Creativity Tests - do you use your right or left brain more?

A bit of fun this week, with some creative tests!!

Creativity comes from the right brain and logic from the left.

This week I found some 'tests' you can take to see whether you use your right or left brain more, and see how creative you really are!

To see and take the first test, which only takes a couple of minutes - go to:

Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity test

I took the test and my results were as follows:

So I'm more logical than creative!

Mmm

But I do like the choice of possible jobs there.....skating judge??

Here's some more creativity tests - done in short videos 

(approx 1 minute each - click on the links to try them for yourself)

video A : I'm not in the 2% of people who are creative!

video B : I was better and more creative this time - but I think only because I was expecting what was going to happen!

video C :  I was in the 2% of creative people! Yay!

video D : I was in the 10% of people with strong minds not easily influenced!

video E : I was in the 2% of creative people here - but only if you count that I ignored the first answer that popped into my head and deliberately chose another answer!

Really these videos and short tests show that for whatever reason, there are obvious answers to simple questions that the majority of people give.   For me - the first things that popped into my head were the obvious answers that the majority of people give, but I do WANT to give different and creative answers, so when I thought about it I could and did.

So from these fun tests, I would say that I'm not naturally creative, but I can push myself and choose to be so if I want!

Here's one final test to see if you use your right (creative side) or left (logical side) brain more...

 (spinning dancer by Nobuyuki Kayahara)

Apparently if you see her spinning 

clockwise, you use your right brain more,

anti-clockwise you use your left brain more.

According to this test - I use my right brain more!!

Who hooo! there's a test that says I'm creative! I like this one!

I used to be able to see her spin both ways - when I first saw this test a couple of years ago, but seem to have forgotten how to do it...

Which way does the lady spin for you??

Giant Pencil Shaped Pencil Case Tutorial

No matter how many pencil cases my daughters have, they always seem to want another. This time I wanted to try something a bit different, and came up with this giant pencil shaped - pencil case, which is perhaps not so practical for them to put in their school bags as it's so large, but is nonetheless quite a cool pencil case I think!

Here's how to make one.

You will need:

3 rectangles: 38 x 32cm (15 x 12.5") 

1 x main outer fabric

1 x inner fabric

1 x interfacing

1 strip black fabric for pencil top - 32 x 8cm (12.5 x 3")

1 strip pink fabric for rubber at end - 32 x 5cm (12.5 x 2")

1 square plain fabric for pencil tip  20 x 20cm (8 x 8")

1 square red for coloured pencil tip 6 x 6cm (2.25 x 2.25")

End circles 10cm ( 4") diameter 

1 x pink for rubber at end

1 x plain fabric for pencil tip end

3 x inner fabric for inside ends of main pencil case

One Zip 32cm (12.5") long (or longer is ok)

Stuffing

1. Pencil Tip

Take the plain square of fabric, and pin the smaller red square flush on one corner:

Stitch across from corner to corner where the pins are in the above picture:

Trim off the excess fabric on the corner beyond your stitching:

Then fold the red tip back.

Now with right sides of the fabric together, fold in half, matching the seams of your red tip, and pin, then stitch all the way along that side.

Trim as shown in this picture:

Turn your pencil tip right sides out, and stuff.

Then pin and machine stitch one of your plain fabric circular end, all the way around the opening. This is a little fiddly with your machine if you have stuffed the pencil tip firmly.

2. The rubber end of the pencil

Pin then stitch your black and pink fabric strips together along the long edges, right sides together.

Then fold the short edges together, matching the seams up and pin then stitch:

Then take your pink circle, and pin, then stitch that to the pink end of this tube you have created - right sides together.

Turn this right sides out and stuff.

Take a circle of your inner fabric, pin then stitch around the top to seal in the stuffing.

3. Main pencil case 

Lay out your 3 large rectangles and your zip like this:

Interfacing, then inner fabric facing upwards, zip facing upwards, then outer fabric facing downwards.

Pin along the zip edge. Then stitch where you have pinned using the zipper foot on your machine.

Now open out the inner and outer fabric on either side of the zip. Open the zip right up, then lift up the raw edges of the fabric and pin together in the same way as before:

Interfacing, then inner fabric facing upwards, zip facing upwards, then outer fabric facing downwards.

Stitch where you have pinned, again using your zipper foot.

4. Putting it all together

This is the trickiest part!

First make sure your zip is still open - this is very important!

Take your pencil tip and insert it facing inwards to one side of your outer fabric pencil case:

Then pin and stitch the raw edges together.

I left the zipper foot on my machine to stitch this, as the stuffed end is very bulky and takes a fair amount of careful manoeuvring to stitch around.  I resorted to hand-stitching across the zip part as it proved too bulky and awkward for my machine!

Next, take the rubber end of your pencil case, and push that into the opposite end of the outer fabric main pencil case:

Again pin and stitch all the way around the edge of this. Once again I hand stitched across the bulky edge where the zip was.

Next, take another of the inner fabric circles, and pin and stitch this to one end of the inner fabric main body of the pencil case:

Now with the final pink circle, pin and stitch this ONLY to the top part of your final inner pencil case end, across the zip part. Leave the rest of this open to allow you to turn out your pencil case.

