A question posed to all of you...

I hope all of those that are on the East Coast are drying out and have minimal damage from Irene. I would like to make things a bit more interesting for all of you and I am posing some questions over on Facebook. Would all of you mind heading over and answering? It would greatly be appreciated!


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Get Ready For Halloween!

Get ready for Halloween! In my opinion it is the best holiday of the year. The colors, the smells of spices and cooler air, the rustling of leaves ablaze in beautiful colors and of course black cats, yes Halloween holds a special place in my heart, it is a time for remembering those that have passed on and the Earth begins to sleep. The best part? Scaring the crap out of the kids that come to the door for candy (and a few adults too). You have to earn the candy around here. 

I love designing for Halloween. Green and orange happen to be two of my favorite colors. I love the folklore surrounding some of the icons of the holiday and I have found that people who love Halloween are pretty passionate about it just as much as I am. It is the one day I truly enjoy.



Click the picture to see some of my designs, everything form Halloween Invitations to Trick Or Treat Bags

All of my designs are original, drawn by hand or rendered in Illustrator, are fully customizable and top quality. All designs can be made as Halloween or Samhain by simply changing the verbiage. If assistance is needed feel free to contact me via my shop contact form and I will be glad to help. 



The Emmys Are Almost Upon Us

It is hard to believe that The Emmy Awards are right around the corner. So much hard work and preparation is coming to a close. Not only have I been preparing for the gift bags but I have also been hard at work with Valerie from the Beez Kneez on our group The Artisan Group and getting ready to launch my Etsy shop in the very near future.

The Artisan Group if you have do not know is a creative group of very talented artists that all pull together to exhibit at some of the top Hollywood Gift Lounges, not only will we be appearing at the Emmys but also at the Golden Globes and The Oscars of 2012. I could not be happier and more excited.

I wanted to do something a little different besides tile necklaces. I decided to really change things and head full steam into a new direction and soon all those wonderful things will be available for you to have as well.

The gift I will be giving will be a hand-covered frame with a hand-formed poppy flower and a brand new illustration from me. Of course it will be listed in Zazzle as soon as the boxes are packed and the frames are on their way to California. If someone perhaps does not like the illustration they can always change it out for a photo of someone they love. I wanted to do something useful and pretty, hopefully I achieved that.



Close-up of the flowers that will adorn the frames. All hand-formed and punched out of acid-free paper



The assembly line, well part of it, there were a LOT more petals to assemble!



The final frame before adding the illustration. This is the display piece going on the table.

All tucked away, waiting for a ribbon and a seal



Little tokens to hand out to the press and any of the children that acompany the celebrities

I am so excited for this show, more than any I have done before and just wait to see what I have in store for the next show! I already have the supplies.

A Funny Little Thing

It is sometimes funny how things work out. I have been toying with the idea of combining two of my loves, painting and jewelry making, into one.

Acrylic on canvas set in a metal pendant



I recently posted a picture of two pendants I made some weeks ago and said I was thinking of making more in the future. Well the feedback was great and I decided to order some pendants of all different sizes to play around with. As I am chatting with everyone about it Kristal (a very talented person in her own right and co-owner of Atutudes) asked if I could copy a photo she took. I told her it depends for fear it would be a human she wanted painted but asked her to send it and I will see if I could. When I opened up the email there in front of me was a beautiful cat with stunning blue eyes, yup, I think I could do it I said and she was thrilled.

Now here is where some panic set in, could I really create Sierra the cat as she looks? I have never been asked to paint a portrait before and was nervous it would not look like her but I grabbed my brush and tried, it is a cat after all and I stare at them all day. The portrait took me a rather long time compared to anything I have painted before, about three and a half hours and is roughly an inch and a half tall but Kristal was so happy when she saw it posted and that makes me happy too. I just wrapped it up all nice and snug and I am on my way to the post office. I am glad my painting found a home where it will be cherished.



Sierra The Cat

 So what do you think? Should I continue with this new venture?

H U G E Giveaway From The Artisan Group!

Thank You SO Much!

We did it! You all helped us reach 1000 fans! Thanks for sharing the love and to show some love back we would like to give you a chance to win the items from some of our artists - including me!

Head on over to The Artisan Group's Blog for all the details and to see what you could win and while you are there pay the other artists a visit and "like" their pages or follow them on Twitter



GREAT GIVEAWAY!!!

