Wally World Visit: Ribbons and Glue - Cheap & Awesome

A re-up on supplies. 

I'm thinking more ribbon rings, bow'd out headpieces and painting my vinyl toys.

Craftiness Personified: Chella H #RBA 101 " How To Roll An Extension"

The other night I was watching MTV and they were covering Chicago's hiphop stylings and local legends that are making noise in the music world. Covering all angles, the spotlight on the city's female emcees showcased some swagalicious ladies that made me feel like there is an alternative to this "Starships"bull I'm subjected to every time I turn the radio on. In that footage, an emcee by the name of Chella H came up and what an impression this lady made in just one video! High quality nasty bars, real personality, beats rockin and style for days? Sounds like a GO! to me.

Peep the video that got me saying OH!

I had this song in my head the whole time I was in Walmart today! #RBA!

This is another one that just gets me too. Bitch is stealin my heart with her swaggerific ways:

 Her shirt says "embrace your ratcheness"! I LOVE THIS CHICK! 

To add to the talent resume, The First Lady of Chicago Hip Hop is also a teacher. Her first class just landed on You Tube, so sit down ladies, bring your notepads & highlighters out cause its time to get your student on with MiCHELLA Obama! 

HOW TO ROLL AN EXTENSION - #RBA 101- EPISODE: 1

This episode of #RBA TV is too great in it's craftiness. A step-by-step tutorial for the ladies in getting your smoke on. Extensions are not only an everyday piece of craft skill knowledge, it's also a great way to include ALL your girls in elevation session. The first, of what is supposed to be an every Friday class, Chella H brings the knowledge on authentic real bitch skills that are a must in every real bitches tool box. Subscribe to her YouTube Channel or Twitter account for up to date notices on her class schedule. I'm getting my desk in front!

Bieber Fever - 110 Degrees of Cuteness!

The latest project at my craft station (the very end of our dinner table) has probably hit many Mom's w/ baby girls that love a certain blond haired Selena Gomez lovin boy. Bieber Fever has hit my home and it just so happens to be birthday season. With my stepdaughter's bday coming up, a Justin Bieber party was a Duh! decision. After purchasing all the dressings for a proper J.B party there was just one thing left: Get the cutest Justin Bieber shirt in all the land! 

While the plan seemed simple enough, it turned out to be a fruitless adventure in purchasing nothing with the tween-heart throb's face. We had to turn to Plan B. 

My girl has been a longstanding member of the J.B Fan Club and thus had a smaller tribute shirt that could use a bit of TLC. Building from Tshirt restoration ideas that I have booked in my brain from you tube videos we went to work on what ended up being her favorite piece of clothing... EVERRRRRRRR!

First thing first. This shirt needed to get chopped the hell up. Taking notes from Threadbanger TV, I took off the sleeves and cut up that neck area. After that was completed, I snipped some baby holes all around the edges of the sleeves and the bottom edge of the shirt which also got the *snip snip* along the hem line. 

Up next was the addition of the rocker-chic strips of material that really make this project what it is: Rad! 

I collect the most randomest of fabrics and hide them in my hidden vaults of craft crap around the house. This fabulous piece of yardage came from a trip to real Mexico where la gente don't play. It's a fuzzy stretchy purple material with black vinyl cheetah stampings that just shouts "UNIQUE!" I cut up a whole bunch of strips of the fabric but ended up messin up by cutting it the wrong way. The key to making this look right is to pull the ends of the strip so that it looks distressed and not a rectangle piece of fabric tied on a shirt. After making a gazillion pieces of trash, I finally got it right. 

LET THE KNOT TYING BEGIN!

DONE!

  The final product put a huge smile on my S.D's face and made her heart happy, so much so that she wore it instantly and spent over an hour in the bathroom putting her whole look together. I wanted to do some crazy stitching on the edge of the neck and even stick over the holes, add some pony beads to the strips for a lil zazz, but the addition of coordinating blue beads to the frame area was enough to say done (She couldn't wait to rock it anyways!). As a lil loca, I remember having my own New Kids On The Block party and that shit was epic in my lil girl world. 

