Tree Art
February 5th, 2010
I almost regret already commiting to this Inspiration Friday thing. Hush now; sorry! lol I’m still learning the ropes of this blogging thing, and I’m still a bit confused as to what I’m doing here. Anyway, what I’ve really been searching for on the net lately is a tv bench. My hubby out of the blue decided to buy our first flat screen tv! WooHoo! But, that means spending more money to get another stand to put it on. The one we have now is a hutch with doors; and will definately not hold the larger flat screen. I found some really nice ones on the net. Crossing my fingers that we can splurge some more to get the one I really want! ;0) I’ll share some pics once we have it set up. I can’t wait!!!
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?
Back to Basics…
February 3rd, 2010
Last night at my Tuesday art league meeting we decided to take it back to basics and practice some watercolor washes. Boy is it harder than it looks! lol I have successfully finished two watercolor bird paintings in the past… {in which I suppose I avoided doing washes without even thinking}… because I just couldn’t get the hang of it! One and a half hours and ten sheets of paper later, I finally decided to call it quits. But, we all enjoyed ourselves experimenting, giggling, and complaining! I guess I need more practice… or perhaps I could blame it on the supplies. ;0)
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
Inspiration Photos Friday – Jellyfish
January 29th, 2010
In the spirit of trying to write more on my blog, I have decided to try out a themed weekly posting. I figured some inspiration photos once a week would be a good place to start. I already spend hours on end flipping through photos on the net, I mind as well share some of my favorites! And FYI… 1am saturday morning is still considered Friday to me! 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!
Happy Birthday to Me!
January 28th, 2010
The only reason I am voluntarily announcing that I am one year older is because I received the cutest gift from my 8 year old and I just had to share! ;0) I noticed her scurrying around the house yesterday collecting things and didn’t think anything of it. She was planning a surprise. A very creative surprise I might add. I love how she all of a sudden feels a responsibility and a love for giving; I think it started this past Christmas… she had to make gifts for all of her cousins and her grandparents! Which included some handmade ornaments that were left over from our craft fair, some toys she was willing to give away, and some reindeer food (oatmeal mixed with glitter).
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
WordPress Rocks!
January 27th, 2010
Okay, I just had to throw that out there! I LOVE WORDPRESS! lol I’ve been thinking of redesigning (or should Isay ‘designing’ since I’ve never really designed it yet!) my blog a lot lately. Upon my internet travels, I came across a video on how to upgrade your wordpress blog to the newest version. Being a scardy cat about updating any of my programs, I was of course running an outdated version so I decided to take a peek at the video. OMG I had no idea how easy it was… I should have done it long ago! lol All I had to do was click on ONE button in the admin area, and it did it all for me!!! Woohoo I love w! he he The best part is, I didn’t have to worry about my customizations (plugins), or anything I changed on the program, because its all stored separately. With any of the other programs I’ve used, any changes I’ve made were made directly to the files, so I might loose everything if I updated them. Sorry, I should have saved the link to the video so I could share it… but didn’t even bother saving it for myself, because it was so simple!
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
Sneak Peek!
January 25th, 2010
I’ve been busy trying out new techniques and different projects for the upcoming Earthstock fair in Plainville, CT. I’m getting excited, I had to share a sneak peek with you! Sorry for the horrible photos. (Hey, do you want the sneak peak now, or when its sunny enough to get good photos? lol)
This was my first project… a bead bowl. I had a huge bag of those plastic pony beads that have been sitting in the basement for years; so I made something new with them! I love how it came out. It definately looks better in person. (Man, do I need photo lessons or what?!) I want to try making some smaller ones too for candle holders or something. I’ll be taking some photos when I make my next one so I can show you how they’re made. :)
My next project was some zipper pouches made from food wrappers. I was really frustrated with sewing these up at first… but a friend on the PrimMart forum suggested I try putting powder on the plastic so it glides better in the machine; and it solved my problems!! Thank you! The strawberry one in the back is an unfinished one that I’m working on now. Isn’t it CUTE! he he
One project that has been sitting on my table unfinished for a few days is this woven cereal box container. I had no idea it would take so long to make! lol I may not do any more of these… well we’ll see how I feel when its finished! ;0)
This last one I’ve been really excited about. I have recently fell in LOVE with jelly fish; and I went crazy when I saw a few photos of some jelly fish made from plastic bottles. I had to give it a try! My first one (in the back) didn’t come out too well, but I tried again, and I think my second one came out pretty good. I just wish I could find light pink and blue bottles! lol I’ll have to do some searching and experimenting on doing a bit of color on them. The clear looks neat too though.
