Felt Squid and Vol 25 print

I bought these awesome chairs at Target several years ago and within 24 hours of getting them, my youngest spilled greasy cheesy potato soup on one. It’s been downhill from there. I’ve covered them in dark brown covers but I kind of don’t like the covers. It looks  better than the stains. I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix the chairs and I’m drawing a blank.

First, I tried a felt squid. I drew a squid with chalk on felt and cut it out. It kind of looks like he’s spraying ink

i tried mocking up a ton of doilies on it but my Susan told me it made her throw up a little in her mouth. the idea was to dye the doilies so they weren’t white and the cover the chair in them. i thought it would look pretty. Apparently i was wrong…

So now I need something. Or maybe i just need to buck up and buy new chairs? Nah, that’s not my style. these are GOOD, comfy chairs. I was just donkey dumb and bought a light color AND let my kids (and airmen) use them… What would you do to these chairs? try to dye them? draw on them and make the stains part of the drawing? cover them in strips of fabric? Put an fabric image thing on them?

So since the squid isn’t living on the chair, I moved him to the front living room. He’s next to a pirate print I bought from Vol. 25 back in november.

Edited: July 30th, 2010

Button Flowers around the house

I love making button flowers and whipped up a bunch of them several months ago. They were put in a cabinet and forgotten about until recently.  Took them out and I’ve been adding them to our plants around the house. I think they’re particularly lovely in a vase of flowers or a fern. I like them, I think some of you might like them too

They’re in my store. You can click this link or the photos to be taken to them. I like adding them to plants or flowers around the house. They add just a little bit of sparkle and I like that!

Edited: July 30th, 2010

New buttons

We came home from Origins with about 25 to 30 new buttons designs. I’ve reopened my store this morning and started listing them. I also have some nonbutton things we’ll be listing later this week. Here’s a peek at the new buttons though.

First up, a zombie panda my sister drew.

Next we have some buttons from my favorite shows, Firefly and Dr. Who. /swoon this was me attempting to make interesting button backgrounds and text and this will be the only image of this button. I used to do custom color backgrounds but it’s kind of a pain in the rear.

And finally, a couple based on living in Japan. I lived in Northern Japan for three years and my second child was even born there. We loved it and wanted to stay longer. We’d go back in a heart beat. One of my favorite parts was reading things in “Engrish” on various products that were for sale. The mistranslations could be kind of funny. Even with language barriers, I found that by and large (like most places) the Japanese were lovely people. I hope we get to live there again some day!

Edited: July 7th, 2010

We Heart AZ

I know AZ is getting a lot of crap lately, but I’m from AZ and I’m a diehard AZ supporter.
My dad came to visit today and I was telling him about an AZ button I made. He asked me for some so I gave him the current stock I had on hand. We discussed prices and he order 100 AZ buttons in 2 different designs. We’re punching them right now, but I like them. They’ll be on the website soon (when I reopen) and available for purchase. If you’re in Lake Havasu, AZ, please feel free to stop by “Jeff’s Muffler” and say hi to my dad. Tell him you’d like to buy a button too

So we’re punching and pressing 100ish buttons for him and delivering them to him at his inlaws’ house tomorrow.

On another note, I’m having trouble uploading photos to wordpress, even in another browser. i can upload them to flickr and then put them in my blog post so i’m not sure what’s up with that but we’re attempting to fix it.

And on a third note, new house photos coming soon. Jordan and I finished painting the front living room… finally and I rearranged again so I thought I would post photos about it. I’m still working on stripping the windows and painting trim. It’s fun times in the geek house!

Edited: July 2nd, 2010

A new skill

I’ve been trying to draw some things for my store but I really lack the confidence in being able to make something cute. I decided to hell with that mentality and started working on some stuff tonight. I designed 15 new 1 inch button designs and set about to make them in to buttons and zipper pulls. I have owned a one inch button maker for a while but I’d put myself in a little box in regards to what I could do as the button image. I broke through that tonight and just started making stuff. I liked it

These three are my favorites. I think they’re just so freaking cute. I drew them on a piece of paper, photographed it, and played with it in photoshop. I just did a simple line drawing and then did all the coloring etc in photoshop. I think it turned out really well. I’d love to get an electronic tablet thingy to draw on, but this method works for now so I can see if I like doing this sort of thing of not.

