The Copper Patina Nail

This is what I did this Sunday: a sassy new nail with a trick I learned on Pinterest.  I mixed both of my two colors, which was fairly straight-forward: peach+silver makes the copper, and turqoise+green+white makes the teal. If you already have these colors, I salute you.
Step 1:  Base coat of copper. (woot woot!)

Step 2: Saran wrap. Take a piece of clear plastic wrap no bigger than, I don't know, your palm, and wad it up tight. 
Step 3: Put out a few drops of your teal and dab your new tool into it.  Do the first few "stamps" of the saran wrap onto paper or something, because they'll be too thick to use.  Once you're getting good looking designs (should be about the third time) start doing it to your nails.

Step 4: repeat and topcoat. Not too bad, right?

Forget Me Knot Headband

This is a headband that I've seen a few times on sale on Pinterest. I always thought it was really cute, but I didn't know it would be so easy to make. Let it begin.

First: Materials.
I used a lightweight fabric with a little bit of stretch; stretch is good because it gives you a little leeway when it comes to fit. I only needed a quarter of a yard.  You'll need about 2-3 inches of elastic, to cinch things in at the back.  These are your fabric strips:

Save your leftovers to make a casing for the elastic, 6 inches long and about 2-3 wide. Now, take the fabric strips, fold them in half right sides together (so the good side of the fabric is on the inside), and sew one seam lengthwise. so when you're done, each strip is a little tube. Turn them right side out, and interlock them like so:

Now make that casing for the elastic that I told you about, 6 inches long and (when the casing is finished) 1, 1-1/2 inches wide. Put your 2-3 inches of elastic inside the casing. Now, line up the ends of the elastic with the ends of the casing (you'll have to bunch the casing). 

 Now take the ends of piece one (the dark pink one) and seam them to the end of the casing/elastic.  Seam the ends of piece 2 (light pink) to the other end of the casing/ elastic. You should be left with a continuous loop, like this:

Or, when the pieces seperate, like this:
The picture flips upside down here, so stay calm, and don't get confused.

Now put it on your noggin and enjoy.

Good Luck!

The Fellowship Pin: Harder Than It Looks.

This weekend, I watched Lord of the Rings, and (as I often do after watching such a movie) got pretty excited. I knew I could make the leaf pin that the fellowship wears. And so I got to work. In the pictures I'm the one with black nail polish, and my lovely assistant Ann is wearing the green.

First, the beginning of any project: the inspiration. The above picture was for sale online. I don't know how much it was, but it had free shipping, which is always something to consider. It was also called an "elven brooch." Online salesmen, 1. Katherine, 0. In my version I decided to make it smaller and hang it on a chain. So really an elven brooch inspired necklace.

I gathered my supplies and prepared for a challenge. Firstly, I got that heinous green Sculpey pictured above, and ran it through a pasta machine about 8 million times. When I finally had the thickness I wanted, I began to cut. I ended up using the thickest setting on my pasta machine, because Sculpey tends to get brittle if it's any thinner. As for the cutting, I used my inspiration and eyeballed it.

The next step was mainly carried out by Ann; she does all my wire stuff because I don't have any patience. She bent the wire into three main pieces: the first was S shaped, that looped from the bottom, behind, and to the top, where it made the loop that the other pieces cross through. Then she made two mirror pieces that went through the loop. If you look at the inspiration it will make more sense. Then we baked it and the painting began. I used plain old acrylic paints, a large collection of greens, a yellow, silver, and a black. Again, I pretty much copied the inspiration, save that I did the veins of the leaf in paint, not wire. The end result was this: All that was left to do was a clear coat of spray paint, and hanging on a chain. Since I didn't have a chain I used hemp. Actually, I probably had one but I was too lazy to find it. I added a wire loop at the bottom so it would hang horizontally. And here it is, a clear coat and hemp later.

And so, was it worth it? In the end, I really did like what I made. But it took too long, and the materials I used weren't exactly household. And while I really will enjoy being an imaginary member of the Fellowship, the internet marketing gurus win this one. And who did I think I was, to try and contend with free shipping?

Welcome to The Blog, Ladies and Gents.

Hey.
Welcome to Katherine Does A Blog. I am Katherine, and this is my blog. That I am doing. This is the kind of stuff that I'll be doing on this blog:
Recipes
Crafts
Photography
TV show obsessing
Book review-ery
Hair
Makeup
Tiny Miniature Things
and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Enjoy.