Elf!

A Bad Economy is Not A Reason to Skip Holiday Decorating

When job loss hits a family, the effects are far from just financial. The emotional toll and the stress it creates is just as problematic as not being able to pay the bills. And with the holidays quickly approaching, now is NOT the time to sink further into depression.

Holiday decorating doesn't have to be expensive. Being one of the unemployed, money is certainly tight. In order to keep things jolly, I had to get creative!

I started by going through my scrapbook papers--things I've accumulated over the years. I didn't have any "holiday" themed papers, but I went through and found some great prints and patterns in reds and greens.

I cut paper strips, about an inch to 1.5 inches in width and about 5 or 6 inches long. Lining up the ends, I stapled each one to create a loop. Using an old wreath form, I hot glued each loop onto the form, alternating between colors and patterns. I applied all the loops in the same direction, working my way around. Add a ribbon to hang it and there ya go! Out of pocket price: $0.00.

But I wasn't finished decorating...


I have been wanting to forgo the big Christmas tree and buy some of those contemporary, minimalist trees that literally look like cones. (In fact, I'm pretty sure they ARE just Styrofoam cones with glitter!) But, money is tight, and those things are pricey. What's a crafty gal to do?

Newspaper. I had lots of newspaper laying around. I took a few pieces and started forming a cone, taping and stapling as I went along. Before I knew it, I had my own tree form. Now to add paper and fabric scraps!

The two trees in the front are decorated with paper in shades of pink, light blues, and light greens and embellished with ribbon. The larger cone in the back is covered with fabric and surrounded with white lights.

I had a blast making these things, although hot glue and I are not friends. The little tree on the right is created with long strips of paper, again looped and glued together, then applied around the base of the cone, working my way up.

The small tree on the left was more time consuming. I used a circle punch to punch out hundreds of discs, then used a pencil to create a slight curve in each "leaf". I again started at the bottom and hot glued each piece in place, alternating colors.

 Add some ribbons or any other embellishments you might have on hand. The papers I used for these two trees I purchased on clearance a while ago. The colors certainly didn't scream "Christmas" or "winter", but the power of suggestion is not to be overlooked. I used the paper and it looks like a Christmas tree... and so it is. No one would come in my house and think it wasn't.

I might add some glitter later to these trees, but having two curious and mischievous cats who get into EVERYTHING, the glitter idea might be a bad one.

At any rate, happy holidays! Get to crafting and get the kids involved! And no matter what your financial, emotional, or physical state, I wish you all a very bright and cheery holiday season!

Lots of love,
Heather :)

Oh, Where Has The Time Gone?

December ALREADY???

Obviously, I've been neglecting my blog. My apologies. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging somewhat regularly in the upcoming weeks.

:)

Pumpkin Junkin' 2010 entry

Acrobat - Illustration Friday

Ugh...

Not lovin' this coloring on the computer stuff. I was trying to find a technique on the computer that I liked, but seems like maybe I'm just a traditional gal. Hmmm.

I don't mind creating from scratch in Photoshop or Illustrator, but if I sketch something and try to reproduce it digitally, I hate the results. Oh, well.

Could be worse, I suppose.

I'm back

I've been away from the drawing board for a while. It's been a rough day, and I needed something to take my mind off things, so here's my latest doodle.

Shockingly, I just learned how to color with the paint bucket in Photoshop. I had been coloring in Illustrator, which was OK, but sometimes a pain. PS is so much easier... assuming all your lines are solid.

So the rough day: At least three tornadoes touched down in my old hometown. The newspaper I used to work for suffered some roof damage, but the school that was up the road wasn't as fortunate. The football field is destroyed. One of the buildings lost its roof. Even worse, some nearby mobile homes were turned over and ended up in the middle of the road. At least nine people are being treated for injuries, 200+ are seeking shelter tonight, either because of damage to their homes or due to a gas leak in the area.

My family is safe and accounted for, thank goodness. And living in Ohio, I'm no stranger to tornado warnings. But this time it hit a little too close to home. It's scary, and my anxiety is at a level 9. The people of Southeast Ohio have always been a sturdy crew, however, and I know they will find a way to pick up the pieces and move forward. I love my little hometown, and the residents will be in my thoughts.

IF - Dessert

B - Ballerina

Alphabet Exercise

In an attempt to update my portfolio, I've decided to play the Alphabet Game. Every day, I'll post a new illustration, corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. Question is: Will I actually make it all the way through the ABC's? Place your bets now.

A - Alien.
Also doubles for this weeks Illustration Friday - Atmosphere.

Fun experimenting!

How did I go so long without knowing about Corel Painter! Sure, I had heard of it, but I always thought it was some substandard Photoshop ripoff. I am not too proud to admit I was so totally wrong!

I reinstalled my Wacom tablet after the whole "evil computer genius" fiasco, and decided to install Corel Painter Essentials just for kicks. I've spent the past hour playing around with all the cool brushes and effects!

IF - Star Gazing

Chatty Wrappers

March 3, 2010 at 3:54 am (Copywriting, Funny)
Over the past few years, you may have noticed your fast food wrappers talking to you. Well, not in the “I’m hearing strange voices” sense, but catchy little one-liners showing up on the items that hold our delicious (?) morsels of yummy-goodness.

