Weighing Decisions

Happy to say my midterms are done as for doing well on them... that's a secret. =D. With the midterms gone I feel the crushing weight of the shop related things I have to catch up on. I just finished revising my spreadsheet of inventory, sold items and browsed though ideas erasing those I feel won't be good. Excel is a godsend when you learn the ropes and you can easily organize anything and it also does auto calculations too. I have a craft fair coming up March 15th at the Brooklyn Flea. A hip, vintage neighborhood craft show that recently moved indoors.

However this sort of worries me because I have browse though the vendors and pictures of the flea and the styles tend to be retro, vintage hip while my art and origami is more cutesy and whimsical. Makes me wonder if I am in the right venue. My friends said well think of it this way: the difference in your items will make you stand out. Good or bad thing I really don't know. I also don't know if I should make prints of all my art or just some or which ones and in what size. So far in my store I've sold mostly 5 x 7 but maybe it'll be different in person. Ack all the thoughts! My origami is easy as they come in two sizes... tiny and really tiny... lolol. =D. So if you have the time look at my art store: LiPeony and throw me your thoughts on which I should take?

It'll be my first craft fair of the year my 2nd one in my life and I'll be sharing it with two other people of the NewNewTeam! I'm very nervous and glad to be in such a very supportive team. If you have thought about joining a team I think it's great because it forms connections and you have the advice of experienced business craft sellers and meet and grow with newbies like me. A local team is great since we share information on craft fairs/shows and other opportunities. A like minded team like for me Papercrafter or Anime/Kawaii team would also be great to share information.

Until next time... indecisiveness... blah!

Your Cell, My Cell... Everyone's Cells

Cells! Cells! And more cells! And no not cellphones... literally living cells. My major is a very not well known field called Medical/Clinical Science and I have two huge tests coming up the middle of the week and instead of studying... I made little cartoon drawings pertaining to what I was learning. It just so happens we were studying different cells named above and I went to make an awesome piece dedicated to the little critters that make up who we are. Of course they aren't so cutesy like my picture but when stained with H&E they do look blue and red/pink under the microscope. This is for all those biology and scientists that are and to be. Now back to studying! =(

Until next time... it's just one of those weeks... The dreaded "Mondays" that last an entire week...

Origami Tutorial: Make a Box!

I have always been meaning to put another origami tutorial so here it is! How to make a very simple Origami box. It's a great little idea very simple and well it's a box, everyone can always use a box.

Well let's get started... choose an origami paper (this can be done with any type of paper, even newspaper or recycled paper) Cut it into a square like above. The size of the paper also determines the size of the box. So the bigger the paper the bigger the box.

Okay flip it so the blank part faces you and fold it in half. Remember the KEY to origami is straight tight creases!

Open it back up and fold the two sides again so they touch the first crease.

Now take a corner of the rectangle and fold it down. DO it to all four corners and it should look like the above picture.

Now fold the remaining flaps over the triangles like above and make sure it's nice and neatly creased.

It should end up looking like this.

Now here's the slightly tricky part slip one finger underneath the fold and lift it up. Crease the corner and it becomes the corner of the box.

It should lift straight up and see where the arrow points? It outlines one side of the triangle that you need to fold.

Now just slightly fold the bottom edges and it becomes the base of the box.

You can make another one of similar or slight smaller to make a like a gift box.

See easy breezy and you can use all sorts of shapes and sizes to create a multitude of bags that can fit whatever it is you want to put into it. This one is tiny like the size of ring boxes. Also this is absolutely fantastic to do with magazine paper to recycle into useful boxes to give or send to people. You can also make them more sturdy by using varnish or some other fixative/sealant. The great part is that with all the different designs and texture of paper you can make virtually any type of box you want. Oh and if you glue a handle over it, it becomes the perfect Easter basket. Great project to do with kids.

Hope the instructions and pictures are clear! have fun with origami!

Until next time, go take chances, make mistakes and explore! =D

I hope it "Gives You Hell"!

In my line of work it's very very quiet almost so quiet that it will make your head implode. I put on a single earphone and browse the top 10 songs on VH1 and this song from the All American Rejects pop up as number one called "Give You Hell." Click on it to go to the music video on youtube. Anyway it's pretty darn funny and you really have to see it to believe it. It reminds me of my dear crappy neighbors that live in the building across from me.

