More Light Bulb Moments

I’ve lost count of the Light Bulb moments related to Harry Potter.  I can’t even remember what Light Bulb moment #9 was in my previous post anymore. I’m not complaining but I feel like I’m losing focus yet again. My craft show display is messy and confusing enough to begin with but all these new projects make my table look even more chaotic. I can’t even ask my kids to pack away their mess without feeling like a hypocrite. The plan this year was to concentrate on making dolls that are more artsy and goth and steampunk and with armatures, but, light bulbs.

Oh well, chaos is an inevitable part of my brand.  I try to organize, make “business plans”, make lists, but I keep getting distracted by new ideas that I simply must execute. I do try to organize my work area. Then I get frustrated because I can’t find the things I need anymore. It’s odd that I can find almost anything I need despite my clutter while my more organized husband keeps losing his car keys and forgetting his glasses.

I’m not even sure if it’s a good thing that I keep changing my products. But just the thought of making the same things over and over and over makes me a little sad. So yeah, chaos.  Just embrace it, I guess.

I have my own labels for my containers and “concoctions” now. I can’t help it. I went a little extra again!

You think I would just print a label and slap it on a random container and claim it as an HP-inspired product?

Of course not.  I hand-stamped and distressed the labels to pull off the mood I was aiming for — dark-whimsical and creepy… and a little hazardous-looking. I could probably do that in Powerpoint (I don’t know how to use Photoshop until now) but where’s the fun in that? And again, I did some research on the mixtures and even the wording on vintage apothecary bottles to achieve a little bit of authenticity.

 

I’m putting finishing touches for that magical look here while re-watching all the seasons of Closer. 

 

Do they look like they belong in a store in Diagon Alley?

If only I have space to keep them all.

You think I’d stop there, but no. I thought I would stop there, but no.

I made “potions” in vials complete with an entry in my art journal. The previous page, the uglier version (not seen. Top secret! Also because ugly), contains my, ehrm, real methods and secret recipes. I used the same contents but I had to make a list of paints I used for each potion because if I didn’t, I’d go random and inconsistent again.

This page in the picture is full of stuff I copied from Wikia for prettification purposes. I don’t think calligraphy is for me (tried it for about five minutes and gave up) but I found a way to take advantage of my uneven penmanship and pass it off as whimsical style. I am really getting the hang of this art journaling thingie. It’s making me discover things about me. And I love that I get to follow some sort of a theme so I don’t go all random rogue again.

The vials are to be used as bag charms. I’d rather they’d be displays but I also want to make something functional. They might be a bit heavy as key fobs. Here they are, all “freshly brewed” and bubbly, straight from the cauldrons, tee-hee.

They look mysterious and toxic in the pictures, but in person, it’s probably quite obvious what I used (wiiiink).

Here they are, all distressed in a magical, shimmery way. I used mostly Art Alchemy paints by Prima Marketing, acrylics from Reeves, and Liquid Pearls by Ranger.

The stoppers are glued to the vials and so far, the “mixtures” haven’t seeped through the wood. But if someone decides to reverse engineer the seal breaks (hopefully this won’t happen), the “mixtures” won’t leave a stain on fabric. They’re not for consumption, obviously, but my guinea pigs kids and I have physically handled the actual contents several times. They’re safe. My kids are still alive… and haven’t transformed into anything. I’m a little more concerned with the durability of the vials.

Fortunately, it looks like they are holding up pretty well. And just in time for my upcoming craft fair next weekend, too.  I’ve been testing some of my finished products. I attached one to my bag and I asked my kids to play with the others for a bit.  I even stepped on the vial a while ago, when I shoved my bag under a restaurant table and then forgot it was there. That’s how careless I am. Even at home, my bag is just lying about on the floor. With my carelessness and my kids’ fondness for rough playing, we’re the perfect durability testers.

