Bag End and other assorted plastic canvas creations
Back in 2003, I started making a plastic canvas replica of Bag End that took a year and a half to complete because:
1. Making a home for your action figures is SRS BISNES ;)
2. I'm crazy
3. I'm dedicated
4. Dedicated is just another way to say craaaaazy in this instance. :P
I took creative license with several things, the coat rack by the front door became a closet, the hallways between the entry way and the kitchen just became doors, the kitchen rug is much bigger, I added in a few more cabinet doors here and there, and I decided it would make it more stable to make it box-shaped rather than arched (and consequently put a couple of trees on the sides instead of what should've been grass ;) ).
But over-all, I'm happy with the way it turned out. These pics were all taken today, so I'd say it's held up fairly well in the past 6 years. ;)
Also, yes, I showed you some scans of a couple individual pieces of this a few years ago if you've been on my flist that long. I finally got around to taking some proper pictures of it. ;)
The exterior and some close-ups of the kitchen window and iconic green door. I was really happy with the way that lattice-work in the windows turned out. I just figured out a pattern I liked and painstakingly snipped out the appropriate bars in the canvas, then turned it at an angle so it would have a different look.
By the way, yep, that's the box my LotR Fellowship figures came in that Bag End is sitting on, lol! ;)
The tree on the exterior of the kitchen wall.
The tree on the exterior of the door side with a swing hanging from one of the limbs. ;)
Interior of the entry way. I recreated the ironworking on the inside of the door as faithfully as I could. The closet is a bit hard to see from this angle. Closer to the camera is a hutch. On the right is a table with a vase of flowers. ;) We should see all of this better in later pictures. ;)
You can also see the swing on the exterior wall. It's functional, not a design made into the wall. ;)
Interior of the kitchen, complete with pantry and assorted cabinet doors on all walls and a nice fire roaring in the fireplace. ;)
And there's a better shot of the hutch. We'll see it opened in a bit. ;)
One of the cabinet doors and the closet door visible through the archway. ;)
Better look down at the entry tile and the kitchen rug. ;)
But a house isn't a home without somebody living in it, right? :P Let's get the party started! :D
No, Lord Vader, standing on the swings is not acceptable! *covers eyes* (And yes, that IS my epic Xena poster you can see in the background! \o/ ;) )
Aw, Merry and Pippin are hanging their coats in the closets like good guests! ;) And, of course, it isn't a party until a Ringwraith puts a tea ball strainer on his head, now is it? ;) (There's a better look at the table and vase of flowers. ;) )
Here we see Mr. Ringwraith trying to get up the nerve to tap Xena on the shoulder and ask her to dance. (Yep, he's holding a rolling pin. You never know when you might need a rolling pin. *nods* ;) ) Storm is showing off her dance moves to Wolverine but I'm not sure that he's impressed. Maybe she'll have better luck with Eomer who's lurking at the right of the pic...
Eomer: "This isn't my brand of coffee!"
Storm: *sigh*
Boromir: *decides to go check out the fireplace instead*
Boromir: "Heyyyyy there, pretty lady, you come here often?" *suavely puts elbow on fireplace mantle*
Eowyn: "You do notice I have a spear, right?"
Eomer: *still hasn't gotten over the fact they JUST DON'T HAVE HIS BRAND OF COFFEE* >:[
Gandalf: "Hey, I think I know that guy from somewhere..."
Gandalf: (con't) "...and I wonder where he got that awesome hat?"
Magneto: *uses powers to put his sword in the hutch for safekeeping*
Mystique and Storm: *have dance-off*
Eomer: *NEEDS HIS COFFEE* @_@
Aragorn: "Wooooo! Let's get a mosh pit going! Somebody catch me!"
Faramir: *runs to catch him* (hopefully before his cloak catches on fire O_O )
(Poor King Aragorn, his cloak is longer than his legs so it forces him to try and hover in mid-air or tips him over on his face unless you give him something to stand on that lets the cape hang over it.)
R2D2: *tells Eowyn she was smart to not listen to cheesy pick-up lines*
Eowyn: "You're so wise, R2!"
Pippin: "Yo, did anybody lose a ring?"
Ringwraith: *gathers up courage at last to ask Xena to dance* "So hey there, gorgeous. How about a spin around the dance floor?"
