Another Art Show How To (or this is how I did it; packaging edition)

If you're just finding this post and haven't read my previous post where I focus on creating an eye catching display using mostly materials I already had on hand click here and catch up. I'll be adding a link there to this post so you'll be able to find your way back.

The drawers we used for display, the one in front is
filled with our ornaments, tissue
and our packaging

So while I was spending the last few years making mental notes about the best ways to do a craft/ art sale some pretty cool ideas were filed away in the back of my head. One of my favourite blogs from an artist who has some pretty fantastic ideas and tutorials for this type of stuff/ not to mention just in general is ArtMind. She's posted tutorials on making your own scratch cards, contemporary price tags, adding your brand to your packaging and of course recycled bags. Mitzi of Artmind is someone who I would love to emulate. She spends her days being super creative and artistic, she's major organized and she loves sharing her ideas.

Our folded envelopes and Tissues

While I was sitting down on the computer to find her tutorial on making the recycled bags (which is something that I will be using in future, when I have way more time and a lot more energy to plan for a show) I started to think about other options that would be less time consuming, use less materials to create and would be self contained. Add in the Peanut's recent obsession with origami and I decided to look up folded envelopes as an option for creating packaging. I came across a tutorial for a simple origami envelope that was self contained, required less than half a minute to do for each envelope and was self closing.

I played around with different paper sizes to get the best package size and decided to use the holiday themed scrapbooking paper I had got on sale last year and that full 12"x12" sheets that were the best bet. They were a little bigger than the ornaments but if I was factoring in tissue to cushion the glass and business cards the larger envelope was the way to go. Also using a full sheet meant I wasn't spending my time measuring and trimming paper before getting down to the business of folding.

Detail of the branding we attached to each envelope

The packages we wrapped our ornaments in looked elegant and charming which fit with our branding and were eye catching to boot. I wrapped each ornament in it's own envelope so that they could be given away as gifts without further need for wrapping. They will look beautiful placed on a tree branch filled with our ornaments or another charming little gift. I used the clear ink jet sticker sheets to print off our shop name and web address and attached them to each envelope as well so the person who bought the ornaments has another reminder to check out our online shop and the person receiving the ornaments can check us out too. One of my customers even asked if I was selling the envelopes which may not have been a bad idea...

To keep the ornaments safe once we sent them off with new owners (to be hung on trees, attached to floral arrangements or gifted to someone special) we used gift wrapping tissue paper from the dollar store. Also from the dollar store we picked up a booklet of receipts to give to customers as well as a decorative book to collect names and email addresses to use in future marketing.

 Next post will talk a little about money and payment options. 

Deep Deep Breaths or There's nothing quite as exhilerating as jumping in with very little prep

Oh boy; so I went and gone and done it.

An assortment of snowflake ornaments

The Peanut's school's PAC sent home a request for items for a silent auction that they hold as a fundraiser every year. Last year the husband and I attended the event for a short hour and a half before heading downtown to see The Watchmen (one of our all time favourite Canadian rock bands) perform at a grey cup party. While we were there, we bought the Peanut's art pieces that she made for the sale and also a few other gifts for family and friends. This year we have no other obligations and are excited to be there all night long.

The Bean's Peacock ornament I made for her last year

I've been playing with the idea of approaching them next year to have a table at the sale. It's well attended and the people who attend are there to spend some money, it's a fund raiser after all and also an amazing place to get holiday shopping done and dealt with. So I thought to get my feet wet I'd dip a toe in and offer a set of three ornaments for their silent auction and perhaps inquire about setting up a table for the following year. They replied with an invitation to set up a table this year and now I'm awash in excitement and panic in equal measure.

This Year's ornaments for the girls; the first of as many
as I can put together over the next few weeks

We have about 60 finished ornaments sitting in boxes that can be sold right away and about 60 more that can be soldered if need be. Is that enough? should I include other things? The Peacocks I created last year? I have 5 of them in various states of finished; read all done to still needing a first coat of paint. The felt trees I've been making this year? I can make about 3 or four a day if I don't embellish them with stitchery and beads.