Well, how about that? It lights up, too! LOL of course not. That’s just some lighting trick I did. This one reminds me of the Sankara Stone from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

I wanted to not reference HP too much but it’s unavoidable. I hate to admit it although it’s pretty obvious — like everyone else, I am leveraging on the popularity of the franchise to earn some moolah, of course. (If you’ve read my previous posts, you’d know that I, most of the time, convince myself that I don’t care all that much for moolah. But I have my greedy moments, too.  [justify greedy moments here–>] Moolah means I get to buy more arts and crafts supplies… and sometimes food for the kids… whenever I remember that I have kids. I’m kidding.)

I mean, would you choose to purchase a “Creative Chaos Converting Concoction” over Poly Juice Potion?

Just keeping it real.

Harry Potter, Finally… and Lightbulb Moments

(Now jumping on the bandwagon)

Harry Potter and his friends had never made it to my list of dolls-to-do ever since I learned amigurumi. Like bajillions of others, I love the Harry Potter books and films, and  bajillions of others loving HP means that bajillions of others are already making and selling HP-inspired fan art and merch (this makes me wonder about copyright and trademark laws in general. I’ve read threads about artisans asking about those and being advised against using pop culture in their works yet they continue to do so. I assume that there are just too many businesses based on fan art and most are small anyway, that’s why they continue to operate under the radar.  I guess that cease and desist order can be dodged as long as someone doesn’t make too much money and draw too much attention to themselves). Anyway, I didn’t want to make something that almost everyone else is making. I also kind of  “shelved” my fandomness for HP and it stayed there for years so my efforts would have been half-hearted if I did make HP stuff.

So, here’s what happened. About a couple of weeks ago,  I was halfway through crocheting a brown poop inspired by my sons’ love for anything poop and it occurred to me: the upper swirl without stuffing — it looked familiar…

SH*T, it’s the Sorting Hat! (see what I did there? wink.)

And that’s how I got sucked back into the HP universe — via poop. I made one Sorting Hat in freehand and stuffed it. I played around with it, placed it on a shelf, softly sculpted it, (did my best hat voice, too — “Gryffindor!!!”), placed it on top of a book and the book looked good in a hat and I’ve always wanted to make bookmarks, only with legs and shoes, but this one seemed like a better idea, so I added yarn chains that could be squeezed into books without ruining the pages, and Lumos! LIGHTBULB MOMENT #1: a bookmark!

I did away with the filling for the rest of the hats I made because it added bulk and weight. That’s when LIGHTBULB MOMENTt #2 happened: it’s not just a bookmark. It’s a finger puppet and a hat for a little doll! And it would sit really well on bookshelves. Finally, something I can make in large quantities without feeling uncomfortable and bored (I don’t like making the same doll over and over). It’s multi-functional, too.  But it is a little frustrating. And a little more difficult than the stuffed toys I make. I can’t get the stitch counts right especially in the hollow eye and I’ve  been re-re-re-re-writing the “pattern” since, almost every time I start another hat. But it looks like I’m powered by magic because they all turned out looking unmistakably like the Sorting Hat, thanks to him being all slouchy and imperfect. I get different stitch counts until now. That’s how bad I am in Math.

I’ve given back some life to my poor Etsy shop a couple of days ago by listing 10 hats with a limited offer of free pencil wands for local residents and now I’m down to one! I was a little surprised but very delighted and inspired by people’s positive reactions, hence the lightbulb moments. More positive reactions this way please, folks!

I thought about writing a pattern in the proper format complete with a diagram (to also help me finally correct the counts) in a Daler-Rowney notebook I got a few months ago and never used because I was scared to ruin the pages. But, oh what a waste of good pages if there’d be just, ugh-yuck, numbers. So I allowed myself to get sidetracked using the Derwent Inktense which I also bought months ago but barely used because they were too pretty.  There was one whole day some weeks ago that I just drew non-stop from morning to almost the next morning which caused my left knuckles to redden and swell.

