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!

Watercolor Monster Round-up

Okay, okay, this cat is not a monster, but he is big and furry with lots of teeth. That counts, right? I've been doing a lot of watercolor monsters lately because I've needed them for swaps and gifts and whatnot. Bobby's getting grumpy that I keep giving them away, so I forsee more monsters in the future to give to my husband!

I've been using more noses, like I mentioned before :) Do you dig the wide thin nose on this little guy?

Aaaaand, don't forget to occasionally give yourself a hug. It's important. Happy Wednesday :)
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Coptic Stitch Monster Journal

Another Monster Swap item!!! Remember that giant slew of kids book envelopes I posted a looong time ago? Well, I have a lot of leftover book covers and they're just perfect to trim down and re-cover to make nice, solid new journals. For this one, I trimmed some covers down to about 6" x 6" and covered them with paper. Then I painted, embellished, etc, and sprayed it down with clearcoat to keep everything smooth and durable.

Then to make the outside binding look good and colorful, I used colored cardstock for the outside of each of the six signatures. The rest of the sheets on the inside of the signatures are just plain printer paper. Then I coptic stitched it all together. Tada!

Now I'm off to paint more monsters... Happy Tuesday


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Furry Monster & Kitty Plush

For some reason, this picture reminds me of that lolcat that says, "I iz waitin for cheezburger man. Does you have a money?"

Meet my latest plush monster creation! Looks kinda scared, maybe like a baby monster... With a green hairbow!


I made this little dude out of a repurposed thrift store teddy bear! The fur on it was so much smoother and softer before I washed it, but the I kinda ended up loving the scragglyness of it, and it was still pretty soft. To make the monster shape, I cut the head off the the bear (which kind of felt a little bit wrong, kinda like how it feels to cut up your first book for papercrafting, but the bear was looking at me the whole time *shudder*). Then, I seam-ripped around the arms and lowered them. They used to be at the level where the monster's ears would be, and the eyes of the monster are where the bear's chest was, if you can imagine. Sew, sew, sew, re-stuff, sew, and voila!
And then, I bought the teeny orange kitty at the thrift store, too, and decided it would be the perfect little thingie for the monster to cuddle. I made it for the monster swap and sent off to Saint Angel, who makes some awesome plushies herself :)
Happy Thursday!
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Seafood Inchies Book

Hehehe, seafood. Just kidding, more like sea creatures inchies. I don't think I'd like to eat a jellyfish. This is a little inchies book I made for Alex K in our little personal swap!


The drawings are really similar to the first inchies book I had ever made, but the colors are much more colorful... I used my little rotary tool to round the corners a little bit, which I think had a nice effect.

Anyway, I came across a new blog via Craftster, featuring crafts by the magnificent Sheepblue. My heart melted from the abundance of Harry Potter crafts. Get your pinteresting fingers ready and check out Quirkie Craft. Much eye candy to be had over there. Happy Monday!
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Keeper of the Key

Another monster! Why is it so fun to draw monsters? Probably because they can have horns and teeth and be whatever fun colors you want them to be :)

I think I've been neglecting the art of the nose... I usually draw my monsters without noses, but I think I need to experiment a little more with them. This little nose turned out pretty cute.

AAaaaaaaand yesterday was Bobby's and my 5 year wedding anniversary :D He took the day off of work, took me shopping, bought me a new dress and earrings, and then surprised me by driving me to the petshop to pick out a BUDGIE!!! I picked a lively little green bugger and named him Pipo :) He's settling in nicely, not quite tame yet, but I've been letting him perch on my finger while I sit real still. When he's a little less scared, I'll take some pics of him to show him off.

So I have the best husband ever. I hope everyone had as good a week as I did :) Happy Friday Night!
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We have a winner, people.



Congratulations, Alphabetsy! YOU WIN A WICKED WITCH BOOKMARK!!! E-mail me at kira [at] oopsicraftmypants.com with your shipping address!

Thank you to everyone who entered! And a hearty "Hello!" to new followers! 

