The Kira Nichols Etsy Shop

Plenty more to see at kiranichols.etsy.com! Bookmarks, planner clips, digital stamps, ornaments, and many more unique gifts. Thanks for supporting this artist!

Bear Monster Hat

Had to whip up a baby gift! Alas, this bear monster hat. The ribbons can be taken off, just in case it's a boy!

Fleece with handsewn felt applique. Whee!

My stained glass class is going well (though I'm not really working with stained glass... I decided on a mirror piece because the glass colors they had didn't really appeal to me). I did a lot of glass grinding yesterday and it was evidently flying EVERYWHERE! I keep finding tiny glass slivers in my hair, even after showering. Not very fun, those suckers are sharp. But my project is coming along nicely :) I think I'll finish early next week. Then I think I'll do the pottery class.
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Frida Kahlo Altered Matchbox

Craftster.org has the funnest swaps, and I signed up for the last round of altered matchboxes! I was fortunate enough to have the talented AmaryllisRose as my partner, and she likes Frida, so I made her this matchbox.

To fill the inside, I made this tiny book using coptic stitch (my new favorite thing!) and it has kind of a poem inside pieced together by flipping through TONS of book pages. It says, "Fetch my scizzors, brush and ink; make everything; I can't help it; this overwhelming gift is my best friend." Now, I'm not really one for poetry, but I thought these words summed up crafting pretty well :)

Behind the book, there is another Frida and a compartment painted red with coral pieces. If there's one thing I'd say about Frida's artwork, it's that she put a lot of heart (literally an figuratively)into it... The red coral reminds me of arteries and the heart, so it was pretty fitting.

The hanging coral pieces were my favorite part!!! I was able to do a little wire wrapping, which is a skill I realized I had nearly forgotten, since I haven't really done much in the last couple of years... Maybe it's something I aughta get back into.

The wings were cut from a flattened out olive can and then tapped with a hammer and punch to add a kind of Mexican-feeling embossing. I was pretty psyched with how they turned out! BUT- soldering on the jumprings to hang the chains from was a PAIN IN THE NERDS! I had to have Bobby help me, and it took all 4 of our hands at once to get the pieces together in the right places. Worth it.

I think I spent the most time on this than any other project of mine this tiny!

Anyhoo, in other craft-related news, I started a stained glass class today!!! It's way harder work than I had anticipated, but it's pretty cool. I can't wait to share my very first glass project with you guys! Happy Thursday, friends!
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Another one!

I made a second Ruby Slippers/Wicked Witch of the East bookmark for a friend from church who asked if I could make one for her Wicked-obsessed pal. This time, I actually made a Wicked-themed bookmark part in addition to the witch legs! It says, "I want those shoes," a quote that signals the beginning of the end of the witch in the book.

Obligatory squished-in-book-shot. These ones, sadly, don't stand up on their own like the last set. They stand up as feet alone, but once I attached the bookmark part, they fall over :( Oh well.... Happy Tuesday!
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Ruby Slippers/ Wicked Witch of the East Bookmark



I sell these in my Etsy Shop! Please visit http://kiranichols.etsy.com to purchase :D Thank you so much for your support! 
I had this idea for funny bookmark a little bit ago when I was reading "Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West," and I thought, there's no WAY that no one else hasn't thought of this yet. So I googled, trying to find a bookmark that someone had made like this, and couldn't find one. I just had to make one before the idea vanished from my brains. A bookmark with the Wicked Witch of the East's legs and the ruby slippers...

I made the legs out of white polyclay (which turned brown in the toaster oven; I guess I shouldn't bake stuff while I'm outdoors deshedding the dog and can't hear the timer dinging). Before baking, I cut a slit on the top of each leg so I could attach them to a paper. I painted everything with acrylic ink then aded red glitter and some teensy paper bows. I kind of was impatient and handled them too soon before drying, so they're kinda smudgy. Then I just glued em to an ephemera card that Audio sent me a while back.

Hi ho, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch! Happy Friday, everyone! Have a good weekend.

PS. When we were tiny kids, my brother and sister and I thought it was SO HILARIOUS in the Wizard of Oz, when they take the ruby slippers off of the witch's feet and they curl up and shrink back under the house! We'd rewind and watch it over and over. It still makes me chuckle to even think about it.