But, swell! Now I have LIGHTBULB MOMENT #3: an art journal that contains real patterns and and fake patterns and doll profiles and lightbulb moments. It’s probably confusing for others. Here’s the hat that should have been a real pattern. It is based on a sketch by Jerome K. Moore. I still don’t know how to write the pattern in the proper format but, yey, I have overcome my fear of drawing. I know I do ugly drawings but still, they’re drawings.

I needed props for my hat photoshoot just because. Most experts advise against it, but I like a busy picture. So I made wands using chopsticks, hot glue and acrylic paints. Thank you, Pinterest and Instructables. They turned out better than I expected and I enjoyed doing them and I have to make more of them just because. But who would want a single chopstick? Even as a pair, the paints have rendered them useless. So I thought hey,  LIGHTBULB MOMENT #4: pencils, because why not. (I think I may have underestimated the fandom that is HP.  There were people who were ready to buy those chopsticks. I even tested some long bamboo skewers but their “skewer-y” look was still obvious despite layers of glue and paints. There just wasn’t a lightbulb moment there… but they could be used for, who knows, future craft party activities.)

Another functional creation. But they didn’t feel special enough. They were missing the “core substance” that most of my creations have: THE PERSONAL TOUCH.

So I thought I’d incorporate something a little playful for the wand owners. LIGHTBULB MOMENT #5: I made a pretend thingie/ wand generator  which they can check out on this site. The thought of a lot of people coming to this site makes me uneasy but I don’t know where else to put the file. I thought about including it in the pencil tags but it would be a waste of paper, and even at .5 font size, it would still be too long!  I would have wanted it to be restricted for wand owners because it’s really just for them, but I don’t know how to do that without having to approve each wand owner manually. I thought about emailing the file to the wand owners but that would be too tedious. So anyone who can google really well or just look at the pencil tag would be able to come across the file.

I will most likely end up selling these. For most of us poor artists and clients, this is the closest we could get to owning HP wands. Once I’ve earned enough from selling fake wands, maybe then I can afford to go to the theme park to buy a studio-approved fake wand for myself. This led me to the next thought: how do I display them at craft shows? In a mason jar because it was the first thing I saw on my shelf as I pondered and looked around. But the “rustic look” was all wrong. I wanted dark, magical mood  – and that led to LIGHTBULB MOMENT #6: a Harry Potter-inspired jar. The moment for the chalkboard paint has finally come. I’ve had it for months but never used it because I didn’t want to waste it. Then I got the free printable labels from Pinterest, where else? And here you go.

Wow, I’m on a roll! The jar looked so good and Halloween-ready (why is Halloween taking so long) and I was starting to hear voices, “make more, more, more…volde…”

LIGHTBULB MOMENT #7: Nothing was spared: empty (non-toxic, I assume :D) medicine vials that I saved, plastic bottles, tea canister, an Arctic Fox bottle that still contains dye, and even a bottle of matte medium that still contains matte medium turned into jars and bottles of pretend magical mixtures.  Look at that — straight from the Professor’s cabinet. That brown thing is my dad’s toy dressing table from when he was a kid so that’s authentic vintage. It’s black now.

Nice props, eh? I made this sketch below while I was researching about wands. I’m serious. What, you think I just make and make and make like a mindless machine? That’s why it takes me so long to create. I like to google educate myself and do a lot of research about things before putting them together.

And because the canister turned out to be even better than I expected —- LIGHTBULB MOMENT #8. I couldn’t bear to throw away these pretty tea canisters I’ve collected over the years. They come with lids, too.  I had to remove the pretty vintage-style labels though and boy, that was a lot of boring, uncreative hard work! The labels had sticky, gooey glue and I used baking soda mixed with a body oil (any oil will do, according to googled instructions) and did a lot of rubbing and cleaning last night to remove the grime and glue.

