Look What Showed Up in the Mail!

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Scribbler

All I can think is, “Ididit!Ididit!Ididit!Ididit!” to myself over and over. In case you can’t tell from the photo…that’s fabric. I designed it…and I’m feeling rather pleased with myself about it.

I took the design from the candy bookmark (here!), made it a million times more complicated (it took about 2 weeks of grumbling to finish–I’m very sorry about that to anyone who had to listen to the grumbling), and used Photoshop to create a repeat pattern (which is, in all honesty, pretty much the only thing I currently know how to do in Photoshop). And it worked! On the first try!

I’ve stared at it long enough at this point to feel comfortable saying that everything lined up just as it should. Gah! I’m so happy with it.

And now I get to order more and make stuff with it (stuff–a technical term) as I only ordered a fat quarter initially. Hopefully my next pattern will come together much quicker than this one did (cupcakes next!).

Now what to make with it first?

P.S. I feel like I should just come out and admit to not ironing before photographing…everything is far less bendy in person, lol. I realize there’s some weird stuff happening in that photo.

Fun with Cupcake Earrings!

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Scribbler

Adding fun into the title clearly makes EVERYTHING more fun. True story.

And now for my face:

Becky and I came up with 2 different earring designs based on my brand new coloring bookmark set–> Coloring Bookmarks Eat Sweets! Pretty spiffy, no? The ones I’m wearing in the photo feature a tiny stack of 3 cupcakes. Which means that when you wear them you are literally hanging 6 cupcakes off of your ears. Lets see Chuck Norris do that!

Now lets see my face again:

Bam! My face.

These are the singles. As it turns out, I like both of them equally–which is only odd, because I was really, really, really determined at first to have a stack of cupcakes because in my crazy cupcake obsessed mind more cupcakes are ALWAYS better. As it turns out, they are pretty stinkin’ cute, but the singles have the added bonus of being able to see the detail a bit more, so hooray for that.

As with the cherry blossom necklace (scroll down, I promise it’s in there), I created the lineart and Becky worked her magic to digitize it for the embroidery machine. They take a bit of trial and error to get right, and then they take a bit of prayer–because I really am terrified of fire, and melting the edges so that they don’t fray is utterly terrifying.

The purple cupcake stack and the blue cupcakes on the right are actually the original design. Can you tell the difference? The finished ones on the left look so much cleaner and nicer because we removed some of the detail. The poor yellow cupcake in the middle bit the dust–I think the embroidery machine tried to eat it…it happens sometimes.

So, what do you think? They’ll be available for sale soon…hopefully! We’ve got a few other things in the works as well, so keep an eye out.

And if you didn’t follow that link above to go buy my coloring bookmarks, go here! They’re pretty! They’re inexpensive! You can color them! And think how happy your very favorite Angela will be if you buy a set! (BTW, thank you for everyone who HAS bought a set, I really do giggle like a little kid every time I sell another one!)

Dessert Bookmarks–Almost There!

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Scribbler

Almost done! One left to finish!

I thought I’d try coloring it for a second to see what it would actually look like…and then I got hungry and had to stop. You seriously cannot stare at a chocolate colored strawberry without wanting a chocolate covered strawberry. You know?

That said I hope this is my only food themed art…ever…I think I’ll gain twenty pounds if I try to do this again!

So many exciting things coming up this month, so stay tuned. Hopefully by Wednesday I’ll have a new embroidery project (earrings!) or Harry Potter project (potions bottles, Hogwarts robes!) to share. Did I mention that we’re doing a midnight release for the new Harry Potter script at the store? I’ve got three sets of Hogwarts robes to make. I think I can do it!

If you haven’t seen my other coloring designs yet, go check out my Etsy shop–> here

I’m going to work diligently to (hopefully) get “Coloring Bookmarks Eat Sweets” finished and up by tomorrow. Then on to “Coloring Bookmarks Cast Spells”!

