#my skills are limited in perler

[beetleye]

kieran perlers i made using sprites made by @kyledove on twitter (left) and @shlubbyart (right) !!

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 3651

today my mom and i ran some errands after i had therapy in the morning.

it was good to talk to christine because oftentimes i find myself without the words or in-the-moment knowledge for how to handle a situation, but if i take a little bit of time, i can usually think things through and make good choices.

so i'd hazard to say it's working well.

mom and i went to joann fabrics.

they were having a sale.

so i bought a bunch of fleece for a service project for the convention. i want to make and donate blankets for a panel this year. probably a quieter alternative to other things but i can have people working on that all weekend and complete others while i'm not busy, or have security staff or whoever wants to help work on them in their downtime or their off shifts. so.

i may have gone overboard with how much fleece i got because it fills up my mom's car's trunk, but it is what it is. so that was good.

i also got an excessive large container of mod podge.

i just need paint markers, tiles, and terrarium bulbs and i'll be all set for this year in terms of materials, i think.

oh. i still gotta handle the perlers. so i actually have a lot of work ahead of me. rip. but at least i have staff! i have THREE people this year! i'm excited.

after joann's we got lunch and then we stopped for groceries and stuff and we came back and we played the game i got yesterday from midgard games - it's called mlem space agency and basically you play cats that go into space and sometimes you can get onto a planet or a moon and sometimes the ship will blow up because cats are not so good with technology. but you keep the cats on the ships that asplode, so they really just come back. (they have intergalactic parachutes.) (at least in my book they do bc asplodey cats makes me sad, so they just come back.)

but it's a cute game and it's easy to learn and it was fun to punch out. there's some skill and strategy to it and it was quite entertaining.

after playing we all just chilled out for a while bc it was so miserable outside and it was cold inside and around 7 we had dinner and mom and i watched some more of the flash afterward.

no word today from joel, but i expect he was busy with work stuff and happy to stay inside because outside is gross right now.

this weekend i work an extra day, which im not thrilled about, but there's so much i'm already not thrilled about with work, including but not limited to expecting to be put upon to take extra shifts because the supervisor and the senior analyst don't wanna do it and there's no one else to take over. so. i hate that already.

(i have so much to complain about when it comes to managing this place but for real i'm just kind of fed up with incompetence, irresponsibility, and blatant favoritism. displeased.)

[justkeepstitching]

Basic Supplies

Plastic canvas is not a terribly expensive hobby. It’ll more than likely cost you less than $40 to get started, providing you don’t go overboard with yarn. (Believe me, that’s a very easy thing to do. I have entered a craft store intending to buy a single skein and ended up spending $90.) But here’s a basic rundown of what you need to get started.

Your Craft Bag

Most craft stores have them. I bought this one in Walmart several years ago and it’s served me very well. You want something that’s a decent size to hold all your supplies, a few balls of yarn, and a small project. The most important thing to consider in a craft bag after its size is the number of pockets. You need to be able to organize your supplies so everything is easily accessible. As you can see, mine has pockets for days. In addition to all these exterior pockets, it has two good sized ones on the inside. I use one of the large ones that doesn’t have the flap to store scraps of yarn that are big enough to be used on other projects, and one of the small pockets on the end as a garbage can for unusable pieces of yarn and canvas bits.

Bits and Pieces

Yarn. Costs $3-$6 per skein, depending on the brand and size, and one skein will last a pretty long time. My favorite brands are Red Heart, I Love This Yarn, Caron Simply Soft, and Yarn Bee.

Plastic canvas (I will go into more depth on this later)

Sturdy snips for cutting your canvas

Smaller scissors for snipping yarn (You don’t necessarily have to have an extra pair for yarn, but I could not resist this pair that look like a crane! They’re a reproduction of a vintage design, if I’m not mistaken, because I’ve seen pictures of really old ones before.)

Yarn needles. They’re larger and sturdier than regular needles. I do not recommend using plastic ones. I’ve tried using them and they’re thicker yet more flimsy than metal ones and I just can’t slip them in under my yarn as easily when weaving in the ends.

A needle box for storing your needles

Needle-nose pliers for those times when your needle gets stuck (Yes, even the metal ones get stuck every now and then.)

