Oops, I Craft My Pants

Bookmark Book for BOOKMARKS!

2012-02-10T19:04:00.001-06:00

I love reading, and I love bookmarks of all kinds! I like to use a bookmark that matches the particular book I'm reading, either by theme or color :) It's fun. Up until a few days ago I had just been keeping all my bookmarks in a big jar, but I figured I needed a better way to both store and display them! Thus, my bookmark book for bookmarks.... The cover is bound together with my Zutter Bind-it-all, but was taken off of an old Reader's Digest condensed book. If you've ever noticed, the ones from the 60's have absolutely gorgeous colors and patterns, plus you can find them wicked cheap at thrift stores, flea markets, the library, etc.

For the insides, I took 5 sheets of colored cardstock and trimmed them down to 10x12". They're folded in half, then a I made one cut to make that slant in the pocket. I suppose that slant isn't really needed, but I thought it looked nicer!

The creased side is along the outside, and the raw edges are bound into the binding. So there's a pocket on the side of each page to stash bookmarks galore! Now this strangely makes me want more bookmarks.

Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend :)

Stamp on cover is Toby on Books by Alphastamps

Lilo & Stitch Drawstring Backpack

2012-02-09T14:23:00.000-06:00

I am so stoke about this drawstring backpack I made yesterday :D It took me pretty much all afternoon... There was lots of experimenting involved, so that meant seam ripping... But it turned out REALLY well and I'm super-pleased. If I ever decide to make one again, I'm guessing it would go much quicker.

I really wanted some sort of Disney applique, since I made it for my upcoming Disneyworld trip. The fabric suggested Bambi to me, but Stitch is my favorite, so I had to go with him. I got the image from a free coloring pages website, then added some bits of color in Photoshop to go with the fabric better. Then I printed it onto a printer-friendly fabric sheet, cut it out and zig-zag stitched it on (all before sewing of course).

The inside even has a pocket! With a flap! I was so proud I actually remembered to put in a pocket. Those are the kinds of things I usually forget until I'm completely done.

AND! I made a matching quilted panel that attaches with velcro for pin trading. I'm so stoked to do pin trading this year :) I bought a random lot of them for cheap on Ebay... In case you're not familiar, all the cast members (employees) at Disney have lanyards covered in pins and you can trade pins with any of them! I'm hoping to come home with lots of Stitch pins and Mickey and Chip & Dale! SO EXCITED!

I have some of the fabric left (printed duck fabric outside, printed cotton on the inside from hobby lobby) So I'm thinking about making a matching zippered pouch for my ID and cards and stuff. :D

Bee Yourself Notebook

2012-02-07T19:50:00.000-06:00

In the words of a wise and powerful genie, "Beeeeeee yourself!" I've got Disney on the brain. HEY! I made this bee-themed canvas board notebook for a fantastic lady a little while ago and have yet to share :)

Bee-hold the bee-ling (bling). The cover is yet another painted/stamped/inked 5x7" canvas board cut in half! Painting them is pretty darn fun. On this one, I used a base of yellow craft acrylic. Once that was dry, I kind of dry-brushed on a darker shade to add texture. The next steps were stamping and flicking on pink alcohol inks.

The paper in the middle is recycled kraft-brown paper. I ordered it for something....But it was too thin. Now I have a whole box of it :) I have a feeling you'll be seeing it in other projects in the future...

The bee image is from this clip art site. You can't really see it, but I used clear glaze on the wings, so they are shiny.

Anyhoo, so many new and exciting things are happening and seemingly all at once! Some of them are still secrets, so I'll have to be cryptic and mysterious. But some good news I can share is that I am this month's CRAFTSTER CRUSH! I flippin' love c-ster and am so honored to be a featured artist for my birthday month. Such a good present :) Also, I'm going to DISNEYWORLD! Soon.... Unbelievable. Lots of more fun news to come. Happy Tuesday!

Giveaway Winner!!!

2012-02-06T18:31:00.000-06:00

And the random winner for the Wicked Witch/Ruby Slippers Bookmark Giveaway is.....

I am glad to have such wonderful readers! A big ol' hi to new followers! Thanks to everyone who commented and entered :) Have a beautiful week!

Art Calendar Journaling: FEB!

2012-02-03T11:33:00.000-06:00

It's mah birthday month! :) I just had to share my February calendar page. I'm joining in on the Kathryn Wheel challenge, and am so proud to say I've stuck to it :)

And as proof, here's January all filled in. Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

PS. That giveaway is still happening... Enter if you haven't already. :D

Tacky Sci-Fi Altered Altoids Tin

2012-02-01T14:32:00.000-06:00

Woo hoo! I can finally share this altered altoids tin I made for the Craftster.org Vices Altered Tin Swap :) I was lucky enough to be paired with Cackle, the incredible, and one of her themes was Tacky Sci-Fi movies. How on Earth could I resist crafting that one?! And so this Sci-Fi altoids tin was born...

I used acrylics to pain the background night scene complete with UFOs and sparkly pigment powder tractor beams. Some of the stars in the sky are crystal gems to add that extra other-worldly twinkle...

You can see the black glitter I lined the inside edge of the tin with. It looks like space-rocks :) The alien and girl are from a vintage movie poster. I coated the beast in clear glaze to make it look slimy and frightening, much like the tactics used in so many of our favorite lame creature-features.

The bottom has glass marbles for accent, and the base is a lamp socket. My favorite lamp sputtered out and died, but Bobby fixed it and I was left with this perfect little spaceship-looking thingamajig. It's colored with alcohol inks, then roughed up with sandpaper.

The back! The alien city is made from a bunch of cotter pins and one of those silly fake car keys the car dealerships send out stuck to mailers.

Tada! I wanted to keep this so bad, but alas, it belongs in another place... A far away place... Outer Space.

Haha, Happy Wednesday!!! OH! Don't forget to enter the Ruby Slippers Bookmark Giveaway that ends Feb 6th! Have a lovely evening!

CLOSED: Wicked Witch/Ruby Slippers Bookmark Giveaway!

2012-01-30T20:22:00.001-06:00

CLOSED! Thank you to those who entered!

Hey friends! In order to celebrate 1000 likes on my Oops I Craft My Pants Facebook Page, I'm doing a DOUBLE giveaway! By popular demand, I'll be giving away two of my Original Wicked Witch/Ruby Slippers Bookmarks to two lucky readers :) Up for grabs are one of each style bookmark: 1. The "REGISTERED" Ephemera-Style bookmark here on the blog and 2. The "I want those shoes" Collage-Style bookmark on Facebook.

~~You can enter for both giveaways by commenting here on this blog post, and by commenting on the giveaway announcement on the Facebook Page!~~

This giveaway is open to international folks as well. You can only win once, just in case you're crazy-lucky and happen to be chosen twice. Winners will be selected by random.org's random number generator and announced on February 6th 2012. So comment away! Make sure you leave a way to contact you in case you win :) Thank you for following my work! I 100% appreciate all your support!

AW SNAP! Lil Cowboy Card

2012-01-29T22:50:00.000-06:00

Ah, the unconventional birthday card... I made this "AW SNAP" card for my little sister (technically, she is my BFF's little sister, but I never had one, so I've taken her as my own). Anyhoo, it was her birthday this month and she needed something colorful, I decided.

The little boy is cut from a discarded kids book from the 1960s. There was a set of boys playing cowboys and indians that was so dang funny. This kid just got "shot", and I thought his posture and face was the perfect "aw snap" face. Kinda ironic, but that was the point :)

You can kinda see the metallic craft foil stamped designs in the background. That was probably my favorite part aside from the fluffy pom-pom yarn embellishment. The letters were stamped onto water colored paper and made "3D" with some sticky back foam.

In stamp-related news, Bobby made me this shelf for my rubber stamps! Unfortunately, it doesn't fit all my stamps, but the good news is that it was easy to make... And my birthday is coming up. Maybe he'll make me another one :) Have a super week.

PS. I'm almost at 1000 likes on my Oops I Craft My Pants Facebook Page! Once I hit 1000, I'm going to have a giveaway. Any suggestions for what I should give away?

Fancy Beaded Lava Princess Crown

2012-01-27T12:48:00.000-06:00

What girl doesn't need a couple of crowns lying around for those blah days? I made this second crown a few days after I made the fancy beaded mermaid crown, but used a little different style. And guess who remembered to take a few in-progress pics? This moi.

I used the thickest gauge of wire they had at Michaels for the foundation of this one, and wrapped it all around with much thinner wire to hold it together.

Then, I used the thick wire to make this piece to create tiers for the many gleaming jewels.

You can see here how I wrapped more wire around to attach it to the circle.

So without any beads, the base for the crown looked like this.

Then, I took about a 2 foot section of thin wire and strung beads onto it. I secured one end to the base by twisting it around, then began wrapping the beaded wire around the base, spacing them about 1 bead per wrap-around, if that makes sense. When you run out of beads and wire, just secure it, then add another length of wire and beads. It's easier to do it in pieces instead of one LONG piece of wire, because wrapping that crap is crazy. It'll be everywhere.

Then once you get to the pointy-bits, pull the bead wire across the centers to fill in the empty bits.

Tada! Magical. Queen of the Hot Lava monsters.

I had a woe-is-me couple of days this week, and I tell you what, I needed to wear something sparkly to make me feel better. Not pregnant again. Booooo. I don't usually like to get too personal on this blog, and I stick to the crafty stuff, but man, that's what's going on right now. Good thing I have crafts to cheer me up, right? :P Okay, no more pity party.... Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pink Music Canvas Board Notebook

2012-01-24T19:22:00.000-06:00

I finished up yet another canvas board notebook last night using some of the supplies I bought on clearance at Michael's this weekend. They were having a ridiculous clearance! The black and white glitter tape ("Bling on a Roll") was like 79 cents, and the phonograph rub-ons were 9 cents. NINE. I went nuts.

I used papers in different shades of pink for the inside pages on this one to match the outside cover. The fun crap on the side is eyelash yarn, fun fur and ribbon.

