 this in just a minute. So not long ago I was looking at my Facebook page as I always do and one of you all who is friends with me on Facebook posted pictures of this caterpillar in your yard. I don't remember which one of you it was so if you recognize the photo and it was you please say so in the comments below because I was an idiot and didn't make no but I really thought you know I that's kind of inspiring to me and I love that little caterpillar shape and form I love the background of him here kind of on the distressed wood so we're gonna have this just open in the background and we're gonna create something inspired by our little friend the caterpillar. So I've chosen this piece of striped fabric for my background and I took a couple of different colors of yarn and I wrapped them around this little craft stick frame that I made hot that I hot glued together I just hot glued two long craft sticks to two short ones that wasn't rocket science and then I sewed it down the middle I didn't really care what color thread I used because I don't think it's really gonna show when we're all is said and done anyway. Now we are gonna cut it off the frame and you could make if you make dolls or you're making zombies or anything like I am and you want hair for the zombie doll this is how you could make hair for the doll by the way. Okay so now we're gonna take our yarn that's been sewn together and we'll do one side at a time carefully holding on to this side I'm gonna take my little pet brush this is for small dogs or cats I think and I'm gonna just start brushing and what will happen with this acrylic yarn as you can see is it's gonna start pulling the fibers apart and doing that to it now I'm gonna take this and we're not gonna throw this away I'm gonna put it in my little scrap pot and we can use that for pillow stuffing or something pincushion stuffing so just keep brushing turn it around and do the other side now I do have these really too long strands that I'm gonna cut off this was just yarn I had downstairs I didn't go buy anything special don't do that use what you have I got the idea for doing it this way from some of the doll youtubers that make over their dolls they do this kind of thing with yarn all the time to get their doll hair so that's pretty good before we go any farther with it it's way too big for our page and it's much bigger and wider than what I really want so I'm going to cut it probably about the question is do I want the blue one or the I think I kind of want the blue one so I'm gonna cut it right about here and separate those that other piece can be used for something else later now I think this is too long the sides are too long so we're gonna give it a haircut again all of that's gonna get saved because it'll be used for future projects now I'm gonna take what's left and you'll notice it wasn't real careful making sure it's even because it's not about that you'll notice it wasn't really sure careful about making sure it's even because it wasn't about that hang on let me plug my phone in and I'll be right back okay make sure we're turned on okay so as I was saying you'll notice I wasn't real careful about making sure they were trimmed evenly because it's not about that I'm gonna again hold this one side and I'm gonna brush out the other side which will fray those cut edges a little bit it's harder to do when it's so short it's pretty good then I think what I'm gonna do do this you know like the hairdressers do when it's they want to make the edges less like straight I'm not a hairdresser don't ask me to cut your hair it's a bad idea and just keep brushing and trimming until you get something that you're happy with which I think I am okay so then I'm gonna take some of my other fibers that I have here and I'm gonna use these for the body and what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna tie a series of knots you could also braid it as I say that how does it look braided no I'm gonna do the knots I like the knots better so I'm gonna do a bunch of knots kind of close together well I'm gonna try to do a series of knots close together that one was kind of wonky but you know it's 2020 what do you expect just wanted to be sort of lumpy and textured yeah now for the stitching so I'm gonna get a very thread oh here's some already on a needle isn't that handy okay tonight want it put the reading glasses on alright so then do I want it that way that way I think I want it this way and then the other question is do I want some trim behind it so that could be a thing again it's inspired by our little caterpillar friend it's not close to exactly present our calendar caterpillar friend okay so first we need to stitch these on because I do think I'm gonna put that on there and for that we might want a lighter color thread this floss here which is DMC color 739 and I believe this is 535 this dark gray okay so let's we're gonna use just all whatever this is this I think is three strands I'm gonna just use this one it might be all six I don't know so leftover pre-piece from another project I'm gonna toss a couple pins in here so I don't lose track of where I want these and I'm gonna start at the bottom and I'm gonna stitch up these holes in the side of the ribbon right here I'm gonna try to zoom in right here so you can see what I'm doing it's helpful if you put a knot into the thread you know so there's holes on either side of this trim so if you just do a running stitch in and out of those holes should be pretty easy quick and easy like that okay I took some of this print it's like light brown print I tore a piece so that it would be ragged I'm gonna put it horizontally across here and I've got some light blueish green floss I don't have a DMC number for this because this is one that was gifted to me and I don't know what it is but anyway I'm gonna pin this down and then I'm going to attach it with this floss I think we're gonna do sort of a seed stitch which is single stitches of floss in a random pattern not in a straight line or anything I'll do a few so that you can see and you can do them of course as small or as large as you know you want to do there's no no rules I find myself frequently turning it or my stitches have a habit of going always in the same direction so if you're like me you might find that handy tip so they're just a variety of stitches like this different directions and I'm gonna go all the way across this way so I'm gonna do that and I'll be right back so our brown strip is attached and I did do that sort of thinning haircutting thing that you see them do anyway and brush it a little bit more and you'll see this side is darker than this side I do think I like the lighter side so I'm gonna place it right about here I think maybe oh maybe up there but our phrase that's gonna be on here it says there is only your way actually I think I might want it up there okay first we're gonna get this on so we are gonna sew the hairy trim on at the same time we sew the knotted fibers on and we're gonna do a couching stitch where we just go up one side and over the knotted fibers and down the other side to