Craft Along with GIY: a goth luggage tag with initials

February is almost over, so it is time for this years second Craft Along with GIY (Goth It Yourself). This month's theme is letters and numbers, so I decided to make a luggage tag with my initials on it.

Alas, I have been a bit ill during this month (I had a cold and a fewer for almost two weeks) so I did not have energy nor time to acquire materials for a really fancy luggage tag. So once again I used paper board and my imagination. I do realize my craft projects are of a rather small caliber compared to many others. >_>

The good thing about paper board compared to leather or such more lasting materials is that paper board is lighter and hence one can make more decorations. Well, at least a person with limited crafting skills like I can make more elaborate decorations on it (compared to my skills with leather).

What you need:

• paper board
• sticky back plastic to make the tag more durable
• a string of some sort
• scissors or some other object suitable for cutting
• pens
• a ruler (if you want to make straight lines)
• glue
• little cut-out pictures or stickers
• or what ever it is you want to decorate the tag with.

There is no correct or best way to do these steps. Some prefer to make the decorations and write their contact details on the tag before actually cutting it. Some don't. Here is the way I do these steps:

First, cut or draw the outlines for a suitable tag. It doesn't have to be the shape of a traditional tag, it can be a circle or a raven or what ever you want. As long as it doesn't become excessively large or so impractical a shape that it will be easily torn.

Draw and/or glue the decorations on one side. The theme of this Craft Along with GIY was letters and numbers, so I made my initials on the decorative side. I searched for fancy and elaborate fonts and tried to mimic one of them. It was much harder than I expected! I guess I am just not good at drawing. After several attempts, I am relatively pleased with the outcome. I started by drawing outlines with a pencil and then finished it with a silver pen.

Then glue or write your contact info on the other side. If you want, you can make tiny decorations on that side too. Just make sure that the side with the contact info is easy to read. After all, these tags are useful only in the situation in which you've lost your bag and some unknown person (probably an airport employee) possibly in a different country tries to read the tag. So no fancy goth-y fonts!

When the tag is looking nice, cut a place for the string. After all, you need to attach the tag on your luggage. I prefer to do this before adding the sticky back plastic, because this way I do not have to cut through multiple layers. This is mainly because I have no idea how strong my little punch machine is.

Almost finally: apply the sticky back plastic on the tag, both sides. You need to get as much air out as you can, so after applying it, "scratch" it like a lottery ticket. In the next photo you can see there is still some air right next to the edge of the paper board. Also, you'll notice I did this example tag without my actual contact info. It is quite on purpose, because it's a privacy thing. :)

When cutting the sticky back plastic into the shape of the tag, make sure you are not cutting too close. You need to leave a little border so that moisture cannot get in and ruin the contact info unreadable.

Finally: add the string or what ever it is you use to attach the tag to your luggage. Make sure the string is not too long, otherwise it can easily get caught on something and the tag might be torn away.

Now it is ready to use! Make a firm double knot and a decorative bow if you like.

The problem with my easy to make luggage tags is that once you've written your contact info (usually name, address & phone) and then shielded the tag with sticky back plastic, you cannot alter the contact info. On the other hand, these are relatively inexpensive, So just making a new one is not a big deal, if you move or your phone number changes.

Thanks for reading and do check out what Bane from GIY and other participants crafted!

Craft Along with GIY: Pets and bookmarks

Lovely Bane from GIY: Goth It Yourself got a great idea to host a monthly Craft Along on her blog. At the end of each month she'll post her craft project and people participating will post about theirs. Each month has a theme and January's theme was Pets.

I have no pets, so I decided to make pet themed bookmarks. These aren't particularly "goth", but if you want to make these, it is easy to goth up! :) Just choose more goth-y pictures instead of little dogs and kittens.

What you need: 

• some paperboard or another stiff paper 
• a book you are willing to sheard to pieces
• pretty pictures of pets (or what ever it is that you like)
• glue
• scissors
• a pen & a ruler (or some fancy papercutter)
• optional: sticky back plastic to make the bookmark last longer.