Living in NYC the streets are only so wide and I have a very good hunch the people across from us are some type of professional photographers because they have those umbrellas and stuff set up. For some reason they only photograph at night. The light is blinding and they work till god knows when. That flash just lights up my whole room.That's fine... I can just get some curtains like these fantastic ones from creativeneurosis. I don't want just some boring curtains and I like the simple look of flying birds and come on you know you secretly wish you could fly too like Superman. Or you know what works maybe some of those sleeping masks like this one from BiBon. Yes it is a superhero mask because I secretly am a superhero and superheros need sleep too. If the super hero look just ain't for you the shop has a huge variety of them so you're bound to find something that suits your needs. I have nothing against photographers except when they blind me but once a year they throw this huge party from night to the next morning and I can hear the actually clinking of the wine glasses and music rocking the streets. Last year they had 50 cent's "In Da Club" playing on repeat. Well now that I have something for the wonderful disco party lights I have the remedy for the noise.
Those are fancy ear plugs because well I like a bit of fancy in my life. These little guys are from redrumroses. They're inspired from a movie called Breakfast at Tiffany's. Which I am ashamed to say have never seen it. Oh they also come in other luxe colors. They are great on those long rides in the car, bus or planes and you just need some peace and quiet.

I'm sure everyone has had a bad or annoying neighbor in their lives or was a bad or annoying neighbor I am glad etsy has the remedies to deal with all of them humanely. Oh and to brighten up your day...

Poptart Kitty Says Hi!

Until next time... I hope it "gives you hell" ... j/k =D!

ArGS. Headache!

Arg... I woke up with the same mild headache from yesterday. Arg! I usually don't get headaches but I was staring into the microscope for a good few hours during class and at the computer screen at work right after. I take it that my eyes are tired, my old biology teacher told us that the trick to not getting a headache or strain your eyes when you peer into microscope for long periods of time is to take a break every half an hour, just look up and stare at something far away for a minute or two. This also goes for staring at computers all the live long day. The above little Meekiyua pair is my "Headache and Aspirin" pair. Thought it was something unusual and funny. Perfect for my situation right now. =D

until next time, take care of your body and your body will take care of you.

Be My Valentine and Zing! I got Tagged!

Happy very Belated Valentine's Day! I spent a wonderful day with my other half. I created the wonderful little print as a card and gave it to him. He loved but asked why roasting marshmallows? That is when I proceeded to give him a book called 400 BBQ Recipes. He's been looking at this book for a long time and I know he loves to BBQ so it's the perfect little gift! He gave me a 8GB flashdrive and Photoshop! LoL exactly what I needed! Anyways to keep the wonderful feelings going, I put the above print on sale with a "Still my Valentine Special!"=D

Yowziers! I go away for the weekend and I got tagged by Beholden To Nature! And... the rules are tell 7 things about yourself and then tag 7 others. Hmm... let me pick my brain to see...

1. I use to be a raid and guild leader on World of Warcraft (nothing like a tiny girl's voice instructing a group of 40 on how to kill something the size of a mountain).
2. I love to write stories but I never finish them. =( (short attention span)
3. I was an animal monitor in 6th grade and brought home a snake, bird and whole bunch of mice during the winter break so I could take care of them. (Parents not so happy.)
4. My favorite DS game is "Cooking Mama."
5. In real life I am a terrible cook because I don't follow all the instructions. =D
6. I'm very afraid of heights but yet I went on a ride called the SlingShot that shot me hundreds of feet in the air over the ocean. =_=
7. One of my favorite TV shows is Law and Order (all of them) and use to watch it every afternoon in college. =D

Here are the peeps I tagged! CrazyTimesCandle, Reny's Place, Little Papoose, TheMaryGoRound, Robot Love, Expressions by Devin and ThreeLoudKids! Go check it out! =D

Of Art and Warcraft

I've been pretty busy on a custom order and all these new ideas coming off the top of my head. I'm still not done. I did put up the whimsical 8 x 10 print above called "Whisked Away" which is what I feel sometimes. Sometimes you can't help it but something comes grabs you and whisks you away. I'm also getting ready for Valentine's Day. But shh that's a secret! Which reminds here are some couple related items I have in my shops the print You and Me, Nerd Origami Couple, my most popular one Lover's Knot Origami Ornament.
But wait this post is "Art and Warcraft?" Well here it is I use to be a major World of Warcraft or "WoW" player. WoW is a highly addictive multi player game where people from all around the world design and level up characters where they can do a multitude of things from PvP (player vs player) to PvE (player vs environment) which is also know as "Raiding." Anyways I was in a great close knit guild called Archons which consisted of real life friends and people I've grown to call great friends.

