He began his project by making a miniature sculpture from polymer clay. Then, he put together the skeleton using bicycle inner tubes and the tires. The Alien King Marquette took him 20 days to finish.

“Unlike ordinary aliens, Alien King has more tentacles. He has a lot of gully and scales on his body. It is necessary to cut the tires into very thin strips to simulate the texture of his skin, which is very difficult to make. But I feel quite satisfied with the presentation of the finished product,” the artist said in a statement on his YouTube channel.

He makes other remarkable sculptures as well. Like, for example, Godzilla, Kong, Angemon from the Digimon anime, War Elephant, and many more.

He began posting videos on the internet a year ago and has already reached over 15 million views. If you’re interested to see how he does his magic, check out the gallery below!

The post Craftsman Makes Life-Sized Sculptures Using Old Tires appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Journaling

Considered a mindful practice, journaling has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. It can also be a check-in tool at times when we feel unbalanced and unmotivated. Most of all, it’s a way of staying creative and being present.

Instagram inspiration: Menw Hurkens

The owner of Etsy store Rippels Paperhugger, Hurkens celebrates all things paper, highlighting the joyful practice of journaling. Based in the Netherlands, Hurkens’ Instagram is filled with the kind of journaling inspiration that will get your creative juices flowing.

Embroidery

The past year has seen a steady rise in embroiderers, and it’s easy to see why. Embroidery is a great and relatively cheap way to pass the time, and the end result makes for a great decoration. From embroidered wall hangings to quilts, they are elegant works of art.

Instagram inspiration: Liz Stiglets

“Let’s all slow down, get cozy, get crafty,” reads Liz Stiglets’ Instagram bio, which sounds like a perfect plan for quarantine.  The owner of cozyblue, Siglets believes that small, simple acts of creativity can make the world a calmer, happier place.

Hand Lettering

Hand lettering can be very meditative and relaxing. It also doesn’t cost much and the possibilities are endless! You can create custom birthday and thank you cards for family and friends, design typography prints to hang in your living room, or you can upgrade that journal you just started.

Instagram inspiration: Lauren Fitzmaurice

Watching Lauren Fitzmaurice’s lettering videos on Instagram can be relaxing in and of itself. Luckily for us, she also passes her knowledge onto others, by sharing her work on Instagram and teaching online classes. Her toolbox includes pointed pens, gouache, Tombow brush pens, and watercolor brushes.

The post 3 Unique Hobbies to Try During Quarantine appeared first on PlayJunkie.

She currently has nearly 400k followers on Instagram that enjoy seeing her new projects daily. While answering their questions in a Q&A session on her account, Lissova said that there’s no secret behind her creativity. “I just love what I do. It motivates me to keep creating,” she wrote.

The artist started creating these adorable miniatures for fun but then found them to be the perfect creative outlet she needed. See more on her Instagram page and follow her if you’d like to get the updates in the future. Below are some of her works we loved the most.

The post Paper Plants and Flowers by Tania Lissova appeared first on PlayJunkie.

During April, Linda Di Martino posted tons of updates showing the process for which she filled the tank. So how did the project begin?

After having an aquarium filled with fish for 25 years, when the fish started to die, she told her husband (who has sadly since passed away) that, “when the last fish dies, I will do it all in crochet, I will leave a nice memory of me to the children, not a commitment to stay behind,” Di Martino shared with Bored Panda.

She kept to her word and started crocheting for the aquarium by using the leftover yarn she accumulated from previous work and searching the internet for patterns for sea creatures and plants. When she couldn’t find the patterns she wasn’t discouraged; she just made her own.

It turns out that many people are interested in buying her creation, but she’s not interested in selling it. You can always try making your own with the videos and patterns she’s posed on her social media sites or you can buy some of her other work on her Facebook shop.

The post Linda Di Martino Crocheted an Entire Aquarium Full of Sea Animals appeared first on PlayJunkie.

And so, a love for sewing and embroidery began – one that would eventually culminate in an Etsy shop where she now sells hand-embroidered necklaces and earrings, all made with special care and attention. “I used to work as a freelance photojournalist, but when I got pregnant, my husband and I decided that I’d stay at home for a while and take care of our daughter,” she explained in an interview with the Etsy blog, describing how her career came to be. “About a year after she was born, I started to feel like I wanted to do something creative again. I started making an inventory of my skills and what I’d like to do, and I decided I’d really enjoy working with fabric and drawing and colors. I had a few threads, so I tried embroidering, and it’s cliché, but it was love at first sight.”