What do I have on hand to display with? What do I need still? What should I build my banner with? Should I have one? Should I price individually or use signage since all my ornaments are the same price across the board? A Float how much change should I have on hand? Packaging, business cards, mailing list, artist bio..... on top of keeping up with the laundry, feeding the family and making sure the Peanut is picked up from school and the Bean isn't drawing on the couch with permanent marker (true story) and also dealing with her recent habit of getting up at 4, 4:30 and 5AM. I have one pretty full plate.

One of my intentions for this coming year is to take any reasonable opportunity and keep up any momentum that builds so that I keep moving forward. I could have politely declined the offer of the table. I could have stepped back and made plans for next year instead. Instead I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and accepted. I've been reading up on doing shows, I've got a list of display items I'd love to be able to put to use, some that I can only dream of and others that I have on hand and or can put together simply and elegantly (I hope).

So the roller coaster is starting up that first big hill, the trick will be to keep those cars on track after that first hill. Any good advice out there?

Trying Something New

A Painting the Peanut & I did together

can be daunting. Especially when you go from working in a medium that you have become so comfortable working in, that the process is mostly a focus on bringing about your vision instead of learning the aspects of that medium and how to work within the medium to get the finished product that is in your minds eye.

For example changing your drawing medium from pen and ink to brush and ink. With pen and ink you draw using lines, crosshatching or scribbles for building up your shadows. After a certain amount of time you don't really think about where your pen tip is going how your marks are being made you just look at your subject and draw, or int he case of drawing from your head you just draw. If one day you decide to try something different and pull out a bamboo brush and a jar of india ink the process of drawing becomes a little more about using that medium instead of the medium as a means to an end. With ink and brush you start with light washes, working from light to dark, it's a slower process, the ink dries in a specific way and the look of the sketch is softer. if you are working wet into wet you get unexpected blends and unexpected hard lines where the wet areas have dried. The process becomes focused on the medium and you start to look at your subject differently. When that happens there's growth in your art.

Snapshot from my phone

Of course one of the daunting aspects is that what you're making isn't going to be perfect, that there are going to be less than ideal and unpredictable outcomes. The trick is to use the newness of the medium to let go of the finished project. Make the process the goal instead of the final piece; at least until you've gotten to really really know the medium. Of course that's not as easy as it sounds when you put it down in words. Creating something be it a drawing, a photograph, painting or sculpting is a personal thing. Becoming invested in what you are creating is inevitable. there's the time invested, the money that goes into buying the materials, the imagination and the effort. All those things put together make it almost impossible to give up control, to relinquish the desire to put what is being worked on up on a pedestal. A good friend just posted about this very thing on her blog. She put is so perfectly that I felt I had to address the same subject here.

Why? well because I made a decision at the end of last year that I was going to reintroduce myself to the basics of creating. You know, in between dealing with a busy Bean and a precocious Peanut. It's not always easy but to motivate me I've started following the Sketchbook Challenge and I've started photographing on a daily basis with an iphone. (getting past the camera has to be a camera mindset helps a little. My camera snobbery was holding me back, especially when I was worried about braining the Bean with my heavy SLR when she'd need to be picked up.) I'm more prolific with the camera right now but that's not what's important. What is important is that I'm making time to create and the process is more important than the final outcome.

Doodles from my sketchbook a la
The Sketchbook Challenge

Giving myself permission to make mistakes, push past them and go too far, to reign it back in and push too far again to go so far that there's no turning back, no fixing it. To let go. It seems like taking advantage of that permission is the greatest challenge. So what about you? do you sometimes find that you are holding on too tightly to what you're creating that you aren't letting it grow? I remember a drawing class where after a set amount of time we stood up moved to the next space and continued on the drawing that our neighbor had just left... I still cringe at the thought of letting go of my ownership of that piece of paper...

Things come together in stages

So, some back story to our project seems to be in order.

The original idea was to incorporate the hand sewn embellished art that I was using for greeting cards. The plan was to create 1" x 3" hand sewn water colours sandwiched between glass microscope slides and soldered.

As with most ideas, this one expanded in the brainstorming process into something that could be personalized, something that was more elaborate and on and on and on. Of course the brainstorming ideas became more and more fantastic so there was some reigning in. Then came the part where I started to put some of my ideas to work. Well, I tried to put them to work but with one thing or another the ideas didn't quite mesh with the physical objects. What we had originally planned was put on the back burner while I put my old noggin towards figuring out a solution.