This is the back. I used my bind-it-all again for the binding and managed to avoid any pinching :)

Watch gears! It's like a steampunk old-timey song blasting out. Anyhoo, happy Tuesday!

Making an Inexpensive Light Tent

2012-01-23T21:11:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now and am FINALLY getting around to it. I just posted it on Craftster, so now I'm posting it here on m'blog.

I do not have an awesome camera. In fact, I have a pretty basic point-and-shoot digital camera ( Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX12, I think it's outdated and they have a newer model a few times over.) But I like to think that my pics are alright! They used to be "meh" but they're better now! I wanted to share my photo set-up in case anybody was wondering how it's done.

I had seen make-your-own-light tent tutorials around the internet, and after looking at several and getting tips from other bloggers, I came up with my current set-up.

1. The light tent is made out of a big clear plastic tote on its side. Many people suggest making it out of a cardboard box with the sides cut out, but this seemed much easier. Any opportunity to avoid using a box cutter, am I right? ;) The suggestion for using a plastic tote came from Saint Angel.

2. To diffuse the light coming in from the sides, I taped sheer white fabric to the outer sides of the tote. I actually used the lining of a skirt I had ripped apart, so it was pretty sheer.

3. I attached 2 small work lights to the shelf(found them at Walmart) and pointed them at each side. I used the GE Reveal light bulbs that are more similar to natural light. My photos still turn out a little yellow, but not as terribly yellow as with normal bulbs. I just fix that on the computer by hitting "auto-color".

4. The background is white posterboard trimmed down to fit inside the tote. There are 2 pegs that I drilled holes for to keep the posterboard from sliding out. You can use pushpins, too, but it takes some muscle to sink them in the plastic the first time! Also, you can choose other colors of posterboard if you wanted. I have a black sheet of posterboard behind the white one to swap out when I want a dark background.

BEFORE: So I went from pics like this (just on my craft table with the lamp on, lots of shadows, meh colors, hard to get a good focus)

AFTER: To pics like this (In the light tent, minimal shadows, good colors, easy to focus)

So that's that. I always take the photos with the flash off, then once I put them on the computer, I hit "auto-color" and "auto-contrast" in my editing software (I use Picasa), and it's good to go. I hope this info is useful! Happy Monday!

Narwhal, Love Dog and Birdy Canvas Board Notebooks

2012-01-22T21:06:00.000-06:00

This weekend I've been getting busy making canvas board notebooks! I'm starting to grow a healthy relationship with my bind-it-all machine... We weren't friends before, friends don't pinch the heck out of me. But lately I've been learning to avoid serious injury while using it.

For this notebook, I used multicolored paper for the pages inside and pom-pom yarn as an embellishment. I splurged and bought a whole skein of the pom-pom stuff. It was so soft and so colorful, I really couldn't help myself. I really need to not buy yarn... I love the novelty stuff for embellishing, but I don't really enjoy knitting and rarely work up the patience to crochet anymore. So keeping that in mind, my yarn stash is too big. I could go for more novelty yarn though, but maybe not in such quantity :)

The narwhal is a watercolored drawing. I had a friend specially request a little bit more narwhal in her life, so I made this for her.

All three of these notebooks are made from 5x7 canvas boards which I painted and stamped then cut in half width-wise to make the covers.

I added a little beaded strand to this one in addition to the fun fur yarn. It needed a little extra sparkle...

The stamp on the cover is one of the Toby set from Alphastamps. He's a fancy dog...

The last one is pretty simple with a little birdy that was cut out of a nature encyclopedia.

I kinda screwed up on the back cover and punched holes in the wrong side. Oops. I think it still looks alright, don't you? :) Oh well, the ostrich makes up for it.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!

Fun Printable Menu Planner

2012-01-17T13:47:00.000-06:00

I, for one, DESPISE making multiple trips to the grocery store in one week! The lines, the crowds, the parking lot, the "People of Walmart". It all makes me nervous and I'm not shy to say that I highly value quiet time at home! So anyway, for mostly the purpose of making a complete shopping list, I've been planning my meals by the week for almost 3 years now. This way, I go to the store once a week (unless Bobby needs candy or I forget something) and I have everything I need. I can avoid awkward moments with strangers.

Now, I'm super lazy, and meal planning has become a bit of a chore, so I decided I'd just plan 5 weeks of meals and rotate them! I got crafty with it and papercrafted a weekly planner, and then scanned it in blank since I didn't feel like making 5 different ones (again, lazy). I used Picasa to superimpose the meals onto each week and printed them out onto cardstock. I cut them out and used my Bind-it-all to make a book. I added magnets and VOILA! A meal plan that I can flip every week and we only eat the same thing once every 35 days :)

And for your own personal use, here's a free (FREEEEEEEEE!) printable in case you want to join in the fun. Remember, if your family doesn't approve of the meals, tell them "You'll eat it and like it!"

Enjoy! Happy Tuesday!

Planner Printable 2

Imagination book

2012-01-14T20:11:00.000-06:00

"Imagination...

...will often carry us...

...to worlds...

...that never were...

...but without it...

...we go nowhere."

--Carl Sagan

I made this little book for a special craftster a few weeks ago. I used this quote from Carl Sagan because I thought it was definitely a good one about imagination :) Happy Saturday, everyone. I hope this weekend was filled with ideas!

Sealife Embroidery - Free Pattern!

2012-01-09T12:39:00.000-06:00

It's remotely possible that you may remember this sealife embroidery from a zippered pouch I made in 2010... A kind reader asked if I sell the pattern, and I thought, gee, maybe I should. But then I had a better idea to make up the pattern and provide it gratis. It is the first embroidery pattern I have ever made, so feedback is appreciated! Let me know if I'm missing any special embroidery symbols or whatnot. The dots are all french knots, but I wasn't sure if I needed to put that on there. If this pattern looks alright, perhaps I'll start listing some others in my Etsy. Enjoy!

PS. Personal use only, please! If you use it to sell, you may find yourself being punched by a werewolf.
Sealife Pattern

Papercraft Pennant Garland

2012-01-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

I dug through my "Paper Shapes" bin last night (it's a bin where I keep punched cereal box shapes, ATC and inchie bases, etc), looking for something crafty to do and found these triangles that I cut out a while ago for a garland I never ended up making. Voila, my entertainment for last night.

I like making this stuff, because it's like making inchies, but a difference shape than square. I was able to use up some scrap paper and a tiny bit of ephemera. My favorite one is the top left with the letter k.

After the photos, I glued them all to a length of novelty yarn to make the garland. It makes the perfect decoration for the front of Peanut's new cage.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Mine will be spent at home, computering, reading and watching Netflix. I caught Bobby's cold and feel like junk. Oh well! At least I'm having crafty ideas :)

Fancy Beaded Mermaid Crown

2012-01-05T21:23:00.000-06:00

Hey! I'm finally using up a little bit of my enormous bead stash. Tonight I sat down at my table surrounded by beads and made this messy, but lovely sea crown.

I began with 4 loops of wire, then wrapped it all around with more wire. Then I strung beads onto a long length and wrapped those around what would be the back, spacing the beads out semi-evenly.

For the front, I twisted wire and beads willy-nilly to make the front taller. I wanted it to look kinda messy, so it wouldn't show much where I had to snip off and begin new pieces of wire.

I'm a mermaid. Happy Thursday!

Red Bird Necklace

2012-01-02T21:23:00.000-06:00

I mentioned that 50 Projects in 2012 Craftalong on Craftster, and I'm already jumping in! Here's my first completed project to cross off my list for this year. I made this red colored birdy necklace/bracelet. This picture shows it as a bracelet, but a chain can be added to the back to wear as a necklace.

I've had a few of those little coral hummingbird beads forever and haven't done much with them. I did the wire work myself. There's something therapeutic about sitting down in front of a TV show with beads, round-nose pliers and a spool of wire and chaining stuff together. At some point, I want to make a big long multi-colored chain necklace... One of these days. Happy Monday!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T23:51:00.001-06:00

Only a few more minutes until 2012! This year was a pretty good year. I've got some crafty resolutions for the New Year. The first is to participate in the 50 projects in 2012 craftalong over at Craftster.org, the second is to learn pottery, and the third is to art-calendar-along with Kate over at the Kathryn Wheel. She does some amazing art journal spreads and among my favorites are her art calendar pages. So this year, I plan to make an art calendar page for each month and journal a square a day as I go. At the end of the year, I'll bind them all together into a year-book :) This one is the first! I might change the size, though. Kate's are so roomy and delightful with lots of space for embellishments around the edges.

So how about you? Any crafty resolutions?!

PS. Funny: A squirrel fell down my chimney into my fireplace a few days ago, I actually called the police because I kept hearing sounds and thought there was someone in my house when I was home alone. Tink kept sniffing the fireplace today, so Bobby opened it up and there was a squirrel in there. We let it escape out the back door, and I'm sure he was glad to be OUT!

Kitty Tiny Book

2011-12-26T12:16:00.000-06:00

I made this wee book for my best craft buddy Audio. We kinda have an ongoing swappage, and this summer she sent me an awesome package with 2 excellent tiny books she made. I had been planning on sending her a tiny book, and we share a love of lolcats, thus this tiny book came to be.

The shapes were cut using my Cricut and Make-the-Cut software and this shape bundle (which I definitely recommend if you've got cutting software).

I cut out the words and cats from a children's poem book.

This is my favorite spread of the whole book. There's just something about cut-out cat heads that I like....

Second favorite. See the phonebook page on the left (free paper!) and the gems on the right.

I hope everyone had the most wonderful Christmas! Mine was spent here in Alabama with Bobby while the rest of my family was over at my sister's in Texas (Boo hoo!). I was sad I couldn't be there with everybody, but Bobby and I had a good day. We spent a lot of this weekend building Peanut a new birdcage which will probably get finished today. It's looking very, very cool! I'll post pics once it's done. I finally got a new computer for Christmas and a new printer :D I'm SO excited about it. Now I get to use better software to make my blog posts cooler. I actually pulled out my tablet that I haven't been able to use for my lack of a fast enough computer, only to find that I most likely threw out the software CD (that included Photoshop Elements, doh!) But it looks like I can download it if I call customer service, AND I found $90 hidden in my tablet case. SCORE! Happy Monday!