The Artisan Group has come so far in the short amount of time I have been working with them. It is amazing what can be achieved when you work together with like-minded people that have the same direction as you. In just 3 short months we have managed to gather nearly 300 of the most talented artists that are out there and are followed by nearly 700 Facebook fans.

700!

Can you believe that? We are blown away by the support we received and in return we plan to share some love back.

The Artisan Group would like to celebrate their fans by hosting an amazing giveaway! Twenty-four of our talented members have agreed to help sponsor our giveaway by donating a fantastic product from their shops.

Details are here

We have many other fun things coming down the line so if you want in on the fun follow along, join in or if you happen to be one of the talented artists that we may have missed head over to The Artisan Group's site and apply.


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How wonderful is this bracelet? You know what makes it even better? It is on it's way to me!

This bracelet was custom made just for me by Autumn Bradley. She makes Boho Rock and Modern Rustic Jewelry in her Hell's Kitchen NYC studio. She has great designs for men too so if you need a last minute gift be sure to head over to her site http://autumnbradley.com/ and take a look around.

This ring is made by Stephanie Stargell. Recently she had some difficulty with her Etsy Shop (You may read about it here) and it took 6 very long costly days for Stephanie to get her shop back up and running. Since then she has opened a shop on ArtFire and is trying to make a transition over there. I would like you to take a look. She has over 2000 sales and 100% positive feed back from Etsy so you can shop with confidence and worry-free.

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Busy, Busy, Busy...

Yes it seems as if I have fallen off the face of the Earth as this blog has been sitting for far too long but I managed to get a minute between painting, creating, a little bit of freelance work, prepping for the 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards and working with my new group The Artisan Group. There is little time for anything else but I wanted to take a moment to spotlight three people for three different reasons, a sort of thank you if you will.

Bellaroma

Peruvian Cacao Bean From Bellaroma



Diana is one of our Artisan Group artists that is participating in the Emmy Awards Gift Lounge alongside me. I happen to follow Diana on Facebook and one day she was having a giveaway contest. I clicked "like" to show that I liked the product she was offering for the contest not realizing that I had entered the contest (shows how astute I can sometimes be) Well, low and behold, after the first winner did not come forward I became runner up! I received a rather large bottle of Peruvian Cacao Bean lotion and I must say it smells divinely. The super thick lotion has a pleasant hint of chocolate, not overpowering but a nice light scent. I applied it in the morning and the scent lingered all day long.

The nice thing about Bellaroma's line is of course the all natural ingredients and I for one love that. My skin is super sensitive and anything harsh gives me hives, rashes and even sometimes blisters.

If you would like to try Diana's products head on over to Bellaroma and take a look at all she has to offer.

Clover Stone Designs

Beautiful Bracelet by Clover Stone Designs

Stephanie of Clover Stone Designs is also a member of The Artisan Group and was needing some help with her logo, a re-vamp of the old one she had. I started off redrawing her cloverleaf so she would have a better graphic to use if necessary so she can play around with it, in exchange she is sending me this lovely bracelet made just for me.

Stephanie has some wonderful items in her shop including some necklaces that will be making an appearance at the gift lounge. and 15% of all sales are donated to chromosome disorder research

Edi's Little Treasures

Custom Ring by Edi's Little Treasures

Oh how I loved this ring when I first saw it. There are plenty of Bird's Nest rings on Etsy but this one, well it was perfect. Sad part was that the original ring was sold and also a size 7 (my ring finger on my right hand is a 5, the left a 4) so I put it out of my head for a while chalking it up to fate. The thing is though I would keep returning to her shop to see if she relisted another ring and a few weeks went by without one.

I decided to reach out to her to see if she could in fact make another one, in my size. Luck would have it that as soon as I sent the email a reply came back and before I knew it I had my ring and I couldn't be happier. I plan on wearing it when I head out to California in September for the awards show gift lounge.

Edi makes wirewrap jewelry that is absolutely beautiful (I have my eye on the Key Pendant next) She is a pleasure to work with and I highly recommend her if you are looking for something well made and unique.

I suppose I should get back to work now. I have been reorganizing my Zazzle shop and branching off into a few new ones that will soon be released. It is quite overwhelming but it must be done.

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The Artisan Group's first of three Emmy Award Twitter Parties!

A N N O U N C I N G The Artisan Group's first of three Emmy Award Twitter Parties!