Week in Review: Updates and Fun Things

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Scribbler

Hello All! It’s been a crazy busy week, so we’ll call this more of a “check in” than a blog post.

I know I posted the WIP last week, and I’m happy to say that the candy coloring bookmark is FINALLY finished. I was up until about midnight trying to get it done last Wednesday–so basically, I showed you guys the lineart and then sat there for 3 more hours making it all fancified. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Some of you may have seen this photo up on instagram–I’ve finally started coloring some of my own designs–is it weird that I haven’t until now? I really like making lineart more than coloring…I can’t help it! (If you’re not following me, I’m scribblerex on Instagram!)

Saturday night, Katie, Sean, Stephanie, Simone, and I went down to Duluth Square for their free “Summer Concert Series” to watch an 80’s cover band called The Breakfast Club play. The band was good, the music selection was fantastic, and altogether it was just a really fun concert. Duluth Square is really set up to optimize a gigantic amount of space. Even if you’re far away you can see and hear really well–and I’m only saying this because we got there a bit late, it was insanely crowded, and we still got a great spot.

Duluth actually has 2 more free concerts lined up: Drivin N Cryin on August 13 and On the Border on September 10th. If you’re interested head over to the City of Duluth page and don’t forget that you also live SOMEWHERE! Most cities host something free over the summer, so google your hometown! There might be something free and exciting going on nearby.

And there are about 12 Pokestops surrounding the stage…I really did try to catch ’em all Saturday. Received my first PokemonGo injury Saturday as well. Walked into stairs, stubbed my toe, it was gross–I was in flip flops, the steps were brick, I wont go into details. Watch where you’re going everyone! Don’t be like me!

Lastly, here’s an update on the embroidered necklace front:

I bought bigger jump rings for it (They’re actually chain mail rings which are a million times easier to use than jump rings. An actually million, not just an imaginary million.) so it lays much nicer than it did before. I’ve also switched out the chain for ribbon for 2 reasons: 1. The chain didn’t actually fit the style of the necklace, and we think the ribbon looks prettier, and 2. The ribbon is super easy to adjust. The necklace is intended to be worn higher up on the neck, and everybody has different sized necks so it just seemed logical to make it so that it could fit as many people as possible. Plus you can tie it into a cute little bow in the back!

Alright, well that’s all the updates for today. I’ll be back on Wednesday with more bookmarks (most likely).

P.S. Going to be starting on some Harry Potter robes soon! Guess what comes out at the end of the month!

Candy Coloring Bookmarks

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Scribbler

I’m mostly (haha…okay, that might be an exaggeration…) done with the next bookmark, and I needed a breather because I looked at what I did and it’s way crazier looking than I thought it’d be going in.

Yep…that’s a lot of candy.

I have learned (after a few fails) to print these guys out periodically and make sure they’re actually possible to color. I’m happy to say that most of it is. I’ll have to make a few things bigger as I start with the line art, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t horrible.

Another thing I’ve learned is that they’re all going to shrink once they’re printed out for sale/digital. (converting to pdf does that…) My flower bookmarks are there for a comparison. They’re not too much smaller, but that’s almost a full inch. An inch matters a good deal when it comes to teeny tiny little shapes. My goal is to make a product that can be colored–not just one that you’re going to stare at in frustration.

I am happy that the two I’ve finished so far look so very different!

Thanks Amy and Puvi for the ideas! I’ll decide once I’m done with this bit.

And I still want a cupcake.

Cupcake Coloring Bookmarks WIP!

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Scribbler

I’m starting up another set of coloring bookmarks. “Coloring Bookmarks Eat Sweets” or something to that effect. I’m terrible at titles.

I left the purple sketches in just to give you an idea of how these things go together. I do draw each one individually, however, with this one anyone, I sketched out the cupcake I wanted and then copy/pasted and arranged them so that they made a decent pattern. I then went and added the cupcake linings, erased the corners of the cupcakes where the tops were and now I’m icing the darn things.

It’s amazing how freakishly hungry staring at cupcakes for several hours makes you.

