Working on Custom work once again! YAY!

I had a special request for a poodle with butterfly wings. So here's my rendition. Pretty cute, in an overly pink girly way. :)

What's Stopping You From Taking a Self Portrait?

This question comes from an interview on Chrysti's blog Art By Chysti. She's taking on the 29 days of giving challenge. Quite a fascinating concept and one I'll most likely tackle myself soon. I like random acts of kindness, and feel that this might be the universe's way of pointing me in the "right direction".

So anyway, the first giveaway ( why haven't you gone and checked it out yet??) today was a very interesting looking book Mixed Media Self Portraits by Cate Coulacos Prato. Chrysti's blog held a lovely little interview with Cate and at the end Cate asked, "What's stopping you from taking a self portrait?"

So I thought long and hard about it. I never was really much of a self portrait person. I suppose a lot of it has to do with the fact I never felt myself much to look at, let alone pose myself in front of a camera for the good of all mankind type. Granted, I think everyone has those feelings of insecurity, but mine was heartily backed by years of being picked on as a teenager. I was from a large family, wore hand-me-downs from someone who was wearing them as hand-me-downs. (though I wouldn't change a thing about my formative years now...it's made me the person I am!) I didn't have the "cool" things. I was told I was fat A LOT by peers. Compared to my siblings, all tall lanky and beautifully structured, I was fat, squat and sloppy. At least that's how I felt. So why take a self portrait, when it just cements the fact that you look exactly what people have said you look like.

Over the years, I've gained more trust in my self-worth, my own special beauty. I noticed that over the past five years or so, I've been taking self portraits with more regularity. Most of the time I don't even know what inspires me to take them...but I do. Most are logged away in my digital photo albums, some make appearances in odd places, digitally altered and used as avatars or art. I think my progression into becoming a Self Portrait "Artist" is more about becoming comfortable with exactly who I am as an individual. I'm me, and that's a mighty fine thing to be! There's very little I'd change about me!!

Digitally Altered Me:


Goofy Me at Halloween:



So I ask you .... are you a self portrait artist?

Customized Fairy Pins Ornaments or clips.

Want a customized fairy. I'd love to make one for you. You can either shop through
my etsy shop or find me at my newest venue on ArtFire

New Westie Amigurumi!

A new westie amigurumi has been created! Check him out! So adorable! You can find him Here

Frog in our Hands

Frog in our Hands
Originally uploaded by Chel Morning

Adi and I found this most amazingly small toad on the 4th of July. I just adore this image and want to get prints of it! I wish the coloring were a bit less pink. Ahhh what can you do. Now I just have to see how a digital print will turn out. Then it's offffff to the races! I plan on playing around with a few different ideas. I saw someone some where post that they usually do their business cards as digital prints from wal-mart or target or any of those places that do digital prints. I'm quite happy with the way my business cards are now, but I'm going to need a new set soon and from what I hear vistaprint is ridiculous now. I always wondered why I wasn't getting any email from them anymore. Whom ever it was that said they're ridiculous also said that they require a monthly "membership" fee now. Bahhhh! I hate having to go search for good deals on business cards again.

West Highland Terrier Amigurumi

I had a swap recently with someone who had a west highland terrier. So I tried my hand at making a westie amigurumi! I think he turned out pretty cute!

My Latest ACEO

This is my latest ACEO. I was going to keep all my aceos to the alteredartqueens, but figured if they're fantasy related, I'll keep them on my original etsy shop. I love the way this turned out and the pictures just don't capture it at all.

Auroa goddess of dusk, streams across the sky dropping her star adorned jet hair across the land bringing in night. Her golden sunset crown sparks the last light in the sky before night falls.


The purple gets lost, and the oranges and reds just bleed together. It's hard to show off a lovely piece of artwork, when your scanner and camera don't want to particpate.

I've started painting again!

Thanks to swap-bot, I've picked up the paint again! This is my latest.

My swap partner liked the nouveau style. While this can't compete with the real thing, it's not a bad rendition. I love these gallery wrapped canvases (i think that's what they're called anyway) It allows you to bleed the work over the side. A great way for me to practice running my art "off the page" so to speak.

Finally! The Flower Fairies are BACK!

Check out my two newest flower fairies!