Pink Koala and Peanut Glamour Shots

2011-12-15T16:51:00.000-06:00

"My head is not a party," grumbled Koala.

I've been feeling a bit of a creativity dry-spell over the last few weeks. Dunno if anyone has noticed that my posts have dwindled down to about once a week... I feel lazy! But honestly, I sit down at my table with glitter and paper and paint and stuff galore and nothing cool comes out. I'm going to chock it up to winter doldrums and that I was sick this week. Anyhoo, I painted this grumpy pink koala this afternoon after sketching and erasing about 10 different creatures that were all hideous to me and not in a good-hideous way. Koala reflects my sourpuss mood :)

I also used my new-fangled-light-tent-majig to take some shots of Peanut Button, who just had a bath.

He didn't really enjoy sitting in that box and was hooting and walking around... These were the best three shots.

Tiny Mr. Crustybeak looks very macaw-esque in this one, I think. Well, I wish you all lots of crafty mojo and good ideas this week! Hopefully mine return to me soon.

Goldfish ornament

2011-12-06T13:47:00.000-06:00

It seems like I've only been making ornaments lately! Not a bad thing, though. Anyway, I saw a giant glittery fuchsia goldfish ornament the size of a taco at TJ Maxx the other week that had super long (like 15") sparkly ribbons for a tail and it was mesmerizing, even though it was ridiculous and way too enormous for any reasonable Christmas tree. I was inspired to make smaller one :)

The body is sculpted from white polyclay, then I drilled holes for the fins and the tail and then painted the body first with acrylic craft paint, and then iridescent pigment powder. After it was all dry, I glued in the fins and tail that are made out of sheer 1" wide ribbon. Then I glued beads in for the eyes. The loop for hanging on the tree is attached with a eyehole screw (I think that's what it's called!)

Anyhoo, I hope everybody is having a lovely week so far. Until next time.

Shrinky Dink Monster Pendants

2011-11-30T18:01:00.000-06:00

I had some time this weekend to play with my new Stampotique stamps some more! There are just so many things you can stamp... So I made three little shrinky dink pendants with little crystal beads hanging off the bottoms.

Here's what they look like before shrinkage. I use Creativity Kits shrink plastic, the kind with a shiny side and a rough side. The tag shape is punched out and then hole-punched at the top, then the bottom five times to attach the crystals. Then I used black Staz-On ink to stamp the monsters onto the shiny side. Staz-On is pretty much like the Sharpie marker of ink pads, totally awesome! If you use regular pigment ink on a real slick surface, it's really likely to smear. But I did use pigment ink (Colorbox) to stamp and edge the color on the rough side which always turns out nice. Stamping on both sides creates a pretty cool 2-level effect once the dinks are shrunk down the oven :) Oh, and the colors on the back darken a bit when shrunk, too!

Happpppppy Wednesday!

Altered Altoids Tins Christmas Ornaments

2011-11-24T10:57:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!! And what a sleepy Thanksgiving it is... I was up until 3ish then awoken by my alarm clock each hour thereafter to check if mysterious Best Buy had posted their Thanksgiving Sale prices yet (They kept it a secret but said "soon" at 11 PM last night! Go figure). FINALLY at 6:05 AM they posted my new computer at a steep discount and I got it. Whew. I'm stoked, because I've been doing ALL my blogging/computering/photo editing on a teeny tiny netbook since 2008. Anyhoo, I have some altered altoids tins to share with you today! :)

Sledding!

There are four levels in each, the snowy background scenes, then a snowy sparkly microball-covered hillside, the sledding boy, then the Christmas banner. The levels are separated and spaced by a couple squares of sticky-back foam.

Santa Claus!

The vintage images were all cutout of old 1950's era children's books.

I used mod podge to seal sheet music to the outsides of the tins. I used Alene's tacky glue to stick little glass beads along the rim. Took forever to use tweezers to stick those guys on there. After the first bit of glue dried, I added another later of glue along the outside edge to make sure the beads were secure. The glue dried clear, so the beads are still sparkly. I love the look!

This one is a small tin, the container for Altoids Smalls. Walking in a winter wonderland :)

I don't think that I mentioned that I removed the covers of all these tins. They come off pretty easy.

I hope everyone has a really great and happy holiday season this year! Eat some tonnage today, folks! Happy Turkey Day!

P.S. I'm thankful for my readers and all the friends I've made through the online crafting community! Love! :)

Floating Dog Christmas Ornament

2011-11-19T10:04:00.001-06:00

Folks have been asking... Is this a pug? SURE! (But I guess it could also be a bulldog if you colored him right) I suppose you could even crop the ears off and make it into a boston terrier! But anyway, it's cute with a Santa hat, no?

I made this ornament for a friend who has decided to buy local for Christmas this year! She needed an ornament for a sort of White Elephant game in a few weeks. I used my new Floating Dog stamp (available to buy here) and colored it with watercolors to achieve a pug-like look :) The santa hat is just cut out felt and white pipe-cleaner.

The base is cereal box-turned-chipboard by gluing a bunch of layers together. Then various layers of scrapbooking paper, book page, ink, paint, gems, craft foil, sparkly microballs and ribbon!

I've been working on some Altoids tins that I'll share next week. Have a lovely weekend! OH! And a BIG BIG thank you to everybody who has left oh-so-kind comments of congratulations on my new stamp line :) I always really appreciate your support and sweet words! It means a LOT! I have the best readers EVAR.

Stampotique Blog Hop! Dog House, Bird & Monster Ornaments

2011-11-15T00:01:00.002-06:00

Welcome to the Stampotique Blog Hop!

The Stampotique Design team and I have had the immense pleasure of getting to play with my new stamp line before the release date! But the release date is HERE! TODAY! Hooray! I've been working on a few crafty projects to share with you and show off my new stamps that you can buy over at Stampotique :)

My first project is an altered wooden birdhouse turned dog house! This project features the "Floating Dog" stamp.

I used my Cricut to cut out some scalloped shingles for the roof, then used pigment powder and gum arabic to paint each row a different color before gluing them on.

The plain wooden birdhouse came from the $1 bins at Michaels. The paper on the sides is the inside of a security envelope. The black sides were just painted with acrylic craft paints.

I used white Colorbox pigment ink to stamp this little dude on the back and front sides.

More embellishings with paper leaves, circle punches, stick-on gems, sheet music, etc.

The second and third projects are a couple of ornaments. Bobby and I just bought a new (fake, but awesome) Christmas tree and it's already up and decorated...Yeah, it's way early, but we haven't had a legit Christmas tree since 2006! Needless to say, I'm excited about having one.

The monster in this stamp is actually holding a blank sign so you can write in whatever. I added the "Merry Christmas" bit. Do you like his little whiskers?

Last but not least, I made this birdie ornament today! Ah, both this one and the last one, I glued together about 5 of the same shapes punched from cereal box. They combine to create an excellent, thick chipboard-like material that is really sturdy and hey! Super cheap.

The embellishments here are clear microbeads (aka sparkly microballs) on the edges, crystal gems, pigment ink, sheet music and crystal glaze on the bird.

SO! Do you like? Which ones are on your Christmas list?

Want a chance to win some of my new images? Hop along with the Stampotique Design Team, leaving comments along the way, for your chance to win some flippin' sweet stamps. A winner will be drawn randomly from one of the blogs and will be announced with our next challenge.

Make sure to drop little comments on each blog you hop to! A randomly chosen commenter will win some of these stamps, so don't be shy! Comment away! And while you're at it, take the opportunity to follow some awesome new blogs :)

From here, HOP ON to: http://kazscraftbits.blogspot.com/.

Below is a complete list in case you go off the beaten path and need some redirection.

Kira Nichols (You are here!)

Teaser Pic! Blog Hop tomorrow!

2011-11-14T18:31:00.000-06:00

Don't miss it! In celebration of my new line of Stampotique Stamps, there's a blog hop tomorrow :) You shall behold projects from many splendid designers featuring images from my illustrations! AND! A chance to WIN some of my new rubber stamps! Come back tomorrow to hop along, friends. Happy Monday!!! (I'm excited!!!)

Nerd Cat Altered Journal Page

2011-11-07T14:55:00.001-06:00

I'm finally home and the new place is up and organized with a fully functional craft room :) I've been playing with my new Stampotique stamps and it's so much fun! Last night, I broke out the old altered art journal and did a nerd cat spread.

The triangles on the left are cut out from the phone book. I think it's crazy they still pass them out every year... Wasted paper!

Some ephemera!

I used a lot of crayons in this spread... Behind the blue watercolors, on the borders, blue bubbles! Too fun.

Here's the old art journal... I started it in 2009 I think, but I'll fill it up EVENTUALLY.

And since I forgot to post my pumpkin before Halloween... Here's what the toothy jack-o-lantern looked like! Happy Moooooonday!

And I almost forgot!!! Jen over at the Simply Pretty blog did a kind and lovely feature on some of my projects :) Go Check it out!

Big announcement - Coming soon to Stampotique!

2011-10-27T17:39:00.000-05:00

Alright, friends! This is the big announcement that I've been sitting on for toooooo long! My artwork is going to be available in rubber stamp form over at Stampotique.com, a delightful little papercrafting and stamping shop specializing in the latest and greatest in papercrafting supplies and fine art stamps! My collection releases on November 15th, and I'm CRAZY excited about it.

I just got mine (early, of course), and the quality is fantastic... I can't wait to get home from Oregon and start crafting with them! They'll all be available as woodmounted, high-quality red rubber.

Cheeeeeeck it out! I also can't wait to see what the Stampotique design team comes up with using my monsters and kitties and whatnot. There will be an awesome blog hop to celebrate, too. Prepare yourselves for mad hoppage.

These are the stamps that will be available to buy November 15th... Which ones do you want? (Go ahead and get them all, I'm fine with that)

:D Happy Thursday!!!