The 63rd Primetime Emmys are taking place on September 18, 2011, and we're kicking off Emmy season with three super fun Twitter Parties! Our first party takes place on May 11th, and if you follow along you could win some of the swag the celebrities will receive!

Here's how:

Follow @theartisangroup, @sweetstellas, @atutudes, @ajsweetsoap

Follow #theartisangroup
Answer trivia questions about your favorite Primetime shows, actors, moments, what YOU think should be nominated for an Emmy this year (be sure to respond directly to @sweetstellas, @atutudes, or @ajsweetsoap)

Win prizes, drawn at random! Winners will be announced on Twitter, and reposted here on May 12th!

What are some of the prizes that you can win? Only some of the most lovely art from Artisan Group members, which is being crafted by their very hands to be gifted to celebrities at the Emmy's Gifting Suite!

An 8x10 print from ArtbyAfton

$15 credit from Little Free Radical

Silver Spiral Earrings from AWE Shop

Popcorn Soap from AJSweetSoap

Stationery Set from Beez Kneez

Stationery Box and Custom Notestack from Sweet Stella's

$20 Giftcard to Honeyprint

Set your clocks, program your Blackberries and iPhones! Join us on May 11th at 8pm EST to win some amazing handcrafted Emmy's swag!

The 2011 Kid's Choice Awards

Rico Rodriguez and myself at the 2011 Kid's Choice Awards Gift Lounge

The pictures are in and I had a great time at the 2011 Kid's Choice Awards Gift Lounge at the SLS Hotel in LA. One of the best moments was when Rico, his mother and agent remembered me from across the room. He has to be one of the funniest kids I have ever met, full of sugar kind of silly and a pleasure to talk to.

Another great moment came when Rizwan Manji, who plays Rajiv on the show Outsourced showed up with his sister and niece and nephew. The little girl remembered me from the Golden Globes and she asked if I had another pretty necklace (I had given one to her special at the Golden Globes because she was being fussy at the time) So I made sure she got another but to my surprise Rizwan's nephew asked for one too. I thought perhaps he wanted one for someone special but he told me he kept the last one he got from me on his bed post because he really liked it. How sweet is that? Of course I gave him another one and he posed for a photo with his uncle and the box the necklace came in.



Rizwan and his nephew. Rizwan is holding a very funky iPad cover from the BeezKneez



I also had the pleasure of meeting Paris Jackson, daughter of the late Michael Jackson. Understandably no photos were to be taken but I have to say what a wonderful, pretty, articulate person she is. She did take a liking to my necklace as well and that is also an honor so of course I gave her one too.

I met a lot of up and coming stars, and ones that are a star in their own right. It was a fun, relaxed atmosphere where bikes were being ridden around the floor, people were wearing fuzzy slippers and candy and toys as far as the eye could see, Oh and I can't forget the lollipop wall that you posed in front of as you came into the room...Best toy yet? the Boogie Board! Check it out, it was a blast to play with.

Here are some other photos of the people that were kind enough to choose my art to hold. If you like the painting you can find prints and other products here: Calliope Dreams

The lovely Paula Abdul with my painting "Neptune"
and the gift necklace with the same painting on it.

Spencer Grammer with my painting "Gayle"
and the gift necklace with the same painting on it.

Bruce Davison of the Xmen (and many other fabulous things)



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My Time At The Sundance Film Festival 2011

Well we actually arrived a day early and woke up to find that we had nothing to do for the day. A quick trip to the hotel lobby and all the rack cards gave us some direction. We would head out to Antelope Island to see some bison and well, antelope. The drive out there was of course stunning aand we made our way across the miles long bridge to the island. Antelope Island is surrounded by a lake so rich in salt you can not sink and the only thing that survives in it are brine shrimp. We were met by a rather playful magpie that gave us a game of tag as we attempted to take his photo. We drove around the island for a while, saw bison, antelope and mountain goats.



A small portion of the Montage Ski Resort, Deer Valley Utah

The next day began among some beautiful scenery. The Montage resort of Deer Valley Utah held our gift lounge for the Sundance Film Festival. It is perched high on top a mountain and the road ends right at the hotel.




Set up was pretty smooth and we were put in the corner (which works for us since we could put the art up against the wall on the chair railing) A delicious spread of fruits, cheese and breads were conveniently set up in the middle of the room, oh and some to-die-for Tomato Hummus.







