Sketchbook sneak peek.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

Powder Puff Earrings

Some handmade Christmas gifts. :D Powder puff earrings! The card/earring holders are made from Christmas playing cards I found for $1 at our local grocery store. I bought both sets of the penguins and polar bears, which made perfect earring card holders.

Le Cheshire

A digital collage sort of piece of the Cheshire cat.

A peek in my sketchbook

Just some pics from my sketchbook.

Face masks

A couple of facemasks I made back in October for Halloween. Both were made with store bought face masks, one with glitter and accessories and the other with feathers.

Some Wonderland Love

Thought I would spread some Alice in Wonderland and white rabbit love this holiday season. With Christmas days away, I'm vastly behind on gifting. Will try to share some new art over the holidays, but until then, feel free to browse these awesome art, supplies, etc. sites and Wonderlanderific photos.

Alice in Wonderland - White Rabbit

Follow the White Rabbit

My Grafico

Thi Thuy on Deviantart

Modes 4 U

First Reviews!

Wow, first reviews are already going up! Check them out at Amazon, Machu and Jack's page, and on several other sites such as Dragon my feet, Don't eat the pancakes, and nimlas.org. :D

Find Jack and Machu on facebook!

Also, you can find Jack and Machu on Facebook at their fan page!

There are contests and great deals on merchandise you can win or buy so be sure to check it out!

Jack the Kitten is now available on Amazon!

My first illustrated book is now available on Amazon! :D Woohoo! If you haven't gotten your copy yet, be sure to order one now. It will make a great christmas gift and with Amazon's Free Super Saver Shipping, it should arrive just in time. :D

I believe Amazon has the book available to other countries as well, so if you live outside the US, you should be able to get a copy, too! :D

Some new works and inspirational artists

Just uploaded a new piece to my deviant art account. ;)

SuzyQ2pie

Plus I've found some awesome artists I wanted to share. ;) Not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I adore Alice in Wonderland. The white rabbit is my favorite animal of all time and the story is just so awesome that it's always a treat to watch the movie. *blushes at having only partially read the book so far*

Anyway, while browsing around online, I found this wonderful artists' work:

Aaron McKinney - Alice Artwork

And this artists's work, which has nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland. ;D Still, I really liked their art, so thought I would share it. ;)

Jeremiah Ketner

Hope to have more stuff to share soon! Oh, and if you haven't seen her blog so far, Holli Conger is sharing a month's worth of art advice, help, etc.! Definately a must for all newbie artists like myself to check out. ;) You can visit her site here.

My first book!

Okay, I can officially say what I've been working on for the past few months! :D It's an awesome kids' book entitled, Jack the Kitten is Very Brave, and can be ordered here:

Machu and Jack

Or if you'd like a hoodie or sticker or other product bearing some cute kitten artwork from the book, feel free to visit here.

It was written by the incredibly talented Tabitha Grace Smith. It's an adorable book so be sure to pick one up soon. ;D

Sorry to be so quiet lately...

but I'm working on my first real illustration project. :D And I'm almost done! I can't wait to share it with you guys. :) Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos soon. ;) I also have tons of sketches I've been doodling in the meantime as well that I'll hopefully be able to upload in the near future. Thanks for visiting!

Revamped

I did a little moving around with the Google options available now and revamped by blog a bit. I was previously using my own artwork as part of the background, but decided to stick with one of the premade ones for now since it looks cleaner and classier. I may be redoing the header later, but for now, I think it looks a bit better as it is. Hopefully it's more readable and enjoyable to view then before. I also updated my links list, as several were severly outdated and non existant. :/ If you find a link that is still not working in my link list, please let me know. I also added some additional features, so feel free to have fun looking around. ;)

Books, books, endlessly books...

Yes, more sketchbooks. You can never have enough sketchbooks. These turned out a lot better then my last few attempts. One will be going to a friend as a gift so I guess we'll see good they withstand actually being used. ;D



Update: You can view my other sketchbook attempts here and here.

Lots and lots of pink...

Last weekend my neice had to do a "Me" box for school. So obviously I had to give her a helping hand. ;D The box she was originally going to use ended up not working, so instead, I decided to make one for her. Once it was complete, we made a matching booklet with photos, etc. (which are blacked out in the photo) and then found some things for her to put in it. Overall, it turned out pretty cute!



Then we glued this clay flower I made to the top to balance out the pink, which I didn't take a picture of. But here's the flower none the less.



To finish it up completely I added handles for her made with some pink/orange mixed yarn as well. You can't tell in the photo but the box has a lid that folds over the top that's on a sort of hinge so she wouldn't lose it.

What's YOUR creative style?

I was wandering around online, visiting one of my favorite haunts, How About Orange, when I saw her newest quiz. What's your creativity style?

