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!

Donkey and Bird Fiesta and Tiny Mushroom Sloth

 The other day I told my fantastic group of Facebook likers that I was drawing creatures and asked which animal is the best. I got a lot of fantastic replies with some really awesome favorite animals. So many! I had a hard time choosing, but I picked the donkey and the sloth (one of my favorites, too!) Both are done in watercolor and ink.
Here is a traveling donkey and bird fiesta... They bring music and fiesta wherever they go! Is it just me, or does the bird in the Mexican poncho make you want to go to Disneyland?
And those are either really huge mushrooms or that's a teeny tiny sloth. I prefer thinking of him as very little...

In other news: WE RELEASED BABY BIRD THIS MORNING!!! We opened the cage and he flew high up and disappeared into a tree.  I am going to miss that feather ball. Feeding such a little warm, fluffy thing and watching him grow and progress was such a nice experience and I feel good knowing that I helped. I hope he lives a nice long and happy life out in the wild...

And I hope you all had a long and happy weekend :)

Flower Journal

Snappppp, I have had a stressful couple of days (blame iTunes and rude people, separate incidents) and I'm feeling a little on edge. Darn anxiety... I'm over it, but I still feel physically sick. I hate how when something annoying or stressful happens, the feeling sticks with you. Anyhoo, I want to show you this notebook I made as a thank you gift for a good, kind girl. The quote says, "Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony you carry in your heart concerning things divine." --Gordon B Hinckley. Good advice. I think I need to heed that today...Think positive!
I used recycled kraft cardstock on the inside pages, so they're sturdy enough to use this as an album, not just a journal. Yeah, options. And I glued in assorted ribbons to serve as dividers, and I just like the way they look sticking out like that :) To keep the ribbons from shredding, I just coated the ends in a little clear nail polish.
"Flower" from FETC Clip Art
The flower has little diamond glaze dots on it to add a little fun texture and a little dimension.

So, have a fantastic day, everyone! I am going to try to do that, too... I'm going to Zumba tonight and I'll probably eat some ice cream. No, Bobby ate the last of it... Make that cheez-its and Cadbury Mini-Eggs.

Elmer's Projects: ATC Album, bookmark, birthday card, fancy pen, and a journal page. (WHEW!)

So I have found myself prettttty busy, and I decided to show you all in one post the sponsored projects I did for Craftster.org's Master Craftster's Campaign with Elmer's and X-ACTO! You can click each link to see a tutorial for each project :)
 ATC Album! Every teeny little piece of art deserves a good place to live, right?
 Bookmark made from Scrap Paper! Why not make some cool and functional bookmarks while using up some of my smaller paper scraps?
 Flowers and Bird Dimensional Birthday Card! Now I won't feel like a bad friend when I have this hand-made card to give to my buddy...
 Pink Feathery Pen! Plain old boring pens are great, but when you can go fancy, why the heck not?...
Altered Journal Page...Altered-journaling slump: defeated!

Thank you for taking the time to check these out :) Happy Wednesday to you all! 


Quick, Easy iPod or smart phone stand! TUTORIAL!



