Tutorial Tuesday: Making a Draw-string Baggie!

Good evening everyone!

Today' tutorial is a brief walk through of how to make a draw-string baggie! I just learned it in my sewing class today (it's the 2nd class, so I'm not very advanced). It's super cute and easy to make, even if you don't have a sewing machine.

I didn't feel comfortable recording video during class, so I don't have any video footage to show you. So I will just have to talk you through what we did, with the help of some pictures.

On the left is the finished product. You will need a rectangle piece of fabric (long side twice the length of the short side, so a 1:2 ratio), solid color or patterned, it's really up to you. In class we were provided with white fabric and choice of ribbon (I chose green of course!).

If you use a patterned piece of fabric then you won't have to sew decorative stitches across like mine. For white or solid color fabric, and if you have a sewing machine with a variety of stitches, definitely sew some decorative stitches on.

With rectangle piece of fabric, draw a line 3.5 inches from the top of the short side. For horizontal stitching, we marked 3 more lines, below that line, each 1.5 inches down. The markings were made with markers that could easily be wiped off with a damp cloth. There are other markers that fade over time.Then sew the decorative stitches along those lines. You can see some of my decorative stitches on the left.

From this point, you can leave your edges raw, or you can sew some zigzag stitching along the edges to keep them from fraying. I sewed zigzags along all 4 sides of my rectangle piece.

Then fold your rectangle up in half, wrong side out. Sew the two sides down with a straight stitch, leaving the top open.

Next, still with the wrong side out, fold the top opening down to meet the 3.5" line you drew (and/or sewed a decorative stitch). Pin and sew along that edge, then sew another round half an inch away from that towards the opening. This will create the path for your ribbon (observe image on the right).

Turn your bag right side out now, and observe the sides where the stitching is. Between the two lines you made earlier, rip that bit of seam on each side using a seam ripper. This will create one opening on each side for your to slide your ribbon through.

Cut two pieces of ribbon of the same length, and the length should be about 5-6 inches longer than the width of your baggie. If you don't have one of those special sewing gadgets to snake the ribbon through the hole, you can use either a bobby pin (tie the ribbon on the folded part of the pin and use the other end to snake it through) or a long safety pin (pin down one end, close the pin and snake it through).

For the first piece of ribbon, snake it in and out one end, so you make one full circle and come out the same place you came in (observe image on left). Then tie a knot to keep it from slipping out. Next, do the same for the second piece of ribbon but enter and exit from the other hole you created.

That's it! Your baggie is done! If you made it small,it can be a cute little coin bag, travel make-up bag or anything else you can think of. If you make it bigger, there are even more possibilities on the uses!

If you decide to make one, please do share! Until next time!

<3 Kara

Tutorial Tuesday: Understanding Color

Good afternoon Lured Ones!

I hope your week is off to a good start and are on your way to happy Halloween tomorrow!

Today I had a tutorial planned and began filming it for you. Then half way through painting it, migraine hits and that was the end of that tutorial for now. I get frequent migraines that sometimes get so bad that I can't do anything but to lay down. So that's what I've been doing. I will post a picture below to give you a sneak-peek into what I had planned for today, however, I won't tell you what I am planning to demonstrate:

I realized that there's no way I can finish a tutorial for you today in time, so I decided to muster up some energy to find a good tutorial to show you all. After a bit of searching, I found a good video discussing color mixing and making a color wheel. It's a video on YouTube by Jerry Yarnell. He does a great job describing how colors interact with each other and also gets into describing color composition for different moods for a painting with examples from his studio.

I am posting a this video (that has no affiliation to me, I just really liked his explanation) in place of my own today, but keep in mind that I will finish this tutorial when I can and still post it for next week's Tutorial Tuesday. So be sure to check back for that! I think you will really like what I have planned.

So with that said, I shall leave you in the good hands of Mr. Yarnell.



<3 Kara

Tutorial Tuesday: Priming the Canvas

Good evening everyone!

I can't believe Tuesday is almost over. But it is still Tuesday, nonetheless, and that means it's time for another Tutorial Tuesday. I actually was uploading it earlier today in the morning and I got really sick and was in bed all day, so I wasn't able to put up a post until now.

For this Tutorial Tuesday, I am showing you how to prime the canvas as a follow up from the last tutorial. In this one, I am showing how to prime the canvas board we made. You are not limited to the canvas board as you can prime pretty much any surface in preparation for painting. I hope you like it!If you were wondering, music is again by my friend Eric, so be sure to give his Sublunary band page and Facebook page some love.


See you on Factual Friday!

<3 Kara

Tutorial Tuesday: How to Make a Canvas Board/Panel

Good afternoon everyone!



Today features the first installment of Tutorial Tuesday! I've decided to do a tutorial on how to make a canvas board. I've stretched canvases before, but have yet to make a canvas board. There was a simple How To in one of the books I owned and thought it would be a fun first tutorial for this series. I also did a bit of research just to see what others are doing out there to make their canvas boards, and adjusted a template of how I would do it.

As you are watching this video, please keep in mind that I am doing this tutorial for the first time with you. I have never done this before, so I will be making mistakes as someone doing something for the first time might. With that said, enjoy! And don't forget to come back for the first Factual Friday on Be Lured on... you guessed it, Friday!

<3 Kara

"Sundae" Surprise! ... on Sunday!

Good evening Lured Ones!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
As you can see, I am implementing a new feature to this blog called Sunday Surprise! This means that every Sunday I will post on something of my choice. Sometimes it will be about a finished piece or project that I am currently working on and sometimes it will be something not related to my works at all. Since it is supposed to be a surprise, I won't elaborate too much on what Sunday Surprises will feature; you will just have to wait and see!

This Sunday, there are two surprises to kick off the start of this series. The first Sunday Surprise is a sundae! This piece on the left is called "Her Sundae Best" by artist Jacqui Faye. Although she paints contemporary portraits she is best known for her figurative works called the Red Shoe Dailies. In these "red shoe stories," anonymous subjects are portrayed from the shoulders, waist, or knees down and always with red shoes to "paint a story often interpreted by viewers who relate to the artwork through anonymity." To learn more about Jacqui Faye, please visit her site at http://jacquifaye.blogspot.com/

But wait! There's more! Moar!!!!! The second surprise this Sunday is that there are more surprises. In addition to Sunday Surprise, there will also be other days scheduled for posts so that the blog gets a consistent flow of content. Are you ready? Drum roll please.... There will be Tutorial Tuesdays, and also Factual Fridays.

For Tutorial Tuesdays I will take pictures or record a video of myself performing a technique or tutorial from a book, magazine or website for you all to see! So that way we are both learning something new together every week. I'm actually really excited about this because not only is it a forcing mechanism for consistent flow of content, but also it's challenging me to learn something new each week. Yay!

Since we have a day dedicated to techniques I thought a day set aside for learning about art would be appropriate. For Factual Fridays (hehe F to the third), it will be less about techniques and more about art facts. Although the day is called Factual Fridays, I will not post solely short random art facts but rather information regarding art in various categories such facts, art history, current events, notable artists, museums and other research.

I am super excited about Tutorial Tuesdays, Factual Fridays and Sunday Surprises! I hope you are too. I can't wait for Tuesday's post. What tutorial shall I do, I wonder? You'll have to check back and see! Until next time,

<3 Kara