One day while I was re-organizing my supplies (something I do a few times a year to get my workspace cleaned off and to help jump start my desire to make things) I came across the stash of glass paints that I'd used to decorate wine glasses for gifts one year. I had glass slides and I had glass paint, I could do something with them both (once again making the whole having to clean my workspace up worth while).

tIn the early stages of a new project I like to play around with materials to see what works, what works best and what isn't really working at all. In this case I started painting directly onto the glass slides that make up the ornaments. I used an applicator bottle and drew trees, and snowflakes onto the slides and squished them together creating some interesting bubbles and shrinkage. I waited for the paint to dry and then sandwiched them giving me a more predictable finish. Then I smeared paint onto the slides and drew into the tacky finish before sandwiching; interesting but not a graphic as I wanted.

Then I got the idea to try stamping into the glass paint. Being a closet print maker; the idea to carve my own relief blocks for use in this project (as well as for greeting cards and possibly for gift wrapping our holiday gifts or making gift tags) was naturally the next step. Also having a stash of safety-cut print making blocks was a great incentive.

I decided to use stamps that I had carved myself to keep my designs as unique as possible. I do have a few bought stamps that I have used on some of the pieces along with my own designs but the bulk of the designs are mine. I've added some photos of the stamps I've carved and used for you to look at.

The launch date for the new line is right round the corner. I've been busy getting listing descriptions, materials and shipping info ready to upload on Monday. I'll be starting with a about 5 ornaments and then listing a few more every other day or so. In addition, we'll be looking for brick and mortar selling opportunities as well.

This stage of the process is daunting, it's like taking that giant leap into the unknown, the only thing to do is to take a deep breath and dive.

As promised

I'm offering you a sneak peek of the new line of holiday ornaments going into PeanutButterPie this coming Monday.

The husband touched on his part in the operation a few posts ago. The starting point for an ornament is the design and cutting of a rubber stamp made from a soft rubber print making block. Before photography I was a printmaking major. Using relief printmaking as a part of the process has been an awesome way to reintroduce that old love back into my creative process. The image I carve into the block is pressed into glass paint. I love how the image looks in the initial impression and I adore the second and third impressions that I get from the blocks, each ornament has it's own look and feel.



I have to say that I am just tickled by how well the photo shoot went on Monday. The reason I'm so pleased is how well the props worked with the ornaments. The combination of the lights and the wire tree that I used for display was so much fun putting up.

Come back tomorrow for this week's installment of a Thousand Words.

And now I'll let the Husband speak

So, I was painting and playing and putting ideas together and there was this big stack of 1" x 3" wafers of glass coated in some intense jewel tones, glittering and sparkling with duo-tone colours. And the husband was sitting across the table from me; soldering iron in hand with wires and circuit boards, resistors and all sorts of electronic gew gaws spread around, building stomp boxes for his bass.

And this is where the idea to work together started. The rest of this post is about the Husband's role in the process and because it's all about the work he's putting in I figured it should be in his words; Reader's meet the Husband:

I guess it started as my sweetie said above....an idea about glass pieces bound together with soldered-copper. When she asked me if I could solder them, I said (of course)...sure. Of course, I had no idea how difficult or different copper foil soldering would be from electronics soldering.

Soldering itself is a bit of an art form. I got into basic electronics a few years ago, and I'm probably still not as good as I should be (even after 50 or so projects). That's why I push myself to do as many as possible; to get myself better. Soldering electronics or art pieces isn't something that can be necessarily taught. It just takes lots of practice to get the perfect bead.

The main difference between electronics and the sun catchers that we are working on is the type of solder used. When I'm working on my electronics I use a 63/37 mix of tin and lead. For the sun catchers, I use a tin/copper or tin/silver copper solder, otherwise known as "lead free". Lead is not necessarily good for the environment, or me for that matter (maybe that's what's wrong with me), but lead-free solder is a royal PITA to work with. Actually solder in general is a royal PITA to work with.

The trick with soldering is adhesion, and that depends on two factors: the getting the right temperature and keeping your surface clean, clean, clean.... If you do not have either, then the solder does not flow and becomes an ugly blob called a "cold solder joint"; more of an electronics term, I know, but seems to apply to doing art pieces as well. The metal (or copper) and the solder have to be at the right temperature to flow properly. Either way, blobs are not good and look ugly. What you want is the solder to melt onto your copper foil in a smooth liquid finish called a bead.