5. Finishing off.

Turn the pencil case right sides out through the opening at the end of the inner part of the pencil case.

Pin then stitch the opening closed.

Then straighten up and admire your Giant Pencil Shaped Pencil Case!

For the free PDF version of this tutorial click here.

If you liked this tutorial, then why not take a look at 

My Free Sewing Tutorials page

There are over 70 tutorials for all kinds of different things and all abilities!

The main fabric for this pencil case was from Wholeport

I received the fabric in return for advertising and mentioning the fabric source in my crafting blog post.

The main fabric for this pencil case was from Wholeport

I received the fabric in return for advertising and mentioning the fabric source in my crafting blog post.

I'll be linking this post to many of the fabulous linky parties whose pretty buttons can be found on the bottom of this page, and whose direct links can be found on my linky party page.

A Round Tuit 158

Hello and welcome to another Round Tuit.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend and is recharged and ready for a fresh new week.

We had a lovely weekend - with our girls staying with friends and my husband and I getting to run together in an 18km race up a hill against a train!

There are only 4 people who have managed to beat the train up the hill - I hear it ahead in the distance blowing its whistle!  But it's a fun event and a good challenge! This year I managed to beat my time by 22 minutes! So I was very happy with that!
I have aching muscles today though - so I'll be sitting down lots - visiting blogs and checking out what everyone else has been up to!

One other things I wanted to mention was that recently I've been doing some housekeeping on my blog. I now have a new header, new pages and an updated About Me page with a photo on. I've shied away from photos of me on the blog for too long now! So now everyone can see what I look like!


Now on to this week's party!



Tuits are very hard to come by, especially the round ones. For years people have been saying, "I'll do it as soon as I get a round tuit". Well now you can have one of your very own, and all those jobs that have needed doing will finally get done!

<center> <a href="http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit"><img border="”0”" src="http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac329/jembellish/Blog%20buttons/ARoundTuit.jpg" /></a><center> </center> </center>       Here's my favourites from last week's party:   First of all, a great upcycling project from The Tip Toe Fairy -  Trivets from T-shirt yarn:

Stephanie has a lovely blog with plenty of good sewing tutorials and yummy recipes! Do go take a look: The Tip Toe Fairy

Next, this super cute Camper Van Wallet from Creative Chaos Art:

Such cute fabric isn't it?
Helen has a beautiful creative blog, so head on over to check it out:
Creative Chaos Art

Finally, this 
stash busting scrappy table runner from Windsor and Main:

Kim has a beautiful blog with lots of gorgeous sewing projects.
Go say hello at:
Windsor & Main

For those featured, feel free to grab a 'featured on' button from my buttons page.

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Now it's your turn:

Link up your own projects - old or new - no rules - just share your creativity and inspiration!

I'd love if you grabbed the button - then you can have your very own Round Tuit!

And of course we all love visitors and comments so do visit some of the other links!

By linking up here you're giving me permission to use photos from your post in features here on my blog.

I will feature my favourites on facebook during the week, and also on this post next week.

Sunday Motivation

Upcycling Dresses

What to do with those old dresses that no longer fit, or are out of style?

Refashion

This post has to begin with mentioning

New Dress a Day

If you haven't seen this blog, then go and take a look as it is AMAZING!  Marisa decided to challenge herself to upcycle a dress a day for a whole year. She had a budget of $1 per day to buy dresses from charity shops. The results are astonishing! 

If you're looking for ideas for dress upcycling - then her site is the place to look! Or  - you can buy her book which as plenty of ideas and sewing tips to refashion and upcycle your own daggy dresses!

So to anyone who hasn't now disappeared off to Marisa's lovely blog - thanks for hanging on here for some more ideas to upcycle dresses!

Transform to other clothing items

One of the simplest things to do with a dress is cutting to create different items, like a skirt or a top....

Emily from Domestic Deadline, took an old dress and turned it into a tunic - a simple upcycle:

Greetings from the Asylum did the opposite - cutting off the bottom of this dress and making a skirt:

Pam from Threading My Way also did this:

Or you could thriftily reuse both parts of the dress as did Cass Can Sew who made this cute top and shorts from a thrift store dress:

Bags

Kids dresses are great to upcycle into bags as you can keep the basic shape and just enclose the bottom of the dress.

I did that with a couple of my girls sundresses that they grew out of:

Karima's Crafts also upcycled a kids dress to a shoulder bag:

Use the fabric for something completely different

You could just use the fabric - as I did on this money box that I made from one of my girl's old Hello Kitty Dresses:

I also made a pencil and notebook folder from a pretty kids dress, using the left over parts in the gift wrapping!

I liked that I could use the buttoned up front part for an extra feature and pocket on the folder.

Have you ever upcycled or refashioned a dress?

For even more ideas you can take a look at my 

Dress Upcycling Pinterest Board

Now I have several dresses that I've taken out of my wardrobe because they've either shrunk in the wash, torn, or just aren't wearable any more!

So here there are and this is my challenge for the week - to upcycle at least some of them!

Come back next week to see what I've come up with!

For now - please do link up your own dress upcycle projects - what have you done with your old dresses?

Again this will be a long term linky - open indefnintely so projects can be added at any time!

Link away!