I seem to use Creativity as a release. "For these reasons you are usually attracted to art that demands physicality, that allows you to express what’s inside, and that unites spontaneity, strength, freedom, power and movement." Hmmm, nice to know that about my creativity. ;)

Then, continuing my aimless wanderings, I came across this: Craft For a Cause

Not necessarily the biggest prize you could win, but looks like a good way to help your favorite organization, if you have one. Good luck to all those who enter. ;)

Something Simple

Some simple things I did recently. ;) Happy summer to all!

DIY Scrabble Jewelry

Sorry, I've been busy and not able to post much. I did make these earrings and necklaces out of scrapbook pages and scrabble pieces. They were extremely easy.

Here's what I used:

E-6000 glue (also works for clay products I believe)
Jewelry findings (basically these are just like chain links, only individual and circular rather then oval)
Old scrabble game pieces
Small photos, scrapbook paper or whatever you want to put on your scrabble piece.
Mod Podge glue/decopodge finish
Diamond glaze or other dimensional finish (optional)
scissors
Any additional embellishments you might like to add, such as plastic gems, etc.

Take your chosen picture(s), measure and cut them to size, then glue them on. I used the mod podge to glue here, which will also served as a finish on my pieces to keep the paper safe. To give your earrings or jewelry a unique look, you can alternate which way you use the scrabble pieces, for example, on the owl earrings I created below, one earring is vertical, the other horizontal. I also varied the photos to make it even more interesting. Once you glue your photos on and any embellishments you wish to add(I recommend using the E6000 glue for the extra items), then you can either cover the piece with the finish now or go ahead and attach the finding to the top of the piece with the E-6000 glue and wait for it to set before using the finish. It would probably be easier and best to do the finish before gluing on the findings. Once you have those steps completed, you can take your dimensional finish and use it to enhance your photos. I did not enhance these when I took the pictures but added some dimension to some of them later. This worked very well on the snail necklace piece I created.

You'll need to let the glue set completely for about 24 hours, but after that, you should be able to add these to any necklaces or earrings you wish. :) It's a great way to use those old game pieces you have lying around, or to add some unique jewelry to your collection. Feel free to leave a comment with pictures or questions if you try this out for yourself.

Kawaii!

I've never been well versed in foreign languages (I'm lucky to understand my native tongue most of the time. LoL!). So when I saw posts of Kawaii art, I had no idea it meant "Cute" art. Somehow I eventually stumbled upon that fact and have been in love with all things kawaii ever since. LoL!

One love I've found recently is for kawaii food jewelry. They're so tiny and adorable! But having been unable to work well with clay and polymer items, I'ev always avoided trying to make such things myself. Although a few months ago, I tried ultra light sculpey clay as a jumping off point, which I do NOT recommend for new users. It did not turn out well. :S However, after doing some research and finding a small craft store not too far away, I was able to find some better clay to work with. Fimo, I believe? *Will have to double check that later* Either way, here's a few of my creations thus far. Note, none of these items have been glazed. I also have several items that I've turned into earrings and necklaces, so hopefully I can take some better pictures of those soon to share. ;) (The lighting is really bad on some of these. :P)

I'm a deviant...

...a Deviant artist that is. LoL! I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create my own deviant art account. Feel free to follow me there as well. ;) I also have a tumblr blog I've had plans to try out, but so far, blogger has been the best place for me, so don't expect me to switch anytime soon. ;) However, if you wish to follow me there, here's that link as well. ;)

Cell phone cubby

I finally found a home for the ice cream patch I made! A cell phone bag cubby! It needs a handle or belt loop as right now, it can only live in my pocket or in my bag since it has nothing to latch onto with, but it came out fairly well and it holds my cell and any notes I write or camera cards I need to carry, or anything else small that I want to keep close by. :) The sewing is terrible on the edges, as I did it by hand and haven't mastered hiding my stitches or making them at least look good, but so far, it's help up well. I also used a spray glue to mount the ice cream to the felt baggy since I used very few stitches to hold it to the bag. It's been working great so far. I have yet to wash it so I guess that will be the ultimate test, but since this was something fun just for me, it turned out pretty good. :)

More felted fun!

After making so many jelly roll felted necklaces, I had some left over, and they inspired this little ice cream necklace. This is the second one I did.




And here is the first. It came out a bit top heavy as the beads tend to weigh it down quite a bit, but it still looks pretty cute. To me anyway. ;D





You'd think with making all these ice cream items, I'd be a major ice cream fan, but honestly, I rarely even eat ice cream. Perhaps I always view it was a face which makes it harder to eat? LoL!

Sharing

I recently scanned this, but drew it ages ago. ;) Not sure what the celebratory cupcake is for, but at least this little guy is willing to share it with his fluff friend. :D




I also have some updates on my felt work, but that post will have to wait.