My biggest challenge with doing our project was getting the solder (PITA) to stick to the copper. At first we experimented with different sizes of lead free solder. When we started, the glass supply store where we got our stuff sold us this plumber-sized stuff which was essentially useless. It was quite thick and I could never get it hot enough. After doing a little digging, I switched to a 1.0mm lead free solder (bought at my local electronics store), and that was easier to work with. I have more control of the bead I'm producing and it gets to the right temperature quickly.

The other part is the "clean, clean, clean" part. Metal, specifically copper becomes oxidized with exposure to air. "Flux" (a chemical cleaning agent that facilitates soldering) is used to clean the joint before soldering to remove the oxidation. At first we used liquid "acid" flux which we bought at the previously mentioned glass arts store. In Electronics, the solder is typically impregnated with flux, and it is usually "rosin" based as opposed to acid. Over time, I found the acid liquid flux hard to work with, it was messy and because I had to apply it as I was soldering it lengthened the process. Through trial and error I ended up switching to the impregnated flux, and I found it made a better (cleaner) solder joint which was much quicker.

The copper banding that we use for our project tends to oxidize very quickly, so we started to rough up the copper using scotch-pad it as well. Another PITA, but necessary for everything to look good. I'm reminded of a post on a electronics forum with respect to why a member's pedal wasn't working. The obviously-experienced response was; "well, it could be one of three things"

1. Bad or cold solder joint
2. Bad or cold solder joint
3. Bad or cold solder joint

Meaning your solder wasn't the right temperature to connect or there was no connection made with the solder. I guess my biggest challenge (once the equipment and supplies were sorted) was just getting a nice bead without "lumps". In electronics, you just need a nice little "volcano" where the component meets the circuit board. With a sun catcher, I am actually working on a much bigger surface and I want it to look nice as well!

All in all, it's lots of fun (like I need an excuse to solder) and it's great to be doing something together with the love of my life (and no, I'm not talking about my bass).

walking and other stuff

we're doing a lot of walking around here. Yesterday we walked about 20 blocks with a break for lunch and the library and another 8 after dinner. The Peanut was so worn out she slept in this morning.

Even with all that walking my blood glucose was a little high after lunch. I have plans to ask the dietitian about that; if I need to worry. In other pregnancy news the Bean hit the Sciatic nerve today while I was walking with the Peanut. Can I just say that I hope that it's not a reoccurring condition? Youch! I can no longer see my feet when I stand up unless I lean forward. I'm suffering from daily bouts of acid reflux and dosing myself with antacids to put out the burn. Putting on socks has become a gymnastic event and the jeans I bought have a little too much stretch in them so I'm constantly yanking them up when I'm walking. and other than those, things are going pretty well; from the back you can't even tell I've got a baby on board...

In the product launch area, we are still working. The husband has been working on a guest post that talks about his part in our collaboration. I'll put it up here sometime this week to keep you all in the loop.

It all came together because...

I think I've mentioned once or twice that the husband is a musician . When he was younger (in his reckless teens) he played guitar but he never really stuck with it. A few years ago while hanging out at our good friends place he picked up a bass and they started jamming together. In those days the husband's hobby was open wheel kart racing.

Racing took him out of town on weekends where he spent a lot of time working on his kart and very little time inside it because of break downs, and tune ups. It was an expensive hobby what with the traveling, racing fees, engines, tires, safety gear and speciality tools; and it was stressful. Normally a hobby is something you do to bring joy into your life; racing was like a second job; one that demanded that he pay the wages with very little job satisfaction.

Once he picked up the bass he was hooked; it wasn't long before the kart was up for sale and the husband's new addiction er, I mean hobby was in full swing. One side effect of playing music was the search for the perfect sound...

Enter Stomp boxes. First there was the buying of stomp boxes and then came building them himself. Building boxes included some soldering and that's where our collaboration took root.

This is how we started

It's a bit of a family tradition that we get a new tree ornament each year. Growing up I always had a new one to put on the tree Christmas morning (in fact my Mom still sends a new ornament every year attached to a gift), it's something we've been doing with the Peanut since she was on the inside and something that we'll be doing for the Bean starting this year.

