I've been crafty

I've been a little crafty lately, in my quest to NOT have my kids glued to the TV during the holiday break we have been making things. I signed Autumn and I up for a few new swaps over at Swap-Bot so she would have something to look forward to after all her hard work (and because I love getting mail.

Here is my Paris ATC for THIS SWAP. I love making ATC's, as you know I am all about the instant gratification, and these little babies are such a small canvas to work with I can fill them up fast. LOVE IT. Plus the best part is TONS of artists make these and they are all different so you can get them traded all over the world and its always different.

This is my AMAZING dragon "Three Toes", it's watercolor, colored pencil and marker. I love him, he makes me so happy. I have not drawn or painted in so long it was so nice to just sit with the kids quietly and work on something.

I've started Zentangling too, I can't wait to finish some of them so I can show you how awesome they are. Mine are still a little wonky right now, and it's too dark to photograph them... I will try to get some good ones to share this week.

Trying something new...

I admit I am somewhat resistant to change, like a mountain. I don't mind change VERY SLOWLY, over years, or centuries perhaps... but this weekend I decided that among other things (wait for the Halloween Party post later this week, I have a lot of photos to sift through on that one), I tried a new craft! I have been wanting to try handcarving stamps for a long time. When I started my Flickr account a ways back, I started seeing a ton of super cute hand carved stamps and I wanted my own.

I went over to Staples about a month ago and picked up a bunch of these cheapo erasers to use for practice and started sketching ideas for fun and random stampage. I used tracing paper to sketch on and traced the general shape of the eraser to get a good size. The only thing I needed was something to carve them with. Well that proved a little harder to come by, no place around here sold anything resembling a carving tool. I asked around and finally was able to borrow this small tip carver from a local high school art room, yay!


The carving was SLOW and very tedious, and let me tell ya those carvers are SHARP! I think I carved more of my thumb than the eraser. After about an hour I ended up with this:

Not bad for my first try! Next time (and for all you crafters who want to try this) I think I would recommend:

- Wear a thimble, or tape my pointer finger and thumb up with that soft medical tape before I start to prevent too many painful nicks
- Get more than one carver, there are 3 sizes for a reason, those big spaces are hard to do with a teenie tiny carving head
- Carve over something that can be thrown away, the slivers are very small and really bouncy, not too easy to just sweep into the trash

This was a lot of fun, I can't wait to use my new stamp! and make a few more :)

More Fall Themed Craftiness

Getting ready to craft it up!
Checklist:
- Coffeeeeeeeeeee
- Fave table
- Sewing machine
- Pretty fall colored papers
- Clutter from last project...
CHECK!

After I punched A MILLION scapped circles (these are about 15 other stacks not pictured here, christmas papers, wintery papers, halloween for decorating my office and more...)


Most of the papers I used were all double sided, the one's that didn't have 2 sides I cut double of and adhered them back to back so no matter which side shows they will look pretty


Finally, after stitching all the circles together and adding ribbon to the ends to use for hangers I added some green sparkly letters to the tag shapes to read 'Happy Fall'. After taking these pictures I decided that the tags were too large for the letters and they looked a little naked. I took my fave Staples brand gel pens and glittered them up with some really fun swirl doodles to finish them up.
This weekend I've been making paper garland. This set was for a swap on swap-bot Fanciful Fun Fall Frippery, sadly no one has signed up :(. It was a group swap for the Crafting Queens group, I'm thinking of changing it up and hosting it publicly. It's such a risk to host public swaps I hate to do it unless they are electronic, but it seems like I may have to broaden my horizons for this swap. Anyone want a beautiful set of Happy Fall garland?
I had such a great time making these, they were quick, easy and I am a huge fan of instant gradification :) I whipped up 5 other sets in different styles, I'm thinking of dropping them into my Etsy shop, I haven't had anything on the 'shelf' over there in a LONG time. If I end up posting anything over there I will be sure to let you all know.

