QuirkieCraft Recommends...

The holidays are coming up, and it seems like each day goes quicker than the last, with precious little time to really think about unique special gifts to give your loved ones for Christmas. The light bulb went off in my head.. It's not a original thought I admit, but I am going to share with you guys some awesome artists and sellers who I personally know that would definitely make memorable gifts that you can share, or maybe just buy for yourself (I know I would!).

Every week I will be doing...

So to start, I thought I'd introduce Rackycoo of craftster fame!!! She has an incredible etsy shop called RackyRoad that features her amazing skill and talent with all things paper and collage!



I love this festive elephant (elfe-ant? haha) that would be a really cute addition to anyone's holiday decor. Not only that but it could double as a clever gift box because the stand is actually a trinket box! I'm all for duel-purpose gifts.

She also has a listing for some original, frame-it-when-you're-done, Christmas gift tags.



Racky's work is flawless and shares a fun side of Christmas that makes everyone smile. If you don't have the time to make something for your loved ones, or want to pair up something you made with a sweet little side gift, RackyRoad is the place to go! Keep checking back to her shop as well; she will be putting up more Christmas themed listings soon, and accepts custom orders!

To Seattle and Back

I got back from Seattle on Wednesday and meant to post about my random adventures with art abandoning much sooner but getting back on schedule was harder than I imagined! My sleep schedule was all over the place and I just now feel like I'm getting back to normal. Anyway! On to the abandoning.

I brought a bunch of things to abandon - Onxynox's little books as well as the oddly cute creepy mini houses I made.

I did plan to abandon art in the airports as I made my connections to and from MI but decided that with all the bomb warnings and security it's just wasn't worth the risk of getting in trouble. But I did roam the streets of Seattle with one of my best friends and found some little places to drop art.

The first thing I abandoned was one of the houses, in a flower box in front of a police station haha. I suppose if I thought about it too much I would have gotten paranoid about that too, but police can use a little art and surprise in their life too.

**Disclaimer right now: I apologize for some truly crappy cell phone pictures you're about to see, but that's all I had. Sorry.***





And I think I already even heard from the person who found this little guy to take home!!

"I just got to Seattle for the first time a couple days ago. On that very first day, I was aimlessly wandering around the pike/pine/broadway area and right there, looking right at me, was that little dude. I'm terribly fond of him. Thank you for your art and for knowing the right way to share it. It was the perfect thing to make me feel welcomed in this city."

Ahhh, I love hearing back from people who totally get it!

Continuing our walk, my friend and I discovered an old phone booth on the street. It looked so forlorn and abandoned that I had to put one there - I wish I could have staked it out to see if anyone would notice it. We passed by it again on our way back to my friend's apartment and it was still there.



We visited her work and got some yummy free coffee - and I decided the bathroom was a great place to drop another of my houses. If you can't tell, it's sitting on the heating vent which is not being used yet at this point.



I abandoned another little book later, clipping it onto a "no Smoking" sign in front of a construction site. It's right on a busy road with plenty of foot traffic so I imagine that one has been found already.





I also dropped another of my little houses in a clear plastic bin by an apartment building. It has been found and I got an email!!





"Hey! Just letting you know that I found your little dude! Do you need any info/photos? Where else has it been?"

My friend got so into the abandoning idea that she asked if she could abandon a couple on her own - she wanted to put one in a cute little terrarium display at her work so she could watch to see who picked it up. Additionally she wanted to abandon one on her day trip to Las Vegas but I guess she chickened out with that one because there were cameras everywhere - that's understandable. She promises to get me pictures though so I will be sharing those in the near future!

And my very last wee book to abandon came with me to the grocery store when I got back home.



It's weird not having anything else to abandon now, but when I get some free time I will be making more!

Another Christmas bag and some fun

I'm back in town! and my brain is seriously fried, but I do have some exciting things to share with you guys in the next week.

Here's the last of my Christmas bags. I seriously fell in love with using felt in an applique technique and will definitely be using it more on my bags in the future. I also decided that the next time I make a bag, I'll try to remember to make a tutorial for how to make the strap as I've had dozens of people ask me over the last year or so since I started making these bags.













It definitely would appeal to the Christmas lover who is maybe just a bit jaded haha. Like me.

I also found a picture of a Christmas card I made a few years back.



Done with a linoleum block carving and stamp ink. I can't wait to share my Christmas cards that I made this year, but I think I'll keep that a surprise for now =)

Voices in the midst, and other Art Abandoning Adventures!