Last year I bought some glass microscope slides with the intention of sandwiching some hand sewn illustrations on the inside (which didn't work the way I wanted it to and is still on my work table collecting dust while I adjust my plan to accommodate the snag that came from my first try). I did happen to have a stash of glass paint from a stint of wine glass painting we'd done as gifts another year so I pulled them out to do a little playing.

I brushed and smeared the paint onto the glass, added some pigments to the mix and smooshed the slides together while the paint was still wet to see what would happen. I put some paint into an applicator and doodled, I pulled out a stamp I'd cut out of safety cut for thank you cards and stamped into the paint... I played. Which as any other creative type knows is how new projects and techniques are born. Some of my attempts were awful, others pretty and still others simply stunning. All that was left was to get some stained glass supplies and solder the edges for a cleaner look. And that's where I hit a snag... the little procrastination monster reared his head and the new stuff just got put off and off until my birthday rolled around. By then I'd decided the danger of me wielding a hot soldering iron was too much and the collaboration between myself and the Husband was born.

Once we got our fist batch finished we had some pretty fantastic tree ornaments for our holiday tree. I'll be posting a bit more on the project over the next few days with a guest post from the husband in there so he can explain his process and why I roped him into this project.

How about you? have you ever started working in a collaboration with another? What was that like for your process?

Shifting the balance

My posts lately have been very heavy on the family life theme. It's been easy to get into that vein, what with the Bean growing daily, The Peanut snuggling up to us every chance she gets, family moving close, parents coming to visit and the myriad of related activities that go along with all those things; there's not much time to focus on the creative side of life.

It's not that I haven't been doing anything creative, I just haven't had the chance to write about them until now. I have been working on a few projects over the last few months. The hand embroidered ladybug curtain I started 2 years ago for the Peanut is nearly finished, with less than a foot left to fill with ladybugs and then finishing off the back the end is in sight. I opened it up for my parents to see when they were here and it is stunning. I can't wait to hang it up in the Peanut's room.

I've also been working on some Fairy Godmother blessings for some new arrivals and one overdue little bundle. I've created small pieces of nursery wall art that incorporates the babies names as well as some special wish gifts for the babies whose walls will be adorned with my little paintings. I first did a nursery blessing a few years ago when my oldest friend gave birth to her first child. Each little ladybug had it's own little wish attached. My latest paintings are a little more illustrative; for the painting I am working on for my Cousin's baby, who was just born last week I've painted a small landscape with a tree, grass and sky where a little husky dog sits. My newest cousin's name is Connor (strong willed, hound lover) Russel (little red). I'll be adding my wishes today and tomorrow and then I'll be sending the finished product off in the mail with a few more baby goodies. Once it's made it to it's destination I'll post a picture here, until then I'll keep it under wraps so that the new parents get the first peek.

But that's not all that we've been up to around here. I mentioned a little while back that the Husband and I have been working together on a new project for the currently empty PeanutButterPie (PBP) on Etsy. We were fortunate enough to find a buyer for our first batch of sun catchers through a contact of the Ma-in-Law. Since our full inventory was cleared out, PBP has remained sadly empty. But not for long. The husband and I have been busy working on more inventory and I have plans to unveil our new product line to PBP in the next few weeks; just in time for the winter holiday season!

I'll be posting some project specific posts over the next little while to share with you what we are making, how we're doing it and some of the ideas that led us to our new project. I have to say that it's been an incredible growing experience for the both of us as well as a fantastic way for us to spend some time together.

What have you been up to?

It's that time again

you know, when I start to think a little too much about where things are going and what direction I want to go in; whether it's to continue along the way I've been going or to stop things all together and start something new.

It may be the pregnancy hormones talking but I'm feeling the need for a little change. It could just be that this summer has been spent with little to no time on creative pursuits so it could just be that I'm feeling the need to get things back on track. In either case I'm thinking I'm needing a little bit of both. As August ends I'll be getting my creative space back into working order and getting started on some new projects.

But before that happens I'll be getting in a few more trips to the beach, birthday celebrations, a trip to the Fair and a visit with my parents (who are headed out here for a visit-Yay!)

A Thousand Words

One of the things I'm working on

Go ask Alice....