This straw wrapper from Arby’s informs me that it is “the only thing standing between you and Jamocha bliss” … well, that might have been true if I were drinking a Jamocha shake. But I had a Pepsi. I’m a simple girl who enjoys simple beverages. No Jamocha for me, please.

Burger King and it’s “frypods” have also started speaking up, but my all-time favorite has to be the sauce packets you get from Taco Bell. They always throw like 30 in a bag for one taco supreme, so you can always count on a nice variety of witty sarcastic words of wisdom. And I admit, I have laughed out loud more than once over what advice they had for me.

But here’s my quandary: why spend so much time and money on this marketing device, when you KNOW it’s going to end up in the trash?

I don’t keep my frypod after the fries have vanished. The wrapper in the photo above was balled up and tossed 30 seconds after it’s picture was snapped. And while I am guilty of tacking a Taco Bell packet up on my cork board at work, it doesn’t make me want a taco every time I look at it.

So what exactly is the point of it all? Comments?

From the archives...

March 2, 2010 at 10:14 am (Uncategorized)


snark•y

[snahr-kee] – adjective Chiefly British Slang. testy or irritable; short.


Snarky seems appropriate for the writings of this gal. Try as I might to be polite and understanding (the Man upstairs KNOWS how hard I try) there are just some days when a gal just can’t muster up the strength to not be sarcastic.

This is one of those days.

Here’s how work went today:

Email #1: Sorry suckers, you worked hard, but the economy worked harder. No bonuses for you! Oh, and we’re closing your site. Pack it up and be gone!

Email #2: Mr. So-And-So was promoted today! (fyi: The same Mr. So-And-So who made the decision to close our office. Sweet.)

You’d think such a large company who claims to care for their employees would be a bit more compassionate, and, oh, I don’t know, NOT SEND THOSE TWO EMAILS RIGHT AFTER EACH OTHER???? It’s a good thing we’re all caged in our little cubicles. There could have been mass mayhem.

Next on my mind: The Twilight Saga.

I like the books and movies just as much as those hormone driven teens who wear their Team Jacob t-shirts day and night [for the record, I am totally Team Edward!], but enough already! Word on the street is that there is to be a GRAPHIC NOVEL based on the books by Stephenie Meyer. OK. We have the books. We have the movies. Do we REALLY, REALLY need to kill another tree in order to add pictures to the words? Here’s a thought: If you’re unable to conjure up an image of these characters in your head while you’re reading, then watch the movie. Or have your little teen sister paint a picture for you. Either way, a graphic novel is just overkill.

Enough snarkiness for today… catch y’all later.

Illustration Friday - Caged

Rudy Rooster isn't sure what
the big deal is about being caged.

Farmer gives him all the
corn he could ever want!

What a way to spend a Sunday

We've probably all experienced some annoying spy ware at some time or another. It's annoying, sure, but usually not that big a deal. Have you ever had a virus that tells you every single program you are trying to open is infected? One that won't let you open your computer's control panel? And even tells you that you can't access the Internet, because it too is infected?

I fell victim to all this late Saturday night. Wonderful.

Sunday morning, as I waited until the Geek Squad opened at Best Buy, I did a little reading about such irritating computer infections, and found that if I did a complete system restore I would most certainly get rid of the virus. The cost? Losing all my files. I considered this a long time, before deciding that the Geeks may be able to kill the parasite without flushing my files, but that would probably be quite expensive. And, I did back up my files about a month ago (I know, I know... I should do it more often), so really, I'm only going to lose the files I did recently (which were quite a few, in all honesty).

The scary "System Recovery" CD goes in, and 2 minutes later, my files are just a memory.

I thought that was the worst of it. No one warned me that certain drivers I need to access my hardware weren't contained on the magical CD. I knew I could get the drivers online, but ironically enough, the Ethernet driver was one of the ones missing. Perfect.

I tooled around for a while, found that I could connect to my modem through an USB port (thank goodness) and got most of my drivers off the company's website. I've spent the rest of the day (and night) reloading software. You really don't realize all you've lost until it's gone. All my swatches I had saved in Illustrator is probably the biggest blow. Oh well. Live and learn.

The day wasn't without it's share of laughs, however.

While trying to find a phone number to call my Internet provided, I read the following in their User Guide:

• "If you need any assistance in setting up your Internet service, please visit our website and click on Customer Service."

Do you see the problem with this?? If I could get online to your website, I probably wouldn't need assistance with my Internet service. Wow.

The computer company's website was even less helpful. All the drivers I needed were there, except two. The two I needed the most. So, there was a nice little "chat online" customer service thing so I clicked it. The dude I was chatting with told me that I wasn't under warranty (hello? my computer is 5 years old) and that typically he couldn't help me. But since I was such a valued customer (I am??) he would do his best to assist me this one time.

Wow. He's going to help me get drivers for my computer that should have been on the computer's website? How sweet.

Even sweeter when he sent me links to drivers that weren't compatible with my computer model.