I plan to make my own labels. I’d be working on LIGHTBULB MOMENT #9 (it’s a secret!) if I weren’t so tired from writing this post. My ideas keep on leading me to more ideas and I have so many things I want to do, which is a good thing. I’m not complaining. Last month, days after being “high” from binge-making dolls that were meaningful and more goth for Art in the Park (I didn’t sell any which was ok because I didn’t really want to let some of them go.) and Humpty Dumpty dolls for Easter, I think I may have “crashed” a little and I found myself in a period of non-ideas again. I hate it when that happens but I try not to give in to melancholy. So I just continued to make mostly poops half-heartedly. I mean, come on, poops. Anyway, a table of poops never fail to amuse my kids so I made plenty, until it led me to HP. And now here I am.

If only I have more time. If only I don’t need sleep. If only my toes could also work on something while my fingers are busy. If only I have the power to produce copies of me to work on several projects at the same time, like Doctor Manhattan. I wouldn’t even mind being blue like him.

Harley Quinn: My First Mixed Media Art Doll

The Suicide Squad: All that megahype for nothing.

I used to watch the Adam West versions and the Batman cartoon series and the 90s films although I didn’t really like Bruce Wayne because he was such a bore.  His universe was only worth looking into because Gotham has the most memorable and craziest villains. Michelle Pfeiffer as CatWoman and the soundtrack were the only awesome things about the films. But like most everyone, I was truly looking forward to Suicide Squad.

Harley Quinn was my least favorite villain because I didn’t like her sappy obsession with the Joker but Margot Robbie’s portrayal in the PREVIEW (minus the skimpy shorts, which only the guys get) seemed so awesome.  The look, the attitude — she was just waiting to be made into one of my dolls!

And so I did, last July 2016. And I fell in love with her! And I didn’t want to let her go. She was mine!

And then I watched the film. And I felt so duped. And I blamed the doll. And I couldn’t wait to ‘get rid of her’. And so I let her go and be ‘adopted’.

But now, I miss her. Even though I hated the film, I still think of how much fun I had staying up for several late nights, reading about her character, looking at pictures, researching, making ugly mistakes, redoing, retouching, experimenting and trying to come up with the final design that captured the character’s crazy personality. It felt like I had a very personal relationship with my Harley Quinn doll. I thought it was a little weird, but I recently read somewhere that MAKERS BUILD INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH PIECE THEY MAKE WHICH MAKE THEIR CREATIONS EVEN MORE SPECIAL.

I still receive messages from Harley Quinn fans who found me in Pinterest wanting to purchase the pattern. Not that I don’t want to share but unfortunately, I made her in freehand. There was no pattern because I didn’t write it down. When I’m “in the zone” of crocheting and creating, I don’t like stopping. Somehow, I feel as if writing down patterns  interfere my “zen-crocheting” state. I must learn how to incorporate it into my process somehow and soon.

I do tell those who are interested to feel free to take inspiration from my designs (by eyeballing. If I can do it, you can, too).  And to those who are still interested, here are the only pictures of how I made her.  I find taking pictures of works in progress bothersome sometimes, too, but I force myself to document. Maybe someone could get some ideas from these. I don’t really care about copycatas and all that stuff (at least not yet), but a little bit of acknowledgement would be nice 🙂 Maybe once I get the hang of writing down patterns in the proper format, I might even make one for this doll in the future!

The pictures are of poor quality because most are taken during late nights… and because I’m such a bad photographer.

Making her shoes took me hours. I almost gave up and thought about giving her plain black boots. Good thing I didn’t.

1. Turning Harley Quinn’s shoes into a more “practical looking” pair.

2. Bowling pin body and arm

Here, she is starting to look more and more like Harley.

3. Bald Harley Quinn

I made a white skullcap for her so her skin tone scalp wouldn’t show. I hate visible scalps on my dolls.