She had an awesome time at party and the shirt made her week official. 

And we did try to turn lemons into lemonade with those gazillion strips of fabric:

The Twins got some new accessories. 

¡Craft Juice!

¡Quickies!

Quick lil nothing bracelets because sometimes a small crafting project can be oh so fulfilling :) even in their simplest of forms.

¡Look What I Can Do! ¡Look What I Can Do!

A Sweet Treat for A.Jazz & Me.

¡Field Trip Time!: Michael's Arts & Crafts Store - BEEF!

I kinda have a bone to pick with the super craft store.

Lets start with BEEF Number One:

I know I said that I wasn't gonna be into that show Craft Wars on TLC, but I can't lie, I have it scheduled in on my DVR. The different challenges the show presents, aren't THAT exciting but staring at the Michael's Craft Closet in the background makes it worth while. However, while gazing at all those wonderful supplies, there is one stand out item that I'm sure had every frequent Michael's shopper up in arms: Why is there fabric in the Craft Closet?! Everyone (that I know) knows that Michael's doesnt carry fabric! Duh! What kind of false advertisement was this, I asked myself. It almost felt like some sort of craft abomination. Fabrics have ALWAYS been in the Joann's or local yardage jurisdiction.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-fabric-@-Michael's by any means. I would piss glitter and grow a Unicorn horn if they did! But not knowing the real answer to this conundrum was bothering my crafty soul.

While reading my Twitter feed I had seen some crafty bishes asking Michael's the same puzzling question: Is there fabric now?! I searched in excitement for an official reply, but alas our ultimate pregunta had yet to be answered. So I took to my own tweeting and attempted to chirp at the craft supplier but again I was left with silence. I decided I had enough of waiting for an answer, I was off! To my local (30 miles away) Michael's store to get the 411straight from the horses aisles... (you know what I mean)

Here's a crappy picture my phone took of the so-called "fabric aisle." What a mother effin disgrace. Nearly all the material was on "Clearance," but the prices marked would have you thinking this store didn't know the definition of that word! Besides a bleak selection of designs and patterns, the quantity offered of said yardage was a joke! The most you were gonna get outta that aisle was 2 yards! At a $10 ticket for that much yardage, your probably better off checking out your local hole in the wall fabric store for a better selection and pricing. Thats probably why the aisle was so bare bones with product. Eeeeeek! Talk about a roller coaster of emotions trying to get this damn answer: Intrigue. Hope. Anticipation. Disappointment. Dispair. MORE QUESTIONS!

Ahhhhh! Michael's why do you do this to me!!!! I Love You SO! Ahhhhhhhhh!

BEEF Number 2: Why is there little to none beads/charms/scrapbook crap/etc. that is arts (sewing, painting, etc.) based? I wanted to make a sewing themed bracelet for my G'Ma and there was not a single charm one in the bead/jewlery making section that could suffice such a project! I even asked the girl at the counter who confirmed that it's not really the store's thing. What the huh?! *Confusion Setting In* One of these Michael's higher ups needs to get back to me with answers on this one! I don't want to get into all the reasons this situation just doesn't work because I think it's pretty obvious. Craft Store - Craft Crap... You do the math!

On a brighter note: Halloween stuff is in!

Tons of cute dark crap there to decorate your lairs with. Christmas stuff is in too, but I can't even go there! The word mentally stresses me out! 

Ay Yi Yi!

Quick Little Creations - Rings and Tings!

The other weekend, I had the delightful experience of having my G'Ma come visit me all the way from the land of crazies. Like the awesome lady she is, she came baring crafty gifts. The woman knows I only accept gifts in the form of craft supplies and this time around she came with the heat!

With these cute puffy stickers (that are probably meant for scrapbookers) she bought from her local Tuesday Morning, I was able to make some super cute rings for the lil cuzins and homies. These stickers' backing where covered in adhesive so I laid a piece of scrap material and cut around the edges so that it could be glued onto a ring base. (BTW, I picked up a big pack of ring bases in the craft section of Walmart for really cheap - compared to Michaels /Joanns. Check your local Wally World for their selection!) Accessorized awesomeness in a jiffy. I think the part that took the longest was waiting for my glue gun to heat up! HA!

