Banana Pill Tour CD-R

This week is the last week before we go on tour and it has been a bit crazy as usually. I stayed up really late making covers and t-shirts. Today i can finally slow down a bit. I still have some things to do, but at least the biggest things are ready and i don't have to go to school today.

Two big things basically were t-shirts and a new Banana Pill live CD-R we've made especially for the tour. Now that the t-shirts are drying after a successful wash (the images have not disappeared!) and the CD's are packed i can finally show you the result of my work.

The idea of this CD-R was that we make it fast and cheap, so that anyone could buy it and we could give it as a gift to someone if we want to. We included only live tracks there, so that people who hear us and like it can buy it and listen to something similar to what they've heard.

So i went with this very simple design. I've ripped apart one simple white CD sleeve, traced it over this nice carton, cut it out and glued together. Then i've stamped the text on the front of each sleeve with my alphabet stamps. Stamping letter by letter doesn't give you perfectly straight text, but i like it because this way each sleeve is unique.

I've stamped the CD-R's the same way. I just needed to remove extra ink with a tissue, otherwise it wouldn't dry so well. I used inkjet-printable CD-R's.

Even though i didn't expect this CD-R to look any special, i am really happy with a result. Very minimalist and stylish. Cheap and easy, but it sure takes some time.

Banana Pill tote bags

While waiting for the blank t-shirts to arrive, i've decided to also make some tote bags for the tour. They are cheaper and i don't need to order them. I just got them from the local craft shop Tiimari.

First i thought of getting the bags from a regular food store and i was worried they would be too white and boring. But i found these and i really like them, because they have more "dirty" natural white color.

I used different types of leaves, so each bag is unique. Will do the same for the t-shirt. Hopefully all the leaves won't fall off by the time the t-shirts arrive.

Banana Pill t-shirt

We go on tour with Banana Pill very soon. We'll tour Russia! And we've decided to make t-shirts to sell on the tour. As usually, i've started acting at the last moment. A couple of weeks before the tour i've made my test t-shirt. I went with a simple design, because it's my first time, and i used the same idea i had with leaves and watercolor, only this time with textile paint. So it is really autumn inspired. Here are some pictures of my process:

First of all i've collected some nice leaves on my way home from school. Then i've spent ages looking for a good font in Photoshop. When it was ready i printed it out on a sticker paper and cut the letters out.

Then i attached the paper to the t-shirt and painted over the letters.

I waited for a little while for the paint to dry and took the sticker paper off. Then i got one leaf, painted it over with another color and stamped it on a t-shirt. I waited again for about an hour and ironed the image through another piece of fabric.

I was quite happy with the result, so i ordered some new blank t-shirts online (this one was Mitya's old t-shirt). I hope the postage won't take too long and i will have time to finish them all before the tour.

For this project i got lot's of help from a tutorial on Maiorov DIY blog. He is really good at it! Without his tips i would have messed up several t-shirts before getting it right.

New notebooks

I've been working on these notebooks for the whole week. They don't take so much time to make, but for some reason i kept doing them little by little. They are not made with recycled paper, but with new paper this time. I really wanted to try making them with this yellowish paper. And i've also finally tried my new rubber stamps on notebooks!

For this one i used an image from a magazine for the cover.

These rainbow polka dots are made of color paper and cut with a hole puncher. It took some time to glue each dot on to the cover.

For this one i used black carton and one of my black and white film photographs of flowers.

The shopping list notebook was made from the scraps left from the first three. It also took quite a long time to finish this one, because the words on the bottom were stamped letter by letter using my alphabet stamps. So the letters are not at all perfectly aligned, but i like it this way. It also has magnets on the back for hanging it on the fridge.

Leaves and Watercolor

I had way too many knitting and crocheting projects on my blog recently (and more of them are coming up), so now its time for something different.

The autumn is here and the leaves are falling down. I wanted to save some of them along with the happiness of summer. So i collected different leaves, covered them with watercolor paints and stamped the images on paper.

I haven't figured out any use for those images yet, but i really like how they came out.

Last Weekend Before School Starts: Crocheted Bathroom Container

This was my last project i managed to finish during my last weekend before school. Originally it was supposed to be a bathroom container (again, this was a pdf tutorial i saved one day and didn't save the link to it, sorry).

I kept the stitches as tight as possible, for the container not to be too soft. It came out just perfect, but quite small for a bathroom container. So i decided to use it as a container for my knitted balls that are not used for anything yet. They decorate my bookshelf now.

Last Weekend Before School Starts: Crocheted Jar Cozies

After having finished my stash basket i've started working on jar cozies that i wanted to do for a long time. I really needed them to cover the boring looking jars in my apartment.

First, i've done the grey jar cozy. I followed a tutorial first, but my jar's shape was different from the one in the tutorial, so i continued on my own. Unfortunately, i don't have a link to the tutorial anymore, i saved the pdf on my computer. But it wasn't anything difficult, just making a chain long enough to wrap around the bottom of the jar. Then half double crocheting the whole way, adding or skipping stitches when needed, depending on the shape of the jar.

After having finished the grey jar cozy i realized it isn't difficult at all, so i made another one for the plastic pot in which i keep the basil. I've added the last row with a wavy stitch to make it even prettier.

Last Weekend Before School Starts: Crocheted Stash Basket

My school started this week. Last week was the only week of holiday i had this summer and i was so lazy, i couldn't do anything. On saturday i realized that school starts in two days and i haven't done so many things i wanted to do during summer. So i got out my hook and my yarns and started crocheting.

I got so into it that i've finished this stash basket in one day. To make it i followed a tutorial from the Purl Bee blog. I really like the blog, it is full of knitting, crocheting and other craft ideas and there are lots of tutorials that are really nice and clear. Now i have this pretty basket that is holding my yarns nicely.

More "Last Weekend Before School" projects are coming up later!

New lens

I finally got myself a new lens. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8! I used a kit lens before and i was quite unhappy with it, but i could not afford anything more than that. I am still happy i bought the camera anyway and didn't wait to have enough money for both camera and a lens. I've learnt a lot even with a kit lens. Now i finally got some money for quite cheap but a really nice and sweet 50mm. The day i got it i couldn't stop taking pictures and being happy for the nice bokeh and colors.

Mitya's mom had her birthday party the same day my lens arrived. I've spent the whole party taking pictures of the things around the house.

I'm really happy with the lens, it is exactly what i expected it to be: small, light and giving good results.

And guess what? I am getting another one soon!

Another soft case

I bought myself a wireless mouse to use with my laptop. But i couldn't let it float around in my bag unprotected. So i knitted this stripy pouch for my mouse to feel soft and safe.