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Tag Archives: comics

Whimsey: August (1)

[EDIT: Here‘s part two.]

Yes, August.  I realize that it’s Octobear now.  I just didn’t get around to doing anything with the August box until now.  That’s all.  So anyway…

My August box came with slightly more promising crafts.  The project idea in my box was for a painted pattern scarf (I personally think it should be “painted, patterned scarf” but it’s not my choice).  And here is the image that they included with the directions:

Links to original post.

Um…that’s great.  Except…that’s not the project in my box.  Also, I’m not a fan of scarves.  SoCal does not get cold enough for a scarf. And I digress…

ANYHOW!  I did say that the craft was more promising for this month, and it’s true.  While my project was not actually a painted, patterned scarf, it did involve fabric dye and cloth-not-suitable-for-a-scarf.  I received a largish square of white cloth and a 29mL jar of DecoArt ink effects (personally, I think it should be “Ink Effects” but again, it’s not my choice).  And I guess this is the real link to the project.

I’ve actually been looking for a good fabric paint or dye that’s suitable to use for younger children.  And…I’m not sure if the ink effects product is it.  What’s different about ink effects versus other dye/paint products is that it kind of is both a paint and a dye.  You use it like paint and paint it onto paper.  Then you can iron transfer on the design you’ve painted and it becomes part of the fabric, like a dye.  You can use your design up to three times.  Painting on paper lets you control your design better and dying the cloth keeps the design on your cloth longer.  I really like this idea.  I’m having some issues trying to execute it though.

So what did I do with all the materials Whimseybox gave me?  Well, first off, I ended up with a bottle of PINK dye.  Luck of the draw.  Too bad I really dislike the color pink.  Well, it might not be so much the color pink that I dislike but all the societal constructs that go with the color.  It bothers me.  A lot.  So, it took me awhile to figure out what I was going to do with all this pink.

I ended up deciding on a strawberry pattern.  Strawberries are pink…ish.  And I thought strawberries were more interesting than the original polka dot idea I had.  So I quickly penciled out some different sized strawberries on a normal sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper.  I decided to make them all point the same direction instead of sprinkling them haphazardly all over the paper.

To make the seeds, I used a push pin and punched little holes into the strawberries.  Color obviously can’t transfer if there isn’t any there.  Also, it beat trying to not paint all these little spaces in the strawberries.  Incidentally, Whimseybox provided me with three brushes.  None of which I used.  I like MY brushes, thankyouverymuch.  But I can definitely use more brushes when I actually do a project with the kids.

After ironing the pattern onto the cloth, I meant to put the green tops on using a fabric marker.  Because remember, I only have a jar of pink.  Except…the ink didn’t transfer quite like I was hoping.  Looks like I’ll have to work out the kinks before working on an actual project.  My first attempt, I thought maybe I had let the ink dry too long.  I’ve seen instructions to let it dry between 30-45 minutes.  It was actually a few days before I got to ironing the first time around.  The result wasn’t even and generally didn’t transfer much by way of color.  The second time, I let the ink dry for about 30 minutes and then I ironed it onto the other half of the cloth.  Approximately the same results.  Soooo…I’ll have to work on this.  I have grand ideas for this strawberry print.

Oh, FYI, they’ve dropped the price back down to 15$, which is much more reasonable.  Go ahead and give Whimseybox a try.

[EDIT: Here‘s part two.]

Traffic rules

Image links to original site. Or you can just stare at this smaller version for awhile.

This reminds me of the time when I was in Wisconsin (yes, during that lovely time period) and I was heading back to the hotel after working second shift with grampaw.  We were looking for dinner.  The exit we had normally been taking (we took pretty much all of them that head to town in order to make our drive more interesting) didn’t lead to a lot of fast food places.  Why fast food?  Because it was late.  Grampaw and I really wanted to just go back to our rooms.  While I’m just fine not eating anything for hours or days on end, grampaw apparently can’t handle that.  Grampaw had McD’s several days in a row at that point and I thought maybe he should vary his diet a little.  We saw an Arby’s and decided to go there.

The interesting thing about that decision was that the Arby’s was on the left side of the road.  It meant that I had to make a left at the light.  Ok, so that’s not really that interesting.  What WAS interesting was/were the light/s.  There were two poles right next to each other facing the same way for the same lane, which was separated from the rest of the lanes with a largish island.  One pole had a light with a straight arrow and one had a light with a left arrow and they operated independently of each other.  The lane they were facing was for what I thought was a left turn only.  Why was there a straight arrow?   There was also a pole right next to the stop line of the left turn lane and it did…something I don’t remember.  The whole situation was weird.  Grampaw was of no help when various lights turned green but others stayed red and I had no idea what it was telling me to do.

I ended up running a red something while it was a green something else.  No clue.  (It might have been easier to figure out what it was telling me to do if it were daylight and if grampaw hadn’t worked two shifts and I hadn’t been jumping shifts all week.)