RAWR! Take on the World!

Dragonslayer Chibi Girl @ LiPeony

Have you ever waked up ready to take on the world? Well sort of feel like that today. I was humming the "Rocky" theme song putting my clothes on adn even brushing my teeth. Yesterday was a really crappy day due to P.O issue and another department at work being extremely rude to me for no apparently reason. But today is a new day! I spent last night drumming up new designs and art. I have pages and pages of designs but only a fraction of them get finished. One of my favorite ones is the newest one about Knight Chibi Girl.

I don't think one needs to wait for a Knight in Shining Armor to come and save her.... this girl puts on the armor and goes out to defend herself. I'm also a huge fan of games so being a cool knight slaying monsters and what nots is a dream only lived in that video game world =D On a side note my friend saw this print and said it reminded her of Marioland because of the bright colors. Hmm.... I like colors =)
My next and last fair of the year is The {NewNew} 2 - day sale at Brooklyn Indie Market on November 14th - 15th. There's a 10% off coupon to use for anything under the tent so that's a pretty darn good deal. I'll be there Saturday and would be introducing my Gentle Giants Prints. The little elephant above is a preview of it. They'll be 8" x 10" since most of my art is at 5" x 7" I wanted some softer larger prints. I think I will put it up in my etsy shop but I have to go and get supplies to pack larger prints.

For the display I got a old metal laptop tray that I can use to put my magnets on and make a small shelf on one side. For my art I think I'll have a few displayed and one or two books to flip though. I was thinking of making the flipping books kind of like story style with a small sentence under each print. Don't know...

Until next time... go forth young knight!

Flying High

Chibi Pilot @ LiPeony

It's well into fall and it's so so very cold! Brr! I've just been doing sporadic artwork and custom orders. This October has definitely been revving up in my little shop and the post office has been jam packed lately. I was reading an Entertainment Weekly and they were making a film of Amelia Earhart and even though I'm deathly afraid of heights the idea of soaring around in the sky has been one of my biggest daydreams when I was young. I remember dragging out a cardboard box and plopping myself in it, dreaming that I was one of those crazy aerial pilots! I made a small print above just for that. It also represents something else... that no matter how young or old, your dreams are never out of reach... what they say.... the sky's the limit?

So when you feel down and out and that what you wish for seems so far... just look up because your dream like the sky is limitless... you just have to drag that little cardboard box out once in a while and remember... you can fly

Until next time... always remember I'm here rooting for you! Yes YOU!

Sick n Soup

Sharkfin Soup Surprise @ LiPeony

Last Saturday's craft fair went pretty well. There was a good amount of families that attended though most were outside playing with their kids in the many tiny amusement like rides and the BBQ and bake sale. I must say the stuff at the bake sale was delicious! I brought a lime cupcake and had to buy three more because they were just THAT GOOD! Though there was a quick and torrential downpour in the middle of the afternoon but after that the weather was awesomely nice. I had the coolest table roomie Jess from ClineCreations! She's such an awesome gal and her Chinese knots are beautiful and her artwork simply took my breath away! Seriously they look as professional as Chinese brush artists. Check out her shop!

I did okay but my display was much too cluttered because I was trying to do so many things at once. The same thing goes for my shop. It was way too cluttered so I decided to go back to my roots and draw again. Now I'm way happier. I did earn a small profit but I also came down with a cold so that stinks! I've also been working with my wacom more often and drew the little print above entirely by hand on the wacom. Trust me it's like relearning how to draw all over again! I love how it turned out!

I'm glad my next craft fair is November 14th at the Brooklyn Indie Market. That gives me plenty of time to relax and recuperate for it! =)

Until next time take care yourselves! =D

How To Make Simple Pin Tag

Little Bat Pin @ LiPeony

It's two days before my first craft fair at All Angel's Church this Saturday October 3rd. If you're in the neighborhood stop on by it's close to the Museum of Natural History! So... I've had heck of a time on displaying and tagging my items. I came up with a very very simple way to make tags for my little pins like the one above. All you need is:

1. Your Business Card (1 side is blank)
2. Tape
3. Pin/Item
4. Stamp Pad ($5 @ Staples)
   
5. Alphabet Stamps ($5 @ A.C. Moore with 40% coupon) (Mine were small so I labeled one side and put them inside a long box to easier pick them out)
   

Pull out a small piece of tape and put it underneath the pin with the sticky side facing you and not sticking to the item.

Next hover it over the card until you find a place you want it and press it down firmly on the blank side of the business card. The tape should stick the pin to the paper.

Next up I combined the letters to form the words I wanted and used a rubber band to fasten them together and pressed it on then situated it on the card. Since the set I brought only had 1 of each letter I had to get a bit creative with making sure I only used each letter once in a word.

Wa-la! I added some tiny bats and it's a simple tag for my bat pin. Also because it wasn't wide enough I planned for the word "pin" to fall off the side. You could easily have put it across the long way. The good thing is that it's fairly simple and the materials are cheap and easy to get. Another good thing is that it's also your business card so if you forget to put it in or w/e or when the person takes it out they can see where they got it from. This is great for little items like magnets, earrings, rings, pins etc. Get creative with it. Hope this helps.

