Magpie Journal Cover

I just joined a magpie journal swap on swap-bot.  I ended up using the altered journal that I put in my shop.  While I was working on my journal, I leaned over it to pick something up and accidentally bent the front cover.  I decided I'd make a felt cover to hide the damage. 

I used some donut printed felt that I got a long time ago from Hobby Lobby.  I cut out a name label from stiff, brown felt and embroidered the word, "magpie," on it.  I think it looks much better.    

I Got New Rubber Stamps!

Depression has been plentiful and anxiety high at my house over the past few days.  The threat of COVID-19 is all consuming and I find less and less joy.  A little bit of joy came in the mail today from Hong Kong after a nearly month long wait.  Little rubber stamps I ordered from efplanner on Etsy!  I ordered a custom stamp of my kawaii maxi pad and a few others.

This is a picture of them in a journal I'm currently working on.  They were really inexpensive and are really high quality.  The wait was just a little long due to COVID-19, but it was well worth it.  I worked with the seller to set up the proof for the custom stamp and she was really nice and helpful.  I highly recommend this shop.  

I've been having a hard time concentrating on craft projects.  I believe it's situational depression due to the current state of our world.  I did find it helpful to copy down uplifting quotes in the journal I'm working on in rainbow colors.  I'm hoping my mood will improve each day.  I'm trying to have a positive outlook and lots of hope.  Please stay healthy and safe out there.  

Princess Tina and the Rascal

My Princess Tina embroidery is done and ready to go in the mail tomorrow.

She looks a little wonky and reminds me of her mother, but still pretty good I think.

It's been raining all evening and I didn't expect to be visited by the Rascal this evening, but I was graced by it's presence.

Rascal is one of maybe two of our resident raccoons.  Rascal may actually be two raccoons that look very similar, but I'm not entirely sure yet.  I think I saw two raccoons going in opposite directions one night, but if it is two raccoons, they look almost identical.  Rascal waits for me to feed it cat food at least once a night.  Usually two or three times.  There's also Contessa the Confused Opossum who comes out in the daytime.  She's pretty awesome, too.  She also likes cat food.  In case you didn't know, opossums are my favorite animals.  Cats are a close second.  

I apologize for Rascal's pitiful Glamour Shot.  I still have an iPhone 6S Plus.  Phones are just so damn expensive.

Bummer!

I was so proud of the journal I made, and now I'm going to whine.  I got rated for it today and my partner didn't seem as thrilled.  I only got a 5 rating.  I didn't get a heart.  It's such a disappointment.  I spent a lot of time and put a lot of thought and love into my creation.  I guess all that matters is that I love what I made.  Sorry for being "Wendy Whiner."  I digress now.  I just had to let that out somewhere.  

I Don't Want to Embroider Today

However, that looks like what I'm going to have to do.  I decided to make an opossum embroidery piece for a stuffed bubble mailer swap, to top it off. 

I also tweaked the Princess Tina embroidery pattern.  I removed the bangs and I think it looks so much better now.

She looks a bit like Linda now though.  I won't be adding the braids on the buns either.  Princess Leia's buns weren't braided.  

I'm just not in the mood to embroider.  The two pieces are pretty small, like 6 inches max, but I'm just not motivated.  

deviantART - 1, kiddo - 0

In case you didn't notice, I finally got a response from dA and I updated my original post here.  Since then, I have not heard back from anyone at dA.  The fat shaming thread is still going strong.  The disturbing thing is that no one is standing up against the OP (original poster).  I haven't posted in the thread because I know anything that I say will just be mocked.  Then I will get mad and go off on a swearing spree.  I tend to have a short fuse when it comes to trolls and ignorant people.  So I am admitting defeat.  I hate doing so, but at this point I think I've done all that one person can do.  I'm just disgusted that in this day and age certain groups of people are still being attacked because they are different.  I'm also disgusted that people who are charged with protecting these groups do nothing to ensure that they are treated fairly.  I feel that since dA runs the site, they should make sure that all their patrons feel welcome in all areas of the site and that they aren't discriminated against by any of their other members.   

"Bob's Burgers" Crafts

My BFF, Naomi, loves "Bob's Burgers."  It's our Easter tradition to exchange giant Easter eggs full of goodies each year.  For one of the items, I had a plain journal that I got at Target for $1.  I decided it was too boring, so I altered it into a "Bob's Burgers" themed journal.