I was so grateful that she had thought of getting these for me because I had recently seen a "how-to" on making glitter bow rings. I watched the video and it was no thing like a chicken wing to do. Lacking attractive ribbon had set me back on actually making these ringtastic things, but my trek to Michaels had me picking up a small roll that provided just enough ribbon where it wouldn't haunt me later. (Only costed $1.99 and there was a bunch to choose from). Using a glow-in-the-dark zombie bead I had made a while back, I jazzed up the final bow and stuck it to the  ring base. Ta-da! 

If the pic above doesn't inspire you to make your own fantastic rings then check out this YouTube video that got me sparked up:

Eazy Peezy!

¡Craft Porn!

Awesomeness on a Glass Stick

I saw these at a boutique over on the Central Coast and they got my head spinning with ideas. There has to be a tutorial to make these on your own cuz there is no way Im paying $30 for a Mason jar on a candle stick!

Join The DollCult & Twerk!

To be honest I don't know how I found the illustrious one known as The Empress of the Twerk Nation: NikkiLipstick. It feels like she was brought to me by the graces of Lisa Frank and all of her fluorescent disciples. I'm probably right about that...

Now before the *side eyes* start rollin in, peep game fools! I'm not jockin the young lady cause I'm a so cool hip kid waiting in line at the club (no hate to them just keeping it trill.). Nope. In fact I'm a stay@micasa kinda momma that enjoys a good satanic my little pony sweater and the occasional nasty girl pastie. Sue me!

The girl has put her own hand to each piece she sells, making her to-die-for products real craftastic masterpieces and hella respectable. Often imitated but never successfully duplicated, she even gets extra brownie points for keeping her price range within everyone's wallet reach. $45 for that fabo sweater you see to the left! Thats it? THATS IT! $8.50 for those nippy covers! Thats it? YES FOO! THATS IT!!!

The final blow this girl brings to the table with her clothing line, is her personality. You can feel it in her clothes. You can see it in her pasties. Add her name to your Twitter timeline and see for yourself if you don't believe me! She's having so much fun creating her line, you'd wish you could bust through the Twitter-sphere and go twerk it out with the rest of her loyal Twerkettes in her living room. She says some pretty funny shit too!

Homegirl loves her peeps; old or new, and you can tell this creative genius genuinely appreciates the support her fans give her. She reads all her tweets, retweets tweets, posts, reposts posts and responds to most. Hella loyalty coming from a cute face, deadly smart fashion brains and a booty that can twerk it till the cows come home.

BUY NIKKILIPSTICK NOW! COMPRAR NIKKILIPSTICK AHORA! JOIN THE DOLLCULT! BUY NIKKILIPSTICK NOW! COMPRAR NIKKILIPSTICK AHORA! JOIN THE DOLLCULT!

I NEED A Kickstarter Account Just To Buy These

Another Etsy Shop pulling at my heart strings!

Muthatruckin loving these!

Been a OG cat lady since I was 3!

Beautiful Mom Mistakes

A little poop here. A dab of something-sauce there. God, I think once you've slept in a baby piss puddle   because its just too damn early in the morning and you can barely open your eyes, you pretty much let any and all other clothing stains become non-issues. Your sleeping in pee!! You wouldn't have done that for $100 but this is your seed and you'd dance in it if you love your baby creation. I mean who cares if thats a lil bit of baby burp up on my brand new favorite shirt... I made this baby and should have known I would lose my wardrobe to all his/her antics. Duh Stoopid Mom!

While having my lil babies keep my wardrobe spiced and splashed with random liquids, the cleaning solutions can often be the culprit of some annoying permanent clothes messes. Lysol w/bleach did it to me while trying to clean the bathroom but heres how to make that kinda lemon of a situation into sweet wearable lemonade:

Step 1: (Used two different colored shirts to see what colors would come up... see what happens!)
 I went to a place that couldn't have too many consequences while using bleach-based chemicals - OUTSIDE! I laid it out nice and flat, w/o a piece of cardboard between the two sides of the shirt (I thought if I did this that I might get some really cool bled out designs on the back...).