Wedding Yetis

2011-10-17T13:26:00.000-05:00

My brother and his fiance are getting married this weekend!!! They requested a little pair of bride and groom fuzzy plump yetis for a wedding gift. I had to oblige!

Happy little groom yeti is stylish in his top hat and bow-tie. I made the little tophat from a paper towel tube. Since the cardboard is already curved, it makes it a lot easier to form the hat and brim. The top of the hat is cardboard from a cereal box, since that part needed to be flat. Some glue, black paint, and BAM! A tiny top hat.

The bride's crown is some rhinestone trim from Joann ($17.99 a yard YOWCH! Luckily, I only needed like 3 inches of it!). The veil is sparkle tulle that I gathered with a needle and thread and sandwiched between the rhinestone trim and some ribbon with hot glue. Of course, the faces of both are pieces of a thrift store angora sweater, and the bodies are towel for that fuzzy look...

What a happy monster couple :) I'm sure Nate and Amanda are going to be even happier on their wedding day...

And SURPRISE! I sewed strong little magnets inside of the ends of the arms, so they hold hands. *Awwww*

So yes, I'm out of town... I'm at my mom's house in Oregon! Which is kind of excellent, because we figured out what was making me so sick... Our house in Alabama had mold, and I have a very high sensitivity to it :( So we had to find another place to live... So sad, but if it keeps me healthy, fine. I feel bad for Bobby, as he's back in Alabama moving ALL of our stuff into a new place back in Enterprise all by himself. Poor sweet guy... But the good thing is, when I get home at the end of the month, I won't have to go back to moldy house, and everything will already be moved.

Well, until next time... Which won't be too long, I hope. Happy Monday!

Friendly Raccoon Embroidery

2011-10-04T22:58:00.000-05:00

This raccoon embroidery has been kicking around my craft room for literally ONE YEAR with a tiny piece of the tail left unfinished! Finally, I took the 20 minutes to get this hoop done!

Here is the hoop that now has a place on my humble hoopla wall! I think this raccoon was originally intended to be a yeti, hence the yeti-riffic coloring, but as you know, projects often head in a totally different direction!

This is a close-up of that fill stitch that was so daunting that it took me a whole year to find the motivation to finish... It's 3 strands of embroidery floss just run back and forth, back and forth as a split stitch. The texture ends up being nice and thick and delightful!

Hare and Monster ATCs

2011-10-03T14:03:00.001-05:00

I did a little ATC swap with Kate over at the Kathryn Wheel last month and I realized I hadn't blogged these little guys yet!

This first monster one has a lot of layers to it. First, I took strips of scraps with different textures and patterns, and glued them to the ATC base. Then I painted it over with a watered down blue craft paint... Next I used a stamp with a burlap pattern for texture while the paint was still wet. After it was dry, I used some glue and craft foil to make some super shiny fingerprints... I dabbed the edges with gold inkpad. The monster was watercolor on a bookpage... I cut that out and slapped him on there :)

This one is a hare I drew and watercolored. Bobby thought it looked like a dog-rabbit. I kind of agree, but I like him anyway!

I hope everyone had a super weekend!

Thank you to everybody who left such sweet get well comments. I still don't know why I've been feeling weird. I'm just kinda hoping it'll go away!

Make a little gift box

2011-09-28T14:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a little no-brainer gift box made from a little teeny chicken broth cube box... Simple enough, I just flattened out the box, then used a gluestick to attach paper. Once it was dry, I used an exacto to cut out the box shape again. Then I used an ink pad to add blue to the edges and slapped on a loteria card!

It was about the size of a small matchbox and I used it to send a pair of earrings in last month. It was just a little quick easy way to make a cute gift box out of something that would normally get thrown away...

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately... to be fair, I have really been only making wicked witch bookmarks to sell so I don't have any awesome new crafts to share. I've been feeling pretty ill lately. Bobby took me to the hospital on Monday because I had been fainting all weekend. I had fainted a few times over the summer, but we didn't really think anything about it, but Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning, I just kept going out of it. Anyway, they did blood tests, EKG, a CT scan, chest x-rays, etc. They ruled out any of the real dangerous things, I don't have a brain tumor or diabetes, or anything deadly. So we still don't know why I've been fainting and weak. They stuck a heart monitor on me for yesterday and we brought it back in this morning so they can analyze the heart rate recordings. It's kind of scary... But I feel a bit better today. I hope we can figure this out. I want to get back to feeling super, so I can get super-crafty up in here again! I hope everybody is having a good week so far.

Butterfly Tiny Book

2011-09-19T18:11:00.000-05:00

And finally, the last Tiny Book!!! This one is shaped like a butterfly and has a birds theme. I've gotten a request for product specs, so I'll try to specify the stuff I used, though most of it was from the stash. I used the butterfly shape in the "Serenade" Cricut Cartridge and cut the shapes out of cereal box!

Next, I painted each spread with cheapo craft acrylic paints to look like various butterflies. Then I sanded them down on the edges with a my Harbor Freight rotary tool (ten bucks!) and smudged the edges with colorbox pigment ink to make them look kinda dirty.

The bird images and phrases are cut out of an illustrated animal encyclopedia set that I bought at the thrift store.

I added lots of ribbon pieces and rhine stones and feathers and tags and whatnot to stick out the edges!

The binding is just three large jewelry jumprings put through little punched holes.

This is the front and back cover, simply because this was my favorite spread :) So I hope that info was useful! Happy Monday! Have a wonderful week!

Mustache Tiny Book!

2011-09-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

Mustache papercrafting! My other little books have arrived at their destinations, so now I can share them. I made this tiny book for Sheepblue (Quirkiecraft!) in the One Tiny Book Swap over at craftster! She likes the silly/awesome theme of mustaches, and I had a lot of fun making this little book.

I was psyched to find the perfect book at the thrift store with great mustachio'd imagery to cut out and use!

Each page has a different mustach-man and an adjective to describe his facial hair. This spread is my favorite one out of this book!

A pirate mustache! See the beads on the left side?!

Behold this charming dandy...

I really like this spread, too. Yellow ochre is one of my favorite colors, I think.

And here are the front and back covers.

Now there's one more tiny book to show you this week! Stay tuned! Happy Wednesday!

Little Birdhouse Book

2011-09-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

Behold this stack of tiny bookage! This weekend I had a papercrafting tiny book-making extravaganza and made three tiny books that I really love! Two of 'em are for swaps, so they shall remain secret until later this week. This stack will count as a teaser pic for Sheepblue and GoatGoddess (if they so happen to read this!), and I'll share the one I made for myself :)

I was all about different shapes for my tiny books... I took a good look at my cricut cartridges to see what kinds of shapes I could make into some books. This birdhouse shape seemed like a good one. The birdhouse was symmetrical, with ledges on both sides, but I had to cut off the inside ledges so the little tabs didn't interfere with the binding.

The book is about 3 inches tall. The pages are made from cereal box either painted with acrylic craft paint or covered with paper. I love using cereal box, because I always have some around, and it's sturdy without being too thick.

I added a lot of rhinestones and gems because I was digging the sparkle factor!

I think this could be my favorite spread out of the whole book. Colorful accents on black is a scheme that I should use more often, methinks.

I drilled little holes at the bottom edge of this page and then used a needle and thread to add beads as an accent. It turned out pretty cool looking. It would have been cool to go all the way around the edge with the beads.... Maybe I'll do it in another book.

You can see the beads a little better in this picture, and on the left edge, some Peanut feathers!!!

Have I really not posted since August 31?! I guess my concept of time has really been messed up lately! Bobby and I drove up to Ohio for Labor Day weekend, I came home with a wicked cold, and have been lazing around for an entire week. This weekend was much more productive... I'm working on some.... STUFF.

Big announcement coming soon :) Happy Monday!

Watercolor Monster Round-up

2011-08-31T15:26:00.000-05:00

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 :)

Coptic Stitch Monster Journal

2011-08-30T14:21:00.000-05:00

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

Furry Monster & Kitty Plush

2011-08-25T20:06:00.000-05:00

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!

Seafood Inchies Book

2011-08-22T10:38:00.000-05:00

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!

Keeper of the Key

2011-08-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

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!

We have a winner, people.

2011-08-17T13:25:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-15T18:12:00.000-05:00

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 :)

Wicked Witch Ruby Slippers Bookmark Giveaway!

2011-08-09T14:09:00.001-05:00

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

2011-08-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

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!!!!

Squishy Sparkly Bat Plush

2011-07-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

So here's the stuffie I ended up sending for the One Tiny Stuffie Swap on Craftster!

I sewed him out of a nice soft stretchy and sparkly sweater. The eyes are blue goldstone beads and I used felt to embroider the muzzle.

Here's the fat bat! Those wavy floppy ears were kind of a happy accident... The sweater material was super stretchy, so when I sewed the ears with the sewing machine, they ended up being really ruffled. I think it works :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Until next time...

Sparkly Elephant

2011-07-18T19:33:00.000-05:00

Alright, I'm guilty of browsing the dollar aisle at Michaels! I know I don't really need any of that stuff, but I saw this little brown paper machier elephant and knew I wanted to make an ornament out of it.

Sparkly little toenails! I painted my little elephant purple, then used copper colored paint to add a sort of blanket to his back.

Then I bejeweled the little guy with rhinestones, glitter, beads and sequins!

Tada! Isn't he fabulous? :) And if you like this little pachyderm, you might just love Racky's Pink Elephant over at Junk & Stuff! Happy Monday! Have a lovely week!!!

Rotund Cannonball Sweater Monster

2011-07-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

I originally made this for the One Tiny Stuffie swap over at Craftster.org, but he ended up being waaaay too big to qualify as a "tiny" stuffie. I sewed this little monster plush from a severely shrunken and felted wool sweater.

Here he is maxin' and relaxin' by the window, watching the grass grow, watching Liz Lemon catch crickets on the porch...

His face is real simple, just an embroidered mouth and two circles of felt tacked down with safety eyes. Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is going well!

The Sloth's Advice

2011-07-07T11:05:00.001-05:00

Happy Thursday!

