Finger Puppet Stand - Day 107

After a fair bit of woodwork, glue, sanding and paint, a finger puppet display stand is born!!
This wil be used for the market and hopefully other items can also be displayed.

Undead Set - Day 106

A new set!!!!

Another moment of strange images lead to these, my new favourites and something new for the market.
Who wouldnt want a vampire, ghost, skeleton or zombie?!
My favourite is the zombie with brains showin... mmmmmm brains!!!

Make something 365 - Day 105

A quick post today, featured on 365!
Making Something 365

Potter wands - day 103-104

I, Nicola, am a Harry Potter Fan. We already have our tickets for the first midnight showing of part 2, with a showing of part 1 first. A bit geeky maybe?
I saw these wands on instructables and here and thought it would be a nice activity to do. Plus the girl has a friend who wants a Harry Potter marathon night soon as she hasn't seen the first couple.
These were a bit fiddly, but I really liked the final look. Unfortuately, I think the hot glue on the outside might need  sanding or something, becasue the paint began to rub off :(

Learning - day 102

I want to learn photoshop, illustrator etc, but as of yet am settling for the cheaper (free) GIMP program to learn some basics. SO much harder then I thought!
I decided to follow a tutorial on how to colour a black and white sketch, it took so much playing around with many layers and trying to work out how the layers work together.
Its very messy, but its a start (has to improve, as can't get worse!)
In the end, used a GIMP tool too emboss the image as well (hides the terrible colouring)

Quick NZ - Day 101

Homework went a tad of topic as jnr playing with dried paint flakes....
Look.. NZ!! (almost!)

"Breaking" - DAY 100

This posted late,
Day 100 lacking in the super, life changing art I felt I should have been doing, instead....
My girl possibly broke her wrist (for the third time!!)... there is a fair amount of tension at the moment though about this as the doctors said it probably WASNT broken but, due to past times, wants it in a cast for a week (then seen by specialist)!!
AND its a full cast, so minimal movement + sleepless night + possibility of missing out on dance selection = a frustrated teen.

trippy patterns - Day 99

OH MY!! Tommorrow is day 100!!
I should have thought of something big, but so far no ideas, mind blank from teens and kids!!
Todays craft, playing with the effects in Picnik, I love these effects (smudge!!). I need to see if they will work as a background for something.

quick frame - day 98

Another quick craft, a frame made out of origami with a small sketch (about 1inch square)

Made using the fortune teller pattern, but you just fold up the front squares (where thumbs go) to triangles and the back triangles act as a stand.

Alien Moon - Day 97

Finally some time to spend on my art/craft. This is just a silly piece I thought of the other day while sketching. its not quite right, the big alien is too big for what I wanted the overall look to be, but I think I happy enough with it to leave it..

Fairy painting still in secret squirrel mode...

Kids Art - day 96

One of those weeks really, where a chunk of my crafting time is helping/guiding others.
I admit to the monsters being tv/wii game addicts, so its quite nice to have evidence that they do occasionally branch out into other activities..

Side note... I can't remember the last time my table was clear, between homework, craft and art!

construction - Day 95

Photos to come...
A chunk of the day spent at a friends house designing and cutting wood in the man-cave. It is a tiered/step display stand for finger puppets with dowel bits. Its looking quite good and I will update as soon as I can.

More Carrots - Day 94

Some more carrots ready to be stitched up. Feel a bit of a craft cheat redoing past crafts... but slight changes to pattern, so eases that a bit!!

 Should look like second picture soon...

quick sketch aliens - Day 93

Another painting plan (a big fairy one on the way but still "raw" and not ready to be shown, which on reflection seems silly since that leaves a rough sketch for day 93?!)

Origami Birds - day 92

Limited craft time will be a theme for the next week, larger pieces time consuming so will slip in some smaller craft "bites"

puppy love - Day 91

I could probably hold an entire ongoing blog about kids and teen angst and issues, especially in regards to the gorgeous 2 I look after some times... but this isnt that kind of blog (sigh of relief!)
This is one of those magical rare moments where hope shimmers through...

What could be more cute then a teen boy sewing a cute puppy dog for his girlfriends birthday!!!

Paper fun - day 90

My neighbour introduced me to her favourite accessorie... a Cricut.
 At this point I need to point out I have never, and will never be a scrapbooker. Its not in my DNA. I have enough trouble just getting photos into a normal album, let alone with fancy extras! I do hold a slight admiration for those who do though, I have seen some fab things in the magazines my neighbour shares with me. Some of it is just so detailed and really captures a certain moment in time.
My neighbour has an increasing collection of goodies around this area, and also use it to make unique cards and even some art pieces for family.
The Cricut is like magic.... put in the right cartridge, add paper, press a button and it comes to live cutting out the shape you want in the size of your choice. My creative neurons are still buzzing with the potential! I played a bit with the tinkerbell set and we discovered the one thing the book misses... it doesnt tell us what the "ultimate" size is for all features to be cut probably on a layered piece (tiny lips just tore a line in paper). and if you tell it to do real size, its a suprise what that actually is (maybe we just missed something?). So, many pieces of random sizes created, including some cute fairys about 1.5" high for potential tags. In theory, the fancier side of this is cutting all the seperate layers, gluing them together for a complete look
On reflection though, I like the randomness of unfinished pieces.

Cupcake Madness - Day 89

Another one of those days where I'm counting food as craft.
An afternoon of cupcake making... and in all seriousness, I was just the hovering, icing stealing, guide for a fab lass.
OF course... the decorating is the best part of cupcake making. Todays theme... blue monster madness?! Also a chance to play with the set of icing writing pens.

 (cupcakes are meant to have more icing then actually cake right?!)
:)

Duck Finger puppets - day 88

A request from an early childhood teacher... a set of duck finger puppets that would work for the "5 little ducks" song  (You know the one... 5 little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away, mother duck said quack quack quack quack, but only 4 little ducks came back...)

 The pouch is part pond, part hill and can store the puppets inside.
Still 4 ducks to go, but need more yellow felt (which means I will have to walk the gauntlet of the crafty store... dangerous, as I always spot more things I want!)