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.

Crafty Boing Boing 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

on MrXStitch.com again!

I am proud to say that my work was again featured on MrXStitch.com! It's an absolute honor to be recognized! This time, it was for my cross stitch of the Scooby Crew that I made for Kate's birthday. As an added bonus, this picture made it to Explore on Flickr!

I based the pattern on the MiniPops version of the Scooby Doo gang and then mapped it out myself using Excel (instead of graph paper). Once it was done, the background was too white and the gang lost some of the details, so I did a half-stitch in grey to define the background a bit more.

I didn't add Scooby himself, because our gang doesn't have a dog (we have 3 birds, 2 toads, and a cat between us) but we call ourselves the Scooby Crew and even dressed as them last Halloween!

hands full

Wow, I have been really busy lately. My plate at work has been pretty full and at night when I get home, there are movies to watch and crafts to be made. I've taken on several custom orders and a few craft swaps and it's been LOVELY. It makes the time go by quick (and the dirt on my kitchen floor get ignored) in the best way possible.

I like to watch/listen to TV while I'm crafting and this week I've been watching Dexter. I am really interested in where the story is going and I love Michael C. Hall, but dang if everyone else in that show isn't overacted and grossly stereotypical. I've been able to grin and bear it because the story line is really interesting and I need to know but the last episode I watched (ep. 8) was soooo painful. The flashbacks with him and his dad make me yell at the TV. The immediate plan is to finish out season one, but I don't know if I can watch season two without sporking my eyes out in frustration (which is bad for business!).

Other series that I have watched recently that were excellent were Big Love and Breaking Bad. BB has some overacted and unrealistic parts too, but they're more fleeting and thus forgivable. Plus, Bryan Cranston is genius.

All this TV to work on crafts and a couple of trades, which resulted in these beauties:

PhoenixFireDesigns made me this STUNNING Tree of Life pendant of twisted silver wire and rose quartz gemstones. I love her pendants and I told her just to pick a stone for me, so that it would be a suprise. The rose quartz is so pretty - I love it! I need to take better pictures so that you can really see how lovely it is!



Miss Disney offered an in-kind trade for Haunted Mansion goods, but I didn't know what I was getting until I opened the package. What a surprise to find a Madame Leota necklace and tombstone earrings! Leota is magically cast in resin (I have no idea how she does it!) and I am super crazy in love with it.




I've also just wrapped up a new dot painting and am working on a couple embroidery orders AND designing some new HM cool stuffs. Stay tuned!

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!

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.