Man is made or unmade by himself - a set of ATCs

“Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought, he forges the weapons with which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds... joy, strength and peace.” - James Allen in As A Man Thinketh. 

A friend of mine sent me this little book for my birthday, and I’m about halfway through it. It’s about how our thoughts shape our reality and thinking good thoughts will manifest good results. I’m trying to take it to heart and implement more positive thinking! These ATCs have one of my favorite lines from the book so far. Woot woot for fun and positive crafting :) I just sat down with my bag of scraps and threw down some paper and ink. Therapy.

 It also helps that I’ve got my medications reconfigured once again so I’m not being crushed by the weight of crippling depression and anxiety. My new attitude for stress reduction has been going fantastic. I’ve been spending a few hours outside with the boys every day that the weather has been good for the past couple of weeks. Whether it’s in the yard or at the park, it makes a big difference. For one, they don’t make messes in the house. Secondly, I get to stretch out on a blanket under the sky and do a little bit of makeshift amateur yogajunk and deep breathing. Therapy. 

I’m feeling good about taking advantage of this beautiful weather before the Alabama heat, bugs and humidity become unbearable in a month or so. Carpe diem! I’m enjoying myself. 

Giant Budgie Painting and My Birthday Reflections

I'm going to give myself credit for the things I have already accomplished, not grief for what I haven't.

This past couple of weeks has been so many things. I'll just toss some adjectives: Refreshing. Heartwarming. Contemplative. Fun. Needed.

I spent the last ten days or so down in Orlando at my sister's house along with all my immediate family plus spouses and kiddos. It was awesome. Probably one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time.

Festivities included a KIDLESS Wizarding World of Harry Potter day followed by a massive delicious Harry Potter feast and RPG prepared by my brother and his amazing wife. I also got to hang out with my sister a lot at Downtown Disney, now called Disney Springs. New name, more exciting sights and smells. I got my Disney Pin Trading fix and snagged some cute tsum tsum pins, also got to indulge at IKEA and a huge Oriental Supermarket. Also a top highlight: BLACK MARKET MINERALS. Yeah. You read that right. One of my fondest old jobs from the springtime of my youth. Visiting the Florida store was nostalgic and delightful. 

The coolest thing I got to bring home was a big canvas that everyone in the family worked on. Even the little grandbabies got to paint/scribble and contribute. We started with a yellow acrylic base and I added paint drops, swirls and extra layers and color, then everyone kept going throughout the week with doodles with markers.

By the end of the week, the canvas had an awesome multi layered look to it and we were ready to paint over top with my favorite: a Giant Budgie that I drew. Here's me and my bro starting to paint the bird.

More progress being made by my sister and me. 

I added finishing touches and a bit of a white wash in areas to make the budgie stand out just a little bit more. We got this guy home to Alabama and he now has a very prominent place in my art studio.

I love it. I love that it's special and that it'll be a memento of this awesome vacation, birthday and reunion that I got to experience.

So now I'm going to get back to that whole "contemplative" thing that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I had a lot of time on this trip where I didn't have to be constantly paying mind to my beautiful boys. I also didn't check my phone more than 2-3 times per day. It did something for my mind that I haven't been able to achieve in uh.... almost four years, since Buddy was born. 

I had a breakthrough of sorts. Finally accepting this season of my life and being okay with it. I've always been focused and ambitious, and driven to accomplish. 

I've known somewhere in this brain of mine that for happiness, my focus needs to be on 1. self care, 2. my marriage and 3. my kids. I have been trying to convince myself that I can continue to nurse my ambitions and business goals in addition to the aforementioned big three. There just isn't enough of my attention to go around and I've been suffering for it. I haven't been happy. I haven't been functioning properly. 

So I finally made a decision. I'm throwing Etsy, YouTube Videos, FaceBook, Insta, marketing, new product creation etc. into the back seat for a couple more years and I'm not going to feel guilty about it. I'm gonna blog for fun when I feel like it. I'm going to learn new things because I want to. Just like the good old days. No more feeling bad about what I think I should be able to earn or do with my precious waking hours. No more. I'll wade a little deeper once the kids get into school.

But for now, I'm going to get my mental and physical health straight. I'm going to be present for my husband and kids and not use my phone as a form of escapism from this at-times overwhelming season. I'm going to simplify my life. I'm going to create and share for the joy of it. 

I'm going to give myself credit for the things I have already accomplished, not grief for what I haven't. 

I hope I can continue to remind myself of this decision, because it's an important one. I want to start enjoying my life every single day. I've got my eye on making my 32nd my best year yet.

Mixed Media Winged Heart and Tiny House Magnets

I'm excited to finally be able to share this project, since I've been sitting on the photos for a while.