The Wombat

2011-06-30T14:59:00.002-05:00

A very lemon-shaped animal, indeed. Yesterday, I asked my Facebook Page folks to comment their favorite animal and I'd pick one and craft it today! The wombat won out, simply reading the word "wombat" was delightful, no clue why!

So I drew and watercolor painted this little wombat guy and then cut it out to put in a shrine.

I experimented with different ways to draw the eyes, as wombats have kind of little squinty eyes... It just looked too mad or mischeivous or suspicious, so I went with big round eyes. He looks a little dramatic, but I'm okay with it!

Here's the sketch. Happy Thursday! Everyone have a wonderful holiday weekend!!!

This blogpost sponsored by onlineeducation.org:
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Teeny Bat Rescue Story

2011-06-28T20:01:00.000-05:00

Alright, this isn't a craft, but I've had some serious crafter's block for the last week or so, and I've got nothin' crafty to share. I thought perhaps you guys would enjoy hearing about my good day yesterday.

After having experienced what felt like 3,000 mosquito bites in the past couple weeks (actually 10 bites total, but I react terribly to them) I've been bugging Bobby to finish draining the disgusting stagnant water/mosquito breeding ground from our above ground pool. Yesterday was the day, so I went out in the 95 degree Alabama heat protected with long sleeves and long pants to scoop out the crap on the surface of the pool to prepare for pumping! I saw a gross little dead something stuck to one of the floaties, so I fished out the floaty, and was surprised to see it was still alive! A little brown bat, about 2 inches long, nose to bum.

Awww, poor little fella. Doesn't he look sad? It's like seeing a wet cat... Kinda bizarre and not cute. I moved him off of the gross floaty into a box with a towel so he could hang out upside down and dry off.

POOF! A couple hours later and he dried off and was Fluffy McPuffington! I had NO IDEA he had this much fuzz on him, and I had to laugh out loud. Seriously, check out the fluff!!

I moved him to a ledge where he would be able to drop off and fly away come nightfall... I kept checking him thoughout the day and he was just really sleepy and didn't move much. I was really worried that maybe he had inhaled water or exhausted himself swimming and wouldn't actually make it.

I watched him out my window at dusk. He started moving around a bit at 7:50 PM, then flew off into the night at 8:08! AWESOME!

I was so happy he lived and had the strength to fly away! Fun fact: This tiny species of bat can eat 500-1000 mosquitoes in ONE HOUR. I'm pretty sure I'm going to eventually put up some bat houses on our property :) I hope you enjoyed hearing about my good day! oh and wish me some crafty mojo, I need some!

Nerd Cat

2011-06-17T21:18:00.000-05:00

At first, in the sketching stage, he started out as a kitty wearing cool sunglasses, but the frames were too Maurice Moss-esque, so he became... NERD CAT. Watercolor and micron pen. Have a splendid weekend!

Freaky Inchies

2011-06-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

Here's a set of inchies I made this week for a personal swap! She requested inchies for the theme "We're all freaks here." So there's a one-eyed kitty, a four-armed man, a couple of monsters...

I am having crafter's block today! I think I'm making too many little witch feet and the repetition is drying out my mindgrapes. All I want to do is sit down in my craft room and make something, but I can't think of what to do!!! My craft room is about 85% organized, so I definitely should be able to get some crafting done. I've gotta hem some curtains. And fold laundry. Maybe something creative will come to me while I fold underwear.

Happy Friday!

My new lizard

2011-06-11T15:39:00.001-05:00

One of the many new things I love about my new house is the lizard that lives on my porch. Bobby named him Liz Lemon. Eats bugs, best lizard ever, and he changes colors. Click on the picture to see it full size, and to behold the tiny magnificence that is my new lizard.

Anyway, I'll be back to blogging soon. I'm still unpacking, and I think my craft room is at 60% unpacked, 20% organized. I hope everybody is doing well :)

Sugar Skull Coptic Stitch Book

2011-06-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

Aha! Another Dia De Los Muertos project! I've got one left after this... I've got to get unpacked SOON because I'm running out of backlogged projects :) This is a coptic stitch little journal that I made for that craftster swap I've been going on about!

I drew and watercolor painted this little sugar skull and secretly hid the name if its recipient in the teeth.

I stitched in 12 signatures of three sheets each! I was pretty excited about that bright green thread, too.

Well, we moved into our new house this weekend!!! I've gotten a lot unpacked, which is great, but my craft room is being painted and is half-way done, so I haven't been able to unpack my craft things yet which is nuts. Why don't I just finish painting? 10 foot ceilings, and I'm very afraid of falling off a ladder, so Bobby has to do it. I fell over backwards (and crushed a box, Chris Farley-style) on Saturday from a squatting position and got some ridiculous bruises on my arm and leg. I figure if I can lose my balance that close to the ground, I should not be trusted on a ladder.

So my craft room won't be put together as quickly as I want, but soon. Also, more wicked witch bookmarks in my Etsy shop by the end of the week hopefully. Happy Monday!

SNR Featured Artist Spot: INCHIES!

2011-05-31T09:23:00.000-05:00

How could I have forgotten?!! A few months ago, I was asked to be a featured artist over at Scrapbook News and Review. I decided to write an article about the different ways you can use or display inchies. I sent it off a few weeks ago, and what, with all the loco that's been going on, I about forgot that my article was scheduled to run yesterday. So for your viewing pleasure, here are the photos of my inchie projects! For the full article and several mini-tutorials on these projects, visit the SNR Website.

Inchie Cubes: Dice or Ornaments

Tiny Books

Wire Stands

Garlands

Embellishments

Bracelets

Enjoy! Have a wonderful week! I'll be...packing....blergh....

Skeleton Bird Art Doll

2011-05-30T09:22:00.001-05:00

Can I call this a doll if it's not a person? Meh, I'll call it what I want. This is another project for the Dia de los Muertos Swap!

Check out his crazy skeleton! The body is sewn out of plain canvas using the wren pattern from "The Artful Bird" by Abigail Patner Glassenberg. Then I used a ton of black craft acrylic paint to kinda stiffen the body and wings up. Then white paint for the details.

The crest is just a guineafowl feather dyed with alcohol inks. To attach it, I cut a little hole in the crown with an exacto, which wasn't too hard because the fabric was so stiff from all the paint. Before I stuck the feather in, I had to reinforce its shaft with a little rolled up aluminum from a popcan. After that, I just stuck the feather in the hole with a little glue.

The beak is polyclay... I figured it would give it a much more hard, skeletal attitude :)

I hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend! I'm buying blinds for my new house today... Then packing like CRAZY. I might not blog for a week or so. Moving kind of sucks, but I'm going to be SO GLAD when we're settled in.

Hand-carved Fish Stamps

2011-05-26T16:28:00.000-05:00

Had a fish stamp request, and I needed a break from being a tiny leg factory, so VOILA! I made a set like this a while back, if it happens to look familiar to anyone.

The set also has bubbles... So, you know, the fish can breathe :) Happy Thursday... I get the keys to our new place tomorrow! SO excited!

Also: EIGHT Wicked Witch of the East Ruby Slippers Bookmarks will hit my Etsy Shop tomorrow (Friday May 27) at 5 PM Central Time. Price is $19 plus shipping.

FIESTA! Dia De Los Muertos Art Quilt

2011-05-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sooooo, between furious bouts of witch leg-crafting, I've been working on stuff for the Dia De Los Muertos/Mexican Folk Art swap over on Craftster. I was paired with the very talented Lanikins, so I wanted to make some good stuff. I decided on a mini art quilt for one of the projects (expect some more DOTD coolstuff posted later). This here is a detail shot of the embroidery and beading on the sugar skull.

The whole thing! It's aboooout 20"x12" roughly. Check out the little puffballs at the bottom. I thought they added a nice Mexi-touch :)

I used my Cricut to make a stencil to cut out the letter appliques, but first I stiffened up that red fabric with some Heat-N-Bond. It made them SOOO much easier to cut out and later stitch on once the letters were adhered.

Here you can see details of the quilting. Did this on my regular sized sewing machine and it was kind of a pain in the rear, but I liked how it turned out. I hope Lani likes it!

Update on the Wicked Witch of the East Bookmarks: The first batch shipped out this morning! WHEW! Another slightly smaller batch will be hitting my Etsy very soon. If you're not on the mailing list to be notifed when more bookmarks are available and would like to be, send an e-mail to kira (at symbol) oopsicraftmypants.com. Due to high demand, I'm not taking reservations, so if you want one, look out for my e-mail (I'll notify a day in advance) and be quick!

And I'm in the middle of moving to our dreamhouse, so that's pretty crazy, too. Happy Wednesday, friends!

Welcome, New Followers :D

2011-05-19T16:23:00.000-05:00

I'm still in shock over how much traffic those Wicked Witch Bookmarks have generated. I'm humbled that so many folks here on the internet have taken such a liking to one of my thingies! Anyhoo, this little blog has gotten almost SIXTY new followers in the past week! (New followers, THANK YOU for hitting that "follow" button! You are the coolest!) I thought I'd do a little welcome post to kinda show what kinds of stuff I like to craft, and link below so you can see more like it.

I'm a big fan of inchies! This is a tiny 1" by 1" art book made with watercolor paper scraps and doodles of robots. (For more like this, check out posts labeled inchies)

Here's an embroidery I made of a sea monster! I love cryptid animals like the yeti, seamonsters, bigfoot, etc, so sometimes they end up in my crafts. For more embroidery, check out posts with the embroidery label.

This wee house was made for a craft swap on Craftster.org! I'm a huge fan of the Craftster community and am fairly active in the forums there. My username over there is Noooitaremybirthday! (for more papercrafts like this house, go to misc papercrafts label)

I'm known to dabble in art journaling and altering books... Collaging can be pretty dang fun. Check out the art books label.

More on my monster fascination! A plush yeti and a woven monster made from fabric scraps. More plush here!

And now watercolor painting and illustration! This is probably tied with papercrafting as my #1 favorite thing to do :) Someday I want to write a kids book and illustrate it, too. For more of my paintings, check out the paintings/illustration tag.

