An Imaginary Life

Shopping Daze

2008-12-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

*THUNK*

That’s the sound of me falling out of the blogosphere. Eventually, this will become a habit. If only a blog could give me a caffeine boost – then I’d be posting every morning like clockwork!

The holiday season has been on my mind lately, especially all the stresses that go along with it. Only 16 shopping days left – but is anyone shopping? Not me! Or I should say, very little. Partly because I’m one of those annoying people who have the bulk of their Christmas shopping done before Halloween each year. But also I’m making some of the gifts. (And still needing to carve out time to finish them – yikes!)

I took the pledge to buy handmade earlier this year and I’ve stuck to it very well. I have the most AWESOME themed gift for my kid brother – and I thought he would be the second most difficult to shop for. I’m tempted to tell more about it since he doesn’t read my blog. But I swear he has some kind of radar about this type of thing; he’s probably reading this right now… Anyway, his gift contains items from four different Etsy sellers, plus a small piece that I altered myself. And that’s all I’m telling for now.

However, I’m still stuck on a handmade item for my dad. I always find gift guides for dads to be baffling – they never include anything MY dad would want. Oh, wait, I take that back: there’s some BBQ sauce included in the Etsy Gift Guide for dads. But that’s one of my staple buys for Father’s Day… Yes, he is so hard to shop for, that my fall-back present is food. The real problem is that Dad is such an expert at his hobbies and interests that you need his direct input before buying anything. And where’s the fun in that? Dad may prove to be the handmade conundrum.

Etsy in Wonderland

2008-10-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

I finally had the opportunity to create an Etsy Treasury! I just happened to take a look at the list when it was down to 338. (There has to be less than 333 lists before anyone can create a new Treasury.) So I hovered like a vulture for about 15 minutes. :)

Giveaway Going On Now!

2008-10-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

What better way to celebrate Friday than with a giveaway! Head over to the Black Box Review Blog and follow Kim's directions to leave a comment. It's that easy to enter the drawing for one of my art zines! This blog has started doing giveaways on a regular basis, so it's one to watch! :)

Good luck!

Giveaway Alert!

2008-09-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

Attention, zine lovers! Kim of The Little Black Box will be hosting a MATERIAL zine giveaway on her blog this week! I'll update when the giveaway starts!

Kim's blog is a great one to follow, with lots of giveaways and reviews of great indie finds on the net.

(Fyi, September boxes are on sale right now!)

An Etsy Treasury

2008-09-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

I've been included in an Etsy Treasury (2nd row, 1st on the right):

Thank you, VampVintage, for including me!

(Update: Unfortunately, Etsy treasuries only last a few days, so the one above has already expired. But you can browse other treasuries here.)

I'm in the box!

2008-09-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Who's in the box?

That's right, I'm in The Little Black Box for September! Okay, not me personally, but my samples are! I contributed 50 buttons (each with a valuable coupon for my Etsy store and a mini moo card) of vintage images - these buttons will be feautured in the next issue of MATERIAL zine that will be coming out around the end of the year, so it's a bit of a preview.

The Little Black Box goes on sale this Friday (9/26)! Mark your calendars, because each month the boxes typically sell out within a week of the sale date. And the line-up for the September box is looking good!

Shell Beach

2008-09-13T22:56:00.001-07:00

I've been taking a much needed break this week at the beach. And so quickly, it's come to an end.

I got backgrounds

2008-09-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

I'm very tardy in posting about ZNE Convenzione, the art retreat in Pleasanton that happened on August 22-24. (First of all, I must admit to being very lame. I had a camera with me the entire weekend and never took any pictures!! Mainly, I forgot, or when I did remember, my hands were covered in paint!)

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should check out American Harvest on Main Street in downtown Pleasanton. This was an amazing find during the Bella Galleria walk on Friday, August 22. They have a wonderful selection of vintage finds, jewelry, art, etc. I want to drop by again when they're not bursting at the seams with Convenzione attendees (we all had $10 gift certicates burning a hole in our wallets)! I could easily spend hours exploring that shop.

On Friday, I also got my copy of the ZNE Zaftig chunky book, pictured below.

So very chunky! Yes, someone pasted a plastic doll to their page!

And here's my page:

Saturday was an all-day workshop. I enrolled in Chrysti Hydeck's class, Baby Got Back(grounds). It was an intense, technique-oriented class on painting fabulous distressed looking backgrounds and it was the best part of the whole weekend. If you ever have the chance to take a class with Chrysti, I highly recommend it. She's a fun, enthusiastic teacher with TONS of ideas and the techniques she taught us were just amazing. I was pretty quiet that day, focused on absorbing as much as possible and trying to slap down as much paint as possible, too! Many times I wanted to snap some photos, but my hands always had paint on them! (Now I know to bring a disposable camera next time, that I won't mind getting dirty.) Michele Beschen was also in this class, but I didn't get a chance to really talk to her until the following day at the vendor fair. She's so nice and I just got an email from her that I won one of her DVDs in a drawing! Yay!

