Older Mother Earth Cards

my cards from September October. My best one is missing from here as I sent it out this afternoon without scanning it. DUH! But I hope to get a scan from the girl I sent it to. The pink on the cheeks isn't as garrish in person as it looks in the scan. My computer really skews pinks and purples. I love the way her hair turned out though. It's so not my typical hair. I stink at doing hair to make it look realistic.

Gaia/Mother Earth cards from today

Mother Earth cards I was working on today. I was sorting my cards for a swap and it sparked more ideas. So I sat down with my sharpies for the first time in almost three months. It was nice for a change. It's been so long and I was missing them something fierce. The Kuan Yin Gaia isn't done yet, still a work in progress. I think I'm going to try to translate some of these into paint at some point. I mailed off one of my older mother earth pieces, so I hope to get a scan of that from the person I sent it to. It was my favorite.

birds in process

My little crochet birds. Only about two inches long and two and a half high. So cute and small. I don't like the beak though. I think I'm going to do a felt beak on the other bird. I think I like the crocheted feet though.

DUE TO AN UNBELIEVEABLE AMOUNT OF SPAM....

This blog is now set for word verification and comment moderation. I hope you all understand. :) Thanks for all the nice REAL comments! I really appreciate it!

Tried Something New!

Well ok, technically it wasn't NEW, it was just a new take on things I've been doing. I took the crochet flower I do and put a little spin to it. I found a giant spool of curling ribbon floating around here and wondered what the heck I was thinking when I bought a roll with so much yardage. Then it hit me, why not try making a flower from the ribbon! Eureka, it turned out really cool! Check it out. I listed it on etsy, but I doubt anyone will take it, but it was a fun try.

Crocheting the night away

I've made more flower pins for ETSY. I also had some spare crocheted flowers floating around so I thought I'd offer them up as a pay it forward on ETSY. It'll be my second one offered. I'm going to do more, but i want to figure out what else would be nice to do. So here are some images of my new flower pins and the extra flowers. These floral pins aren't felted and are made from acrylic yarn. Just bits of things I had laying about. I love to do these because they don't take me hours upon end and I can move on to something new faster than other projects. My little mind doesn't like to dwell on things for very long. They're things I can do while watching TV.

AHHH i feel much better now!

I've been wanting to paint for AGES! Today, feeling particularly low after having to give up Ceasar (see http://flickr.com/photos/chelmorning) I decided I wasn't going to do much of anything. I had thought about taking a nap, but ended up spending time catchin up with some long lost pals! While I was chatting with them I decided to get out my paints and paint a picture. I didn't have any idea what, or if I was even going to finish, but I DID! YAY! Check it out!

New Flower Fairies for sale!

Check out these little lovelies! They're on sale now in my etsy shop. Ar only $5.50 a piece plus shipping they make a great stocking stuffer, or package attachment for gifts. Some of the are hung on lanyard clips through a closed wire loop on their head, others have a pinback attached so you can wear this amazing miniature piece of art! They're about 2 to 2 and a half inches tall made from silk floral bits, florist wire,wooden beads, glass beads,embroidery floss and other fun plastic or glass attachments. If you'd like to purchase one of these but don't necessarily want to start an etsy account (though I highly reccomend doing so since you can find so many lovely handmade things there!) please email me at justbeme(at)aol(dot)com. We can discuss a purchase through email. Thanks so much for looking. My Etsy Shop link is to the right of the screen! Please fee free to come over and puruse the collection! There are plenty more fairies to come!

Flower Fairies Flitting By

Here is a Flower Fairy I posted to my etsy shop. I've been making these for awhile. My sisters and I made flower fairies for favors for my Brother's wedding last July. They were a SMASHING hit. They're so cut and adorable, I decided to make them into pins to make them wearable! This is a current one I have for sale. There are more to come, I just haven't had time to photograph them and get them listed.


These are some of the ones we made for my brother's wedding favors. My sister then decided to make little babies when my other sister had a baby shower. She made the cutest little babies for the fairies to hold in their arms. They were so cute they had little hats on their little heads. I'll have to search around and see if I have any pictures of them around. These are a few images of the little fairys we made in July.

More art/crafts on sale.

