Howdee pards!!!!!
I want you guys to get out your super secret craft glasses!
(the ones that let you see craft potential in nearly everything!!!!)
...and take a look at this bag...
What do you see????
Do you see an animal in there???
Do you see a beak? ...a place for eyes?
(Do you guys hear crickets?????)
ummmm.... no, Crazy Lolly (my new official title)...
We see a plain ole camera bag!!!
When I laid my eyeballs on that camera bag...
I saw this!
You have to squint really really really hard to see it, but I promise you, she's in there!
I know it's kinda crazy, but I am gonna share how to turn that bag into Miss Owl Fabulous Pants!
I had seen glimmer mist used to "dye" similar Donna Downey Prima bags in their "Live..." videos!
So I figured it would be a terrific way to jazz up the base of my owl!
I cut off the button from the front of the bag.
I lightly spritzed the bag with plain water first to prime it to accept the color and then...
I sprayed the bottom in Glimmer Mist in "turquoise blue (a.k.a. teal) and the top in "lime twist"
I also ran a paint brush over the spritzed bag (another fabulous Prima tip) to smooth everything together!
You can see the gradient pretty well and the color saturation is really nice.
I set it up to dry...
Got impatient and blasted it with my heat gun!
That fella dried right up lickity split!
Just a teeny tiny little Glimmer Mist tip...
Unless you are going for the Pandora look...
Wear gloves!
I was going to make a "smurf hands" crack but that might date me.
Smurf?!?!?!
What's a smurf Lolly?
Man do I feel old!
The Pandora comment is Lolly trying to get with "modern times"!
How did I do???
Ohhhhhh... one more thing...
If you do end up with Pandora Smurf hands...
Neutrogena Daily Face Scrub will completely remove it!
I discovered this by accident!
No Pandora Smurf hands for this Lolly!
I busted out my handy sketch book and placed my color swatches and made a few notes.
(I also saved the packaging for the teal trim cause I thought it was pretty)
I used my handy Sizzix to cut felt leaves.
(I used the "Flower Layers w/Leaf" die)
I laid out the leaves before I dyed the bag...
Just to see what it would look like (craft testing at it's finest).
I thought this might be too much teal!
(which is a total lie cause there is no such thing as too much teal as you ALL know)
So I added in some green for variety.
Actually what happened was Martians came down from outer space and made me add in the green.
It's their favorite color!
(totally not even kidding cause that's the only way this Lolly can be steered away from teal)
See how boring that bottom looks..
That's why I decided to dye it with Glimmer Mist.
(I know I am jumping around here but hang with me... I'll make sense someday)
I used this glue to tack the leaves to the owl body (aka camera bag)
I figured if this stuff was washable it was bound to be pretty sturdy!
I thought about sewing each leaf on like I did for Hammie the Hedgie...
But this bag is really thick and it might have been too difficult!
Apply a dab of glue to each leaf
(Pandora Smurf helped me with this step)
Start from the bottom layering the leaves in a row with the points facing down.
Just keep working your way up and all the way around the "body"
Your bag should look something like this!
Nextly....
We gotta get that flap looking more beak-ish!
So snip off the loop thingy
(I have no idea what it's called so we'll roll with "loop thingy" for now)
Sew the flap together so the point stays how it's supposed to stay.
(you guys speak Lollish so it's all good and I don't have to explain myself right???)
Then sew a mega gigantor snap on that puppy!
(only sew though ALL the holes and don't be lazy like me)
See... craft magic!
The bag will now close without the aid of that mega button and loop thingy!
The eyes have it!
I stumbled upon the shape of the eyes by accident.
I started off wanting to cut circles as eye backs...
...so I folded a piece of felt in half and just ran it through my Sizzix!
When I opened it up to get the circles out I saw this...
(I was wearing those special craft glasses again)
I thought it kinda looked like an owl face...
So in order to shape it a little better...
...and keep things uniform on both sides...
I folded it back in half and trimmed the edges until it looked like this...
I cut a little point there too!
(inspiration for the point came from HERE)
...and when you open it up...
It kinda looks like 1960's owl glasses!
I cut a piece of stiff felt in the same shape...
...and blanket stitched the two together...
I used that same glue and adhered the little mask to the front of the flap!
Then I added some stacked buttons to the center and glued those down too!
Lastly to nextly...
You gotta dye the handle too!
This time I simply laid it in a box and sprayed with with "lime twist" Glimmer Mist.
(I did not want Kermit the Frog hands on top of my Pandora Smurf Hands!)
Then I took some cool teal trim from Webster's Pages (resource below)
I simply glued the trim to the handle.
...and sprayed the whole thing with scotch guard to help protect it...
So here she is with no handle and no arms...
I think she looks pretty darn sweet!
I showed her to RonChops and I declared her DONE!
Ahhh no!
He told me she looked like a box with eyes and needed something else.
.men.
So I made her some wings!
(and RonChops **might** have been right)
(but that's our little secret ok)
Here is her back...
I added some of that trim to conceal the tops of the leaves!
Here are her insides...
She's carrying my little Canon camera but could also easily store a cell phone, chap stick and some credit cards and such.
The bag is pretty roomy and has two pockets as well!
I could totally see using her as a little clutch for a special date can't you!?!?!?
Sew does she need the wings????
She's not really sure.
(this is her rendition of the Edna the Owl Bag shrug)
Supplies I used (feel free to change it up and use different colors (just
kidding... this can only be made in teal or it won't come out as cute...
honest to peanuts)):
Donna Downey Prima Camera Bag - HERE
Felt
in "Taffy" and "Robbins Egg"- HERE & HERE
Coordinating fabrics (I just took my felt
to the fabric store until till I found fabric colors I liked)
Sizzix
dies - "Flower Layers w/Leaf" - HERE and
"Circles #2" HERE (the circles die is optional but helps make the eyes)
Coordinating
embroidery floss, fabric glue, buttons and stiff felt
Webster's Pages
- teal trim - HERE
Tattered
Angels Glimmer Mist - Turquoise Blue and Lime Twist - HERE
and HERE
I wanted o share a few more projects that you guys have sent me (all LollyChops inspired)!!!!
Sarah Youde made the MomChops crochet rose and adhered it to this sweet little card (crochet rose tutorial HERE)!
Melly from Decomom's Daillance made this awesome flower from wall flowers week (tutorial HERE)!
...and lastly!
Charmaine from Oak Leaf Designs made the felt flower topiary for her Mom (and is making another one for herself)!
Tutorial HERE!
Thanks for sharing your projects with me girls!!! Keep'em coming!
That's owl she wrote!
Next Monday I am doing a crochet on the page VIDEO (it's been 300 years since I did a video and I figured it's time I got LollyChops TV back on the air)!
I will also be featuring the latest round of cards for Crystal from my card drive (you can read about it HERE)!
I hope everyone has a super fab week! Thanks for dropping by for a visit!!!!!
P.S. Even if you don't have a Face Book account, you can check out the LollyChops FB page anyway HERE. You at least gotta go and see who won the button wars over the weekend and lay eyeballs on my new Slightly Wobbly Brown Bear pin cushion (shhhh... he's my new boyfriend)!
P.S.S.T. XOXOXOXOXOXOXO's