It's a two-sided winged heart ornament for the Mixed Media Valentine Swap over on Craftster. 

 First I drew out the shape on paper, then scanned it into the computer and worked the image into a cut file. Here's a pic of the shapes being cut out on the laser out of 1/4" birch plywood. Having a laser is amazing.... I can make whatever wood shapes I want. It's easily the coolest thing I have.

The piece is 3 layers glued together, and has the lil shrine cutout in the front as well as the back. I just clamped the three pieces together with wood glue, then coated it in gesso to make sure the paint and stuff would stick and be vibrant. I guess it's like primering....It might have sucked up a lot of paint if I didn't gesso it first.

So here is the first side.... It's covered in a gelliprinted bookpage and then painted on a bit more. Then I drew the wings with paint pen and filled them in randomly with pearl pink and mint green. The middle has a quartz crystal druzy, for sparkliness...

This is the other side and it has a totally different feel.

Dot painted, with a coral and navy blue color scheme... The pendant over the shrine hole made the perfect window. I'd had that little metal thing for years in my stash and I'm glad I finally found a good use for it.

And at the end, there were little house-shaped scraps from where the shrine fronts had been cut out, so I made some wee tiny house magnets for my swap partner, and for funsies, a little altered clothespin magnet, too.

She was happy with the package! The heart was pretty tough to send away, but that's the magic of swapping: trading art and making other people smile.

Naruto Fixation and Budgie Rock Lee

Soooo, I rarely get to watch any TV that isn't Elmo or The Wiggles or Curious George, or whatever else toddler-friendly show that I can stand at the moment... My boys will so innocently click the button on our smart tv to exit out of our streaming app if there's something they don't want to watch on the TV. It makes me crazy. So I'd rather just relax and go ahead and chill with cookie monster.

BUT.... When the lights go out, I watch Naruto Shippuden and it's like TV heaven. I love it. Fullmetal Alchemist is still my favorite anime (Kip's middle name is Elric for goodness sake), but after finishing 220 episodes of Naruto Shonen Jump and 2 Seasons into Shippuden, I'd say I'm fully invested in the Naruto franchise. I've got like 7 seasons left and there's still a new one every week. So that's freaking sweet. It's like a binge-watcher's wildest dream, and I haven't gotten tired of it. It's all I watch,

That being said, here are a couple of Naruto things. First is Rock Lee, in the form of a budgie. It's a things-I-love mashup. So weird, but I'm incredibly happy with it. I'm going to have it tattooed on my bum. (Kidding, that space is reserved for Picolas Cage)

And this is a picture of Kippymon, making his pretend "ANGRY FACE" and then I doodled some rough Naruto regalia on him on my phone. It's my favorite. We joke that someday, we're going to cosplay as a family. Kip will be Naruto, Buddy will be Sasuke, Bobby will be Jiraiya and I'll be Sakura. 

Anyway, until next time. Go watch some Naruto.

Skull ATC, Bird Stickers, Ticket Stickers, Gelliprint Tags

Hey, hey. It's the end of the day on Tuesday and I think I did a good job today with managing my time. I usually have babysitters on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays for about 4 hours so I can get work done, listen to my podcast playlists, fill orders, run errands, do art, and basically have alone time. I love being able to make a list of tasks that I've been meaning to get done and actually doing ALL THE THINGS. It happened today, it just so happens that the last thing on my list is a blog post. So here's my update!

I did a little bitty swap with an old Craftster buddy, AlwaysInspired. She just wanted some blank craft stickers (of which I have a whole roll), but I wanted to make something for her. So I made this skull ATC with paint, inks, gelatos, etc. The base is another gelliprint from Audio. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, especially the light peony doodles in the background.

 This grouping of birdy drawings made me smile. There's something about feathers. These are also for swapping, and they're all drawn on sticker paper for extra function and coolness.

 Also, swapped these altered tickets. (I got the idea from another craftster pal, Smmarrt). They're alien cats, because I love cats and I love weird things. Also, I made these into stickers using my Scotch ATG. Fun fact: there was also a blue ticket in this set, but I turned on my fan and it vlew off the table, presumably into an alternate universe, because I couldn't find it.

Last, I made some gelli-printed tag stickers out of blank labels that aforementioned Smmarrt sent to me. They turned out soooo cute and I can't wait to make more. They're gonna be perfect to use in my planner.

So, I hope everyone had a beautiful, peaceful MLK weekend. Mine was pretty okay, and I got to spend time looking after my poor unfortunate, pained husband who was separated from his wisdom teeth last Thursday. Until next time, I'll be making art when I can and sharing it here :) Have a really, really good week.