Green T-Shirt Attempt:

Grey T-Shirt Attempt: 

So far... no results :( WTF!?!

Step 2: Dry Time!

Step 3: Final Product is Complete!

Final Score:

 Grey Shirt - 0 Green Shirt- 1

!Ta-Da!

Lysol couldn't clean up the grey shirt (I'm sure some other bleach product - gel pen, etc.- coulda done the job but not today Lysol. Not today.), but it did do some sexy damage on the vintage army green color shirt. 

Woohoo!

 I'm sure if some of you rhinestoned-out ladies added some zazz with crystals and what not, you would probably have a bling-er-iffic tee. 

(*FYI: Both tees are from Billabong.)

Family Cuffs: Another Etsy Must-Have!

Another banger from the halls of Etsy.

I sometimes wish that Etsy actually had a store, the Walmart stakes a claim in every neighborhood known on planet earth. The reason: Shops like PureHeartCreations. Kimberly Tidwell of P.H.C makes the most amazing cuffs at such an affordable price that your harming your jewelry box by not having a few! At only $8.50 a pop, your free to add notes or names to each cuff with a universal size that is most likely to fit you just right. I added all my babies and Mi Amor to the cuffs I purchased and everyone who has seen them love 'em. I do wish she had a gold/bronze option because I would be so stoked to have another set. Cuffs aren't the only speciality in the store. Necklaces, keychains and beaded creations are also available.

I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't mean it, and w/PureHeartCreations you'll want to mean it too with a personalized affordable cuff.

Lady Loca's Book Club: This Week's "Must Put On The Wish List" Libros

Oh man, I come from the old school. The time where my parents could take my sister and I to the book  store and we could be there for hours just looking at every book on the shelf. Nowadays there is no such things as books it feels. Kids could give a fuck about words much less the comprehension that comes with a book. LOL. WTF. TMZ. OMG. YOLO (I just learned what that means!). BRB. SMH (new knowledge here too). Thats the vernacular we accept for communication now. Does anyone remember having to study vocab words using Vis-Ed cards? ... No? Guess that was just my dorky self. 

UGH! So frustrating!

(...sorry, side tangent.)

 No reason to put pen to paper anymore. Kindles. iPads. Damn you all! And NO! HELL TO THE NO! A stylus and some snappy lil app is not the even close to the equivalent of holding a REAL book or drawing on REAL paper with a REAL scribe!

(...another one!)

Anyways, these two books prove my point. "My Wonderful World of Fashion" requires some sort of actual writing utensil. Pen. Pencil. Marker. Crayon. Its got TONS of pages that can take anybody back to a time where activity books were a place of creative wonderment and at least an hour of fun (don't want to do EVERY page right?). Kinda reminds me of the Hip Hop Coloring Book that came out years ago except that this one is for the ladies... or any male with a love of  creating women's fashions. Oh AND you get WAYYYY more pages to create on than the H.H.C.B. Trust that there is no app that could meet the greatness of this activity book.

Up to bat next is the book on the left "The Best of The Farmer's Wife Cookbook." Now here is where many a person could debate the book vs. app point because yes there are great cooking apps, HOWEVER! Who wants to get sticky sauce or spicy chili mix all over their phone screen while attempting to re-light up the screen to read the next step...Yuck. Not that sticky cookbook pages are any better, but at least you can lean it against a nice sturdy toaster out of the way and get your cook on. Have you ever tried balancing an iPhone on a kitchen island piled with ingredients: "Where the F*&! Did My Phone Just Go?!" is usually a question spilling out of my mouth. 

An overall glance at the insides of this book show that the recipes scream classic Americana meals/treats and the steez is all Grandma-style. Put those elements together and the fact that there are lots of pages, your bound to make something of yummy quality. If you end up buying this book and not liking it, whatever. It does requires reading. Paying attention. Using your hands. Thinking with your brain. 

