I’m starting to see a trend here… I come on over to write a blog post, I pour out all my bad news and complaints, then I say “OH, and here’s the good news”. lol Okay, so let’s get to the good news. As I’ve said, I was invited to do another craft show at the Beardsley Zoo! I didn’t mean for that to slip out during my cranky tantrum. It IS good news. I am so excited! I haven’t officially agreed to it yet though. I’m not sure if I’ll even have enough products to do two shows in only about six weeks from now. It’s a two day show, but I can do only one of the days if I wanted; which is great. Before even getting this invite, I was already feeling overwhelmed with the crafting I have to catch up on, that I invited two of my friends to help me out. Marla will be joining me with her fun soda can jewelry, and Jen will be joining me with her beautiful hemp wrapped jars. The three of us have decided to get together every Friday to craft together for the show. I’ll try to remember to take some photos this Friday!

For the show, I have finished up a couple more zipper pouches made from wrappers. Although, I’m still having a perfectionist problem. I made one perfect pouch, and thought I had it down pat. Then I made another one, and it came out a bit skewed. Darn! I’m not sure what the difference was, or what went wrong. I’ll keep trying! Everyone is telling me they look just fine. Perhaps it’s just the perfectionist in me. I also started making some charm bracelets with charms made from plastic bottles. They look so great! I’m keeping the first one for myself! :0)  OH and I found a way to put a bit of color on my jelly fish!! Yay! (Still never finished that cereal box container! lol)

I’ll have some photos for you soon! But, here’s a sneak peek of the plastic charm bracelets I’m working on.

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Today, I had some time to update Rags-n-Tags. I’ve added quite a few more supplies to the supplies section, as well as some Easter goodies on my Originals and Made To Order pages. I’m in a Spring mood, I just can’t wait for the warm air to blow in, and the flowers to start blooming!

Complaining aside, I’m really excited about redoing my craft room. I took a trip to Ikea on Saturday, and it got my gears rolling again. I literally spent the entire day thinking about my room and trying to manage the space better while having it look more clean and organized. I was ready to do whatever it takes, and completely redo everything. But, at the end of the day, I finally realized that there really is no better way to do it than what I have already started. No other arrangement is going to give me more space; except for one minor adjustment to my desk. So, it won’t be a big change, but at least I don’t have to break my budget to make it look nicer! I bought an interesting shelf from Ikea to replace my peg board display, and I plan to rearrange my desks for more space. The biggest task will be clearing everything out that I don’t use. I still have scrapbooking and candle making supplies that I haven’t touched in over a year, plus a ton of other random things. Time to clear out! I need to have an inspiring craft room… not a storage room! But for today, its back to the daily grind. At least I have art league to look forward to tomorrow night!

PS. Do any of you have any tips for managing your work, or carving out free time for crafting?

BUT…. the theme is going to be PUNK! Oh my! I’ve never been much of a punk person, although I’ve listened to my share of the Clash, Rancid, the Ramones, and a few others… and some may even have seen me with jelly bracelets, 6g earrings, a tongue ring, and metal spikes on my backpack during high school years… but going into full punk mode and trying to create art that is inspired by punk may be a bit challenging to say the least.

I’ve known about this show for months now; and have been struggling to find inspiration. Could it be because I’m in mommy mode for 95% of my day? lol Last night at my art league workshop I decided to just jump right in with no real plan. I ended up making more of a mess than any real art… too bad I didn’t have someone take my photo! I was covered in paint (good thing I wore my apron!), and it took forever for my canvas to dry because of the tons of layers I kept applying to it! No way am I brave enough to post a photo of it now… perhaps when I start to see something become of it. Go ahead, call me “scardy pants”! ’cause I am! ;0) he he

But, I will share with you some photos of my sketch book. A few weeks back, I was trying to get into punk mode and play around with some ideas in my book. These were just some playful sketches to help me get in the mood…

Here I used a page from a phone book, watered down acrylic, and marker.

This one I had a real hard time photographing… the colors are a more deep red and black, with much more detail than you can see in the photo. I had fun playing with a technique I read about in a collage book; using petroleum jelly to resist the paint. It was so much fun!

