blog blog blog

I have no excuses, im just really rubbish at keeping a blog ! i go through blog phases and i can feel one coming on. i have been working on a short story so my literary juices are flowing. Custom Ink is coming along just fine. i have started selling belts now too as a lot of people told me they wanted the cassette tape buckle but didn't have a snap belt to wear it on. I need to step up the mark a bit with promotion as sales are not coming as fast as i would like. Im off to brainstorm some ideas :)

vintage treasures

I was out at the weekend and managed to find myself a couple of vintage treasures from the car boot sale and charity shops ! Firstly I picked up this boxed "Kerplunk" game from maybe the 50s or 60s. Such a good find, i was so pleased i really love the illustration on the box, neato.





I also i got this excellent red vintage tie with little ships on it !


I was planning on keeping it for myself but i might just start a bit of a vintage section in my shop, what do you think ?

ship shirt !

As i mentioned before i got all the stuff i need to get busy with some screen printing. i have drawn up a pretty neat design and i am planning on getting it onto a screen this weekend. i sort of based the design on some traditional tattoos as im loving that whole style just now. I'm going to leave the text on the banner blank so people can customize their shirt to say what they want it to! im also going to print the swallow separately onto blue or red fabric and sew it on to give the shirt a few extra cool points !


im going to place the design so the boat is kind of where your heart is (except on the right hand side) and the swallow is on the collar bone type area. can't wait to see the finished thing !!

fruits of my labour !

A few days ago i featured some lovely folks from etsy who make felt foods and so forth. Well umecrafts was kind enough to send me the pattern for the plate of fruit i featured ! I was so excited i headed straight to the felt shop and got myself some supplies. Now apart from a few attempts at fashion creations and the odd phone cover iv not really sewn much but i was up for the challenge. I ended up getting really into it and i have now completed everything except the orange ! (im working on it but i thought id just post these guys up now).


What do you think ? It was a lot of fun and i'd recommend you try it !

I over estimated my felt supplies and now i have a tonne of felt left...so im thinking i might just try and create my own little monster...im inspired by some of these great creations:

Such a great design, from Ultrapunch i really love his little teeth :)
I also love this Monsicle by hungrylikewolf great idea :)

and this is Clarice and Clement, the one on the right looks a bit scared but they are monsters in love so would make a great gift for your significant other ! i found them in monda's shop

And last but not least, this one is a fantastic colour and i really love her facial expression, you can get hold of her at My Little Ooga Booga.

im thinking im being a bit ambitious here but i might just start drawing out some ideas and see where it goes from there !

The missing link

Hello blog fans ! Well as promised this entry is less egocentric (i have loads of blogs about my new items and plans on the way ;)). But for right now i thought id share some of my favorite sites with you. I'm sure some of you will know about a lot of these but maybe just one will stand out and give you something to do for the next few minutes :)

Ok this first one is a given, but i still think postsecret is worth a mention, new secrets are uploaded every sunday, and for those of you who are still in the dark ... PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously. It gives for some really interesting/ emotional reading and the designs of most of the postcards are magnificent. Well worth a look

The next site i am going to recommend is woostercollective if you like street art and graffiti then this is an ace site for you. They post fairly regularly with some of the worlds best street art. I absolutely love graffiti and tend to notice it on the streets more than others. I used to make my own stencils and spraying them on an old trash can is one of the best things iv ever done ! might get some more on the go soon :)

Numer 3 Instructables how toos for just about anything in the whole wide world.

still with me ? if you haven't disappeared off to look through a years worth of graffiti posts then my next recommendation is gumtree depending on where you live this site can be a real source of information, from freecycle, where people give away free things to save from throwing them out, to the community pages, which tell you everything from local car boot sales to upcoming events in your area, this site is great ! I also currently check it every day to see if i can get myself a job !


Ok and now for something completely different ! well maybe not, but im hoping you won't have heard of this one. Itsnicethat is an excellent site which posts up to 10 new arty links a day. Most of there posts are about up and coming artists so this is a great opportunity to hear about newbies first.

and last but not least zaxart Zak Smith uploads one picture from his sketchbook everyday, his life drawings are great so really worth having a peek at :)

I'll leave you with those for now, im planning on posting some pictures of my new ideas soon so keep your eyes peeled !

made in the shade

As i mentioned before feel fuzzy and i attended made in the shade in the lighthouse in glasgow a wee while back. This was our second craft fair, the first one being at morningside with edinburgh craft fair (as mentioned below). It went really well and the place was super busy all day. Here are some pictures of the day, most of my things are on the right are feel fuzzys is on the left. Thats her in the first pic :)










My brand spankin new ZX Spectrum rings sold best, folk were loving them so i have put one up on my etsy site. Its had a bit of interest and one heart but i think things sell differently online and in real life...

My canvases don't get much interest at all in real life but online they are doing really well. Suppose its just a completely different audience. Well thats enough about me. I have decided since there is so much amazing creative stuff on etsy I will feature some things i am loving from there when i can...so don't worry this blog wont be so egocentric !!

bannertastic

Yesterday i was just going for a bit of a charity shop hunt for neon tapes to make into belt buckles... as you do, and spotted that edinburgh craft fairs were using my icon on their banners ! I did a joint craft fair with feel fuzzy in morningside with edinburgh craft fairs about a month ago so they had a few of my images from then. I was so shocked and it totally made my day, i think they will be using those banners in Glasgow too so hopefully spread the word a bit ! I'l do a bit of a craft fair post at some point with pictures from my stalls.