Back to school

School's back in session. Summers do fly by, don't they?

That means I've been running around like a chicken with the head cut off for the past couple of weeks. Anytime now I'll fall over.

Just kidding, I've got some fight in me yet. But things are crazy for sure.

But, I did manage to make a couple of these:

Pencil cases!

N. has already declared that the pink one is hers (of course), but I put the white and blue one up for sale on Etsy. I think if it was up to her, she's confiscate everything I make...

How's your end of summer?

My Shop finally opened!

Finally!

I've been working on the legalities for two months, and now my shop has officially opened as a stand alone website and on Etsy.

I'm slowly listing the items I've been making these past few weeks. This has been truly a fun but exhausting time preparing the shop, making the products and the boxes to ship them in (yeah, even the boxes are handmade), getting the county and state documents allowing me to sell, making the website, etc. I've learned so much!

Now I'm looking forward to listing out all the things I have ready, and making even more products to list. I'm really enjoying everything that has to do with the shop, even bookkeeping. (no, really, it's kind of fun)

So, here's to new adventures and starting new phases of our lives! 

C is for Cute!

Ok, ok, am I going overboard with this? Two C posts? Yesterday was Sunday and I wasn't really supposed to post, but I wanted to catch up with the posting. Then today....

I ran into two things this morning that made my head almost explode with so much cuteness. I just have to share!

First of all, I came across this blog: Cath Kidston and it's taking me all the self-discipline I can muster not to buy anything. It is not healthy for me to come across places like this, I tell you. Check our their dotty line! And they have fabric too!  *bites hand not to push the add to basket button*

(Dotty Teapot image from the Cath Kidston website)

And if that's not enough cuteness for one morning, it's very rainy today and N. went to daycare wearing her ladybug umbrella and galoches/rain boots. 

I know I'm not an objective opinion on this... But isn't she just too cute for words? 

(storyboard by Coffeeshop)

(Oh how I love this little girl)

Do you like cute things? Or is this post making you want to throw up? ;-)

More Japan and Changing the blog

First of all, thank you. Thank you for your words of support in my last post. I keep thinking of how I can help people in Japan. I don't want just to talk about it, I want to do something about it. Until I can think of something better, I'll keep linking to places and organizations that are helping out. 

So, if you are looking for handmade goods, supplies, or art related products, here are a few places you might want to check out who are donating part or all of their proceeds to helping Japan:

This and That From Japan (etsy shop with lots of cute things)

Pikaland (art/illustration blog and shop)

A Bit o This and That (blog from a British mom living in Japan - she's having an auction)

As for this blog, well... I've been trying different things when it comes to its look and the content. 

• Tutorials page added - it's still a work-in-progress. It'll look better soon, I hope.
• New background and header - designed by yours truly, as I am trying to get better at creating all my own elements.
• Upcoming bookshelf page - I'll be adding a page where I list books related to art, crafting, crafting with kids, and others that I find helpful

Speaking of tutorials, I'll share what I did for my background. You are welcome to download and use/modify this pattern if you want. If you're not a big fan of the colors, flowers, or anything really, you can use the tutorial as a basis to make your own.

Here's what I did:

1. Using red ink and watercolor paper, I inked the tip of my little finger as a "petal" stamp and made several flowers around the paper.
2. Using a sharpie, I made small centers for each flower. 
3. Scanned the picture and opened it in Photoshop Elements
4. Adjusted the levels and color curves until the flowers had the shading I wanted
5. Added a layer with some scratchy texture that I got TTV. If you're not familiar with TTV textures, or don't like them, you can always do a search for a free texture online or not use a texture at all.
6. Adjusted the opacity of the texture layer to about 20% for a subtle effect.
7. Saved as a jpg paying attention to the size of the file, since Blogger only accepts up to 300K.
8. Uploaded it as my background.

There are many, many ways to do something like this. You can make just a few flowers and clone them through the picture, or create a brush with the pattern. Also, depending on the pattern, you need to pay attention to the size of your canvas, otherwise it might come out weird looking when Blogger repeats the background. 

I also made the header using the magic wand tool and I'll have a tutorial on that later.

Is anyone interested in PS Element tutorials using pictures and step-by-step instructions? Would you like me to continue or stop with PS Element tutorials?