Becky and Mike were kind enough to humor me yesterday. We made funfetti cupcakes with blue icing and fish sprinkles. Yes. You heard (read?) me right! Fish sprinkles!

Hopefully I’ll be done with these guys by tomorrow and can get started on the next set.

What are your favorite desserts or candy?

Novel word count: 55,653

Secret Project E and Other News

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Scribbler

I just got done being an insanely brave person: yes, dear readers…I had to get a blood test done. For those of you who don’t know, I’m terrified of needles (let’s not sugar coat it), but I cope. And I’m feeling insanely brave right now. The only thing that could’ve made the experience better would be if the nurse had stopped asking me if I was going to pass out.

Which, in his defense, is probably a legit question. I’m sure a lot of people that are afraid of needles actually do pass out whilst claiming they’re not going to pass out and so he really does need to ask that about twenty times to make certain the answer he’s getting is actually the correct answer. Lest I lie to him and then promptly flop to the floor like a fish.

In my case, one of the many coping mechanisms that I use to get through this horrible experience that essentially turns my innards to jello, is to tell myself that I’m some herculean warrior princess (think Xena) and that herculean warrior princesses get through things they’re afraid of all the time. Herculean warrior princesses do not pass out. They just don’t. Continue reading →

New Coloring Bookmarks! (and Brand New Etsy Shop!)

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Scribbler

For the record, I generally reserve my exclamation points for moments when I really need them!

I’ve been working my tail off for the past few weeks to get my blog updated, to finish more bookmarks, and actually start an Etsy shop. I’m happy to say that I’m slowly working down my to do list and that things are coming together. Meanwhile, I had to show these guys off. Some of you may have seen the earlier draft of them that I made to use at the bookstore. I originally intended to do a little refining and then sell them, but then I started working on them and went a wee bit crazy. I’m really happy with the result.

My other exciting news is that I finally put up an Etsy shop. It isn’t fancy yet and I’ll probably re-announce its existence once I finally get a few more things on it and it looks like I want it to. Until then, I have both my current bookmark sets (Bookshelf Cats and the Space set) up for sale as PDF files to download, and I’ll have some baby quilts up in the next few days. I appreciate everyone’s support as I get all this put together; everyone needs to be told they’re doing a good job once in a while, so thank you friends and family for giving me that little bit of encouragement. I would absolutely appreciate anyone actually buying my bookmarks (and leaving a nice review so that people know I’m a real person). I’m new to this whole selling things online game, so advice is welcome.

Check out the shop: The Scribbler Experiment on Etsy

New Coloring Bookmarks! (Finally)

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Scribbler

I finally finished the space set…they took me a bit longer than they probably should have, but I had a small case of artist’s block halfway through them. The nebula one took me ages, and the space shuttle one is my favorite. I don’t know why…I think I just like how the swirly smoke turned out.

They’re up for sale at Once & Again Books in Marietta for $3.50–for those of you who live close enough (and love me enough <3 ) to go and buy a set. Hopefully within the next week or so I’ll manage to get an etsy shop up where I’d like to start selling pdf files of them (people do this…it’s a thing).

Hope everyone is enjoying this lovely sunshine after the grossness that was last night(we had to jump my car in the dark in the rain at 36% degrees…it was awful).

Novel word count: 55,192 It’s going up again, finally! A little over halfway through my edit/rewrite so it should go up more in the next few days.

P.S. I don’t know if any other blogger out there feels like this, but every time I write a blog post I feel the need to end it like a letter. I then proceed to fight this urge, but I never feel like a post is ended. I always feel like it’s missing something and I’m being rude by not properly saying goodbye to the internet. I was hoping adding in my word count would give me that proper feeling of blog- post-conclusion-ness, but as it hasn’t, I’m going to do the thing for once and end this like a letter.

Sincerely,

Angela

P.S.S. Now I feel better.

An art, craft, literature and anything in between blog.

Tag Archives: Coloring Bookmarks