By the end of the day, I had the beginnings of an art journal (all the pages have paint - woo hoo!):

Chrysti taught us how to do gel medium transfers in less than two minutes! And look how well they turn out:

I also started about five canvases. This is the first one, it's all about texture:

Here's a detail of the fleur de lis from the second canvas. The camera flash washed out the colors quite a bit. The background is crimson and the fleur de lis is copper. But you can see the distressing and crackling in the fleur de lis quite well:

And on Sunday, there was shopping at the vendor fair! Thank goodness! I needed some shopping therapy to regain my strength. Once again, I had my camera with me, yet forgot to take pictures! What a sight it was - every spare inch of the Veteran's Building was filled with tables of artsy goodness! I spent too much money (which I knew I would do). I'll have to lay it all out and snap some photos; it'll be like a mini vendor fair. That'll be my next post.

In a scramble for ZNE Convenzione

2008-08-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

The ZNE Convenzione art retreat is starting this Friday and there's so much to do! I have no excuse; it's been on my to-do for weeks, but it wasn't until Sunday morning (!) that it hit me that I had no more time and I started to pull things together. Here's the photo diary of my to-do list.

1. Get art supplies together and get last-minute items (e.g., wash apron, buy plastic stencils and baby wipes, and look for white lace, buttons, and clip art) - finished tonight!

2. Make charms in case anyone wants to swap charms - done! (except I might make a few more ... if there's time)

3. Make goody bags in case anyone wants to swap goodies - done!

4. Make ATCs in case anyone wants to swap ATCs - just getting started (gulp!)

5. Collect maps, instructions, sign-ups, lists, anything I can think of, so I don't forget or get lost - done!

That's all for now; I'm a slave to the ATCs for the rest of the evening!

My First YouTube Appearance - Sort of

2008-08-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Amber Dawn purchased one of my kawaii books for her little sister's birthday a few weeks ago. She just uploaded a video on her blog and YouTube of Amber paging through the book while her sister tells us what she likes about it. Thank you, Amber! :)

An Etsy Favorite

2008-08-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite artists on Etsy is Kendra Binney. Her work is whimsical and sweet at first glance, but when you take a closer look you'll notice that it's also dark, edgy, and a bit macabre. I've been collecting her prints for a while and I now have a wall at home that looks like this:

This is my new favorite that will be added to the wall soon, "Disregarded Ghosts":

You can view more of Kendra's work on her website, which also has a few prints for sale that aren't in her Etsy shop.

The Little Black Box Arrives

2008-08-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of The Little Black Box? It's a service that helps connect indie businesses with consumers who might never hear of them otherwise. Businesses send in their sample- or full-size items and/or promos, which are then available for sale as a little black box of surprises. You don't know exactly what you're going to get, but that's part of the fun. I saw it mentioned in the Etsy forums and immediately googled it. And the following week, my little black box arrived. (It's actually a bag now, in order to fit items of all sizes.)

Kimberlee Keane, who runs The Little Black Box, is very helpful and friendly. I contacted her before I made my purchase, because I have environmental allergies and I was concerned about scented products possibly being included. This is both bad for me (achoo!) and bad for the businesses, since their items would be wasted on me. Kimberlee came up with a solution and I got a scent-free box. (Hooray!) So even though I ordered a July box, a few items that were meant for the August box may appear in my pictures. July boxes are already sold out, but August boxes go on sale August 22nd.

Hmm, what's in the bag?

13 goodies in the bag; here they are spread out on my kitchen table.

1. Hand-dyed silk scarf by Made With Loving Hands.

2. Fabric covered mirror by Promos in a Snap.

3. Stone earrings by jaC Jewelry. (My photo doesn't do them justice - very lovely in person.)

4. Pretzel earrings by Amazon Creations.

5. A small jar of "Fray" eye shadow by Mixology.

6. Glass pendant by Designs by Tami. This pendant was hard to photograph and is very pretty in person.

7. Car hair pin by Always Amy. That's the reverse side of her business card next to the pin - isn't it awesome?

8. Print by 3 Lambs Design. I've already found the perfect spot to hang this.

9. Earrings by Starrlight Jewelry. Once again, lovely pair of earrings, but I obviously don't have a career in jewelry photography.

10. Fabric tissue pouch (with tissue inside) by Midnight Creations. This is the perfect item for me - I have allergies and I love shoes!

