Speed Painting Fail

 I felt like getting my paints out and doing a painting in my new A3 sketch book. I hadn't painted for a while and I normally do miniature paintings, 7cm or 5cm canvases or using A7 or A8 sketch books so this is a lot bigger but I thought I'd give it ago.

The only larger canvased I've painted have been pixel art and I wanted to try and paint a more realistic landscape painting. I knew it was never going to be anything special, just a quick painting and I was going to film myself doing it for YouTube and when I have done more hopefully I see an improvement in my work over time.

I went for a late evening sea scene. I added a bit more colour to the sky then what I normally do in that sort of scene. I just kept adding paint till I thought it looked ok which actually never happened and I gave up on the sky and moved on to the sea.

The rest was pretty basic, didn't really have any plan I was just adding paint lol that was probably a mistake and I should actually have an idea of what I want to paint next time before I start. 

When I got to the point of getting fed up I just stopped and that's it, I was done with it. I wasn't at all happy with it but felt there was nothing I would be able to do to make it look good so I left it as is. While editing the footage it hit me what was wrong with it. I feel so stupid, it's such a silly mistake. I painted the sea flowing in completely the wrong direction, it's so obvious now I've noticed it and that's why it looks so wrong. I also should have left out the glow round the moon, It would have looked better without it.

Even though I hated the end result I still put the video up on YouTube like said to record my progress. I don't know when my next large painting will be. I feel a lot more comfortable painting on smaller canvases, but I'm sure it wont be that long before I try another.

So here is the video, I sped it up because even though it didn't take long to do it still wouldn't have been boring to watch.

Thanks for watching

Happy Crafting!

New Granny Square Pattern

 Just a short post to show you the new granny square pattern I made. I am aiming to design a few patterns similar but I wanted to show my first one straight away.

It's pretty much a solid granny square but I use the fillet stitch method to create a pattern in it.

This is my first one and it features 4 Pokeballs.

I used DK yarn and a 3.5mm hook and it came out 33cm tall. This pattern is suitable for any thickness of yarn, just the thicker the yarn the bigger the square will come out.

You could make a nifty blanket using this design and more designs are in the works.

If you want to check out the pattern it is on my Ko-fi page https://ko-fi.com/kellymakesstuff 

Come back later to see my next designs.

Happy Crafting!

Making A Light Using A Broken PS2 Controller

 I had a PS2 controller that no longer worked and rather then just chucking it away I thought I would do something with it. It was a clear one so my first thought was to put some lights inside it to create a nice lamp and that's exactly what I did.

The first thing I did was open it up and take out everything that was inside. You need a really small screwdriver for some parts but overall this was very easy to do. The next important thing to do is clean it, you wouldn't believe how much dust hides in these things.

Crochet Horror Blanket

This blanket came about because I was having a conversation with my sister (who is a horror fan) and she said I couldn't make a horror themed baby blanket. I took that as a challenge and started working on a design.

Working with pixel art a lot I decided to do it in fillet stitch as it would be easy for me to make a design. I was going to make it in white so it still looked like a baby blanket even though the theme was horror. I then chose the film to base it on, IT!

It crosses the baby theme (clowns/balloons) and the horror theme so I thought it would work really well.

It actually took longer to map out the design and make the pattern then it did to stitch up, which I now see is the case for most of the fillet stitch projects I make.

Here is the blanket...

Do you think it works as a baby blanket? I do. No one I knew was having a baby so I decided to make three more different designs and put them together to make an adult size blanket. Off I went to design 3 more.

A Crochet Christmas - pt 3

 Part 3 of a crochet Christmas is what I received as presents that are to do with crochet this Christmas.

First is this Nightmare Before Christmas Crochet set. It includes everything to make Jack and Sally but also includes a book of patterns for a lot of the other characters too as well as an extra pattern for a wall hanging. I think I might have a go at making Oogie first, I already have a yarn I think will work nicely for him and it looks like a nice simple pattern to start off with.

A Crochet Christmas - pt 2

 Here is part 2 of the crochet Christmas, this time presents that aren't blankets.

I had a go at making crochet figures and some came out rather cute if I do say so myself.

The first lot is The SlashStreet Boys, if you don't know who they are check them out on YouTube. They are horror characters that do horror versions of BackStreet Boys songs. As they are meant to be a boyband I decided to have them dressed in matching colours which may have been a bad idea. These were for my sister and she didn't recognise Jason so maybe I should have kept them in their normal colours.

A Crochet Christmas - pt 1

 This year was a very crafty Christmas. I decided to make most people their gifts myself, though I am always nervous about giving handmade gifts this year I thought what the hell I will do it anyway.

With all the fuel payments going up I thought a nice handy gift would be blankets so that was my main idea and was what most people got. I'm not the quickest crocheter so I started in September, that was also partly because I was making my sister a blanket for her birthday in November which I now remember I haven't done a post for so that will coming soon whoops.

I gave myself plenty of time just in case I lost my mojo and had to stop crocheting for a few days but I didn't. I was in crochet mode most of the time and finished with plenty of time to spare.

I was making multiple blankets at the same time while I waited on different colour yarn to arrive as there was some I couldn't find in local shops.

The first blanket I completed was a black and purple one for my sister. The black is just basic granny squares and the purples are fillet stitch featuring cats, skulls and rock hand signs.

Qmee Review: Getting Paid For Online Surveys

Through these times everyone is tightening those purse strings so a few extra pound might come in handy and I came across a really simple way of earning some.

Paid surveys! It's not a new concept but I have came across a site/app that's really useful. This is from my own personal experience, I'm not affiliated with them I just think there's a few people out there that would find this site handy.

Qmee is both a desktop site and app where you can make money doing surveys. This is no get rich quick scheme, the surveys can take up to 20mins and can be for 9p, 32p, £2.20 and anything in between and possibly more but they are few and far between.

Crochet Hexagon Cardigan

 I thought I would have a go at crocheting a cardigan. There's a really simple one that's rather popular at the moment that I decided to have a go at. It's called a hexagon cardigan, it's very beginner friendly. All you need to do is crochet 2 large hexagons and attach them together.

I had this lacey yarn for a while and decided to use that to make a light cardigan. 

Using Up My Stash

 Like a lot of crafters I have so many craft supplies that need to be used and that includes a hell of a lot of yarn. There was a lot of half used balls and smaller balls of random colours that were too small to use in any other project so I decided to use up my yarn stash on a project to brighten up one of my cupboards.

It's a fairly large storage cupboard but it's not overly tall, you need to crawl to get into it. The carpet in there is rubbish as you can see but and it's a private rented property I'm not spending my money replacing it so I planned on making a large scrap blanket to put in there to make it look more cosy.