So it's Not November...

In fact November is looong over, I complained about Pink Slime and then my blog fell into a black hole.  December came and went, now January's way more than half over. Anyone who knows me knows I HATE being cold and it is COLD in my office where the scanner is.  This is a pathetic excuse not to upload what I've been working on and share it on this blog.  I admit it. But everytime I go in there thinking well, I can stay in here half an hour, how bad can it...BRRRR, forget it!  I turn around and come right back out.

I have two new digital collage packs up in my Etsy shop.  A set of Valentine's Day designs and a set of designs for anyone who has ever tried to find a non-lame sort of design to use in a scrapbook for a tween or teen guy.

 

One of My Pet Peeves...

 

I hate when my kids come home with "Homemade Slime" in a bag. 

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Easter!

You'd think with this being such a mild Winter, I'd be all set for Easter, but no. Haven't dyed eggs, haven't decorated, haven't bought candy OR a ham. Why is it when you get older EVERYTHING sneaks up on you? The good news is that with this being such a mild Winter that we have an actual Spring Break this year which is almost unheard of. Not one single snow day! I hope that all of you have a lovely Easter!

New Collection

You know that feeling of I-don't-know-what-I-want-but-I'll-know-it-when-I-see-it? Ages ago, I created the above design "Star Wishes." I was thrilled with it and I knew there was potential for a whole collection with this design as the central piece. I figured it'd be easy to develop a collection around it as I loved the colors and design element of playful stars. Actually took me a whole year. I created designs but they wouldn't quite fit the overall feel. Finally, I found the "piece" that fit and The Star Wishes Collection is finished!

Oh yeah, Halloween...

I realized now that it's been a WEEK since Halloween passed and I hadn't posted the entire finished nailpolish costume.  Sorry folks!  Here it all is.  The tights really don't have much to do with nailpolish but they matched perfectly so on they went.  Sewing on vinyl was not so difficult.  I have a walking foot and I used a jeans needle rather than buy a leather/vinyl needle and it was just fine.

R went as the UPS man courtesy of an official shirt we found at Goodwill and C went as a well-dressed-demon only his mask's not on in this picture.  A Happy Halloween was had by all and I'm currently trying not to eat all my kids' candy on the sly.

So it's November 1...

The finished nailpolish costume.  It worked out pretty well!  It all came down to the hat I think.

I hope everybody had a Happy Halloween!

Nail Polish Costume Part II

Here we have the top and front view of the nail polish 'cap.'  I used the peel and stick gold mylar to make the letters, then a gold paint pen to write the smaller print.  Too hard to cut.

For the front of the hat I went to Revon's website and downloaded their logo, cut it out very carefully and glued it on. 

Next came the bottle part.  I went to the Little Bean Workshop's 20 minute jumper tutorial to figure out a pattern.  This one is super easy and easily adaptable to any fabric and any sort of strap you might want.  But I digress...

Next peeling and sticking the gold mylar letters for the front of the bottle.  The back has even more writing but I am NOT doing all of that.  It just says a bunch of stuff about flammability blah blah blah anyway.

Nail Polish Costume part I

UPDATE: Back from the fabric store and here is what I found:

Some bubblegum pink vinyl, peel and stick gold mylar (yeah, it has stars on it but who's really going to be that picky?) and black posterboard with which to make a nailpolish cap.  Oh, and I picked up a bottle of Revlon's Fuchsia Fever for reference at the drugstore next door.

 

It's that time of year!  Halloween costume time in which K has a great idea for a costume and I make it work (to quote Tim Gunn.)  This year, K wants to be a bottle of nail polish.  I'm going to JoAnne's today to scope out fabric.  I have a basic idea in mind.  Stay tuned!!

Paisley of the Week! Catch of the Day

Casting about for this week's paisley of the week I caught this super-fun, fancy fish t-shirt.  It's designed and handpainted on a sea of pink by Seema of Uncommon Flair.  Be sure to check out Uncommon Flair's whole line of hand done block printed clothing and eco-friendly glass pendants.

Water Marble Nails

Nails like Good -n- Plenty!

Want super fun nails that get you noticed?  Try a water marble manicure!   You know how when you try to artistically enhance your own nails the left hand looks good but then your right will look all shakey and messed up? With a water marble mani both hands will look awesome!  For a tutorial visit  My Simple Little Pleasures blog.  Colette, its' writer, has dozens of easy to understand tutorials on how to get this cool and unique swirly look.

Some things to keep in mind:

While this type of manicure is not difficult to do, it does take a while and it is messy so give yourself about an hour of uninterrupted time plus drying time. 

If you're doing your nails for a special occaision, I recommend that you do them a day beforehand.  Like I said, marbling can be messy; there's always some nailpolish on your fingers and it's easier to get it completely off of your hands when it's totally dry.  You can use nailpolish remover but it may mess up your marbling if you slip up so I found that it's just better to wait.

Pick colors that contrast with eachother.  If your colors are too close together (like pink, red, orange) the swirly effect doesn't show up quite as well.

Paint all of your nails with white (or another light color) first. It gives the other colors a backdrop like a little canvas for your 10 mini-masterpieces!

Paisley of the Week! Reusable Snack Bag.

This is an ingenous idea.  A reusable snack bag for your lunch box created by My Sunshine Designs.  You can save thousands of plastic baggies by using tupperware boxes but they are bulky and sometimes too big for just a handful of pretzels or grapes.  Not only is this an excellent solution, but in pink paisley it's fashion forward too!  Cotton on the outside and washable nylon on the inside.  Happy Snacking! 

Sodie-Pop

After fiddling around in Photoshop with my snip of a design, I can't decide between lined and unlined.  Which do you like better?

Wordless Wednesday

Finished it Thursday

Pink -n- Black -n- White always look tasty!

Honeysuckle!

How about that! 

Star Wishes

I'm working on a new collection to compliment this design that I created a while ago.  Looking at my designs, I notice that I tend toward blue and pink a LOT!  I'm imagining another children's theme with this one. 

Halloween and Geranium Fairy part II

Halloween was a big success.  How can you not be a success when people are giving you candy?  As you can see, the Geranium Fairy turned out lovely. I think her favorite part was getting to wear make-up. My 9 year old designed and created a TV set mask for himself using a box, duck tape, some mirra-lux paper that I had sitting around and some wire, my oldest went as a hobo.  I hope everybody had the happiest of Halloweens!

TV boy, Fairy & Hobo

Two-Fer Thursday

Wordless Thursday was a wash anyway because I had to go blabbing there at the end of my post. It's rare that I post twice in a day so what's the occaision? Well, I'm a bit of a yesterday's newshound but I just discovered that one of my dearest wishes came true (last month.) Blogger has added a feature that allows us to upload our OWN pictures and papers to use as backgrounds. YAY! I've only wanted them to do that since 4-Eva! So to celebrate I am sharing three new lovely background designs with you. Use them for your blog ('cause now you can!) MySpace, Twitter or Desktop. Designs will tile.
You may not reproduce or redistribute to sell my designs, personal use only, please!

 Enjoy these sweet flavors!  Top to bottom: Paisley's Candydish Black, Paisley's Candydish Orange, Paisley's Candydish Pink.

Paisley of the Week! Strawberry Swirl

This week's paisley is one of my own.  It is called Strawberry Swirl because it reminds me of sherbet or sorbet (one of those frozen 'bets' anyway.)  Last post was called Italian Ice, this one's a sorbet -- can you tell it's been HOT?  Anyway, this paisley is one of my traditionally drawn designs that has been mirror repeated.  I've been working on some new collections that revolve around hand drawn work.