How to do it: 

These are very simple to make. Just cut a piece of paperboard, then cut a smaller piece of a book page. Glue those two together. Then glue a picture or two on top of the two layers.

Tip: try different compositions before attacking them with a glue stick! :)

If you want the bookmark to last longer, you can shield it with sticky back plastic. I preferred not to, because without any plastic they are easier to recycle.

I used some vintage pictures, I do not know what they are in English but in Finnish they are called "kiiltokuva" and in Germany "Glanzbild". They were usually made on a slightly shiny paper, and in the old times people (mostly young girls) collected them like some people collect stamps.

These are quick to make and they do not cost a fortune. As you can see from the one on the left, with the same instructions you can make postcards too.

Thanks for reading and do check out what Bane made and what other participants crafted!

Monthly Homework Assignment: On the Cutting Table

The Professor Z's this month's homework assignment is about unfinished projects we have, knitting, sewing and so on. My project is really not even in the beginning, because I've been really busy this week and had not time to find materials and right knitting equipment.

My friend gave me a brand new Finnish knitting book for goths and I really want to make some of their knitted clothes. Now that I have stated this in public, I really have to get those yarns! The book is made by Mila Duktig and Marjukka Vuorisalo, the title is Synkät kuteet - Musta neulekirja which means something like Grim clothes - the Black Knitting Book. Here is the blog of Mila Duktig and Marjukka Vuorisalo. It is mostly in Finnish, but there are entries in English too.

Source

My ultimate favorite and the one I plan to try to make myself is Gargoyle. It is a long skirt that has a subtle print of a huge gargoyle on the hem. It is subtle because one does not use different color or yarn to make it, it is done simply by knitting purl stitches. I am currently in the United States due to things related to my studies, so unfortunately I do not have the book with me at the moment. I only took photocopies of quite awful quality of the instruction and they are not suited for showing in a blog. Neither can I find photos of the Gargoyle online. Instead here is one of the cutest products in the book, A Mustard Gas - sleeping bag for infants! I might try to make this too, since in my circle of friends there are going to be two babies in a few months.

Source

Do click the Monthly Homework Assignment badge and check what Professor herself and other participants have posted! I am a bit annoyed I did not get the yarn in time for this post, but that's life. I've been in Washington DC for a week now and I have barely got rid of jet lag. My mission is to get that skirt with a gargoyle finished during my stay here! I am spending here three months, so I believe this is indeed achievable challenge for me. As long as I find some decent store where I can get me some cable needles and good black yarn. If you know or have a favorite place you can recommend, please mention it in a comment!

DIY: goth-y reflectors (or safety first but fashion is second!)

I must have a fewer or something, this is a second DIY post in just a few weeks! This post is about making goth-y pedestrian safety reflectors, also known as reflectors or luminous badges.

Reflectors are not necessarily so important in cities with bright streetlamps and neon signs but they are very useful in suburbs, small towns and in the country, where might not be sidewalks nor streetlamps on every road. As they say, a reflector is a pretty cheap insurance against being hit by a car or other fast moving large object.

Reflectors are like bicycle helmets, at some point people'll think it's "uncool" to use one. Well, if the reflector is really nice and cute, it is no longer so uncool.

What you need:
- a felt cloth: the size of a normal A4 printing paper will probably do
- luminous/reflecting fabric
- some yarn
- a safety-pin or two, depending on how many reflectors you make
- some thin thread or a flat iron or both
- paper and pen if you want to make a template
- scissors or some other instrument to cut

I chose black felt (no surprise there) but of coarse there are many other options, like blood red or emerald green and so on. The reflecting fabric is the color it is, there were no options in my local store. I somehow doubt there are any options in general, the point of it is to reflect light.

When making a reflector suitable for a goth, the shape of the reflector matters. A spider is an easy shape but more talented person could even make a scenery of a cemetery or a profile of E. A. Poe! Knowing my own limits, I chose to make two bat-shaped reflectors.

Since I wanted bat-shaped reflectors I first folded a normal paper to draw half of a bat and then cut it so that wings would be somewhat similar size. I must say I am quite pleased with the shape, even though the other ear is bigger than the other. I have no idea how but luckily it doesn't really matter.

