Totoro and crafting

     I first saw "My Neighbor Totoro" in my early 20's and just feel in love. The art is just amazing, but the story about 2 sisters, and their adjustment to their mother being ill and away recovering spoke to me deeply.
The first version that I saw was a bootleg fandub, then I think I actually owned a "legit" copy but it's was lost to the soot sprites several moves ago.
I recently picked up the Disney version, the voices are different then what I'm used to, however, the story remains the same.

     When I got this notebook with a set of purse accessories, it hit me like lightening that it was Totoro grey and I knew what I had to do.
I went into my felt stash and using only scraps (and pretty small ones at that) came up with a quick and easy way to liven this up.


     I cut a circle out of white felt, then very carefully trimmed the 7 little crescent cuts. I recommend very sharp scissors and a lot of care. I still have a healing divot that I took out of my finger.

     My next step was the eyes and I went through a bit of trial and error with these. Luckily, after 3 or so tries, I figured that the reference page I was using was almost the same size as what I had in front of me. Everything was a piece of cake after that realization.
   
     I got everything else cut and laid out with very little drama. It was pretty late by the time I had gotten everything that way I wanted it, so I wrapped it up and headed to bed. I did have to take a few quick pictures just in case any of the cats thought that it was something I was making for them. Rotten things can get into just about anything they set their minds to. The latest being taking things off my work area and bringing them upstairs. Buttons, socks, my camera case, ribbons and the most recent, a snack size bag of bobbins.

     I used my a toothpick and an old favorite, fabri-tac to glue everything down, let it dry for about an hour and popped it into my purse. It goes wonderful with one of my stocking stuffers this year.

     I have a pouch that's the perfect size to hold my tablet, and a business card holder from the same set that I'm going to trick out as well. Just waiting on the next idea to pop into my head.

The color Orange is haunting me

So the second Iron Craft challenge is the color orange. Which would be killer if I hadn't used almost every scrap of orange in the last craft.
You should know that I've made a few extra rules for myself for these

•  The end product has to be something that I will wear, use, need for the house, or can gift/consume.
•  I have to recycle, up-cycle or use something from my massive fabric stash in every challenge 
• I can't spend more then $10 on anything I have to buy for a challenge
• I can not make a purse or up-cycle a tee shirt every time.

So heading off to the fabric store to end all fabric stores was going to be hard. I can't help it, every time I've gone there I've spent a small fortune. It's amazing and I could happily live there. There is fabric everywhere you look and almost a wall of trim.

This is just a small taste of the place.

I swear I walked in and the only thing I could see was orange, it just wouldn't leave me alone.

 I was really into the dotted ribbon, mostly due to the purple in it.I just couldn't think of something great to do with it,  

 Then, I almost spent $25 a yard for the massively gorgeous raised print. I had to be talked out of it and regret it still.

 However, it's not practical, doesn't go with my plan for the re-vamped living room in progress thing I've got going on.. It wasn't meant to be alas, just a passing fancy, something to look back, and sigh about. 

  Apparently, I'm fickle. The moment I walked away from the 1st fantastic love of my life, I fell head over heels for another. 

I actually left with exactly what I went for, the orange for the challenge and a beautiful black for a full length skirt that I'm making. I think it's a first.