It’s a bad photo but it’s 1 am and I don’t want to wake up Cody. I still have several hundred one inch buttons to press, but it was a good start tonight.

We also went out today and bought 4 trading card organizers that old a ton of cards. They also work perfectly for my packaged buttons and are bigger than what I had. I now have 3 of them completely filled and they hold about 500 buttons each. It makes me feel better to know I have that many buttons pressed, packaged and organized.

Edited: June 20th, 2010

A study in frantic production

Perhaps frantic is not quite the word I’m looking for here. I am working with a purpose and at times it feels frantic. I’ve been putting finishing touches on a lot of items and figuring out how exactly I was to display everything at Origins Game Fair. It’s stressful but in a good way. I feel  invigorated and the love and support from my family and friends has been amazing.

I spent part of tonight designing new prints for the store and packaging them while Cody, the boys and I watched a movie. Cody unpackaged prints I was not going to sell any longer so i could use the packaging for current product. What to do with the old product we’ll no longer carry? Deeply discounted grab bags basically. We decided we’re not just doing it for prints either. I’ll have some grab bag boxes with totally random things in them. Things that are good quality product but not something I want to make anymore or something I was trying out for the store and decided I didn’t want to produce on a larger scale. These boxes will have a mixture of hand painted teacups, hand carved stamps, old button designs, 1 inch buttons, bracelets, masks, drink me bottles, specimens etc in them. Just really a good mix of all the things I’ve sold in my store or thought about selling. We’re not taking a ton of them and we’re pricing them really really cheap. I’m hoping the experiment proves successful.

Back to new prints, I have new buttons images and new print images. Here’s 3 of the new prints

Crappy photos but it’s late at night and I’ve been working all day :-p I’m stressed still but I’m dealing with it by making more items and organizing the products I’ve already made. Action makes me feel better. Now I just have to hope I can fit all this stuff in the car

Edited: June 10th, 2010

Slightly less stressed

Thanks to the last post, I have some ideas for my booth. We did a mock up and found out that a display thing I bought will not work after all. It’s okay though because we came up with a better idea. I’m currently shipping off etsy orders and hunting down all my painted luggage. It’s living by the front door.

I have more stuff to do for the Origins game Fair 2010 but I’m less panicked now. I have great supportive family and friends and it’ll be fine. It’s just a bigger version of the conventions I’ve already been to and people have liked me at those conventions. It’ll be okay and I’ll do well So I’m good now. Less panic.

Edited: June 8th, 2010

Another store update

I’m still slowly working on updating my etsy store. I really like the creating part but I’m starting to loathe the actual selling on etsy part. I need to figure out how to update on a steady basis without cutting in to my creative time. You’d think after all this time I would have figure it out, but no…

In any case. Between working on the yard to make it not be crap, working on the house to make it prettier and functional, working on etsy stuff.

So. Setting goals and slowly updating my store. I’m going to ConQuest this weekend. ConQuest is in Kansas City and will hopefully be fun. How could it not be fun though? Phyllis and Shanda from Con-Vixens will be there as will Jon from Dragon Talk Radio. They’re always a hoot to be around.

Edited: May 25th, 2010

I Have My Own Blog!

Hurrah!

Indeed I do my friends.
A blog of my very own. I will get better at blogging but for now it’s just about my products but I will try to be more interesting and talk about myself more. Right now I am not doing much so, it’s hard to talk about nothing.

But, if you want to take a look at my blog you can check it out here!
And Thanks to my sister, I am selling my little charms and such on Etsy. You can see my store here.

If you have any questions about me, my products, or a custom order, please feel free to contact me via Etsy or through email at brianne@seaofcreations.com

Happy Crafting Everyone!
xoxo-Brianne

Edited: May 23rd, 2010

More store Updates

I’m slowly (ever so slowly it seems) updating my store. I have quite a few items up now with more going up every day. I’m working on better photos and I love that my house looks prettier which makes it easier to have cute photo back drops. Any guess what I’m using for the backdrop on these?

In other news, I’ll be able to have my living room back soon. Oh thank god. My floors are looking pretty and i can’t wait to make the rest of the room look pretty too.

Edited: May 19th, 2010