Birthday Surprise! (for my sister--cute kitties this way)
All the sudden I had this need to re-make (or whatever you want to call it--"upcycle" *eyeroll*) an Altoid tin. I'm not exaggerating, I HAD to do it. But what on earth was I going to do (and why--yeah, I make a lot of crafts, hell most of them, just because I want to but for some reason the re-done altoid tin needed to have a reason, it doesn't make sense, I know).
Then I remembered I have a sister *snerk* and her birthday is in a few days. Ooh, that meant I had the best craft motivation EVER. A deadline.
So this weekend I re-did an altoid tin as a birthday card/gift for my sister.
Wanna see a few pics?
That's the front. It's embellished/embroidered felt. Very simple. I didn't even have to use a ruler (I have an almost allergic reaction to actual technical measuring, I much prefer to eyeball and trace and cut versus whipping out a ruler and figuring out it's exactly blah and blah fraction big).
The side view (the side of the lid is covered in felt and the top sewn to the edges). Cute little cuppy cake ribbon.
(more details about the construction on my OTHER BLOG)
Open up and what's inside?
That's how it would look when you open it.
And once you unpack it:
Mmm, cake and a kitty. Two great things together at last (but not in a gross "you baked a kitty into a cake way"--wow, that's a really disturbing thought to share, huh? what's wrong with me?)
If this hadn't have been a spur of the moment creation, I would have bought some deep red felt so the cake could have been red velvet (my sister's favorite). But this cake still looks tasty enough (though it's a little fat for the tin, so I have to squash it down just a wee bit to get full closure on the tin--I didn't think about how the thickness of the felt in the bottom of the tin would effect the sizing on the cake until the cake was DONE and I'd already put the felt into the bottom of the tin--oops!).
And once I was done with the tin, I whipped up some more kitties. I was planning to make kitties this weekend. They'd been on my radar since I finished the litter of puppies. And once my boss (not the one I made the dolphins for, my other boss) told me her cat finally died (he was lingering for a few days) I asked her if her two little sons would like having wee kitties to cheer them up and ease the loss.
So I made this cute pair for her sons.
The orange doesn't pop as much in this pic. It's really a rich bright orange (not neon but just brighter than this pic shows off). I made sure not to make either of them black and white since Boomer (the deceased) was black and white (I thought it might be too upsetting). So I went with tabbies (because I wanted to try out striping). The tiger one was inspired by the younger of the sons who mentioned to his mother they couldn't bury Boomer because he was his protector. So a wee tiger as a stand in protector might go over well (though the whole family are huge Steelers fans so I hope the orange tiger kitty isn't seen as a Bengal tiger--so much to think about when making kitties!).
They're the same size as the kitty in the tin, so pretty small. None of the kitties stand on their own and are very pillow like (they'd make really cute pins, just stitch a small safety pin to the back) but I'll leave that choice up to the recipients (they'd also make cute magnets).
Now I want to make a lion and some siamese cats. But I don't have the right colors (at least I don't think I do--I need to do some siamese research to see if my colors could work). I love siamese cats. And the challenge of a lion mane (and tail tuft) will be fun.
Then I remembered I have a sister *snerk* and her birthday is in a few days. Ooh, that meant I had the best craft motivation EVER. A deadline.
So this weekend I re-did an altoid tin as a birthday card/gift for my sister.
Wanna see a few pics?
That's the front. It's embellished/embroidered felt. Very simple. I didn't even have to use a ruler (I have an almost allergic reaction to actual technical measuring, I much prefer to eyeball and trace and cut versus whipping out a ruler and figuring out it's exactly blah and blah fraction big).
The side view (the side of the lid is covered in felt and the top sewn to the edges). Cute little cuppy cake ribbon.
(more details about the construction on my OTHER BLOG)
Open up and what's inside?
That's how it would look when you open it.
And once you unpack it:
Mmm, cake and a kitty. Two great things together at last (but not in a gross "you baked a kitty into a cake way"--wow, that's a really disturbing thought to share, huh? what's wrong with me?)
If this hadn't have been a spur of the moment creation, I would have bought some deep red felt so the cake could have been red velvet (my sister's favorite). But this cake still looks tasty enough (though it's a little fat for the tin, so I have to squash it down just a wee bit to get full closure on the tin--I didn't think about how the thickness of the felt in the bottom of the tin would effect the sizing on the cake until the cake was DONE and I'd already put the felt into the bottom of the tin--oops!).
And once I was done with the tin, I whipped up some more kitties. I was planning to make kitties this weekend. They'd been on my radar since I finished the litter of puppies. And once my boss (not the one I made the dolphins for, my other boss) told me her cat finally died (he was lingering for a few days) I asked her if her two little sons would like having wee kitties to cheer them up and ease the loss.
So I made this cute pair for her sons.
The orange doesn't pop as much in this pic. It's really a rich bright orange (not neon but just brighter than this pic shows off). I made sure not to make either of them black and white since Boomer (the deceased) was black and white (I thought it might be too upsetting). So I went with tabbies (because I wanted to try out striping). The tiger one was inspired by the younger of the sons who mentioned to his mother they couldn't bury Boomer because he was his protector. So a wee tiger as a stand in protector might go over well (though the whole family are huge Steelers fans so I hope the orange tiger kitty isn't seen as a Bengal tiger--so much to think about when making kitties!).
They're the same size as the kitty in the tin, so pretty small. None of the kitties stand on their own and are very pillow like (they'd make really cute pins, just stitch a small safety pin to the back) but I'll leave that choice up to the recipients (they'd also make cute magnets).
Now I want to make a lion and some siamese cats. But I don't have the right colors (at least I don't think I do--I need to do some siamese research to see if my colors could work). I love siamese cats. And the challenge of a lion mane (and tail tuft) will be fun.