New Designs

I've been working for a few weeks on a number of different bottle designs. I have finally finished two of them, though five more are still in progress. Yesterday I finally listed a set that I had finished. Thus, I present to you my newest designs for my Fairy Dust bottle set:

One of my viewers on SheezyArt noted to me that the first set I made didn't match up all that well. The forest and fire fairy bottles looked good together, but the other three didn't seem to fit. I agreed with her, and in fact it nagged at me so that I went ahead and redesigned the labels for all of them except the fire fairy dust bottle. I think they look much better now.

I listed each of the bottles singly and also as a set for a discounted price. You can buy the entire set of Fairy Dust Bottles for one price, essentially getting one bottle free! I also still have listed the older dust bottle designs, in case you liked those more.

I will be listing another new bottle either later today or tomorrow as well. I'll talk about that bottle in my next blog entry--I'm quite excited about it. It took a LOT of work to get this one done.

I also have some Artist Trading Cards in progress as well. One is completely finished, another is 98% finished, and all the others are in various stages of beginning and completion. However, I realized I haven't posted any of the previous ATCs I do have finished, so here are a couple:

These two kitty-loaf ATCs are done in primarily felt. Their mouths are hand-stitched. Both are available for trade if you're interested.




My feature today is Galaxy Glass Studios. Glass is a weakness of mine; I love the look of it. The vibrancy of the colors as the sun passes through them. How some glass can be translucent, and yet you can't see anything through it. I love it.

Galaxy Glass Studios really tempts me. Jerry and Laura (store owners and glass artists) create beautiful and unique pieces of jewelry out of glass. I was particularly drawn to a pair of green earrings. The two-tone color caught my eye, it helps that green is my favorite color, and the center is all sparkly. The way they are twisted makes them look so delicate and beautiful.

Jerry and Laura's store is also filled with other types of earrings and gorgeous pendants made of dichroic glass. You won't be dissapointed when you "step into" this store.

Progress

As you probably noticed, I have taken the time to redesign my blog a bit. I liked the basic layout, but it needed to be more ME. I extended the content section. This may make some users have to scroll a little to see everything (not very much--I didn't extend it THAT far), but this allows for more room so that my pictures aren't constantly being cut-off. I also made the theme more green and put up a nice background picture with one of the symbols I use around my store.

Please let me know what you think.

Craftiness
I have received all of the Fabric ATCs from the swap I was involved in, so I figured this would be a good time to show off the ones that I made for my partners. Though the swap only required me to send one to each partner, I got a little over-zealous and made a set of 3 ATCs for each partner.

"Water Dragon"















"Kimono Koi"













"Castle of Dreams"













Participating in this swap was a great experience, and on top of that it got me hooked on making these little ATCs. I already have a new set in progress for no apparent reason.

I've also been working on some new bottles. One has been in progress for a good month now, and another is nearly finished; I just need to do the wire-wrapping and 'bead' dangle I have planned for it. I'll give you one hint as to what its theme is: SeaWeed.




Today's feature is an interesting store on Etsy called Flush, please. Such a neat and funny idea, the store owners create decals for your toilet bowl! Imagine your guest's surprise when they walk into your bathroom to see that you are "steeping" some tea in your toilet bowl. Or perhaps you should add a sign to the bathroom door to "Beware" of your pet tentacle monster you keep in the toilet bowl.

These decals are even removable! So when you're tired of the old design and want to get rid of it, or update it to a new design, you can easily take it off and apply a new one!

The designs offered are simplistic but well done. You can also customize the color of your design. Perhaps you want your tentacle monster to be related to the devil, so RED tentacles would fit better. Not a problem!

These items are so unique and interesting, go take a look and perhaps spice up your dull bathroom a bit with these great toilet-bowl decals.

Artist Trading Cards and techniques

So, I'm a member of craftster.org, and I've recently been introduced to Artist Trading Cards, or ATCs for short. I also joined a swap for fabric ATCs. Therefore, I've been doing a lot of research on different methods and techniques for making these, and trying some of it out.

One of the first interesting things I learned, was packing tape image transfers. You can take a picture, photo copy it (this only works with printers that use toner: such as a laserjet printer, or a copier machine), then put packing tape over the image. Smooth out the tape real well, then let the paper soak in water for about five minutes. Once it's done soaking, rub the paper off of the tape (I did mine under running water), and voila! You image is now on the tape!

I was pretty skeptical at first, but I tried it out, and what do you know? It worked perfectly! Take a look:


I also did some practice for the fabric ATCs I'm going to be swapping at the end of the month. I've never really used a zig-zag stitch for design or to around the edge of something to mimic a serge, so I wanted to try it out.

I ended up taking apart my sleeping mask, and decorating/experimenting with it. I used some pretty shiny material with a butterfly design on it, and cut out flowers from another material. Then I sewed around the flowers with a gold thread (horrible to work with!), using that zig-zag stitch. Took me a little bit to figure out the stitch length and distance, but I think it worked out pretty well. I also hand-added some little seed beads on the flowers to match. I cut out a piece of spare fleece I had and pined to the back, and sewed it all together using that zig-zag stitch around the edges. The original sleep mask is sandwiched in between the layers, and I also added new elastic straps. I really like the way it turned out.


Featured

Today's feature, is LeastLikely2Breed. I found this store a while back on Etsy, and immediately added it to my favorite sellers. What makes Leigh's products so unique is her labels, descriptions, and naming. For instance, 'Roid Rage' is one of my personal favorites. Here is an exert from her description:

"Oh come on, when you push out 7lbs plus of baby you're gonna get some hemmies. Instead of sheepishly trying to hide your remedy behind other, more socially acceptable toiletries in the bathroom cabinet, why not display your tin of Roid Rage prominently and within easy reach? It smartly says to all your spying guests, 'I have hemorrhoids -- so what.'"

Her shop is filled with all manner of these same types of products, from "Keep Calm and Carry On" lip balm to "Bad Ass Booty Balm" for diaper rash. Buy them because they're good products with natural ingredients, or for a novelty gift for friends. Either way, I'm sure you'll be pleased with her professional-looking labeling and the product itself.