Turning Myself into a Paper Doll

     If you've ever wanted to cartoonize yourself, but felt like you don't have the prerequisite drawing skills, then this may be the post for you.  In the first video in this two-part series, I'll show you how to use a tracing technique to come up with a cartoon version of yourself.  In the second, I'll show you how to color in the image digitally to get a more polished looking image.
     This technique works great for making paper doll versions of yourself or your loved ones, and could be a great gift, especially for the kids in your lives.  While the paper doll angle is the focus of this series, the same techniques will work for making cartoon avatars.
     When I made the first iteration of my paper doll, I had no intention of making a series of paper doll videos.  I was trying to think of a doll related craft to do for my Hey, Day series, and wondered if this would work.  I've used tracing before to create silhouettes, but I thought that I lacked the skills to draw in the facial features.  When the drawing portion worked better than I had expected, I decided to play around with coloring techniques to see if I could get a more polished looking doll, and when that worked okay, I decided to make a second video.  I don't currently have plans for any subsequent videos, but I do love paper crafting, so if you'd like to see more content like this, let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

How to Draw Yourself as a Paper Doll (Part I of the Video Series)

Digitizing Your Paper Self (Part II of the Video Series)

Star Confetti Bookmark

     Add some shine to your books with a confetti bookmark.

Materials:

*Star confetti
*Laminator and laminating sheets
*Hole punch
*Ribbon
*Scissors

Directions:

*Arrange confetti in a rectangular shape between the laminating sheets.

*Laminate the confetti.

*Punch a hole at the top of the confetti rectangle.  I recommend doing this before you start cutting out the bookmark so you don't forget to leave space at the top to punch the hole.

*Cut rectangular bookmark shape out of the laminating sheet, making sure to leave about a quarter of an inch of excess plastic beyond the edges of the confetti.

*Tie a ribbon through the hole you punched.

Strawberry Frosted Donut Inspired Nail Art

     Give yourself a manicure that looks good enough to eat!

Materials:

*Clear base/top coat
*Pink nail polish
*Acrylic paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white
*Fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Paint nails with a clear base coat, followed by a coat of pink polish.  Let dry.

*Paint on "sprinkles" by adding randomly oriented streaks of color.  Start with some red acrylic paint and add one to two sprinkles per nail.

*Next add one to two orange sprinkles per nail, making sure to leave enough space for the remaining colors.

*Continue adding one to two sprinkles of each color, one color at a time.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

DIY Wedding Invites with the Foil Quill

     As some of you know, Brian and I are getting married this May.  When it came to the invites, we decided to make them ourselves.  To aid us with the invites, we picked up a machine called the Foil Quill, which adds shiny foil to your cards.  In this video tutorial, we'll show you the method we developed for using the Foil Quill to add some shine to our invites.

Here's what the front and back of the invites look like, as well as the RSVP card.

     Check out the video tutorial below to see how we used the Foil Quill to make our invites shine.

     Although I don't go through the design process in this video, if you want to find the clip art I used for the back of the card and the RSVP card, I ordered it from Etsy.  The three packs I used are Alice in Wonderland Clipart, Tea & Macaroons, and Autumn in Wonderland.

Hey, Day Challenge Week VII Round Up

     Week seven of the Hey, Day Challenge has come and gone, and it was a busy one.  If you're not familiar with this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 9th and February 16th.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

DIY Fake Blood

     In this video, I test out a couple of fake blood recipes, one suggested by the book and one that I looked up online.

Valentine's Placemats

     This video is the first in a three part Valentine's Day party series.  In this one, I show you how to make Valentine's Day placemats using dollar store Valentine's Day cards.  Note that all three party posts are cutesy rather than zombified, so if cutesy Valentine's Day is your jam, you may want to give these a watch.

Valentine's Day Party Menu

     This video is the second Valentine's Day party video.  In this video I show you how to create an elegant looking menu for your party.

Valentine's Party

     In the final video in the Valentine's Day series, I show you how to set up a Valentine's Day party tablescape using relatively inexpensive and easy crafting ideas.

     This past week was a busy one for the series.  The next couple of weeks will be a bit slower, since a lot of the February projects I liked happened early in the month, but don't worry.  There are still plenty of videos in store.

Simple Zombie Makeup Tutorial

     What better way to celebrate Zombie Valentine's Day than by dressing up like the undead?  If you already have a makeup collection, you probably have everything you need to put together a basic zombie look.  Check out the video tutorial below to see how you can transform yourself into a zombie.

     Need some fake blood for your zombie look?  I have a Hey, Day video for that.  I was kind of winging it with the blood tutorial, so while this one will work just fine, if you would like to see a more refined tutorial in the future, let me know!  I'm definitely down to test out more fake blood recipes.

     What are you doing for Zombie Valentine's Day?  Let me know in the comments.  Brian and I will hopefully be watching something zombie related.  If you haven't seen Troom Troom's zombie apocalypse video series yet, I highly recommend (although the series isn't finished yet and does end on a pretty big cliff hanger, so you have been forewarned).  It's part horror movie, part survivalist craft tutorial, and highly entertaining.  Here's a compilation of the first five episodes:

Hey, Day Challenge Week VI Round Up

     It's hard to believe we're already through six weeks of the Hey, Day Challenge!  In this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 20th and February 1st.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

Conversation Heart Valentine's Cards

     If you prefer cutesy Valentine's Day crafts to the usual zombie fare, you may want to check out this video, in which I make a zombie-free conversation heart Valentine's Day card.  If you'd prefer the zombie version, though, check out this post.

Paper Fortune Cookies

     This craft is one I've had saved to a Pinterest board for a while, but was afraid would be too complicated to make, so I didn't try it.  The Hey, Day Challenge finally gave me the reason I needed to test it out, and it turned out that it was much easier to make than I originally assumed it would be.  If you like paper crafting, I'd recommend giving it a try.

Future Files Part II: Places to Live

     In this installment of the Future Files, we're thinking about where we'd like to live in the future.  If you know me well, you won't be at all surprised to see where I want to settle down.

     This week in the Hey, Day Challenge we'll be throwing a cutesy Valentine's Day party.  There will be three videos relating to the party, so if Valentine's Day is your jam, be sure to keep your eyes out for those videos.