Triana the fairy of Goodness
Meet Triana! She's the fairy of Goodness. She's constantly there for a friend in need, does good deeds, always wants to help, and is just an all around good fairy. In her arms she' holds a lovely blue flower gift. It's her way of sharing the joy she gets out of giving!

and
Jemma the fairy of Wonderment

Meet Jemma! She's the fairy of childlike wonderment. She's the one who creates the joy and gleam of bubbles. She hand crafts all the gorgeous rainbow patterns that appear on bubbles. She's in charge of making the most interesting bugs irresistable to children. She makes sure they are dressed in their best glimmery, gleaming wings and shells to attract the most attention! She's great for keeping the amazing child-like wonder in the front of your mind

Yellow Floral Brooches

Here are some lovely yellow brooches soon to be listed in the
Altered Art Queens Shop

This one has two lovely purple and fuschia shell buttons highlighed with a single pearlized bead.

This one has one large central white disc bead.



Each one is backed in yellow felt with a pin back attached. The pin back is stitched over decoratively for long wearing durability. No wimpy glued pin backs here!

Check me out at the new shop!

I'm still on etsy under
Chelmorning/Viridian Muse Designs and also
The Altered Art Queens but I was introduced to a cute little new marketplace. So I'm giving it a try and hoping to make the best of it. You can see my new shop
Viridian Muse Designs on winkelf.com. I hope you'll come see me. I've got a few things listed already.

the carnation pink ribbon rosette pin:

The Grey Queen felted floral brooch:

and last but not least, another mini sprout!

Getting Ready for Christmas

"WHAT?!?! Christmas you say?? That's crazy, Christmas is a full three months away, nearly four if you take into consideration what's left of August."

Yes, but I'm actually late in planning for Christmas. Christmas shopping starts soon, and to have a fully stocked shop and things on hand for a holiday show or two, I should have started two months ago! I'm terrible for being on top of the holidays. I'm usually the one listing holiday things the week of the holiday. I'm trying very hard not to do that this year. I'm hoping that in the next few weekends I'll be able to put together a small bank of items to put on etsy, and a bunch of fairies to get listed. My fairies have been suffering since I took my current job a year ago. I haven't much time to create like I used to. Sure I like the money I make at my current job....but being able to craft on my down time would be nice.

So what's my goal this weekend? Well I've got a bunch of ornaments I'd like to get sew up, a few plush toys, and perhaps even an amigurumi or two. Now, that's a bit over the top, but if I get at least two of those ideas into play, I'll be quite happy!

Oh and here's some eye candy for you! :)

My newest Fairy Dotee!

I love the way this one turned out! It was so hard to send it out, but I did. Thankfully it was well recieved by my swap partner and her 3 year old daughter! I originally didn't inten to use these wings and was going to hand form a wire crown, but I absolutely love the way this all came together. I have to say she's one of my best dotees yet!

mm-checka mmmchecka mmm check it out!

Above you will see a lovely etsy mini of the wonderous talent of FAE and their Atlantis exhibition! SO much lovely art and craft, so little money to buy it all ;)


To see other fine FAE (Fantasy Art of ETSY) just search the tag FAETEAM in the search bar at ETSY

WOW! Check out the FAE Visions of Atlantis Exhibition!

The amazing artists of FAE (the fantasy artists of etsy) have submitted beautiful Atlantian beauties for your perusal! Check it out and perhaps you might find that perfect something for someone special!!!! Visions of Atlantis

wowza! too long between posts!

Well it's been far too long between posts again. I've been kind of under a creative funk, and kind of (well ok, reallllllly)overly busy. It's been a little sad and depressing to be honest.

I've been dabbling in projects that take under an hour or there about to make as that's about all the down time I have before going to bed to prepare for the new day to dawn. The Sprout series of Amigurumi have been keeping me pretty happy. Their constantly popping up and making things happy. They're also something I can do a bit "mindlessly" as they're pattern free. They're like my flower fairies, they come out with their own personalities as I crochet along.



I'm thinking of doing rain drops/water droplets and little flame characters too. I've got a bird or two to do and a request for a Kangaroo. I've sold two of my little Sheepies, and need to finish a third. Things are slowly picking up.

I need to prepare more fairies. My site is looking thin at the moment. I've got a bunch of bodies prepared, but getting them wrapped and dressed and decked out in their fairy finest takes a bit more time than I've had lately.