After making a paper template I used it to draw on the back of the reflecting fabric. If you want a really useful reflector, you'll want the both sides to be luminous, so you'll need two identical (or not if you do not want the both sides to be alike) pieces of reflecting fabric.

Because I am not that crafty person I do not have all kinds of crafty tools so I used ordinary scissors to cut the felt and fabric. A carpet knife would be more precise, or one could even use some other cutters made into ornamental shapes (at least that is what they suggested in the tag of the reflecting fabric).

I did not bother to draw bats on the felt too, instead I cut out a piece that was big enough for the reflecting bats. I left some margin on the felt so that the black color would also be seen and so that the rims might protect the reflecting fabric and it would not wear from the edges. When the reflecting fabric is attached, one can cut the felt into the proper shape.

It is also smart to leave a little more edge to a small area so that you can pull the yarn through there. The point of the yarn is that you can attach the finished reflector to your clothes. Of coarse I managed to forget this while cutting the first one and I am now a bit worried the felt is not thick enough and is going to be ripped if the reflector is ever caught into something.

Some of those reflecting fabrics are equipped with a coat of glue, so that you can iron it to another fabric. Some also have a detachable film so one does not need a cloth between the reflector and the iron. After ironing the film is gently detached.

So, depending what kind of reflecting fabric you have, you might be able to attach it to the felt with heat. Reflectors are usually smaller than the face of a flat iron so try to hold the felt from a corner with another hand while ironing. Felt can have static electricity and get attached to the iron if you are not careful. Believe me, it is not pleasant to try to pick it off. Especially if you panic like I and do not use any tools instead of bare fingers...

I found a fabric that has glue surface on the other side but the salesperson suggested it might be a good idea to make a few stitches to make sure the fabric won't detach. That is why one needs the thin thread. As you can see from the photo below, my stitching skills are equal to the skills of a three-year-old. So, one out of two reflectors looks a bit crappy but luckily one can not see it from a distance.

If you use thread to attach, make sure the needle you are using is thin, so that it won't shatter the reflecting surface, if it is made of stiff material (plastic-like stuff). You also might want the thread to be more subtle color or perhaps fishing line, so it would not look like ugly stitches like on my poor bat. It looks a bit like Frankenstein's creature, so I'll just claim that was the point.

When the reflecting piece is made, one has to attach it to the clothes, so one needs the yarn and a safety-pin, as mentioned before. It's a good thing that a reflector can spin around freely, because then it can reflect light from various angles and that way it is more safe because it can reflect light the light of cars headlights in various distances and various directions.

Here you can see that I've attached one bat to the sleeve of my coat. The other bat is on the other side hanging from the hem of the coat.

DIY Bookish Holiday Decorations

I saw a nice DIY idea for Christmas ornaments in a magazine and decided to try it. The ornaments are instantly more goth-y if one uses black ornaments, like I did, to begin with and chooses the right text.

I did not have the heart to start to shred a novella of Edgar Allan Poe or another dear horror story and I would not advise people to destroy their favorite books. Instead it is wiser to buy a pocket book from a flea market. Or use some disgusting novel one has received as a present. An instruction manual of some apparatus can be a fun choice too.

I bought this book and I chose it for two reasons. It costed 1 euro and even though it is not a goth-y novel, there are delicious sentences like "I think she is a Russian prostitute" and "He is a genuine psycho", which can be hilarious if other people start to examine my ornaments too closely.

What you need:
- old Christmas ornaments, preferably a dark color, no patterns or figures
- glue
- a book you are willing to rip into parts, or any printed text
- black glitter glue
- clear varnish

First clip or rip parts of a page. You do not have to try to get whole sentences or anything but it is nice is one can read a few words here and there.

Glue them on the ornaments in a formation that pleases your eye. Add black glitter glue, especially if you have goofed some part of the previous phase, for example the paper is wrinkled or the glue has smudged the edges. Black glitter is also added to places that you feel it fits.

