Earning A Patch In: Papercutting

What have I been doing while I've been away from you all this time Scouts? Well I decided to take up papercutting, of course! 

I stocked up on knives and cutting mats and cardstock during black Friday (holler at Joann's deal$$$), and looked at some online tutes. I dumbed down this tutorial to my cave-woman level equipment and finally completed my first piece. It's a little something to send my little niece for her birthday. I hope to eventually improve to more intricate work, like Rob Ryan and Suzy Taylor, but as they say: PRACTICE!

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Step 1: The puzzle of figuring out exactly what to cut and what to leave and where to connect it all. Black permanent marker for cuts, white for keeps.

Step 2: Start cutting. Don't fuck it up.

Step 3: Gaze upon the beauty of your creation. 

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The process reminds me a lot of linocutting, which I always enjoyed, but minus the actual linoleum and ink and supplies! I love how organic and yet structured this particular media is, as exemplified by the gorgeous paper cuts and other products based on the designs of Emily Brown at BirdMafia. 

I adore these simple Valentines and greetings from the Bird Mafia site! (Click photos to be taken directly to those items on etsy.) I can definitely see myself sending little paper-cut 'howdy's in the mail. So keep an eye out to see what else I cook up!

don't you lay those hallelujahs on those babies anymore,

cait

A Labor of Love: How to DIY a Crappy Vintage Tee into an AWESOME Tank Top

I don't know if you've heard the news Lush Scouts, but I may be a little bit obsessed with Paul Simon.

Because of this, I've long been in the market for a Paul Simon shirt, but nothing meets my many requirements (the right print, the right colour, the right price). But my hours spent trolling ebay have not been for naught! After finishing my nightstand I was in need of a project and this shirt miraculously appeared on my radar!

The first thing that caught my eye was the price! Less than 10 dollars.

Second, I am a girl who is fond of RIT dye, so I can appreciate the blank canvas of a white shirt.

The most important thing I noticed was this massive stain across the upper shoulder!

As someone with the utmost reverence for Paul Simon memorabilia, I could tell it hadn't been treated with the respect that it deserved.

So I adopted the shirt as my new pet project.

The first step was much much bleaching. I used a toothbrush to specifically scrub the stains with bleach. This both worked really well and totally backfired. The stains disappeared, but the part that I had scrubbed was much brighter than the rest of the shirt! So the whole thing got a bath in some extremely diluted bleach. 

At this point I decided that lavender was the correct colour for the shirt. I gave it a bath in a little bit of purple dye and then a quick dip in some navy in order to get the colour I wanted. 

The colour is even lighted now after a good washing-machine wash and a couple of wears. It is very nice. 

The other important step I needed to take was to make it a tank top. Pro-tip for ladies with big tatas: cutting the sleeves off of a slightly-too-tight teeshirt and sewing back up the sides a little will make the shirt fit better than it had with the sleeves. I don't know why this works, but it always always does. It also allows you to stretch the shoulders out and make it a little longer.

So that is what happened next and now this shirt is my child. It goes to parties and work with me. It even went to the beach. Just another labor of love in honor of Paul Simon, and now treated with all the love and adoration it deserves.

Still Crazy After All These Years

Cait