From Ear Muffs to Soot Sprite!

I have a confession. I have a serious case of craft envy. I have many talented friends who are very good with their brains and their hands and create beautiful work. Some have their own businesses, others just make fab things for their homes, babies, friends etc. I look admiringly at their handiwork and long to make similar masterpieces myself. I want to be uber housewife, who in her spare time (what's that anyway???) creates pretty things that make others swoon with delight.

I have a problem with seeing through such dreams however. First of all I lack patience. I want to see my work come to fruition as soon as possible and preferably with little effort. Even when I do sit down and work on something painstakingly, I'm all fingers and thumbs. I'm lucky enough that I can sew buttons back onto clothes, but even they unstitch themselves within a matter of weeks *sigh*

One thing I do consistently try to make an effort with though are making cards for people. I like doing it, especially when I can reuse old cards, calendars, ribbons, and other materials - I actually have a whole chest of drawers full of exciting things to decorate cards with. Sometimes I am a little too ambitious and my final products usually look like they were made by an eight year old, but I try.

Mei with a Soot Sprite

This being the case, I was extra chuffed with the birthday card I made for my brother's girlfriend this week. When we were spring cleaning recently I found my black ear muffs which had broken at the end of winter and I just tossed into a corner of the living room, too angry to dispose of them properly at the time. When I found them on top of the magazine rack I declared to my husband that I could make a Soot Sprite birthday card for my brother's girlfriend with them. Soot Sprites feature in one of her favourite films, My Neighbour Totoro. She actually painted me an awesome picture of Totoro in a memory book created by my friends for my hen party, and she also painted me another awesome picture of Sophie and Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle for my last birthday, so I knew I had to make something cool for her.

It was simple really. My husband detached one of the muffs from the headband, whilst I cut out two eyes from the scraps of a white sock that I had used to make my husband's stuffed owl a lab coat one day when I was bored... I then used a black pen to draw pupils on the sock eyes, and used glue dots to stick them to the muff. I then used several glue dots to stick the muff that was now a Soot Sprite onto the card. Unfortunately I had not been able to find any better glue for this, and not being naturally craft-minded I wasn't even sure what type would work best in the circumstances.

Anyway, for someone as ham-fisted as I am when it comes to delicate work, I was very chuffed with the result. He looks a little angry, and I haven't created anything on par with the Studio Ghibli themed crafts I've found online, but he's still very cute, if I may say so myself.

Ta da!

I presented it to my brother's girlfriend on Monday at a surprise birthday party organised by her sister, and thankfully she loved it, yey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!

Picture from http://miyazakihayao.wikia.com/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro
Photo & card my own :D