Kiwi's Blogger Follower Swap #5

Welcome, my fellow Swap-bot-ers :)

Wondering what Swap-bot is? Come check it out!
Swap-bot is a community for people that love giving and receiving mail (be is snail mail or emails).
(From Swap-bot's main page)
"Do you like sending and receiving snail mail? Do you like writing letters, making crafts, or putting together fun packages? You should try swapping! Swap-bot is a online service that organizes group swaps and a community of creative individuals. Swap-bot takes the hassle out of participating in group swaps by organizing all of the participant information and doing all of the partner assignments. On Swap-bot, you can host swaps, join swaps, and chat with other swappers from all over the world. Give it a try!"

Mini Ami Octopi

Super Cute!
I made a few of these little critters over the weekend. These two have taken up residence on my sister's desk at work. I love how customizable that they are. I played around a little with the eye type and size as well as the accent pieces. I am not sure which I prefer. I do know that I need to bust out all my plastic safety eyes to size and label them. They are all over the place now and I never know if I am using the pattern recommended eyes.

As for the pattern itself-- it was very easy. I have already recommended it someone that wants to make her first Ami. Basically, you make a ball, stopping close to the end to add eyes and a hair jewel. Close up the ball. Next, you make a ring of stitches and chain out like spokes. There is very very very little seaming which can be frustrating to new crochet artists. In this pattern, the tentacles are all made together-- you just join the bottom of the ball to the top flat area of the tentacle ring. The curly legs are so cute and allow you to even entangle them if you want to.

My sister also found out that the little guys are stack-able! I should have taken a picture in hindsight but she had 5 stacked on her desk and they were very stable.

Ian Art with Photoshop

Tonight, I tried my hand at making some Word Art using a photo I had of my boyfriend, Ian, and a tutorial I found at the psdtop blog.  It was certainly interesting to try. I have seen a few How-Tos across the web, though I haven't really seen any for non-Adobe programs. To do it, I looked through my files to find a picture of a front-on face that had a good mix of light and dark. I chose this one of Ian because I knew it would annoy him!

I think when I do it again (and I will, with a better picture and more definite concept), I will follow the directions exactly as laid out rather than fiddling with the tutorial before executing it the correct way first. I always seem to do that-- try to "make it better" before I have actually done it the other way first. I had used 3 different shades of gray rather than just making the word usage smaller and less dense as the tutorial instructs. It wasn't until I was finished with my image that I could see the value of what they were trying to do with those directions.