tutorial

cat eye tutorial

by Lara on December 3, 2011

in beauty

I never leave the house without my eyes done and lately, I’ve had a few people ask me to teach them how to do cat eyes. This is my pathetic attempt to draw diagrams with my mouse.

The main thing to keep in mind is step 3 – the tail. Following the line of your lower edge is ideal. This is what gives your eye some tilt. It should also point to the end of your eyebrows, if you follow standard eyebrow rules, which frames the lid.

Whether using liquid eyeliner with a brush or felt tip, or using a slanted brush and gel liner – it’s never a one-stroke process. I always have to take the tip and touch up all over the place. Some days my hands, eyeliner and eyes cooperate like magic. Other days I’m ready to throw everything out the window.

I also recommend taking some black shadow and rubbing it along your upper lashes to cover up any gaps that your lashes can cause.It covers a multitude of sins.

Here’s a great tutorial showing both liquid (felt tip) and gel liners:

If you have any questions… feel free to ask in the comments!

{ 8 comments }

sewing the shirt

by Lara on October 8, 2011

in crafty

I finally sewed that damn top! Honestly, the whole thing was a friggin disaster that frustrated me like you would not believe!

I haven’t sewed clothing in a long time and have never made anything without a store-bought pattern so, this was a great refresher and a major learning experience.

This isn’t going to be a full-on tutorial because well, it’s not. I will give the basic steps though, dotted throughout a bunch of bitching. This was mainly a trouble-shooting process that drove me insane. Like lying in bed at night and thinking of ways to make this work insane because… uhm… it’s impossible to line a tank top like I wanted to. Seriously. Impossible.

I had to give up on the lining and do interfacing.

Oh yeah, here’s the Badgley Mischka top I was attempting to copy:

Soooo….

First off, I used a top that I already had for the pattern. It has a similar shape, the arm holes are perfect on me and I can pull it over my head. I was really hoping I could avoid a side zipper and I DID!

I pinned it taut to some pattern tracing cloth.

This pattern tracing cloth is great. I bought a few yards of this years ago and never used it. It’s semi-sheer so you can line up fabric designs and it won’t tear. It’s cat proof! This is important considering Ulti was hellbent on helping me every step of the way.  Regular craft paper is fine too, of course.

I cut around the top, making it longer and giving myself about a 1/2″ seam allowance all around and folded the pattern in half. Of course the 2 halves didn’t match so I trimmed up a bit and cut it down the middle, keeping the side I liked best. I was using the same piece for the front and the back (and lining and later just the top part for interfacing). A lower cut version may be in the works for the future.

 When I cut out the fabric, I folded it in half and laid the center line of the pattern on the fold. A lot of store-bought patterns work this way and half-patterns guarantee an even piece if you’re making your own.

I cut the lining fabric too but all that got tossed in the trash after I figured it wouldn’t work and then cut out long interfacing that addressed the armholes later… much later.

This is neck interfacing in case you have no idea what I’m talking about. When you flip it into the garment, you have a clean line at the neck with no top stitching. Those little notches cut into curves prevent bunching:

via

I pinned the top together and put it on (carefully) and I was really happy with the fit but gave up on the side ties because the fabric looked too drapey. Then disaster happened over 2 nights of sewing.

I began to sew and everything went to hell. There is not a single tutorial online to show you how to line a tank top like I wanted. I ripped out seams so many times! There was no order in which to sew the pieces to be able to turn things right side out and have the wrong sides facing the correct way with clean seams and zero top stitching showing. To the trash it all went.

I cut everything out again, going with the interfacing instead, sewed it together, hemmed by hand and tried it on. It was so boring without the side ties so I gave em a shot. Thankfully I still had some more fabric. (2 yards would do the trick.) I eyed out and cut long triangles and on the 4th night of working on this, I then ripped the side seams out again, sewed up the side ties, tucked them in, pinned in place, sewed this bastard up, ironed it and it’s done!

So over it.