You know:Old School. lol ;)

My Shorts Don't Play Fair : They Cheetahs!

A work in progress:

I recently bought a pair of Almost Famous black/grey cheetah pants and they were so sexy comfy and surprisingly casual. I dunno if it was the material or just the fact that it was cheetah print. Cheetah print seems to make everything better. 

With a pair of olive-ish green shorts, I attempted to add some more cheetah print to my closet with a lil D.I.Y that I googled up on. 

(*Here is a baby cheat sheet I found that you can use. Credit:http://www.mrkate.com)

While I have a bunch of paint scattered throughout the house, I don't have much FABRIC paint and neither does the local Walmart. (Joanns & Michaels are miles away and gas aint cheap!) But at least I had two basic colors to work with: Black & Yellow. *!sings song!* 

We shall have to see what this glorious mess of fabric and paint will come to but whatever it is I'll be sure to share with ya'll.

Inspiration: Craftster Queen erika_tattoos

Take a gander at this ultimate dolly project! Holy smokies right! All praise and glory goes to Crafster's Member erika_tattoos for this beauty of a doll. Recently, the Craftster Facebook page posted this amazing project and I was literally obsessing over the image the entire day after I saw this. I was googling Bradley dolls and really really really wishing this erika_tattoos girl had more dolls to show-off. I loved this damn girl right here so much I made it a point to show my hubby (who really doesn't care about my internettings) so I can convince him to fund my next great project ;)

Here is the actual link to the Craftster post detailing the steps Lady erick_tattoos took to make this masterpiece and you can also see another Bradley doll offering she had already created before "Poppy."

If you have Granny's that love trinkets and cute crap, then there is a good chance that you just might have a found a gold mine of awesomeness waiting to be crafted on. I say you glaze G'ma up with some sweet lovin and see if she don't hook ur rad self up! :)

A Purrfect Pattern Pair

I wanna call this project a personal best of mine. It started out way crappier than what you see here, but just as with anything worth while; it's takes time!

When I first hit these bad boys up with my Sharpies the hubby gifted to me, I thought I was going to do a rainbow colored cheetah print, but that ended up looking like some crappy flowers threw up all over the Vans Swoosh when it was all dried.

 Bleh.

After cleaning up the throw up mess of crap flowers, I decided to take a break with Mijo and watch his current favorite show (it changes regularly): Team Umizoomi. I can't help but love a show that promotes math skills and has a main character named Milli who has "PATTERN POWER!" Thanks to  Milli and her super hero skills, she taught me the secret to an easy tiger print pattern that inspired these revamped sneaks. And thanks to my son for making me watch his shows with him. I maybe getting old but I'll always be a student. 

Big ups to Milli!! Thanks homegirl! You hooked this Momma up in more ways than one!

"Don't Mess w/tha Cook" : An Embroidery Piece

As a baby mija, my mom would always tell my sister and I, that we should never mess with the cook (i.e. my mother) and when I saw this sketch in the back of the current issue of Inked Magazine I couldn't help but reminisce. 

Dope sketch right?! I wish I could take credit for such artistry but alas I have no real drawing skills myself. Thank god for those who can! Really. I mean that shit! Where would this world be without drawing? THINK ABOUT IT! SCARY HUH!

With the help of the Sulky Transfer Pen in black (about $4.00/ea), a piece of tracing paper and a steady hand, I was able to make that tattoo sketch sample into my next badass embroidery pattern/project. My baby sister sent me a big bag of her hardly-used-pretty-much-brand-new clothes to pilfer through and I found so many awesome candidates for this pattern, I'm just about positive she's gonna ask for the vest back! 

A CraftCrap PSA: The Joanns App 4 iPhone

Download this mutha now!!

 The other morning, I had it set in my brain that I was going to Joann's come hell or high water. It's been well over a year or so that I have actually been to a Joann's to loiter for hours on end and when I entered those crafty gates known as the entrance, my corazon started palpitating and my blood started rushing through my veins! No joke! The crafting sensation was taking over my body and I was not resisting. 