Hi all! I've been felting again! I created a few more of the pink pin in different variations. I really like this one with the black beading in the middle. It really lends a nice touch and highlights the middle well. It's up for sale in my etsy shop . It's made from a wool/soy blended yarn from Paton's. I really like the color way. It's really pretty. Nice dusty roses to a pinky pink and then to a pinkish beige. Very pretty.

I then felted this stunning blue number. I called it Vintage Serenity Blues since I used a vintage reproduction button in the center. I left this one minimal as I thought the lovely blue and the button was enough to make it sing. I've got more in the works, but I'm missing my bead box at the moment so I won't be able to list more until I find it. You can count on seeing some more vintage repro buttons and more beading. I'm doing some with leaves and without and might come up with some more interesting ideas to do with them. Here's the blue

Here is a keychain I made as well to sell on etsy. It's got this cute little blue bird image on the front and a lovely heart on the back. It's really easy to pop the back piece off and add a picture of your own if you should choose. The art is all original, one of a kind. I didn't do editions or prints of it.

knitting and felting

I've been going crazy knitting and felting lately. These are my latest creations. I've already sold the blue one, but if you are interested in one like the blue one I can make another. The pink is verigated pinks and a beige colorway crochted into a floral and then felted and hand embroidered and beaded by me. They have pin backs so that you can attach them anywhere you'd attach a pin. I've got more in the works and will post them here and to my etsy shop as soon as I get them finished. Let me know if there is a color you'd like to see, and I'll do what I can to search it out for you. :)

More Art Cards for SAC

I've been doing rather well with the challenge. I am however 210 cards lacking. Thankfully I have13 days to make that 210. Geez that's a lot of cards in 13 days. I hope to make a huge dent tomorrow. I'll be spending most of the day in art mode. I've got a few swaps to complete and some personal swaps. Then I'll be all caught up and can play at other things. My card goal for tomorrow is 25 cards. If I can do 25 cards or more, I'll be over the total card count I need to do daily to make my 300 mark by the end of october. So here is a picture of the 85 I have made thus far. These pictures don't count the 6 or 7 I completed tonight. This image above has my faux postage cards I did for a group swap I am in. I did two different ones. The star image in the center, and the little space man at the top. These cards are all original colored images. I had to make 9 of each. You can also see another of my kokeshi images. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll work on an alphabet set, and perhaps some fabric cards. It all depends on what I get done in the morning. I'm hoping to get my images done for an eyes swap. I have a few already, but need to do more. I also need to complete all my mother earth cards. I haven't completed mine yet as I wanted to do some research on differnt cultural ideals on "mother earth". Hopefully I can get some of that completed tomorrow as well.

A friend of mine (Rose..**waving**) has told me that I should enter a competition for a rubber stamping company. They are running a contest where you get the chance to win Designer for a stamp set for the company. I'm feeling a little leary about it, but might do it as it's just a bit uncomfortable and I'm beginning to find that when I feel that discomfort I need to jump in with both feet and break that comfort zone. I'm still not sure yet however.

My beginnings for SAC

I am participating in an art by the card event through Sharpie Scouts. I'm having a great time already.It's based loosely on the Art by the Inch challenge as we were all lamenting the fact that the site hasn't been updated in awhile and we thought we'd do our own little challenge. We decided to cut from the square inch idea and go with art by the trading card. We have different levels...and silly me picked the highest (i like a good challenge) I took the 300 card challenge. I need to make 300 atcs by the end of October. So far I'm not doing too badly sticking to my quota. I'll be trying to make extras tonight to give me a bit of a buffer incase I run into a glitch in scheduling time to do art. :) So here are ones I completed last night.
the birds are based on a theme week I am doing with a new art friend. We've decided to help inspire each other to art and the theme we agreed on for this week is birds. So I've been thinking birds lately. The kokeshi doll is just one of those things that pops up while you're randomly looking for things and then gets stuck in your head. I've got a few worked up that I haven't colored yet. I might be trying a fabric version soon or perhaps even a amigurumi version. This is an image of all 15 cards I did last night.

An image of Vincent Van Gogh as a child. I did this a few years ago for a Vincent swap.

crochet projects.