One of the first celebrities to enter was Kevin Sorbo. Now you all know how big of a sci-fi geek I am and his show was one of my favorites. He actually chatted with me for a while and wanted to take a photo with me (which of course I was not going to say no to) I thought it was very nice of him.

This lounge was very different this time. It was more for the Turner execs than anything else but I must say we were very well received by them. Apparently word got around and some of the execs came looking for us. That was very cool. I did manage to give out information on some of our artists when asked and one of them walked away with two of my necklaces which I happily gave to her. She said they were for her daughters but joked that they could borrow them from her. I don't mind, I was just glad she liked them so much.

We ended up finishing up early and decided to go downstairs to Daly's Pub. I had the best veggie burger on the planet, Long grain jasmine rice with mushrooms and zucchini diced in, topped with alfalfa sprouts and avocado on a toasted bun. I wish it was not so far away because I really would like one now.

After the first night we were offered tickets to see one of Sundance's movies. Never one to miss an opportunity like this I decided to grab them and enjoy. I picked the tickets by time and had no idea what the movie was about. We headed down into town and found the theater and waited in line for it to open. The movie we were about to see was called "Kaboom" and um, well it was certainly different. I got a few laughs out of it but I can say it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I had fun regardless and it was more of an experience than anything else.




The next day was similar to the day before. mostly execs and few celebs which made my job very hard. I did manage to rotate the art so at least everything got into a shot. A few celebs did not have time to pose and the photographer decided to snap a few of me talking to them. Unfortunately it was snowing and everyone was more interested in skiing than they were in the gift lounge. Only a handful of celebrities showed during our stay, Luckily Chaske Spencer was nice enough to hold two members artwork and the band One Rebublic each held something.

All was not lost though, we made a few good connections for our artists, picked up a couple of new talent, got to see a Sundance movie and had some great food with a few laughs.

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My Time At The Golden Globes Gift Lounge Day Three and Four

Ok, I am sorry this has been a little behind but we had the rare occasion of back to back shows. Only two days after I landed home from LA I had to turn around and head to Utah for Sundance. (more on that in later installments)

Well everything went off without a hitch the next morning and we were the first to arrive in our room so we had a chance to walk around to meet other vendors.

The first celebrity we met was Naveen Andrews. Val and I are such big LOST fans that it was a real treat. Naveen is a very soft spoken man, at least he was to us. We chatted for a minute or two and then he took a photo with one of our artist's paintings. Then he told me something that made me happy but I will get to that a little bit later.

The good thing was that The George Lopez Foundation was next to our table so even if certain celebrities did not walk around being gifted we at least got to see them. There were a few that stopped by only to do that. Katey Sagal, Jesse McCartney and Joe Montegna were a few that were there to only sign the guitar.

I guess I could pick a few of the names I met during the next two days and tell you a little bit about them since the event is such a fast paced blur. I have my list in front of me of who was scheduled to be there. Not all of them showed but I will try to remember the best I can.

Jennifer Love Hewitt: What a lovely woman and beautiful too. She was very interested in our work and asked a few questions which made my job easier. She took a liking to some of our artists work and was very interested in hearing how some of the pieces were created.

Handmade paper rose on my coffin jewelry box

Tiny bottle pendant necklace

Billy Gibbons: Both Billy and his lovely wife Gilligan arrived in the back way behind our table (there was as sliding door that we were next to) I needed no introduction and held out my hand to shake his. I talked to them for a little while. He was drawn to my handmade coffin jewelry box and I was rather intrigued by the mass amounts of skeleton keys hanging around his neck. I will be sending him a print of one of my versions of a skeleton key.

Billy and Gilligan Gibbons

Chelsea Traille: Got the best dressed award in my opinion and what a beautiful woman. She took a liking to my carousel horse pendant and chose that to hold for a photo. It is quite an honor when someone chooses your work and admires it.





Katherine O'Hara: A funny, funny woman, I always enjoyed her work and was honored that she liked mine. I was actually surprised that she chose my coffin to be photographed with but she really liked it.



Michael Clark Duncan: We had a great conversation about cats. He loves them and has a few and I rescue them and have many. He was drawn to Debbie's iPad cover and that is what started the conversation. I told him that "The Green Mile" made me cry. I said I was only able to watch it once and he said the same thing.