Here's the thing about Disney's Alice; it creeps me out. Watching it as a child awoke some deep seated anxieties about loss of control that the book just doesn't stir up for me, perhaps it's because the Disney version is so sterile while trying to be surreal (for the record, Fantasia made me feel the same way)...

Anyway, I much preferred the live action versions I saw on TV growing up and the books; maybe that's why I'm so excited about Tim Burton's Alice which opens next month. So excited, that I've been a little busy re-exploring Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Not only have I been going back into the books and re-reading but I've also gotten a little creative with John Tenniel's Illustrations.

Last week I mentioned that I'd gotten out, and had been able to make some art at Blim. Since I've been working a lot with glass and paint (more on that project later); the opportunity to play in Photoshop, work with paper and glue and scissors was like a breath of fresh air.

Generally, the creative work I do is 100% mine; from the drawings and paintings for my embellished cards, ATC's and nursery blessings to the photographs in TMCPhoto. Sometimes you just have to go in another direction to keep the creative momentum going. Making use of Tenniel's illustrations was a great jumping point for me. The Blim workshop was a wonderful opportunity to work with ready made images, incorporating some of the newer things I've been working on at the same time. At the end, I was excited and brimming with ideas, planning another trip to make more!

In preparation for my workshop, I scanned some of Tenniel's illustrations into Photoshop, adding colour here and there, cropping the images into a circular format and resizing them to fit the button diameters available at Blim. These were printed off and put aside for the workshop. I made all my illustrations into 1.5" and 1" diameters just because I like those two sizes. This process took me a full day to do what with the details of adding colour without removing the original lines of the illustrations and keeping the Peanut occupied.

For the workshop, I brought some of the rubber stamps I've been carving, some alphabet stamps I've recently purchased and some markers and ink pads for inking up the stamps. I made use of some of decorative papers and the art and fashion magazines Blim had handy for collage and went to work cutting, pasting and putting my buttons together. Because I had plans to make my buttons into magnets I took the pins off of the button backs before putting the pieces and my art into the machines for pressing.

Of course I went into the workshop with only a hazy idea of what I'd like to do and there were some less than lovely pieces that came home with me (yay for learning!) and also some pretty fantastic ones too. What I liked about the workshop was that as I was cutting and pasting I was also thinking of all the other things I could add to the process. Since then I've carved a few new stamps for more Alice magnets (teacups and skeleton keys were my first ideas) and I'm also thinking about other images too.

Out of the 25 button/magnets that I created, I've put together four sets of 3 buttons that I'll be selling in PeanutButterPie. I'll be listing the first set of three this afternoon and I hope they attract some interest. I know they're already attracting interest on my refrigerator, where I've already put some to good use holding up some of the Peanut's more fantastic works of art.

Are you excited about the new Alice Movie too?

I had a night out

last night.

I've been playing with the idea of taking a workshop at Blim for quite a while now. Last week I finally got around to registering for a workshop.

What's Blim? Well based on their web site:

BLIM is a Community Based Art Resource Center which facilitates screen-printing, button making, drawing, knitting, local underground audio, film screenings, animation, video, dance, spoken word, visual art, creative workshops, and crafts in the independent field.

Based on my experience Blim is a funky open studio/ retail space with a super helpful director Yuriko Iga; who facilitated our workshop and made sure that the workshop atmosphere was comfortable and enjoyable. I took the collage button making workshop and I am so excited about the whole process and the fact that I can now attend open studio there and have access to the button making tools. It was a small workshop, with only two other participants, so access to the cutting tools and button machines was pretty open. If you live in BC's lower mainland and want to try a little arty fun I give them a big thumbs up! You can find out more about them here.

A few things I'll keep in mind for my next visit:

1.5" button images have to be cut by hand (past participants have used heavy card and glued on paper which has made the 1.5" cutter unusable), I'll have mine done before I go so that I can get right to the machines. If I'm going to collage I'll also have that done to my 1.5" too.

1" and 2" buttons can be cut at the studio, I'll have collage extra's ready for these too so that all I'll have to do is glue extra bits onto my images

I'll make my 1" images a little bigger than I had them (my print outs turned out to be a little smaller than 1").

I did some Alice in Wonderland buttons. I'm planning on altering the buttons to make them into fridge magnets.

I was so inspired last night that I also have ideas for some hand carved stamps that I'll be able to use with the Alice Images and ideas for Alice related photographs....

