Get 2 Birds Stoned at Once cross stitch

One of my favorite "Rickyisms" from the TV show Trailer Park Boys.

100% of my etsy proceeds will be used toward my fundraising for Childrens Hospital of Orange County. Or you can donate directly: http://chocwalk.net/giddygirlie





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Giddy Giveaway!

Fall is here and even though the local temperatures are in the 90's, it's time to start thinking about autumn and Halloween is just around the corner! That's why I was inspired to have a Giddy Giveaway!

I'm giving away a hand-embroidered jack-o-lantern, based on vintage clip art. His happy face glows in the dark, so you can see him smiling at you, no matter what time of day it is! This piece comes in the frame shown (faux woodgrain, flex-hoop frame) that is 3.5" tall and approx. 2.5" wide. The fabric has a tone-on-tone white print with leaves -- perfect for Fall! There is also excess fabric around the frame, so that you can remove it or re-frame it, if you'd prefer.



To win:

1. Leave a comment, letting me know you want it!
2. Tell me - what's your favorite kind of jack-o-lantern? Do you like "classic faces" or do you prefer to use your pumpkin in a more creative way?
3. Please note: unless your profile allows for everyone to view your full Google profile and email address, I cannot see it either. If you're unsure, please include your email address in your comment.
4. I'll draw the name on Friday, October 8th and I'll contact the winner to get their mailing info.

Some photos taken at Disneyland, made by their master pumpkin carvers on display throughout Halloweentime.

There's always money in the banana stand!

3.5" x 2.5" hand-embroidered banana stand.







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

Fleeting Immersion

I'm super excited to share this with all of you. I was invited to participate in the inaugural Fleeting Immersion show! This is going to be a fun and fantastic pop-up gallery in Los Angeles, and I sincerely hope that you'll come! Check out that roster of artists!

From the press release:

FLEETING IMMERSION is a revolutionary pop-up concept shop melding arts, culture and shopping.

Celebrating the handmade in art, and the fusion of concept and commerce, FLEETING IMMERSION was created and developed by actress, comedienne and producer Janet Varney (Entourage; Dinner and a Movie; founder, SF Sketchfest: The San Francisco Comedy Festival); and actress & comedienne Jessica Makinson (Halfway Home; South Park). FLEETING IMMERSION embraces the pop-up concept and runs thematically wild – featuring highly original works of art, furniture, handmade goods, vintage clothing, and accessories, with every element of the show aligned around a unique, ever-changing theme.

For the show and shop’s inaugural, 10-day run in September, 2010, Tinlark Gallery (located in the historic Crossroads of the World complex on Sunset Blvd.) will be transformed into the world of Santa Fe Astronaut, with each artist’s contribution inspired by the unique foundations of the Southwest…and outer space!

I am BEYOND thrilled to be a part of this show! My first-ever art gallery show and to be in such great company... it's a little overwhelming! I've submitted a few pieces based on my original Nosy Spaceman (shown below) who also glows in the dark! Heck yes! Check out this pic of the spaceman glowing in the dark.

Tiny Mouse Ears - custom embroidery

My friends were married in July and shortly after came for a trip to Disneyland. As newlyweds, we joked that they should get the bride and groom mouse ears, but the new groom wasn't going for it (it takes a special kind of dude to wear those things all day).

So instead, I found these tiny versions of the mouse ears (originally keychains, but I removed the chain) and customized them as a gift.

I used a dollar bill for scale - plus, it's showing off my immense wealth. Dolla dolla billz, yo!

For the bride's hat, I sewed a veil from white organza and attached it to the crown of the hat. I also added a red bow in classic Minnie Mouse style.



But before I did that, I added the happy couple's names to the hats. Each were hand-embroidered with yellow floss, just like the real hats at Disneyland*. Due to the small size of the hats, I couldn't make it work out to use an elaborate script-font, so I just free-handed the letters in my own handwriting.





For the groom's hat, I added a top hat. The local craft store recently stopped carrying tiny top hats for dolls (the woman said they went on clearance and someone came and bought them all -- there must be a boom for dolls with top hats!), so I made my own out of black felt. Just a simple cylinder attached to a brim and then attached to the crown of the mouse ear hat.



The happy couple even sent me a picture of themselves modeling their new hats!


These were really fun to make and I've been considering adding them to my etsy shop. What do you think?


*Now that the hand-embroidery machines at Disneyland are gone (swapped for computerized models), there are also color options for custom hat embroideries but the original yellow thread-on-black hats will always hold a special place in my heart.

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.










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

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?!





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!








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

Flight of the Conchords band poster embroidery

Hand-embroidered Flight of the Conchords image on white fabric with scratchy pattern. 12" blue hoop. Based on this image, which is a poster that Jemaine draws for the band (thus, Bret is just a small footnote in the image).

I did this on a whim while watching the show for the first time and didn't know what to do with it. But luckily, Kim gave it a loving home and made me a sweet set of jewelry as a trade - thanks Kim!