11. Bookmark by A Muted Pallette - Diana Crites Gallery.

12. "Bite Me" recipe card (LOL) by Terri Taylor Design. I particularly like the "That's not PMS. I'm just evil" greeting cards in her shop.

13. Two linen greeting cards by five dot design. Very generous to include two cards! What you can't tell from the photo is the wonderful texture and weight to the cards.

All in all, a really good haul! Goodies for me, a few Christmas presents, and a lot of cool shops to check out. And I've already signed up to contribute to The Little Black Box in September and November. More on that later...

Wonderland charms

2008-08-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

Amber Dawn is truly the swap hostess extraordinaire. Not only is she always hosting private swaps, but she also hosts the International Artistic Charms Exchange that has over a dozen charm swap themes going on every year. I don't know how she does it! This year I signed up for two IACE swaps. The themes are: Alice in Wonderland; and Fabric and Fiber Free-for-All. Earlier this summer, I finished the 10 charms for the Alice in Wonderland swap. My charms are 100% hand-sewn. No glue was used. Each one is a little over an inch square, so you're viewing them as "larger than life."

Queen of Hearts:

The White Queen:

The White Rabbit:

The White Rabbit (he looks a little psychotic here):

The White Rabbit:

Alice and The Cheshire Cat:

Alice and The Golden Key:

The last three are all Queen of Hearts:

What happened to July?

2008-08-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

And the first half of August? Wow, I've really fallen behind! I got a little burned out on taking pictures (two weeks of snapping shots of stationery every night will do that to you), so everytime I meant to post, I'd think, "Oh, but I don't have any pictures of [xyz] yet." But now it's time to catch up! I want to tell you about the black and white charm swap and The Little Black Box and the stuff I've been designing and the charms I'm working on now and some zines I found on Etsy and... Where's my camera? I need to get busy...

Confessions of a Kawaii Addict

2008-07-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

On Etsy:

Three books listed so far. Eight more to go, but I will continue listing them on Sunday. I'm photographing each book individually, so it takes a little time. And I'm feeling sleepy. ;)

More Zines on Etsy

2008-07-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

Kawaii Zines

2008-07-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

I’m in the midst of assembling 11 handmade books/zines about – and constructed from – cute Asian stationery. A lot of the stationery items included are rare and hard to find in the U.S. I created this zine last year for a swap and had enough to make extras, but I never got around to it until now. As soon as they’re finished, I’ll be adding them to my Etsy shop. And even though I made them for a zine swap, they're more like a handmade book.

Here are the 11 kawaii zines:

Five have covers constructed from Nyan Nyan Nyanko gift bags:

And six have covers constructed from Rilakkuma gift bags:

Here’s a preview of inside one of the zines:

These are only a few of the stickers that are going into these zines, one way or another:

I’m currently embellishing the pages with stickers. Then I’ll be stuffing stickers and mini memo sheets into the envelopes that are bound into each zine, stuffing more goodies into the back covers (they were originally gift bags after all), and lastly decorate the front covers. Phew. I better get busy.

Fabric Art Goodies!

2008-07-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been going through my art supplies to put together sets of goodies to go with each copy of FeltZine that I'll be putting up on Etsy. Above is a sample photo of one assortment of goodies. And below is an extra gift for my first Etsy sale, tied off with some vintage lace.

Meet Olive

2008-07-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

This little cutie lives at my dad's house (over 700 miles away), so I don't get to see nearly enough of her. Olive is half Shih Tzu and half Scottish terrier - and part cat, part Tigger, but mostly Ninja. In this photo, the camera flash has washed her out a little (showing off her highlights), because her coat is actually a deep black. She's very good at sneaking up on people and hiding in dark rooms (she disguises herself as a shadow or another shoe). She loves to shake hands. Don't be fooled by Olive's meek expression; she's commonly referred to as "the attack puppy."

My Own Etsy Shop

2008-07-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Look! It's an Etsy widget on the right! Wow! I love how you don't have to know anything about how those things work to get them to appear on your blog.

Yes, after thinking about it for two years, I finally opened up a storefront on Etsy. A few zines are up so far; I'll be adding more over the next week. Check it out!

Yummy Art Yarn

2008-07-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

This delicious handspun wool yarn arrived this week from the UK. I've had a project in mind for ages in which the greenery of a two-dimensional image "spills out" of the frame - this is the perfect yarn for it. I also picked up the purple-pink felted cord from the same Etsy seller, Alchemy Fibre Arts. Don't they look good together?

Voila!