Post-It notes for marking your progress on a pattern

A bandaid or two because accidental pricks are bound to happen

Extras

A couple of extra things I keep in my bag are:

A small notebook and a pen

Extra needles

Hair ties

A pad and a tampon cause ya never know when you might need one

Your Canvas

Without further ado, allow me to introduce the star of the show! Plastic canvas is a plastic grid that you weave your yarn around to create beautiful works of art. I have already cut this piece to size for a project. It comes in many different sizes, shapes, and even a few colors. It is also available in various mesh sizes. What is the mesh size, you may ask? The mesh refers to the number of squares per inch. It comes in 5, 7, 10, and 14 mesh sizes, with 7 being the most popular and what I always use. You can buy the standard sheets in multi packs in Walmart and larger sheets individually in Hobby Lobby. As much as I loathe to give Hobby Lobby my business, they are the only place I have been able to find that sells the large sheets I need so often and they have an amazing yarn selection.

Patterns

There are thousands of free patterns available online. I find 90% of mine on Pinterest. And you’re not limited to plastic canvas patterns specifically; you can use perler bead, counted cross stitch, and knitting patterns, too. As long as it’s laid out on a grid and it doesn’t exceed the size of your canvas, anything goes. I’ve been doing plastic canvas for years and I’m up to the skill level where I can look at almost any finished project and copy it without using a pattern. I have never paid for a pattern and you don’t have to, either.

[kimtanathegeek]

Learning to cross stitch in quarantine

7/17/20

As I mentioned in my previous post, I started cross stitching.

 I’m the type of person who loves to constantly create (even though I’m not really good at anything), so being at my dad and brother’s house without any of my crafting supplies drove me crazy. I spent the days in quarantine going through thousands of crafting pins on Pinterest just to satiate my hunger to craft. While looking through some perler bead ideas, I found a video on how to make cross stitch sprites by Sirithre. I’d come across cross stitch in the past, but always thought it was far too advanced for my feeble brain to handle. However, after watching her video, I decided to research how to cross stitch.

 Eventually I learned enough to give it a go. I had some reward points on several apps that I was saving to buy Christmas gifts later in the year, but since I was no longer getting any paychecks from work thanks to Covid-19, I decided to invest in some cross stitch supplies to not only help my need to craft again, but also to create a sellable stock of items to help get me money for my back rent.

 So I cashed in my $60 Amazon reward dollars, got a Michael’s gift card, and ordered some plastic canvas, tapestry needles, and the cheapest embroidery floss they had. Two months later (yay shipping delays), I got to start my new craft.

 Since my good crafting scissors are packed away in the room I rent back home, and since I couldn’t afford finishing findings like magnets or pins quite yet, I just set out stitching, and will finish my projects when I get home in the fall.

 These were the first two I made—Sans and Papyrus heads from Undertale—which I was really impressed didn’t come out terribly.

 Then I made some rupees from the Legend of Zelda series.

 Now that I had a hang of cross stitching, I decided to make bigger sprites. Here’s Sans, Papyrus, Asriel, Flowey, and Undyne, all from Undertale.

 I was really impressed that I didn’t suck at them. The color limitations I have from the packs of thread I got (only multi-packs were affordable) made some of the color choices difficult, and there are characters I can’t make until I get matching colors, but it’s a start.

 I’ve been working on a “sprite stock sheet” for some smaller items to sell, and I’ll post that when I finish the sheet. It’s going to be a while. 😉

 It’s good to be crafting again, even though I’ve had days where my anxiety was so bad that I couldn’t work on cross stitching. It’s good to know I will have some form of income in the fall when I finish them and sell them off (keeping some of the Undertale sprites for myself, of course. I mean, come on, they’re adorable!).

 Pixel art has always been something I’ve been fascinated with since it’s an art form where I can manage to create something that is actually half-decent, since my artistic skills are horrific. And cross stitch is a great way for me to keep doing pixel art, even if it’s a different method than I’m used to. I’m really glad I learned how to do it and had the reward points to get the stuff.

