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.

Whittled Toucan

 More whittling! This time I made a toucan, which shouldn't be a huge surprise, considering my obsession with toucans...

 The base is a 1x1" wooden block that I decorated with some really simple stamped inchies.

A photo of the plain wood after carving, before sanding and painting!

I actually made this a few days ago... It would be pretty hard to do now because yesterday I sliced the side of the tip of the thumb on my left hand. Pretty bad. I was cutting up some squash and our new knives are SO SHARP, even went right through the nail. (TMI?) I'm really glad it wasn't my right hand, which would have been devastating, but I'm still hoping it heals really quick... I've got things to make and I've found it pretty surprising how much I use my left thumb...

At any rate, I hope YOU are having a brilliant Tuesday :)

Birds and Dresden Inchie Cube

 Good morning! It's the second day in 2013 and I am determined to spend it all in my jimmie-jams. I caught another cold from my visiting family and all the kiddos, but it's a total lack of surprise even after the ludicrous display of vitamin-munching I did. I'm just a sickness magnet. Boo. At least this time it was worth it and I know exactly who I caught it from.

Well, now I'll be relaxing and crafting and blogging. Today's thingie is an inchies cube ornament. They're actually about 1.5" by 1.5" each, so technically they're inchies-and-a-halfies. But let's just says inchies, okay?

 Once I made all the inchies, I just glued em each to one side of a wooden cube that I painted black with craft acrylics.

Here's another angle. I don't have a picture, but I finished the project by drilling a tiny hold and adding a tiny metal screw eye to attached a loop of string for hanging. If you wanted to use the little guy as a di (dice? die?di?) you could just unscrew the eye and there you have it.

Happy Wednesday!

Stuff I used that you can get:
Miscellaneous Dresden (the shiny bits)
Various Birds Collage Sheets (all from Alpha Stamps)

Three Bird Inchies made from Scraps

 It's been a while since I've made any inchies, so I pulled out my wee ziploc baggy full of itsy bitsy scraps of watercolored paper. And whenever I don't want to think about what to create, I make birds. Birds are always a good subject matter for me :)

 Cutting out and piecing together teeny little bird bodies is pretty relaxing, but it can be tough to find a scrap with just the right shape... The bits of paper I use are just the little in-between pieces after using paper punches for the majority of watercolor backgrounds.

 Here's a nice, long-beaked fellow.

Of course, no surprise, I had to make a toucan, because they are my favorite :) Have a great weekend, folks.

And please enter my crochet giveaway that is going on until September 10!

Toucan Sculpture: He's wearing a hat!

 Here's what I've been working on this week! While I was on vacation, I saw an awesome toucan sculpture made from different stones in one of the gem galleries. It was an instant WANT, but I thought, hey, why don't I make my own? It won't be made of rock, but it will be cute! So I started on this toco toucan guy on Monday.

 I had a little bit of air-dry clay in my stash, but I didn't want to use up ALL of it, not to mention wait days for such a huge hunk of clay to dry, so I first made the form of the toucan out of aluminum foil. The beak and body were made in two separate pieces, so the beak is attached and supported by two toothpicks jabbed in  and glued at the base. I stabbed in and glued the legs, which were just made from pretty sturdy .032 safety wire.

 Then I just had to cover the outside as smoothly as I could with the air-dry clay. I wanted a reasonably thick layer, because I was planning on sanding it smoother once it dried. And I did. The clay sands really nicely when dry, actually! The clay I used is Premier Lightweight Stone Clay .

 Then all I had to do was paint the toco toucan goodness on with artist acrylics. I used those because they dry a little shinier than craft acrylics, and I wanted the sheen. Oh, and I also added the tail which is just a tail shape cut from thick canvas I had painted/stiffened with the same acrylics I used on the body.

 "Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark." I needed a quote about faith, things hoped for, but not seen... Dreaming about and working towards having a toucan someday is going to take a lot of faith! Not to mention everything else...

The mini-hat is from Hobby Lobby and embellished with a fancy pheasant feather and lots of novelty yarn! 

And I also decorated the base with a bunch of inchies made from a cut out book page and toucan doodles. I can't wait to show it to Bobby when he gets home! He's been watching this little sculpture progress over the past couple days... Anyhoo, happy Wednesday, friends! Until next time.

Seafood Inchies Book

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

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

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

Inchies, Rinchies, Twinchies

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

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

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

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

Freaky Inchies

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!

SNR Featured Artist Spot: INCHIES!

 

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....

Hidden Post

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Hogwarts Sorting Dice :)

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!

Inchies... Teeny squares of yay

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 :)