{Hello, Illinois}

Hello mateys!
As many of you might not know, I'll be living Illinois for the next three months! All in all, it's been good. I've got the chance to go to the Art Institute of Chicago which was one of the best things ever and I'm looking foward to visit it again, alone this time. Not a lot of updates lately but I'll try to keep up with everything. One of the highlights of my second visit to Chicago: a candy red, cupcake van!

♪♫ You Don't Love Me by The Kooks

{Minilands}

I love miniatures. I really do but its kind of complicated when I try to make them myself. Ever since 2011 I think, I started making "wonderlands" in small crystal containers with the main object being mushrooms and woodland related things. There has always been something appealing for me about wood and moss, especially moss, that is just beautiful. Since I don't exactly live in a "mossy" area, I try to add little pieces of it to any space by making this uh... things or globes if you want to call them that.

I found the globes one time I was out with my dad and he suggested I should get them to do "something similar to the small mushroom things you do". After thinking about it I decided to get them. Guess they came in handy in my times of boredom.

As for this one, since my sister kept buying baby food for my new niece, I kept all the containers... and they were A LOT. Not that I'm complaining. I made a lamp out of this one but I had to redo it cause I was planning to sell it but didn't.

♪♫ Missing You by Green Day

{Forks}

You might have seen this somewhere else. I surely did.
A couple of years ago, I saw this really cool bracelet made out of a bended fork and I told myself I will do that someday. Guess that day arrived... 7 months ago. Yeah, yeah, I'm posting stuff I made 7 months ago but at least it's something. The hard part came when I had to find a fork that could bend enough for me to make a bracelet out of it. Luckily, I found it on my first search.

My brother had this really cool powder paint which stick on any metallic surface it touches and then, by taking the piece into the over, it will adhere to the piece leaving no runny/ brush marks/ etc behind. Pretty neat!

Materials:

• Cheap fork
• Pliers
• Paint

♪♫ Submarine by Ocean Lips

{Film Keychain}

One year ago, I had to take my first photography class. Since I had to use an analog camera I had to buy film. A lot of film. Don't get me wrong, I prefer how the photos turn out in analog photography over digital but spending 2-3 hours waiting for my film to develop in a quite far place is no cup of tea.

The first time I went to develop I asked the guy if it was ok for me to get  some of the empty canisters he had around. I was aiming for 2 or 3 but he ended up giving me 10 {pretty neat}. You can do a lot of things with empty canister but I settle for keychains.

Extremely easy to make and very eye catching if you ask me. Some people have gotten some of them. Oh so nice to know people like stuff you make.

♪♫ Riot Radio by The Dead 60s

{Detachable Collar}

Back to when I was getting ready to the longest 2 days of my university life {that time I participate in my university's bazar} among the things I made to sell, I tried to make some detachable collars. It was not a lot of fun after I made the third one but easy nevertheless. I made 6 different types:

If you want to make any of them, just follow the steps after the jump.

{Shicake}

Ever since I came up with my "oh so clever" {note the sarcasm} name back in 2008, I've been asked, quite a lot, what's the meaning of it. Well, by that time, I was really into sushi and cupcakes for no particular reason. I tried to merged the two of them and ended up with Sucup.Shicake. I kind of liked it but it was too long for my lazy fingers to write/type so I started going by Shicake. It's just the end of sushi and the end of cupcake as my header implies: "a blog fueled by sushi and cupcakes". Plus, I like the sound of it. {I'm still into sushi and cupcakes though}

The other day I was trying to draw something regarding the name. Only problem is how exactly do you relate sushi and cupcakes... it came up after 5 minutes of not-so-serious thinking. After some doodles on my sketchbook, a 4 hours nap and some tuna and crackers, I went to my computer and started painting.

The main point was to make a background for my twitter account that I could use freely without feeling guilty about using some weird image found on google. I made the banner and then started making the pattern that will be used as my background.

I kind of got bored after that so to explain my name a little better I made a sort of poster describing the Anatomy of Shicake. Pretty handy.

♪♫ Rome by Yeasayer