Captain's Log: Full Waiting Room

Written as I sit in a waiting room full of Alabama's senior citizens and one kid. So much Southern accent happening up in here. So. Much.

Today, Bob is getting his wisdom teeth pulled! All three of them. I had mine yanked last year. It wasn't bad. I only had two. Yes, I did say some goofy things afterward, the most notable: I yelled,  "I AM THE GAUZE BOSS!" because they gave me a ziploc baggie full of fresh gauze to replace the gauze in my mouth when I got home. 

I'm looking forward to taking video of Bobby when the doc is done with him. Fingers crossed that he says something awesome.

So last night, I had some time to craft a little bit. I wanted to go to bed early because I've needed extra sleep with this sickness happening. 

Here's what I made:

 

Some altered paperclips. They could be way cooler... if I had more time to spend. It's like inchie badges! Little bitty cute arts for your planner or other paperclip needs.

I'll make some more this weekend if I have time.

Until next time! I'll just be here waiting for Bobby to get his toothuses yanked...

Achievement Unlocked! 10 out of 10

Holy meatballs, y'all, I did it. With time to spare.

Wanting to be more creative and bloggy in 2017, I challenged myself to a Work Table Declutter Challenge and I flippin' owned it, son! Granted, it wasn't TOO hard of a challenge, but I still feel good about myself. I need that. My goal was to create and send 10 quality Happy Mail Envelopes using only what junk and supplies that live on or have pooled up on my worktable. I send out the final six envelopes today. 

Each one of these envelopes contained a Kitty Sticker and postcard (blogged here), along with a grumpy octopus sticker and scrappy bookmark. 

 I drew these when I was channeling a wee bit of rage. Budzone was sick this past week and as a result has been whiny and screamy. Kip did not catch the sickness, but he did get some of the awful-behavior through some kind of baby-osmosis. I was at my wit's end, so I placed my children ever so gently on the playroom side of my studio and drew disgruntled octopi on a blank shipping label until I felt a little better.

 These are the bookmarks that I made. The backgrounds are all paper scrap from a catch-all scrap basket glued onto scrap chipboard. Luckily, there were a few lengths of random used baker's twine in the aforementioned basket to tie onto the tops. I am really happy with how the houses turned out, too. I've always admired cute little crafty houses that people on Craftster would make, and then I'd try and they'd look like.... not.... good. So, I think I was doing the roofs too big. I've cracked the formula. Don't make the roofs too big or the houses look like arrows to space.

Speaking of space, check out this moon drawing I did last Inktober. (That was an incredible space segue, I know.) I just wanted to show you guys because I hadn't yet.

At any rate, I'm glad to be back in the bloggosphere and I hope to stay in orbit for good. It's in my goals. And I intend to crush it.

Kira: OUT

Kitty Stickers

I deleted the Facebook App from my phone (again). I was just spending too much time reading my trash newsfeed. As Aziz Ansari put it, I was on page 1 million of reading the worst book ever. As much as I kept telling myself that I couldn't live without the memes, I know I want to be so much more deliberate with my time. I'm always thinking that I don't have time to blog or read or whatevs because of the kids, but I spend a lot of time on FB on my phone. So I want to replace that with better stuff. It'll take me a while to become unglued from my phone, but hey, it's a start and a step in the right direction.

I'm laying here on the couch and the kids are napping, so obviously out of habit, I reach for my phone. Checking Craftster, Instagram and playing Disney Emoji Blitz have taken the place of Facebook for now. I thought maybe times like this would be a good opportunity for me to update my blog. So I just dropped $5 on this app for my phone that will let me blog via the couch without having to run down to my studio and use the computer. I hope this app works better than Google's stupid blogger app.  

Anyway, I'm sick. I feel like I got pummeled by the Hulk. Now I know why Buddy was such a turd this week. I want to curl up in bed and hide from the world. Instead, I'll mope and update my blog. I made these kitty stickers on Friday night. I have a big roll of kraft stickers that I want to start using, so I'm pleased. These will be part of my Happy Mails for my Workspace Declutter Challenge.

 

They're things that I think cats would say, but I think I can relate to all of them. My favorite is the pooping one. I don't poop outside, but would if I had to. TMI! TMI!

In addition, I completed some other postcards for the challenge also. A set of six, using more gelli-print from Audrey. 

 

This one is my favorite. This is sass fish. I am sass fish. I want people to treat me right. I want people to be cool. I want a chicken sandwich. I want to nap whenever I want. I want justice. Aren't we all sass fish?

Well, until next time. I hope your weekend has been great :) And a little sassy.

