Blue Art Journal Page

Another oceanish art journal page... I added a quote after I took the pictures that says, "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

Happy Monday, everyone.

Jellyfish Art Journal Page

Aly B, aka Rouge Raven, sent me the sweetest awesome "Get Well" package with a ton of papercrafting supplies because she's just awesome like that. She inspired me to do some art journal pages :) Here's the first.

I used some natural fiber paper which was really nice and fuzzy along the edges when I tore it...

The jellyfish are joyful because they don't have spines. Mine has been really painful for the last few days... Not fun, not joyful.

Anyways, I hope everybody has been having a great weekend.

Brother of Bobo: Scrap Monster!

I finished what I was weaving! Another benevolent scrap monster! And he's a lot bigger than some previous scrap monsters I've made.

About 13'' x 7.5'', probably make a decent neck pillow... He'll be up in my Etsy shop when I open it in August! Exciting, huh?!

The back of him is another woven material, but not hand-woven by me like the crazy front. I think it makes him a little bit squishier, because the woven front is really thick.

Used ALL SORTS of scraps for the hand weaving... A lot of cotton print scraps, along with some felt, fleece, tulle, yarn, lace, angora, ribbon, etc. My scrap bin was getting mighty full, and making this guy barely put a dent in it. I guess I've gotta make another sometime. The weaving's something I can do on the couch, so that's nice and comfy. But it makes a MESS with all the raw edges and things leaving threads and little fibrous junk around everywhere.

Have a good evening!

Bird/Space Altoids Tin Shrine

Magically, my internet works again (for now...) so I'm just going to take advantage of it and blog before it craps out again randomly! I made this altered altoids tin shrine for my pal Audio for her belated birthday! I first sanded the whole thing down to remove the Altoids labeling and colors, and also so the paint would stick to it. I used regular artist acrylics, and they're a little bit transparent, so the shiny metal showed through a bit... I liked the effect :)

For the inside, I took a quote that was in Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, and embellished with all sorts of stuff. Corrugated paper, colorbox inks, lots of random dried wild organic stuff from around here, crystal rhinestones, etc.

The bird is actually a cutout print of one I had done a while back. So how about those crystal rhinestones? I really liked how sparkly they looked. Made the whole thing just a tad bit fancier... Anyhoo, Happy late birthday, Audio!

I hope the internet doesn't crap out again so I can post again soon! I'm doing some weaving... Happy Wednesday!

More technical difficulties >:-(

Hey friends, looks like I won't have the internet at home until at least Friday. I'm at a friend's house right now who has so kindly allowed me use of her computer! Time Warner is sending out a tech on Friday to figure out what on earth is up with our shoddy internet connection... So no posts for a little while. Boooo.......

Bzzz Embroidery

A little bee guy embroidery... I guess he could also be some kind of alien on a rocketboard or something like that. It's supposed to be a tiny bee guy on a flower, though, but I decided against adding wings on him and a stem on the flower. Then I painted the filled in areas with acrylic paint.

Overall a super simple embroidery project I was able to finish over a couple episodes of Futurama on Netflix... Maybe that's why I'm inclined to see this as a little alien. Anyway, have a great weekend, everyone.

Knowledge Bunny Monster

My husband and I have a friend who's on a church mission in Phoenix, and we like to write to him every month. When he writes back, he always mentions that he likes the art stuff I send... So this month, I painted this little bunny-like monster clutching the scriptures on the envelope we'll send the letters in. He kind of ended up with a determined look on his face :)

Here's a couple of in-progress pics. The monster didn't look quite so determined, just kinda stupid in the drawing to begin with. A couple tiny ink strokes can do a lot to change a monster's facial expression, I guess! Happy Thursday!

Do you hoard shiny things?

I think I mentioned that my favorite sister sent me a big flat rate box absolutely PACKED with beads a couple weeks ago! After much sorting and organizing, I still ended up with a good sized bag of what I've heard craftsters call "bead soup."

So many needle pricks, some embroidery thread, paint and hundreds of beads later, I ended up with this little bird sitting on his collection of shiny objects, presumably collected in magpie fashion.

Here's a close-up of the bead soup nest... All sorts of fun stuff in there! Mostly glass beads, a few plastic, some real turquoise ones, and one teeny little black pearl. So friends, can you relate to this little bird? Keeping all sorts of random bits and shiny things? Ha, I know I can.

Happy Wednesday!

THE WINNER!

The random number generator has spoken, and the lucky winner is:

Congratulations, Nessa the Procrastinator! YOU WIN! Go ahead and e-mail your address to kira {at} oopsicraftmypants.com. Oh, and don't procrastinate, because if I don't hear from you, I might have to choose another winner ;) Hehe...

Thanks very, very much to everyone who entered! I wish I could send all of you a little something. Don't worry, this won't be my last giveaway (They're so darned fun). Anyhoo, since you're all winners to me, I'm going to set up a little link list gadget on my right sidebar linking to everybody who linked to me in this giveaway for a while. Gonna spread the love around a bit.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great week so far! Happy Tuesday!