So my adventures in Art Abandonment continue! I dropped another precious wee book at the Denny's not too far from my house when I met up with an awesome friend. It's nothing too fancy but I have some great plans for the next couple of drops =)




Also my friend Onyxnox has been gradually abandoning the art pieces I sent here. I snagged some of her pictures to share with you guys. This is around the city of Toronto...



This first one is kind of magical. If you can't make it out, it's the rust star with a cicada in the middle. And what makes it magical is that I got an email from the super sweet family that found it while going on a hike, right after they found it. It warms my heart. The email read:

"On this beautiful day in late September my family and I set off from mid-town Toronto for a hike and picnic in the Rouge Valley. Just as we set out on the trail, my youngest son noticed something hanging from a branch. It was a rustic looking star tied to a tree with a note " please take me home"! How curious we thought. A second "wordy' note was quickly apparent. "Probably a religious message", I quickly surmised. But no, it was more than that. It was a lovely hand made craft offered as a simple token of thoughtfulness.

It now hangs in our kitchen reminding us to be thoughtful in our own lives.

Thank you!

Susan and family."


Onyxnox also abandoned my little girl shrine in a park. I don't think the placement could have been any more perfect if she tried.






I also received another email for a piece she abandoned just recently by the CN Tower (at least going by the email, I'm not sure if that's exactly where it was).

"Hello,

I am emailing you because my son was in Toronto since friday oct 12, 2012 and found your little crafty thing on a bench under the CN Tower.Just wanted to let you know that its now here in Ottawa,He was there just visiting and went to Wonderland.And he wanted me to email you to let you know what he found.And that he is too busy to email you)

Val"

I'm not sure which piece of art it was, but I'm dying to know! =)

I jumped back on the Printing Bandwagon

I got this brilliant idea to try selling Fat Quarters in my shop. Not sure why it didn't occur to me before, but then again, etsy is chock full of sellers that have fabric for purchase. But there's isn't a whole wealth of Doctor Who fabric is there.....=D I do hope to sell more of my own designs too (check out my jawbone print! I'm in love. Must make more for myself and make something awesome with it), but I thought to test out the market I'd start with my Doctor who screens which already have a built in audience.

Enough of the chatter though, check out my beauties!





















And a few others, Dark Mark from one of my Harry Potter screens, my beloved jawbone! and mold spores..













Every single one of these was printed by hand, which took some time, but I think the effort really paid off. They'll be popping up in my shop shortly!!

Oh and I'll be going out of town this week so I apologize if I'm a bit tardy on the next blog post. I might try to do one in advance and see if I can post it but I make no promises! =) Have a lovely week!

Everyone around me is Doctor Who and so am I

My latest custom bags have been focused on Doctor Who and I decided a while back to screen print some of the more complicated images (i.e. almost everything!) so I could include them on the bags without having to spend a million hours cutting out freezer paper stencils just for one or two images. And what can I say? I got a bit carried away.

Here's one of the bags.















After making these, I started think about what else I could do with the screens I made...which is leading me to think about maybe trying to sell my own hand pulled fat quarters and tshirts! I'm dabbling and things will start to pop up in my shop soon =) It'll be interesting to see if there's any interest in that sort of thing. If not, at least I tried.

Work-in-progress shots; the colors aren't really accurate (totally washed out) but you get an inkling of an idea.

Naked Christmas Men and Bags too.

Where to even start? Somehow in the span of a week or so I have a million things I could blog about. But let's take it a step at a time.

First of all, I have to share something I accomplished this week: sewing a stocking! Laugh if you may but I rarely have the patience to sit down and do all the little nit-picky things that are required to actually sew something well (my bags and whatnot aside, that's different!). I'm not sure what inspired me to actually sit down and do this.....well that's not true. The perfect fabric is what inspired me! =D

I used this really awesome tutorial which I would recommend to anyone. If I can figure it out, so can you!

I started out with some other fabric, to test it out to see if I could actually making the stocking...

My own pattern (because making a stocking pattern is so hard).


Lining + cuff + outer fabric all sewn up nice.


After both sides are sewn together, turning it inside

And the finished stocking!!


Now for the real deal. The stockings I made in the "special" fabric.







Love it. =)


And to finish this post I thought I'd share some pictures of a new Christmas themed bag I just added to my shop! Among other things. check it out!