How to make your very own PEPPERMINT BUTLER!

For those of you who are not familiar, Peppermint Butler is the loyal butler to Princess Bubblegum in the popular series Adventure Time.  The show has a bunch of great characters, so I thought it would be fun to dress up as Princess Bubblegum for Halloween. After working on the dress and the crown for my costume, I got the idea to create a Peppermint Butler purse.  I'm going to fill it with bubblegum and peppermints :)

It was a bit time consuming, but still really easy to make dear old Pepp.  What takes time is waiting for all of that glue to dry ;)

The first thing you need to do is draw a circle.  You can really make your Butler any size.  Mine was about 8 inches in diameter.  Cut out about 4 circles of the same diameter using regular printer paper.

Now, use a cereal box or some sort of flimsy cardboard, take the circle you cut out from printer paper and trace it over your cardboard, and cut a circle out of the cardboard.  Do this two times.

Next up, cut out two more pieces of cardboard as pictured below, it can be any width.  I chose 3.5 inches.  It worked out pretty nicely as far as peppermint proportions go...

Tape the two pieces together.

Little by little, start taping your long straight piece to your cardboard circle. Tape the inside too for extra support...

If you desire, you can line the inside of your purse.  I had some purple felt left over from making the Princess' lapels so that is what I chose to use.  you can line it with any color, really...

After it is all lined, finish taping both sides of the box...

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Before the felt goes on, you're going to cover the cardboard with those white printer paper circles you made earlier.  That way, the cardboard and tape and ugly stuff doesn't show through...

Below you see I've applied the felt to the front and the paper to the sides.  The glue is on top there and I'm just about to put the felt on top...(P.S. use this glue, it is AWESOME)

After that you slowly start bringing him to life using different color felts.  Its helpful to have those extra cut outs of the printer paper so that you can measure how wide to make his clothes and so on...

His arms and legs were a bit tricky.  to make them, I rolled a piece of felt up with a wire I got from a craft store.  In other words, there is a wire in his legs and arms so you can bend them. I sewed the felt up and added the cuffs on the end to hide the imperfections.  

I made his hands and feet the same way...  I will tell you how I did the hand so you get the idea...I drew a 1 dimensional hand on felt and cut that pattern out 4 times.  I sewed two of the pieces together and stuffed them with left over felt to give it some dimension.  I placed the hands into the cuffs and using white thread, sewed the unseen part of the hand into the white cuff.  You can't really see it and it keeps the hand on the arm really well.  You basically use the same idea for the feet except that the feet go over the leg and you use red thread to sew it to the leg...

So, for those of you wondering how I attached the appendages onto the body, I'll tell ya.  I sewed the arms and legs into the cardboard! It wasn't all that easy.  You are basically blindly trying to find the perfect spot for your needle to go, and it takes a couple of times to get it right.  On top of that, pushing a needle through cardboard, albiet flimsy cardboard, HURTS yo' fingas!  Be sure to have a thimble handy to protect those digits...

Here is the finished product...My Peppermint Butler glamour shoot!

Ahh! Cat hair on his feets!

Kinda need to do some last minute glue touch ups, but I ran out of glue!!

UPDATE:   I got some cord from a fabric store and put two holes at the top and turn Mr. Butler into a purse! That way he will always be at my side ;)  Here is a photo of me in my halloween costume with my butler purse!!

Fun Project: Glitter Banners!

I thought of making a glitter banner because my sister is having a baby shower and the party needed some festive decorations.  I love working with glitter.  It makes everything bright and sparkly and fun!  I think the project turned out really well and I want to do more banners in the future using different color glitters!

To do this project you will need the following:

1. Thin Cardboard 8.5x11 (Like a cereal box)
2. Letters printed out on 8.5x11 paper,  700 to 800 pts, any font, up to 2 letters per page
3. Spraymount
4. Exacto knife or blade
5. Glitter (I used Martha Stewart brand)
6. Paint Brush
7. Mod Podge or glue
8. Yarn or thick string
9. Scissors
10. A folder or a folded piece of scratch paper 8.5x11 or larger
11. Masking tape or scotch tape

I didn't get a chance to get the very first steps photographed, but they are the easiest to do!

First you need to spray mount your printed letters to the cardboard.  Cut the letters out with scissors once the paper has bonded to the cardboard.