attach it we're gonna use this dark gray thread I'm gonna try to hold it in place because I don't think there's it really gonna be any great way to pin it I tried that off camera didn't work very well so I'm gonna go up one side down the other side and then do that again I'll try to zoom in here with the camera if I can so y'all can see but just up one side on the other side between the knots something like that I'm gonna work on getting that attached and I'll be right back okay so I've got our fibers on I do think I'm gonna add some buttons and then of course we're gonna sew our phrase on let's do the phrase first so these are printed on fabric that's meant to go through your printer but you also can iron cotton muslin to freezer paper and do it that way I buy this paper on Amazon just to paint sometimes to peel the backing paper off but that's okay sometimes I don't bother I just leave it like I'm tempted to do right now you have to like score it with something sharp and then there we go it's probably not as hard as I'm making you now to me to peel it off but it's you know I'm not young anymore my fingers don't always work the way they should it's all I can say about that I'm gonna leave it raggedy because I'm kind of like the way that looks I'm going to use some regular sewing thread more like buttonhole twist thread it's in an off-white color and I'm gonna sew that down with just a running stitch my fabric when I'm stitching usually gets a bit puckery because I don't use a hoop and I'm not too worried about it and if I can and I haven't used anything that can't take the heat then I will just give it a good press before I attach it to a mounting board or put it in the book most of the time with the meditation book I don't bother sometimes I do it depends with this one I may not press it because I most of those fibers I put on there are acrylic and they can't really take the heat if you try they're gonna just melt because it's basically plastic that's good to experiment with the materials that you're using if you have a scrap of it against the hot iron to see if it can take the heat or not if you're not sure okay sometimes when I haven't left myself enough thread to tie it on the other way I do this and I put threads my time this way if you're wondering a little bit okay I'm gonna trim these just a little bit but I'm not gonna turn them all the way off because I kind of like that they're sticking up all right next we need some more thread so and Brooke text our artist here on YouTube I'd love her channel she uses linen buttons a lot which of course I can't ever find anywhere without them costing a lot of money so these are ones that I made using muslin a little bit of cotton batting sandwiched a washer there's a washer in the middle of here and I just make my own version which we're gonna tack down now because I want to put one on the bottom now this is not like a regular button where it has to be like seven a million times because it's not there's not gonna ever be any strain put on this button you're not closing it all the time so I'm just gonna do a couple quick stitches two more buttons up here I'm gonna do the bottom the bigger one at the bottom sorry about the dinging my Facebook friends creative art friends are having a conversation many of us are let's see some of us are in the way of the fires some of us are in the path of Hurricane Sally so everybody's just kind of checking in with everybody else it is Friday September Friday holy cow it's Wednesday September 16th today as I'm filming this anyway okay enough with that turn it over and do I want to add anything else I actually don't think I do I kind of I really just really like the way that looks expired inspired by our caterpillar friend I don't think there's anything like parts or sometimes I'll add you know crazy bits there's no wrong way to do it I actually do have a little bit of a label let's see I buy old clothes at the food store sometimes and I use them for fabric for slow stitching so putting that down there I kind of like that and then what about putting these here I kind of like that too so I take that back so whether you're working with paper and paint or you're working with fabric it's basically just collage so mix up your textures and your patterns and your colors and you know allow yourself to be inspired by a photo or an idea that doesn't mean you have to copy it exactly you're trying to be inspired by it and create a piece of art artwork inspired by that I'm gonna have I'm gonna have more about that coming up in the channel if you follow me on social media you know I've been doing some gel pen drawings on tone tanned paper here's a secret those are inspired by photos from nature and I'm gonna be sharing my process for that coming up in another video this is a little more challenging to sew through because this is an old hook and eye closure probably from the back of a bra I don't know where this came from it was in my grandmother sewing box and she and my great-grandmother there were old school so they you know if they wore out a shirt then they didn't just throw the whole shirt away and they took all the fabric scraps and buttons and things off of it first just in case they could use them to mend something else in the future so this came off of the back of something I don't know what it came off the back of it's a dark brown though so if it was off the back of a bra go grandma you know just saying it's a racy color okay especially for my Italian Catholic grandmother holy cow yep I like the way that looks exactly okay so then I just take my meditation journal and I usually use either tacky glue or yes paste and we find it the next blank page and we tape it in right about here so let me get it tape it in glue it in let me get it glued in and I'll be right back okay there it is that's a cute addition to our meditation journal so I hope it gives you some ideas of just some different things you can do if you're into journaling maybe you incorporate a little bit of stitching in your journaling you don't have to have a complete fabric book this is just made with mixed media paper or drawing paper and it's working out great these squares are about 5 inches so this book is just a little bit bigger than that which works out wonderful so anyway there you have it I hope it gives you some ideas of what you can do don't forget to like share and subscribe if you will and you're new here also check out my video description for ways to support the free content here on YouTube and over in the Facebook art groups not just for me but yes for me but not just for me all your favorite creators here on YouTube most of them have a way to support their free content and I know they would all appreciate you doing that if you can so check out their video descriptions if you can't find an Etsy store or a PayPal tip jar or patreon or something else email them and ask because maybe they have a way and it's just not for whatever reason not in there besides that stay safe stay healthy stay creative and go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it I'll see you later bye guys