Bear Place Mat Completed...

Continued from: http://hotflashncraftn.blogspot.com/2012/02/big-bear-place-mat.html

Hi Again:  I completely finished the Bear Place Mat.  I decided (with help) to change the hook and loop to Velcro, genius, huh?  Kids would ripped that out, easy.  Also,  I wanted to show the collar, it had me confused in the beginning, as I said before, but this is how it should look.

 I had fun making him, and intend make a bunch more, each one will be different as all the Bears in my family are different, I'll share them all.

Please Scroll down to see the rest of the project and where to get the pattern.  http://hotflashncraftn.blogspot.com/2012/02/big-bear-place-mat.html 

Big Bear Place Mat

Hi friends:

I made this today and wanted to share him with you.  Isn't he adorable?  It was love at first sight.  No, it's not my pattern or my idea, it's another free pattern I came across during one of my mad FREE PATTERN online searches.  This is my first one, I just wanted to share him with anyone who hasn't seen it.  The pattern came from http://www.freepatterns.com. You have to join the site to get the free patterns, but honestly I don't think I've ever even gotten an email from them.

I had fun making him, and I plan to make more as soon as I get my new machine.  I haven't been sewing much lately, only because I'm reviewing sewing machines and plan to purchase a new next week.  I just couldn't stand it any longer.  I had to sew something.......

The only thing I did differently from their pattern was to make him smaller, their pattern is huge.  Yes, I cut their sizes first, then resized to 87%.  And made him completely with cotton fabric, I love working with cotton.  We are a large Bear Family, so I need to fit at least 6 mats on the table.  I think this size is perfect.

Thanks for stopping by!
  

Here is exactly how to get this pattern.  Go to http://www.freepatterns.com/

Go to Join Now in the right hand top corner

After you are a member, go to Sewing at the end of links

Under: Sewing Patterns, go to For the home

Go to Dining Room

It's the 4th Free Pattern listed.

Any other questions, just ask me, FYI, the collar on the Bear which is under the napkin confused me at first because Miss June constantly says "refer to photo" and you can not see it in the photo. The loop which the napkin slides into creating the bow, I sewed on rather than glued, per her instructions, but find it to be tight, so the next one I make I will make it at 4" instead of 3". 

                 Click Here TO SEE:  Bear Place Mat Completed 

Poodle Skirt Photo

I would like share a photo from the sock hop the grand-kids finally got to go to.  It had to be rescheduled due to extreme weather conditions.

This is Harmy Bear in her Poodle Skirt I whipped up and posted Jan 1, 2012, with Boo Bear in his 1950's get up, they look so cute.  It was a family event and I heard it was a great success.

Sock Hop 2012

I guess Miss Harmy Bear took Sock Hop literally.  Though you can not tell from the photo the gym was wall to wall people, the kids got in first because my Daughter worked a concession stand.  I'm just so grateful to get the picture.

Valentine's Day Project

I walk around thrift/vintage/junk stores just hoping to come across an idea.  I came across this.

It's a vintage 1950's sewing case that was given away by a grocery store in Virginia.  I looked it up.  I paid $2.00 for it, it's valued at $15.00.  But I bought it because of the cool shape and how it folds, plus I had a vision.

Here's what I made with the same design.

It turned out like I envisioned, only with the makeup in the pouch, the center folds want to fall out. I'm going to add ribbons to tie it closed from the center.  I will post the pattern I made and how it looks with the ribbon tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day!

  Folding Case with the ribbon.

Here's the pattern

I haven't figured out how to add attachments yet, so this will redirect you to www.bniinc.com (that's my boyfriends business website) where I'm gonna have a sub-folder for my patterns, for now.

Blog Header

I swear that is it, I am done messing with my header.

I have been obsessed with the artwork for my blog header.  Maybe it is worth paying someone to do it for you, because then you are stuck with what you paid for.  In my case, I did contact the local caricature artist first; he wanted $170 for strictly a head drawing.  Is that what they charge on the street?  Well I'm too cheap or too broke to pay that kind of money.  I had a vision .  After 4 weeks, and many late nights, I am finally happy with this last posted header.  

Poster Edge Effect

I started with the photo, pulled the photo into Photo Shop Element -PSE, took out the background, went into the artistic effects, and use the poster edge effect on the photo so that it was easy to trace over a light table.  I printed the photo, put tracing paper over it, colored it with pastel pencils (chalk), scanned it, pulled it back into PSE; using the smudge tool, I smudge the colors around.  

Two layers

PSE has some very cool features where you can somewhat fade one picture and lay it on top of the other picture, then merge the layers; as you can see, after smudging the colors I would take all the lines out of the face.  So I would back to the tracing photo and start again with the coloring making sure I would emphasis the lines on my face.

I also drew all the other elements; then colored the drawings, and repeated the same process.  I've made it so that every element, even parts of my face, are layered.

Eyes

Lips

Glasses

Shirt

Sweat

Tape Measure

Sewing Machine (I designed the fabric in the machine in Publisher)

Fan

Crafting supplies

Background (I designed background in Publisher)

Text

  Yes, it is strange that my face elements are layered, the reason:  Well I took the eyes off the original photo, they shined brighter; I could merge the eyes but then I can't un-merge once I save the file, and the lips came from a more recent photo, I thought it would be cool to be able to change my expressions.

  My biggest problem was that I wanted the artwork to resemble me now, you know with wrinkles, and the photo was taken in 2008, after 3 years, well I've changed.  That's what took so long to get it right.  I started over, 4 times. At last, I took a picture of myself and faded it behind the smudge face and they the wrinkles showed through.  Wa La!

Thank you for reading about my obsessive  project.  Hooray, it's done!  Now I have to do my button............