When it comes to Thursday More’s creative inspiration, color plays a huge part. she admits she goes color hunting on the internet, saving references on her computer for a later time. Aside from color, her designs are also influenced by her mood, imagination, and memories, making her creations both personal and appealing.

“I try to stitch every day, even just for an hour,” she says. “I like the portability, the fact that I can take it with me wherever I go. It doesn’t require electricity. It doesn’t require the internet. With hand embroidery, you’re just in the moment.” Here are some of our favorite creations by her:

The post Why Not Add Embroidery to Your Jewelry Collection? appeared first on PlayJunkie.

According to Stiglets, nurturing ourselves and tapping into our creativity allows us to become happier, more joyful, whole people. “I encourage you to slow down, “she says. “Take some time to notice the world around you. Look within and help your mind focus and calm so that you can come from a place of quiet rather than chaos. When your mind is peaceful, your life is richer.”

In an interview with the Etsy blog, Stiglets recalled how she first experimented with embroidery when she was a teenager, by stitching little designs onto her backpack and jeans. “I put it away for a while, then came back to it years later when my kids were very young, and I pretty much never stopped!” she says. Completely self-taught, her craft was learned by trial and error, allowing herself room to make mistakes.

The kits she sells include everything you need to get started wit embroidery yourself. The pattern is pre-printed on the fabric, and the floss, needle, and hoop are included too. She also adds a Getting Started Guide, which walks you through setting up your hoop and prepping your embroidery floss. Her How-to Guide includes diagrams for a handful of her favorite basic stitches. “I give notes for each design, including which stitches I used where, so folks can replicate my example photos if they want to—or they can do their own thing,” explains Stiglets.

Get going!

The post Now Is the Perfect Time to Take On Embroidery appeared first on PlayJunkie.

With a background in textile and industrial design, Choedamphai enjoys experimenting with different materials, colors, and textures, combining different techniques such as watercolor, paper folding, and collage. “I’ve been making things since I was a child because my mom was always encouraging us,” she relayed in an interview with the Etsy blog. “Even if she was just baking, she might give us a little bit of dough so we could make our own version of bread. Now, I can’t not be making things, so of course, I have lots of supplies in my studio, and after a while, I started selling them along with my own designs.”

According to Choedamphai, it all started in April 2012, when she made a dinosaur pop-up card for her 3-year-old nephew who absolutely loved it. She went on to launch her business in July 2012, while still living in Oxford, UK, working from her bedroom and garden shed. Having moved back to her home town in Thailand, she decided to expand this business and added a range of carefully selected craft supplies and handmade hair accessories.

“I’ve always been drawn to textures and love running my hands over them,” says Choedamphai. “Generally, I won’t use a material if I don’t like how it feels, and I’m very picky.” According to Choedamphai, the handmade paper in Thailand, made from mulberry tree bark, has a rich texture to it – the sort of perfect imperfections she’s drawn to when choosing her materials.

Below you find some of the products she offers in her shop:

The post Looking for Ways to Fill Up the Time? Why Not Try Crafting appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Of course, her incredible collection of faux taxidermy was also very much inspired by her rural upbringing. Having grown up in the countryside in a rural hamlet, deep in the North of England, Yeadon’s home was surrounded by open fields and ancient woodlands, while in the distance, the Yorkshire Dale mountains towered above the horizon. Having spent her entire childhood immersed in nature, nature is second nature to her; it’s also what drives her creative passion.

“My favorite way to seek enchantment is by taking long walks,” says Yeadon. “I’ve always loved climbing mountains in the Lake District with my dad and our family dog, Toby. That moment when we finally reach the summit—icy winds whipping around us as damp heavy clouds form a blanket over our view. A peaceful moment in nature, tranquil, and calm.”

But when it comes to her creations themselves, incredibly enough, she relies on experimentation and much trial and error. “One evening, I randomly decided to dust off my old sewing machine and rekindled my love for textiles,” recalled the self-taught artist. “I gradually began to incorporate fabrics and machine and hand embroidery into my wire creations at the very end of 2017,” she notes, adding that she loves experimenting with mixed mediums.