I love my iPod, but I don't love how slick the back is, because it's impossible to prop up against anything without having it slide down onto its back. You can buy stands for this purpose, but I'm a I love my iPod, but I don't love how slick the back is, because it's impossible to prop up against anything without having it slide down onto its back. You can buy stands for this purpose, but I'm a crafty person, and the only thing I like to spend money on is craft supplies. So why not make my own little stand? You can too.
Here's what I used for this project: An 8x4'' piece of cereal box or similar food packaging, a slightly larger piece of patterned paper, a cut out kitty image from a book, red and white Elmer's Paint Pens, Elmer's Glue Dot Runner, and alphabet stamps (not pictured).
Here are the dimensions and the folding places for your cereal box. I added some dotted lines to make it easy to see where the creases need to go. If you have a scoring board, use it. If not, just use a ruler and something pointy, but not too sharp, like the end of a knitting needle, to make score lines. If you do this ahead of time it will make it much easier to fold when the time comes.
Use some glue, like this Elmer's Glue Dot Runner, on the printed side of your cereal box, making sure to cover the edges and the areas that will be creased well. A gluestick, like Elmer's Craft Bond All-Purpose Glue Stick would also work well in this situation.
Carefully press on your patterned paper and give it a good rub down to make sure it's good and stuck.
Use some fine-tipped scissors, like these X-ACTO Precision Tips, to trim off the excess paper as close as you can.
Next, fold your piece at the scored lines. To get a nice heavy crease, I used a bone folder, but the capped end of a gluestick works pretty good for that, too. It's important to crease well, so your stand keeps its shape and doesn't try to flatten out on its own.
After it's been folded, it'll look like this.
After gluing on my cat image, I used a white Elmer's Paint Pen to draw circles to prime where I wanted to stamp letters. The opaque paint in the pens is perfect to cover the pattern in the paper and really helps to make the stamped letters very clear and visible. I used a permanent stamp pad and alphabet stamps to put on the phrase, "I love that video!"
 Next, a red paint pen was perfect to add an accent to the edges.
 Once all of the decoration on the front is nice and dry (give the paint a few minutes), flip it over and use the Elmer's Glue Dot Runner on the back side of the bottom edge. (You could even skip this step and the next, to keep your stand collapsible for traveling)
 Position the stand how you want it, then press firmly to fix the front flap in place
 And there it is! A cute, functional accessory for your smart phone or idevice that hardly cost a thing.
 Now you're all set to watch some rad vids (Kittykill'sCraftster Quickies!) and your hands will be free to get down to some serious craftin'.

This has been sponsored content using Elmer's and X-ACTO products for Craftster.org's Master Crafter's Campaign. To check out all of the rad projects done by srsly crafty people, head over to Craftster :D

Have a beautiful weekend, everybody!


Master Craftster Campaign for Elmer's

Great news, everyone! I was chosen a while back to do some sponsored projects in Craftster.org's Master Craftster Series for Elmer's and X-ACTO :) Five other magnificent crafty ladies and I were sent a heaping box full of awesome tools and supplies and were asked to craft away with the items. It was a blast.

I've been sitting on a ton of projects for a while, as I had to keep them hush hush until the campaign was revealed. But now the cat is out of the bag and I get to share my projects and tutorials over the next few days. Boo-ya. 

If you simply cannot wait, head over to Craftster to check out the campaign. Or go see these blogs belonging to a couple of my fellow Master Craftsters :)


Felt Badges! Stitch, the Lorax, VW Bus and a Monster





 I made all of these for the Craftster.org felt badge swap :) It was such a fun little swap, that I really couldn't resist. They're all done with a combo of needle felting and embroidery. it was my first time using my needle felting tool and I think I'm hooked. It was way easier than I expected! I totally love how the stitch one turned out, and I've got to make one for myself now. You all know how I love Stitch...

Baby bird update: starting on Sunday, he started to be less and less interested in getting fed! He wouldn't fly down to me for a feeding AT ALL yesterday! He's now eating seeds and drinking water all by himself like a big bird and more interested in flying around the room playing keep-away. In his opinion, now that I'm not a source for food, all I do is try to catch him. I think he's afraid of me, which makes me a little sad, but that's really how it should be. He is a wild bird! So next Tuesday, he will be moved to a cage outside to transition into release! :D Things are going according to plan! Happy Thursday!


Fanciful Colorful Scrappy Bookmarks

I made a bunch of bookmarks for my best friend's family a while ago as a thank you for watching our dog while we were away at Disney World :) I realized that I hadn't posted them yet! So here they are.