Semi-handmade purse

This is only a semi handmade dainty purse. I found some really cute pants for teens at a local store that were on sale at a VERY cheap price. So I bought a couple of pairs because the fabric was so wonderfully soft and had a great feeling to it. I guess you could call it spandex? I need to read the label, but for lack of energy to do so at the moment, we'll call it a form of spandex. It's stretchy and very soft and silky like on the outside. The bottom of the pants were bunched up so that they created instant capri like pants. I simply cut off the end of one legging and created this little purse. I did have to sew the bottom and everything else, but my part ended up being mostly easy. :) The perfect way to do a purse, in my opinion. LoL! I guess the hard part will be figuring out what to carry in it. Anyway, here's the finished one. This is the one I created for my neice. Hers came out alot cuter then the one I made for me, so I'm only going to share hers with you all. :)

Some post cards?

I did these awhile back and haven't really done anything with them or went back to them. Not even sure what I did with them actually...

Felt Ice Cream

This creation was born after creating several jelly roll jewelry items here and here. I'm pretty sure someone was eating ice cream in the house at the time, which also helped bring this into creation. It's made of felt and was really rather simple to create.

I'm just not exactly sure where to attach it to now. :/ Guess that means I'll need to create something for it. LoL!



Here are some more detailed pictures. Hopefully they're not too small.

Jelly Roll...matching necklace

I almost forgot, I made a matching necklace to go with my jelly roll earrings!



And speaking of earrings, here's a set I made some time ago. They're rather wonky, but I like how they turned out. I haven't been brave enough to wear them out yet though. Hopefully soon.

Jelly Roll Felt Earrings

Here's another project from the book I was telling you about in this post. They're called Jelly Roll Candies, but they look like potato candy my grandmother used to make when I was a kid.

The book gives detailed instructions on how to make these cute little candies, but I won't bore you with the details. You'll have to find the book for that I'm afraid. ;) But here's what I created with the ones I made. Cute little earrings!

Here are the jelly rolls made out of felt. After these were dry, I sewed on little green beads.




And here are the jelly rolls as earrings. They came out really cute and I can't wait to wear them. :)

DIY: Felt Dying!

I was gifted a wonderful book entitled, "Pretty Little Felts" written by Julie Collings. It has a wonderful assortment of craft projects for felt. I've always loved creating with felt, despite my terrible use of a needle and thread, so I decided that I would try out some of these handy little projects. Some really don't even need a needle and thread, which made them all the more appealing. What I wanted to try first was felt dyeing. I've never been able to find any really nice felt colors I like. They're always too bold or too dark or too dull for the color I want. My selection has mostly consisted of felt squares as well. I hope to one day try needle felting, but have yet to find the materials in any stores nearby. The book also shows Wool rovings, which I would love to find. I may have to try to order it online though, as no one nearby seems to have it so far. :/

Anyway, I decided to try coloring some felt just to see how well that might work. The book consists of instructions that were pretty simple and easy, so I took a couple of pices of white felt and decided to try it out. Here are my pictures below.




1. Gather your materials. I took two pieces of white felt, although you could use any color you like. However darker colors may not be affected much by the dye. Choose your dye colors and kinds. I like liquid dyes and only had three available at the time. One is a lettuce color, one is like cranberry? And then the last was eggplant I believe. I ended up leaving the cranberry one as it's own color, but mixed the eggplant and lettuce a little. Be sure to use quite a bit of a dye with your water. Several squirts anyway. Too little color won't change the felt much and will just wash out with you rinse it out. You can use bowls, jars, or whatever you like to hold the dye. You will need a container of water for your dye mixture,make sure the water is slightly warm. You'll also need a class of clean, warrm water to rinse your felt in. It may be easier to rinse these under running water. I had to keep cleaning out my clean water after each use to keep the colors left behind from mixing. It may depend on your brand of dye as well? If you're looking to dye any felt, be sure to experiement first and use several practice pieces. You'll also need an old towel or paper towels to dry the felt on afterwards. Make sure you use something you dont' mind changing the color of. Paper towels are probably your best pick.
2. Once you have your supplies ready, take one of the glasses of water and drop in several drops or squirts of your dye. In the picture, I think I started out with only a few drops and ultimately added more, so feel free to experiment with how much dye you want to use. The more dye you have, the darker or stronger your colors will turn out. Put your dye in (might want to wear gloves to keep your fingers clean) and let sit for a bit. Sitting longer means darker, stronger colors. When you think it's done, take out the felt and rinse it in the clean water.
3. This pictures shows the cranberry felt after it has been rinsed in clean water. Notice how pink the 'clean' water becomes?
4. This is the pink/cranberry felt and the eggplant/lettuce felt next to their original counterpart. Notice the changes? The cranberry/pink felt came out alot better and stronger then the other. I also had to keep dyeing the brown colored one as the color kept fading out of it when it was rinsed. I may not have left it in long enough. If you want your felt to be darker, leaving it in the dyed water longer helps. This was just my first attempt, but I am pretty pleased with out it came out.