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

Hatbox Ghost embroidery

If you're as big of a fan of Disney's Haunted Mansion as I am, then you're probably already familiar with the Hatbox Ghost. If not, you can read the entire backstory here on wikipedia. In a nutshell: it was an animatronic figure that was developed for the Haunted Mansion but never used. This grim grinning ghost holds a spooky hatbox in his left hand and as riders pass by, his head disappears from his body and into the box. Very cool! Bonus for us Disney geeks: the Hatbox Ghost is supposed to make a grand appearance in 2010! Back to the mansion attic where he belongs!

Mr. Hatbox Ghost (or HBG, as he's sometimes known) is a fan favorite (as witnessed by the auction of a replica figure crafted by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily - seen below - at the D23 convention where it sold for nearly $10,000!) and he has been lurking for decades and been brought back to life via Twitter!




I love HBG's snarky sense of humor (and indignation!) and have struck up something of a friendship - if you can call electronic exchanges with a corpse a friendship - and so on my vacation, I decided to whip up an embroidery piece of dear old Hattie.


Me, stitching by the pool

He stands about 2.5" tall and is embroidered in satin stitch. The white features (face, hands, hatbox) are glow-in-the-dark thread to give him an otherworldly glow.

Once I got home, I sent it off to the Hatbox Ghost himself, care of his dusty old attic.

I haven't decided if I'll make more of these or not, but if I do, they'll be listed in my etsy shop for all you Mansion Fans to find!



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

hand-stitched quilt project

Calling all stitchers! If you haven't already, there is still time to submit a piece for Moster8me's hand-stitched quilt project. She's requested that everyone send in a 4x6" fabric piece with your name and city on it -- sort of a stitched postcard quilt. Below is an update posted in September of the pieces she's received so far:

click the image to see the details on who each piece is from
For my piece, I decided to embroider the girlie from my logo onto a purple floral fat quarter piece. I used DMC Light Effects thread for the dress, for a shimmery look, which turned out nifty (even if my photography is kinda poopy). I also didn't use the same font for the "Giddy Girlie" parts mainly because it was a little too challenging to sketch the letters on to the fabric (I don't use iron-on transfers, so I have to pencil in my lines) and instead swapped it for a more open and readable font.



The girlie is done in all satin stitch, the Giddy Girlie lettering is in a seed stitch, and the city name is a chain stitch.



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

Rod Serling embroidery

Now that it's totally done, shipped, and received I miss dear little Rod Serling. This piece was inspired by Scott Campbell's drawing of Rod Serling which immediately set my imagination in motion. I love the scribbles and multiple line weights on the original, so I sent off an email to Mr. Campbell, asking permission to stitch it and fortunately he said yes!

When it was done, I sent it to him as a keepsake and a reminder of why being nice to someone at Comic Con never pays off*! ;-)

This was stitched (and framed) in an 8" hoop on white fabric that has a white geometric print on it. Most of the stitches were seed stitches, made with 2 strands of embroidery thread, although some of the delicate lines are a single line of thread, made with a beading needle. The typewriter keys were my first attempt at french knots, so they're a teensy bit uneven but the best that I could do. The original image had circle lines for the keys, but because of the small scale (most of my stitches span 4-5 weaves in the fabric), I physically couldn't fit them in the space, so I opted for knots.

There are some small things that I had to change and some that I changed by mistake. I think I have spent entirely too much time staring at the original, that now I know it by heart. So now when I look at my work, I only see where I didn't 'shade' enough or where the spacing is different. *serenity now!*



*We met him at San Diego Comic Con this year and he was so nice and friendly and let me totally nerd out and have an OMGIloveyourworkandyouaresoawesomeandIamhyperventilating moment. Which was, really, too kind.

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

Craft BoingBoing Birthday Week!

What is the best thing to get for your birthday week? ATTENTION. And boy howdy, have I got it in spades!

It started off like this:
Sunday night, Ryan and I are laying in bed giggling like a couple of girls at a slumber party because we're going to Disneyland in the morning with Bliss and Kate and everything is right with the world. So I'm busting at the seams with giddiness and he falls asleep, so I decide to check my old friend The Internet. Over on my Flickr page, Beefranck had left a comment that my hitchhiking ghost embroidery was featured on Craft Magazine! So I get very excited and wake Ryan up (note the screenshot: 2:54am) and shove the iphone in his face "look! look!" and did a little jig. He was very happy for me and so I was wiggling around and decided to Twitter about it (because I am a braggart at heart).

So I'm scrolling through Twitter (which I had neglected all day) and my friend Mark had tweeted that his friend Mia is a rockstar. He works for Fender, so I'm thinking it's an actual rockstar and decide to click the link, which goes to BoingBoing and hey! I am the Mia that he's talking about!

At this point, Ryan and I both get out of bed (much to the annoyance of the cat, who had just gotten comfortable and you know how he never gets to sleep) and dance around and smile a lot and then look at the clock and say "ok, now we REALLY have to go to sleep" and so we did, with gigantic grins.