 

Grey Damon: Instead of posing with our artwork Grey decided to take a photo with the both of us and pulled us in. That is me in the red and Valerie in the pink



and last but not least (the thing Naveen told me about that made me happy): My favorite character from LOST...Terry O'Quinn. He came in from the back door behind our table as opposed to the regular door. I was on the other side of the table bending down with the bags when I looked up to tell Val something, as I did that Terry came in from behind her and I let out a gasp. I apologized for reacting that way but he really caught me off guard. Thankfully he was laughing at me and very sweet. He took some time to chat with us too and told us about a new show he is going to be in.





My Time At The Golden Globes Gift Lounge Day One and Two

Ok, first things did not start off good at all, a simple direct flight turned into many hours of nightmare. Originally I was supposed to fly out on Wednesday morning, fly directly from my airport to LAX and I was supposed to land at noon. Well that is not exactly how it happened. See we had the pleasure of another snowstorm and my flight was to leave smack dab in the middle of it. Great.

The day before I got a cancellation of my flight but they were kind enough to rebook it for me, only problem it was landing AFTER I was to take off to return home, well I am not sure if Continental has the knowledge to actually manipulate the time space continuum but I am guessing they do not. The only other option was to take a flight out of La Guardia and it would not be a direct flight (shudder) There goes a big taxi bill as there is not one person I know of that will go anywhere near that airport. I scrambled for a car and got one only to be told a few hours later that I am not guaranteed a ride in the morning because of the snow. Now I am pretty adaptable but this was really taxing every ounce of sanity, the only thing I could come up with was to go to the airport the night before and sleep there until my flight at 10:30 am. Yes 12 hours in an airport, on a cot, yay me.

Skip ahead to actually landing in LA. I was lucky as we were told that my flight was the only one going out before 6pm so I did make it, a bit ragged looking but here I was. I was supposed to have a shuttle take me to my hotel but when I called there wasn't one available, Thats just great until I found out it was a town car picking me up, finally something goes my way. Now never having the chance to ride in such a thing I did a silly thing. The car pulled up and I walked my luggage around the back of the car and was going to fling it in the trunk, Um yeah, apparently they don't want you to do that, nor do they want you to let yourself into the car either (well, now I know) The driver was nice though. I will say that I was in LA for about a half hour and I already had to dispel the myth that people from New Jersey DO NOT fist pump and we do not act like what you see on tv nor do we talk funny so stop it all of you (pointing my finger), it gets tiring defending my state, I had to do it the whole time.

Check in went smoothly and I walked to the drug store, no not the one that is four blocks away but the one that was about two and a half miles all because I can not seem to keep Willshire and Santa Monica straight.

After my five mile round trip walk I got ready for bed that is until Shannon and Valerie showed up. I finally got to meet my partner in this venture and one of our talented artists and we got along instantly. I was exhausted but they convinced me to head downstairs to the bar. I was already in my PJs, Shannon put hers on too so I figured what the hell and downstairs we went. Carlo was the bartender and he was making drinks for Val and Shannon while I admired the Absinthe decanter thing they had (The hotel is one of the few that serve Absinthe) The night went on and somehow it ended with Shannon and I eating pizza with Carlo and the concierge (Steve?) Carlo thought I was 28, bless his heart because he wasn't even close.

The next morning was set-up day and due to a bad GPS that thought it would be funny to take us to the right street at the wrong end we ended up just making it to the London Hotel at the last possible second. We rushed upstairs and quickly set up just in time for the press to show. We were in a room with the best people. There were five vendors with us. The Wine Chataeu (which I happen to drive by on my way to work, small world) An awesome Vegan Chocolate company called Chocalive, and let me tell you that their chocolate is absolutely delicious and a California cheese company called Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. There isn't a blue cheese on this planet that tastes that good. We also had The George Lopez Foundation which is such a worthy cause. We had the best room in the house as far as I was concerned (wine, cheese, chocolate, art and charity) and the other vendors were a blast to hang with.

A little later in the Meet And Greet we heard that George Lopez was around and he was making his way to our room. It took a while but he showed and Valerie is a big fan. She got him going and joking around and there was some photos of most of us doing a secret sign George taught us. He was also filming for his show I believe. After the Meet and Greet we had to bring up all of our gift bags with the help of Johnny who works at the London. We unloaded everything pretty quick and then it was time to rest because tomorrow was going to be an exciting busy day.

Stay tuned for Day Three and Four of my adventure at the Golden Globes awards show...

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