Take a look at some of her incredible creations:

The post Emily Yeadon Makes Moths, Butterflies, and Fungi out of Fabric appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Now her studio practice is divided into two parts: making embroidered accessories on the one hand, and one of a kind artworks on the other. “I try to use different embroidery techniques together,” she explains. “Enriching texture to give it a visual dynamism is very important for me.”

The finished product is a combination of illustration and embroidery, color and texture. “Mostly I try to use embroidery techniques on patterns that match their real-life texture,” notes Yazici. “I enjoy combining these traditional techniques with modern patterns. I also like fancy and intricate embroideries and I wouldn’t hesitate to decorate my works with sequins and beads.”

Her work consists of quirky and surreal worlds and characters – a dreamy landscape where magic is possible. “Even if I don’t know where to place my work within contemporary art right now, I do think they share similar characteristics with both illustration and fiber art and I try to achieve a balance between them,” says Yazici.

The post The Teeny-Tiny Embroideries of Irem Yazici appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“My work is a bit retro, twisted, fun, colorful, nerdy, and cute (but in questionable taste),” she relayed in an interview with Frankie. “Luckily I usually make what I want. And I hope my work can make people smile!”

Amongst her more notable creations are her soft sculptures (but don’t call them toys!) featuring realistic and imagined creatures. Those have been exhibited in galleries in the US, Australia, and Japan, and are featured in books and magazines, as well as commissioned for Adobe Creative Cloud event in NYC, and a New York Times web campaign.

“It takes a long time to make a needle-felted piece,” Mizushima admits, “especially for me (I’m a slow crafter). It has also crippled me! (Seriously, I have been having a problem in my shoulder and arm for months!)” Some of her felt creations and prints can be found on her Etsy shop.

Other than her sculptures, Mizushima has also been commissioned for many music videos for the band They Might Be Giants, and has made miniature collages for several book covers in Japan. “When I started to work on my second stop-motion music video for They Might Be Giants in 2007, I needed to make needle-felted characters and props for the first time,” she recalled. “That’s when I found out that I really love to make 3D stuff with wool fibre, so I started making more, and then I opened my Etsy shop. If I hadn’t got the video job, I probably wouldn’t have started needle-felting.”

Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below:

The post The Soft Sculptures of Hiné Mizushima appeared first on PlayJunkie.

He began his project by making a miniature sculpture from polymer clay. Then, he put together the skeleton using bicycle inner tubes and the tires. The Alien King Marquette took him 20 days to finish.

“Unlike ordinary aliens, Alien King has more tentacles. He has a lot of gully and scales on his body. It is necessary to cut the tires into very thin strips to simulate the texture of his skin, which is very difficult to make. But I feel quite satisfied with the presentation of the finished product,” the artist said in a statement on his YouTube channel.

He makes other remarkable sculptures as well. Like, for example, Godzilla, Kong, Angemon from the Digimon anime, War Elephant, and many more.

He began posting videos on the internet a year ago and has already reached over 15 million views. If you’re interested to see how he does his magic, check out the gallery below!

The post Craftsman Makes Life-Sized Sculptures Using Old Tires appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Journaling

Considered a mindful practice, journaling has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. It can also be a check-in tool at times when we feel unbalanced and unmotivated. Most of all, it’s a way of staying creative and being present.

Instagram inspiration: Menw Hurkens

The owner of Etsy store Rippels Paperhugger, Hurkens celebrates all things paper, highlighting the joyful practice of journaling. Based in the Netherlands, Hurkens’ Instagram is filled with the kind of journaling inspiration that will get your creative juices flowing.

Embroidery

The past year has seen a steady rise in embroiderers, and it’s easy to see why. Embroidery is a great and relatively cheap way to pass the time, and the end result makes for a great decoration. From embroidered wall hangings to quilts, they are elegant works of art.

Instagram inspiration: Liz Stiglets

“Let’s all slow down, get cozy, get crafty,” reads Liz Stiglets’ Instagram bio, which sounds like a perfect plan for quarantine.  The owner of cozyblue, Siglets believes that small, simple acts of creativity can make the world a calmer, happier place.

Hand Lettering

Hand lettering can be very meditative and relaxing. It also doesn’t cost much and the possibilities are endless! You can create custom birthday and thank you cards for family and friends, design typography prints to hang in your living room, or you can upgrade that journal you just started.