Technical Difficulties

Hey friends! My modem has officially and annoyingly bit the dust, and I can't get it replaced until Monday... I'm currently mooching someone else's wireless signal right now, but the connection is slow at best. I don't even have my camera anyway! So it looks like there will be no bloggage for me this weekend, sadly.

Oh and (yes, I'm continuing to plug this!) there's still time to enter the 365 Posts Giveaway! Big hi to my new followers :D Have a great weekend.

Adorable Monster Hat

Baby hat! A friend of mine from church is preggo with a baby boy and due next month, so the YW threw her a baby shower today. I made this little hat for her out of fleece. the hat was really easy to make. It was one piece of fleece 10x17'' sewed into a tube, then the top sewed up so it's kind of a little sack or pounch. Then I just gathered up the corners with a running stitch to make the ears and tied them off on the inside. The eyes and mouth are embroidered felt!

Then I drew and painted this little matching tag to attach. On the back it says, "Congratulations on your adorable little monster." Yeah, I dunno if it's cool to call someone's unborn baby a monster, but it was a risk I was willing to take... Happy Wednesday!

Don't forget the 365 Posts Giveaway going on until July 13th! Thanks to everyone who has entered so far :)

Little Teeny Gift Bags

I made some little teeny gift bags! And so can you! I found this excellent template. You can resize the template to make varying sizes... After that, it's just cutting, folding and gluing. I used a glue stick, and then used the hot glugun to attach the handles. The smallest one was printed on a 3x5'' sized paper and is perfect for scrabble tile pendants. The medium one is printed on about 5x7'' and fits a bottlecap really nicely.

PHOTO BOMB! This is Peanut, and he wants presents.

In other awesome news, my sister sent me a medium flat rate box PACKED to the gills with our old bead stash, plus tons of other beads she picked up along the way. She hasn't touched 'em in years, so she figured I would use them since I craft ALL THE TIME. I'm realllly excited! After painting, beading was among my very first crafts! I worked at a bead shop in highschool, so it's going to be awesome to make some fun beaded junk! Anyway, I hope everyone had an excellent 4th of July weekend!

Annnnnd yet again, my 365 Posts Giveaway is still going on! Ends July 13th! Spread the word :D and thanks for entering!!!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July weekend!!! I hope everyone sees some awesome fireworks, eats some awesome food and stays awesomely safe!

Painted this little redwhitebluebird with an ooh-ahh face this morning! I attempted to make a glitter fireworks background, but it looked crap. So my great brother, Nate (very creative, and genius), made the above rad digital collage to help me wish you all a happy Independence Day!

ALSO! Don't forget the 365 Posts Giveaway going on until July 13th to score some free stuff! Have a beautiful weekend!

Fish Notecards

I've been having fun with art prints lately, so I made a set of notecards using mini-cutouts of fish I painted!

2 sheets of each of these paisley papers are included in the stack of paper in my 365 Posts Giveaway! If you haven't entered, be sure to do it! Thanks to everyone who's entered so far, and a big HI! to my new followers :D

When I painted these fish, they were considerably larger, almost a whole page... Shrunk down to about 2 inches, they make some pretty cute stickers :) It's nice to work with some art prints, because I can still make cards or whatnot with 'em and it doesn't take too long. It seems like after doing about an hour of housework, I hit my limit and don't have the backpower to tackle much else. I'm feeling pretty good though, slowly slowly improving...

365th POST GIVEAWAY!

It's kinda hard to believe it's been a year already since I started this humble blog! I can tell you that I have immensely enjoyed keeping this little site going and sharing my projects with you all. So as a thanks for reading, I'm hosting a giveaway to celebrate ONE YEAR of blogging and 365 posts! Items included in this giveaway prize package are:

-One NEW Micron Size #005 Drawing Pen - My personal favorite and the kind I use for all my illustrations
-Original Art Print - "Happy Rat Saddles Dejected Cat" by me! Matted to fit any standard 5x7'' frame
-NEW K & Company Alphabet Tear Pad - 3 full alphabet/number sets perfect for collaging, scrapbooking, altered art (the designs are rad, trust me.)
-16 Sheets of 6x6'' Paper - Various brands, various designs, all very colorful, just the way I like 'em :)
-One Bottlecap Pendant or Magnet - You choose the design from the 96 different rinchies I've made up in the past few weeks.

Now there are 2 ways to enter. First, just become a follower of my blog and leave a comment here to say hi and that you want in! (If you're already a follower, just leave a comment and you're entered) The second way you can enter is by linking to this giveaway on your blog and leaving another comment here with the link to your blog! So each person can have 2 entries by doing the stuff I just said. The winner will be chosen on July 13th via random number generator and announced here at oopsicraftmypants.com.

This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only (Sorry!) I just need to keep shipping under control. Thank you so much for following and reading and entering! Here's to many more years of craftiness and blogging about it!

Good luck!