Due to the addictive nature and my lack of self control (it's just way too fun!) I had quit cold turkey last year but that addiction is creeping up again now in the form of... ART! Yeps I loved the rich lush environment of the game and the character designs. My guild is still up and going with a new website I tweaked up the layout and made the above banner of a night elf against the moonlight. The pendant she wears is the guild tabard logo. I think it turned out quite well and glad I'm still around and keep in contact with these wonderful friends. In the summer I may go back but until then this is what I allow myself to do.

Until next time, wtfbbq! <-- one of those crazy things you see in WoW chat

Just You and Me

I'm actually very nervous on putting up the first of my Black/White and Red Series. This one has no red but I absolutely love it so much. I got this idea when I was thinking of my significant other and of a story I was in the middle of writing. It's in pen and pencil but to me it's one of my best works. I'm extremely proud of it and evokes the feeling of not being alone in a sometimes lonely world. I set the price high because that's just how much I love it and so proud of it. I will not lower it and if it does not sell... that's fine. I'd love to keep it and frame it up on my walls anyways. =D

Until next time... when the world has closed it's doors and shut it's shutters to you... just hold my hand and it'll be fine.

Queen of Hearts

I've been having a creative block over my art lately and one day in ye olde boring class my hand started moving flashing out ideas and this is the first one I made. I call it the Queen of Hearts and I based it off those old Victorian porcelain dolls. The only colors I had was a black pen and a red fine marker. I really like how it turned out and those black and red designs added this unique twist to it. It actually started as a frame for the Queen but I added a few more. Afterwards I set it on Bristol paper and put sparkle modge podge on the background only. The outcome is not bad. This is just the preview of my Black/White and Red collection and I'll be putting them up in LiPeony soon.

Until then... inspiration can hit you like a truck. =D

All for Art!

Woot! I just got my first sale in my art shop LiPeony and it's the lovely little piece up there in a 5" x 7". As a bonus I also added a free choice of another 5"x7" print or my origami in Meekiyua. I think is a lovely freebie. I looked up on making good art prints and I really wanted to do it at home. One of the best professional printing online would be iprintfromhome and their prices are very good along with the quality and I went all over NYC and online to try to find more bang for my buck. That place is good not only for the price and quality but that it's more convenient since they just send you the images by mail and their customer service is very nice. Most of the archival printing places are very out of the way even with the fantastic NYC subway.

I wanted at home printing and I found a great etsy post about it HERE. Most if not all the recommended printers that have archival inks which are special inks that last for like 200 years or something and you also need really good paper. I brought some photo paper nothing really special just some Epson Matte and printed it on my old trusty Canon bubble jet. You know what it came out very very nice. I was actually surprised. The colors are as soft as I imagined them to be and also the image was true to what I did. I didn't want to give anyone some faulty print that would just fade away.

SO... I did some sleuthing and jumped upon this SITE (erfs I will have to find it tomorrow). It listed all the research done by an independent company on fading and lifetime of inks and papers. The old Canon printer I had was estimated to not fade after at least 25 years and would last long if the picture is taken care of. Epson was first with 30 years, Hp was 20-25 years and Lexmark was a sad last. As for paper the photo paper I brought is guaranteed to hold onto the ink for 70+ years. The problem with the super duper archival inks that's proven not to fade after 86-200 years is that well no one is really going to be around to fade and complain about it.
I taped two prints to my bookcase that always gets the morning and afternoon full blown sunshine on it and is always in the light. It's been about a month and it looks the same. I'll be sticking to my trusty printer and it's 25 years. If it starts to fade before 25 years I will the first one to tell you.

Another important part is the paper. There really isn't any "archival" ink jet paper easily accessible like at staples though I heard of a Kodak paper that's suppose to be akin to a everlasting gobstopper. It just keep trucking. One thing I've learned is that if you want good lasting paper it usually has the tags "archival" "museum grade" and "acid-free." There's also about weight of paper. Yeps... paper weight is how much 500 sheets would weigh. The higher the weight the thicker it is. To give a perspective most computer/copy office paper is 20lbs and its fairly thin. I really don't like flimsy paper for a print so I went heavy duty and got new paper that was 47lbs. It's as thick as card stock and I loved how the prints came out. Colors true. Paper sturdy. Image perfect!