Until next time... wish me luck at the craft fair!

Busy Busy Week

Black Cat Felt Pin @ LiPeony

SO I was on ye olde twitter when I found out the NewNewTeam Twitter found that I've been featured in Super Cute Kawaii blog! They have and showcase the cutest things especially kawaii which is Japanese for "cute". So I'm extremely happy with that! SO I'm extremely happy about that =). I think you can submit your shop and items to be blogged for free here in : Submissions. If you think your items fit that genre I suggest you try. If you love to look at awesome kawaii items I suggest you visit their blog.I'm still getting things together for my first craft show of the season. The above is the flyer by them. If you're in the neighborhood, drop on by! I also have my first midterm this Thursday so... sigh... when it rains. It pours! I'm spending all day tomorrow studying like crazy =D

Until next time... bundle up for Fall =)

What I'm Up to =D

"Sugar Maple Seed Felt Pin" @ LiPeony

With school well along it's way it's been very busy here in the LiPeony studios. Currently I'm making painted silhouettes on felt with use of stencils and touch ups by hand. I really love how they came out. The one above is from the Sugar maple Tree seed that's the state tree of New York. I'm not one for super bright colors but I think this gives a very vibrant fall feel to any clothing especially in the Fall when people have start bundling up and I see a lot of dark colored clothing like browns and blacks and navy blues come out. This would just give that extra punch of color without going crazy.

My new fondness for making little felt pins came from this adorable little girl below!

"Mei Mei and Red Panda Pin"@ LiPeony

Meet Mei Mei a 10 week old Red Panda that resides in the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. One of the wonderful caretakers saw my little red panda pin on Etsy and brought it. Soon after she requested three more for her coworkers. I was beyond thrilled with being a tiny part of the great work the zoo caretakers do in teaching and protecting the animals that populate this beautiful world of ours. I was sent and given permission to showcase this insider glimpse on little Mei Mei next to my pin on the left worn by a caretaker. I wish I could visit but Cleveland is far from old NYC =/ .

I have a lot of new designs that I'm going to premier at All Angels Church Block Part Craft Show on October 3rd. If you're in the area stop by =D.

One of my greatest supporters is Cuong who's an aspiring writer and journalist. As per his request I created a custom art for his friend's wedding as a gift. They're both writers so Cuong threw some ideas at me like have them writing and wracking their heads on how to express their love for each other. I used that idea as the large roll of paper they're writing on that folds into a heart around them. The crumpled paper on the bottom shows the nervousness of expressing one's feelings. Their song is "I've Got the World on a String" I took one of the phrases and put them as text on the paper. I also found the piano sheets for the song and layered and faded them to make the background. I added the yellowish color to simulate the antique vintage paper look and voila. I put their names over their heads though I fazed them out here.

I really hope they like it and I wish them all the best. =)

Until next time... always create and never stop... =D

Hello Fall and Craft Shows!

Black Cat Pin at LiPeony.etsy.com

It's officially the start of Fall and it's also my boyfriend's birthday! SO happy birthday to him! With the start of Fall it's also the early signal for the shopping season to start. I'm sure there are many crafters and artists out there all booked up for those shows and fairs. My first craft fair of the season is going to be at All Angel's Church Block Party. It's their first one and it's right by the Museum of Natural History and I'm not sure how it would turn out but the booth fee was very small. I'm also sharing it with a NewNewTeam buddy CLineCreations. She makes these wonderful Chinese calligraphy art and Chinese knots... neither of which I have patience to make ... teehee.

I didn't want to carry my huge black frame and I had new cards and notebooks I wanted to sell I decided to make this make shift sort of display. It's made out of recycled cardboard and I decorated it with wonderful origami paper and about an hour. It doesn't look all that great by itself.
But it actually works pretty well. The little shelves are fold-able so I can lay this whole thing flat. When I put my cards and note pads on it, it doesn't look too bad. (Don't mind the messy desk. I'm a slob) and since my cards are light this will be good to create height and different levels for buyers to look at. Everything else will be either flat or in boxes people can rummage though. After this there is the New New Day at Brooklyn Indie Market on November 14th which I'm also very excited about because we got such a great deal and last time I did pretty well for my first time there. That's about all the shows I will be doing this year.

Oh speaking of craft fair there is a massive source of how to's and advice out on the web. Here are some awesome links:

Super Etsy forum post of Craft Show Tips
Flickr: Visual Collection of People's Craft Show Displays
Storque Article on How to find craft shows in your Area
Another Storque Article of Craft Show Tips
Yet Another Storque Article on Holiday Craft Fairs
Indie Craft Fair Guide: Guide to your Local Craft Shows

These are some of the useful links I've found. I think I will put up the schematics of the display I made in this post later.

Until Next time... enjoy the wonderful Fall weather!