Anatomy of a Cupcake Topper

This week while preparing my Thankful Cupcake Topper Swap (for swap-bot) I finally got some process pictures. This tiny 3 foot circular table is the AWESOMEST thing I own. I have to off-topic here and tell you the story of the table. 31 years ago, my mother was attending college at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, VT. She was a poor college student living off campus with a roommate and her baby daughter (me). They had pretty much NOTHING in their place, but the bare essentials. Now my mom is very charismatic, and friendly. She makes friends with EVERYONE she meets, even janitors. So when LSC decided to re-do the student center the janitor thought about the young mother who had no kitchen table. He brought her this table form the student center. This table has been in my mother's house ever since. It has served many purposes, it has been loved by all three of her kids as play tables, it has melted crayons, sharpie, glue and gum on it. Thousands of snacks and crafts have been on this table. Now it is mine. I. LOVE. THIS. TABLE. Everyone in my family has offered to get me a 'proper table' and I have and will always refuse. I know you are thinking how the heck can you create in such a small space, and I wont lie it is sometimes very difficult, but I manage. Now on to the crafts...


Here's the messy part from top left: 1 finished topper, the sample; toothpicks, fave glue stick, regular tape, Moss Green cats eye ink, bling I didn't end up using, Fronts all stamped up waiting for pen accents, Gel Pen in pearl green from Staples.


Close up on the topper front and backs being sandwiched with the toothpicks. I love this paper! It's from Reminisce (from Michaels) I think (the package is missing I've had it a while). It's flocked and glittered and so yummy!

After I stamped and accented all the fronts I put pop dots on the back to adhere them to the prepared picks.

Close up of the fronts all stamped up with acrylic stamps (The leaf print is from Papertrey Ink, the sentiment was a random $1.00 stamp from the Michaels craft bin, great deal!) the card stock is the Kraft color from Papertrey Ink, this paper is such great quality. It's thick and easy to work with, the finish is smooth but holds ink well.

Here they are all done, getting ready to be packaged up in recycled brown paper (from another swap I received, I always recycle my swapping materials). Aren't they cute! They will look go scrumptious on top of pumpkin cupcakes with orange frosting and brown sprinkles, don't you think?!

And the closeup, all cute and fallish... I love how they turned out I hope my partner does too!

OK Enough about me...

I know that you are all sick of hearing about my Etsy shop and all my crafty projects.. So today we're going to talk about the coolest Etsy shop I found the other day. I know that in the past I have shared very little bout me personally, it's been hard to keep up with this blog along with everything else and I am so used to keeping up the store blog that I get stuck in the business mode. So here's a little factoid you may not know. I LOVE MONKEYS. I love love love sock monkeys. I have sock monkeys everywhere, I have keychain sock monkeys, I have paper designed with sock monkeys, I have many stuffed monkeys and I like to play with them, often.
Now as a 30 year old mom of 2 I can safely say that Sock Monkey Theater is one of our favorite things to do, even if my friends think it's odd to play with stuffed animals. I don't care, I. Love. Monkeys.
On to the shopping, I was randomly checking my twitter the other day and what do I see but a post from some random person I don't know and don't follow about ZOMBIE SOCK MONKEYS. OH MY GOSH, seriously? could it be? could my love of sock monkeys and my recent obsession with killing zombies on Call of Duty World at War (love Der Reise!) really have melded perfectly by some chance of fate?

YES

but, to my utter dismay there was only one, and it was sold to some lucky person who was not me. Knowing I had to ave that monkey or I may not be able to sleep for several nights I started messaging the seller on Etsy and I could not believe my luck when I got an almost instant response that there would be more zombies and she would let me know. 1 DAY LATER there they were, smiling back at me from my computer screen.

zsparkly's monkeys are absolutely the most beautiful handmade finds I have seen in a long time. She is soooo talented and sooooo fast! Here's a pic of the zombie monkey that is still in stock (last one if you want it HURRY), check out her shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=67193 and show the love!