If all goes well I'll be listing some of these in PeanutButterPie soon. The shop has been sitting empty for months as I've been focusing more on Photography and putting time and effort towards some other new projects that I'll be listing there soon. I've been busy making and creating over the last few months and I'm hoping to keep up the pace. How about you? have you done anything new lately?

Imbolc Card Exchange

So I mentioned last month that I was signing on for the Imbolc Art Card Exchange over at Chasing Domestic Bliss. Well, my card came and I was so pleased with it (well pleased doesn't really cover it). It's so beautiful.

My card was sent to me from Ink'd Indigo and based on her post about making the card, she put a lot of thought and energy into her creation, I even loved the embellishments on the outside of the envelope.


Everything about the card spoke to fire and the strengthening of the sun, from the red and yellow insert inside;



to the collage that really really really makes me think of sitting around a campfire under the stars or dancing around a ritual bonfire to welcome back the sun.


The card is now sitting in a place of honour where I can look up at it any time I want and I have plans to frame it too.


The card I sent out was received too and I'm so happy that my recipient; Lyneya from Doing Something About It likes it. I ended up scanning one of the paintings I did for the Peanut's Bedroom and using a sun stamp I had carved to embellish the inside. I had made a collage lamb, but I pushed it too far and it's now sitting on my workbench waiting to be turned into something new.

This was my first time participating in an exchange, I've always wanted to; mostly because I love the idea of giving something to someone and finding out what they think of what I've made; but also because I love the idea of sharing creative ideas and energies. One of the downsides of leaving art school is that all of a sudden there isn't that communal creative energy to draw upon.

In my last year of art school I made an effort to create a group of people that could continue that energy but it kind of fell apart half way through the year and now I don't really keep in touch with many of the people who were in that group. Those that I do talk to are now only acquaintances, people I only talk to once or twice a year.

Thankfully I've been able to find like minded people through blogging and on Etsy. This exchange was so much fun and if Jen doesn't hold another I may just step in and hold the next one.

I've been caught

by the productivity bug. I've been busy busy working on new things and posting new items, and getting down to home pre-schooling the Peanut. All of which has meant that the blog has been a little neglected.

It's a tough situation this blogging to support your online store and wanting to keep the online store fresh and interesting. Over the last six months PeanutButterPie has been a very neglected enterprise (mainly because I've been re-thinking the direction of the shop and also just as mainly I've been putting more focus on TMCPhoto). I know I'm not alone in the problem of having blogging time cut into creating time, trying to find a working balance between the two and keeping up with the Peanut is what I'm now working on. This could mean more sporadic posts or shorter posts or wordless posts or any number of post types until I've reached a working balance.

Personally I'm leaning towards mostly wordless posts. I've gotten back into shooting on a regular basis again and I'm creating a nice pool of photographs to pull from.

in the meantime I'm once again spending time over at Mrs. B's 31 Days of Halloween. She's got some pretty cool giveaways today:

Giveaway #1 is a copper wire embellished wand: perfect for the Peanut to use at night to magic away the scary night time monsters

Giveaway #2 is for a beautiful pair of Whisky Quartz earrings. I don't have a US mailing address so I'm out of the running for that prize :(

Giveaway #3 is for a bat covered handmade tarot bag with handcrafted spell candles and a bag of Witches britches all natural herbal divination incense.

there are also two guest bloggers today and of course another spooky stop on the haunted blog tour you can see all of it here

House Keeping and new Business

Back in July I held my first give-away,, in some ways it was a great success, I received lots of great feedback gained some new followers and I learned a lot from the process. I had lots of entries but the winner of the draw never replied to any of my messages regarding her prize.

What's a blogger to do? well I waited just in case a little time was needed but I can't wait any longer. Using the random number generator at Random.org I've drawn a new winner and that winner is Julie! I've contacted Julie via her email address and I am waiting for mailing information so I can get those photographs in the mail.

In other news I've been a busy little artist. I have started adding Artist Trading Card sized photographic prints in TMCPhoto. I'll be including my favourite prints from the shop in this size and adding any requests from you too. In fact I've added a poll here for you to pick which prints you'd like to see as an ACEO, please take a moment to let me know which ones you like.


I'm also working on a new project involving glass paints, microscope slides and solder. Here are a few examples:

Your questions please!