So that's just a sample of the crafts I do. If you want to see more of the other tags, you can find the "Categories" box in the right hand bar below the pic of the red lady saying "Shhh." I hope you deem the time you spend browsing my blog as moments well spent!

In other news, I'm going to be a BUSY woman. We're moving at the beginning of June to a beautiful house about 15 miles away!!! So between that and Wicked Witch Bookmark orders, my days will be full. I'm waiting on supplies to arrive to make the legs, and they should get here today. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time making teeny tiny red shoe bows.

And hey, if you want to be on the e-mail list to be notified when the next batch of pre-orders will hit my Etsy Shop, you can either comment your e-mail address here or shoot me an e-mail to kira (at symbol) oopsicraftmypants.com! It'll be as soon as I finish making the first batch of ten, most likely in the next 2 weeks.

Well, have a splendid weekend! And happy Thursday!

Holy whoa! Wicked Witch Ruby Slippers bookmarks update

2011-05-15T22:50:00.004-05:00

UPDATE 5/16/2011: ~~I'll be listing TEN of these bookmarks for pre-order in my Etsy Shop (http://kiranichols.etsy.com) this afternoon at 3 PM Central Time!~~ SOLD OUT for today! But if you were dreaming of snagging one and didn't have fast enough fingers, don't be sad! I'll list more pre-orders soon. Keep watching here and on facebook for updates.

The bookmark bodies will look very similar to this. Of course, since I'm handmaking them, they'll vary slightly, but they will all have that lovely Witchy-Leg goodness and ruby slippers. Check back soon!

Hey Friends! It just came to my attention that these little legs are getting reasonably popular around the internet, WAY more than I would have ever expected. I've gotten TONS of requests asking if I'm selling them! ~~So due to popular demand, I'm planning on making some in the next two weeks or sooner~~. I'll announce when they'll hit my Etsy shop. They do take a good amount of time to make and get the details done nicely, since they're totally handformed and handpainted, so I'm not sure precisely how many I'll be able to churn out right away. Anyhoo, thanks for all the love, folks! Definitely a pleasant surprise to see all those new Facebook fans and followers today! I'll keep you all posted.

Phoenix Mirror Piece

2011-05-14T14:31:00.000-05:00

So here it is, the piece I made in my first stained glass class! It's not stained glass, but hey, same techniques :) I added some loops at the tail, planning on hanging beads there, but nothing I tried out looked good. Plain looks fine, right?

It looks a little... I'll say rustic. While grinding the glass, a lot of mirror edges became scratched and ceased to be mirror. Then the patina (the chemical that turns the silver-colored solder copper-colored) reacted strangely with some more mirror edges and again, made them into non-mirrors. Ah well, I like how it looks anyway.

The process was simpler than I had expected. You cut out all of the glass pieces using a pattern, grind them on a grinder to perfect the shape, copper tape the edges, solder it all together, and finish with patina. I'm pretty stoked about having learned this new skill! I've already got some ideas brewing to make some pieces with agate slices...

Also, (here comes the obligatory apology for not blogging enough that I MUST give or else I won't feel better!) Sorry I haven't blogged in a bit. I've been busy, and mostly working on swap projects that I can't share yet. Anyway, I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Hidden Post

2011-05-03T18:32:00.001-05:00

This post is has been temporarily hidden.

Bear Monster Hat

2011-04-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

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.

Frida Kahlo Altered Matchbox

2011-04-28T22:08:00.000-05:00

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!

Another one!

2011-04-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

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!

Ruby Slippers/ Wicked Witch of the East Bookmark

2011-04-22T09:28:00.003-05:00

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.

EDIT MONDAY MAY 16 2011: I'll be listing TEN of these bookmarks for pre-order in my Etsy Shop this afternoon at 3 PM Central Time! The bookmark bodies will look very similar to this. Of course, since I'm handmaking them, they'll vary slightly, but they will all have that lovely Witchy-Leg goodness and ruby slippers. Check back soon!

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

2011-04-17T00:02:00.000-05:00

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!

Quilt!

2011-04-15T12:18:00.001-05:00

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...

2011-04-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

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

Happy Wednesday night! :)

What did I do today?

2011-04-08T21:30:00.001-05:00

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

2011-04-07T15:58:00.000-05:00

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

2011-04-05T15:37:00.000-05:00

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!

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 blade 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 :)

2011-04-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

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?!

2011-04-02T09:27:00.000-05:00

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!!

Made-for-you ATC Mini-Quickie-Giveaway

2011-03-29T11:01:00.001-05:00

This month, I jumped back into the Craftster Ongoing ATC Swap! I didn't trade as many cards as I had originally envisioned, but had fun anyway. The way it works is each artist has a list of themes that they would like to receive cards made specifically for, and then they get picked chain-style. So when I declare I'm making an ATC for So-and-So, then I get picked next by Whats-her-face, then Whats-her-face gets picked by The-Ugly-One, etc. etc. It's great fun.

This card was made after the (smart!) theme of "Your Favorite Faux Swear." I thought it was perfect, because we LDS folks have a faux-cuss for every regular cuss, and even for some cusses that aren't really cusses anyway. "SON OF A BISCUIT!" is one of my faves, I had a hard time picking between that one and "What the fetch?!"

This one was made for a "Chipmunks" theme. It's drawing and watercolor, then of course I had to add a wee placard made with my metal punching set!

Now for the quickie giveaway, leave a comment with 2 things:
1) Your favorite faux swear word or phrase. (If you don't have one, or just cuss normal, make up a faux.)
2) A favorite theme (i.e. birds, the color blue, mushrooms, Harry Potter, etc)

On Friday, I'll use random.org to pick a winner, then I'll use one of the winner's themes to make a custom ATC just for them. The rules: Don't comment any REAL cuss words, and make sure there's a way to contact you (via clicking your username, leaving an e-mail, etc) just in case you win.

I'm also planning a significantly bigger giveaway for the future, so this isn't all! GOOD LUCK, you sons of biscuits! :)

Frog Smile More Album/Journal

2011-03-27T17:08:00.001-05:00

My great friend Sarah (Hi Sarah, I know you're reading this!) had a birthday this past week. So I made her a frog and smile themed album/journal/whatever.

It's big enough to paste in 4x6 pictures. Binding bigger books is, I think, way more difficult/fiddly than binding tiny books! I'm pretty glad I have the skill now, though. Handbound books are awesome! And they make good gifts...

I used coptic stitch again (of course!) and bought some color coordinating papers for the inside signatures. I was surprised to see a while ago that Office Depot started carrying a little bit of a la carte scrapbook paper along with a ton of solid and textured cardstocks in a ridiculous number of different colors. Plus, it's within 5 minutes of my house. Bonus!

In other news, big ol' hail woke me from a delightful nap and also pelted the flip out of our cars this afternoon. This is a handful of it! It's the biggest hail that I've ever seen in person, with the biggest pieces about the size of a dime. I'm glad I wasn't out walking when it started raining down like so many tiny meteorites.

I hope you're having a great weekend! AND WHOA! I just noticed that my little blog just reached 300 followers! You guys rock!!!! :)

EDIT: Last night, the photos didn't upload properly, but they should be fixed now! Let me know if they're not showing up for you. Nessa, thanks for commenting last night to tell me what was up! Ten gold stars for you!

Little Altered Boardbook WIP

2011-03-23T16:09:00.000-05:00

The other week, I found three little board books at the flea market for 50 cents. I've started to alter this one, and the cover is now finished! First, I peeled off the "story" on the inside, and it was pretty easy to do... it seemed to be covered in a thin sheet of plastic. Once that stuff was off, it was pretty good looking, just plain brown chip board :)

I used acrylic paints to make each inside spread a different color, then accented the edges with an inkpad and chalk pastels. I'll post each page spread as I finish them. I think I'm going to fill the pages with different watercolor paintings and things I'm thankful for.

I drew and watercolored this cockatiel for the front because I needed something to fill up the space after I glued on the "Life is good" things. The cockatiel's crest goes off to the left for that reason... I think it works!

Anyhoo, I'm having a pretty grand week. I hope you are too! Happy Wednesday!

Big Ideas Colorful Coptic Stitch Tiny Journal

2011-03-18T20:01:00.000-05:00

I made my second coptic stitch tiny journal today!!! Once you get the hang of the stitching, it's really pretty quick and simple. This time I used my little cheapo dremel-knockoff rotary tool(10 bucks at Harbor Freight Tools!) to drill all the tiny holes prior to stitching. It was MUCH easier than trying to punch a needle through the pages, as I could do all of them at once and they line up perfectly!

Here's the embellishment on the front, "Big Ideas." I figure I can work with that theme as I fill up the book... It's pretty versatile. I used my metal stamping set to make this :) I love that little set!

For the inside signatures, I used watercolor paper again, but this time before I cut it up, I painted both sides of the sheet with plenty of colors! I do the same thing to make inchie backgrounds.

Pretty nifty, eh? If anyone out there is teetering, thinking they miiiight wanna learn coptic stitch and start making journals, I heartily say, DIVE IN! It's not as tough as you might expect, and it's very rewarding to think, "Hey! I made that little book, bindings and all!" And it's way fun. Happy Friday! (FRIDAY ALREADY?!)

My First Coptic Stitching! Tiny Journal

2011-03-17T19:22:00.000-05:00

After having coptic stitch book binding on my "to learn" list for a long time, I can finally say I've done it! After studying this YouTube tutorial, I made my very first hand-made coptic stitch journal! It's just a tiny one, but I'm happy with how it turned out. The cover is cereal box covered with nice paper, and the pages are watercolor paper.

I really wanted to practice the stitching, so I did eight signatures, but each signature is only one sheet folded in half. I'm not 100% sure I did everything exactly right, but oh well, it works! I'm just going to have to practice more.

Last night, I noticed these tiny little houses on one of my many ripped out kids book pages, so I made a set of three inchies. I used one of them to embellish the front of my tiny journal! Maybe one of these days, I'll make an inchie-sized little journal! Happy Thursday!

Wicked Circus Altoids Tin...

