#Needle Felting Tutorial Flower

[icelynodette]

NEEDLE FELTING Flower Tutorial Hibiscus

[snowflakeforestfelting]

Needle Felting Magnolia Flower Tutorial

[jjkamochoso]

Arts and Crafts with JJK Characters

Fluff

Warnings: none; scenarios can be seen as romantic or platonic!

Yuji: photography

He was known for having his phone out a lot of the time, capturing candid moments of the people he cared about and pretty landscapes, so you knew he would be excited when you suggested doing a photo scavenger hunt. As you two raced around the city, taking pictures and checking off boxes, smiles and laughter were bountiful. You had tons of fun discovering different buildings and paying more attention to your surroundings than usual as you tried to finish the scavenger hunt before Yuji. You ended the day with a picture of the delicious meal you shared and a selfie to commemorate the good time! He already had the next scavenger hunt theme decided--since you two were definitely doing this often!

Megumi: painting

He was apprehensive at first when you asked him to join you painting, but nevertheless he relented. When the follow along video started and you and Megumi put paint to paper, he started to relax a bit after realizing how fun it actually was. At the end of the session, you felt your jaw drop seeing Megumi’s artwork--it looked the exact same as the tutorial! When you complimented him, he averted his gaze as a blush became evident on his face. He would never say it out loud but he was hoping this could become a frequent activity for you guys.

Nobara: crochet

You and Nobara couldn't resist buying diy mini crochet animal kits, their precious faces causing the two of you to giggle in delight at the prospect of making your very own cute creature. When you got back to the dorms, you eagerly began your crochet adventure. You both tried your best at following the directions but the resulting products looked nothing like the picture on the front of the package. Rather than being discouraged, you decided you enjoyed the process more than the results, which was fine by the both of you--you'd just buy pre-made plushies the next time you went shopping!

Maki: needle felting

You wanted to spend time with Maki doing literally anything other than sparring. It was hard to get her to agree to that, but you figured she'd have a good time needle felting since it consisted of aggressively punching material together with a sharp object. She was pleasantly surprised at how much fun she was having and you liked seeing her work with a smile on her face as her felt animal took shape. When you were both finished, you proudly displayed your animal on a desk in your room while she scoffed at the idea of something so childish. Little did you know, she kept that first craft (and the ones she made on her own afterwards) in a box under her bed for her to admire when she was alone.

Inumaki: rock painting

You and Toge were walking together, watering the flowers, when an idea struck your mind. As a fellow enjoyer of the arts and beating boredom, Toge immediately agreed when you suggested you two paint rocks. You had a great time hunting down the perfect ones, making sure they weren't too round or odd shaped. When you got started, you found peace in the comfortable silence. All of a sudden, you felt a tug on your sleeve and saw that Toge had painted onigiri and other sushi ingredients on his, while you had painted some of the flowers you had watered earlier. You exchanged your rocks and kept them where you could be reminded of the fun you two shared.

Yuta: drawing

When you approached Yuta about drawing with you, he excitedly accepted. It reminded him of simpler times and he knew that his open mind with overactive imagination could lead to interesting artwork. You two sat outside under a big tree, basking in the warmth of the day as the only sound you heard was pencil on paper. It was good for you both to take that time to relax and not think about anything other than the task in front of you. When you were finished, you showed each other what you had drawn and made sure you planned this low-key activity regularly.

Noritoshi: embroidery

Though it was a bit too traditional for his taste, Noritoshi agreed to learn embroidery with you. You went online to find some helpful videos as you went to work on your samplers. You found yourselves getting the hang of it pretty easily and when your samplers were finished, Noritoshi's precisely executed, he shyly proposed that you two should continue the activity and move on to creating actual scenes. You were overjoyed that he liked embroidering with you and it turned into a shared weekly event. Noritoshi even made pieces on his own time as a way to destress!

Todo: jewelry making

Aoi was overjoyed when you asked him to make jewelry with you. You visited a bunch of craft stores to collect beads, charms, and other supplies before you started on your pieces. Of course he suggested making matching bracelets and you would never turn him down. After those were done, you created some necklaces as he made friendships bracelets for Yuji and Takada-Chan. You two laughed and had a great time together, listening to music as your hands were busy working. After that day, you were frequently treated to new jewelry handmade by Aoi that was lovingly dropped off to your room with a kind note attached explaining the design's inspiration.

Gojo: phone charm making

Satoru is always on his phone and you felt that it looked too abysmal compared to his fun personality so you planned a phone charm making day with the man. He, of course, was excited to be a part of it and bought a whole slew of beads and other sparkly pieces to add on. You two were on a roll, creating phone charms as quickly as inspiration hit you, until you were looking at 50 of them with only 2 phones between you. You passed out some of the extras to the students and faculty of the school and ended up doing custom ones for those who asked. You and Satoru loved doing this activity together and frequently made each other charms so you would always feel close to each other.

Geto: calligraphy

You had been practicing your calligraphy when Suguru found you. Intrigued by its beauty, he asked if you could teach him and you energetically said yes. He watched your movements and copied them to the best of his ability, trying to be as precise as possible. You were happy at how quick he was at learning and before long, you two were writing notes to each other in various styles, eager to show off your abilities. You both kept those notes and cherished them deeply, a sign of your bond made permanent with ink.

Nanami: macrame

When you went to Kento's apartment and saw the plants he had everywhere, you were struck by an idea. He wasn't so sure about creating macrame plant holders, but was touched by your devotion to sprucing up his living space so he finally agreed. You two learned the knots and were able to catch on the instructions pretty quickly. You both liked the fact that you were creating something on your own rather than buying it, which adds a sentimental touch. He wasn't a huge fan of the design at the end but since you helped him with it, it quickly became one of his favorite home decor pieces.

Choso: cross stitch

You were over the moon when Choso expressed his desire to partake in cross stitch with you. He had no experience with delicate things like arts and crafts and you were more than happy to show him what to do. He picked up on it quickly, finding solace in the quiet, repetitive motions. He smiled softly at his completed piece--a frilly, flower adorned "welcome" sign. You had finished your own work as well and both of you displayed your art proudly. Cross stitch nights became a frequent thing when life got too overwhelming and you needed an easy activity to keep your minds at bay.

[fernsandtales]

Felt treats 🍰🧁🌸 This sweet collection is for a custom order - for a high tea party hosted by two cheeky foxes 🦊

There is a bit going on - some crochet, some needle felting, some just good old thread and needle sewing. Wasn't thrilled with the result initially, but looking back, they seem yummy enough.

🌼 Daisy crochet tutorial here I just made the flowers with a 1 mm hook to make them teeny-tiny.