I lined the edge of each page with a different print of washi tape like I do with most of my altered journals.  I also added baker's twine as a tie closure.

On each page, I glued a cutout from one of two free comic books I got from Free Comic Book Day.  

I really enjoyed making the altered journal, so I made another for a stuffed bubble mailer swap.  That one was just distressed and had a tie.  Then I made another distressed journal for my shop.  I haven't listed it yet, but I will soon.  It says "Schemes" on the front and has a tie as well.  It has round Chinese tapestry stickers on each page in lieu of the washi tape.  

I'm also participating in a mashup swap with Naomi.  She chose "Bob's Burgers" and "Star Wars" as her themes.  The first thing I thought of was Tina Belcher as Princess Leia.  I was looking on Pinterest for ideas.  I had always thought I'd make a doll of some sort.  I saw some BB/SW mashup embroidery and decided that's what I'd do.  I drew my own pattern freehand, but I'm not sure if it's my final draft or not.

I'm wondering if I should get rid of her bangs and redo her buns.  Plus, I don't think her cheek/neck connection is right.  Her hair clip is on the wrong side because the pattern is in reverse.  I probably will redo her hair.  

Teesha Moore Inspired Patch

I just hosted an introductory Teesha Moore inspired patch swap on swap-bot.  Pictured above is the patch I made for the swap.  I'd forgotten that I had the vintage pickup truck fabric.  I received the polka dotted fabric in a private swap a couple of days prior to making this patch.  The patch is completely hand sewn.  The lines on the truck are all back stitched.  That part was very time consuming.  

If you like to see more Teesha Moore inspired patches, you can see my Teesha Moore Patches Board on Pinterest or my flickr album of patches I've done.

Toss a Plushie to Your Witcher Plushie Swap - WIP

Megan, spoilers ahead.  Avert your eyes! 

I'm in a Witcher plushie swap on swap-bot with my pal, Megan.  Megan is far more advanced when it comes to sewing than I.  They can make clothing and costumes.  I can "get by" when it comes to making doll clothing.  I really don't do removable garments.  I'm pretty good at props though.  I found a vinyl toy online of chibi Geralt of Rivia in the tub.  I decided I'd be ambitious and turn that scene into a plushie.  I started out by making the tub because I wanted to see if I could pull it off.  If I couldn't; I'd be going a totally different direction with my plush. 

It was actually pretty easy.  It's not perfect and is a little wonky, but I think it'll take shape once I stuff it, add the doll, and cover it with water (felt).  I'll be using BabyLondonStar's sit pattern for the actually plushie.  The tub was made without a pattern. 

Another Peek Inside the Book--It's Magical!

I found out who my partner is for the altered composition book journal swap and learned that she likes Harry Potter.  I followed an online tutorial on how to draw a cute HP.  Here's my drawing:

She's going to get sick of my drawings.  

This Just In!

I decided to offer pre-printed, pre-cut planner stickers in my Etsy shop, Little Happy Day.  I chose 8 different designs, in rainbow colors (8 of each--64 total). 

It's a great way to try out my planner stickers and see which ones you like the most.  Stop by Little Happy Day and have a look around.

Super Deco

This is a deco book I made for a swap on swap-bot.  It's a WTA (winner take all) swap, where one of the participants is randomly drawn to win all of the decos after they have been passed around and completed.  Unfortunately I was not the lucky swapper, so I will not be getting this deco back.  This has to be my favorite deco that I've made so far.  A deco is a small book or folded sheet of paper created by a person who decorates the cover and leaves the subsequent pages blank.  The deco is usually themed and is passed around from person to person for decoration and signing until eventually it's sent back to the originator when all the pages are full.  For this deco, I used a collage sheet from onecrabapple and the ransom letters are from LaSoffittaDiSte.  The raised dots are UV resin which cures within seconds underneath a UV LED light.  I made the base of my book with 3 plain white envelopes tucked into one another.  I'll be receiving a deco book from my swap partner to work on and then I'll pass it on to someone else in a future swap.  I'll post pictures in a future entry. 

