How to fix Broken Felting Needle

One of a needle-felter's greates frustration is the felting needle snapping while doing your work.  I've broken a lot of felting needles already, & everytime, it just hurts me whenever I broke a needle.  And to think that needle felting materials are not available in the Philippines, just adds to the emotions since I have to go abroad or order online from another country just to get some felting needles. 

Today, I just broke my felting needle while doing a commissioned work.  I just got fed up already.  So I thought of a way what to do with the broken felting needle.

Here's a picture of my broken felting needle. Grrr... :(

I think you could use some bakeable glue to make a stronger hold of the needle, I didn't use in this tutorial since I don't have any at the moment. =D

Hope this tutorial will solve our problem =D

Hot Air Balloon Lantern

My mom & I went to Divisoria, to buy some fabric for my dad's coat & tie.  Always a lot of people in Divisoria regardless whether weekdays or weekends.  But more people on weekends.  We went into a store selling party goodies, then I saw this:

I couldn't resist buying one for myself! =D When I got home, I showed it to my dad, he was very happy with it in fact, he asked that when we get back to Divisoria to buy a few more.  I think he'll use it to decorate around the house this christmas.

The drawback on this lantern is that it's made of paper, Paper lanterns don't last that long & you can use it on covered rooms/areas since it wouldn't be able to withstand the rain. I wish I know some electronics or something, i sure would want to have a light bulb inside this lantern.

Mom's Jade Necklace

Today, for no apparent reason, I made a jade necklace for my mom, maybe I just wanted to thank her for taking care of me.

How does Physician Board Exam feels like?

After 3 months of studying, you've come to face the Board Exams, you just hope that you remember what you have studied during the examination.

The night before your exam, you couldn't sleep well, you have palpitations, OMG, This is it!

On the day of your exam, you got to meet some of your med classmates, "Hey how are you?!" "Grabe! Kinakabahan na ako!"

Then comes the questionnaire & answer sheet to you, while answering, "Oh no, I don't know this questtio, then you move to another question, then you don't know again, then you move to another question, wa... then you realized, you just keep moving on & there's already 1 whole page without answers, then you'll procced until 3 pages without answers, then you think, oh no..."

By the end of the exam, "Grabe! ang hirap nun!" Babagsak na ata ako

Then after the break, you get to the 2nd & 3rd exam with the same feeling every after exam.

By the end of the day, you feel really tired  & defeated, depressed, disappointed as you discover some of the questions' correct answer...

By next day, you wake up again, stand up, it's a new day, let's do this!

By the end of all exams, what you can only do is wait.... & pray... hope I at least past the difficult exam...

Craft of the Day: Tape Labels Tutorial

My dad asked me to record his songs into usb flashdrives, separating the english songs from the chinese songs.  I recently gave him a gadget where he can play use usb flashdrives to play music in his car.  He was very fascinated by it =D

Anyways, I bought him 2 new usb flashdrives for his consumption.  They both look the same, so it'll just be proper to label each of the flashdrives.  I thought of making labels using washi tapes.  But I don't have washi tapes right now, & as my challenge I'm not supposed to buy new craft materials, only use materials I currently have at home.

Today I'll be showing you how I made these tape labels, improvising, making my own "washi" tape.

Materials you'll need for this project are: 

• Scissors, 
• old notepad or any decorative paper, 
• double-sided tape
• scotch tape.

First, you'll choose which part of the notepad you'd want to incorporate into your labels, I chose the dotted  border on the sides of this used notepad.

Turn the paper, wrong side up.  Then get your double sided tape & run across the back of the design of the paper you chose. Then cut the double sided tape.  Cut the excess paper. 

Write your label on the right side.  Put scotch tape on top to protect the ink. Cut to desired size & place it on you usb =D

til next tutorial =D

Donating Everything in my Piggybank

It all started with my this year's new year's resolution.  I told myself, that I'll be donating some of the proceeds to UST St. Cosmas & Damian to help the patients in their hospital bill.

But then, this tragedy came to the Philippines, heavy floods destroying millions of houses & claiming several lives.  So I thought.. even if the year hasn't ended yet, I think this will be an ideal time to give donations from my piggybank.

It took me several days to contemplate for this donation, the money in this piggybank is the money I got from selling some of my works.  It truly is hard earned money.

I looked inside, not much, I counted the money, a total of P3950.  This is all I got since Jan 2012?

So I went to get a legal size white envelope, used the stamps I bought online, & some colored pens. Something very simple, because I have to go to school within 30 minutes.

Then I was staring at the envelope, wrote the quotation, "art in saving lives" since this money, is from craft, from art, & I'll be donating them to save lives.

As I put the seal of the envelope, suddenly all my craft experiences to get this amount of money flashed back in my face, there's this time when I had to get an antitetanus shot since I accidentally cut myself with my scissors because the wound was deep, the times when I was needle felting & I could just hear myself, "OUCH!" because I accidentally pricked myself, so literally, blood was shed to get that money.

I'm no angel, here I was, with all of my earnings, from hard work, & my blood.  I will be donating 100% of it to charity.  Some part of me, doesn't want to let go of the money, it's like it's part of you. Without it, I won't be able to buy to materials to fund my work.

With all this view of events coming to me, I cried... It's like parting a part of you, my craft soul was begging, "Please... how can we work? how can we make pretty things if we don't have money?"

As I was putting my final seal, I was crying, ganito pala kahirap to... it's different, if you're donating, your savings from what your parents gave you, it's harder to give it when it all came from you,  yun pinaghirapan mo talaga, hindi pinaghirapan ng parents mo.

Now I'm craft broke, none left in my piggy bank for crafting... You might think it's insignificant, but for me, it meant a lot, I cried...

I felt my guardian angel hugged me, saying, "You did the right thing, I'm so proud to both of you..."

As I went to church, I handed Ron, our internship president the donation envelope.  He said, thank you, I'll be giving this to Medicine Student Council.  I said, "Ok." I then said a little prayer, "God, kayo na po bahala sa pera, I know hindi Niyo yun pababayaan."

Feathered Headband

Yesterday was one of those days, when I woke up & all I want to do is craft.  My craft soul is screaming, "if I can't get hold of a glue gun today, I'll die!!!!" hehe.  I really didn't care if my craft project would be nice or not, would be functional or not, all I care a bout is to do a project using a glue gun. =D

So I got all my materials.

& here's my Finsihed product

When worn:

til next crafting =D

Batman Undies Stethoscope tag

I was looking through amazon when I saw this:

I think it was around $6.00+, hm.. first of all, I'm not in USA, so I can't buy this, 2nd have this ship here in the Philippines won't be practical since it's just $6 & the tax will be more expensive than the item itself.

So after staring at it, I thought I'd make one myself.  It's like I'm getting the P.S. I made this motto: I see it, I like it, I make it.

Read more »