So my last creative offering for this post, is my two lovely little blue birds. It's a 5x7 watercolor piece that I've put into the The Altered Art Queens

That's all for now!

HOLY MOLEY! I'm winning!!!!

A lovely member of the FAE group is going through some really rough times medically. Numerous surgerys, and terrible pain. Some of the members have been doing some wonderful charity pieces of which the funds will be donated to Nora and her family to help defray costs.

I'm currently the highest bidder on this gorgeous piece from Battlemaide Studios! Check it out and maybe make a bid! Too lovely a piece to let it slip by, and an original no less! Seriously, I'm getting it at a steal if no-one outbids me!
here's the link! Go check it out!
http://battlemaidenart.blogspot.com/

New Dotee Doll

As I've been taking small breaks from work I've been working on this dotee. I think she turned out pretty amazing. I'm kind of getting bored with the dotees. While they're cute, and really easy to make, they're also a little boring to make. This one however piqued my interest. It was a "fairy" dotee. So I thought that would make it fun and give it an interesting twist. I tried something new with this one and used a rub on transfer in a few spots on her body. I wasn't sure how it was going to hold up and was pleasantly surprise that it stuck pretty well. To help in keeping it attached I glossed over it with gel medium. I'm come to the decision that it will work as long as you don't have any additional fabric scraps attached as I did on this one. As you can see in some of the images the bird transfer split right on the division of the green patch and where it's attached to the brown material. While most people would have found that incredibly frustrating I find it lends a kind of aged look to her. Like she's beena bit weathered. The wings are hand formed and wired by me. I found the wire loops in some jewelry findings and worked them into shape last night . They're not exactly perfect mates, one is slightly rounder than the other, but again I think it lends to her charm and just makes the hand crafted beauty of her that much more appealing. I did her in earth toned colors as that's what my swap partner likes. So I hope she likes this one! :)

I really like the way her face came out. I usually either paint the face, or embroider flat simplistic faces. This one took on a life of her own though! She really came out with a neat personality and grace. I did her nose in a build up trying to give it a bit of dimension. It looks pretty good, I'm not 100% happy with it, but it looks ok. Her "hair" of course is a manner of free form embroidery to help hold her face on it turned out pretty neat.

Over all I'm realitively happy with her! I'm going to work on some more in kind of the same fashion but with shaped bodies. I have been obsessed sketching out fairy dolls, in notebooks on breaks at work. Hopefully as soon as I get these Dia de Los Muertos books out of here I can get back into making my little flower fairies and fairy dolls.

My newest creations

Another Fairy

I did this for a swap on swap-bot. I love the way she turned out. I think I might start making little matchbox "suitcases" for the ones I sell on etsy. I think it's a fun little collection of goodies to go with the fairies.

NEW FAIRIES FOR 2008!!!

Yay my sencond Fairy for the new year. My first one went to a very special person! :) This is Antheia Queen of the Flowers. I love the way she turned out. She's so very purple and beautiful. I try to come up with a little blub story for each of my fairys. Most of the time they come to me while I'm creating the fairies themselves. As each fairy presents it's personality to me, a story usually emerges. I'm working on improving my photos of them to create more "wow" factor. I think this image is pretty, but I feel the background takes away from the fairy.

Her little story "She's the Queen and there's no doubting it. She loves to make sure all the flowers come up in time for the first spring blooming. Her favorites are the purple flowers of course, but she likes the other colors too. On her head she wears her little leaf crown and golden flower."


Another image of Antheia:

2008! It's here!

I'm hoping very much to spend a great part of 2008 creating things for my etsy shop. I had a pretty nice pace going there for awhile, and with my new job it kind of took a back seat. I'd love to take it back to full swing and really start pumping out wonderful handmade crafts.

FAE is top priority at the moment. The lovely people there at FAE are growing in leaps and bounds membership wise, and we're hoping to take the group to all kinds of new professional highs. We're looking to get into specialty magazines and publications geared toward our general buyer base.

In that respect there are tons of new ideas floating about from a brainstorming session with some of the lovely gals from FAE. They filled my head with all kinds of new package plans for my fairies, and ideas for new items! So if you like my fairies, keep your eyes peeled! They'll be arriving soooooon!

In the meantime, here's an old one to give some eye candy to the blog. It's sad it's been so bare lately.