Holiday Recommends for the Harry Potter Crowd

I know I got a bunch of like-minded readers who love Harry Potter, right? (listens for the imaginary screams of a bunch of rabid fans) Right.

Petite Potions is an awesome shop on etsy which is inspired primarily by the awesomeness that is Harry Potter. I recently fell in love with her tiny dragons that come in a crate! With adorable little stickers like "live animal" and "this way up"! Maybe that just excites me because I used to work in a shipping department, and seeing that on a tiny crate with a tiny dragon is cute....ahem..





She also does one of the best pygmy puffs I've seen on the market! I love the expressions on their faces, who wouldn't want one of these staring up at them from their Christmas stocking?



And I think for the Christmas shopping crowd she is also starting to sell stretched canvas Children's art. I was blown away by this Dr. Seuss piece that is in her shop now.



Check her out! You know your kids would love you for it =)

Facebook is taking over the world.

I forgot to mention that I finally got around to creating a facebook page for my shop! Pretty please take a gander over and "like" me! =) I'll still be posting here faithfully but I'll most likely use fb to post quick updates on things in progress and things hitting my shop and probably goofy pictures of random crafting! Thanks so much!

Craft shows and painting and randomness, oh my!

I just got back from a giant craft show today and it really warmed my heart. Besides having tons of awesome handmade stuff for sale (picking up a few Christmas presents along the way) the vendors were all really really cool, down-to-earth, friendly people. I wish I lived closer to the area where the show was so I could participate more in the handmade community (and hang out with Nicole more!) but maybe I should venture out and try to find my own community where I live. Ahh, but meeting new people, not my strong suit. I need to stop being a chicken and do it....later. =)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a pouch I made last week for a co-worker for his niece. He wanted me to recreate an image of her favorite childhood horse that she used to ride but is now in horsey heaven. This is the first time I have actually attempted to "paint" an image rather than using stencils and I am super proud of how it turned out!





This makes me curious about trying to do somewhat realistic paintings in general which I've never really tried because I am chicken. But I'm going to try soon! Just need to figure out what exactly.

Here's the backside of the pouch. More horse themed stitching...



It was nice to have a break from Doctor Who. Haha but speaking of Doctor Who, I totally went off the deep end with screen printing Doctor Who themed things...mainly shirts! Which will be appearing in my etsy shop very very soon! Check out a few sneak peeks!







That's all for now. I really need to just lose myself in an awesome TV series and just go stitch crazy for the next batch of patchwork bags. I have a giant pile of cut-out fabric that keeps giving me angry eyes every time I ignore it to finish reading the second book in the Game of Thrones series.

Holiday Recommends Beautiful Baubles for All

It occurred to me that I haven't really shared any of my love for original, fantastic jewelry and it struck me as inspiration for this week's....



I know a fabulous lady down in Kentucky that makes these elaborate chunky charm bracelets and her name is MistressJennie! Her etsy shop, Mistress Jennie's, has a wide variety of beautiful baubles for many a fandom, and then some! I am an instant sucker for the Harry Potter and Doctor Who themed bracelets (I love when people share the same passion for crafting for fandoms that I do =)) which even go so far as to break down into themes on specific characters and places.





Jennie is a wizard with the arrangements of these complex pieces, each being perfectly balanced between charms and sparkling jewels. I had to pick a few to feature as my personal favorites. I love the shoe for the 10th Doctor (obviously!), and the Tardis and...well I could go on =) It's almost as much fun just picking out the charms and what they represent and would make a great gift for the geek in your life.





Pictured above is another bracelet featuring all that is Snape, his very darkest to the most inner light. I can't get over that beautiful shade of emerald green that runs throughout the whole piece.



And for those who want something a little simpler, she does that too! While she is unable to do any more custom orders for the rest of the holiday season (check back after!!), she is such a kind wonderful woman and will do her best to be able to modify something she already has listed in her shop for you. In regards to her custom orders, and just in case HP and DW aren't your thing (its possible), she is open to any theme you might suggest to her.

Check her shop out! You can also follow her blog to see her other crafty adventures and see when new listings are put up.

Sometimes instead of looking at pictures, just paint them.

What have I been up to this week? Well....I've been working on another custom Doctor Who bag which is almost done. Finally found a good Christmas stamp so I can complete some Christmas postcards! Did various sorting and weeding of craft supplies that I seriously never use. And pulled out some old, never looked at, totally forgotten pictures that I decided to doodle on =)







I had no plan in my head at all when I attacked these with a bit of paint and marker. Some are better than others but overall I like it and I have more in progress. I was thinking of abandoning them like my previous abandon art project...or making a really odd photo album. Who knows? I'm just enjoying the process as I go for now.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with an awesome friend to have a screen printing date! I'm still hemming and hawing about if I feel like making a new screen or two to bring up with me along with my HP and DW screens. Another thing to make a decision on....later =)

Holiday Recommendations Part 2

This week I want to share my awesome friend Erica of DolliPopVintage on etsy.
She is a born-and-bred artist, and is a tattooist by trade. I met her through craftster and have fallen in love with her personality, style, and total overall flair. Her paintings are amazing but I love what she does to abandoned relics of the thrift store. She loves to find items, especially old dolls and paint them up, giving them so much more dimension and interest than they ever had to start with.





A lot of them have a day-of-dead flair about them, which I love! It brings a whole other side to these "sweet" dolls, I think Erica's done some zombie dolls as well!



Check her out, and consider getting a commissioned item even, she does those too!

The Randomness of my Mind Can Take Over Sometimes

In a fit of not wanting to make anything Doctor Who or Harry Potter inspired, I started making these patches many months ago. It wasn't until recently in another fit likewise inspired that I actually pulled them back out and made some finished items! A bunch more pouches and wallets that are already in my shop.

My favorite I think is the Dino Pouch. So fun and playful. I also owe a shout out to Wendy for helping me fill in the word bubbles on one patch =) (Such a ridiculous movie it is inspired from but then again it makes me laugh).









And a random one, made from some patches that really had nothing to do with each other....but I think it works. The patch with greenish-blue circles was hand painted by my friend Mel!









I also started some Monty Python inspired patches, with the intention of making a whole bag, but then lost the fire to make it. Maybe some day, but for now here's a large wallet.








And now for something completely different, I was asked at work a few weeks ago to make a scrapbook page for one of the regional managers who was transferring to another department. I am not really a scrapbooker, but I DID get an art degree so I should be qualified right? haha. Well this is what I came up with. The only thing purchased was the 12x12 paper background and the paper that is used on the boat/raft. Everything else was cut out from construction paper by me (minus the picture of me and my co-workers duh). I'm pretty proud of it, considering it was pretty much all cut out by me. I did cheat on the tentacles though; I used a hole punch for that - no way was I hand cutting out a bunch of tiny circles.