I've been mad for hats lately. Not to wear, but to crochet. I attempted a cloche. It's ok, but not at all what I expected. It's up for a home if anyone would like it. It's got the cute little crocheted "ribbon" detailing at the brim. It was a pattern I found, but when I tried the pattern , using gage measurements and everything, when I got almost through the whole hat I realized that it was going to be about the size of a doll's head. Not what I was looking for. So I frogged it and made my own attempt at the idea of a cloche. It didn't turn out too bad for my first attempt.


Then I attempted a different kind of hat. Now that I had an idea of the basic structure that a hat should have, I tried a skull cap of sorts. I made it much more girly than a general skull cap, giving it an open mesh feel and adding the little scalloped edge to the bottom. Then I added the pink flower. A tad much too girly for me.
I also did a little baby cap. Kind of pill box hat shapped. It's in country blue though and everyone I know has baby girls. Perhaps I should just add a few tiny pink flowers and give it to my niece. Hmmm maybe that's what I'll do. So....who wants a hat?

KLIMT and Me

I've been working on self portraits this week and this one really grabbed me. Granted it doesn't look like me much, but i had fun doing it. I love Gustav Klimt. Especially his really detailed works. I patterned this after Judith 1. I love that picture.

Now I'm having a hard time parting with this one. I've made plenty for the portrait swap, ones that look more like me and less stylized. I'll probably hold onto this one for awhile.

I'm off today to spend time with my friend Lois. She and I have been having a great time getting together for art dates. We go to each others houses and sit and talk the day away and art. It's so much fun.

I'm thinking of taking more time to do Sharpie versions of Masterpieces. I had such a great time with that challenge for the Sharpie Scouts. I cannot wait to get my book! I'm so excited. Our fearless leader put a little full color zine out with submissions from the group. It looks really cool, but I can't wait to get my hands on it and pour through it! here are a few of the ones I did for the masterpiece swap.

Coffee Cartel book pages

My pages for the Coffee Cartel book. I worked for hours staining and layering more staining and even more layers of staining to get the pages a lovely coffee color. I was almost sad when it came time to decorate the pages. It seemed almost a sin to ruin the beautiful markings left by the coffee. I decided that instead of covereing up the coffee stains, I'd use them to my advantage and create from the shapes left by the stains. We play this game in my family, something my parents started when I was small to keep us busy while we waited in restaurants. Someone will make a scribble on a sheet of paper, then the next person will take that scribble and make something of it. That is essentially what I did here, used the "images" i saw in the coffee stains and created something out of them. So the front of my pages are the "Coffee Stain Scribble Game" and the back has my psyeudo hot sleeve with my contact info , the chemical breakdown of caffeine, a small Coffee Love and a small quote.

My newest success.

LOOOK! I MADE A TOTE!

Now I'm not a seamstress by any means. This is a basic simplistic tote. I am feeling quite pleased with myself however. I can sew, but it's usually the basics, you know, patch a hole here, sew a button on there. Nothing spectacular. I've been just itching to try my hand at more serious sewing. I remember in home-ec we had to sew a pair of jams. Hmm I could be dating myself here by mentioning jams. But that, other than the random stitch em up here and there was about the extent of my sewing skills. Sure I can use a sewing machine, but that means nothing unless you actually MAKE something. So the last time JoAnn fabrics had a sale on patterns I decided it was time I break into the world of sewing.

This first attempt at following a pattern since I was about 15, was a little harder than I thought. It's not like riding a bicycle where once you get used to the balancing again you're good to go. I had a few minor mess ups, but over all it turned out pretty good. It took me about two hours to actually finish it all up and get it together. That includes a mistake while cutting, three mistakes while stitching together, having to revamp the pattern slightly to make it work since I screwed up the cutting yet again, and figuring out which was the best way to actually stitch the corners with a single side/bottom piece. I love the all over pattern. The lightest blue of the fabric pattern is like a cornflower blue and it darkens right through to navy blue. I did the lining with navy blue and the thread I used is just slightly off color as to show some of the stitching. I succeeded in getting a nice tuck in each of the corners. Pretty impressive, they all actually almost match exactly.I'll probably give this very first one to my sister. She likes purses, and I'm hoping she'll test run this one. It's approximately 10 x 12 and should be rather study and hold together well. I'll most likely be perusing the fabric sections of the local fabric haunts to look for more good fabrics and interfacings to play with. This interfacing was a little too thin and floppy and didn't get enough of a rigidity to the bag. I'll be looking for a more rigid interfacing, and one that is double sided. I didn't use double fusible interfacing. It only fused on one side (which actually worked to my advantage because I misread the instructions the first three times I read them. Not very good instructions mind you...but what can I expect from a 4 dollar pattern.