deviantART Doesn't Care About Fat Shaming UPDATED

The other day, I was browsing the deviantART forums, which is really never a good idea because it always results in me getting royally pissed off. I ran across a thread titled "Fat Grotesque Pigs." I was appalled at the hate that was spewing from the OP (original poster). It was as if they thought overweight people were barely human. What bothered me even more was that people were jumping in and supporting the OP's hateful rhetoric. The OP was a huge bully to those who disagreed with them. I was truly shocked that in the year 2020 people are still behaving like Neanderthals. I was too angry to comment on the thread, but did report the thread to dA's Help Desk on 3/2/2020. I checked back on 3/4/2020 and the thread was still going strong. I filed another complaint the same day. Today is 3/7/2020, and no one has replied to the tickets I submitted with the Help Desk and the thread is still up. It hasn't been updated in 2 days, but why is it even still open?


 By allowing this thread to remain open and grow, dA is essentially promoting fat shaming and bullying. They have been made aware of the problem at least twice by me and have refused to do anything about it. They are allowing a group of people to be subjected to discrimination by members of their site. In the meantime, moderators have shut down a couple of threads: one because someone was bashing dA and another because someone said something about strangling someone with a mandolin string. I believe the fat shaming thread is far more dangerous than the latter mentioned thread as it could have serious ramifications on one's self esteem which could possibly lead to psychiatric issues or self harm. I stated this in my tickets to the Help Desk, but dA obviously doesn't care. This both infuriates and saddens me. I guess I've done all I can do at this point. I'll let Karma sort out the rest.

Addendum: 3/16/2020
I finally got a canned response from dA today.  The email was informing me of general guidelines on how to handle someone bullying you online.  Totally had nothing to do with my complaint since I wasn't involved in the thread.  I replied as follows:

My point, which may have not been clear because I was angry at the time, was that the thread is degrading and dehumanizing to a section of the human population.  If they were calling a specific race, gender, or sex disgusting, you would have stopped it.  You are essentially promoting fat shaming by leaving this up.  It shows that dA doesn't care when people bully fat people just because they weigh more than someone else.  FTR I wasn't involved in the thread discussion, so most of your email to me didn't apply to me.  I just saw the thread post and found it offensive.  It demoralizes a whole section of the Earth's population and you guys, frankly, look like jerks because you're allowing it to happen on your forum.  That was my point.  

Inside the Book

Here are a few pages in the altered composition book that I've been working on. First, some "King of the Hill" pop art. I used Distress Inks for the background and the stamps were hand carved by my friend, Met.

The next two pages are drawings of food that I've incorporated with song lyrics.

And finally, I found this rubber stamp in the cheap bin at JoAnn yesterday which fits with the theme of this project very well. It cost a whopping $1.19. I'm stamping it on sticker paper, cutting out the images, and sticking them to the bottom right corner of every blank page that I'm leaving for my partner to journal.

I've got a lot more pages to decorate, so I'm sure I'll be sharing more in the future. Have a beautiful weekend!

Altered Composition Book Project

I'm currently participating in a swap on swap-bot where we take an 80 page composition book, cover the front and back covers, decorate every 3rd page, and leave the rest of the pages blank for our partners to use to journal in. I'm having a great time working on this project. My front cover looks like this:

I got the taxi scrapbook paper at Joann and the collage images from the wonderful Sandy at onecrabapple on Etsy. Whenever I alter a plain notebook, I love sprucing up the sides of the pages with washi tape. This notebook had 80 pages and I was bound and determined for each page to have a different pattern of washi. I actually have enough washi where I was able to do this. This is how it turned out:

Yesterday I found some space themed stencils at Target for $1.78 on clearance. I decided to use a couple of them for my first decorated page in the altered comp book. I used Distress Ink and regular metallic stamping ink. I love the way it turned out.

I've got to decorate 25 pages in all. I'll probably add some drawings, collages, and pockets. What would you like to see?

New Geeky Printable Stickers and Spray Paint

I just listed some new geeky printable stickers in my printable planner sticker Etsy shop, Little Happy Day. They are html themed and they come in school break, vacation, and trip. Here is an example:

My friend, Jen, suggested that I make a plush spray paint can, so I did. I made it into an ornament and it is currently listed for sale in my kiddomerriweather Etsy shop.

What plushie would you like to see me make next and list in my kiddomerriweather Etsy shop? Keep in mind it can't violate any copyrights or trademarks. Please comment below. I'd love to hear from you.