Here and There

Wow, friends. I have been so lacking on updates here. Sorry.
But you know what, there are so many other cooler places now that share ideas that it won't hurt my feelings if I am typing now to crickets. I will continue to post random art things here that I do, just to journal my work, but no hard feelings if you stray to greener pastures. I so understand.

And as a peace offering, I at least have one little ditty to share.
It's not novel but it's something.
There's a (ahemtacky) jewelry store that opened around here recently and I had a credit there I needed to use up. I found this big gem shaped bracelet and wanted to try that matte geo-shaped jewelry thing going on, so I bought some tan spray paint and went at it. Ended up looking pretty cool. So, you know... try it! :)

Now. I'll try to be better. In the meantime, mostly my creative things have ended up in my Etsy shop so you can peek there for updates. If it's non Etsy, I'll put it here.
Hope you're having a fun summer!

Silent Movement

I apologize for my disappearance as of late. I have been busy with things I could share here but am not as motivated to do it. I need to... it is a good way for me to keep track of things I have done and what inspires me.
Lately I have been working on some new projects for my Etsy shop. I just finished making some cool new stamps that I will share soon.
I've also been trying to paint some more. Here is one I recently finished of a house in Palm Springs. The colors scanned a bit weird, but overall I'm happy with it. It was a good exercise to bring alive again. It's hard for me to leave things alone when I watercolor. I want to make each area so tight with detail but it's not always necessary so I am trying to discipline myself in leaving things alone. I love that look yet I can't bring myself to do it. I'll keep posting things to see the progress over time and see if I succeed in this.
As well as this work, I've been doing some graphic design work that I will announce when the time comes. Fun stuff!
Anyway, to anyone who may still read here, thanks for sticking around. More to come. :)

January

This month has not allowed me to do much other than finally tackle my Dad's Christmas gift. Since I was going home for my Birthday weekend, it motivated me to finish the darn project!
I had this grand idea to make a paper cut topography map of Lake Powell. An artist on Etsy (Crafterall) makes some amazing pieces using this method, which is what gave me the idea.
I found an adequate image of the area I wanted and traced all the templates in Illustrator. Then I printed them out and used them as guides for each color. I had to pull a few classic ghetto strategies but in the end, it turned out beautifully.


This is a part of the Lake we have been visiting more and more. I think my Dad liked it. :)

And more back ordered Christmas gifts... I wanted to make some small pouch/bag/purses (?) for a few of my friends and never had time to do it, so a month late is okay, right??
One of my friends recently had her purse stolen so hers contained some purse essentials inside.


Obviously it's the color play with zippers that I'm enjoying most.

Real Andrew Wyeth

We went to the museum while we were in Palm Springs recently and the exhibition on Andrew Wyeth blew me away. It inspired me more than I expected it to. His subject matter isn't something I would have a desire to capture, so I found that interesting, especially how he made some simple settings so beautiful. And his use of technique was the best part. I want so badly to practice painting more now after seeing how crisp and simple some things are.
Great work to look into if you need some inspiration.

More Screening

Check it, check it!
I made a cool custom Drums T for my awesome BFF for Christmas (and printed one for meself a'course).
Actually, I made him two and he loved them both. I think I may print a few more to sell on Etsy someday.
Maybe.
I'm so glad they worked.

Shiny Deco's

We usually get together with some friends on New Years Eve and I was asked again this year to help with the decorations. We had a fiesta theme so I decided to put a spin on traditional papel picado. Since NYE celebrations usually involve sparkle, I wanted to use Mylar and thanks to Target holiday clearance, I scored sheets of silver "tissue paper" for a dollar per bag. This decoration cost less than $10 and looked awesome.
There were five or six sheets in a package, so I left them stacked together and cut them in half. Then I accordion folded those rectangles and cut snowflake like designs in the folded edges (don't forget your scalloped/zig zag bottom edge).

Open and gently pull apart. Lay out some string (I used neon yellow from Home Depot) along the top edge of one and fold over. Tape into place. I used packing tape that I would tear into narrow strips. I wanted the flags to be able to slide so I could have flexibility on the design when I hung it up. Repeat as necessary for the length of garland you need. And you're done!
*Note- When you hang, have a stapler handy. They will all slide to the center if you don't anchor them somehow. Once hung, I spaced them how I wanted and then I just stapled them into place with one staple in the center.
Hopefully it's a cool idea that perhaps someone else may find useful. Enjoy!

And keep your scraps! They make really cool looking confetti that we spread all over the table & around the food. Happy New Year!

Book Smart

Check out these carved book landscapes by Guy Laramee. So fantastic!!

Bike Animation

Very cool idea.

Survived!