Once you have cut out the letters, you will need to take your exacto knife or razor blade and cut out any extra white paper on the inside of the letter (for example the letter A will still have white space on the inside to cut out)



Once the white space inside the letters are carefully cut out,  use your paint brush to coat your entire letter with your glue or Mod Podge. (Finished example below). Only a thin layer of glue will be enough.

Once you have coated the letter with glue, you can sprinkle on the glitter!  Remember to put a sheet of folded paper under your letters to catch the excess glitter.

Once the glitter has coated the entire letter, return the excess glitter to it's container for later use.

Repeat these steps the desired amount of times to create all of the letters that you will use in your banner. (I did it 9 times for my banner.)

Allow banner letters to dry overnight.  The next day, put another coat of Mod Podge on top of the glitter with dabbing motions.  If you don't have Mod Podge, be sure to use a glue that dries clear.  This helps really well to seal in the glitter so it doesn't come off of the letters.  If the letters curl a little, try putting them under a heavy book for an extra night after they have completely dried.

When the letters have dried and are flat as can be, there is nothing more to do than attach the string to the back of them.  I literally just eyeballed about a quarter inch down from the top of each letter, and masking taped the string so that the tape was hidden from the front view.  I also Mod Podged the string over the masking tape for extra hold.  I am sure there is a cleaner way to do this.  Maybe clear tape would work better. Or perhaps you can crazy glue pieces of straw to the back of the letters and insert the yarn through there.  I'll have to try that next time.  Anyway, I would leave about 4 feet of yarn slack on either side for hanging the banner up.

Here's what it looks like done.  I'll be using it for my sister's baby shower next week!  (hopefully I will have photos to post for that too.)

Mini Party Hat, for You, Your Boyfriend, and Cat!

Once upon a time I posted a tutorial on how to make an owl ornament with a toilet paper roll,

and a long LONG ago on Twitter I said...

So it turned out that "More on this soon" happened to be a year later, but in any case, I'm presenting you today (better late than never), another crafty idea made from the humble cardboard of a toilet paper roll.


Step 1.  Cut the roll down the middle on one side.

Step 2.  "Unroll" the cardboard and draw the following shape on the the side that rolls up toward you.

Step 3.  Cut out the shape that you drew. (Keep the piece that is filled in like above).  Pinch the 90 degree corner a bit to make it easier to roll.  Now,  roll it like you would a blue crab hand roll (yum!).

Step 4.  Tape the edges with a non sticky tape (like Artist's Tape) to hold the cone shape in place.

Step 5.  Place a stronger tape like masking tape or duct tape on the inside seams.  Cut off the excess.  You can then take off the Artist's Tape on the outside and the shape will hold!  After that if you want, you can put some sticky tape on the outside for more support.

Step 6.  Take your hole puncher and punch a hole on two opposite sides of the bottom of the hat.  This is where you will put your string!

Step 7.   Paint!  You can use any kind of paint and any color.  I had a ginormous bucket of light pink paint that was supposed to be used to paint my bathroom walls, but I never got around to it.  Wall paint actually works quite well for this project!

Step 8.  Use GLUE (I used Mod Podge, but any glue would work) to add sparkles to the rim of the hat.  I painted the glue on with a brush, added the sparkles, and then used a q-tip to even out the lines.

Step 9.  I used half inch diameter styrofoam balltz to make the top of the hat even more cute.  I poked a hole in one of the balltz with the edge of my paintbrush. I put some glue inside the hole and stuck it on top of the hat.  I wiped away excess glue with a q-tip.

Step 10.  I didn't have any other paint beside my bathroom wall bucket,  and I didn't have a printer handy, so I traced circles from a round object I had lying around (a magnet, actually), and I colored them in with my PrismaColor markers.  

These circles are about a half inch in diameter, but you can make them bigger or smaller.  You can even do rectangles, stars, hearts, clovers or diamonds!  This party hat can be whatever you want it to be.  (It's your party).  I used the classic party hat shape of a circle.

Cut the circles out with your scissors.

Step 11.  GLUE (I used Mod Podge again) the circles onto the hat in whatever design you like.  

Step 12.  Glue on the string or rubberband.  It will take a couple of hours to dry.  Hold with adorable mini clothes pins.  

I used a rubber band because I made the hat to put on my cat, but for a human mini party hat you may want to use string so you can fit it under your chin.

ENJOY!

**No kitties were harmed in the making of this blog post.