My original idea for my last post was to do what I'm doing in this post but when I sat down to write this post I couldn't concentrate on what I had planned on writing and instead you got my thoughts on a truly terrible situation that to be honest is still on my mind but I'm pushing past it and getting back down to business.

I'm gearing up for the return of the 5 question feature. I've got a list of shops and artists I want to feature and I'm truly excited about getting back into the swing of things.

The questions I use for this feature are a compilation of random questions that I find interesting to find out from artists I admire. To keep things fresh, fun and interesting I'd love to hear the questions that you'd ask the artists and artisans you admire.

Leave me a comment with your questions and I'll add them to my roster, with props to you of course!

Reply and kind of a rant or is it a motivational speech?

For those of you who read the comments on this blog, my latest post had a comment from Le ShallowGal, one of my favourite Blog Authors (as a huge Terry Pratchett fan I enjoy most writings that include humorous footnotes SG's posts are no exception. Go check out her blog now. It's OK I'll still be here when you get back).

In her comment, SG mentioned both her love of art supply stores and her lack of artistic ability. I replied to her Comment via email but I felt that my reply would also make some pretty good blog fodder too so here's an expanded reply that kind of went a little ranty and hopefully ended a little more motivational as opposed to a demanding lecture...

I can't even begin to tell you how many people say that they don't have a single creative bone, artistic bone, crafty bone.... in their body whenever they find out that I'm one of those "arty" people. The fact is that everyone is creative, case in point? Remember when you were a kid? a new box of crayons was a goldmine.

As we grow older, we're trained to consider art to be of lesser importance than other aspects of education. When budgets are cut, the first things that are threatened with the budget scissors are the art classes. It's kind of sad and it kind of makes me angry and it kind of puts me in the mind of home-schooling the Peanut so that we can keep the visual art as a big part of her education instead of slowly eliminating it as she grows older.

There is a misconception that creative talent is something that you have to be born with and that there are people out there who can just pick up a pencil and create master works from day one; and there are lucky souls out there who pick up a pencil at age two and can draw photo- representative images by age 13, their name is Picasso (this I think explains why we have cubism. The man had mastered rendering and got bored...) What we don't think about is that these people also work at what they do. Some people are more natural at it than others but the creativity still has to be nurtured. Natural talent is something that we are all born with.

What I'm getting at is that the Artistic bone can be cultivated. When I started art school I couldn't draw at all; some introductory art classes helped me learn, advanced classes helped me to grow and continuing to draw keeps my skill sharpened.

I'd suggest that the next time you find yourself haunting the art supply store to pick up a nice sketchbook and a pencil, even if you use it to just doodle swirly lines and tic tac toe's while you're talking on the phone, you can feel all artistic and creative without too much risk. After a while you might feel confident enough to graduate up to paints... or not; just don't let the fact that you can only draw a stick man stop you from drawing a stick man.

branching out or at least that's the plan

Saturday we went on a family adventure to the Glass Art Supply store in Vancouver.

We'd been talking about going there for months now. I've been playing with a few ideas in the back of my mind and thought there was no time like waiting a good four months to go out and get the supplies for a new project.

In my defense, the Peanut keeps us pretty busy most of the time, and up until a little while ago she needed needed needed a nap in the middle of the day. Don't get me wrong, she still needs the nap most days but it's a little easier to miss it now that she's a little older.

I used some birthday money to get myself a soldering iron, flux and solder for some new projects and I couldn't be more excited. I'm in a bit of a productive stage right now and I'm hoping that I keep up the momentum. So what am I working on? Well, something new for PeanutButterPie, but I think I'd like to keep that under my hat until I'm ready to unveil them.

I have to say that we had a fabulous experience with the staff in the store. I took a Summer Series course in Stained Glass over 10 years ago so I had some idea of what I needed and what the process for my projects would be, but I wanted some advice. The sales lady walked us through everything, gave us options, suggestions and extra information. All of it was useful and pleasant.

When I worked at the Art Supply company their focus was on customer service and I often find other stores don't share the same attitude. Happily this was not the case. The place also offers classes in stained glass as well as for glass slumping and fusing. seeing the facilities got a few more bees in my bonnet...

Are you thinking of branching out with your creative processes? have some new things on the go? let me know, I'd love to hear about them.