4. Working on her collar

I think most dollmakers would have dipped the ends of the white yarn to make ombre pink and blue hair but I was scared to do it. So I added thin colored yarns in the middle of her ponytails. One dollmaker whom I chatted with in Instagram said that she dyed her Harley Quinn’s strands one by one!

5. Turning more into Squad Harley

Harley wouldn’t be Harley without her crazy eyes. She looked so tame with just the button eyes. So I researched and most amigurumi artists used either acrylic paint or real makeup for the blush. A real blush on would fade, but would probably fade nicely. If I used real eyeshadow, (which I did on some of my more recent dolls, so now I can’t sell them because the makeup might run if it gets wet) that might pose a problem when cleaning the doll. So I used acrylic paints. This was a scary process because I didn’t know how she would look like. If I make a mistake with stitches, I can always undo. That’s the pretty thing about crocheting. But here, the doll was almost finished, and if I botched it, do I undo her head and start over? Yaiks.

6. Making her look even crazier with acrylic paint makeup

This is how special she was. I even made a mallet for her using a real mallet! I used stamps, markers, acrylic paint, and embossing powder to distress her weapon. The embossing powder was a happy mistake. It just bubbled directly on wood and didn’t turn into a shiny bronzy finish, but the final gritty result went well with the look.  Maybe I can make another for myself.

7. Working on her mixed media mallet

I stamped and drew on sticker paper, adhered to wood, brushed on matte medium, and distress inked the edges.

8. Harley Quinn’s mallet

Here’s my girl. Her beauty mark is a heart-shaped puffy sticker.

9. Here she is: Harley Quinn doll

Nobody messes with my girl!

10. Harley Quinn posing

Her choker is a part of one of my old bracelets.

11. A Closer look at Harley Quinn

I got so into Squad Harley that I even made a Classic Harley Quinn! This was at one of the craft fairs I joined last year. I like to get busy while selling so I don’t have to talk to customers.

12. I even made her a friend. Harley Quinn for Harley Quinn

Classic Harley! Take note, this was all before I watched the movie. Had I done so first, these two Harleys would never happen.

13. Classic Harley Quinn

15. A Closer look at Classic Harley Quinn

Here they are fighting over The Joker and who’s prettier.

16. Harley Quinn vs Harley Quinn

But both of them are gone now. Squad Harley was adopted by a male high school history teacher who was also a doll and toy collector. Classic Harley was adopted by a very appreciative and loyal customer.

At least I have pictures to remember them by.  See! I was so excited for the movie and in love with HQ that I even made even more of an effort to draw!

I was barely breathing while I slashed her out of her paper frame.

Papercut Harley Quinn

Le sigh. Goodbye, my Harley doll.

I take comfort in the thought that the movie sucked.

The Art of Collage Exercise 1: Spontaneous Collage

The universe really does conspire to help one achieve what one’s heart desires. I’ve been waiting for short courses on arts for a long time and I’m so happy I found out about the Art of Collage Classes that artist Toots Magsino has been teaching for a long time. Her class was mentioned in one of the blogs that I follow so I searched for her information online and contacted her immediately. I was not able to join the first cycle she offered earlier this year but I am now currently taking the second cycle which started the last Saturday of May. As of this writing, I have just finished Exercise 6. Tomorrow, we do image transfers.

This is the only class that I have ever taken most seriously in my whole life. I definitely expected to have fun and I did but I didn’t expect it to be self-examining, contemplative, and even therapeutic. Normally, I am bad at conversations and I rarely share my thoughts, but in her class, oddly, I am not afraid to talk. I share just bits and pieces but still, they’re more than I share with anyone else.  Most of the time though, as is usually the case, I prefer to just listen to the funny conversations.

During the first class, she asked us to do a spontaneous collage, to just tear off pages from the magazines we brought and put images we liked together.

Ah, yaiks. I pulled and tore and ripped and pulled and tore and ripped. I then arranged the images in the least jumbled way I possibly could, which isn’t really saying much.