[somediyprojects]

DIY Patchwork Chair

Project by Jane Schouten: 

jane is the proud owner of a vintage pierre paulin oyster chair, but was unhappy with the state of its thread-bare original upholstery. so she decided to customize and personalize its upholstery using decorative cut-outs, crocheted flowers and embroidery. with a large collection of vintage blankets to draw from, jane created a patchwork-style upholstery base, on top of which she added the details mentioned above. while we certainly all at the level of upholstering and embroidery that jane is, after examining her photos for a few days i felt strongly that the essence of this project was something that most clever diy-ers could tackle. if you have some leftover fabric, old blankets or maybe even old shirts, you could create a similar patchwork background to reupholster your favorite seat or stool. so, i hope jane’s project will be as inspiring for you as it was for me (or at least provide some much-needed chair eye-candy).

Jane’s Reupholstered Patchwork Chair

You will need:

-a chair, an ottoman or anything else you want to re-upholster (for those with less upholstery experience we’d suggest something small like a stool or ottoman) -vintage blankets or fabric (those with a quilted or thicker texture work best) -scissors -pins -power stapler (optional, but very helpful) -flowers or other interesting objects cut out of fabric -crocheted flowers (click here and here for tutorials) -embroidery thread and needle (click here for a great embroidery tutorial)

1. Remove any existing upholstery cleanly from your chair or ottoman. You will use this to make a pattern for your new upholstery pattern. Using the old fabric as a pattern, cut your new upholstery pattern out of your blanket. (If you have more than one blanket you want to use, sew them together before cutting the pattern- see photo below). If you’re unfamiliar with the process click here for an illustrated look at cutting a new pattern from an old upholstery piece.

2. Gather any cut-fabric shapes or flowers you’ve created (there is a tutorial for creating these in the supply list above) and arrange them on the new cut-out blanket in a pattern or arrangement that you like. Pin them in place and then hand-stitch them onto the blanket.

3. At this point Jane added decorative embroidery and embroidered text to the chair (see photo below), but you can either skip this step if you’re not comfortable with embroidery, or follow the simple embroidery tutorials in the supply list above to add some personal embroidery details to the blanket upholstery.

4. Now you should have your blanket upholstery cut to size, decorated with cut-out or crocheted decorative details and embellished with any embroidery you like- so you’re ready to attach it to the chair. Jane used a power-stapler to reattach her form (which was cut to match the old pattern so you shouldn’t have much overlapping fabric to cut) but you can also stitch the new upholstery to the chair if you’re an experienced sewer or upholsterer. If you’re like me (D*S) you’ll want to get a strong stapler and attach (wherever the staples will be less visible) your new fabric that way. This method works best on a small chair seat, stool or ottoman where there are good places to attach and staple that won’t be visible. If you’d like to watch a fun video tutorial with D*S DIY editors Derek and Lauren, click here (this will show you how to attach and staple new fabric onto a chair. Just scroll down to the “re-upholster a chair” video)

5. Voila! You have a newly upholstered chair/ottoman/stool. Have a seat and enjoy your the results of your hard work.

[scrimblestitchin]

ello! For starting off, I made sure I had a couple of hoops, needles and an assortment of threads. I made it my goal to learn a new stitch every day and there are plenty of tutorials online! I started off on wee bits of scrap fabric like felt on smaller projects and started working up ^^ it felt daunting to start it at first, but when I learned I could do wee flowers with really simple stitches, I got the motivation :D

Best of luck :D

Anyone got any advice or tips on picking up embroidery? Its something I've been interested in for a while now but I dont know where to start. Do I get one of those ready to go embroidery kits? What kind of hoop do I get? Is there a difference between cross stitch and embroidery?

Like how does one start embroidery?

[saradianne14]

A3! If they were Youtubers: A thread:

Randomly talked about this with a friend during my stream today lol:

Sakuya:

Going to different Plays, telling you to check them out!

Vlogs of going to practice/getting ready for spring troupes plays

Hanging out with those in Mankai + Kamekichi makes appearances too lol.

Masumi:

May not be a YouTuber to be honest, he doesn’t really like getting attention.

If he were to be one, all his videos would be about you (the director) but he would never show your face on camera/blur your face because he doesn’t want anyone else to see your beautiful face!

Tsuzuru:

Probably too shy (and tired) to want to be a youtuber.

Plus he’s too busy taking care of his brothers/writing plays/acting to be a youtuber!

The only way I see him actually being in a video is on Citron’s channel doing a Manzai act lol.

Itaru:

I mean, gaming videos pretty much.

Would mostly be a streamer, instead of a youtuber. He’d probably be lazy to edit videos tbh lol.

Gaming with Banri and Citron a lot

Citron:

Learning Japanese with Citron! (Getting some phrases/words wrong pretty much though lol).

Storytimes about his time in Zafra.

Manzai acts with Tsuzuru!

Gaming videos + gaming with Itaru!

Vlogs about going to different places in Japan.

Dancing videos!

Would probably be down for any type of content! (Challenges, Try not to laugh, how to videos, mukbangs etc.)

Chikage:

Curry reviews, like his blog “Chliausa’s Spicy blogs”

I fee like other than curry reviews, he wouldn’t really do YouTube. But maybe he might react/Critique different videos on YouTube. (Would mostly roast the video/people in video if it’s “dumb” lol).

Tenma:

Vlogs. I mean he’s already famous, who wouldn’t want to see him vlog?

“How to care for your Bonsai tree” videos.

Getting lost in most of his videos. (Getting lost will be an everyday thing lol)

Shopping videos + with Banri sometimes

Yuki:

OOTD / OOTW videos.

Clothing hauls + collabs with Banri.

“How to style” + fashion videos

DIYS: How to design outfits/how to sew, lace knitting/needle felting etc.

Showing off the cute things he finds + shows you where he bought them.

Muku:

Shojo manga reviews! + sometimes with Sakyo (this will be the only way Sakyo will appear on Camera, since I doubt he’d upload YouTube videos himself!)

Vlogs! Hanging out with his troupe members & Juza/Kumon most of the time!

Chocolate mukbangs with Juza! Maybe even reviews different chocolate desserts.

I can see him making a video of him visiting a cat cafe with Misumi/Hisoka/Kazu. It’d be cute (:

Misumi:

Triangle hunting videos!

Showing his triangle collection and where he found them + triangle hauls & shows you where you can find them.

How to make Onigiri!

Parkour videos.

Lots of collabs with Kazu!

Videos of him hanging out with cats + maybe teaching you cat language lmao.

Kazunari:

Art/ graphic design tutorials. + Draw with me!

Vlogs! Always hanging out with his troupe members + the rest of Mankai.

Traveling videos! + collabs with Azuma.

DIY videos + collabs with Yuki

Q&A videos!

Try not to laugh!

Challenge videos /with Taichi & Citron, and maybe Misumi lol.

Just like Citron, may be down for all types of content haha.

Kumon:

Vlogs! + always showing Juza in his videos lol.

Nutrition videos

Workout videos

Ramen reviews! + showing you the best places to get Ramen.

Videos about Baseball

Videos of him trying out different activities/sports.

Banri:

How to be a fuck boy… lol I’M KIDDING.

