Giveaway at my Facebook Fan Page

This weekend I'm having a giveaway for one of my Petite Purses. Just stop by my Facebook fan page to leave comment under the post about my Petite Purses. Just remember that you need to become a fan of my page, before you can leave a comment. Good luck! :-)

You can tuck in a little trinket or treasure inside of the purse. In the following photo I tucked in one of my Calico Cat pins inside of a pink Petite Purse.

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, Part 3

You've read, you've waited and now it's finally here, my Buster the Bee sculpture in living color.

I tried to take photos from every imaginable angle. Someday I'd like to make a Buster the Bee video to post on youtube. Right now I don't know enough about how to make a video and where to find copyright free music. I'm thinking the song "Flight of the Bumblebee" would be a good song for my Buster buzzing over the field of flowers.

Buster being busy as a...you got it...busy as bee.

Uh-oh, what happened to his picnic basket and tea set?

Buster decided to do a practice flight without the basket and tea set.

He wanted to make sure he timed his flight correctly to Toby's shell for the surprise party.

There he goes buzz, buzz, buzzing away!

And here he is ready for the party!

My Buster the Bee sculpture measures approximately 23" wide by 16" high by 15" deep. It's kinda difficult to measure a sculpture with flowers poking out in all directions. So how do you like my Buster piece? It's one of my favorites, especially because I love flowers and there is a whole field of flowers to see even in the dead of a Wisconsin winter. My next post will feature pics of Buster in the great outdoors.

Missed any of my Buster series?

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 1 (features the beginning stages of the Buster sculpture)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 2 (features some of the details of how I made the picnic basket and tea set)

Yay, displays, yay, yay!!!

Take a look at this great display fixture that I bought last week. It's perfect for displaying my Petite Purses on. And if I had a second one, it would be perfect to display my hand-made pins on. I found this "find" at a local Hallmark store that will be closing at the end of June. I hate to see businesses close, especially Hallmark stores. I used to work at a Hallmark store and have a special place in my heart for Hallmark. Unfortunatley, the store where I worked for seven years closed a few years ago. I miss being able to stop in to say "hi" to my former co-workers and to shop at one of my favorite stores. When the Hallmark store closed I had been working somewhere else for a few years. I made it into the Hallmark store a day or two before the official "closing" and it was sad to see an empty store where I had so many good memories. Since I lost my job this year, I've had two different dreams about going back to work at the Hallmark store where I worked. Each time I've had the dream, I wake up in the morning thinking, "oh, I can go back to Hallmark" and then I realize I can't go back since the store isn't there anymore. Bummer! I miss Hallmark.

And now on a happier note. When I had the display rack home, I was excited to see how all of my Petite Purses looked on it. I was so happy to see how well the displayer worked out. Now if I could find one more for my pins it would be fantastic.

Petite Purses as far as the eye can see!

I have two different sizes of purses. The smaller size purse is the perfect size to tuck in a small trinket, such as one of my hand-made pins or magnets. The larger size is a perfect size to use to present a store gift card. Who wouldn't love to get a gift card held within a cute little package like a Petite Purse?

And one more terrific display fixture I found is shown in the photo below. This I found at yet another business that was closing and yes, it was another gift shop, though not a Hallmark store. I was hoping to find something to display my magnets on and I recall when I worked at Hallmark that we often had similar magnet displayers there. I was delighted to find this displayer and the owner of the store was only asking $3.00 for it. Display fixtures are not cheap, so if a store is going out of business, it is a prime time to stop in and look. I have a craft show coming up in November. It will be my second craft show that I'll have this year. It's nice having some time to get things together. Well, I guess I better be going! I have some crafting projects to get back to before the day is over. Have a nice weekend! :-)

Life of an Artful Pen from beginning to end, part 3 the "finale"

Ta-da, it's the "finale" of my Artful Pens in process series. Now you can see my Bee Artful Pens "buzzing" through my blog in living color. But first things first. My last entry ended with the process of mold-making. Now I'll discuss what happens after the molds and castings are made.