One of my concerns was how I will be able to fill all that surface. It was my first time to work on a canvas that huge — a 1/8 size illustration board. Huge! That’s coming from someone who is used to working on dominoes, jenga blocks, and bottle caps.

I came up with something that didn’t really make sense to me at first and didn’t like all that much.

When I found out that we had to share our thoughts about our work, ahh, more yaiks.

I felt self-conscious when I did because I really didn’t know what to make of it. But when Toots looked at it, it was like I presented her with some sort of a window to myself. I thought she was amazingly perceptive. And that made me feel all the more self-conscious. While she went on and on about my work, I was like, huh-how-could-she-possibly-know-that-about-me-we’ve-only-just-met. Her feedbacks on my style and personality, both of which I am slowly just discovering, felt so spot on.

So here it is, my piece which I call “Finding Yourself” which is how it felt like when Toots critiqued it.

“FINDING YOURSELF” Collage on a 1/8 size illustration board

Why Creative Chaos?

Someone asked me why I use the name Creative Chaos during last Sunday’s Maker’s Market. Here’s my excuse answer from my other blog several years ago.

“When I found out that there is such a thing, I decided to adopt it as one of my philosophies in life.

According to Creative Chaos, there is order in randomness, that there are some minds that become more inspired and artistic amid mess.

Some borrowed thoughts from the Internet:

“Creativity in its most meaningful sense renders order out of chaos.  True creativity engenders new coherent form from existing patterns or ideas. The creative mind is not subdued by the apparent anarchy of random chaos.” http://www.enchantedmind.com/html/science/creative_chaos.html

“Creative chaos is about  thinking “why not?” instead of “why?”. It is about looking beyond the ordinary and finding the opportunity to create something extraordinary.” (http://www.jakephillips.net/

And my favorite —

“Many people who work in creative fields often prefer a chaotic or disorderly environment around them while they work on new ideas or projects… Creative chaos occurs when established patterns are destroyed, with the hope of something new arising from the positive chaos by the destruction. Creative people would consider this moment a breakthrough, as a new and unexpected result rises from the rubble of a former creative stumbling block.”

“… it is so common to find a creative person’s office filled to the ceiling with clutter and effluvia. Concerns over order are secondary to the excitement surrounding a new discovery.” (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-creative-chaos.htm)

Of course Creative Chaos has more meaning than that and I beg indulgence from the thinkers who came up with this school of thought as I try to use it as –

— THE PERFECT EXCUSE FOR MY CLUTTER

 …and I do love my clutter!  I have actually made a teeny career out of this disorderly manner as an accessories designer and yes, even had the pomposity to call my business Creative Chaos (made me sound cool and clever!).  It was short-lived (yet again), but it was fun, entertaining, and it generated a lot of profit and ahem, compliments. I even got featured in the lifestyle section of a leading newspaper once!  I used to join a lot of bazaars and trade fairs to sell accessories.

All the beads and materials scattered everywhere, all the explosion of colors and shapes inspired me to combine even those that at first may seem not to work together but somehow matched and made sense.  The moment my dad got fed up with the mess and had the helper tidy up the corner of our house that I ‘squatted’ in and claimed as my workstation was the beginning of the waning of my interest in the craft until I just realized one day that all my materials had been tucked away, some in my mom’s antique trunks and some in the attic.  Sad. But my pool of materials came in handy when hubby and I decided to make beaded bookmarks (that doubled as bag charms and table napkin rings) for our wedding favors.

— THE PERFECT JUSTIFICATION FOR MY UNORGANIZED AND OFTEN FICKLE WAY OF GOING ABOUT LIFE IN GENERAL

I have forty eleven thousand interests… I am always delighted and open to try out new things, to break free from old thoughts, patterns, situations, structures… which is why I have so many stints. But most of the time, things lose their appeal rather easily – especially once I find out that I’ll never amount to anything else other than as a beginner, hence my claim as a professional ‘stint’ woman.”

