An Ornament Photo Dump

The caps of my fabric paint were the perfect size for the orbs to rest as the sealer dried.

The easiest first step.

Placing the snowman's crudely sculpted coal eyes :)

After baking the eyes I painted them with acrylic.

Detail of the little reindeer's sweater.

Now to bake the antlers and paint them!

The beginning of Totoro.

Time to bake (Totoro's ears) and paint!

The finished, cheery snowman :)

The finished Totoro! His ears came out a little rough, but I'm really not skilled in sculpting...at all.

The finished reindeer!

And here they are just hanging out.

Sorry it's been so quiet, but my days suddenly filled up with ornaments and trips to the post office! The three ornaments above were gifts for my mom and mother in-law. (While editing I realized I forgot to add the ribbon for the photos...opps!) Totoro was for my mom since she shares the same love for Studio Ghibli I do :)  I painted them with a few layers of acrylic and sealed them with a latex spray to ensure they stay in good condition. These were a nice change from sewing ornaments which was causing a bit of pent up artistic frustration. I enjoy sewing, but painting is a far better stress reliever! Although, when I'm sewing I can watch The X-files... 

Giveaway

Hey there! I'm doing a giveaway on my tumblr until Dec. 22nd for a blue cat ornament & a drawing by me!

Owlsies

The great horned owl ornaments I made are ready in my etsy & bigcartel shops! Barn owls are on the way, too! 

Pug ornaments are back! And this year I've made some improvements...for me. It finally occurred to me that   I needed an embroidery hoop to easily paint on fabric. Stretched, taught fabric creates a much better painting surface than loose fabric that doesn't care you need to get it right on the first try. (The second photo is from my instagram. Follow me @twoblackcats)

Step #1: le outline

Slowly adding drawing fluid.

Success!

Did silver too!

Planning the placement. The empty space is reserved for the owls.

Last night I added owl #2 to my screen, and the printing results were successful! This owl gave me more problems than the other one, but we've since settled our differences. I also cut the outline for my Christmas tree display for the ornaments. The last craft show I did people kept asking if they were catnip toys :)  

Screen printing!

Tracing a stamped design onto paper.

Finished drawing fluid stage.

Screen filler! Kinda globby, but I'm new at this! 

Bunches and bunches of cards.

The black ones printed really well!

And a beautiful, beautiful red owl freshly printed :)

After a series of unfortunate failures trying to block print my owls onto cards (so many perfectly round cornered cards wasted!), I begrudgingly decided to try screen printing the design. I REALLY didn't want to do anything but block printing because I put so much time into carving the stamps, but I looked up some how-to videos and learned drawing fluid+screen filler isn't such a difficult thing. My first attempt was unsuccessful because I was too impatient and the screen filler wasn't fully dry, but my second attempt has birthed me 13 beautiful cards. My next step is to do the other owl I designed in a similar fashion and begin those tonight. Then on Friday I'll trim the corners and put them into pretty packaging for a holiday craft show on Saturday. Go productivity! 

Okay, so I missed my Etsy shop and reopened it. There are definitely perks selling on here that I can't ignore, especially in terms of searching, exposure, and affordability. My bigcartel shop will remain open but will eventually have less items. I'm really sorry for my indeciveness, so I'll be doing a giveaway on my tumblr soon to make up for it!

Black Friday & Cyber Monday

From Nov 22 - Nov 27 my entire shop will be 20% off!  In addition, a randomly selected woodland animal card and a sticker set containing one of each woodland animal (fox, rabbit, owl, bear) will be sent with your purchase! The stickers are available exclusively with the sale, so they won't be around after Nov 27! Every sentence needs an exclamation mark!

Consumerism aside, I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving has a fabulous time, whether you spend it with family, friends, or happily with a meal for one. Cheers!

The other cat ornaments

Remember my spotted blue cat ornament? Well, here are the other versions I talked about! They are all available for adoption in my shop, as well as my fancy pup and cat ornaments. 

Black Bear Brooch

Red Fox Brooch

Brown Owl Brooch

White Rabbit Brooch

Finally found time to post these here! A few months ago I designed some woodland animal brooches when I was experimenting with style a bit. I was happy with how they turned out, but I didn't feel like I nailed it. Two days before the last craft show I thought, "Meh, I'll at least see what happens when I draw a new owl." And so hours past and I drew a new fox, rabbit, and owl to replace the others. Drawing digitally isn't something I typically do, but it makes designing cute brooches really easy!