Other than working on projects for the fair, I’ve also been thinking about my blog and TwiddleLee website. I would like to have them both up and designed before the show. The way my blog looks now is just from a free template that I’ve found and edited. I still need to update it with my own graphics. So, you may (hopefully) see some changes to the way my blog looks soon. (Yeah, I know I’ve said that before! hush now!) I do have a sketchy idea now of what I want it to look like. (I was totally confused about it before.) I think its going to be very clean and simple; mostly white. I know I want to stick with my cloud/thought bubble idea I’ve been using on my plush tags. Some swirlies would be nice… okay, I’m just rambling now. (and realizing that I’m using way too many parentheses! lol)
~Twiddle Lee
Happy Belated Christmas & New Year!
January 14th, 2010
Well.. I’m finally settled into the new year after all the rush of the holidays (well, as much as I’ll ever be I guess!). I’m still a bit dazed and confused as to what my goals are this year and how to accomplish those I do have. As I’ve said time and time again, I would love – or rather I need more time to create. I feel as if I have so many hours in a day – and yet they’re all wasted away and I don’t know where they’ve gone. I suppose I just need to be patient… remember to enjoy the time with my little ones, and organize what little time I do have for myself. My time schedule is only going to get worse I know… as I hope to get pregnant again this summer. So, I have a lot of planning and organizing ahead of me this year. I suppose time for myself can wait another five years when all our kids are in school! lol
As for those new year goals… for one, I definitely need to start blogging more. Another goal is to get Twiddle Lee finally off the ground. I need to finish up the website, and start listing my goodies. I think the design of the site is what was holding me back from getting it finished. I never really had a clear idea as to what I wanted it to look like. So, for now I think I’ll just start with a basic clean design, get it up, then work from there.
My biggest focus this year is to find my path in what I want to create. I know I want to make something that mixes crafting with fine art – perhaps a type of mixed media art. I’ve been collecting and reading Sommerset and other mixed media magazines for inspiration. But no bright ideas just yet! I need to just get in there and start experimenting.
But first… I have a show to prepare for. I actually have two shows planned for this year – one of which is an art show in October; but I’ll talk more about that another time. My first show is ‘Earthstock‘ an Earth Day fair on April 25th in Plainville, CT. I plan to make a variety of recycled crafts for this show including bottlecap jewelry from used caps, my JuNk Pins, and new goodies such as wrapper zipper pouches, bead bowls, plastic bottle jewelry, and some others. April will be coming up quick, and I’ve barely started! I’ll be working on some zipper pouches later today. I’m very excited about those; and have been collecting ‘trash’ for quite a while… its starting to build up around me! lol I need to get a move on with these recycled crafts. Not only to prepare for the show – but also to prove to my husband that I am not a hoarder, I do plan on making something with that! He rolls his eyes every time I yell “NO! Don’t throw that away!” lol I’ll share with you some photos of my recycled goodies once I get a few to photograph – and perhaps a tutorial too.
..back to Christmas – I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! This year I decided to make a lot of my gifts. So, between making my gifts, shopping for the kids, baking, trimming the tree and all that other fun stuff; I was quite the busy bee since last time I wrote! Its a great time of year, but I’m glad its finally past us. I’m ready to start fresh again!
Here’s a photo of my family of Munchie Monsters. I made one for each of my nephews for their Christmas gift.
I created a new design for two of my nieces – a Sleepy Bunny made from fleece and scraps of fun cotton prints. They each came with a mini quilt and their favorite stuffed carrot for bed time. I thought they came out so cute! I will definitely be making a couple more of these – as I know my girls want one too! Plus I think these Bunnies will also become my first Twiddle Lee pattern!
For my youngest niece, I created a set of felt foods to go with her shopping cart she has at home. I purchased a pattern from julyhobby, but I only ended up using it for the yellow pepper and the carrot. The pattern was great, and easy to follow; but most of the items were created with hand stitched seams on the outside, which I am no good at! I prefer to use the machine any day! So, I created my own patterns for the rest of the items, with a little help from THIS tutorial. The patterns in that tutorial also did a lot of the hand stitching on the outside; so I had to create my own bread pattern too. But, I loved their idea for the lettuce!
The larger item is an eggplant if you couldn’t tell! Its actually more purple in person… my camera isn’t so great at capturing accurate colors sometimes. The apple was made using my primitive apple pattern (#51) that can be found on my Rags-n-Tags site HERE.
I really wanted to blog about these goodies after I had made them and photographed them! But, I didn’t want to spoil the surprise of these gifts for my family before Christmas! he he
OH, and I also did a watercolor painting of a winter scene and a cardinal for my parents. I was really happy with the way it turned out. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to photograph it before giving it away! I’ll have to steal it back for a couple days for a photo session. ;)
That’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with some photos of some fun recycled crafting!
~Twiddle
My first show as Twiddle-Lee!
