepted some gold highlights on the endpapers. The duo bookcloth tends to photograph with a bit more brown in the color shift than I see in person, but I think it plays out well in person or in photos! The endpapers make for a nice striking pop when the book opens and don't blend into the cover fabric, which was something I definitely wanted to avoid.

And, speaking of thematically appropriate, I found this image for chapter headers that was almost perfect, but the wrong kind of flowers. So I did change those to haitang blosoms, haha. That happened early in the typesetting process, but I did also have that on my mind as I worked out decorations for the boxes! Mostly, I just titled what book of the novel it was on the top and left it there, but the very last detail I added was a pair of foil flowers done in pink and silver, on the outside edges of the boxes for book 1 and the extras. I finished that last night and then went to bed SO excited to take pictures in the morning. I really had an incredible time with this book, and the whole adventure reminded me just how much I love 2ha. I'm so happy I did this, I really had just an incredible time!!!!!

[notbecauseofvictories]

[ Open House Chicago 2024 — All Saints' Episcopal Church, Dank Haus German Cultural Center, St. Mary of the Lake, Riviera Theater, Wilson Avenue Theater]

[rumade]

Make your own breastfeeding pillow

Someone in my mum group recommended a breastfeeding pillow which was £80, so I went naaaaaah and made my own. I made mine with straps so I could tie it round my waist, but I haven't really used them.

The base is 2 small rectangular cushion inserts. I think it was these ones from Dunelm, at a very affordable £2.75 each. They measure 32cm × 52cm.

You will need: fabric (about 1.2m × 1m), thread, a 50cm zip.

Sew your 2 cushions together in an L shape. I used a ladder stitch from seam to seam, and then closed the gap/dent with further stitching bringing the sides together and level

Make a rough pattern. You can do this with measurements or by drawing around your joined inserts. My paper was too small to add seam allowance, so I did it on the fabric itself.

Fold your fabric in half, right sides together, lay and cut your pattern with the spine of the L on the fold.

Install your zip at the base of the L

If you want straps, make some by cutting strips of leftover fabric, sewing them right sides together to make a tube, turn inside out, and press.

Pin straps into the tips of the L, making sure that the straps are INSIDE the structure. Open the zip so you can turn the cushion later, then sew the remaining edges together. When you finish, the entire piece should be closed (except the zip, which you have opened)

Turn the piece right side out, press if you want to, then add the insert you're done!

The L shape cradles your body and the firm inserts keep the baby at the correct height

Apologies if these instructions don't make sense, I get woken up 4 times minimum every night at the moment.

[lucidpast]

Make your own toast friend is six easy steps!

[chocodile]

A bunch more Sylvanian customs! ...Well, some of them are Sylvanians. The characters shown from top to bottom: Jenny (tarantula, formerly baby bunny), Mariana (eel, formerly Baerenwald/Forest Family mouse), Morgan (rattlesnake, 3D printed and hand-flocked figure, original 3D “Snake Sylvanian” template by Yapsulli on Reddit), Dayton (opossum, formerly Angelina Ballerina “Henry” figure), and Dayton’s nieces and nephews (also possums, formerly meadow mouse babies). We’ve got a rather motley bunch here! The last photo is a group shot of all of the customs I’ve made so far.

Anyway, these were some pretty difficult and experimental figures! Lots of epoxy clay to turn the baby bunny into a tarantula and the Baerenwald mouse into an eel, and some weird materials like Mariana’s fin hair. Overall not everything turned out exactly how I hoped, but it was a great learning experience and has given me a lot of confidence working with very heavily customized figures.

[origami-fleur]

Sprig

Leaves instructions.

[sanhatipal]

FINISHED THIS BLOODY KIT

I haven't laboured over a kit like this for a loooong time hot damn . I'm sure Luna magic house had more parts yet somehow this was far more taxing? This took me a week I can't believe it my back hurtsssss

That being said I'm so happy with the results!! I filmed a bit too, so there'll definitely be a video!

[purpledragon-ephemera]

My Closet Full of Hats by Harvey Weiss © 1962 Young Readers Press, Inc.

[holmesoldfellow]

Origami Deerstalker: How-To

Happy 170th Birthday to Sherlock Holmes! In honor, I thought I'd try and make a tutorial for a rudimentary origami deerstalker hat

This hat is a modified version of the Old Scholar hat found in the book "The Art of Chinese Paper Folding for Young and Old" by Maying Soong. It is available on the Internet Archive, and if my instructions are unclear at any point, I recommend referencing the original instructions on page 50, and maybe even doing a test run with those instructions first to better understand what I'm doing here. However, also feel completely free to comment or message me about any questions you have.

You will need a square piece of paper. I used a post-it note for my photos, which as you can see fit my Smiski quite well, but the original instructions recommend a 20 inch piece of paper to fit a small head. Consider the flexibility of your materials and how loose you want it.

Step 1

Fold and crease your paper in half both diagonally and lengthwise. Then, fold along your lengthwise creases, pushing in along two opposite diagonal folds. This should flatten into a smaller square.

Step 2

Fold only the upper layer of paper upwards, not quite meeting the corners and leaving a small border of space.

Step 3

Fold the upper layer along the middle of the shape, creating a lip. Fold this lip under and inside the shape to hide it.

Step 4

Fold the uppermost layer of paper downwards. Fold the lower corner of the layer up, about a third of its length. Fold the layer back upwards.

Step 5

Flip over your paper and repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 on the other side. This will create the side flaps of the hat.

Step 6

Fold the top layer in half lengthwise, bringing the right and left corners together, and repeat on the other side as well. The two sides we have not folded yet should now be visible.

Step 7

Fold the uppermost layers of paper on either side up and in half.

Step 8

Crease the top corner of the upper layer down to meet the bottom (at the fold made in Step 7). Unfold, and fold again to bring the top corner to the crease we just made. Fold again at our initial crease.

Step 9

Fold the upper layer of paper to create a fold between the corner and the middle. Make a small fold to bring down the top corner of the upper layer of paper, about meeting the visible lip from Step 8.

Step 10

Fold the upper layer down. Bring the corners on either side to meet in the middle and crease them in half.

Step 11

Unfold and bring the corners to meet the crease we just made. Then, fold along the crease again. Fold the bottom of our top layer back up along our horizontal fold.

Step 12

Flip your paper over. Repeat steps 8, 9, 10, and 11 on the other side. You have now made your brims.

Step 13

Open your hat up from the bottom. Congratulations! You have made an origami deerstalker!

Again, if any instructions were unclear, checking the original instructions may help, but also feel free to reach out to me. If you make one, I'd love to see it! Happy Birthday Sherlock Holmes!

[zoomar]

Jointed Squirrel from Paper or Wood