 

Seriously though, I’m really happy that I stuck with this. I’ve had a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them so I’m trying to be better about that. I also have a great pattern and when I make another one, it won’t nearly be as awful as this whole mess was.

{ 11 comments }

adventures in Konad

by Lara on August 9, 2011

in beauty

I finally got the nail stamping plates!

So here’s the deal… it’s freakin awesome! Takes some time but so much fun! I’m an insane perfectionist who loves tedious tasks so this was right up my alley.

Like a dummy, I did a black pattern on already dark polish but I love how it turned out! I also did them in the evening so the lighting is terrible. Sorry sorry sooooorry!

So here’s my first stamped manicure and then I’ll get into the nitty gritty:

there’s a cat hair in every one of my nail posts

still not totally cleaned up either

I read and read so much about this process and found that the name brand Konad stamper was vital.

The newest model of stamper is the double ended one. I used the large red end since this was a large pattern.You get the scraper with the stamper for about $6 including shipping.

find them here at Amazon

I also read that an expired gift card works better as a scraper and now, I can agree but, that little pink one really is sufficient and you can’t not buy it w/ the stamper.

The design plates don’t need to be name brand to get a good pattern. A single Konad brand plate can cost $4+ while I got 16 off-brand plates for $18.48 (free shipping) from Born Pretty. They’re the identical designs, numbered the same. Yes, shame on me for buying faux-nad plates.

This is the design I used for my mani, the top right floral:

Here’s the plate and stamper so you can get an idea about size:

There are full nail designs, French tips, small patterns… all sorts of plates out there. If your nails are really long, you may not be able to fit a full nail pattern on your entire nail.

For stamping, choose a polish that’s opaque in one coat (I used Wet ‘n’ Wild’s black). There are Konad Special Polishes but you don’t need them. Here’s a huge list (constantly updated) of great polishes to use for stamping.

 

  • Paint your nails the base color you want and let them dry.
  • Lay out at least 4 layers of paper towels on a flat surface (maybe even some saran wrap underneath) and get out your polish remover, about a dozen q-tips, your stamper, scraper, and your pattern polish.
  • Put your plate on the paper towels and generously paint the pattern you choose with opaque polish.
  • Take the scraper and quickly, in one movement, scrape the excess polish off the plate, onto the paper towel.
  • Take your stamper and roll it, with pressure, in one movement over the design. It will pick up the polish.
  • Then quickly line up the pattern on the edge of your nail and roll it over your nail in one movement. (In the video below, she does it with her hand flat. I held mine close to my face to really see what I was doing.)
  • You will have a little bit of pattern on your skin and some left on the stamper. With your q-tips and remover, clean up the stamper and the plate – and your nail too, or save that for later.
  • Do it all over again for your next nail and so on.
  • Add a top coat, clean up your mess and you’re all done!

That’s all folks!

Here’s a quick video tutorial if you like visuals.You don’t need sound. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

{ 9 comments }

Christmas in August

by Lara on August 3, 2011

in crafty

Well, right after I wrote about those yarn trees, I went ahead and carried my butt to Michael’s Crafts on Sunday afternoon and got what I needed. Those cones cost more than I thought they would – about $14 for 3 in different sizes. It’s freakin foam! This is where I get frustrated at DIY projects when you can find a lot of things already made, cheaper than the supplies at the store. I really wanted to do this though and it wasn’t that bad. There’s probably a cheaper source out there somewhere.

Anyhoo… here are the supplies:

3 cones, acrylic yarn, flat top pins, 2 multi-packs of pom poms.

Someone’s ready to get into those pom poms! (Don’t worry… he totally did.)

I was disappointed with the pom pom selection. I had a certain color scheme in mind but I wasn’t paying out the ass for felted wool balls in muted hues. So things turned out more bright and festive. Whatever, they’re cute. They came out kinda kitschy, like stuff my mom made in the 70s, and I’m totally okay with that!  Now I need to find some sweet deer figurines to hang with my trees and it’s good to go!