The GND show was a great success. Whew! And always more work than I anticipate.
I had an ambitious list of new creative endeavors to accomplish before the date which stressed me out a bit. But this is what it is for, to push me over those hurdles that I am intimidated to try (or too lazy to carry out). This time I was determined to silkscreen. Enough of the daisy dreams! So I did it. I may have talked to myself a lot during the process in an encouraging voice, and it obviously worked. I have groovy dishtowels to prove it. In neon pink, no less!
I also wanted to play with enamel paint so I painted some jewelry and vintage keys. You can get the overview on the site here.
Now I've got to post what's left on my Etsy shop at some point. Maybe some fools will think my weird stuff is as cool as I think it is. If not, these are the gifts you'll be getting over the coming year.
Since I have been on this wave of makingmakingmaking, I still have some cool things up my sleeve that weren't finished in time so I'll try and get them posted soon.
Though the holiday season is upon us and I have Christmas cards to make.
Which may utilize my new screen printing skillz. Ohhh!

Currently

October was a really busy month. I haven't had much time to put toward projects but I did a little. I am using what time I have to put things together for the upcoming GND show at the end of this month. I'll post some of that work then.
In the meantime, what I did do was:
Finish those Chevron pillows I started in, oh, July? I am loving this deep magenta/orchid color right now so I put it on the back.

Played with more geometric shapes. Look at my nonsense.

I saw this watercolor on Etsy and it gave me an idea to paint one of my own.
Turned out alright. Mostly I just had fun painting again. I purposely left all my supplies out to see if I can do a few more things while the motivation lasts.

What I really want to do is make a quilt like this. I think it would be easy (ish). Simple triangles, simple colors and in the end have a modern design. It makes sense in my head. Which means trouble for reals. Bah.

Becoming

It's a fuzzy pic but a little preview of something I'm working on. Cool, right?
Also, these are some random shots I took one morning on a bike ride recently. Such beautiful clouds! That middle one is what they looked like right above me.
Not bad for an iPhone anyway...

Freak Nature Out

You all know I love Halloween and amid the busy month we have had, I am still trying to accomplish some projects. One of which was this, that I began last year. Shocker.
Do you recall the vintage makeover I did with these bottle brush trees for Christmas?
Well, it's no surpise I've wanted to twist this technique into Halloween, so here is how I 'hauntified' a batch. It was really easy and they look great all tucked around my bookcases.
Take a bag-o-trees (they are cheapest at Home Depot) and bleach them (these instructions are more specific in the Christmas version, here). Btw: Those little flecks of happy snow clinging on the branches will be gone when you dye. Bwaah-ha-haaaa.

Dip them in yellow, orange and black dye. They only need to sit in there for 2-4 minutes, depending on how strong you concentrate it. I did it pretty concentrated.
Also, I played around with blending the color on the trees so keep that in mind before you start dunking. Most of them were yellow so I could then blend the tops or bottoms in orange or black.

And wowza. You'll have your very own haunted forest of unnatural trees.

If you want, you can play with the glitter after (again, like the Christmas trees).
I did it to a couple of them here and put them in front of this marvy haunted house that I made with some gal pals.

If you feel like trying this, it was super fun and done in around 2 hours. Much cheaper (and cooler, imo) than many of the store bought Haunted Houses. Get these paper mache houses here. It's $20 for three! The other two are smaller and nest inside this one. Those are being saved for a Christmas makeover.
Hopefully this year. :)

Inspired

I was in Laguna a couple of weeks ago with some friends and among our shopping I snapped a few things I wanted to remember.
This was the floor in a thrift store on PCH. The ENTIRE floor was covered in old magazine images. I know it's not novel, but it befitted the setting.

In another thrift shop, I looked up and saw some string art! Tacky? Sure, but after playing with this, I didn't want to forget the technique here of sectioned color, intentional shapes and the outlined lettering. Hm.....gets me thinking....

And Jonathan Adler never fails to move me. I so love his stores. He always offers great design and this simple pillow of the states makes me think I could try some needlepoint and not get bored. Maybe.

Lately

Um... Happy October! I've had a few projects in the works, most of which are a bit boring to share and involve more sewing. My mother-in-law has been loaning me her serger off and on, so I keep trying to get some things made in the time I have it.
One was this skirt I made for Elliet. I confess I think she is starting to get a little old for 'skirts made by Mom', but until she protests, I'll keep trying. I bought this fabric probably a year ago. Ugh- so me to get it done that much later. Anyway....what I experimented with was trying to hide as many seams as possible to make it really clean inside. Turns out I hid every inseam! I didn't need the serger afterall.

And onto bigger fish. My friend and I bought this pattern on Etsy and made these in a weekend. It was a great pattern and super easy. I found this great teal fabric remnant for about $20! Not bad for a test run. Project Runway is getting into my head!

More traffic to come here. The holidays are approaching and I want to make some gifts. Plus, Girl Next Door is on this year- so I have to start creating pronto!

More Designs

Well, amid some sewing projects I have been working on (and will show soon), I have been doing some design work on the side. This is another guest post coming on the Bake It Pretty blog and thought I would also offer it to anyone who reads here.
These are all gift tags for treats or goodie bags but you can experiment with some of them. The flags can be hung on a string for display, taped around a cake plate for a party, put in your mouth like fangs... whatever. Personally, I like the eyeball. :)
You can download the PDF here.
Enjoy!