I love these characters! I used watercolor and charcoal pencil.

Well, this will be a challenging project (on top of everything else)… have you ever tried to create something outside of your “comfort box”? Is it possible to succeed? lol

So anyway, instead of boring you with my tv stand choices, I decided to browse through my etsy favorites. I found that there was a theme going with a lot of the “fine art” favs I’ve been saving. Trees! I knew I had a thing for trees… I even went out and got a tatoo of one last summer! (I’ll save that photo for another day.) But I didn’t realize that I had a collection of tree art favs! lol Anywho, enough with the babbling, and more with the showing…

(click on the photo to visit their etsy shoppes)

This piece is by Amy Giacomelli. She has a whole assortment of beautiful tree paintings!

I love the style of Noosed Kitty’s people. They’re all just so fun to look at!

above by Constant Dreamer. I love her long legged creatures too!

We Flourish by Jessica Doyle
She does some really beautiful complex yet organic looking art.

by Fall Down Tree
He has a unique style of creatures!

by aral33 Photography
She has some really beautiful photographs!

by Earth Art. I just love the little birdies on a wire!

by corid
I love almost any collage; but these are quite unique. Her style is intriguing.

by Obsolete World
I have had this shop as an etsy fav for a while now. I just love the style of it. I am amazed that anyone can draw such detailed work straight from their imagination. I was surprised to see that it was actually a woman who does the art. For some reason, I assumed it was a man. Why is that?

After I gave up on the watercolor washes, I whipped out my journal and started doing some sketches. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on creating a new design for my blog which involves creating a cartoon of myself; so I needed to figure out a cartoon style that I liked. I came up with a couple cute ideas… now to decide on a direction and finalize one. The only problem is that I think the wider faces look cuter; but unfortunately I was born with a tall face! lol

Today I’d like to share with you some JeLlyFiSh photos. I’ve been in a jellyfish mood lately since I’ve started making some out of soda bottles (blogged here). I think they are beautiful creatures; just take a look…

(Each photo is linked to its original source)

 
This one is a free desktop background.

by vanveelen

by Sandra Leidholdt

by zambeze72

by pablobuenrico

by Fish.Eye

by MumbleyJoe

by vanveelen          ..I think this one is my fav!

This is a cute project to do with the kids! by dropstitch

by Robinson Artworks

by mike roelandt

by terradawn

 
This one is actually a free desktop by Meomi!

Ooooh Rainbow Jellies! ;0)

So cute!

just cuteness

I love this painting… wish I had the $$ for it!

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So anyway, she handed me a paper bag, all decorated with coloring and stickers of course! Inside was the best present an (my) 8 year old could give. I got a dragon tattoo (which I immediately put on my wrist!), a drawing, and some handmade magnets. I was so proud of her when I saw those magnets! She glued a button to one, a decorative eraser to another, and some pink ”do-dads” as we call them on another.  (Do-dads: n:Any small item that doesn’t have a purpose anymore and can be used for decorating, scrapbooking, or other crafts such as lost buttons, beads, jewels, sequins, string, small bits of pretty paper, etc.) Of course being 8 she has yet to have the chance to discover imaginative creations that are all over the net, and we have never done a magnet project ourselves… she had thought of this all on her own! Out of nowhere! Yes, she is my daughter. I’ve called her Mini-Me in the past; and I shall say it again… She is my Mini-Me! lol She has my looks, my personality, and my creativeness. :0) I love you Sweet Pea! <3

Ahhh I can rest easier now; at least with my blog. ;0) What I love most about it is that I can change the way it looks as often as I want, and all my info and everything stays the same. I’ve been searching and searching and searching (yet again) for more free templates. The ONE pain in the ass about WordPress… is having to search and sift through 100000000’s of free themes to find just the right one! lol But I THINK I finally got it!!!  Atahualpa. It’s a genious template that is so easy to customize I’m ready to faint of happiness! :0) 

Soooo… I’m excited to start working on my topper. I have such a cute idea, I hope it comes out good. It involves drawing a cartoon of myself. LOL  BUT, off to do my taxes first. BoooHoooo