2011-03-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

I've been sitting on this project for a little while now, since it's for a swap, and I finished really early. I haven't sent yet, but I've posted a spoiler warning, so I could be impatient and blog it! This angry bear had to be restrained with heavy chains because it was trying to escape and come to my blog... (Oh ho ho ho ho!)

The theme for the swap is "Wicked Circus" and to alter an altoids tin to showcase the creepy, wicked side of circuses, sideshows and carnival acts. This man is on the front of the tin, I'd say he's the ringmaster, enticing passersby to "Witness the majesty of..."

LULU, the Dancing Bear! I painted and sewed together the canvas on the left to look kinda like dingey, dirty bigtop tent fabric. I printed out those teeny tickets onto red cardstock and cut 'em out with help from a tiny hole punch. Lulu's skirt is made of tulle and ribbon (not so funny story: I accidentally dropped a LONG strip of tulle on the floor, and it got sucked up in the vacuum, melted, and destroyed the bearings in our vacuum. Plus side: we got a new vacuum?)

Here's the outside, covered oh so nicely in paper! Happy Tuesday!

Teeny Mythbusters Sign!

2011-03-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

Yay! I ordered a metal punching alphabet set to use for the One Tiny Harry Potter Thing on Craftster(I'm done with my project, BTW, and I can't wait to show you!), and the punches came yesterday! I didn't have any metal to punch, so I went on a short walk outside and found a pop can less than a block away. Thank goodness for litter (?). I've been making little metal things saying silly things, and epiphany! I could make a little Mythbusters sign! :D

I love Mythbusters! I think next I want to make little 'plausible,' 'confirmed', and 'busted' signs and make them into a little magnet set. How cool would that be? I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Lots of text! Links galore! Awards!

2011-03-11T20:33:00.000-06:00

Hey friends!!! This is going to be a very link-heavy post, since I've got no crafts to share at the mo', and some news and links and things to share instead.

ONE: I had my 3-month post surgery appointment today, and my spine is FUSING perfectly! This is a happy thing. Everyone say, "Yay!"

TWO: Two of my recent projects made the March Featured Projects on Craftster.org! Check out my inchies and baby sloth plush, along with other amazing projects. Don't miss Alexz's Ganesha plush, it's crazy awesome: Craftster.org's March Featured Projects

THREE: Ruby Murray, a delightful seamstress I met via Craftster, awarded me with a versatile blogger award! Thank you! To honor the award, I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself, then link to some other delish blogs that deserve some love.

Here go the 7 things: 1) I have a stupid amount of craft supplies, but I can't seem to help buying more. 2) I've been married nearly 5 years, but have no kids yet 3) My favorite genre in books is Science Fiction, and I've been reading a lot lately. 4) I still think about my pet lovebird Kitty who died over a year ago ALL the time. 5) I really, really like Sam's Club pizza. 6) Now that my back is fixed, I have a very real desire to work at Disneyworld, but sadly know I will not be able to be Princess Jasmine because I now have a huge scar on my abdomen. 7) I really, really like feeding ducks and geese and seagulls.

Okay, now for the linkage. These are blogs that I don't think I've linked to before, but I really enjoy them and they deserve hundreds of awards and much blog love:

Thrifty Finn
Happy Plush Plush
Mescrap Studio
The Dreaming Bear
Numinosity

There are indeed MANY other blogs that I love, but this is just a good sample.

Well, I hope everyone had a beautiful week, and will have a great weekend to come! Now, go ahead and start clicking those links :)

Baby Sloth Plush!

2011-03-07T16:30:00.000-06:00

Awww... I started on this little baby sloth plush on Saturday, but wasn't able it finish it up til today, since I didn't realize I was out of poly fiberfill once he was ready for stuffin'. This was my only motivation for getting dressed and going to the store today. If it weren't for my need of stuffing, I would have probably spent the whole day in my PJs watching Netflix Instant and eating cough drop after cough drop!

This is my first plush with safety eyes! And I love them! Now that there's a hobby lobby here, I can actually buy them. The facial features are sewn on and made of felt, and his fluffy body is made from an old towel we were going to get rid of because it wasn't absorbant enough. I kept it, just in case. I'm glad I did, but sewing terrycloth/something as thick as a towel was a bit of a challenge. Luckily, it's forgiving because it hides the goofs, but it was a pain in the nerds.

I sewed velcro onto the paws, so he could hold on to various things. That velcro adhesive stuck to my sewing machine needle and gummed it up, dangit. Took me a while to clean off that goo, but I say this little sloth guy was worth it! Happy Monday!

Two Random Paperthings

2011-03-01T22:36:00.000-06:00

Ah, I've been lazy. I'm going to blame it on Picasa's "Blog This!" feature being broken right now, which is my blogging method of choice, since it's the easiest, quickest, get-me-back-to-snacking-and-whatnot blogging method. Believe it or not, I uploaded ALL BOTH of these two images manually (GASP!). So back to crafts, here we have a birdie I doodled with a long beak...

Aaaaand, a very simple welcome card I made with my frog on an old-timey bicycle art print, along with some other paper and stuff, and some rub-ons. I do have another excellent booklet of really nice high quality alphabet rub-ons I'm saving for that giveaway I mentioned! I haven't nailed down a date for that, but I'll let you know when I do. I wanna make it a pretty sweet giveaway, so it won't be rushed :) Well, I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Happy Tuesday!

Doodle Dice: Fun with inchies!

2011-02-24T16:54:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how slow the rest of this week is going! It's only Thursday?! Bah, I'm sure it'll be August before I know it. Anyway, I made a set of six inchies this afternoon for a kind of dice cube thingie. I made the inchies first, and then glued them onto a wooden 1 inch cube that I painted purple.

Here are the doodle inchies! I wanted to put a corresponding number of doodles for each piece, but when it came to five and six, I said forget it. The five is a couple of robots high-fiving, and the six is a jellyfish with six legs. Hey, it works :) Happy Thursday, everyone!

Altered Puzzle Pieces

2011-02-20T13:05:00.000-06:00

My crafty pal Audio asked me if I wanted to do a couple of pieces for an altered puzzle, and I said heck yeah! I've wanted to do a whole puzzle for a while now, but just never got around to it. Anyhoo, here are the 2 pieces I did for her.

The top one is a silly owl wearing a hat, saying "Hoo-ya!" instead of "Boo-ya!" which is one of my favorite phrases.

For this one, I used an art print of mine, along with that rad foil stuff along the border, and then some purple jaquard pigment powder and gum arabic to add a little bit of shimmer and fun :) Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good weekend! Mine's going pretty good, and it's my birthday tomorrow! Probably gonna go on a picnic or something. Happy Sunday, friends.

Inchies... Teeny squares of yay

2011-02-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've made any inchies, and they're always a fun, tiny, and quick way to feel like you've accomplished something. (Just in case somebody reading doesn't know, an inchie is just a little 1" by 1" sqaure piece of artwork. Silly, right? But cool.) Anyway, I made this set last night. A bunny, a piggy, and a cat.

Then I finished up this set this morning. Birds inchies, woot.

I used some AWESOME crafting foil to border this one. I had been looking for crafting foil for a few months after a case of envy over discovering a friend's "I don't know what this is, can you show me?" stash of foiling supplies that her mother in law gave her. It's seriously so shiny and wonderful. If you are curious and want to play (I highly recommend it!) it's Lisa Pavelka crafting foil. I found it at Michaels near the polyclay supplies. I guess you can use it on polyclay, but I'll probably mostly use it for papercrafting. The adhesive I used was Alene's flexible stretchable fabric glue applied with a paint brush. When it dries, it's still tacky, so that's why it works :) If you wanna know more, just comment on my facebook.

I think I'm going through a piggy-drawing phase. Maybe koalas next. Happy Thursday!

Oh and I can't gush enough about how nice and lovely you guys are, Thank you for the FB comments and the ones on here, too :)

Catch a piggy...

2011-02-16T12:59:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to experiment a little with making semi-dimensional birdcages with wire for a while now, and this is my first attempt. It's not the best, but hey, I think it turned out pretty cute. I drew and painted this little bat-winged pig to keep inside the cage.

He doesn't look real amused, does he?

The construction of the cage is simple enough.... I just cut out two half-circles from cereal box, then sandwiched several "spokes" of wire between them using the hot glue gun. Then I just bent them down and shaped the cage using my fingers. Voila. It looks a little bit sloppy, but I figure I'll work on the technique. If I get it down, I might just have to do a tutorial, or something :) I know by now, you're all dying to get out the hot glue gun and some wire to start making birdcages, pigcages, yeticages, monstercages, etc.

And finally, the valentine I made for my Bobby, us as pointy pigs. He said, "Is that you wearing a sexy outfit?" and I said, "What?! No, that's an apron!" and he said, "No, look. That's a sexy outfit, and I'm naked, just wearing a tie." It was pretty funny... I hope you all had a lovely Valentines day.

*Le sigh* Monday is my birthday, and it makes me miss my family... Sometimes I wish we lived within 1000 miles of at least one of my family members. I miss get-togethers. Ah well, Bobby has the day off on my birthday, so I'm sure I'll have a good day... But dang, I miss everybody.

Altered Heart Mini-Book!

2011-02-12T20:08:00.000-06:00

Okay, okay, I'll admit it, just in case this looks familiar. This is a re-run from last year, but I thought it appropriate to share again for Valentine's day weekend. It's a little heart-shaped book, and the pages are punched cereal box by a Marvy-Uchida jumbo punch (but not a punch brand I recommend, BTW! In my experience, they break pretty consistently. Go with Paper Shapers!!!)

This pic is clickable to enlarge and see more details of the pages. This little book remains one of my favorite little things that I have around. So I hope you don't mind it's a re-run!

