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.

Pet Portraits: Kitties Banner in a Matchbox

I made these a while ago for a wonderful swap with Leslie of Leslie's Art and Sew. They are little acrylic pet portrait paintings of her four kitties!

 I had a lot of fun painting each of her cats, they are all super good-looking cats. The backgrounds are made with Tim Holtz distress paints... I think I'm addicted to those, pretty much.

 Anyway, I hope everybody has a great weekend! Mine will be filled with hard work getting the chicken coop ready for the peeps.

They are growing...and eating...and pooping...so much. They are turning out to be very sweet little birdies, though, especially Yum Yum. She's also the biggest!

Star Trek Crafts

I want to thank everybody for your comments and support on my post from the other day. Your words do a lot to lift me, and I really really do appreciate you. I'm feeling a bit better, probably because all the medicines are working their way out of my system. So I feel better physically at least, and that helps. I'm still pretty down in the dumps... but I won't give up. Bobby and I decided to take a break from trying for at least a few months. Gotta take a breather and focus my energy on something a little less emotionally draining! I decided to sign up for a craft show next weekend. I think the prep work will distract me.

Anyway, I made some Star Trek crafts for a swap the other week and I want to show you what I made.

 First is a journal made from the covers of a recycled old Reader's Digest Condensed Books. The pattern on the book looked retro and kinda perfect, even if I did paint/draw over most of it. I saw a t-shirt that said, "Trek yourself before you wreck yourself" that made me laugh. Took the same sentiment for this journal.

Mister Spock.

 I also drew a little watercolor monster in a Star Trek uniform giving the Vulcan salute.

 And finally a totebag... 

The lot. Live long and prosper.

The Otter Fairy Shadow Box

I have decided, this is what the tooth fairy looks like. Four inches tall, butterfly wings, and oh yeah, it's an otter.

I drew the otter, then watercolored and cut it out. Cute little guy, huh?

The background is painted with acrylics and sprayed with glimmer mist for a little sparkle :) Then all the embellishments are from my planty stash. I have a shoebox full of little branches and leaves and things that I've collected and butterfly wings and feathers and stuff.

 Then I popped it all into a shadowbox frame! Oh, and I added the "Be Good" metal pieces since this is a gift for a young friend who is going off to college soon... A good reminder for a college kid, right? Happy Tuesday, friends!

PS. I did tell my sister to tell my 4-year-old niece that this IS REALLY what the toothfairy looks like. She said she will :)

Watercolor Monsters: Sheepy, Feathery, and.. Artichoke!

 It's been a while since I've made any new little watercolor monsters, so I drew some little guys for some Valentine's Day watercolory love for my sweetheart, Bobby.

 Sheepy

 Feathery (This one reminds me of Pikachu, so I painted him with yellow)

Artichoke Monster. Man, a nice big steamed artichoke sounds SO delicious right now...

Happy Valentine's Day, friends! Thank you for all the well-wishes and prayers for my surgery. Here's to an uneventful day tomorrow :)

Little Penguin Magnet

Here is the final little penguin craft, maybe until next year. It's a little magnet! The penguin is a little watercolor illustration I did just for this magnet, and the background is collage. 

That's it for today, I've got more to share once Christmas gifts are delivered :) And let me just say that I love that it's the weekend! Who's with me?

Bowie & Friends! Birdy pet portrait and videos

I can't remember if I ever told you guys about Jxh0703's YouTube videos, and if I did, it was probably one of Bowie, the indian ringneck. Anyway, she has this adorable flock of various parrots, and they are all super cute and I love to watch them. I have been wanting to do some fan art for a while, because for some reason, I just really like these birds! I finally got to it last night. Top branch L-R: Smokey, Hazel, Boo-boo. Low branch L-R: Kool-aid, Wish, Bee, and Bowie. 

 Now get ready for some cute videos.  My favorite is Bowie. He talks and is just so sweet. If you want to go into a cuteness coma, watch this video:

This is Hazel and BooBoo, the most terribly adorable pair of inter-species friends that you will see EVER. And BooBoo is wearing a space collar in the painting because he's been picking at himself lately. Watch this super cute video:

 This is Wish and Bee, the budgies. Wish is pretty much new, but here's a video of Bee going swimming and Wish in the background:

Well, I hope you liked my weird post, telling you all about vague celebrity birds that I've never met. LOL.

Have a great week!

Ruby Slippers Bookmarks GALORE

 I have been hard at work making Wicked Witch/Ruby Slippers bookmarks to stock my shop for this very witchy and spooky month of Halloween :) There are 20 new ones for sale in my Wicked Awesome Series, including a few with green shimmery striped legs...Very Elphaba! Please check them out, or share with a friend.

I also have had plenty of people ask me if I make Dorothy, too, so I thought, "Why not?" and went ahead and made some Dorothy Bookmarks. The bookmark body features an original illustration, which I made by drawing, watercoloring, acrylic painting, then combining the various elements digitally, including the blue gingham dress :) I was pretty happy with my Dorothy! Anyhoo, I hope everybody has been having a good week so far.

Toucan and Budgie Watercolor Painting

 Oh, I know what you all are thinking, "Kira, you have not been posting enough toucan crafts lately, shame." Well, to make up for that, here is a watercolor painting of a toco toucan and his little budgie friend.