Ugh. Whatever. A good Google search lead me to what I needed. Apparently I wasn't the only one that had trouble finding stuff on their website.

It's been a long day. My computer is fixed, and my checking account still has every penny it did this morning. The Geeks didn't get my money. Times like this I realize just how resourceful I am! :)

Here's hoping Monday will be better...

Another piggy revision. Hmm...

Sketching fun...

Quirky needs a friend

So, Quirky has been looking for some new friends, but I'm not so sure this Piggy-Pal is quite right. He's a bit of a scaredy-cat, which only annoys Quirky even more than usual. Back to the drawing board...

Ultimate boredom = New quilt

I've spent the past two days making my first quilt. A flannel rag quilt, to be exact. I'm surprised at how easy it was, until I washed it. A word of caution: Don't wash jeans with your quilt unless you want fuzzy jeans.

Live and learn.

It is super cute and oh, so soft, however! ;)

Frog

Frog.
Just a frog.
Reading a book.

Nearly done...

What a long week it's been!
Meetings, appointments, portfolio, life...

I was up late last night trying to get my illustration portfolio together. I got up super early this morning to get stuff printed off at OfficeMax. Now, I feel like taking a nap, but I have an interview to get ready for. Super excited, but somewhat nervous, too. I've never showed my illustrations before, and certainly have never interviewed for an illustrator position. The more I think about a career spent drawing, the more I want it. I'm just trying to keep an open mind. If nothing else, this interview is an opportunity to have an art director to look at my book and give me his opinion.

I get to goooooooo! :)

Have you ever stopped to take inventory of your junk?

Today, I searched my bookshelves and DVD stand for stuff to sell. Yup, it was time to part with some stuff in order to get something that is much more important. I sold my crap to Half Price Books, and now, I have the funds to go to Northern Ohio's Annual SCBWI Conference in September! Yay!!

Do I miss the junk? Surprisingly, no. Which I find rather odd. I usually feel so attached to my things that it makes me sad to throw out an old pair of tennis shoes. Something's different, I guess. I feel lighter now.

Now don't get me wrong -- I still have my favorite crap that I will keep near me. Like Walter the Hippo. Walter isn't going anywhere. And I have kept my favorite books.

Lesson learned: I used to take things for granted. I collected stuff just so I could have stuff. Now I look at it differently. The stuff I have is stuff I use. Walter? Yes, I use Walter. He's my huggy buddy when I'm feeling down. And sometimes he's handy when my cat won't leave me alone. Apparently, to a cat, Walter is quite intimidating. ;)

Sketching

Just a lazy night at home, sketching away...

Nothing good on television, so I took the sketch into Illustrator CS3...

excited... but can i go?

The annual conference for Northern Ohio's Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrations is coming up soon! Sadly, though, my current no-job situation has me low on funds. I'm hoping things will work out, but if not, I know there's always next year. Still, this conference is a wonderful opportunity to chat with fellow writers and illustrators, speak with representatives and editors from some major publishing houses, and show our artwork in the Illustrator's Showcase.

Illustration Friday - Double

MAD - Communication

This week's topic for Monday Art Day is Communication.
I love to write, and I started thinking about how no one really takes the time to write letters anymore. I have always loved getting letters, and even though receiving email is nice too, there's something missing.

IF - Breakfast

A designer's breakfast.

Bloggity, blog, blog... blahhh

I've noticed that I'm not a very good blogger. I'd like to say it's because I'm way too busy with this-and-that to maintain a blog, but that's just not true. I have the time. I even have the interest, believe it or not.

I guess I could give a movie review... I watched "Eclipse" yesterday, even though I have just started reading the book. All I can say is I really hope the book turns out better than the movie. It was disappointing and a bit slow, in my humble opinion. I enjoyed the first two movies, and I thought they followed the books quite well. I can only assume this third saga-installment treads along the book as well, but I'm really hoping not.

It's also been released that the last book, "Breaking Dawn", will be split into two movies. Ugh. First the Harry Potter camp decides that their last book needs to be split, and now Twilight is following. Hopefully, "Breaking Dawn" will steer clear of the 3D craze, but somehow I doubt it. Anything to make an extra buck, hey Hollywood?

The Northern Ohio Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators has just opened registration for the annual regional conference. I attended the conference last year, and found it to be both fun and informative. We had the opportunity to hear some great speakers and to meet with editors from some of the largest publishing houses. It's always nice to be surrounded by so many people with the same interest, to chat about what their working on, to view artwork from some very talented illustrators, and to go home with a folder filled with information!

More Self-Art-Therapy

Some days you wake up and just feel like the world is made of poo. Today is one of those days.

When I'm feeling the gooey, smelly earth under my feet, I turn to my arts and crafts. I don't know if it's the aroma of non-toxic fumes, the bright happy colors, or the act of merely getting my fingers dirty that eases my mind and allows me to drift away for a few hours.

Today's project: Alcohol Ink Obsession, Continued.

A quick visit to the local craft store where I found a cheap piece of tin that looks something like an old lunch box.

Needless to say, I feel more mindful (ha, ha! take that Mr. A!) after spending some time engaged in the moment. One orange slice at a time.