 Let me know what you guys think. I know it’s not the most amazing art you’ve ever seen, but I think they look kinda cool. 😊

[kvotheunkvothe]

For those of you considering picking up a hobby, here is my personal experience with various crafty hobbies I’ve tried and their assorted costs:

Drawing ink/pencil: highly variable $-$$$. To start out with it can be quite cheap, if you’re just starting with school supplies and notebook paper. I’ve found even the higher-end paper products aren’t nearly the biggest drain, however, as when you start using the specifically artistic pens and pencils. I’d recommend sticking with basic supplies while you’re still developing your drawing skills, including using sharpies when you’re doing sketches (although these are getting a bit more expensive, too, they last quite a while even with heavy use). I also got a lot of use out of the 6-pack of varying sized Micron pens. For pencils, wooden is much preferred over mechanical, and if you can’t afford a full pack, I’ve personally gotten by fairly well just with 2B and 6B. As for colored pencils, quite honestly I’ve seen little difference in quality between expensive and cheap beyond color-choice. For charcoal, the charcoal pencils have struck me as something of a gimmick--you can do about as well just with a stick. Also, don’t neglect white charcoal; it really makes a difference and gives you a lot more options with your drawings. This is a pretty approachable craft to learn, however, even if you’re broke to begin with.

Drawing digital: highly variable $-$$$. Tablets aren’t nearly as expensive as they used to be, and there are a lot of free programs online. My experience here has been limited by my own funds, but I will say this is still an accessible hobby. For the most part, because my digital equipment is lower-end (also just due to talent), I’ve found it most useful for touching up my hand-drawn artwork after the fact by cleaning up the digital image, fixing mistakes I didn’t notice before, etc. It’s also a medium in its own right, but you’d have to get better advice elsewhere on what products would really be worth it.

Sewing: high cost $$$. Sewing machines themselves are a costly investment and pretty necessary if you’re actually making a garment, but even hand-sewing racks up, quickly. Thread, pins, and needles are fairly low-cost, but the fabric is getting ever more expensive. A proper pair of scissors can also be a bit costly; kitchen scissors are all right and will get the job done, but you will weary of their ineffectiveness. I also recommend a seam-ripper. I’ve gotten by without any of those special measuring mats or rotary cutters, but each project has its unique costs (snaps, buttons, zippers, batting, etc.). This craft is also a bit difficult to learn by yourself. Youtube tutorials can go a ways, but it’s really better to learn from someone else. If you have access to a sewing machine and a teacher already, this is a pretty useful skill to learn if you can take the time.

Oil painting: moderate to high cost $$-$$$. The costs can be fairly low if you stick with acrylics, but I don’t think much of that medium outside when you’re initially learning how to paint at all. Oil paints are pretty expensive, and you’ll need several base colors--I wouldn’t recommend trying to mix any yourself just from basic red, yellow, blue. When I started out it was in a class, and we were given 2 shades of red, 2 shades of blue, a green, 2 shades of yellow, a brown, and a violet, and even with this, getting just the right shade for the subject was a little tricky (although admittedly this was a beginner’s course). Brushes are also something you’ll want to invest in, and you’ll need several sizes. Turpentine is needed to clean the brushes, and you’ll want Gesso to prime your canvases, too. You’ll also need a flat palette, and then a razor to clean your palette. If at all possible, I recommend taking a class to learn how to do a proper oil painting and care for your equipment, and get some of your initial supplies from there.

Crocheting: low to moderate cost $-$$. I never got into knitting, but I imagine it’s much the same cost-wise. You basically only need yarn and a hook for this. Hooks come in plastic, and you can make a single size work for several weights of yarn in a pinch. The yarn is where the variability comes in. Simple acrylics won’t feel nearly as nice, but they do come pretty cheap. It’s also a very forgiving craft that you can undo and try again, over and over, so you don’t waste much. There’s plenty of online tutorials and forums, too, to help you get started.

Cross-stitch/embroidery: low cost $. Floss is fairly cheap, you can get a very wide selection of colors, and it goes quite a long way. Aida cloth is also fairly inexpensive, particularly given how long a project can take. You don’t need a frame, but they do help, and they run pretty cheap if you just get a plastic one. In terms of learning how, it’s very easy to pick up. There are also free online resources to make your own patterns. If you start adding beads and such the costs may stack up, but for the most part this is a pretty inexpensive craft.

Perler beads: moderate cost $$. You wouldn’t think plastic melting beads would cost much, but you’d be wrong. The color assortments are such that you rarely have enough to complete a project unless you buy each color you need individually, and even then you’ll want to stock up on black. Pegboards aren’t too expensive, but you’ll likely need a few even for a fairly small project. You’ll also need an iron (if you don’t have one already), masking tape, tweezers, and a needle. This is a project you can learn alone with little guidance once you learn the basics, but keeping up with the hobby will mean buying a lot of those beads, which gets expensive before very long.

[cara95163370-blog]

Perler Bead Spider Web.

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