Boromir: "Meep?" O_O
;)
...of this part of the post. ;)
Here are a few other things I've made. ;)
The one on the left was made from a pattern. I decided to make a "twilight" version of it, as you can see on the right. ;) They're the same size but the angle makes the darker one look like it's a lot smaller, sorry. :(
This one was done without a pattern. I wanted to give it a sort of 3D look but it doesn't come across very well when you can see all of the stitches so distinctly, so the smaller pic on the right is at attempt to show you what it looks like when you've backed away from it a bit. ;)
I was totally making things up as I went along so the effect wasn't quite what I was hoping for. :S But I learned a lot in the attempt, at least! :D
CD holders are my go-to project when I don't have anything else I'm working on. ;) Here are a few different designs (no patterns, I just wing these ;) ).
I've recently branched out into DVD holders as well. They're naturally taller as you can see versus the CD holder next to it. :D
All of these are from patterns. The chair is a trinket box (the "seat" is the lid). The top of the mug also raises and you can put small items inside of it (unfortunately, you can't really see from this angle that the mug is supposed to be holding hot chocolate and those white things on top are marshmallows ;) ). The vase was the most difficult to do, mainly because doing the final stitches required me to have to get my hand down inside it to finish attaching it to the base and, of course, I ended up sewing my hand inside of it! O_O For a few seconds, I wondered if I was doomed to have to wear it like a really badly designed mitten, lol!
Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse, started life as a 2D pattern that I greatly altered and then made 3D. I made him out of a stitch whose name is escaping me at the moment but makes him very soft and fuzzy. He literally is a "stuffed" animal, I didn't think the usual stuffing material would keep the plastic canvas curved out like that so I ended up using part of an old t-shirt as his "innards," lol!
The fishbowl came from a pattern but it called for the side panels just to be plain blue. Well, I figured that wasn't right, you'd be able to see the coral on that end, right? So I improvised that part. Which then led me to...
...my infamous "fish heinie." Some members of my family are never going to let me live down the fact that I immortalized a fish's patootie in plastic canvas. *laughs*
Shadowfax can't believe it either. ;)
Here's the scan I did of Shadowfax when I made him back in 2004. This was before I had a camera, so I had to put him on my flatbed scanner and I covered him with a pillowcase and a manila envelope, lol! You can see the details of the fuzzy stitches a bit better here. ;)
Annnnnnd now this really IS the end of this long post of some of my arts and crafty things! ;) I hope you enjoyed looking them over! :D ♥!
1. Making a home for your action figures is SRS BISNES ;)
2. I'm crazy
3. I'm dedicated
4. Dedicated is just another way to say craaaaazy in this instance. :P
I took creative license with several things, the coat rack by the front door became a closet, the hallways between the entry way and the kitchen just became doors, the kitchen rug is much bigger, I added in a few more cabinet doors here and there, and I decided it would make it more stable to make it box-shaped rather than arched (and consequently put a couple of trees on the sides instead of what should've been grass ;) ).
But over-all, I'm happy with the way it turned out. These pics were all taken today, so I'd say it's held up fairly well in the past 6 years. ;)
Also, yes, I showed you some scans of a couple individual pieces of this a few years ago if you've been on my flist that long. I finally got around to taking some proper pictures of it. ;)
The exterior and some close-ups of the kitchen window and iconic green door. I was really happy with the way that lattice-work in the windows turned out. I just figured out a pattern I liked and painstakingly snipped out the appropriate bars in the canvas, then turned it at an angle so it would have a different look.
By the way, yep, that's the box my LotR Fellowship figures came in that Bag End is sitting on, lol! ;)
The tree on the exterior of the kitchen wall.
The tree on the exterior of the door side with a swing hanging from one of the limbs. ;)
Interior of the entry way. I recreated the ironworking on the inside of the door as faithfully as I could. The closet is a bit hard to see from this angle. Closer to the camera is a hutch. On the right is a table with a vase of flowers. ;) We should see all of this better in later pictures. ;)
You can also see the swing on the exterior wall. It's functional, not a design made into the wall. ;)
Interior of the kitchen, complete with pantry and assorted cabinet doors on all walls and a nice fire roaring in the fireplace. ;)
And there's a better shot of the hutch. We'll see it opened in a bit. ;)
One of the cabinet doors and the closet door visible through the archway. ;)
Better look down at the entry tile and the kitchen rug. ;)
But a house isn't a home without somebody living in it, right? :P Let's get the party started! :D
No, Lord Vader, standing on the swings is not acceptable! *covers eyes* (And yes, that IS my epic Xena poster you can see in the background! \o/ ;) )
Aw, Merry and Pippin are hanging their coats in the closets like good guests! ;) And, of course, it isn't a party until a Ringwraith puts a tea ball strainer on his head, now is it? ;) (There's a better look at the table and vase of flowers. ;) )
Here we see Mr. Ringwraith trying to get up the nerve to tap Xena on the shoulder and ask her to dance. (Yep, he's holding a rolling pin. You never know when you might need a rolling pin. *nods* ;) ) Storm is showing off her dance moves to Wolverine but I'm not sure that he's impressed. Maybe she'll have better luck with Eomer who's lurking at the right of the pic...