TAKE ME! I'M YOURS, CREATIVITY!

Deals in every department, clearance tags abound and did I mention I downloaded this app (see above) b4 I left the crib?! Yeah well, my genius self did just that and got herself a whole 50% off any regular priced item coupon that I didn't even have to cut or accidentally forget at home! How you ask? Well this cute lil Joann's app holds store coupons in a queue waiting for you to enjoy, which the happy face behind the register can scan for you! S-W-E-E-T DISCOUNTS! ERRYDAY!

I used my 50% off coupon on a embroidery stitch how-to book called: 

Those savings allowed me to enjoy a venti Starbucks caffeine jolt AND purchase a brand new beach umbrella from Cost Plus World Market. Both of which couldn't have happened without the greatness of the Joann's App! 

(*Note: Sorry Android users, but I'm not up on what your App Store has, but I have to imagine you've got some love waiting for you in there from the folks @ Joann's ;D)

The Virgin Mary & Her Techni-Color Dream Coat

A Work In Progress:

Was Joseph the only one with a fly ass coat in their closet?

 I should think not!  

Numero 1 Rule of La Casa: 

The lady of the house is the one with the dopest closet; PARA SIEMPRE FOO! 

And La Virgen is no exception! 

Materials So Far: 

Pom Pom Balls donated to me by my parents; $1paint from Joanns; a light switch; E6000 and a Virgin Mary night light cover that broke!

To Be Continued... 

Making Shade 4 Mi Shades

The beginnings of making shades for my shades!

Sunglasses By: Von Zipper

Cardboard By: Trees n' stuff

Pen Courtesy Of: The Holiday Inn

Glitter: ¡Para Siempre!

I only know a few people who don't like glitter: Guys who have to explain the origin of said glitter to their partner and Moms who have to clean that crap up. And although I find myself in the latter of the two roles, I can't help but love a lil bit of glitz on all my crap. 

Because I am a Momma Bear, I don't usually get the opportunity to sit down and get my glue gun heated up or actually re-stock art supplies. Instead I find myself utilizing every last second in my life to find a point where I can craft ANYTHING... even just a lil bit, VERY QUICKLY! Luckily for me GOD created scientists on one of his six days of crafting the universe and thus I have the great invention: Quick Dry Nail Polish. Cheap and easy, having nail polish is like having a mini paint set ready to rock at anytime in just the right amount. 

I was craving some crafting the other day and I NEEDED to do SOMETHING to ANYTHING in a real major way and this is what I came up with:

This was a lil diddy I painted using my daughter's baby brush with Neon Barbie Pink nail polish:

Then I decided to get real fun with it and glitter up my iPhone headset and my reading glasses:

Man, I know it looks like a no-biggie kinda project but I can't help but share with you, that just that little bit of crafting did so much for this momma's soul its not even funny. When you've been a crafter on hiatus for any period of time, any lil bit of expression can mean the most and here is mine. I share this crappy lil idea for all the mommas and poppas who need to let out some of that creativity in the same amount of time it takes to make a bucket of popcorn ;)

Sew Damn Cute

My genuine fascination with the science of iron-on images came at a young age and a pack of Aunt Martha's infamous kitties. Once I figured out that I could apply the images to pretty much anything, nothing was safe. It's clear that in becoming an adult not much has changed, especially with these outrageously dope patterns from Sew Lovely Embroidery. 

The team @ S.L.E tackle all kinds of whimsical ideas creative lil' stitchers can get all gaga for and they keep the price affordable! From tattooed chicas (Got it!) to girlies running with scissors (got that one too!), Sew Lovely has all the sugar & spice today's stitcher needs in a dope ass pattern. Being at the forefront of this crafting revolution taking place before us, Katy Woelfel and her team have hit the mark with their innovative iron-on embroidery patterns, easy-to-do instructions and personal thank you notes for supporting their D.I.Y movement. S.L.E is everything you want in an Etsy seller: Fresh Product - Excellent Customer Service - 'Nuff Said!