If you like, in the end you can gently coat the ornaments with clear varnish. It might keep the paper on the ornaments better but the ink can start to run if you are not careful. Choosing the right kind of varnish is important.

I of coarse could not follow my own instructions because I forgot to make sure I actually had glue that had not mysteriously dried up. I used the varnish from a craft store as a substitute and it work quite well. Of coarse the coating became a bit "rough" but it does not bother me much.

When you have finished an ornament it is good to hang it somewhere so that the surface can dry up. I used one of those thingies that are usually used to dry laundry.

Happy Holidays to you all!

100th post: DIY ideas for a werewolf party

This is my 100th post and I am quite excited about it! Though I am more excited about that I have such nice people reading my posts and commenting them. ^___^

"Down the corridor, werewolves!"

This post is not only about being the hundredth post, I am going to give some "DIY" tips for a party themed as "Lycanthropy" or "Werewolves". Last week I had my birthday party with that theme for my university student friends. Because I temporarily live 200 kilometers away from those friends, I could not have the party in my home but luckily a friend let me have the party at her place.

Since I had to travel to my university city in the morning, collect the key to the apartment from the friend (she was at work till 18 o'clock), buy the ingredients for food and punch and then go to the apartment and work in a strange kitchen, I would not want to do anything too difficult that might flop, nor could I spend hours and hours to make really nice and theme related snacks, so here is what I made fast and easy:

Fingers
A classic Halloween snack is fitting for hungry werewolves, don't you think? I obeyed this recipe. Though, I did not obey it while actually making the fingers and accidentally I cooked for too long at least half the sausages and they just looked like they exploded. I still managed to make a decent amount of fingers and people thought they were funny yet yucky.

Moon cookies
Now, they are just plain oat biscuits bought from the store, and I think they are mimicking full moon rather poorly. If I have a party with this theme again, I shall make better moon biscuits.

Blood red punch
I decided to make a variation of a recipe for instant sangria. This meant vodka, red wine, coca-cola, and sprite. I can't tell the exact amounts I used because I just added them until it tasted and looked good. I think I added about 3/5 of wine, then 1/5 of each lemonade and then a splash of vodka. I had asked my friend to make some ice hearts for the punch with my heart shaped mold, since certainly werewolves like some human hearts! Unfortunately the weren't that visible in dark fluid but that's not such a big deal.

Chips and gore dip
Also known as boring and plain chips and salsa dip. :D

A hungry werewolf gnawing a finger

Then we are off to the more or less DIY ideas. I do realize some of these are not really DIY crafty stuff but they are ideas others can be inspired by, so what the heck!

"Looking for lycanthropes? One floor up!"

If I could have had the opportunity to drag a couple of video projectors to the place, I would have used them as lighting; I would have put old black and white Wolf Man movies on loop, muted, and projected on walls. Alas, I had no video projectors so the movies were on television as the playlist was playing as a weird soundtrack both to the party and to the movies.

Guiding notes are handy, especially if all guests have not been in the place party is held and the place is situated in a block of flats or some other maze.

It is preferable, that the notes are according to the theme of the party, so I had a couple of notes in the outdoors of the building. There were two doors, one on floor zero and the other on floor one, so the picture above was on the other door and the picture you can see in the beginning of this post was on the other door. They stated to the guests, which way to go.

This photo on the left of a note is from the door of my friend's apartment, because not all guests knew this was not actually my apartment and therefore my name would not be on the door. I thought this would make things less confusing. Do click photos for larger view, the one on the left is a quote from the old The Wolf Man movie. I have also smeared some fake blood on the note to give a little color. I got to admit, I like the stuff! I've had that particular bottle of fake blood for four years now and half of the content is still there! It is also easy to wash off skin and clothes.

Dressing according to the theme was encouraged among the guests and I am happy to say many were inspired. We had awesome werewolves, a moonbeam and even Sam and Dean Winchester of Supernatural, though luckily they had their day off.

Do you guys watch Supernatural?