So in the morning, we jump right up at the sound the alarm, happy as can be and I check my email and see that I have sold all of my hitchhiking ghost commission orders on etsy! Which is SUPER exciting! (thanks craft & BoingBoing!) and I decide that I can take on 2 more orders in the next week or so, so I post 2 more listings and bam! they sell right away! In between, I've also received numerous more requests for commissions (which have to wait because I am full-up at the moment!) and even just nice notes to say "congrats on being featured" which is SUPER nice. Man, sometimes internet people are the best, aren't they?

And THEN on top of that, I got to spend the day at Disneyland with some of my most favorite people and chit chat and go on the Haunted Mansion ride and eat pancakes! It was fabulous.

I could not have asked for a better start to my birthday week and, really, it's thanks to YOU! The people who have encouraged and enjoyed my art. I wouldn't be here without you. YOU are the ones who make me so giddy. xoxoxo

chilling and thrilling - more Haunted Mansion crafts!

I've been busy lately making Haunted Mansion crafts. I arranged two craft swaps through Craftster, so I made two more sets of hitchhiking ghosts. One was a repeat of the previous set (in the three individual frames) and the other was custom created to fit inside a 4x6" frame (below).

I've also created a needle felted version of Madame Leota, floating in her crystal ball. This was really fun to make! Leota's tiny head is about 1" tall and is fully detailed with itsy bitsy eyelashes and eyebrows. I love the miniature aspect of it! Best part: it can be yours! Now posted for sale in my etsy shop!

Silverlake Craft Fair

Sunday was the Silverlake Craft Fair and Kate and I exhibited for the first time. It was a lot of fun! According to the other vendors, who are regulars there, the traffic was much lighter than usual and sales were pretty slow. I did ok and it was a decent investment for me. The craft fair will have a new location soon and I might be back to check it out.

There were lots of neat things for sale and lots of handmade jewelry -- if you're looking for some great etsy artists to meet in person, this is a great show. I was proud of myself for not spending all of my earnings, although I did buy one thing (just one is allowed!). Roscata had a booth where the designer was selling her polymer clay charms that were all DELICIOUSLY adorable. I ended up taking home a pair of snow cone earrings. Look how cute these are!!

If you're in the market for snow cone (or Hostess cupcakes!) charms, I now have an official recommendation (for a snack attack, flip through her images on Flickr).

It was an overall great day. An excuse to chit chat with Kate for 8 hours PLUS we had a bunch of surprise guests! I felt so popular! Adam and his mom came by and stayed for a while, then Lori and Mickey showed up for a bit, I also randomly ran into my cousin Laila and her husband and baby, plus Kate's friend Joe (who is super awesome) came by. It made the time just fly by!

One of the vendors near us watched me set up and suggested that I raise my prices. I understand that everyone wants a certain price-level for these types of events, but the person who suggested it (and many others) were selling more intricate items, like hand-cast silver and hand-beaded jewelry, that are more time- and cost- and labor-intensive. My overhead for my paintings and embroidery pieces are very low and I charge commisserate to the time I spend on them. Which means that some things will sell for $10 or $15 and others for $25. Which I don't feel undermines anyone else selling in the fair (especially since there isn't anyone else selling dot paintings, so I'm not funking up the market for dots!), but instead allows people with a smaller budget to take home a little something, which makes me feel good and the buyer too. I feel bad for anyone else who had a less than awesome day, because we had a great time. I even took home a free sunburn! Cruise Director Kate* suggested that we put on sunblock and I was all 'pfft, I'm ok' and then HEY! Guess who has a lobster nose?

Afterward, I went and collected Ryan and we met up with Adam and Kate for a gluttonous dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Kate had to come down thisaway because she was hand-delivering a custom purse order to someone at Disneyland (she met them while they were in line for a ride for cripes sake! THAT is service, my friend!).

In a nutshell: it was an awesome day. I'd do it again, only maybe take the sunblock advice. And also maybe remember to eat lunch so that I don't have to eat the whole dinner menu afterward.


*For the record, she gave herself this nickname, but she lives up to it in every (good) way! Example: we asked about what she did while her mom was visiting and she pulled out an itinerary of all the places they visited. :)

Ghettogloss Craft Fair in Silverlake

Come see me and Kate this Sunday at the Ghettogloss Craft Fair in Silverlake! We'll be selling our crafty wares and also just being awesome in general. Don't miss it!

Sunday, March 29, 2009
9am - 5pm

Silver Lake Art Craft & Vintage is located at
2450 Glendale Blvd LA CA 90039 (map)
in the CITI BANK parking lot.

geek moment of the day

Yes, I did start the conversation by sending them an email, but still!! I got a reply from Jemaine (or at least someone signing his name. I prefer to pretend that it is really, truly him and if you know differently please keep it to yourself, thankyouverymuch) that was short and sweet and signed 'Fanks' which... you know... made my heart skip a beat.

In other news, soon you will be able to see my Flight of the Conchords embroidery piece up on their MySpace page, in the Fan Art gallery.

HHG featured on MrXStitch.com!

I couldn't be more excited to have been noticed by Mr. X Stitch, which is one of the best cross-stitching sites around and an endless source of inspiration!

My hitchhiking ghosts were deemed worthy of a Stitchgasm (*swoon*) and a little write-up! Check it out!