Inchies, Rinchies, Twinchies

Alright, by now you've seen me post about 100 million inchies here. But here are some fun new inchie-related vocabulary words! A rinchie is a round inchie, and a twinchie is like an inchie, but it's 2" squared :) Now you know, in case you didn't know.

I did all of these for the "Inchies & Rinchies & Twinchies, OH MY!" Swap on Craftster. The golden snitch one has craft foil, so it's really shiny and golden. The robot on the twinchie in this set is really metal, too.

Ah, now that some of my latest projects have arrived at their new homes, I can post without ruining the surprise :) I've been so busy with household stuff and making Wicked Witch Bookmarks (the giveaway is still open, BTW!! Click this!), I haven't had much time or drive to craft stuff other than swap items. It kinda makes me a sad panda, but things aughta calm down, right? RIGHT?! So this last set was for Alex K, who is an AMAZING sculptor and artist. We did a little personal swappage on the side, and it was most excellent. Check out her blog, The Art and Craft of Monsters.

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend. And don't forget to enter the Wicked Witch Bookmark giveaway, if you haven't already :)


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Wicked Witch Ruby Slippers Bookmark Giveaway!

Over the past couple of months, I've been making so many of these little bookmarks, and all of you guys have been so kind as to buy them up! I thought it would be nice to give back just a little :)

That's why I'm giving away a Wicked Witch of the East/Ruby Slippers bookmark! AND, to sweeten the deal, if my blog reaches 525 followers by the time this giveaway ends, I will give away a bookmark to TWO lucky readers!

Each person can enter up to 3 times. Here's how:

1. Become (or be) a follower of this blog and leave a comment here saying so!
2. Link to this giveaway on your blog or website and comment with a link to your blog showing the linkage. (Feel free to save and use the above graphic on your site).
3. Share about this giveaway on your Facebook page, and leave another comment here.

REMEMBER: Post a separate comment for each entry!


So get to it! The winner or winners will be chosen by random number generator and announced August 17th, 2011. Please make sure there is a way to contact you by clicking through to your profile, or be sure you watch for the winner so you can e-mail me should you be a winner! Also, I moderate my comments, so if your comment doesn't appear right away, don't worry. And yes, readers outside of the US can enter, too!

Thank you for being awesome! GOOD LUCK :D

And remember, if you don't feel like chancing it, new batches of bookmarks are available in my Etsy Shop every 1-2 weeks. E-mail me if you would like to be put on the mailing list to be notified when more are for sale!

Dia De Los Muertos iPhone case

I have been on vacation in Utah visiting my Bobby's family for the last little bit, so my crafting has been pretty slow! So I decided to scrounge my photos and see what I haven't posted yet. Lo and behold, it looks like I never shared this iPhone case I sewed for Lani!

I don't really consider myself an expert at sewing functional things, but I was pretty proud of myself with this thing. It's lined with felt on the inside and I made the strap long so it can be latched over a belt.

The skully fabric was from a kid's shirt that I dug up at a "fill-a-bag-for-$2" sale at the thrift store. SCORE! Then I embroidered it and added some sequins for a bit of shiny.

This is a close-up (duh). The fabric was stretchy knit, so I backed it with some iron-on interfacing so it wouldn't distort or stretch.

Anyhoo, my vacation was pretty good! We got to stay with Bobby's brother for a few days, then the family all rented a cabin at Bear Lake for a few days (31 people total, about 10 million kids, it was nuts), then we finished the trip off over at Bobby's sister's. Oh, and I got to eat at Tucano's, which was oh, so delicious.

But the unfortunate part was the very end of the trip when we got home at 1 AM to find the wood floors moldy in our house because we turned the air off. I guess now we know to never, never, never turn the air off when you live in humid, muggy Alabama. So, Bobby had to mop up with bleach after 10 hours of traveling. So sad! Oh well, it's cleaned up now.

In a related story: my next batch of Wicked Witch Bookmarks will be available in my shop tomorrow at 9 AM Central Time. The proceeds will be used towards buying us a flippin' dehumidifier :) Happy Thursday!!!!
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