November 24th, 2009
I have successfully finished my first show as Twiddle-Lee this past Saturday! It was so much fun; I can’t wait to do more shows! I’m already scouting out shows for next year. ;0) So anyway, I decided to make my first show a small easy one for practice – I picked out a nice church fair in Berlin. I was lucky to get the best table spot in the whole show – right near the kitchen and lounge area in the largest room. I did pretty good for such a small show. Everyone was attracted to my cupcakes; they all had to come over and see if they were real! lol My daughter joined me too.. she made some button jewelry, a few paintings, and ornaments. It was great to spend some time with her and do a team effort; we had a blast! Here’s some pics from the show:
Miss Penelope with her goodies! I love her button bracelets, I made her make one for me too! he he Visit her site at: www.SweetPeaArt.com
My new “Munchies”! Each pillow monster has a pocket mouth to hide toys, treasures, or to hold their babies!
Bottle Cap Necklaces & Magnets… yeah, I know… these are all over the place now; but remember I was one of the first who started them back in 2001! lol Penelope made the cool Americana pins and the starfish painting. :)
I’ve been really excited about these new goodies… JuNk PiNs!! Each pin is made from candy wrappers, junk mail, magazines, and other junk!
See the little snowman head peaking out in the corner? I only had eight of those… and sold out in the first hour of the show! It’s always the things you have the least of that sells the quickest! lol
All my new goodies will be available through my new website www.TwiddleLee.com shortly, so be sure to sign up for the mailing list on my site. I’ll be working hard within the next few weeks taking pics, writing descriptions, listing them on Etsy, and hopefully working on the final layout of the website. In between Christmas shopping & crafting of course! ;0) he he
Dreaming of a beautiful craft room…
November 5th, 2009
Somehow I got sucked into the internet a few nights ago looking through photos of beautiful craft rooms…. I mean SUCKED INTO! lol For like hours on end.
Sure… I know I’m lucky that I even have a room to call my own. But its so ugly, messy, and uninspiring in here! lol I do have a beautiful blue on the walls though… anywho; my goal is to save up some money and make this room beautiful. :0) It’s pretty functional already, just not so pleasing to the eye. Here are some photos of my room now:
The door on the left is the door I enter from – it connects to my husband’s recording studio. I have a little corner there to work with, but it does have a pole in the way! The door on the right is the door to our laundry room – and the beer fridge – so you can only imagine the traffic through this area during band practice nights! LOL
Then this is my hideous packing station and stock. My station is the perfect size… I just wish now that I kept the doors on! I hope to one day get a prettier cabinet to use. This will work for now I guess! ;0) The metal shelf I have hiding in the corner holds miscellaneous stuff… I’m working on finding cute bins to use so it looks more organized. The peg board shelf on the right is just an eye sore… sure its great for holding all the goodies I sell… but yuck! I hate seeing it when I come through the door. Plus, all the weight is pulling on the peg board significantly. I’m working on getting rid of this all together. Hopefully between my metal shelf and the small peg board in the previous photo I can store my goodies.
Over to the right is my computer station…. more yuck! lol I wish I had a white computer for starts. I definitely need to do some organizing of all the paperwork! (and get a prettier seat cushion! lol)
The desk extends to my crafting area. Lots of space to work with – if only I could keep it clean! I need a desk curtain to hide the stuff underneath. Haven’t found the perfect fabric or the time yet. ;0) To the right I have a skinny shelf holding most of my fabric. To the right of that is an opening in the wall that goes under the cellar stairs for storage – which needs a curtain also to hide!
So, I do have the space to work with – just not the organization or decorative skills! My first thought was to get pretty knobs… I found some cute pink ones online and just got them in the mail yesterday. Aren’t they cute!? Only one problem… I forgot to count the knobs on my drawers for the packing station! So those are still ugly. :(
Next on my list… to get rid of everything I don’t currently use. Then, to get some bins to fit on the smaller peg board in the corner so that I can move my stock there and get rid of the big ugly one. Once I get the money, I found a really neat shelf from IKEA that I would like to get. I can fit it in place of the large peg shelf if I move my computer desk to the other side of the room. Yayyyy I’m getting so excited, I can’t wait till everything is finished! I’m sure it will take some time though. :(
Here’s some photos I found on Flicker… So sorry, I forgot to save the links to them!
(Text above is from the photo) – I love the pink and green!
The above is my color inspiration photo… I love the pink, blue, and green on the bird, and the silver stars!
A nice organized shelf!
…and an even prettier shelf! :0)
Halloween Pic
November 2nd, 2009
Here’s a pic from Halloween! Unfortunately I didn’t get a good photo of my dress. :( My camera died! lol
Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! We had a blast. My little Josephine was so cute, it was her first real time ‘trick or treating’. She loved it! She was taking her sweet ole’ time too (slow as a turtle! he he), her sister and cousins were too impatient to wait up for her – so we enjoyed ourselves together sniffing flowers and poking at pumpkins along the way! lol