Instagram inspiration: Lauren Fitzmaurice

Watching Lauren Fitzmaurice’s lettering videos on Instagram can be relaxing in and of itself. Luckily for us, she also passes her knowledge onto others, by sharing her work on Instagram and teaching online classes. Her toolbox includes pointed pens, gouache, Tombow brush pens, and watercolor brushes.

The post 3 Unique Hobbies to Try During Quarantine appeared first on PlayJunkie.

She currently has nearly 400k followers on Instagram that enjoy seeing her new projects daily. While answering their questions in a Q&A session on her account, Lissova said that there’s no secret behind her creativity. “I just love what I do. It motivates me to keep creating,” she wrote.

The artist started creating these adorable miniatures for fun but then found them to be the perfect creative outlet she needed. See more on her Instagram page and follow her if you’d like to get the updates in the future. Below are some of her works we loved the most.

The post Paper Plants and Flowers by Tania Lissova appeared first on PlayJunkie.

During April, Linda Di Martino posted tons of updates showing the process for which she filled the tank. So how did the project begin?

After having an aquarium filled with fish for 25 years, when the fish started to die, she told her husband (who has sadly since passed away) that, “when the last fish dies, I will do it all in crochet, I will leave a nice memory of me to the children, not a commitment to stay behind,” Di Martino shared with Bored Panda.

She kept to her word and started crocheting for the aquarium by using the leftover yarn she accumulated from previous work and searching the internet for patterns for sea creatures and plants. When she couldn’t find the patterns she wasn’t discouraged; she just made her own.

It turns out that many people are interested in buying her creation, but she’s not interested in selling it. You can always try making your own with the videos and patterns she’s posed on her social media sites or you can buy some of her other work on her Facebook shop.

The post Linda Di Martino Crocheted an Entire Aquarium Full of Sea Animals appeared first on PlayJunkie.

And so, a love for sewing and embroidery began – one that would eventually culminate in an Etsy shop where she now sells hand-embroidered necklaces and earrings, all made with special care and attention. “I used to work as a freelance photojournalist, but when I got pregnant, my husband and I decided that I’d stay at home for a while and take care of our daughter,” she explained in an interview with the Etsy blog, describing how her career came to be. “About a year after she was born, I started to feel like I wanted to do something creative again. I started making an inventory of my skills and what I’d like to do, and I decided I’d really enjoy working with fabric and drawing and colors. I had a few threads, so I tried embroidering, and it’s cliché, but it was love at first sight.”

When it comes to Thursday More’s creative inspiration, color plays a huge part. she admits she goes color hunting on the internet, saving references on her computer for a later time. Aside from color, her designs are also influenced by her mood, imagination, and memories, making her creations both personal and appealing.

“I try to stitch every day, even just for an hour,” she says. “I like the portability, the fact that I can take it with me wherever I go. It doesn’t require electricity. It doesn’t require the internet. With hand embroidery, you’re just in the moment.” Here are some of our favorite creations by her:

The post Why Not Add Embroidery to Your Jewelry Collection? appeared first on PlayJunkie.

According to Stiglets, nurturing ourselves and tapping into our creativity allows us to become happier, more joyful, whole people. “I encourage you to slow down, “she says. “Take some time to notice the world around you. Look within and help your mind focus and calm so that you can come from a place of quiet rather than chaos. When your mind is peaceful, your life is richer.”

In an interview with the Etsy blog, Stiglets recalled how she first experimented with embroidery when she was a teenager, by stitching little designs onto her backpack and jeans. “I put it away for a while, then came back to it years later when my kids were very young, and I pretty much never stopped!” she says. Completely self-taught, her craft was learned by trial and error, allowing herself room to make mistakes.

The kits she sells include everything you need to get started wit embroidery yourself. The pattern is pre-printed on the fabric, and the floss, needle, and hoop are included too. She also adds a Getting Started Guide, which walks you through setting up your hoop and prepping your embroidery floss. Her How-to Guide includes diagrams for a handful of her favorite basic stitches. “I give notes for each design, including which stitches I used where, so folks can replicate my example photos if they want to—or they can do their own thing,” explains Stiglets.

Get going!

The post Now Is the Perfect Time to Take On Embroidery appeared first on PlayJunkie.

With a background in textile and industrial design, Choedamphai enjoys experimenting with different materials, colors, and textures, combining different techniques such as watercolor, paper folding, and collage. “I’ve been making things since I was a child because my mom was always encouraging us,” she relayed in an interview with the Etsy blog. “Even if she was just baking, she might give us a little bit of dough so we could make our own version of bread. Now, I can’t not be making things, so of course, I have lots of supplies in my studio, and after a while, I started selling them along with my own designs.”