Gaming videos + with Itaru

OOTW & Clothing Hauls + with Yuki sometimes

Trying to do prank videos on Juza.

Would legit try anything and be good at it. (Ex: He played Tennis for the first time and won every game against those who’ve played for years)

Vlogging his super ultra easy mode life.

Juza:

I know he tries to hide his love for sweets and candy, but let’s pretend he doesn’t. Dessert Mukbangs!

Trying different desserts from stores/restaurants etc. Would probably like to try different desserts from other countries.

He is pretty shy, so I don’t know if he would vlog or not.

Taichi:

Would make a video of anything to be honest. Like I think he’d make videos of whatever is trending.

Lots of Q&A’s because I feel like he’d love to talk to his subscribers!

Would probably always be vlogging!

Skateboarding videos.

Showing off cool yo-yo tricks.

Origami tutorials!

Omi:

Cooking videos for sure. + has Juza as taste tester for when he makes desserts!

Handcraft tutorials + collabs with Yuki sometimes.

Photography tip videos!

Sakyo:

Probably wouldn’t be a youtuber. He’d be like “I Ain’t doing that crap”

I feel like the only way he’d be in a video is if someone from Mankai includes him in a video.

Where would you see Sakyo in videos? On Sakoda’s channel! Lmao. Imagine Sakoda’s video titles like: “On the job with the boss,” “Hanging out with the boss,” “Running errands for the boss” and Sakyo would be like “get that camera out of my face!”

Azami:

Makeup tutorials.

Different skincare products + makeup reviews. + collabs with Azuma  and Yuki sometimes!

Trying to pull pranks on Sakyo videos.

Soccer videos + (Soccer Challenges) with Tasuku and the soccer club maybe?

Rap battle freestyles with Homare lol.

Tsumugi:

Wait… Tsumugi isn’t good with technology, would he be able to make youtube videos?? He may need someone to help him edit and film! (Kazu)

“How to care for different types of flowers” videos!

Flower language videos (:

Tips on improving your acting + collab with tasuku!

How to make an omelette video… lol. Or showing recipes that have eggs in them haha.

Tasuku:

Workout videos + collabs with Kumon sometimes!

Health Tips!

Soccer videos + Soccer challenges. + collabs with the soccer club!

Tips on improving your acting + collabs with Tsumugi!

Hisoka:

Marshmallow review!

Teaching how to make recipes that have marshmallows +Omi does all of the cooking and Hisoka is just the taste tester.

Showing good napping places

Good plushie/pillow reviews!

Hisoka ASMR “Hisoka heartbeat and breathing sounds for 1 hour”

Homare:

Reciting his poems!

Tips on how to write poems

Vlogging the life of a genius! (He has fans already, so they’d love to watch his videos!)

Rap battle freestyles with Azami!

Play/book/art reviews?

Tea Time with Homare (like a mukbang pretty much, but classier)

Azuma:

Skincare routine and tips + product review videos.

Travel videos + collab with Kazu sometimes!

Wine + alcohol taste testing + with Sakyo/Guy/or Homare.

Color with me and chat videos haha.

Beauty related videos + with Yuki and Azami somtimes!

Guy:

Exploring Japan, vlog style.

Videos about Zafran culture and his times living in Zafra.

How to make different types of alcoholic drinks + sometimes Azuma or Hisoka help!

Karate lessons? + with Kumon.

Just like his Mankai blogs, Citron names the titles of his videos lol.

[celestialvoid-fanfiction]

Embroidery

Stiles wanted to try making Derek a floral sweater.

  For @benaya-trash​

(You can also read it on AO3, here)

  Stiles’ fingers were sore from how many times he’d accidentally pricked himself with the sewing needle, but he was too stubborn and persistent to give up.

He sat cross-legged on the lounge room floor, his gaze flicking from the tablet that was propped up on a pillow in front of him playing a YouTube video of an embroidery tutorial to the stretched out fabric that sat in his lap. He followed along – step by step – as he made a pinwheel flower, weaving the soft thread over and under the outstretched stitches until it slowly took the form of soft white petals. He sewed a few French knots into the centre of the flower with dark brown thread, making it look more like a flower—somewhere between a ranunculus and a lisianthus.

He’d been working on the sweater in secret for weeks; he wanted it to be a surprise for Derek. When he’d started out it seemed so overwhelming—the simple grey sweater seemed so drab but it was a large sweater and the thought of embroidering flowers across the top of the torso, the shoulders and the back, seemed like a daunting task; especially for someone who hadn’t done this before.

It’d taken a few tries; a lot of the flowers had been sewn and unstitched and sewn again.

But now, after weeks of work, it was starting to fill out and Stiles was quite impressed with what he’d done.

The grey fabric was decorated with cream peonies, tall strands of pastel blue and faded yellow snap dragons, white lilies of the valley that stood out vibrantly among the bowing stalks of the other flowering blossoms—their petals stitched together with different shades of blue thread. Silver and white thread had been wound together to make bundles of Queen Anne’s Lace – the small flowers made of French knots.

Crisp white gladiolus flowers stretched upwards across the shoulders, the tips of the flowers still green, with small white buds of flowers ready to blossom.

A few feathery stitches made the outstretched vines that connected the flowers along the edges of the pattern, where he blossoms thinned out and faded back into the fabric of the sweater.

The empty spaced were filled in with French knots made of baby blue thread and the off white and pale yellow outstretched stitched of bundled petals that looked like dandelions and daisies hidden beneath the other flowers.

Finally, dark green leaves, vines and budding stalks were layered over and under the embroidered flowers, filling out the foliage and making the pattern look complete.

Stiles tied off the end of the thread, setting aside the needle as he unfastened the embroidery hoop and laid the sweater out across his lap.

He felt a spark of pride ignite a warmth in his chest as he looked down at what he’d accomplished.

It wasn’t as brightly coloured or as bold as the other floral sweaters that Derek owned, but he wanted one that was soft and calming, the light grey fabric of the sweater softened even further by the off white, cream, and pastel colours of the embroidery thread that covered the top of it. The boldest colours among the pattern were the dark green leaves and the crisp white flowers, but even they seemed muted among the arrangement.

A smile lit up his face. He had one last step to do and that was to hide the ugly stitched and knots underneath. He had originally thought to sew another layer into the sweater, but Melissa had found him some iron-on fabric that would seal it all in place.

He turned the sweater inside out and carried it into the laundry, turning on the iron and positioning the pieces of iron-on fabric that he had measured and cut out earlier.

Moments later, it was done. He turned the sweater back the right way and carried it back into the living room.

He cleared away the embroidery thread and needles, turned off the tablet and put the living room back the way it was before.

He glanced up at the clock, his heart skipping a beat as he realised what time it was.

Derek would be home any minute.

He quickly pulled out one of the small boxes they had stored away, lining it with tissue paper before folding up the sweater and putting it in the box. He laid the tissue paper over the top of it and put the lid on the box, tying a silky off white ribbon around it before carrying it upstairs and setting it down on the end of their bed.

