The sketchbook is here!

I received my sketchbook in the mail today. All nice and new, blank pages and all. It's a little bit intimidating to start this project but at the same time I look forward to something new. I'm used to working on the computer so it will be good to get back to the basics. I've always loved to draw & paint. Sometimes I'll sketch out designs before I illustrate them on the computer, but not as much as I should be doing.

Each sketchbook has a theme and mine is "A day in the life". I have some ideas brewing up for my sketchbook and I promise I'll share pages as I go along. Scouts honor!

A whale of a toilet..

So as I mentioned before (at least I think I mentioned) I am redecorating our main bathroom. I've chosen a nautical-ish theme. I'm going for a nice clean design but make it fun still considering I have a 1 year old. I came up with this whale design for some vinyl decals for the toilet (toilets deserve love too, right?)

It's not the best picture in the world but it will have to do.


I haven't decided if I am going to list this in the shop or not.. what do you think? Maybe I'm a nutter and other people would never put decals on their toilets. It really doesn't have to be for a toilet. Wouldn't they be fun on a dresser? Let me know what you think!

Seashell Letter II

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a tutorial to make a seashell letter. I really love the way it turned out but after looking at it for a couple of days, I realized that I didn't love all the different colors in it.

So crossing my fingers, I broke out a can of white spray paint and hoped for the best. Sorry, I didn't take new pictures throughout the process because I really expected a disaster and I had no idea what I was going to do. First I sprayed the enter thing white. 3 coats later, I took a metallic champagne acrylic paint and a metallic white pearl acrylic paint and picked out individual shells to paint. I left some of the shells a flat white for added dimension. And the results..


Much much better! If I had a beach nearby I could have picked out my own shells (saving me lots of trouble.) Overall this project cost me less then $10 dollars, including the letter, shells, spray paint and acrylic paint.

Here was the before picture:

Urban Farmgirl Giveaway

I am so into reading blogs lately. I find a new one just about every day to add to my list. Recently I stumbled across the Urban Farmgirl blog and I just love it! If you head over to this post, you can enter to win a $50 gift certificate to whiteflowerfarmhouse.com.

What blogs inspire you lately?

10 things you may not know about me..

1. I'm a mommy. Being a mom is the best because you can play all day and not feel silly when people are looking :)

2. I never imagined that I'd grow up to be an artist. I mean, every kid dreams of drawing/coloring for the rest of their life but I really lucked out.

3. I don't like writing. It doesn't come naturally to me.

4. I love polka dots, ruffles, bows & pink. Everything girly. I have no shame!

5. I have 2 dogs and one is seriously the worst dog in the world. I don't know what I would do without her, except possess more shoes.

6. I have a sweet tooth. I seriously think I could live on chocolate. No joke.

7. I love to read. There is nothing like relaxing with a nice warm blanket and a good book.

8. I'm a dreamer. I live for the future. I'm inspired by the world.

9. I eat pizza starting with the crust and read magazines starting from the back. I know, I know. I'm a real trendsetter.

10. My crafting goals for this year are to learn to knit, sew and crochet. In that order. I kind of know how to sew and crochet but knitting will be a whole new experience.

There you have it!

This post was inspired by this post by maedchenmitherz, love her blog!

The Sketchbook Project

I totally just signed up to participate in The Sketchbook Project. Here is how the project is described:

Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

Cool, right? Best of all your sketchbook is tracked so you can see how many people viewed it & where it has been. I should be receiving my sketchbook in a couple of weeks and then I have until Jan. 11th to complete it & get it mailed back. So exciting!

Update: Exciting? What was I thinking?! I'm feeling a little bit intimidated all of a sudden but it is too late now! I'll try to forget about it until I get the sketchbook in the mail and then we will see how I feel about it.

New Vinyl Decal Designs!

I've listed some new vinyl decal designs in the Tweet Heart Wall Art shop!


Am I the only one who didn't know it was Anchors AWEIGH?
I always thought it was just "away".
Aweigh: Pronunciation: \ə-ˈwā\
The moment a ship's anchor leaves the sea bottom, the anchor is said to be aweigh.

Or just a plain guitar..

Wishing I were at a beach side carnival..

Have you heard of polyvore.com? I think I've been hiding under a rock. I've seen these cute collages popping up everywhere but I had no idea where they were coming from. Polyvore has a lovely shop but they also have a feature where you can mix and match items and then share them. Click on the photo above to see each individual item and the pricing. I could spend so much time (and money) on this site!

Seashell Letter Tutorial

I've started redecorating our bathroom and I've chosen a beachy-nautical theme. I've literally just started decorating, the only thing I've done is changed out the shower curtain (what a difference a new shower curtain can make!) Today I wanted to share a tutorial on making your own seashell letter. It's a super easy, inexpensive and fun project with lots of possibilities!


Materials:
Seashells-a good mix of large, medium and small
Acrylic paint & a paint brush
Letter-I used a chip board letter that I got it on sale for .99 cents! A wood one would also do the trick
Glue gun
Optional: pearls, gemstones, rocks, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Choose seashells to match your decor. I just chose a multicolored bunch but we will see how they end of matching everything else.



Paint your letter with the acrylic paint, make sure to get the edges. As you can see, I wasn't too worried about making it smooth and even. Most of the letter will be covered up by shells anyway. Let the paint dry for overnight (or at least several hours if you are impatient like me.)


Before gluing, layout your shells. Start with the large ones. These were the only ones I laid out before I started to glue.


Fill in the empty spots with the little shells, pearls, or gemstones.

And it's done! These look great hanging on the wall or sitting on a shelf. I'm not sure where mine will end up but I'm excited to put it in the bathroom!

Items I Heart

These items are all on my wish list. Oh how I wish I had a million dollars. I could spend every penny of it on Etsy. I really could.

Handmade Hobo in Cream and Turquoise by MilkandHoneyHandbags, $100

Vintage Swarovski Bling Ring by jorgensenstudio, $52

MINI with CRYSTAL color of your choice wax seal stamp pendant by Ritzy Misfit, $28
I have a confession.. I'm addicted to the Bachlorette. And Ritzy Misfit has several pendants worn by Ali from the Bachlorette. I've loved these pendants for awhile now but even more so now!

Forest Friends. Cookie Cutter set. with rolling pin by weewaldorf, $24.95

New Vinyl Decal Designs!

Vendor Booth

Yesterday we had our first vendor booth for Tweet Heart Wall Art and my sister's shop Tootsie Tutus. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. There were many lessons to learn and I will do things a little bit different next time around.

Lesson 1: Give yourself lots of time to prepare. Think about location, setup and displays. I still haven't decided on a good setup for vinyl and honestly I think I just need to bring my vinyl cutter and vinyl along to cut right on the spot.


Lesson 2: Bring good displays. I'm really happy about the way our display board turned out. And having bright fluffy tutus never fail to catch attention :)



Lesson 3: Don't give your 16 month old cotton candy unless there is a bathtub nearby.


Overall we had a blast. It was fun to talk to meet people and other vendors. It was nice to spend the entire day in the park and we were near the stage so that was good entertainment. It was a nice way to start off the summer!

New Shop

I've setup a new shop on ArtFire. I decided to give it a shot. So far, so good! In celebration, use coupon code July2010 for 20% off of your order. That's the best sale I've EVER had! Yay!

Visit my new shop here!