According to Choedamphai, it all started in April 2012, when she made a dinosaur pop-up card for her 3-year-old nephew who absolutely loved it. She went on to launch her business in July 2012, while still living in Oxford, UK, working from her bedroom and garden shed. Having moved back to her home town in Thailand, she decided to expand this business and added a range of carefully selected craft supplies and handmade hair accessories.

“I’ve always been drawn to textures and love running my hands over them,” says Choedamphai. “Generally, I won’t use a material if I don’t like how it feels, and I’m very picky.” According to Choedamphai, the handmade paper in Thailand, made from mulberry tree bark, has a rich texture to it – the sort of perfect imperfections she’s drawn to when choosing her materials.

Below you find some of the products she offers in her shop:

The post Looking for Ways to Fill Up the Time? Why Not Try Crafting appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Of course, her incredible collection of faux taxidermy was also very much inspired by her rural upbringing. Having grown up in the countryside in a rural hamlet, deep in the North of England, Yeadon’s home was surrounded by open fields and ancient woodlands, while in the distance, the Yorkshire Dale mountains towered above the horizon. Having spent her entire childhood immersed in nature, nature is second nature to her; it’s also what drives her creative passion.

“My favorite way to seek enchantment is by taking long walks,” says Yeadon. “I’ve always loved climbing mountains in the Lake District with my dad and our family dog, Toby. That moment when we finally reach the summit—icy winds whipping around us as damp heavy clouds form a blanket over our view. A peaceful moment in nature, tranquil, and calm.”

But when it comes to her creations themselves, incredibly enough, she relies on experimentation and much trial and error. “One evening, I randomly decided to dust off my old sewing machine and rekindled my love for textiles,” recalled the self-taught artist. “I gradually began to incorporate fabrics and machine and hand embroidery into my wire creations at the very end of 2017,” she notes, adding that she loves experimenting with mixed mediums.

Take a look at some of her incredible creations:

The post Emily Yeadon Makes Moths, Butterflies, and Fungi out of Fabric appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Now her studio practice is divided into two parts: making embroidered accessories on the one hand, and one of a kind artworks on the other. “I try to use different embroidery techniques together,” she explains. “Enriching texture to give it a visual dynamism is very important for me.”

The finished product is a combination of illustration and embroidery, color and texture. “Mostly I try to use embroidery techniques on patterns that match their real-life texture,” notes Yazici. “I enjoy combining these traditional techniques with modern patterns. I also like fancy and intricate embroideries and I wouldn’t hesitate to decorate my works with sequins and beads.”

Her work consists of quirky and surreal worlds and characters – a dreamy landscape where magic is possible. “Even if I don’t know where to place my work within contemporary art right now, I do think they share similar characteristics with both illustration and fiber art and I try to achieve a balance between them,” says Yazici.

The post The Teeny-Tiny Embroideries of Irem Yazici appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“My work is a bit retro, twisted, fun, colorful, nerdy, and cute (but in questionable taste),” she relayed in an interview with Frankie. “Luckily I usually make what I want. And I hope my work can make people smile!”

Amongst her more notable creations are her soft sculptures (but don’t call them toys!) featuring realistic and imagined creatures. Those have been exhibited in galleries in the US, Australia, and Japan, and are featured in books and magazines, as well as commissioned for Adobe Creative Cloud event in NYC, and a New York Times web campaign.

“It takes a long time to make a needle-felted piece,” Mizushima admits, “especially for me (I’m a slow crafter). It has also crippled me! (Seriously, I have been having a problem in my shoulder and arm for months!)” Some of her felt creations and prints can be found on her Etsy shop.

Other than her sculptures, Mizushima has also been commissioned for many music videos for the band They Might Be Giants, and has made miniature collages for several book covers in Japan. “When I started to work on my second stop-motion music video for They Might Be Giants in 2007, I needed to make needle-felted characters and props for the first time,” she recalled. “That’s when I found out that I really love to make 3D stuff with wool fibre, so I started making more, and then I opened my Etsy shop. If I hadn’t got the video job, I probably wouldn’t have started needle-felting.”

Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below:

The post The Soft Sculptures of Hiné Mizushima appeared first on PlayJunkie.