The photo above shows my bee pieces attached to the pen clip with some strong glue. Note, the pen clip was first covered with a layer of Apoxie Sculpt to ensure a good foundation to build my design upon. And the beauty of Apoxie Sculpt is that it adheres to itself and beomes a "solid" piece after being placed on another piece. This characteristic of Apoxie Sculpt ensures that my design is solidly attached to the pen clip.

After I attach the bees to the pen clip with glue and I patiently wait for the glue to set, I go back and fill in any "open" areas with some Apoxie Sculpt. To help smooth out the Apoxie Sculpt, I use some water on my fingertips. This can be a sloppy/drippy process. If I get any drops of water mixed with some Apoxie Sculpt on the pen surface, it will be permanently be there once it's cured. And that's not the result I want to end up with. Thus, I use a clear sheet of plastic beneath the pen clip to help prevent drippy drops from messin' up my pen surface. Another method I recently used to prevent this messy problem is using a coat of liquid mask on the pen cap surface. It's a bit smelly, but works pretty nicely and after I'm done with the pen, the liquid mask peels away. You can see the liquid mask "in action" in the next couple of photos. That gummy yellow looking surface is the liquid mask safely protecting the pen surface.

There's the liquid mask on the pen cap of a bee piece that just went under the Dremel treatment. I try to clean up and smooth out the surface of my pieces when needed. And my Dremel stone grinding bit works wonderfully to tackle this cleaning task.

In the photo above, I used a yellow colored Apoxie, to touch up areas on the bees. Yes, Apoxie Sculpt comes in a few different colors, but my preference is using the neutral gray color for most of my work.

After the Dremeling is completed, it's time to put a coat of gesso on the surface. This helps me see if there are any remaining areas that need to be cleaned. Plus, it provides a nice surface/foundation to start painting.

So, now comes the fun part, the painting. The pens go from this:

. . . to this, pens with a colorful coat of paint . . .

. . . and finally, pens coated with some glaze to protect the painted surface.

What pen design is your favorite, A, B, C or D? Please comment below.

One other thing I wanted to share is that one of my spotlights that I created at the ByHand site is featured at the ByHand Gallery blog. Yay!!! Stop by and check it out. I created a spotlight of some the adorable and colorful items from some of my "hearted" Etsy stores.

Which came first, the Artful Pen or the Artful Box?

I design Artful Pens. What are Artful Pens? They are pens that have their own special style and unique personality. Have you ever seen a pen with a hand-made mini sculpture attached to it? Something with a Palm Tree or an Ice Cream Cone or a Can of Grape Soda? You won't see pens like these sitting on the store fixtures at a retail chain. They are not an average run of the mill pen to be tossed aside. These are pens that you will become attached to. If you are unable to find a design from my selections, you can request a custom order. They can be distinctly designed to suit your tastes, interests and preferences.

How did they start out? Back in college I wanted to design a unique pen for my Senior Art Show for my visitors to use to sign in my guest book. I wanted something distinct and a pen that would reflect my tastes and personality.Another feature that I wanted in my distinct pen was "re-usability." If I was going to spend a certain amount of time creating my pen, I wanted it to be re-usable. Luckily, I found a nice and simple designed refillable gel-ink pen that would work out perfectly for my special pen.

The next task was deciding what type of "artwork" to attach to the pen along with what to make it with and how to make it? Since I was working with Apoxie Sculpt in my sculpture classes, it was an easy decision to make. Apoxie Sculpt adheres to just about any surface and is extremely durable, meaning it was a perfect match for my pen.

For my first pen design, I created a leaf with a ladybug sitting atop the leaf, because I have a fondness for ladybugs. Since there was a metal clip attached to the cap of my refillable pen, I used the clip as the foundation for my piece. While working on my design, I wanted to ensure that the metal clip was completely disguised by the ladybug and leaf. This design/method also ensured that my attached "artwork" would be securely attached to the pen. My ladybug and leaf were not going anywhere except where my pen went.

After designing my pens, I wanted to find a box to properly present them in. Since I couldn't find the right type of box for my pens, I set out to design my own boxes for them. Welcome...the Artful Box! A box specifically designed to present your Artful Pen in. After, much effort of trial and error and testing appropriate materials, I'm getting close to providing the boxes through my on-line stores and exhibits. Please take a look at my boxes and pens to see what you think. I appreciate your feedback and comments. Thank you!