Eomer: "This isn't my brand of coffee!"
Storm: *sigh*
Boromir: *decides to go check out the fireplace instead*
Boromir: "Heyyyyy there, pretty lady, you come here often?" *suavely puts elbow on fireplace mantle*
Eowyn: "You do notice I have a spear, right?"
Eomer: *still hasn't gotten over the fact they JUST DON'T HAVE HIS BRAND OF COFFEE* >:[
Gandalf: "Hey, I think I know that guy from somewhere..."
Gandalf: (con't) "...and I wonder where he got that awesome hat?"
Magneto: *uses powers to put his sword in the hutch for safekeeping*
Mystique and Storm: *have dance-off*
Eomer: *NEEDS HIS COFFEE* @_@
Aragorn: "Wooooo! Let's get a mosh pit going! Somebody catch me!"
Faramir: *runs to catch him* (hopefully before his cloak catches on fire O_O )
(Poor King Aragorn, his cloak is longer than his legs so it forces him to try and hover in mid-air or tips him over on his face unless you give him something to stand on that lets the cape hang over it.)
R2D2: *tells Eowyn she was smart to not listen to cheesy pick-up lines*
Eowyn: "You're so wise, R2!"
Pippin: "Yo, did anybody lose a ring?"
Ringwraith: *gathers up courage at last to ask Xena to dance* "So hey there, gorgeous. How about a spin around the dance floor?"
Boromir: "Meep?" O_O
;)
...of this part of the post. ;)
Here are a few other things I've made. ;)
The one on the left was made from a pattern. I decided to make a "twilight" version of it, as you can see on the right. ;) They're the same size but the angle makes the darker one look like it's a lot smaller, sorry. :(
This one was done without a pattern. I wanted to give it a sort of 3D look but it doesn't come across very well when you can see all of the stitches so distinctly, so the smaller pic on the right is at attempt to show you what it looks like when you've backed away from it a bit. ;)
I was totally making things up as I went along so the effect wasn't quite what I was hoping for. :S But I learned a lot in the attempt, at least! :D
CD holders are my go-to project when I don't have anything else I'm working on. ;) Here are a few different designs (no patterns, I just wing these ;) ).
I've recently branched out into DVD holders as well. They're naturally taller as you can see versus the CD holder next to it. :D
All of these are from patterns. The chair is a trinket box (the "seat" is the lid). The top of the mug also raises and you can put small items inside of it (unfortunately, you can't really see from this angle that the mug is supposed to be holding hot chocolate and those white things on top are marshmallows ;) ). The vase was the most difficult to do, mainly because doing the final stitches required me to have to get my hand down inside it to finish attaching it to the base and, of course, I ended up sewing my hand inside of it! O_O For a few seconds, I wondered if I was doomed to have to wear it like a really badly designed mitten, lol!
Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse, started life as a 2D pattern that I greatly altered and then made 3D. I made him out of a stitch whose name is escaping me at the moment but makes him very soft and fuzzy. He literally is a "stuffed" animal, I didn't think the usual stuffing material would keep the plastic canvas curved out like that so I ended up using part of an old t-shirt as his "innards," lol!
The fishbowl came from a pattern but it called for the side panels just to be plain blue. Well, I figured that wasn't right, you'd be able to see the coral on that end, right? So I improvised that part. Which then led me to...
...my infamous "fish heinie." Some members of my family are never going to let me live down the fact that I immortalized a fish's patootie in plastic canvas. *laughs*
Shadowfax can't believe it either. ;)
Here's the scan I did of Shadowfax when I made him back in 2004. This was before I had a camera, so I had to put him on my flatbed scanner and I covered him with a pillowcase and a manila envelope, lol! You can see the details of the fuzzy stitches a bit better here. ;)
Annnnnnd now this really IS the end of this long post of some of my arts and crafty things! ;) I hope you enjoyed looking them over! :D ♥!