The whole process was fairly simple and hopefully I can get some other dyes that will help me get more colors that will be closer to what I'm looking for. I have several other projects to post that I've tried from this book, so stay tuned!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a bit late, but Happy Mother's day to all the mom's out there. :)

I created this as a sort of cover art for a dvd I created for my mother. Something simple based on another photo I saw somewhere online. It was simple so decided to keep mine simple as well. :)

What items do you create with?

Just wanted to dedicate this post to some of my favorite craft items. Here are a few that I adore and use fairly often:

1. Buttons!
2. scrapbook paper, or paper with designs
3. Fiskars Cutter Bee Scissors (these are seriously the best thing I've ever bought. Everyone should own at least one pair of these.)
4. stamps (Love so many, I really don't have any particular fave brand or design really.)
5. sandpaper

Sandpaper? Yes, sandpaper. It was years before I discovered it's multifunctional use for art. Have a lumpy chipboard piece? Use sandpaper to buff out the chinks! Need a distressed look but don't have a distress tool handy or can't find one you like? Sandpaper works well!

Oh, and I suppose a number 6 item would be art/craft/scrapbook magazines. These really are priceless for ideas and projects and techniques. My favorite so far is Scrapbooks, Etc. They work best for me because they offer multiple projects, such as art projects, diy projects, gift ideas, card ideas, scrapbook layouts, and so much more! However, there are many to choose from, so the next time you're near the magazine aisle, be sure to check out what's out there! :D

The princess and the pigeon

Just doodling in photoshop and created this. Thought I would share it while I have a chance. ;)

...and then it rained....

It's been raining quite a bit this week, which I guess is what perhaps partly inspired this piece? Although it was more inspired by this talented artist I came across recently. Either way, here's what my head came up with.

Some cuteness I got from my latest travels to Michaels. ;D I'm not exactly sure if these are for scrapbooks or if you're supposed to use them to help your children learn...maybe both? But I plan on using them as scrapbooking decorations regardless. LoL! I love the pictures and their rustic look. Sooo cute! :D You can problem find them on their website here if you'd like to order your own. ;) Or if you just want to check out their neat stuff! :D

Some Easter Goodies

I did make this little bunny actually. (Thought not the awesome buttons it's sitting on.) Decided to try my hand at clay and bought some ultra light sculpey clay, and this is what I came up with. :P I admire those who can create things with clay, even more so now that I realize how hard it is! LoL! Will probably keep trying it, but doubt much will come of my trials. If they do, I'll be sure to post them here. ;D

Cutesy bunnies for Easter

I started drawing these around the same time as the sock monkeys, and have more of them as well. Just in time to post them for Easter. :D Happy Easter to all! :D

More krazy kats...

Just a few more krazy kats. :D This is actually one of my favorite ones. I love the whistling cat and the expression on the other two's faces. LoL! Perhaps I should do one where they get their revenge? Hmmm....

Sock Monkeys...

So I've had these little sock monkey arts I did for awhile but haven't had time to scan them or anything. Finally did that and tweaked it just a bit in photoshop and thought I would share the results of one here. I'd love to do greeting cards or something with them, but I'd probably be the only one who'd like them. LoL!

Redesign

Decided it was time to redesign my blog. :D

Feeling inspired.

For me, the toy aisle of any store has always been a treasure trove of inspiration, obviously. However, when you get older, it's rare you have a reason to go down the toy aisles as much, and even if you do, you have to fight with your children on whether to buy this or that and really don't get to *look* at any of the items there. So, I try to make a trip down these aisles every so often just to see what's new and what kids like and what I like. One such recent trip found me going home with one of these dolls. A Moxie Girl doll. The "Creative" one was my first choice, of course, but after getting her home and finding out how utterly adorable she was, I couldn't stop for going back for the rest, as you can see from the pictures below.




I don't know much about them but did read somewhere on a blog while trying to research them that they're made by the same company that makes the Bratz dolls and apparently were/are going through a sort of custody battle with another company for the rights to those. Therefore, the company came up with these dolls, just in case they lost the lawsuit. Regardless, I think these dolls are much cuter than the Bratz dolls (I've always been a Barbie doll gal myself) so even if they do lose, I doubt they'll have much trouble finding some new buyers for these. :D They also have a much larger version of these (these are only about a couple of inches tall) that you can design with markers and stickers. She comes with little accessories you can design as well. I'll have to wait until next time to get her. ;) Now I just need to get a good office and desk to set these on to enjoy properly. :)