The Midori Challenge

This one was born out of drooling over the amazing midoris we came across online.  We decided to make a challenge of our (my?) ever-growing obsession with them.  The task: to make your own midori out of materials at hand.  The results:

m's Mydori:

Okay, so I cheated here a little bit.  The cover material is felt.  I didn't have any on hand so I bought some.  One layer was not enough so I used two and sewed them back to back.  It made for a nice dual color cover.  

For the inserts I used a couple of old notebooks I had in my stash (yes, I'm a notebook hoarder too.)

The top notebook I use as a journal of sorts.  The pages came printed with a design so no embellishments needed there.  The kraft notebook is a section from a thicker notebook I had that came apart.  I use that for doodles and other random stuff.  I decorated the edges of the page with a simple running line made with felt tip pens just to jazz them up a bit.  The last notebook is a regular lined notebook which I transformed into a calendar, because I really need a calendar nowadays.  I use the extra box for doodles.

Extra felt got turned into an insert with pockets for my stickies and other random stuff.  The pockets are just scrap pieces of plastic cover from the kids' school books.

The bands used for holding the note books together were scavenged from another notebook...

...as was the colored garter.  I glue gunned the heck out of this one because it came off a couple of times.  Apparently felt hates glue.

There you have it.  My first midori from scraps (yes, except the cover).  Next time I might try making the inserts/ notebooks too.

cat's fakedori

 This is the outside. The leather is from an old belt (!),  and is super duper soft.  I left the inside as is, I just changed out the stitching with red thread to match the elastic I used for keeping it shut. The cat and fish are from a keychain.  The fish is attached to a thin piece of leather and serves as a marker, the other end of said leather has a ring which makes a handy dandy pen holder.

A closeup of button used to reinforce the elastic that serves to hold the booklets.

First booklet for random notes.  The cover page for sticking important reminders.

For this booklet, I figured out a super easy bind using a rubber band!

First half of a divider.  This part made from leftover cardstock, attached to the other half using fabric tape.  Note the animal-print magnetic bookmark made from a fridge magnet and some printed duct tape.

The other half of the divider, of recycled plastic cut from some packaging. Used to hold sticky notes.

 posted by: m & cat

June 05 Challenge

This round was once again inspired by Danny Gregory.  Pen and ink drawing of everyday objects.

cat's:

with bonus entry:

m's:

posted by: cat  & m

Challenge for May 2015

The S&P challenge has been resurrected!  This time around, it's a doodle-fest: draw your weird and wacky, anything goes, draw with a kid's imagination.

The kids participated, too, although I feel they just wanted to appease me to shut me up so that they could get back to their video games. :( 

The boys' work:

My attempt:  

 (Clearly this last one was reflecting what was sorely lacking to make this challenge work.)

posted by: cat

Late post!  We were having some hardware malfunctions and bricked phones, hence the late posts.  Excuse the crappy photos.  I fixed them up and made them clear as best as I could. Here are the doodle challenge entries from up North:

This one is from me. Couldn't think of anything else to draw so I drew cats.

This one is from the girl.  She drew some on her Magic Sketcher but I said it had to be on paper.  (I did the inking on a few of them because I wasn't sure if it would show up on the camera.)

The girl is way better than I was/ am at drawing.  Right now she's in her "killer bunny" phase.  She's making short cartoons on her Sketcher about killer bunnies playing pranks on other animals.  I have no idea where she gets it from.  Scares me sometimes.

posted by: m

Craft-a-Week Revival

It's back!  After mustering enough courage and will power we have decided we can revive the craft-a-week and we will post on or before our deadline!

The first Craft-a-Week for this summer.  The challenge was pretty simple: finish a damn project! 

Here are the results:

cat's Brown Fabric Box

Project started out as extra material from kids' jeans.  Got turned into a fabric container with lining and some chain-stitch detail.

m's Mini Dress-up Doll Keychain

Now you can bring your doll around with you and dress her up to match your bag too!  The extra dress didn't make the deadline though.  Boo.

posted by: cat & m

Craft Challenge: Wardrobe Refashion

I would have posted this last week had I not been incapacitated for two days (I'm not gonna say why. Only Cat knows). Anyway, this refashion is dedicated to Jake, who I rarely get to make stuff for.
The first is a pair of cool hand-me-down camo pants. The problem was that the waist fit perfectly, but Jake's darn tall for his age and the pants were looking bit too outgrown on him. Solution: chop it up into shorts.


I also found a little tear on the backside and, knowing how boys are, I decided to patch it up with a bit of the extra cloth i cut off the leg.

The next one is a shirt that Jake rarely wore. I modified it for the upcoming bad (hot) weather coming this summer.


Cut off sleeves and added ribbing (salvaged from an old red shirt). And here it is on Jake.



PS. will post better pictures when the camera batteries get charged.
(Disclaimer: Disney owns Lightning McQueen. I just refashioned the shirt.)

posted by m

Craft Challenge: Wardrobe Refashion

A new Craft Challenge! The Wardrobe Refashion.

Ya know: Save money by stretching the useful life of something old; Save the earth by reusing something, thereby keeping it from the landfill; Save your sanity by making something.

So, here's the before shot of the sacrificial victim: an old shirt I was loath to throw away because of the cow. Hey, I like cows. They're yummy.

Here's the result:

posted by: cat

Drawing Challenge: Trying & Failing

(Apologies for the late post. Been busy.)

Okay, so I think it's been firmly established that I absolutely CANNOT draw like Ian Bowden. I have no idea how to cartoonize my drawings.

If this were a "Draw Like Robert Crumb Challenge," I might be more on the mark. As it is, I feel like posting my best drawings just to prove to y'all that I DO know how to draw.

posted by: cat

Drawing Challenge

Here is the page I did for the (Bowden) drawing challenge. I did this on our way to the grocery.

As you can see, I suck at quick-sketching people. An my hands absolutely can't translate what i see into anything cartoony. I am sorry for not being able to do Bowden justice. I actually did a practice sketch of faces, which i think is more worthy of being posted. It isn't cartoony wither but it's the best i can do:

Altho i really enjoy Bowden's style (which reminds me more and more of Grand Theft Auto somehow...I looked it up and there's an Ian Bowden who joined the Rockstar community and I am wondering if it's the same Ian Bowden we were inspired by), I think I'll stick to doing objects instead of people.

posted by m

The Drawing (Like Ian Bowden) Challenge

A new challenge was born this morning after scoping some illustrations on flickr. We thought Ian Bowden's journals were envy-worthy, so we're trying it out: drawing in the style of comics. (Oh, alright, graphic novels. *rolls eyes* Whatever.)

My first attempt. I used a picture (Guess who! :-D) 'cause I suck at drawing comics, and I suck at drawing from real life on the fly, I figured: one challenge at a time.

(Apologies for the poor pic quality, which either makes the drawing suckier or uh, better.)

First, the outlines.

Second, shading. Hee! Fun! Sucky, but fun.

Then, I was possessed to add a blue wash.

Which wasn't a good way to find out that Stabilo markers are not waterproof. Crap.

Clearly, I haven't gotten the hang of this. Off to practice some more.

posted by: cat