Fast forward to today, I have revived my teeny career of clutter.

Back then, after using Creative Chaos a couple of times, I changed my name to Kitsch Corner. There were people who thought I was selling kitchen-related stuff, DUH.

Now, Kitsch Corner sounds too cutesy for me and it downgrades my work to something cheap and trivial so I reverted to Creative Chaos. My work is still kitschy and overdone but Creative Chaos sounds more serious, eh, age appropriate… and artsy fartsy smartsy — like I’m so deep, man!

Here’s proof of my chaotic way of working. I have a very small workstation in the adjoining area which I am unable to use because of the clutter, so my work area has spilled over to our bedroom floor. I don’t mind working on the floor especially when stamping because I could put more pressure on the stamp than when I use a table.

I wish I could just leave everything like that.

I tried. Believe me, I tried organizing. I have all kinds of storage boxes and shelves but the clutter, it has a life of its own, like a big monster that hates being kept away from sight.

Neatness cramps my style. I hate cleaning up regularly every time my kids would come inside the room. I have to put away my tools. And of course, they would just love getting their hands on my mess and things would get even messier!

Finn the Human Kept Me Sane

Nowadays, I rarely go out without yarns and hooks in my bag. Every chance I get, I crochet outside of the house. That’s one of the things I like about this craft. You can do it anywhere. I hate wasting time and I hate being late (which means I’m always way too early for an appointment), so whenever I wait in lines or to meet up with someone or for an appointment, I crochet.

So it was the right decision to bring yarns and a hook and even fiber filling during our trip to Hong Kong.

I did worry that my crochet hook would be confiscated but I guess airport security is more lenient when checking a mom with a toddler. Plus, I checked. The hook didn’t fall in any category identified as prohibited to be hand carried. It’s not sharp and it’s definitely not a sporting good. But I did also worry about it being used as a weapon — by someone else.

During our departure from Manila, we got to stay in a sauna-like plane without taking off for more than a couple of hours. When we finally took off after the service crew had finished fixing the air conditioning, the passengers had gotten so crazyfurious. Thankfully, none of them thought to snatch my hook away from me to stab the eyes of the inefficient and unprofessional crew. Me, I admit I entertained the thought. But I worried more about getting blood of the inefficient and undeserving on my yarn, so no. All in all, I was just relieved that I brought my materials with me.

Here he is, made in the Philippines, in HongKong, and somewhere in between. I left with a head and came back with a doll that was almost done. Except that I ran out of yarn for the very last row of his sleeve!

Running out of yarn in mid flight and being unable to parachute down to the store to buy some more was even more frustrating than bad airline service!

A Big Batch of Oops

Argh.

I made a batch of what I shall call “Jenga Affirmation Blocks” last Saturday. Normally, the resin takes overnight to cure.  But for this batch, it didn’t, and most blocks as of this writing, are still gooey. I am sure I mixed the hardener and resin properly. The only difference was that I was extra careful with this batch, like really more careful than I previously was with the dominoes and puzzles. My plan was to “jenga bomb” the workstations of people who matter to me on my last day at work, which is today. Unfortunately, the plan bombed.

Good thing I took a picture before I poured resin. I should have gone with the non-resin grungy look.

Out of the 28 I made, only 6 had fully dried and looked almost good enough to lick (ah, so smooth, so fluid-looking, but oh so solid). I even covered the batch with a couple of baskets with little holes to keep dust away from wet resin. But dusts, especially in very old houses, acquire a life of their own and are wizards at finding some way to dustify even the most hidden things. I usually find some way to fix ink smears and yes, even a sprinkle of dust, but well, there are scratches, unexplained, X-files worthy indentations on some blocks after I found them mysteriously turned to their sides, and fingerprints of a curious husband which will forever be molded in resin.

Someone with a less than favorable outlook in life saw my blocks and said something like, “What are they for? That’s it? You made altered jenga blocks with no purpose?” I shouldn’t have just shrugged. I should have given her one. She needed the positive words.