The more professional art prints require special paper and inks, methods, time and research and one day I'll be able to get those really awesome printers with like 10 different archival inks and special textured archival paper. For now this poor college student is happy with her old Canon bubble ink jet and 47lb paper that supposedly doesn't fade for at least 25 years.

Until next time... I am Art and Art is me. =D

Welcome!

Welcome my first Meekiyu charm! I really love how this one picture came out. It was entirely by coincidence that the blackberry phone is an awesome red color just like my charm. The phone is my boyfriend's old phone. I also love how the sparkles came out on the charm so it had just enough twinkle and all the gold details of the paper glows and so does the little bell. I took several pictures and tweaked the in my photo manager to make it brighter and contrast higher.

Frankly to get really good pictures you need a good with macro setting camera, good background that compliments your work without overpowering it and that perfect amount of natural light or pseudo natural light bulbs. Get level ground to place your camera and take several pictures. By the way some cell phones are incredible cameras also but those are usually very expensive might as well buy a good regular camera. I usually take at least three so there is always one really good picture that comes out of it. Next is really having a simple program like Photoshop or Picture manager to play around with the settings to really make your pictures pop.

Here is a very useful collection of articles in Etsy on Photography from how-to props to how - to play with picture settings:

Etsy Photography How- to's : all the articles on etsy pertaining to photographing including tips on how to make one fit for the Front Page
EtsyWiki Photo How - to's : great place for all etsy and has answers to all those little questions like "how do I get rid of that yellow in my photo?"
How to make a cheap light tent/box : brought to you by the Digital Photography School
Product Photography: A great site to look up specific tips on photographing your items according to what it is and what is is made of like... glass jewelry or clothing etc.

These are just tips on how to get great photos but it really is also about experience and what works for others may not work for you but hopefully with some advice, practice and that special corner of your home that happens to have the perfect amount of natural light you can take some awesome pictures. =D

Until next time... Happy clicking! =D

Journey of a Charm

I don't know about you but I'm one of those people who have little charms on my cell phone, school bag, handbag, desk basically everywhere I can put one. I had this idea but it took a lot of work to make my idea work. This is the Journey of a Charm. Well As you may or may not know it just passed Chinese New Year and my mouth waters from thinking of all the goodies. Anyways I have a lot of Red Envelopes like the one above everywhere. The great thing is there is literally hundreds of different designs. I cut them into square keeping the design in the square and folded them into origami. Grant you the paper is actually quite thick and the size is small so they took a bit to fold correctly.
Next I had to find those little cell phone straps and you know those buggers are quite hard to find. I went to some stores in NYC but they were either super overpriced or non existent. I waited till I went down to my boyfriend's place and he lives just minutes from Micheal's, A.C. Moore and Joann's! I went to Micheal's where one of the kind employees pointed me to Walmart. Walmart didn't have it though I did spend some time looking at their very nice Arts and Crafts section. They had it at A.C. Moore god bless them though they were quite pricey at $5 for 6 but it was the only thing. I couldn't find the really small bells there so off I went to those tiny shops hidden in Lower Manhattan and brought 5 really small bells pictured above.
Around this time I decided to give Mod Podge a try. I heard rave reviews about all the things you can do with it. I wanted to seal my origami but couldn't deal with resin or plastic so this seemed like a good option. I got a small Sparkle version of Mod Podge. Once my origami was assembled I put on a coat of Acrylic Spray dried it over night and went to put on two coats of mod podge waiting till it's fully dry and one last coat of Acrylic spray. It took me a while to decide where to put the bell... above? Below? After everything this was what I had.I really like how she came out. She is just a bit bigger then my thumb and had a nice sparkle to it. The bell is on the bottom and made a pleasant jingling noise that wasn't too annoying. The origami is pretty stiff almost like slightly bendable plastic. If you haven't mod podge you should it's very simple to use as a glue and sealant. It also dries fairly fast of course this depends on how thick you put it on. They even have glow in the dark mod podge! That I got to try one day! =D I'll be putting that up in my shop tomorrow.

Oh by the way the little cork board I found those nifty things at Office Depot for $4. They are 1.5 inch by 10 inch cork board with double stick foam that you can stick anywhere and use thumbtacks to tack whatever you need. I found this to be sooo great because I could hang things to dry or just random notes on the top of my desk instead of leaving holes in the wood. My place is very small and this maximized my space a lot.
Until next time, pounce on every idea and make it real! =D