LOOK OUT I'M ON A SEWING STREAK!

I've been playing a bit with digital manipulation lately. This was done for a challenge in the digital group I'm in. It's a blue themed challenge and all our art had to be blue in hue. I had a really great time taking this picture of my nephew and making it into this piece of art.

I've been wildly crazy about henna patterns lately. This is a 7x5 card that I've been working intricate patterns on. It's still a work in progress but I had to share. I'm loving the way it's turning out already and plan to do a series of ATCs based on henna designs. I love the look of actual henna on the body. The burnt umber color just appeals to me and there is something so powerful and drawing to me. I've been hoping to find a local henna artist so that I could get a good henna tattoo done. Heck, I would like to learn to do henna tattoos. They're so beautiful . I love reading about henna and the history and importance in the cultures it appears in.

Some Current Projects

Well it's been a very busy month for me. Life has been taking over. Here are a few things to brighten up my long over due blog. This is Ima Karot. He's my fourth try at amigurumi. It's hard to see in this picture but he has the cutest little carrot nose and I just love his blank, big eyed expressionless face. He looks so cute and scrumptious. Well ok, since he's filled with stuffing I doubt he'd be very scrumptious. I've been doing a lot of knitting and crochet. Many prayer shawls and baby/kid afghans for relatives. It's been keeping me busy when I have nothing better to do while watching tv at night. Ima is available on my ETSY shop listed in the side bar ~~~~>OVER THERE :)



Also at my ETSY shop is TONIO BUTTONS! I love Tonio, he's the cuttest little ragamuffin doggie you've ever seen. Once you set eyes on him you just want to take him home with you. The button is just a head shot. If you like him you can also head over to my cafepress store and see what else he's on. A lot of the things in my cafe press shop have him full body, not just a head shot. So if you like him check him out. These buttons are 2.5 inches large! :)

Things have been very BUSY

here at the Viridian Muse. So busy in fact that I haven't had time to update in AGES! For that I am sorry. I have been working on many new projects and hope to be able to post pictures/blog about them in the next day or so. SO many projects...SO LITTLE TIME! Just wanted to pop in and say I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, nor have I forgotten my little corner of blogger! PHOTOS AND INFO COMING SOOOOOOOOON!

Another canvas

This is another sharpie canvas. I love putting sharpies to canvas, although in doing so it can really RUIN you sharpies. I was just going to leave this black and white, but found that it lacked a certain "punch" that I tend to favor in my art. I decided that just a few blasts of color would do the trick and set to work. Just like it happens with shiny surfaces, I found that the ink I had put down previously was lifting to a certain degree while color some spots. I don't know what it is that does this, I've talked with others who say they've never had that problem. It unfortunately makes a dead spot on the head of the marker. I'll be working on more shiny atcs here in the next few days. I love working on it and love the effects (you can see some below) but I have to be very cautious. This canvas is on sale in my etsy store located in the links to the right.

Fab Sista finshed! ...FINALLY

I've been working on these little pins on and off for WEEEEEEEEEEEKS now. At first I couldn't get the felt to stick to itself. When that started happening, I thought "Well I can always hand sew every piece"....ugh..but the thoughts of that made me bored almost instantly. They worked out rather well in the end. When I started working on them I wasn't sure how many I was going to need. So I started 12 turned out I only needed four so now I have six extras (two were lost to appease the creative gods apparently ...small sacrifices that ended up in the great craft heaven in the sky) I think I'm going to dress them up with different dangle type earrings and maybe a cute bow or something in their hair and sell them on my etsy shop. They're really cute, don't you think?

Another mural for the Scouts

Did another mural. This one I had no problem slicing down. It looks really good even when it is cut. I've been trying to get caught up on all the swaps and deadlines I have. I just haven't felt in a big creative mood lately. I have a few digital swaps I have to finish up and get printed out, that part always makes me nervous. I can make something that looks amazingly wonderful on the computer screen and then I print it out and it's crap! Oh well I guess there's learning curves in all mediums.