He made his way downstairs and into the kitchen, switching on the kettle.

Moments later, he heard the front door open.

“Hi,” Stiles called out.

“Hi,” Derek replied.

“Do you want a cup of tea?” Stiles asked.

“Yes, please,” Derek said, his voice softened by pleading. “Just give me a moment, though, I need to go change.”

“Okay.”

Derek made his way upstairs.

Stiles tried to slow his racing heart beat – tried to hide his anxiety – as he listened to Derek’s footsteps across the floorboards.

He heard him go into the bedroom, stop and come back out. He marched downstairs and into the kitchen.

“What’s this?” Derek asked, holding up the box.

“A present,” Stiles answered bluntly.

“A present?” Derek repeated.

“For you.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you,” Stiles replied. “Now, open in.”

Derek pouted as he set the box down on the counter and untied the ribbon. He lifted the lid, unfolded the layers of tissue paper, and froze.

His expression softened as he looked down at the sweater.

He set the lid aside and carefully lifted the sweater out of the box, unfolding it and holding it up.

His pale aventurine irises sparkled as tears welled in his eyes. His lips trembled slightly as he took in the sight, completely lost for words.

“I made it for you,” Stiles said, hoping his nervousness didn’t show in his voice.

“You made it?” Derek asked, astounded.

“Well, I didn’t make the sweater, but I sewed the flowers onto it,” Stiles corrected himself.

Derek blinked in shock, adjusting his hold on the sweater and gently brushing his fingertips across the soft thread of the embroidered flowers.

“You made this… for me?” he said quietly, struggling to fight back his tears.

“Yeah,” Stiles answered slowly.

Derek gently set it back in the box, turning to Stiles and pulling him into his arms. He buried his face in the curve of Stiles’ shoulder as the tears began to fall, soaking the fabric of Stiles’ shirt.

Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek, letting out a sigh of relief.

He liked it.

“I love you,” Derek said, his voice muffled by Stiles’ chest.

Stiles let out a breathless chuckle, craning his head to press a soft kiss to Derek’s temple. “I love you too.”

Derek drew back slowly, using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe away the tears that dampened his cheeks. He looked at Stiles lovingly.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?”

A small smile turned up the corners of Stiles’ lips. “I ask myself the same question every day.”

“What, what did you do to deserve me?” Derek teased, laughing quietly.

“Yes,” Stiles joked. He stepped closer, bringing his lips to Derek’s in a tender loving kiss.

The kettle finished boiling as Stiles drew back slowly. He offered Derek a kind smile as he turned to make him a cup of tea and as he turned back Derek was already pulling the sweater on over his head.

He straightened out the hem, looking down at it and gently running his fingers over the stitches. Another wave of tears welled in his eyes.

“Enjoy it while you can; I’m only going to steal it off you in a week,” Stiles said, trying to stop Derek from crying.

Derek let out a small laugh.

“You’re never getting this one,” he said, hugging himself. “I love it too much.”

Stiles felt the sense of achievement and pride fill his chest again.

Derek took another step forward, gently taking the cup of tea from Stiles’ hand and setting it down on the counter. He wrapped his arms around Stiles’ waist and pulled him close, smiling sweetly as he said, “And I love you.”

[universallywriting]

Drive Home

Steven's breath puffed in the air as he came to sit beside her, feet crunching in the frost and pine needles. He was glad they'd planned it the way they did, just cold enough so the Rocky Mountains were dusted with snow. Specks of brown and green covered the mounds that swallowed up the horizon, towering and beautiful, almost touchably close and endlessly far at the same time. Pine trees circled close around them, boulders jutting up from the earth, and he came to sit down on one beside Connie with a smile.

It was odd up in the mountains. Occasionally hikers would pass them by, or a family of tourists, but off the more well-worn trails that was rare. It was still odd for Steven, who so rarely traveled, to see so many people pass him by that he didn’t know the names of. So often he felt like he should see Buck’s familiar deadpan face, or hear Jenny’s laugh from one of the people that passed him by.

But the only familiar face was Connie’s. The thermos of tea he had brought her was hot in the metal flask. When they drove lower, he would switch back to her favorite black teas, carefully measured with swirls of honey and just the right kind of milk to make her smile. But high up in the mountains, the water didn’t boil hot enough.

Just thinking of her face the first morning she’d tried to make them both tea at 10,000 feet was enough to make him smile. The weak brew had made her nose wrinkle up in confusion, baffled at her perfectly measured cup failing, before she burst into giggles and explained the correlation between how water boiled and the altitude.

She was so brilliant. He handed it to her, enjoying the feel of being stupidly in love and out in the world alone with her before murmuring, “How do you feel?”

"Small. But in a good way. You?" She took a deep breath of mountain air, looking over the landscape. He wondered if she felt the same as him, or if we-moved-a-lot Connie never felt that same warm loneliness.

"Same." He smiled and looked back out. Questions about wanting to see familiar faces could be saved for the road home when they were barefoot and bored. “Wish I had come to places like this more often. Oceans are beautiful but... Nothing makes you feel more like a speck than a mountain. It's comforting."

"Just another little person, running across a big marble." She nudged him softly with her free hand. "Gets a little too much when you really see the marble though. I think going out in space can make Earth feel a little too small."

Steven nodded. "Yeah. This is a good middle ground. Earth feels big. I feel small. I like it this way.”

“Why don’t we stay?” Connie asked lightly. “Drive around forever.”

“I could be happy getting lost in these woods,” he agreed, but there was no weight to it. There was no weight to her words either. They swept away in the breeze, tumbling down stone and needles and babbling brooks to the world beneath.

"Me too." Her fingers wrapped tight around the sketchbook in her lap, the cover digging into her skin just at the brink of hurting. "I'm, um... I'm done with it, by the way. With my portfolio. I’ll submit it in the morning."

"That's great!" Steven said, throwing his arm around her shoulders with an eager squeeze. His lips found her temple in a reassuring kiss, seeing the nerves in the stiff lines of her body. "I'm so proud of you. Did the landscapes turn out the way you wanted?"

She opened her sketchbook and Steven eagerly looked over her shoulder, never tiring of the contents. It started with the temple. The morning they left Steven had found her on the beach, wrapped up in a hoodie in the early dawn chill, sketching his home and occasionally sipping at a coffee that had gone cold, and though she had insisted it wasn’t important, he had happily delayed their start until she finished.

Connie flipped to fields of grain. Traveling the midwest had been much less exciting than he expected. Keystone had rolled by and their eyes had glazed over as everything seemed to be the same three trees and two rocks. They had burst into Buckeye and passed through Kansas and had mumbled incoherently about corn while the radio tried to keep them alive and driving. That night they had stared at Connie’s grain drawing with a ghostly horror, neither of them remembering when she had drawn the stuff.