Useless? Maybe. But for me, these are affirmations, motivations, and positive thoughts. Just like my observation during my last fair, people sometimes need to hear or read such words. I was hoping to share these with friends at work and maybe provide a little (as in jenga block little) inspiration to their days.

But the unfortunate thing happened. I was disappointed, yes. So much effort wasted, I thought. Then this block. I was in the middle of growling at the “textured resin grooves” when I read the words.

How mocking appropriate.

Now I feel like I’m being challenged by my own creation to do something instead of just throwing away the flawed blocks.

 

A BIG KICK in the head (and pocket)

I let 3 members of the staff at my fast becoming favorite craft store, Lasting Impression, gang up on me and talk me into buying a Vintaj Big Kick Die Cut Machine last week. They weren’t even met with an ounce of resistance.  Anyway, it was only a matter of time.  When I found out that there is such a thing several months ago, I wanted one but I didn’t know what I’d do with it then.  I’d see my Instagram feed filled with beautiful die cut shapes and I’d be oozing with envy.

Plus (here comes my feeble attempt to justify my purchase) my search for nice packaging for my handmade items like non-tacky pillow boxes and craft tags which I see Tim Holtz use in his video tutorials and my Instagram friends use for the ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) is going nowhere.

Until last week at the craft store. I was just there to buy some stencils and a craft puncher shape of a tag. But the store didn’t have such a puncher. The sales person was ready to admit defeat. My frustration was starting to show when my eyes landed on the shelf where the Tim Holtz’s Movers and Shapers Dies were and which on previous days, I would sensibly ignore. I saw the pillow box die. And the large tag die. “Oh, you need a machine to use those!” She said with renewed energy and evil glee. Quite suddenly, there appeared 2 more evil salespeople and they were all more than happy to explain what the dies were for and how the machine was used. And there was no turning back.

You will never forget your first time, they say. And I won’t. Because it was magnificent. The very first tag I die-cut was gorgeous!  I couldn’t stop rolling and rolling and rolling… sure, the cracking sound of the acrylic plates made me cringe sometimes but still, I didn’t want to stop. And I wanted to go back to the store to buy more dies.

I did this a few days ago using 270-300 GSM boards and Distress Inks.

Yeah. Fan girl moment. I asked the good old Manong who has a makeshift rubber stamp shop near our office building to make me the Tardis and Darth Vader rubber stamps.

Pillow Box success!

Finally, after the sad, failed attempts with the toilet paper rolls. Sure, these pillow boxes are mighty pricey to make and it’s going to take a long time for me to profit from them, but they’re worth it. And I can’t wait to use them for my items.

Even those made with scrapbook papers could hold little trinkets inside.

Success!

May 14 update:

I got a match box cutting plate. I used Tim Holtz paper stashes and some scrapbook papers for the surrounding boxes and then a plain folder for the colorful one and then designed it with Distress Inks and Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous. I loooove them!

Lesson:  Again, I will not skimp on quality and force fugly D-I-Y just to say that I D-I-Y-ed.

Altered Art

Definition from http://www.altered-art.net/

“Transformation or alteration of ordinary, everyday objects into decorative pieces using a wide variety of techniques and materials, for example, rubber stamps, fabric, paper, paint, and fibers.“

–and collage and decoupage.

Best for people like me who can’t draw or paint except doodle, but would still love to explore the world of art!

I was just thrilled to find out that there is such a thing. I thought, hey, yo, this was something I could do!

And when I tried it, I discovered that I love it.

Here are some of my, ahem, altered art works:

Dominoes:

These have long been altered further into bracelet and necklace pendants, but I love this photo, like there’s some sort of a domino collage thing going on.  So much froufroufroufroufrou, I know, but once I start, I can’t seem to stop.  I shall practice moderation in future froufrous.

 

My latest, altered puzzle: