Artist Spotlight: Caramel*Ribbon

Time for another artist spotlight! My recent resin adventures reminded me of this resin artist I really admire. I first ran across her work at a handmade market in Taipei, which had Japanese artists invited as well. 

If you are a fan of magical girl and pastel glittery styles, you will love Caramel*Ribbon for sure! While I believe the shop only sells to Japanese residents, her instagram is definitely some lovely eyecandy~

Check out some of her works!

Beautiful pendants~
Pic from website

I especially adore the magical key items! At the market they were available as necklace, pin, and hairpin. In person they are even more beautiful, if you can believe it!

Pic from website

The works are a bit large, so I would personally only wear one as an accent piece on a necklace or maybe as a bag pin.

Pic from website

Her work inspired me to order some key-theme metal charms recently to create small magical keys (and cat keys... maybe?) for charms myself! Cannot wait for them to come in!

Do you have any favorite resin artists? I'm looking for more to follow!! Drop some names below if you know any! Thank you~

Ribbon Tights DIY

This hardly requires any direction, but I wanted to share how I upgraded my pink tights!
I haven't worn these in ages simply because the shade of pink is slightly off from my other pinks (other Sweet Lolitas, you understand the struggle!)

So I decided to add a contrasting color so I can wear these with other coordinates.

It is really as simple as it looks. Tie small ribbons (seal them by sewing or gluing inside the knot) and then stitch them carefully to your tights. I opted only to stitch them to the lower legs so they wouldn't get in the way of my bloomers and petticoat.\

Tip: Stitch with a thin thread and needle so as to not risk creating runs in your tights!

Craft Along Goth It Yourself! Rhymes with "That"

There's a delightful blog I follow called "Goth it Yourself" which is exactly as the title sounds: the author takes regular items and turns them into Gothic creations.  This month's Craft Along theme was "Rhymes with 'that'" and I took this opportunity to revamp my black "flats" and join in the fun!

While these shoes are cheap and comfortable, the ribbon often comes undone and the metal ends swing around, hitting my ankles.  I started out by snipping the stitching keeping the suede material on.

Next, I decided I wanted a skull stud to cover where the stitching had been, and so used an awl to puncture the material without cutting it.

After inserting the back of the stud from the inside, it was a simple matter of screwing the skull on.

I added some basic pyramid studs to either side.  They easily pierced the faux leather shoe and I used a thimble to protect my fingers as I pressed the point ends of the studs down.

Everything needed to Goth a pair of flats yourself!

 I am extremely pleased with the new look to these flats!   While I had considered spikes, they didn't seem fitting with flats, so I opted for the pyramid studs instead.

While not exactly a tutorial, I hope you found this post inspirational and can Goth up something yourself!  Also be sure to follow Goth it Yourself blog!

Mini Tutorial~Deco Pokewalker

I am a bit of a Pokemon freak. That's right, I admit it! I LOVE Pokemon! And of course, I think the original 150 is the best (151, if you were in on the secret of Mew!) Unfortunately, I was not allowed to play the games, and my parents never bought any game systems until Xbox came out. But that's what friends are for, right? Weekends spent borrowing GameBoys (Pokemon Yellow was my favorite!) and taking turns at Pokemon Stadium for N64 (don't forget Super Smash! Though I was actually always Kirby rather than Jigglypuff or Pikachu).

For my birthday this past May, two of my best friends got me a Nintendo DSi and Pokemon Heart Gold ! Then my dad got me a DSlite, and being truly material, I chose the DSlite because I prefer the shade of milk pink over the hot pink

As you all know (or should know!), Heart Gold and Soul Silver come with the Pokewalker! Basically, it is a pedometer that you can transfer one of your Pokemon into. I like to imagine that they are walking by my side when I am using it! Which is... every day... and of course, with so much use, my Pokewalker is getting a little bit beat up! It has two scuffs and a crack that goes about 3/4 of the way around the perimeter My solution? Deco it! Hopefully the strass stones will help protect it from more damage, plus it is so cute now!

I originally wanted to just add stones the same color as the base (red, black, and white) but failed to find red strass stones I found pink, and thought of making my Pokewalker into a Loveball instead, but the screen takes up too much room and the heart of the Loveball would be covered up! Instead, I chose to just make it cute and simple. Enough rambling, on to the pictures!

FYI this was my first time doing a full deco like this! It is not perfect, but I like it


First, I chose my materials!


White ribbon, white rose, pink rose, and pink, black, and white strass stones. The pink ones are ever so slightly smaller than the other two (they are 3mm I believe), which actually ended up working better!


Epoxy glue! This was my very first time using epoxy glue... you have to mix equal portions of the two bottles


PROTECT YOUR WORK AREA! This is extremely important!


Squeeze out equal size blobs of glue. The top on is the pink bottle, and is more viscous. The bottom is the blue bottle and is more liquid


The kit came with a stirring piece for mixing it up

First, place the large pieces on. It is easier to build the stones around the large pieces than to try and leave space for them at the end. They will also adhere better stuck directly onto your objet than if they were attached on top of the stones because there is more surface area attached.

I found that my nails were too long to hold these properly... need tweezers! Place them where you want. The glue takes 4 hours to dry, so you have lots of time to work

Next, build up your design. I had mine planned out for months, so I just went ahead and started gluing! I tried putting glue on the back of the strass stone, then attaching it, but actually found it easier to put a line of glue on the Pokewalker, then sticking stones on top of that. I did the black lines first, then the white portion, and lastly the pink portion. I worked in rows rather than from one side to the other in an attempt to keep it symmetrical. As you can see, I messed up on the white portion, but did better on the pink!

The smaller stones make it easier to maneuver around objects (like the ribbons and buttons) without gaping too much
While working around the buttons, stop periodically to press them and make sure you are not putting the stones too close!!

Lastly, I added the roses on top of the buttons to make them easier to press

I think I ended up getting some glue into the button area because the left button is a bit gummy. The other two click fine. I hope I didn't mess up my Pokewalker...
Also note that whatever you put on the buttons, the base shouldn't be bigger than the button otherwise it will hit the strass stones and be unable to be pushed down.

Deco is a very fun and pretty way to personalize an object. Get creative with your designs, but remember to think them through and make sure you won't regret it! Once dried, epoxy glue is hard to remove. Also please note that deco-ing directly onto any object voids the warranty. I suggest waiting until your warranty has expired, or buying a sleeve or case for your phone/laptop/game console. This way, you can also decorate multiple sleeves or cases and change your look to match your mood!

The place I bought my deco supplies at has many cute cakes and sweet cabochans that I would like to use for something... not sure what, but I like them a lot!

Now go out there and bring some pretty bling bling into your life!


EDIT:
Now that the glue has dried, I am happy to say that all three buttons function properly! I kept pressing them periodically (very carefully) throughout the drying time to make sure no glue seeped in and glued them stuck. Hooray!