She moved past a drawing of rolling grassy hills. In Nebraska, he had floated to the top of the RV with her. While she drew, he had read about the Great Plains on his phone. They had taken a moment, in warm breeze and isolation, to let tears hit their eyes and cries choke their lungs as they read about what happened to buffalo who had roamed there once. They had whispered about colonies of all kinds, and there was no one around to reassure them, so they took the time to mourn things that might have been.

They had done the same in sand dunes, or close to it. The sketch she passed held more memory than a picture, the grays of her pencil capturing more than just the desert, but him breaking down over Kindergartens sucking life from the earth. Another sketch just after, with a lovely pink flower blossoming on top of a cactus, and he could hear her voice reassuring, “Nothing’s as lifeless as you’d think.”

Connie paused on his favorite, the polar bear she had sketched from the San Diego Zoo. They had spent such a long day there, but when they got to the polar bears she had stopped and gushed about them. The Spirit Morph saga had inspired her to do research, and she rambled facts. Polar bears had terrible success rates, with only two percent of their hunts being successful, did he know? 

He really liked that idea. The largest bear of all, living in such a harsh environment, failed almost all the time. It fumbled and watched as victory slipped away, but it came back to try another day. It survived.

She finished on a sweeping mountain landscape, not too different from the one they sat in now. Connie set her phone next to it, a copy of her finished project next to the rougher draft. "That's the last one," she said quietly, pointing to the screen. "I think it turned out okay."

"It makes Earth look beautiful. I’d put it in a gem brochure," he reassured. “You chose a lot of amazing stuff.”

She bit her lower lip. “I hope so. I tried to choose what a school would think is best, not just the stuff I think is great. The stuff that shows skill, you know?

He kissed her cheek this time, saying, "Any school is going to be lucky to have you. You're amazing, Connie."

"I'm okay," she said, voice very practical about her own skills. Connie looked at him with a little laugh. "I don't know what's scarier - getting rejected or getting in. Mom was mad enough about the world US road trip gap year."

"She got over it! You know, after the meltdown." Steven said, wincing a little at the memory. He had sat behind her, trying to support her as quietly as possible while Priyanka and Connie growled and snapped at one another, each insisting on how the next year should be spent. And, at the end, the tearful apologies, the confessions of fear over the future… He had to admit that it was a relatable feeling, even if no one had fought with him.

"She'll get over this too. Come on. This is what you've always wanted. You're going to be an animator, Connie,” he said, and just saying the word made her eyes go a little wide with hope. 

He remembered her earliest drawings with him, rougher but already so much nicer than his own. He remembered her working through how to draw anime books, silly cat-eared characters with huge eyes. Steven remembered her fumbling beyond that, hours of Tubetube tutorials, crying at the tablet he got her for her birthday, the countless gifts of fanart for his favorite shows. He remembered trembling hands the first time she showed him a comic, with characters he had never seen, because she had snatched them from the air the way he grabbed music.

Steven knew he was tearing up again like he did every time he told her, but he could never hold it back. “It’s what you live for, Connie. It’s what makes you happy. You're going to tell stories."

Connie breathed again, taking in pine and chill and rocks older than even the Crystal Gems by orders of magnitude. The world was big and wide and old, the universe even more so, and usually that made her problems feel small. But nothing could swallow up the fear and doubt today. She took his hand tight in her own.

"This has been amazing. Driving across the country, seeing all these different parts of the world, pitstops to warps so we can see everything Earth has to offer. Steven, I..."  She looked up at him, shaking her head in disbelief. "These past ten months have been the best months of my life. Everyone said we were going to get sick of each other. Your dad gave us that speech about how it was okay to bail. Everyone thought we were going to mess this up but... I'd do this for another year if it wasn't for college."

He was careful not to jostle her phone or sketchbook from her lap as he lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. "I loved this. I love you. No expectations. No scary future. No responsibilities. Just a big journey together.”

“I’m glad you loved it as much as I did,” she said with a smile.

“More than that. I needed it.” He laughed and shook his head. “Connie, I never could have asked for anything better than this. Everything at home was a mess. I’m so tired of all the work and responsibility and wondering what I’m going to do with my life. But this past year I just got to be with you and not be afraid."

"But now we have to go home," she whispered looking at the RV parked behind them. The place where they slept and ate. The place where they made stupid jokes and listened to terrible radio and podcasts. The place where they’d cried and kissed and worked through things they never thought they’d work through. But that was over now, and it loomed like a hearse. “We have to get in there and drive all the way back to Beach City. And then I... I have to wait to see if I get accepted.”

She laughed, cold and bitter, and took a hand to wipe at her eyes. He couldn’t see any tears falling, but Connie felt them stinging. “I’ve messed up on a lot of stuff, Steven. I know I seem smart, but most of it is from studying so hard. I’m not… special. I’m not talented. The odds are good they’re not gonna want me. And if they don't, I guess I'll go be a doctor or something. And, if they do, I..."

I’m screwed either way.

Steven shook his head hard. "You'll be an animator," he insisted. He took the thermos and set it aside, untouched, just so he could take both her hands in his. "You'll do exactly what you've been doing ever since I met you - telling stories. You'll finally get to be who you've always wanted to be."

She winced. "But my mom-"

"Who cares?" Steven said, barely holding back his temper. "We spent a year, just the two of us! You don’t need her to agree."

"Ten months," she corrected softly. "But, you're right. We did."

Steven didn’t like his temper. He didn’t like how angry he got. He didn’t like how easily he could drag Connie into it, drown her in it when they fused. He felt guilty about that. He worried about that a lot, that maybe his anger meant he wasn’t as good of a person as he liked to try to be. He loved Dr. and Mr. Maheswaran, didn’t he? His anger shouldn’t be so burning and flaring when all they wanted was for Connie to be safe.

But his feelings for her parents got tangled in his own, and when he started down that path he felt that little voice hissing that they should leave them alone, and that they could do things on their own, and for once they wanted to live their own lives and forge their own paths, and was it really so much to ask for unconditional support in that?

Steven took a steady breath to calm himself. "She should be in your life. The gems should be in my life. But nobody... Nobody gets to tell you what to do with it. It took me so long to figure that out. I didn't get that making other people happy and hurting yourself to meet their expectations aren't the same thing. I spent my whole life trying to be my mom. I didn't know what to do when I wasn't."

Connie nodded weakly. "I know."

He took her face in his hands, pressing her forehead to hers. "You're not your mom. You never have been. You don’t love rules and coloring inside the lines. You sneak candy into movies and find loopholes in the law and climb giant robots and... And you love books. And comics. And television. You love survival." 

Steven flipped back to the polar bear, gently tapping the page. "You drew this because of the warrior bears in the Spirit Morph Saga, because those books meant everything to you, and you want to make something like that for other people. That’s who you are. You want to inspire people like people who have inspired you."

She closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “I know. But I’m… I don’t know if I…”

“I’ve seen you capture Pearl on a page, and I can see all her determination and all her fear at the same time,” he whispered. “I’ve seen you draw your dad as a superhero, with a goofy flashlight and a big smile, because that’s who he was when you were small. You… You drew me, Connie.”