Nine Little Fishies

Today I was very much in need of a crafty escape, so I shut myself in my craft room and churned out nine little fish ATCs for the doodle swap project! They're all watercolor and ink.
Smugfish
Fishlips
My favorite squintyfish
Angry, incredulous fish
Mesmerized fish
Snoutyfish
Disheartened Fish
Snackfish
Heyfish I hope you enjoyed all these crazy fish! It was kinda refreshing to do such a big set of ATCs... It would be fun to do 9 owls, or 9 kitties, or 9 sloths! Anyway, happy weekend!
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Quilt!

With the help of my buddy Sarah and her MIL, Grammy, this WIP quilt is totally pieced together and functional!!! It's been tied, but I still have some plans to hand-quilt... We'll see if I have the patience or ambition to complete that...

The squares are cut from ALLLLL sorts of different clothing materials. I think about half a year ago, Sarah and I went to a GIANT thrift store "Fill a paper bag for $2" clothing sale. I just started grabbing pieces that I like the pattern and color of and filled 2 bags! Much cutting and sewing later, THIS QUILT.


I also incorporated a lot of my embroideries that were just sitting around. I figured I'd enjoy them more this way :) Anyhoo, it's queen-sized and a bit wider than that, to boot.

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

P.S. I started using Pinterest this week, and I LOVE it! Does anybody else reading this use it too? Here's my link: http://pinterest.com/kiranichols

Suspicious Owl...


He knows something is wrong... but doesn't know exactly what... Watercolor and acrylic ink!

Happy Wednesday night! :)

What did I do today?


 My "Awwwww" face. This baby grizzly bear was SOOOO flipping cute!! We went to the critter zoo about an hour away today! Saw parrots, lemurs, cougars, lions, ligers, and a grumpy tiger roared at us! We fed camel and goats and zebra-donks and cows and donkeys! It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!1!

Textured Turquoise Postcard

I made this 4x6 postcard a little bit ago... I wanted it to have a lot of texture so experimented with lots of different things. Doesn't it look a bit different than my normal style? But I still like how it turned out.
It's got stamped metal, wire, crumpled paper...
Even some sparkly microballs :) Before I painted the whole thing turquoise with acrylics and added gold pigment powder, I pretty much hated the colors.
Can you see why I painted over it? :) Looks better turquoise, huh? Anyhoo, Happy Thursday!

Also: I get to go to the critter zoo tomorrow and hold a baby grizzly bear!!! I'm so excited.

1st Altered Puzzle

 I did my first altered puzzle! Altered puzzles have been another one of those items on my long list of "want to try" projects... Well, I finally did it!
 VOILA! It was a 24 piece Winnie the Pooh puzzle that I got from Dollar General. What's great is that it came in a great little tin that I can alter later. So for those of you out there who like to (or have ever wanted to) alter puzzles or Altoids tins, go to the Easter section of Dollar General for a super deal! Or just go find any other random puzzle, they all work great!
 A doodle monsterpiece with some flower confetti. I used my cheapo rotary tool to sand down the piece edges after putting paper on them. When you use the exacto knife to cut around the piece, there are still rough paper pieces that kinda overhang the edges. Sanding them with the little tool really helped the pieces actually fit back together again.
And some wire elements on this piece. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out... Honestly, I had a hard time focusing and actually FINISHING it. I just had to think of each piece as a puzzle piece-shaped inchie. That made it a little easier to complete, even though I think I slacked on several pieces.

Anyhoo, happy Tuesday! I hope springtime is treating you well, and my condolences to those of you with allergies right now...

Hogwarts Sorting Dice :)

My partner in the One Tiny Harry Potter Thing has received, so now I can post my little treasure :)
I made a Hogwarts Sorting dice! It's about 1.5" by 1.5", so not as little as an inchies dice, but still pretty little and nifty! Here are all of the sides. Since there are only four houses, I did a side for Hogwarts and then the owl side for my "signature."
I suppose if you roll the Hogwarts side, you can be a ghost or a professor :)




Happy Sunday!

Who wins?!

I was forgetful last night, so without further ado, the Random Number Generator has spoken! The winner is:
Congratulations, Ayla!!! Shoot me an e-mail (kira at oopsicraftmypants.com) with your address or a PM on Facebook! I'll make you the fanciest owl ATC you've ever seen :)

Thank you to everybody who commented! I loved reading all of your faux-cusses! It was a riot!!