Be Mine, Crafty Valentine

Happy half-priced candy day! I hope all my lovely readers enjoyed their day of flirtatious frivolity (Or grump, as you prefer.) With all my Valentine cards delivered I can now them share with you, so here's the highlights from this year's collection of very punny crafting cards.

Because we all know, a crafter's first love is the fiber! (Or string, or paper, or wood, or whatever we made things from...) Happy V-Day!

Kickstarter - Almost there!

 Readers, as many of you know I have spent the last year launching and updating a webcomic - Root & Branch. (Click the link and go read it!)

It follows the story of a young Elf setting out on a journey of discovery to fulfill a secret quest. Last year I completed 116 pages of story, and it's ready to publish in print!

This means that it includes not only the same story pages from the Website, but also extra art for chapter covers. Not to mention the book cover!

We're about 80% funded (woohoo!) and with only six days to get that last fifth we need your help! In fact, I've created a Stretch Goal to encourage folks - Adult Coloring Pages. That's right, if we can not only meet the $2000 goal but shatter it and reach $3000 then all the backers will get coloring pages added to their rewards!

 There's other neat rewards available, besides the book (which is going to be AWESOME!) One could get lovely art prints, a cameo appearance in the story, or even a hand sewn tabard!

 If you cannot back the project (Click that linky right there,) please share with folks you know! Together we can make this thing!

Painted Postcards - Suomenlinna and Estonia

Another round of cards done! I'll need to really hop on these to send to my whole list before I leave!

 A tiny house, on a tiny island, in the bay near Helsinki

 Bunkers and gun posts on Suomenlinna, Helsinki across the water.

Ruins of the University Church in Tartu

 A tree lined road at the Manor in Oluvestere.

Painted Postcards - Iceland

In my downtime on the trip (Ha!) I'm starting to paint postcards for folks back home. It's hard to decide what kind of nice view will be good for painting, and what is interesting enough to receive it in the mail! I've been idealizing a bit, which solves problems of lighting, and of course all those (other) pesky tourist standing in the way.

 This first batch is Iceland! A lovely vintage boat a the Maritime Museum.

 The view of Hallgrimskirkja from the Perler - the water tower for the whole city. Funny thing - since it's all geothermal heat, the hot water actually arrives in the house in a separate pipe, it flows through radiators for heat and makes every shower into a hot springs. Pretty awesome!

Looking out across the Bay from downtown Reykjavik. It was a short swing through this wonderful city, I will have to make plans to return again!

Painted Postcard

I'm currently preparing, both mentally and packing-wise, for my upcoming trip to Europe! I won't be bringing all my art supplies, so I'm deciding how small I can trim it. I was at the art store looking at wee sketchpads and the like, and I spotted the blocks of postcard sized watercolor paper.

So I grabbed a pack, and sat down with this picture of Iceland. I timed myself to see if I could produce a reasonable piece while sitting outside. 30 minutes to a finished product!

I think I will bring a few of these blocks and send the folks back home a hand-painted memory.

My Webcomic Project!

Have you been wondering, gentle readers, why I have been making less crafty stuff as of late? Since the first of the year I've been working on a webcomic, with the goal of finishing a sheet of artwork every three days. Each page is storyboarded, drawn, inked, and colored by hand. I then hand it off to my good friend for a little digital clean-up and lettering.

The Comic is now in full swing and publishing two days a week! I'm hoping, if I can maintain a good pace and still do quality work, to go to three days a week after I return from my trip. Please go check it out Root & Branch, bookmark it, and come back regularly. I've also been sharing my working sketches and progress pics at my Sketchbook Tumblr. Don't worry, I'll still be making fiber and fabric things, it's in my nature...

Mini-Me!

I took a leap and finally painted the miniature I've been using for three years! It's one of the white plastic ones, so I imagine it's a bit different from the pewter figurines.

TIL - Those little ridges left from the casting are actually really large, next time I will carve them off. There is a lot of back and forth with the paint as little bits keep getting where it does not belong! Next time I'll mix a bit more of each color and keep it moist to do touch ups. Smaller brushes. This is seriously waaaay tinier than I really realized!

I have a handful of other figures that I'm now plotting to paint, more color on the board! I might fix this one's crazy hair bump too...

Tumblr Wumblr

In case anyone is wondering, I've been focusing on a new project since the first of the year. Thus, there has been a little less sewing/spinning/knitting/general making of crafty things. I decided, instead of using this blog to post updates and sketches for my upcoming Webcomic that I will be posting to a Tumblr blog.

Visit my Sketchbook Blog to see what I've been drawing lately!

Critters Valentines

I made these for my co-workers, roommate, and Mr. Crafty. Now I have to decide who gets each adorable one!

Painting - What I did on my January Vacation.

January has always been my slowest month for bag sales. After the shopping orgy of the Yuletide people seem to be broke and tired and generally not buying much. (Who can blame them?) Many years I've spent the month getting my inventory together and signing up for fairs, but this year I decided to take some time off from the business entirely. Other than Etsy and answering E-mails I didn't sew a stitch for Green Jeans!

But, I was not idle! I've been working for some time on a graphic novel idea, last year at Anomaly Con I met a number of local comic artist who were very inspiring, and I spent months doing sketches and honing stories. I decided at the turning of the new year to stop preparing and start doing! Done, after all, is better than perfect.

And so, after one month I have 10 pages of story, drawn, inked and colored with watercolors. I'm working on finding someone with more computer skills than I to do the lettering, I'm not crazy enough to do everything myself. I'll keep updating on this project, I expect to launch in the spring.

What do you do when you take time off from your number one hobby? (In my case, numbers 1-5)

Painting Again

 It's time now to finish up the house painting project, or at least one more room of it. I'll have a new roommate next month, and an exchange student. I wanted to get all the guest rooms taken care of before anyone shows up!

 First came all the prep work. As I have painted this house it has become very clear to me that many people skip this step. There is carpet fuzz stuck to the trim, and switch plates painted to the walls. I took a razor scraper and removed all the funky stuff on the trim. I also patched the big holes in the walls that we used to bolt up bookshelves. Some were really really big *guilty look*.


We then painted the trim white. For some reason simply painting the trim a different color than the walls makes any room look twice as good...

Look at that fabulous green! I wanted light enough to be a bright room, but not pastel at all, and Mr. Crafty vetoed lime green.

My partner in crime (future roommate) did the roller-ing, while I took the green up to the ceiling and flush with the trim. The green glow from the walls mixes nicely with the yellow glow from the sun.

It'll need another coat of roller-ing to get an even color, but I'm already in love with it! This is going to be our young spainiard's room, so I get to do a little bit of decorating for it! I'm on the lookout for some nice lush landscapes and rich red sunsets to hang!

Have you tried a major color change in your house? What color would your dream room be?

Blog Break, I've Been Busy

Sorry for the lack of post lately, I've been doing hard corp cleaning and organizing, not to mention getting around to the painting I wanted to do when I moved into the house! I've got two rooms done in rich red and brilliant turquoise, I'm planning on a green room and and light green breakfast nook. I'll be back to my usual "light crafts" soon...

If you give a Pink a Paintbrush...

Art supplies are on back to school sale, canvases were BOGO... 'nuff said.