  • Start at the widest end with a small knot and pin the yarn every inch or so for the first wrap, so it doesn’t slip off.
  • Wrap an even layer of yarn over the entire cone (green cones are great so any small gaps aren’t obvious).
  • Then get silly wrapping yarn up and down in zigzags, filling in any gaps you may see in the process.
  • I made it back to the top and coiled the yarn on the tip, pinning it as much as I needed.
  • Push pins through pom poms (they sink into the fluff and don’t show) and pin them where you want.
  • I had some wooded stars and gold paint already, glued toothpicks to the backs and painted them. Stabbed em into the trees! Done!

That paint is awful to get out of brushes so I dabbed it on with q-tips!

You can pick any color scheme and I’m pretty stoked that this only cost about $20 and maybe 2 hours of my time on the sofa to have a cute little mantle decoration I’ll use for years.

So there you have it! One thing marked off my small list for this week AND I did something for Christmas! This heat is frying my brain, you guys.

{ 4 comments }

recent pins

by Lara on July 26, 2011

in beauty,decor

Here are some recent things I’ve pinned. Are you on Pinterest yet? Need an invite? Let me know.

I gotta get busy with the scotch tape – via

I really want this cat/mushroom print for my kitchen – via

I want all of this happy happy summer celebrating gear via Let’s Die Friends. You know I love her!

A HUGE INFOGRAPHIC OF SUNSCREEN INFO

Painting on sketch paper by Blue McRight cracks me up (should go in my bathroom) -  via Drollgirl. Are you following her yet? You should be. She’s rad.

video tutorial on how to sew an elastic band skirt in an hour – measured to fit YOU! via

{ 7 comments }

how to add pockets!

by Lara on June 16, 2011

in crafty

Hey all! The lovely Lindsay from Broke and Beautiful and I were chatting on Twitter about adding pockets to dresses and I agreed to make a little tutorial for her blog.

Check it out!

{ 1 comment }

easy zipper pillow cover

by Lara on June 11, 2011

in crafty

It’s been a week since I got that weird fabric from IKEA and I finally made the pillow I had planned. Here’s a little tutorial so you can make one of your own!

First, choose a size. Since this is a removable cover, size will be dictated by the insert you get. I bought a 20″ x 20″ insert so I made a paper pattern that was 22″ x 22″ – giving me 1/2″ – 1″  seam allowances all around + some shrink room for future washes.

Iron your fabric if you need to. Then take your pattern and pin it onto your fabric, lining it up just the way you want.

Here are my two pieces cut out.

Place one piece on top of the other, right side in with the orientation correct – basically as if those two pieces were an open book and I closed it.

Sew along the bottom seam only.This is where your zipper will go.

Now, open your two pieces up and flatten the seam down on either side (iron if the fabric won’t stay).

Pin your zipper face down on the center of the seam. I got a 9″ zipper but it was almost too small.

Now sew the bottom end of the zipper, securing it (never sew over pins) and turn the piece around (lifting the foot up with needle in fabric) and sew all the way around your zipper, removing pins as you go.

I didn’t use a zipper foot, which caused my stitches to be a little bit messy and uneven. You know what? I don’t care! I could’ve taken my time, but when have I ever done that?

Now, you take your seam ripper and remove the stitches down the center front of your zipper. Then, OPEN your zipper!

Next, match your pieces back up (pin if needed) and sew the rest of the way around. Turn right side out, stuff with your pillow insert, zip closed and you’re done!

1 yard of fabric was $8, insert was $2, zipper was $2. I made a pretty sweet pillow for $12 and an hour of my time!

{ 7 comments }

felt and fleece flower pins

by Lara on November 8, 2010

in crafty,fashion

There’s something about longer nights that makes me want to get crafty. Cozied up on the sofa, I can keep myself busy for the holidays. I’m officially obsessed with felt and fleece right now. I doesn’t unravel or need to be hemmed. You just cut and minimally stitch and it doesn’t make too much of a mess.

