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 I also updated my links list, as several were severly outdated and non existant.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...