Moonbeam and Wolf

Here is the moonbeam, with her slightly green moon. There is also a little werewolf, excited of the friend from the skies. These awesome two ladies with two other equally awesome ladies, who just are not in the picture, had given me as a present a bottle of red wine with a picture of a sheep on the label and a pack of bacon, because a wolf needs her vitamins!

The tails

For my own outfit, I had bought a fur collar made of two tails from an internet auction. I separated the tails and used one myself. I wondered for a while, if I should make ears out of old leather mittens, but decided they would probably not match with my tail.

I was slightly amused that in the advertise of the fur collar it stated that the product is "probably genuine mink". Really? With that long hair? Had this person ever seen a mink or a coat made of them? It doesn't take long to google "mink"... Well, it doesn't really matter, because I found it and thought it would fit my party theme. It was also lucky that the seller did not want ridiculous amounts of money of this "mink" fur.

I realized it would be awkward, if I would put wolf make-up on my hands and then fuss with the foods. My costume was not that special, I did not manage to make a good wolf make-up to my, so I just made my self look creepy. :D You can see it in the end of this post. I had the old skull of a brown hare stitched to a flower as a hair piece.


To entertain my guests, I held a quiz concerning werewolves. A couple of questions were for example "from what year is the first The Wolf Man movie?" and "In what werewolf movies did Bela Lugosi have a role?" I asked people to round up teams of three or four people, because there would be prizes.

The winning team got black candles and little jars filled with all the ingredients one needs to turn oneself into a wolf! Wolf's blood and magical herbs, that is. Or, at least something that will look cool around their neck, even if they do not start to sprout fur and fangs.

I bought some twine and the little plastic bottles from a local arts & crafts store Sinelli, unfortunately they did not have miniature jars of glass with real cork but these did just fine.

I then filled two with fake blood from a costume shop and then put some glue on the neck of the bottle before putting the cork on, to make sure the little bottles are well closed. It would be awkward, if a bottle started to ooze on an innocent guest and a winner of the quiz, even though that fake blood fades away pretty well from the clothes in the washing machine.

Then I gathered some natural elements (also known as twigs, blueberry shrubs and lichen) from the woods nearby, dried them and filled the other two bottles. I also put in some black pepper.

Final photos are of my outfit, I am oddly twisted so that my tail is seen and there is a good reason why I look a bit distressed; there is a close relative hanging on the wall!

That's about it! Those were my DIY ideas for partying like a werewolf. I had a really lovely birthday party, my friends were awesome and considerate, participating into the theme and giving me amazing and funny birthday gifts.

Thanks for reading and my next post is going to be about a short story by Ray Bradbury!

DIY: Gothic Decor with Lights

I must admit, all my DIY tips are rather lame, it is not as if I am doing anything from the scratch. Anyways, I thought this is a pretty good idea, so I am sharing it. This was inspired by the fact that in January all Christmas lights are -50% or even more on sale and I bought this lovely blue light. In my family (if not in Finnish families in general) it is a custom to put some of those lights into a big glass bowl and use them inside the house as decorations.

Well, I did not have a glass bowl, but I did have a small black cage! More gothiness in one small detail.

This blue light is rather strong, since it could also be used outdoors. That's why it is not really a subtle night lamp or anything. :) It makes the whole room blue!

DIY: Gingerbread Dinosaurs

As I mentioned in a previous post, me and my friends are spending the Yule/Christmas together and were planning to do less traditional gingerbread installation. Unfortunately we did not buy enough gingerbread dough and before we had the chance to plan the whole installation with the meteor and a volcano, the dough was no more. So all we got is some dinosaurs.

The inspiration came from two little molds I found with a friend, but since they really were tiny, we needed to make some more from cardboard. Unfortunately I did not remember to take a pic of them. But I do have some photos from the edible dinosaurs.

Carefully placing the T-Rex 

After the oven

Above you can see the T-Rex with some not that impressive sugar frosting. I think this is a great evidence of the unfortunate fact that I am not an artist, or at least my skills are not that good. :D The idea of Jurassic Park scene or the Apocalypse of Dinosaurs was good, but the competence of the makers was not.

Merry Christams and happy Yule!