4/10 Done: Work Table Declutter Challenge

Alright, I'm well on my way! In my previous post, I challenged myself to make and send 10 pieces of quality Happy Mail using only the junk and supplies that had pooled on my work table area. Let's just be honest: I'm crushing it. I sent out four arty little Happy Mail envelopes today. Each one was a decorated envelope, a lil piece of collage art, a tag, a little package of miscellaneous sticker flake, all attached to a hand-drawn/painted postcard. Here's the loot I made:

These collage pieces are all 1.5x2.5" in size. They're cut from a couple of pages of Readers Digest Condensed book (yup, lucky enough to have a page with black and white pics!) along with washi and some gelliprint scraps given to me by my illustrious #BAFF Audio. (Best art friends fo'ever.) The cut out phrases have been collecting on my desk for months and ages and centuries. I use them whenever I can. 

These are the postcards I drew. They're abouuuut 4x6, but really are whatever size the chipboard sheets were that were there in my catchall paper scrap basket. Fortunate... These are just random doodles. My favorite is the wild and free ape. The backgrounds were painted first with craft acrylic, then doodled on with a paint pen, colored in a bit with gelatos and then accented with Uniball Signo opaque pens. But they should be called MILKY PENS because, childhood. (Does pentel even make them anymore? Meh. 20 years ago...) 

And here are the embellished envelopes, covered in paper scraps and rogue worktable stickers. They're each on their way to some lucky recipient. Six more happy mails to go until I've completed my challenge! I'll finish this post off with gratuitous close-up shots of my postcards. Happy Tuesday, y'all.

Work Table Declutter Challenge

Stuff... it's accumulated on my work area. Of course, I've got lots of things that stay on the table, that LIVE on the table, such as my pens, markers, washi, various cups of pencils, adhesives and scissors, paints, favorite inkpads, etc. You know, the stuff that's always getting used and has to constantly be accessible for maximum crafitng sanity.

But then there are the catch-alls. Little wooden bowls that get filled up with crap. Baskets that eventually overflow with paper scraps and ephemera. Broken bits of this or that. Or things that definitely have a place, but I've just been 100% too lazy and not bothered to put away properly. (It's in a receptacle, it's tidy, meh. Kids are screaming. Cleanup is done. Meh. DONE! MEH!)

So I've hatched a plan... It's a challenge plan. My goal is to make 10 envelopes of quality Happy Mail to send out using ONLY the stuff currently on my desk. Maybe I'll do three or four at a time in a few rounds.

Three birds with one stone:
1. I'm cleaning up my work table and destashing with a purpose.
2. Creative time shall be mine. 
3. I can send them out and spread some happies.

Yeah, crushing it. Stay tuned. I'm giving myself two weeks.

In other maker news, I was at Walmart sans toddlers and was drawn to the stickers, because I am myself. In that aisle, there was clearance craft stuff and I found all these Coats & Clark threads for 25 cents each and I bought one of each color because I'm a craftstuff-hoarder and have only moderately-in-control FOMO when it comes to clearance supplies. And yes, I did buy some stickers, too. Kitties. End of blog post.

End of year Update

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!

(Aside: What a great phrase to begin a post on my rarely-updated blog... It'll date this post perfectly for visitors when my intentions of keeping this blog current once again fall by the wayside.)

...But I mean it! I hope you're all well. I'm doing fine. Just here at home, keeping it real. Buddy and Kip are respectively 1.5 and 2.5 years old and they have been keeping me running for my money and on the brink of insanity. My depression and anxiety have been, for the most part, manageable, but it's still something I've been struggling with.

This is a phase of life, though, I keep telling myself. Once the kiddos are a little bigger and a little more independent, bla-bla-bla, I'll have more time to enjoy that solitude and crafting time that I'd grown accustomed to while trying for so many, many years to conceive and birth said kiddos.

The Etsy has been busy. Been selling lots of ornaments and bookmarks this season, so about 80% of my free time has been spent working on filling Etsy and Amazon orders. Which is nice, BUT I'd love to do a lot more creative things. Lots of the skills and crafts I've picked up have been gathering dust, just waiting for the day when I can come back to them.


Mothering is super important, though. My boys are great and so sweet and tender and (mostly) delightful.

Anyhoo, here comes the possibly futile part. Go ahead and skip this last paragraph, because it just may not happen, according to life as I know it :)

I'm hoping to begin blogging about once a week and keep up with the few makes and creativity I'm hoping to have time for. Wish me luck. In the mean time, here are just a couple pics from lately.

 I made some Christmas tree earrings that Kip destroyed less than 24 hours later.

I also got glasses this year.

I made some chicken themed inchies and glued them into my planner.

That's my update. Goodbye for now. Love and snootches.