 I'm thinking about making art-print bookmarks like these to put up in my Etsy Shop. I'm not sure how well they would do, but there's only one way to find out, right? Here are some close-ups of the stamps I used for each bookmark:
 Stamp: "Toby Looking Up" by Alpha Stamps
 Stamp: "Wombat" by Kira Nichols for Stampotique
 Stamp: "Floating Dog" by Kira Nichols for Stampotique
 Stamp: "Whisker Monster With Sign" for Stampotique
 Stamp: "Hug Monster" by Kira Nichols for Stampotique
Stamp: "Shouting Bird" by Kira Nichols for Stampotique

So I hope everyone has had a wonderful week! I, for one, caught another cold/bug/sickness. That's about once a month for the last 6 months. Blergh. My immune system is shoddy, booooo. But I am feeling a little better. I've got too many things I want to do! I've got no time for being sick :)

Have a super-d-duper weekend! Go out and enjoy life... I will be trying to, and in between I'll still be feeding this little featherball:
He is doing great, by the way, we've had him for two whole weeks. He's always hungry, but not eating on his own yet. It's hop, hop, hop, chirp, chirp chirp, mouth open, feed, feed, feed. I think he's realized he can get an easy meal by cheeping and pestering me and opening his mouth real wide. How can I resist shoveling food down that little beakhole? I thought he would be attempting to eat on his own more and more, but not yet. Dear baby bird's big-grown-up-bird instinct: Take over, please! He is a lot of work, but I kinda love this featherball. Love him as I do, I can't wait till he is ready to fly free!


Wirework Rings

I've been playing with beads and wire again! I found a GORGEOUS ring via Ffrogg's Pinterest, and just had to play around with the technique. After making 3 fail rings, I got the hang of it and made a ton more, because it's new, challenging, and darn fun. 
 All of these rings are very, very heavily inspired by Moss and Mist (go check it out, amazing beautiful things lie in store) and I take no credit for the style/technique. I'm just making these for fun and to learn a bit more about wirework. Wirework was actually one of my very first crafts that I began to learn at the age of 9 or 10, whenever kids are in the 5th grade.
 So, truth be told, I love making these... And I kind of got excited and went overboard and ordered 4 multipacks of different colored wire. Don't judge me! You can tell from my blog, I have a crafting obsession. For some women it's shoes. Me? Supplies.
 This one is my favorite and I've been wearing it when I go out :) I'm into those tacky, delightful aurora borealis crystals (when used in a classy way, of course!), so the main bead on this is right up my alley.
For this one, I used a shiny iridescent fish bead. I have been keeping four of these for years and years, bringing them with me every new place I've moved. I think I got them on a family vacation back when I was in high school. I finally used...one.
This is the one I sent to Ffrogg :) One of her favorite colors is purple, and I had to use an aurora crystal bead, because I love them.

 This last one is a little different style, I was just experimenting. When all my new wire gets here, I'm going to go nuts and have so much fun thinking up all sorts of crazy stuff! Anyhoo, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a great Easter Sunday! Mine was pretty much candy, church, TV and feeding baby bird. So it was good.

Until next time!

Medieval Kitty Drawstring Bag

 I know next to nothing about tarot cards, but I do know a thing or two about kitties and fancy hats. I was asked to make this little bag for a birthday present for a special person who loves medieval things, cats, and needed a bag for his tarot cards.
 So I made this little drawstring pouch out of some tapestry material, which I thought felt pretty old and medieval-themed.
The kitty is my own design and I embroidered him onto felt using a split stitch.

So, Happy Birthday! You know who you are :)

And everyone else, have a wonderful weekend!

Art Calendar Journaling! Is it April already?!

 This year has been whizzing by already! It's April, so that means another Kathryn Wheel Art Calendar Page.

The cow is cut from a cute old kid's book called The Peppermint Fence. Made me lol, look at that fly buzzing around its behind :) 
And yes, I have been filling in each day as I go! Here's a shot of all 4 months... My goal is a very colorful calendar come December. Happy Thursday, happy April, friends.