Thursday, March 25, 2010

bringing down the house at craft fairs

I admit it: I have a soft spot for miniatures or anything of small scale. What can I say? I'm a goober. Which means that I probably would have bought this crummy old shadowbox-made-to-look-like-a-dollhouse anyway, but fortunately I had justification! Hooray! I needed a good way to display the "gidgets" (peg people) that I've been making when I take them to craft fairs. And what better way is there than a small wooden house? I CAN'T THINK OF ANY!

So, I plunked out a few bucks for this dollhouse shadowbox from a vintage shop and set to work. The structure itself was sound, it just was dirty and looked shabby because the dollhouse wallpapers were crumbling and flaking off and covered in layers of dust and ick in the corners.

dollhouse display: before
dollhouse display: before

But as you can see, someone at one point had put in the cutest dollhouse wallpapers! Look at what's left of the birdie paper. I wish it was still in tact! But alas, it wasn't salvageable at all, so I covered it.

To start with, I painted the walls of the house.

darling birdie dollhouse wallpaper

I decided to give each room it's own interior color, while keeping all the exterior walls blue. I used all high-gloss paints in hyper vivid 'candy' colors. Mostly because that's what I am really into right now, but also the bright colors give a nice "pop" to the pieces being displayed.

After everything was painted, I also covered all the surfaces in a high-gloss acrylic sealer. This has a few benefits for me, not just that it looks neat being super shiny, but also it increases durability (this is a display piece that will get toted from show to show) and makes the paint more resiliant to wear. For example, I use a small piece of earthquake putty under each peg when they're set into the house -- a lesson learned the hard way, when the first person bumped my table and they all came tumbling down and rolling across the walkway -- and I use small signs taped to the house to denote prices, make caption bubbles, etc. and the gloss paint releases the tack of the putty and tape without lifting the paint.

dollhouse display: partially done

Once the gloss coat was dry, I inserted new pieces of wallpaper. I used scrapbook paper that matched the vivid color scheme I was going for. You can't see it in these pictures, but the papers all have irridescent glitter on them and the blue stars (attic) are raised off the paper. In person, it gives some nice dimension and plus: glitter!

dollhouse with mailbox

Keeping with the house theme, I decided to find a mailbox for my business cards. I found this lime green metal beauty on ebay and snapped it up quick. My standard business cards are just barely too small to fit inside. They fit fine when leaned sideways a bit, but then the mailbox can only hold maybe 25 at a time. This will be fine for smaller craft fairs and such, but at comic conventions, there are thousands of attendees and most of them collect business cards as they go, so it would mean too many "refills" all day long.


new dollhouse mailbox w/business card for scale



new dollhouse mailbox w/business card for scale

What I did instead was had some smaller cards made for big shows, like conventions. Moo cards would fit wonderfully, but were a bit pricey for my needs (I can go through 500 business cards in a day at some of these shows). Instead, I designed half-sized cards. They are printed on standard business card stock and then I cut them in half, lengthwise. Yes, it's a bit extra work for me, BUT the slimmer cards fit in the mailbox.

mailbox of business cards
Last year's Long Beach Comic Con is where it all came together.
our table at Long Beach Comic Con

Just before that show, I came across this little house with shelves in a thrift store. I took the same tact as before -- I painted and papered it, but went with softer colors to offset some of the lighter-colored peg people (like the princesses). This house isn't nearly as large as the other, but it's the perfect neighbor. This particular show was the weekend before Halloween, so I had some Halloween themed peg people, and used the black wire tree next to the small house as sort of my graveyard area. It was also very well received -- now I need a spring tree!

our table at Long Beach Comic Con

It's funny, because I thought these dollhouse shelves would make a great display and never considered that other people would agree. Hands-down they are the most popular thing at the table. I've gotten several requests to buy them, including some bartering and requests for commissions! So if you've got some woodworking skills, you might want to reach out to my customers! They're hungry for hot pink dollhouses!

Below is our table at the Long Beach Comic Con 2009. I shared the space with my husband, who was showing his portfolio, signing autographs, giving out sketches, and selling original artwork. We usually split the space, so I have gotten pretty good at cramming a LOT of stuff on 'my side' of an 8 foot table. TEAMWORK!

our table at Long Beach Comic Con

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch

Holy smokes - check out this sassy costume! Back before she was Dr. Girlfriend - or even Queen Etherea or Lady Au Pair - this lovely lady (aka: Sheila) had an eye for design. She gave the Monarch the concept for his costume on their first date, so it was only appropriate that after the wedding, she would design a sexy costume for her new role as Dr. Mrs. The Monarch!