In my last post about the Fossil catalog, I showed this 5″ yellow felt flower pin, selling for $15.

How easy would that be to make? Well, let me tell you, it was REALLY EASY!

I went to Hancock Fabrics and checked out their felt. The cheap 9″x12″ sheets weren’t going to cut it for this project. I bought the heavier stuff sold by the yard. I think it was about $4 a yard on sale but 1/2 yard will make a TON. They didn’t have all the colors I wanted in felt so I looked at the fleece. I bought a 1/2 yard in yellow and found two remnant pieces in black and dark grey for dirt cheap. Fleece is more limp and floppy than sturdy felt so keep that in mind.

I traced around various containers I had with tailors chalk and made 7 circles in felt. (Cut 5-6 in fleece for this style since it’s so thick.) Some I had to trim down freehand since I didn’t have the perfect sizes. I then cut the petals on each circle. To get the pom pom effect for the top two circles, I pulled some thread through the centers and bunched them a bit and secured with a few stitches on the underside. Then I pulled the thread through the centers of the rest, made a few extra stitches and secured them with a knot. Sew on a pin back  closer to the top (so it won’t flop over) and you’re done!

I saw these curved petal flowers online and tried them out with floppy fleece, with a gem button sewn in the middle.

I cut 5 circles in fleece (6-7 in felt) out like the one above and then cut the petals freehand, sewed the button to the top circle and stitched through the rest. Add a pin back higher up and that’s it! This one took a bit longer since the petals required more work. I still managed to make both in about 1.5 hours, farting around and taking my time.

I think a set of grey, black and yellow would make a nice gift and would look awesome grouped together on a coat lapel or cardigan!

{ 9 comments }

easy felt bird ornaments

by Lara on November 3, 2010

in crafty

This project was inspired by these felt bird ornaments from Purl Soho.

purchase kit here

The complete kit costs $45 + shipping to make 16 of these wool felt bird ornaments. You do all of the cutting.

OR you can spend less than $5 to make 14 like I did.

Mine are less detailed with less sewing and are made from STIFF polyester glitter felt instead of wool.

I made my stencil on cardstock.

At a craft store, I purchased 2 pieces of stiff 9″x12″ glimmer felt in white for the body and 1 piece in red for the wings (about $1 per sheet).

My birds are 4 3/4″wide. The glitter is only on one side of the felt so, on the back side, I traced out 14 birds with one side of the body stencil and then 14 on the other sheet of white, flipping the stencil over so the plain sides will face one another. Same with the wings. There was plenty of red left to do the hearts freehand.

Trace your pieces closely together to get as many as you can out of the felt. Cut INSIDE the traced ink line to keep them tidy and if they don’t match exactly when you put the 2 body pieces together, just trim them up a bit.

The felt is so stiff that sewing isn’t necessary. I only sewed the wings on because I wanted a wee bit of rustic stitching, keeping knots behind the wings. That’s enough to keep them together. You can bend the wings outward. Fabric glue would work fine too and would be a lot easier. I glued the heart between the beaks.

You can get one of those 99-cent rolls of narrow ribbon and glue the ends of loops in their middles to hang.

You could make a mobile out them, string them up as a garland, attach them to a wreath, etc. You can also change the colorway to suit your decor. I’m doing apple green and dark green too. Six to a dozen in a box would make a nice gift. It took me about 2 hours to cut all the pieces out. They’re easy to do on a boring evening but work over a garbage bag since glitter will get all over the place! :)

Of course, you can also use the softer felt and stitch them with embroidery floss just like the Purl Soho birds. At 25-cents a sheet of the softer polyester felt, you still can’t beat the price!

So… there you go!

*****************

UPDATED TO ADD:

SUPPLY LIST to make 14-

  • card stock to make stencil
  • 2 sheets stiff white glimmer felt ($2)
  • 1 sheet stiff felt in your color choice ($1)
  • 1 roll of narrow ribbon ($1)
  • scissors (on hand)
  • pen that will write on felt (on hand)
  • fabric glue (a small bottle is $1)
  • needle and white thread (triple your thread or use embroidery floss)
  • check for any other embellishments you might like to add like stick-on foam gems, snowflakes, bells, etc.

