Halloween is soon approaching and we have fully decorated our front entrance way. Costumes are ready and treats prepared for the little ones. We already have a pumpkin waiting to be carved. In the spirit of the season, I thought I'd find some Etsy items suited for the occasion.

I came across these very creative recycled pouches made by Eclipse. 

They feature a zipper top and are made entirely from recycled plastic bags. I think these are so creative and cute for Halloween treats. Plus they are ecofriendly.

Owls

Did you know that owls can rotate their heads more than 180 degrees? They also have special feather adaptations for silent flight. For centuries owls have been a part of folklore and legend and they still remain popular today. I found pages of listings on Etsy and selected a few that stood out.

This vintage owl sculpture is a great find by beyondthevalley

I love the owls in this fine art print by primorignals

Birds are such a popular graphic right now so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites from Etsy right now:






I love this Alice in Wonderland digitally altered photograph by
Champignons from the UK.



I am also fond of this screenprint: The archeology of flight

I love Geninne from Mexico. She has a 20 bird water color series that I adore. Here is number 7/20

I was playing with Pounce, the new Etsy browsing feature, and came across a new Etsy shop today with beautifully crafted wooden toys.

Countree toy shoppe is owned by Brian of Higgins Lake Michigan. He has been working with wood for 30 years and started making toys for his own children out of scraps from his building job. About 6 years ago, he began touring the North Eastern U.S. attending craft shows.

I picked a few toys from his shop to feature here.

This Logging Truck and Loading Dozer set are made from ash and come with little stackable logs. The dozer has a removeable operator too. What little boy wooden love to have this toy?

This adorable Dragonfly pull toy is made from Cherry, Maple, and Black Walnut wood. The wings are even hand silkscreened! Imagine my delight! The wings flop up and down as your little one pulls it along. This is too precious.

I have a two and a half year old little boy and recetly we have been playing with socks. He loves to pretend they are puppets. After watching the puppet show on Etsy a few months back, which was hilarious, I started browsing puppets for sale. I will share with you some of my favorites.



I'll start with Stacey Rebecca who put on the Etsy puppet show. She has been a puppet designer, builder, and performer with Elastic Theater for 5 years.


Susie is one of my favorites from her Etsy shop staceyrebecca.
Susie's favorite color is green like her shirt and she has big wide open ping pong eyes!



Next up is Ohmy made by Out of The Box Puppets.

Ohmy loves big hugs and dancing. He even comes with adoption papers. How cute is that!
Out of the Box Puppets specializes in custom puppets, blacklight puppets, (5'7") Life-size Blacklight Puppets, rod arm puppets, specialty puppets (Gooneys and Stringbeans), patterns, kits and more. You can find more puppets on Kidology.


Finally we have Otis, a full body ventriloquist puppet. He is more for the adult kids.

Otis has wildly free hair and few teeth; he is quite the character. Otis is handmade by the talented Sonny Vegas.

Sonny Vegas is a Magician, Comedian and Puppet Creator who has been making puppets for five years.

You can see more of Sonny's puppets on his website.

For more information about the puppet community check out Puppets and Stuff.

Next time, talk to the hand!!!!

Today I screen printed my first tote bag. This was so much fun. They are perfect for keeping in the car for grocery trips. I hate collecting all of those plastic bags that I can't manage to throw out. Now I can use my tote to carry my items in.



I love patterns, especially those found in nature. I created this funky pattern from pod flowers that I drew. I used bright summer colors for the print and then printed my logo on the inside.

They come in bright green and blue as well as bold red and blue.










I rolled them up in little bundles with some matching raffia ribbon. I made some pod flower buttons to match for each set. I listed them for sale in my Etsy store and will be coming up with some new designs soon!

The theme this week seems to be nautical. I was delightfully surprised to find I had been featured in Big Daddy Sea Shell's blog.

She chose my fish and whale prints to feature, as well as some really cool fish prints and ceramic dishes.
Later on this afternoon, I was even more surprised to find my At Sea women's long sleeve top featured on the front page of Etsy.


This fabulous list was currated by phantomwise.


I checked out her shop and just fell in love with this print.

Rainy Day Lovebirds is a mixed media painting that can be purchased in print form from her etsy shop. She has a July birthday coming up just like me :)

I am so excited to have a few of my clothing items being sold in Japan. Los Gatitos, an online boutique in Tokyo, has my items up with descriptions in Japanese.



They are carrying my lotus top. It features a large lotus flower on the front and 2 smaller ones on the back of the shirt









They are also carrying both the asphalt and grass green dandelion tops.