They're best friends. happy Friday!

Kitty hates Captcha, and I do too!!!

I was commenting on blogs earlier in the week, already having an emotionally draining few days, and then had to draw this angry little kitty. Why?

 I TYPED THE WORD VERIFICATION IN WRONG LIKE 5 TIMES IN A ROW, AND THE INTERNET WAS CALLING ME A ROBOT!!!! I have such a hard time reading that garbled nonsense. One of my biggest pet peeves is captcha, but I deal and accept it as a necessary evil, because I enjoy leaving comments. It's just one of those things, haha!

It's a personal choice, (and absolutely no hard feelings or fewer comments if you don't, and I am not pleading to anybody in particular, just the blog world in general) but.... if you feel so inclined to disable the word verification on your blog, that would be a happy thing :) I only get a spam post or two a couple times per year, and I don't have captcha on, if that does offers any reassurance. Pretty please? With a sugar on top?

PS. I don't mean to offend anybody with this post...but....but...but....captcha kills me!

How to Watercolor Drawings and Stamped Images Video: ROOSTER!

Hey guys! My dear husband has really been encouraging me to make some how-to videos, and after a few months of nervousness and hesitation, I jumped in today. It wasn't so bad! I might be a weeee bit awkward, but oh well. That's me. Back when I posted my 51 Things video, several of you commented that you wanted a watercolor tutorial. So without further ado:

Please subscribe to my channel, if you wish :) And feel free to ask questions if I wasn't clear on anything. Thanks for watching!!!

The Young Queen of Hearts Altered Altoids Tin

 I had the pleasure of participating in another awesome wicked Craftster swap which was themed "Wicked Children." The whole idea was to come up with a list of villains or wicked characters you'd like to see depicted as a little kid. My partner had a pretty awesome list, and I picked to craft a young Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

 I don't often draw people...So I was a little nervous working on this, BUT I think I captured the deviousness of the little queen as she stews ideas about playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos.

 I saw these little resin roses at Michaels and thought they went with the theme perfectly.

 I used a pop-can tab for a wall hanger on the back.

And in other Alice in Wonderland-related news, I found this tremendous monster of a caterpillar in my yard today, on a big toadstool, blowing smoke rings from a hookah. He looked just like Absolem, but green. He refused to be photographed smoking, so I had to make do with taking pictures on a stick. Really though, he's an imperial moth caterpillar and he weighs about 3 lbs.

Just kidding. He was huge, though.

ATCs! Crookshanks, orange tabby, and the letter N

I couldn't resist trading some ATCs this month. It's been a while since I've made any, but ATCs are kind of addicting. I made all these on certain requested themes and requested toucan-themed cards in return :) 

The letter "N" as part of a collection spelling out a partner's last name. I wanted a sort of zentangled look, but less fuss and clutter, so I just stuck with lines and swirls and then used watercolor to add pizzazz! 

 This one is a pet portrait of an orange tabby cat named Mayhem. I kinda loved drawing this, and it made me think about offering custom watercolor pet portraits in my Etsy shop. What do you think?

And finally, Crookshanks, for a Harry Potter animals theme. Well, I'm off to the beach! Have a splendid weekend, everyone :)

Monster Lineup Watercolor and Notebook

Monsters, monsters, a family of monsters. I drew and watercolored these guys for this notebook in the IYP Swap on craftster. If you're a craftster, you've probably seen Onegroovyday around the boards, and she is awesome. That's who I swapped with, so you'll be seeing things I made for her for the next few posts :)

I used my Zutter Bind-it-all to put the book together and the inside pages are recycled kraft cardstock.

Here's a scan of the painting before I cut out the monsters and pasted them to the front cover. I hope you're all having a great week so far...

And if you missed it, go enter my Morehouse Farm Knitkit Giveaway! I pick a random winner tomorrow, so get on it.

Bunny "You can do it" mini-canvas painting

Here's your affirmation for the day! You can do it! Whatever it is... that you need to do :) I needed to make something positive, so I made this little mini-canvas. It's about 2"x2" and is acrylics, ink, and paper.

 The thing is about a half-inch deep, so I lined the edges with book page glued-on. You can find these awesome little tiny canvases at Michaels in a bunch of different sizes. Love them. I think I'm gonna put this little painting at eye level in front of my computer.

Happy Independence Day!!! Enjoy some hotdogs and watermelon and the smell of fireworks today :)

EDIT: Bobby found a wee toadie outside and brought it in to say hello.

Bunny and Monster ATCs

 I recently had the opportunity to swap a couple of ATCs with one of my Craftster homies, Zombie Lili, and here is what I made for her! She has an affinity for bunnies (who wouldn't?), so I thought this little gentlemen bunny was appropriate. It's acrylic, ink, paper, chipboard & book page.

This second little guy is a watercolored monster with real cicada wings. Fear not, I didn't go hunt the cicada and steal his wings. They are really common around here, so occasionally you'll find a dead one in a parking lot or someplace, and the wings are easy to...acquire.

Anyway, I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend! Have a super week! I'm off to girl's camp tomorrow!