DIY 'Converter Box'

Why spend time waiting for your converter box to arrive when you can still watch your favorite t.v. personalities without all the wires and waiting. Measure your screen, print out an appropriate sized newscaster, sports star or whatever and stick it on your boob tube with double sided tape! I chose Mia Lee, a popular Los Angeles area newscaster, as this was the sensible choice.


If you decide to make one, take a picture of your boob tube celebrity and send it to me at info[at]charcoaldesigns[dot]com!

Etsy-Russian Roulette Week #1

There's a game I like to play on Etsy that I like to call 'Russian Roulette', basically you search for a certain word...like 'hobo' or 'wicker' and see what pops up! Yesterday I was flippin' for 'Tentacles' and woo did I find some doozies!

The winner of the following categories is:

Cuteness:



$9.99 www.doctorgus.etsy.com

Insane In The Membrane (Crazyness but I love it):



$60.00 www.societysedso.etsy.com

Budget Breaker:



$160.00 www.octopusme.etsy.com

Budget Buddy:



Made by Voz Perkins, $2.50 www.vozamer.etsy.com

Cleverness:



$13.00 www.oddball.etsy.com



$40.00 www.lumpkin.etsy.com



Creepiness:



$15.00 www.flushplease.etsy.com

Wanna' play Etsy Russian Roulette? Found something I might like to feature next week?, please comment and let me know!

Sparkle Cameos!

Today I battled the heat in my studio to create some new sparklerific cameos! I might use them for religious praying hand necklaces or maybe something else, the options are endless...as long as whatever I pick fits in a 18X13mm space!

Photoshop Brush Fun

So ever since I learned how to create brushes in photoshop I've been hooked! As of late I discovered some awesome *FREE* photoshop brush downloads on www.deviantart.com. Just search for 'spider brushes', 'grunge brushes' etc. and they will pop up! Most artists ask that you link back to their D.A. page for credit (especially if you use the brushes for things you are gonna' sell) but some don't, it differs from artist to artist so read up before you download and/or use these brushes.

If you aren't familiar with brushes but do use photoshop here's a quick run down (p.s. I am using photoshop version 7):

1. Open up photoshop, find an image that you like (drawings and thick lined images work best, or images with the background cut out)
2. Edit your pic. (cut out background if necessary)
3. Click on 'Edit> Define Brush Preset'. Note: If your image is too big then 'define brush preset' will be ghosted, make your image smaller and try again.
4. When the 'Brush Name' option comes up (see photo #1) click on 'OK'
5. That's it! Now click on your brush icon (from the photoshop palette) and scroll all the way to the bottom, there's your new brush!

Note: When downloading brushes from a site like DeviantART you must first click on 'download' from the DeviantArtist's page, then while in photoshop click on your brush tool then click on your brush options. From there you will need to click on the arrow on the top right and scroll down and click on 'load brushes', (browse through your hard drive and) scroll to your recently downloaded brushes and click on the correct file (the file you just downloaded from DeviantArt) then click 'load'. Now your brushes will automatically be loaded into your brush palette! It's that easy!


A brush sort of acts like a rubber stamp of sorts and the great thing about brushes is once you've created it there's no backgrounds to cut out and you can choose whatever color you want your 'stamp' to be. Brush away!

I used some of my deviantart.com brush downloads today to create some images to use for mini pins I'm gonna' hand out at shows (for free) this summer. Cute Promos! Woo Hoo! Aside from the donkey (I created this brush myself) the cute 60's style chicks are all from punksafetypin at www.deviantart.com.



Brush Set 18 - That 70s Girls by ~punksafetypin on deviantART