Here is the information translated to English, but I'm pretty sure some of the meaning has been lost!

I am on a bubble kick right now. My son is loving the bubbles and we have so many contraptions for bubble making. We have electric guns, nospill bubble cups and huge bubble wands.
I have a new design I am toying with that involves bubbles. The hard part is, how do I represent a 3 dimensional, transparent object through silk screen? I have been looking at other bubble objects and found so many different ways to depict bubbles.


Here are some of my favorite items I have come across.

I love these bubble coasters by allisonsphotography
She is a fellow nature lover out of Montreal.


What a perfect graphic for a coaster. They are just asking for a bubbly concoction to rest on them.

She even makes these in a set of eight for parties or in my case, when I start loosing them as I always do!


I love the cool colors and the mix of circular rings with full bubbles.








I also like these funky bubble earrings by jewelera

Derya Aksoy is a multi-talented jewelry designer who creates intricate pieces that can be seen in her blog, Derya's Jewelry.

I like the different sized circles fused together in this cool pattern




I love the colors and swirls in this painting by ttgart
This is actually a 3 print reproduction of the original painting.




I like the white swirls inside the colored bubbles. I like the cool blues with the deep purples and yellow spotted in.






Hmm, this would look lovely in my office. I must resist...

I have had my ears pierced since 2nd grade. At one point in my life, I had 9 piercings, but am now down to just 2. I have noticed though that lately I haven't been wearing earrings, and I think this can be attributed to my 2 year old son. He loves to grab and pull anything shiny, so at risk of having my ear lobes ripped in half, I have not been adorning my audio appendages.

I have long had a fascination with large hoops, specifically silver, but lately have seen quite a few beautiful and unique ear accessories. I hope to be able to buy some soon. Here are a few outstanding designers I have come across in my earring search.


Courtney Filer-Dougal, out of Boston, has a beautiful organic sterling silver line that is available through her Etsy shop Eva666 .

I am particularly fond of her stick earrings
These are hand forged and hammered into this organic shape.
They are simple and elegant.








I also love these death star earrings from wildflowerdesigns. They are oxidized to a wonderful dark tone and lightly brushed for unique texture. A dainty ruby bead adds a dash of color the flower's center. She also uses a stamping technique in many of her designs that are equally as intriguing and beautiful.






From Upstate New York, Elizabeth Scott has an eclectic jewelry line inspired by nature and decorations from the past. I think these sophisticated loops from esdesigns are fantastic. The andalusite stone is a subtle neutral tone with angled edges that catch the light and change colors. These would be perfect for a romantic night out.

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the Gocco printer, the Japanese home printing machine. The Riso company has discontinued its manufacturing and in turn, sparked a small uprising in the crafting community. Check out the save gocco here.




Flower art By mocchi mocchi


Being a screen printer myself, I became curious about this small, all-in-one printing unit. It seems you can find them at auction sites going for well over $200.00 when they are originally around $95.00. Similar to the high demand for the gaming systems, they are fetching a nice price, even used.


After discussing the pros and cons of the Gocco with a good friend who used one to print cards and t-shirts, I have decided it is not for me. That is not to say it is not for everyone. Here are some amazing Gocco prints I have stumbled upon in my quest.


This is another favorite of mine from
mocchi mocchi

There are many more beautiful prints to choose from.








Another technique used with the Gocco is stamping. You can purchase special kits for use on different mediums. I found this artist who creates beautiful patterns to use with her Gocco stamp.

Here are some classical style stamp patterns I found from Lara Cameron out of Australia









She has an Etsy shop, kirinco, filled with delightful jewelry and prints as well




Print Addict Japan sells Gocco supplies on Etsy too.
Welsh Products is another supplier.


Here are a few links to check out if you are interested in using a Gocco
You Tube tutorial
Flickr photo tuturial
Makezine tutorial
Ingafruit Blog tutorial
The Small Object Blog tutorial
Paper Source Video tutorial
Stamp Blog




Don't forget your card stock!

I recently purchased 2 sets of cards from Heather Toupin of heatherjeany. She has a modern line of prints perfect for any occasion.




For myself, I selected the goldfish. This is a delicate design printed in a shimmering gold ink onto a mix of A2 size beautiful blue and green note cards with stylish rounded corners and corresponding glittery gold envelopes.





I also selected the tall giraffe. It too is a detailed print in a shimmery bronze on a cheerful set of orange and red cards with matching chartreuse envelopes.

I can't wait to send these cards out to clients and friends; don't forget about the art of writing now. I love "real" mail.