{ 6 comments }

how to use twitter

by Lara on September 4, 2010

in geek

UPDATE on 9.15.2010 Twitter has changed and here is everything you need to know about those changes.

Most of you will just skip over this post but there are a few of you out there who have yet to join Twitter. I recently did a post on how to set up Google Reader for RSS feeds and now I want to help you figure out Twitter.

You know the updates you do on Facebook? Well that’s pretty much all Twitter is, in 140 characters or less.

There are a few ways you can use it: on your computer directly on their website, through an app on your smart phone, or through text.

Here is their support center with tons of info.

I’m going to go by the actual website and you will be able to figure out the rest. This may look long and complicated but it’s really quite basic. Even cats and the elderly tweet! I know you can too!

First off, you have to set up your account and come up with a name and user pic. Make your name short and sweet. Also, I wouldn’t use my entire real name on anything.

Send a tweet off into the world. I’m not going to tell you how and what to tweet. You’re an adult.

Who will see it? Everyone in the world can, unless you make your tweets private to only those who follow you. (You will get more followers with a public page. No one wants to ask permission to follow something they can’t see at first anyhow.)

But how will they see them? If you choose to keep your tweets public, people who directly follow you will see them. Anyone who’s nosing around lists to look for people to follow, or checking out conversations between you and someone else will be able to see what you tweet too if you leave them plublic. Also, if  they do a search for keywords (usually to find people to spam) people can see your tweets, and there are things called hashtags.

Say you’re watching your favorite show and you tweet about it. You want that show’s fans to be able to find your tweet if they search, looking for a sense of community and to see what others are saying. For the sake of popularity, you could add #TrueBlood somewhere in the tweet. That little # sign makes it a tag. (Don’t use spaces.) Someone can click on it and go to all the tweets where people also tagged #TrueBlood. You can also use hashtags to be funny or use them like a side comment.

So you want to speak to someone directly? You type in the @ and then their name at the beginning of your tweet. (You can send one tweet to multiple people, just put the @ before each name and a space between each.)

EX:  @milkglassheart you are the best!

Or, you can click on “reply” when you hover over their tweet (their name will pop up in the text box automatically), or you can click on “mention” in the drop-down menu after you hover your mouse over their name and click on the bottom right box.

So who will see that tweet? Well, the person you sent it to will see it, as well as anyone who follows both you and that person. This is how you get to see mutual friends having conversations.

Now, if you tweet like this instead, then everyone who follows you can see it because you wrote something before the @name

Hey @milkglassheart you are sooooo awesome!

There are a few silly little technical things like this that you have to do to make it work for you.

There is also Direct Messaging (sending a DM). You can only DM people who follow you back. No one else can see these tweets but you and that person.

Talk to people! Even the celebs and other well-known people! They will talk back to you! It’s crazy!

If someone you don’t follow mentions you, it won’t show up in your timeline. Only people you follow are there. You can find all tweets to or about you in the right side column under @yourname.

Now how in the heck do you find people to follow? Other than finding a twitter link on people’s blogs, you can also nose around and see who your friends are following or talking to. Twitter now gives recommendations for you to follow. There is also the retweet and the #FF (Follow Friday). Take a look at people’s tweets, checking out the ones that aren’t @someone and see what kind of stuff they write.

A retweet is when you think someone’s tweet is so great you want all your followers to see it too OR if you want to respond to someone’s tweet but you want everyone to see the original one you are responding to. (Personally, this gets on my damn nerves because some people use it every single time they respond to someone.)

Next to each tweet on the website, there is the option to retweet. It won’t come up in your own timeline though. You can find all retweets in the sidebar.

You can also retweet manually and type in RT then the person’s @name and copy & paste their tweet (maybe even add your own commentary in parentheses after).