2008-07-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I spent this afternoon finishing up my FAT book pages for the ZNE Convenzione keepsake book (they've titled the book "Zaftig" - it means "juicy"). The deadline isn't till August 1, so it feels nice to be able to send these off so early.

I lined up all 30 pages on my bookshelf to show off the embellishments. Take a look at the insanity:

And here are the pages laid out, looking rather like a quilt:

A few close-ups:

I'm so glad to be done. It was a fun project, but I've been working on nothing else (art-wise) the last few weekends. I want to get back to sewing.

Happy 4th of July!

Fabulous FAT Books

2008-07-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a FAT book (a.k.a. chunky book) page for a ZNE Convenzione keepsake book. I love these. I participated in my first FAT book swap when I went to Artfest 2005. They make the best souvenirs. Here's a picture of that first FAT book:

When I returned to Artfest in 2006, I participated in two separate FAT books. The first one is also working with paper pages:

And then I heard about a fabric FAT book. I had to sign up, even though that meant over 15 original double sided fabric "pages."

I've been looking at these keepsake books a lot lately to consider the elements I like the best about some of the pages and incorporate that into mine. For instance, embellishing the right edge of the page obviously has a big impact to how each book looks - I love all the fibers, beads, tags, sunflowers, etc., spilling out of the books.

The FAT book for Convenzione is working with paper, so I was able to create a single original, scan it, print 30 copies, and now I'm embellishing each copy. Here are some of my pages:

And as you can see, the right edges are prepped for embellishments. I'll post another photo when I've finished them all. Here are some tags that will be added as well (coming out of the top of the page):

Once I started thinking up ways to add bulk and fun to my pages, I just couldn't stop. Wait until you see the photo of all 30 pages together. I only have 12 that are completed so far and they already make a huge impact. 30 are going to be insane.

New Moo Mini Cards!

2008-07-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

My Moo mini cards arrived last night. I recently opened a Flickr account and couldn't resist checking out the products from a company called Moo. These are a fun, artsy take on business cards. And who better to show them off than Little Fantastic Alice? Seriously. She's excited to find something smaller than she is.

Moo has a great design interface set up on their site that makes it a lot of fun to create your own product. You can even go through the steps of designing and previewing a product without buying it, though it's too bad you can't "save" your designs for later. I also ordered a sticker book that was shipped separately - can't wait to see that! I love stickers. So does Fantastic Alice.

ZNE ConvenZioNE!

2008-06-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was randomly following a train of links, going from blog to blog, when my eyes fell across a reference to attending the ZNE Convenzione this August in Pleasanton , California. That stopped me in my tracks. What’s this? Something artsy going on in the Bay Area? So I followed that link to discover that, yes, an art retreat similar to Art & Soul or Artfest was finally appearing in my backyard. Finally!

So I registered for the event on the same day I first heard about it. Talk about your impulse purchase.

In order to register for Covenzione (anyone else feeling the urge to talk in a fake Italian accent?), I first had to sign up with ZNE, an organization for mixed media artists. This is the first year ZNE is hosting Covenzione, so it’s a smaller affair (and less expensive). Here’s the itinerary:

Friday, August 22

Reception/lunch with live music and a showing of Claudine Hellmuth’s new work

Gallery and boutique walk through downtown Pleasanton (with gift certificates and book signings)

Evening show that includes a screening of the documentary “1,000 Journals.” (I was there when 1,000 Journals came to the Journaling Night at Artfest 2006. Who knows, maybe I’m in it.)

Saturday, August 23

Workshops! The choice was either one full-day or two half-day workshops. I’ve found that I do better in classes that focus on technique, rather than trying to complete a project within a six-hour period. (There are some who can. Bitches.) I chose “Baby Got Back(grounds).” I was won over by the instructor’s enthusiasm (she created a website for the class!) and I really like that I’ll be able to bind all the pages I’ve painted at the end of the day.

Group dinner

Sunday, August 24

Vendor Fair! A whole day of shopping and Convenzione attendees get in an hour earlier than the public (and get a discount). Vendor Night was one of my favorite things about Artfest and it only lasts a few hours. I better start saving my pennies…

Next year, Convenzione is going to be a five-day event, including four days of workshops, a two-day Vendor Fair (oh rapturous bliss), and still located in Pleasanton. Yes!

UPDATE: I just found out that Michele Beschen will be hosting some of the ZNE Convenzione events. How exciting - I'll get to meet her!

[Add content here]

2008-06-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hello, internet. It's me.

I haven’t blogged since 2003. My brother had started a blog, so I wanted one, too. It lasted for three or four months before fizzling out. I was too busy publishing my zine to blog about other things and it didn’t occur to me then to let blog and art collide. Now I know better.

It’s good to be back. I hope to stick around longer this time.