This tiny homage to her loveliness can now be yours! To keep! Forever! She makes a great traveling companion or cake topper - what more could you ask for?

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. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .
Interested in owning a piece like this?
Check out my Etsy shop
or email me for a custom order!
. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Triana Orpheus

Sweet Triana Orpheus is one of my favorite minor characters from the Venture Brothers. She can't help it that her dad is a powerful necromancer who is a bit of a ninny and drove her mom away! She just wants to be herself, ya know? She came up with this groovy outfit going for a kind of Adam and the Ants retro-thing, but now she's stuck wearing it every day because her closet is the gateway to the Necropolis and smells like burning band-aids (brimstone). *sigh*

I can totally see why Deanie V. has a major crush on her and why she kind of likes him too. I mean, he's sweet and dresses like Buddy Holly but not really on purpose. Plus, he's got hover boots!

Triana Orpheus

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. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .
Interested in owning a piece like this?
Check out my Etsy shop
or email me for a custom order!
. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

cross stitch locket: The Monarch & Dr. Girlfriend

When it comes to romance, you automatically think of cartoons, right? ME TOO! That's what inspired me to make this love-filled locket with teeny cross stitch pictures of The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend from the Venture Brothers. It's my own charted design and stitched on teeny aida cloth -- I don't even know the thread count because I lost the packaging, but it's small! As you can see by the photos with a quarter in them, the locket itself is barely 2" tall, so it's a delicate little piece of geeky jewelry that can be worn closed and look like a glittering golden pendant or open to reveal your love of top-rate cartoons! Posted for sale in my etsy shop.

Dr. Girlfriend & The Monarch cross stitch locket



Dr. Girlfriend & The Monarch cross stitch locket



Dr. Girlfriend & The Monarch cross stitch locket



. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .
Interested in owning a piece like this?
Check out my Etsy shop
or email me for a custom order!
. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .

Friday, March 5, 2010

Phat Quarter Swap - Comics & Cartoons

If you're into stitchery, I highly recommend that you join/follow the Phat Quarter group on Flickr. There are some amazing artists that will melt your brains over there! Plus, if you participate in the message boards, you might be able to get yourself in on a litle swappy goodness!

The latest PQ swap was themed around Comics and Cartoons. The swappers were randomly assigned for a 'forward swap' meaning that I made a piece for one person and received a piece from someone else. Which is a fun way to do it, in my opinion!

SO! I asked my recipient if she had any preferences or characters that she particularly liked. She gave me a few and said that Wonder Woman and Snoopy were near the top of her list. So I thought about it for a while and then came up with this: Wonder Woman as a stitcher, embroidering Snoopy!

In her right hand, Wonder Woman holds a silver needle (hard to see in pictures) that is threaded with red thread which leads to the "embroidery hoop" that she is working on and stitching a heart above Snoopy. The "embroidery hoop" is an applique, as is the chair fabric. I was torn on how to handle the chair fabric -- I thought outlining the chair with stitches would muddy the print of the fabric or just make it 'too much' but now that it's gone (to New Zealand!) the rough edges of the fabric stand out to me and I wish I could outline it!!

I also wish I hadn't pulled so hard on her hair. I decided to try a stem stitch for the hair to give it a slight 'curl' although, it puckered the fabric a little around her face. *sigh* Can I have a do-over?!


Wonder Woman for Phat Quarter swap


Wonder Woman for Phat Quarter swap

I received this FABULOUS embroidery piece of The Tick from Pam -- who is clearly a master! I had to ask about the color tinting and she says that it's a standard crayon tint, but that she'd had a piece of stabilizer behind the fabric when she ironed it (which lifts some of the crayon wax) and it caused this dotted texture. I LOVE IT! It makes me think of the old dot printing on comic books -- or Lichtenstein! This is definitely something that I will have to learn how to do!

Until then, behold: the Tick!

crayon tinted w/a little texture makes it look like dot printing! love!



The Tick! stitched by Pam




. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .
Interested in owning a piece like this?
Check out my Etsy shop
or email me for a custom order!
. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .

Monday, March 1, 2010

new stuff in my etsy shop

I had to cancel my first show of 2010, so I've listed some of my pieces in my etsy shop instead! http://giddygirlie.etsy.com It's like a virtual convention! Come by, say hi! Then go buy a $15 hot dog! :)


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