His thumbs smoothed over her cheeks as he took a shuddering breath. “You drew me the way you love me. It was just me, sleepy in our RV, and I looked peaceful and happy and I was looking outside and… and I could feel the way I love our stupid little rock. I was human and not human and I loved it, Connie. You made me feel so much.”

“I know, Steven. I know you feel the things I make but…” She whimpered, the tears he hadn’t seen before finally rolling. “What if I'm not good enough? What if I reach for Kansas and burn out halfway there?"

Steven hugged her tight, and let her bury her face in his shoulder. They were all alone up there, softly rustling trees holing them up from the terrifying landscape ahead. But there were such beautiful things below, pressed into the pages of Connie’s sketchbook, and it was time to face them all.

“I’ll pick you up.” His face buried in her hair, thoughts of their families fresh in his mind, and there was only one thing to promise, "I'll drive you home. And we'll all love you anyway."

[mechadress]

Saw a literary challenge to write about one of your average days in quarantine. They picked Tuesday May 12th. Since all of my days keep blending together, I thought it would help me set a benchmark for how I handled quarantine. So here it is-

May 12th 2020,

My alarm goes off at 7am. I roll over to turn it off and promptly go back to sleep. This was a normal practice even before the world shut down. I don't have set hours at work, but I prefer to start around 8am. Since my work computer is only across the apartment, the motivation to wake up before I absolutely have to is extremely low.

8am rolls around and I can't bring myself to leave the bed yet. It all seems so pointless as no one seems to care what hours I keep and I don't have any early morning meetings. I scroll through Facebook and Tumblr on my phone, I check my email more times than I really need to, and pet whichever cat is closest, usually Sierra. I find a post from a page that I follow that talks about Victorian parlor games and I share it to the Steampunk group I administer. There hasn't been much content in the group for awhile. I wonder if it's because steampunk isn't as popular as it once was or if no one has anything to say. It gets a few likes and one 'Care' emoji. I think it's because it indicates that people miss hanging out together.

Around 8:15 I need to use the toilet, which is enough to get me out of bed and sign into my work computer. CY yells out from his work station at the living room table to remind me to buy the camper table and a spray bottle he wanted for grilling. I order them from Amazon and feel guilty about getting nonessential items in the middle of a pandemic. I spend the first few hours of work scrolling through FB or Tumblr and knitting. While I knit I watch an hour and half long youtube video from ContraPoints about different types of second-hand embarrassment or 'cringe'. I identify a lot with what she says.

I am knitting a pair of socks simply because I have the yarn and I've never done it before. I tested out the gauge to make sure I had the right sized needles and I do. They are long dpns that were given to me by CY's mother once she realized I enjoyed knitting. Apparently she used to knit as well, but it would hurt her hands so she gave up on it. I had tried to use the dpns as intended, even looking up a video and practicing a few times, but I kept dropping stitches and getting annoyed with them. I eventually decided to order a circular needle from Amazon to use instead. I felt very guilty about this since there's all sorts of post-people and delivery people out there who are at risk moving all these boxes around, and here I'm ordering a stupid pair of needles that are a duplicate size to ones I own, but I just don't want to use. The circular needles are extremely nice and easy to work with and it is a pleasure to knit the socks. I still use the dpns as a stitch holder while I knit the heel. Today I'm connecting the insole and knitting along the foot. It's easy and enjoyable work especially after already completing the first sock.

I eat a prepackaged ube cake while I drink my tea and appreciate the nice pairing of flavors.

I feel bad about not getting more of my actual work done. However, I can't bring myself to concentrate on anything related to work. I keep moving my mouse around every 10 or so minutes so it looks like I'm active.

An old D&D friend of mine named Sam posts on FB about how he is proud of his company for continuing to let people work from home despite Ohio loosening some of the Stay at Home restrictions. I reply "We were told to expect to work from home until at least August. I'm grateful since it's one less thing to think about." Sam and I go back a forth a bit more, expressing gratitude and an interest in meeting up again once its safe. It's the first I've interacted with him in about 5 years and it makes me glad to hear from him.

I start lunch early because I don't have anything better to do. For lunch I make myself and CY a sandwich. We have some really good Italian bread we got from the grocery store that we can make into a decent replica of a Philadelphia style hoagie. I already chopped up the veggies so I can just take them out of the fridge and start layering them on. CY likes his sandwich with mayo and turkey. I don't like handling either of those things, but it's easy enough. I make his first then make a veggie version for myself. We use the new hoagie oil which isn't as bad as I had originally feared, but it isn't as good as the name brand one we had before. Pity they were out of it at the store when we went.

My 2019 tax refund from Ohio lands into my investment account. I plan to use it to invest in assorted stocks I feel will bounce back once the economy recovers.

After lunch I watch a few more youtube videos while I knit. One is a career review of the one-hit wonder band 'Living in a Box' and another is a recording of 'the world's worst singer' Florence Foster Jenkins. I had found an article that talked about people who had a medical condition which made them unable to percieve how poorly they performed a skill. In her case, she was a renowned as a very poor singer who believed she was very good and people would come to watch her ironically. I try to watch a congressional hearing where they discuss the health crisis with Dr. Fauci, but it's too depressing so I stop.

My anxiety related to work continues to grow. I figure that I'm not able to bring myself to do any investigation on my own, but I'm still able to ask people questions. I reach out through Skype to a colleague who I believe had worked with this business group before. I am surprised by how helpful she is and how quickly she is to respond. We get on a call and she shows me some reporting she did that is similar and directs me towards a table she thinks would have the values I'm looking for. She recommends another colleague to talk to and I schedule a meeting with him for the next day since he was busying for the rest of today. I feel instantly better. My anxiety about my work plummets and I find the energy and motivation to start investigating another task I've been given. I quickly find 1) the task was way easier than I initially estimated and 2) the data I want isn't available where I thought it would be. I even find out a new way to pull code out of Tableau and I excitedly share my discovery with another colleague. Around this time it's getting close to 4pm, my usual time to stop working and just become available for questions, should anyone need to reach out to me. I feel better about myself and allow myself to take more pleasure in my activities.

I start to prepare for the online D&D game I host each week, Tuesdays at 7:30pm. One of my favorite things about quarantine is that it's given me the time and ability to play again. I've missed having a regular D&D game badly. We had a very good game the previous week and I'm excited to make new material for this new game. I decide to include a villain who is a Banksia Man, one of the anatognists from the Australian fairy-tale Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. CY had helped me over the weekend come up with a cool backstory for him. I take notes and save some pictures so I can display them to my players through screen share.