Sadly, I've got nothing new to post... I've been in a pretty ridiculous funk for the last couple weeks. Just been feeling crazy-anxious, and I'm not 100% certain why. I'm trying really hard to push past it, but sometimes it's just tough. I'm tapering off my painkillers, so maybe I'm feeling a touch of withdrawals? No idea. Anyway, maybe I aughta join a swap or something to get inspired. Or catch up on my blogroll, since I'm totally behind. At any rate, life is generally good, just not as crafty as I want. Happy weekend, and have a good Valentine's Day. Go eat some fancy chocolates, I know I will :)

Kokopelli Book Shrine

2011-02-05T22:28:00.000-06:00

Here's what I've been working on!!! It's a book shrine featuring kokopelli. I have a friend who was an enormous help during my early recovery, bringing me all sorts of things, doing Christmas shopping for me, etc. She has a liking for the little kokopelli dude, so I wanted to make her something unique to say thank you.

You know those books with hiding places cut into them? It's the same idea, but after I cut a big hole in the middle of the book, I glued the page edges together to make a solid compartment. Then I just painted and glued in what you see. The kokopelli is cut from sandpaper :)

I got the old book on the library sale shelf... It was a book about some people in China, but the color is kinda sandy, terra-cotta-ish and kinda Southwestern, right? I painted another little kokopelli to put on the front of the book.

Here's an in progress shot before I had all of the dry grasses and things glued in. I was tempted to stop here, because the night scene was just so serene.... But that wasn't the plan. Anyhoo, I hope you're all having a great weekend. Good night!

Sketchbook Scans

2011-02-02T19:53:00.000-06:00

Well shoot, I thought I'd be posting more than once per week by now! Here I am, fiiiiinally posting some sketchbook project scans. Towards the end, I had to resort to using a lot of cut out art prints. I felt like I was cheating a little bit, but afterall, it IS my artwork, and I needed to meet the deadline. Meh. Oh well. So this first one is my seafood page, fish, octopus, etc.

This one was fast and simple, flower doodles and watercolor. The sleeping dog that looks like a pink poo is a doodle with color pencil.

I ran out of canned air, and had to make that red tree with a straw and my own breath. About passed out. but it turned out acceptable :) Then I doodled all those animals on the right, including a guinea pig, owl, giraffe, and bonus if you spot the moogle.

As hard as I tried, I wasn't able to finish EVERY spread, but the right side of this one was a favorite. The couch is cut out of an IKEA catalog (Oh, to have an IKEA nearby). Anyhoo, I hope you enjoyed these pages! No word yet if my sketchbook has made it safely to New York, but they have a lot of books to process....

I've been feeling good, then bad, then good. The trouble is doing much too much when I feel good, then feeling bad the next day. Like my dad reminded me over the phone, no one said surgery recovery would be easy. The key is BALANCE!!! Thank you again to everybody's nice encouraging words! And oh hey, some NEW followers?! (Hello to you!) That made my week.

Soon to come, a book shrine and a giveaway soon! I found some rad brand NEW papercrafting supplies at the Goodwill this week, and I thought I'd share the wealth. Til next time, HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Sugar Skull Bear Plush II

2011-01-27T16:55:00.000-06:00

Last year, I made a bear almost juuuust like this! A friendly artist contacted me through Etsy in the fall and requested that I make one for her. I've finally gotten around to it, since I'm starting to feel better after my back surgery :) Voila! The scarf is slightly different at the ends, but for the most part, it's a clone.

...and a close-up of the face! There are probably some differences in stitching, since I wasn't really using a real pattern or anything. Anyhoo, this little sugar skull bear is on his way to a new home.

I hope to ACTUALLY get going with listing and selling more things on Etsy. Without back problems, I won't have any excuses left... Happy Thursday!!!

Bird and Bubbles

2011-01-24T20:41:00.000-06:00

Papercrafting! Woo hoo! As I had hoped, I was able to do a little papercrafting this evening... I remembered to ask Bobby to put up my paper bins where I could reach them, but the funny thing is, I just used scraps and bits of stuff that was already laying around my craft table.

The polkadot background is the front of a thank you card someone gave me, the grey bit to the left is a strip of paper some soap came wrapped in, and the bird and hearts are cut from an expired Michael's receipt coupon. Then I painted the flowers with watercolor, did some more bubbles with acrylic ink, drew/wrote some stuff, and voila. Hope you like :) Happy Mmmmmmm......onday? Yep, Monday. (I did have to double check.)

Monster's Pet

2011-01-22T20:45:00.000-06:00

I did a little bit of drawing and watercolor tonight! Here we have a chunky little monster and his pet budgie. Man, I want a budgie! Or two, or ten. Someday... Anyhoo, I've been doing just a weeeee bit of crafting this week. I've got a cloned project to share tomorrow or monday :) Then hopefully some papercrafting. I've got to remember to ask Bobby to pick up my paper bins for me. They're on the floor, so they're.... well.... difficult to access. Meh, soon. Happy Saturday! I hope the weekend is treating you well.

Colored Pencil Budgie

2011-01-14T20:37:00.000-06:00

Here we have a very hastily budgie drawing slapped onto a page with a dirty playing card. Ahhh! Every spare sitting-up moment I've had, I've been rushing to get my sketchbook project completed, and today, I called it good. There are still a few spreads that are blank or have barely anything on them, but I've come to peace with that :) Thank you to everybody who has left super sweet comments on my last post! I've got more pages to post, but Bobby just finished scanning them for me (my hero!) so they need to be cropped and junk before I can upload em. I'd snap a photo, but I've already packaged up my book, and I'm not going to open it up! Crazy enough, I opened my e-mail to get the address, and they extended the deadline last minute to Tuesday, instead of tomorrow. OY VEY! Oh well, extension or not, that baby is going in the mailbox TOMORROW. Whew! I'm proud to say it's done(ish).... I did it(mostly).....

And to celebrate, here's a picture of my dog sleeping. More to celebrate, too! I had my 4-week post-op appointment today... They took x-rays and it looks like all the rods and screws and spacers are perfectly aligned, and with the added disc height, I'm even about a half-inch or more taller than before surgery! How awesome is that?!! Also, I can start weaning myself off of wearing the back brace, and can expect to be OFF pain medication in another 2 weeks! HIP HIP HOORAY!!! I am really so happy. She also said I'll be feeling fantastic in about another 3 months. Oh, AND I walked 2 whole miles yesterday. I'm really feeling wonderful about everything. Thank you guys for being so encouraging and sweet to me!

Now, with the lovely sketchbook project behind me, I'm looking forward to some other crafting :) Wheee! Life is good.

Sketchbook project pages!

2011-01-06T15:59:00.000-06:00

I've been trying trying trying to finish up my sketchbook!!! I've got maybe 12 spreads left to complete, and I've got to send it in by next Saturday!

I'll admit, I've cheated a little by incorporating some art I've done before! Here, I made a pop-up page with these watercolor monsters holding baby animals that I've had laying around since last year! And, I've glued lots of pages together...

Here's a sketch of a monster holding an owl :) Bobby really likes this one. If I have time, I might watercolor it, but ONLY if I finish all the other pages first.

And this page is just some doodles and stamping with pigment powder... Not 100% satisfied with it, though. Sitting is my most painful position, and I'm not allowed to sit for more than 20ish minutes, 30 at absolute maximum. It doesn't really allow for the level of creativity or quality that I want! But still, I'm trying!

Today marks 3 weeks post-surgery! I'm feeling pretty good!!! I'd say the pain level is equal to what I was experiencing before the surgery, but now I've been walking 1.5 miles every day! So that's awesome :) And I get better every day, so I'm really hoping to finish my sketchbook before the deadline. I know I'll be capable of doing more and more as the days go by. I hope everyone has been having a beautiful and good new year so far! Happy Thursday, friends!

Big ol' coiled fabric bowl

2010-12-29T13:26:00.000-06:00

Here we have another pre-surgery Christmas craft! I made the biggest coiled fabric bowl I've ever made! This is a fake-action shot, but you can get a better idea of the size if you compare with that skein of yarn.

As you might well know, I love to save up my scraps for weaving projects and other stuff like this, so all the colors and patterns are mixed up, but still nice and cheery bright, as I like them.

It has a new home in Washington with my sister-in-law-in-law :) I hope it'll get much use as a fruit basket or notions basket, or by-the-door catchall, or something!

And again, thank you all for the well wishes and get well soons!! I SO appreciate every kind word. I'm doing fine, my recovery is right on track, I believe! I'm feeling better each day, but I'll admit, I've been having some really frustrated days. I know things are getting better, but I think a lot of constant tiny irritations just get under my skin sometimes. Plus, I haven't got much of an outlet to relieve stress at the mo'. I can't wait until I can craft at 100% capacity again!!! That's what keeps me sane :) Anyhoo, happy Wednesday.

Monsters Zippered Pouches

2010-12-26T20:04:00.000-06:00

Every year for Christmas, the Nichols side of my family has one other family to get presents for, and this year I was pleased to see I could craft for some of my older nieces! I thought teens/tweens can always use zippered pouches for sleepovers, makeup, girly things and whatnot, so I made these before my surgery to send off to Washington.

They're based off of different plush I've made that the girls each noted as thier favorite: Sad monster and plump yeti!

Here's the little yeti, I appliqued him with soft fleece, and added a nose and belly button for good measure.

Both bags are fully lined with coordinating fabric! I hope my nieces get a lot of use out of these bags, they were made with love :)

Here's an update on the back surgery recovery front: I haven't done ANY more crafting after that deer. I had been feeling a lot of pain, a little more back pain, so I called the nurse from recovery and she said that I should NOT be sitting for more than 15-20 minutes at a time, and avoiding sitting as much as possible (she said, "Either be laying down or walking!"). So I've obeyed and am doing MUCH better pain-wise. PLUS, I walked nearly 1/2 mile today! I should be walking 2 miles in a day by 4 weeks post-surgery! It's been 10 days. But I gotta go! I'm sitting typing this, and it's killing me! Much love! Happy late Christmas!

Winter Deer

2010-12-22T12:18:00.000-06:00

Here's my first art post surgery! I had to draw, paint and outline this little winter deer in really short increments over the last few days. My plans are to color copy it to make thank you cards for all my friends from church who have been helping me so much!

Before outlining

Sketch. Okay, I've got to go, I'm tired as heck, gotta sleep. Merry Christmas! Happy Wednesday!