The way to add a response on the website is to just copy and paste the other person’s tweet and write what you want to say then RT in front of their @name. (The reason I keep talking about the website is because different phone apps work a little differently and will allow you to edit a retweet before you send it so you don’t have to copy and paste anything. For my Blackberry, I use Ubertwitter.)

Look at this insanity! I retweeted a retweet!

So, you’ve retweeted something someone else wrote and your followers may enjoy it enough to want to follow that person as well.

Follow Fridays (hastag #FF) is where you can recommend people for others to follow every Friday. I don’t know how this all started but it’s just what some people like to do. I don’t do it but I’ve found some great people to follow from other people’s shout-outs.

You do not have to follow anyone back who follows you. If someone follows you and you check out their tweets, frequency, and subject matter, you may find that you don’t want your timeline clogged up with their crap. Unlike Facebook, Twitter isn’t so damn sensitive about not being friends; and if someone does have a problem with it then they need to grow the hell up. There’s a bunch of people who do #TeamFollowBack and #F4F (follow for follow – you follow me, I’ll follow you. Total garbage. These people for some reason care more about how many followers they have than the actual content they can enjoy.)

You can also unfollow a person if you get sick of their tweets.

As you can see, you also have the ability to block people from following you. It is your responsibility to report spammers and get them off of Twitter where they suck up space and make it shut down from overload (happens quite a bit). Check out all the little boxes and things to click around people’s tweets and you’ll figure it out.

You can organize the people you follow into lists. I just have a list of local people in Richmond, VA that I follow. This way, if I just want to see what’s going on in my city, I can click on that list and see only the tweets of locals. You can make as many lists as you want and organize them any way you want.

You can also add a star to your favorite tweets or any you want to refer back to. If you hover over a tweet, things will appear, including an empty start to click on. These will all be in your Favorites section on the right sidebar.

Oh, and there’s also TwitPic. There are others but this is what I use. You can upload pics from your phone or computer and your next tweet will be the link to that pic.

Aaaaand there’s TinyURL. If you want to share a link to a website but what you want to say and the link exceeds 140 characters, this will shorten it. You just copy and paste.

Oh, and if you sign up for Foursquare and link it up to you Twitter account to tell everyone where you go, you will annoy me and everyone else. You don’t want to do that, do you?

There are a bunch of other stupid little things about Twitter that you’ll figure out over time but this should be enough to get you started.

Here’s a list of a variety of people I follow to get going.

The Dalai Lama (no kidding, he has an authorized twitter account!)

Breaking News (great news source)

Sean Murray (funny funny guy. I follow A LOT of comedians. They always RT one another so, there’s an endless supply of new ones to follow all the time)

Here are more comedians I like: Alec Sulkin, Julia Segal, Kelly Oxford, Wendy Molyneux, Alex Blagg, Caprice Crane, Whitney Cummings, Suzy Soro

Agent Lover (She’s a fabulously funny fashion blogger and I love her tweets like whoa. There’s also Daddy Likey.)

You can follow the Kremlin. Seriously.

The Rules

Shit My Dad Says

Very Short Story (kinda weird)

Let’s Die Friends (love her)

Nucking Futs Mama (mommy blogger and a sweetheart)

Rich Juzwiak‘s cat Winston that’s all over the interwebs (Rich’s twitter)

Sockington (another cat)

Caramel Bobby (a dog)

Filthy Richmond (This local woman is raunchy and ultimately just wrong.)

I Eat My Kidz Snack (another ridiculous woman. I love her.)

Conan OBrien (There are tons of celebrites)

Karl Lagerfeld (So many fashion people, fashion mags and bloggers!)

Coco (Ice T’s wife. She is a riot! Thanks WendyB for making me Coco crazy!)

The Humane Society

CERN (You know I gotta follow them!)

Sarah Palin (Just so you can tweet her and tell her how stupid she is)

Just go check out the people I follow! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Oh and follow me dammit! Let’s be friends!

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