A group of our friends are doing a Plank Challenge while we try to stay in shape while in quarantine. Colette set up a FB group with a list of exercises to do for 13 days. Each day, you do your assigned exercise then you post to the group to indicate you completed your day's tasks. CY and I made a point to work out for a bit each day after work and were already doing a fair amount of planks so the challenge as it was written was too easy for us. We tend to double the amount of time for each exercise or we double up the reps. My tasks for today are 30 seconds each of planks, rocking planks, hip dips, and up downs. I do all the exercises straight through twice with a short break in between sets then post to FB in the group.

After doing planks, CY and I go out to a nearby park to walk for a bit. We go for about 2.5 miles. It's a nice day, nearly 60 degrees. I am happy to see wild flowers starting to sprout up and the leaves coming back to the trees. Most people in the park are polite and keep their distance. It's rare to see people wearing masks while they are walking or running, so it almost feels normal.

We make it back with enough time for me to start getting my notes ready for game. CY offers to make me food and asks what I'd like to eat. We had just gone to Trader Joe's the weekend before and gotten a truly ridiculous amount of frozen food. He insists I pick something from the freezer to eat. In the end we decide he'll cut up the jackfruit crab cakes and make them into 'seafood tacos'. He even makes some sriracha ranch to go with it. The crab cake is surprisingly greasy, but it's very tasty and filling. Not sure I'd get it again though.

I go into the gaming group call and we quickly realize that only Gene and Aaron are going to be able to join game. We don't think it will be enough to continue the campaign I prepared for so I offer to do a one-shot just for them. I show them a cute rpg I found awhile ago called 'Fuck! It's Dracula' and we give it a shot. We have fun but I feel a bit unprepared since I have to ab lib most of the plot and come up with secret plans on the fly so they can be betrayed by their NPCs. The game is much shorter than I initially anticipated and we finish up around 9:30pm, much earlier than normal. I don't feel like Aaron and Gene enjoyed this game as much as they would have enjoyed the larger campaign I made, but at least we got to play together for a bit. I appreciate the social contact at the very least.

We dismiss ourselves from game and I join CY on the couch. He is watching some cooking tutorial videos, trying to teach himself how to smoke brisket properly. I go back and forth between different apps on my phone, not really paying attention to the TV. I try to read for a bit, but we eventually settle down to sleep before I get very far. I feel good about how the day went and I'm proud of myself for getting work done on the sock and researching my projects. I feel better about my life than I did when I first woke up this morning.

[snowflakeforestfelting]

NEEDLE FELTING FLOWER Tutorial Plumeria

[sucrefemme]

Snufkin Inspired Skirt (& Tutorial)

Tutorial for the decal under the cut! The decal can be sewn onto anything, like bags and pants, if you dont wanna have it on a skirt ^_^

What You’ll Need: 

home sewing machine (Technically optional? But it would be really hard without one)  

thread

sewing scissors

regular scissors

sewing pins 

pencil 

Marking chalk (OPTIONAL)

Pinking shears (OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED)

6x6″ thick green fabric (I used denim, but felt or flannel could work too)

scrap fabric in a variety of colors 

Cardstock or thick paper 

hand sewing needles 

The version without pinking shears will look different. Pinking shears are zig-zag scissors that help prevent raw edges of fabric from fraying. 

Instructions: 

1. Make your stencil

Cut your cardstock so its the same size as your green fabric. then, sketch your hat on the cardstock. His hat is sloped down to the brim, the brim doesn’t abruptly start like a witch’s hat. Look up references! When adding the notches to the brim, make them fairly big, otherwise they’ll be hard to sew. Once you’re happy with your pattern, cut it out, including the little notches. 

2. Cut out the hat 

Pin the stencil onto your fabric. Using your pencil or marking chalk, outline the stencil carefully. Remove the stencil. If your shape was too detailed or if the notches were too small, they might’ve gotten lost when you traced. Don’t fret! Use your chalk or pencil to make them wider. Use your sewing scissors to cut out the hat. 

3. Attach the hat with a satin stitch  

place the hat on your skirt (or whatever else you’re using) and pin it down a couple centimeters away from the edge. I’ve found satin stitching to be easiest when I don’t have to take out the pins until I’m entirely done. however, if you used thin fabric you’ll have to pin close to the edge. Your machine might have a setting for satin stitching. If not, grab a piece of scrap fabric and hit the zig-zag stitch setting on your machine. On the scrap, test the zigzag stitch settings, and adjust until your stitch is a tight line, that hardly shows fabric between the stitches. If you’re new to sewing, you’ll want your stitch to be pretty wide. If you’re more experienced, feel free to make it thinner (which will make the notches look cleaner) 

(If you have experience and you’d rather use a blind hem stitch or a blanket stitch, you can do that if you sew on interfacing to trap the raw edge) 

Place the pinned hat in your machine. The edge of the green fabric should be in the middle of the presser foot, so the zigzag stitch goes into the hat AND the fabric you’re sewing it onto. Start in one spot and go all the way around. When you reach a corner or a sharp curve pick up the presser foot and twist your fabric around. Don’t forget to backstitch!

4. cut out your flowers

If you’re using pinking shears: using your pinking shears, cut out three circles that are about the same size from a piece of colorful scrap fabric. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just as long as its roughly circular and roughly the same size. The diameter of your circles will be equal to the diameter of your flower. Each flower needs three circles, so cut as many as you want to have on your decal.

If you don’t have pinking shears: Cut out a circle from a piece of scrap fabric. Fold it three times, then cut the flat edge to make it round. When you unfold, you should have a close-to-perfect flower. Make as many of these as you want to have on your decal. (example is the little pink flower in the upper right hand corner of the picture)

5. Build and attach your flowers 

If you’re using pinking shears: take a needle and thread and knot the end of the thread. Then, take one of your circles and fold it accordion style.

Push the needle through the center of the accordion (making sure to catch all the folds) and push them down to the bottom. Repeat with the other two circles. push the needle through all the petals a few more times, wrapping the center together tightly. Attach the flower to the hat using the extra thread from the center, stitching through the hat and wrapping around the center three or four times. Finish by tying the thread off in the back. 

If you’re not using pinking shears: So... clearly i didn’t do this idea entirely but it should work. Take the flowers you made in step 4 and pin them to the hat by their centers. if you’d rather use applique glue, go ahead! using the satin stitch from step 3, carefully sew around the outside of the flower. 

Alternative idea, purely theoretical: in step three, cut out two of each flower instead of one. Pin them together so all their sides match up, and sew around this edge. Cut small notches in the edges. Using a seam ripper (or carefully with a pair of scissors) cut a hole in the center of ONE of the flowers. use this hole to flip the flower inside out, and push a pencil in to help it come out all the way. attach the flower like a button, with the cut side down, towards the hat, by sewing a couple stitches through the center. 

Attach flowers until the decal is to your liking! 

And that’s it! Finished product will probably look something like this: 

If you make this you should totally tag me! I’d love to see it :D 

If you have questions, feel free to DM me, send me an ask, or reply to this post. 

Yip yip! 

-Kay 

[phantapm-senior-project]

Week 10

Starry Sky and the Adventures of Water Simulation

I was getting really close to finished the water part of the last scene. The tutorial I followed was extremely helpful (and gave wonderful warnings about how to not make Blender crash 🙏)

The first finished water simulation, I noticed that for a calm scene, the water jumped around a little too much

some splashes are literally going so high up and back down

To help make the waves a little calmer, I turned down the power of the particles (to quickly explain, there’s a particle layer that pushes force onto the water simulation to give it that ripply wavy effect)

much better!

Also if you haven’t noticed, the HDRI did work! Although it’s not perfect with reflections, it fits with the scene really well. The above two videos are viewport render though

Here is the actual render with Eevee! With some variations

Also testing whether I should do rain

I wanted to try to make rain particle effects to add to the atmosphere but I ran into some issues...

It’s difficult to loop unless you time it perfectly

The “transparent” rain just look like dark blobs--not very good looking

The star rain idea looks strange when not falling from the stars on scene

Basically, if I would like to add some rain, I’d have to animate it myself through 2D. And I’m learning towards star rain, which would happen when the character enters the scene! Otherwise it’d be more calm.

Finally all the 3D scenes have been made! Now it’ll be time to focus on all things 2D.

Continuing Character design

The first character design acts like the base for the rest of the outfits this character is going to have, so I tried to modify it to reflect the specific scenes she’s in.

I wanted to go in order, but I was having trouble making her second outfit because I didn’t know where I wanted the outfit to end up. So, I started on the very last outfit in the starry sky scene:

idea sketches

I wanted something elegant, an outfit that shows her “final” fairy form while the outfit also staying true to her first one. I really liked the idea of long tails in the back of her dress, and I added some cute star decals as well. I also wanted her skin to be more blue pigmented around her hands and feet, but I thought about it and realized it’d be difficult to animate a gradient consistently.

The wings I wanted to also make star themed to complete the outfit and help reflect the scene. As the final wings, I wanted something ornate yet easy to draw multiple times, so why not have a connected pattern of stars. I hope will make it easier, while also being really pretty!

With the final outfit planned, I went back to the second scene’s outfit, a kind of transition period between the first and last scene. I wanted there to be a mix of elements from both that helps anticipate the changes the character is going through.

took a little longer with this one--idea sketches

Here her outfit alludes to the eventual tails, and the darkening of the clothes. Her wings are also simple and fit with the scene--since this is a transition period, she hasn’t fully formed her identity but just grew wings.

Side note: for the longest time, I didn’t know what hair accessories she could have on her head, as you can see in the sketches, I tried a variety of things: from flowers at the very beginning to pine needles and then finally landing on the idea of clouds on her head. It’s something I feel is iconic to the scene and to the time of dusk. I decided to make them asymmetrical too because having them be the same felt a bit funny. It could also represent the uneasiness in transition I suppose.

Turnarounds

Here are rest of the turnarounds!

rooftops dusk

starry night sky (with glowing accents to help her stand out of the scene more)

alternate colors to make it stand out more (not sure which is better)

Next Steps

Now that all the elements are now done, it’d time to put everything together into a final animation! By next week I’d hope to have the following:

An animatic of what’s going to happen

Or even a rough animation at this point of certain scenes done

Design some portals if possible (so that they look cool)

My idea has shifted a little bit since I’ve last done storyboards, so I hop nailing down the animatic will bring the same old ideas, while also help me finalize the newer details (like this last scene entirely)

In terms of what software I’m going to use, I’ve been debating between ToonBoom, a professional software used by animators, or use Blender grease pencil, a software that has been gaining a lot of traction and could help me just stay in one software.

Both are cool and I’ve heard some opinions from online, to people close to me, but I’m still wondering what’s better. Potentially I just may stick to Blender, but we’ll see

P.S: here’s the tuorial I used to make the water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJHc5xUFoM&t=1281s

[fkakidstv]

Little Lambs for Easter! A collection of Needle Felting Tutorials – Felting

Little Lambs for Easter! A collection of Needle Felting Tutorials – Felting

I don’t know about you, but I get kinda tired of eggs and egg projects for Easter, which is why I’ve put together this neat collection of needle felting projects that are all lambs!  To me, if you make a cute little lamb and add some flowers especially in a wreath or as part of a display, they look very sweet and Easter like! 🙂 So onto the tutorials.  This first one is by the wonderful Philippa…

[adriennemultiverse]

Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. So me and in my eyes embroidery will always be the act of a woman, something that history claims women are created to do it was fashionable to be good at embroidery for a woman as it show that they were able to keep up their household. Some of the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest embroidery are chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch. Those stitches remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today. Cross stitch is a technique that I have previously neatent in my lifetime however I haven't particularly from the patients be able to construct full designs. In embroidery I would like to further explore the idea of free hand stitching which is shown as an example above. I love the gentle flow and softness that the thread gives the floral design. The process used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery. It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery, there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later, more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times. Designing embroidery and cross stitch is my patience, of course like many things the beginning is slow to be able to perfect my technique I need to to not rush the process however for me I feel that the process takes too long and I don't see any progress in my work at least not enough for me to feel satisfied by the outcome. Furthermore I would still like to go on and and a tempt some more outcomes of embroidery and different styles that can be produced such as: Running Stitch, Back Stitch, Split Stitch, Stem Stitch, Satin Stitch, French Knot Stitch, Chain Stitch, Lazy Daisy Stitch, Feather Stitch, Seed Stitch.

This is the final product of the example above, I find it captures a sense of elegance and beauty in a significant way providing a sensible glow as it leans towards the light.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/854632819/digital-hand-embroidery-floral-flower?ref=shop_home_active_27&pro=1

Embroidery also links to the idea of faith because religions it states that the women should stay at home and look after the family when the men should work, when the women had nothing else to do they would use their spare time to embroid this would provide different layers for each member of the family to wear meaning that the woman is constantly looking after the household however the man provides, personally as a woman I don't believe this is the way that it should be however this is how people who have their faith and believe in this live.  

[pointatthesky]

Here’s an experiment

I’m in a sort of depression slump right now where I have a ton of arts and craft ideas but no motivation to make it all.

So I have enlisted the help of @missingkitsune and she has made the request that I draw a bouquet of flowers in full colour by the 29th of August. The bouquet should include roses (other than red), carnations and baby’s breath. I will be documenting the process and maybe even make it tutorial-ish.

After that is finished I would be glad to take requests for other craft things. You don’t have to pay me or even buy the things I make - just make a request and set me a reasonable deadline.

Other than drawings I can make flowers of ribbon, sewing projects (I’d prefer small scale for this), small scale polymer clay items (although I’d need to buy the clay first), a few jewelry items, doll sized furniture out of cardboard, and in future I’d hope to be making notebooks as well - I just don’t have the tools yet. I may even go into needle felt at some point if I can afford it.

I hope you will help me get back up out of this emotional hole in the ground, and helping me get things done by asking me to show how to make specific things.