BUST Craftacular> Artist Spotlight

While clicking through the L.A. vendor page for the BUST Craftacular I came across a wonderful artist by the name of Catia Chien . Her art speaks volumes, one look and your mind races...thoughts go to better times, times when being a kid meant reading a book or daydreaming instead of spending the day in front of the t.v. or gaming.

Something about her works make me think that I've been there before, or am meant to be there. I simply love it.

Charcoal is proud to be a part of this year's Bust Craftacular taking place at the Echoplex on Dec.6th in Los Angeles.

BUST will have a raffle (along with grab bags for the first 100 people through the door!) and a complete Lolliwood Sugar Shack set (necklace, ring, and hairclips) will be among one of the many great items raffled off that day!!

See You There!

www.bust.com

24 Hr FREE Shipping Special!

Got the day off? Check! Coming out of your turkey coma? Check! Ready to shop? Check!!


www.charcoaldesigns.com

This offer includes overseas orders! You only have until noon on Saturday...have fun!

BUST CRAFTACULAR Dec.6th/LOS ANGELES

Dj's, Drinks, Crafts!! Next Saturday at the Echoplex!



Charcoal Designs will be there and we will have a SUPER sale with $5.00 off any necklace, YES you heard right $5 bucks off, there will be necklaces as low as $7 bucks each!!

PLUS $2 off any hairclip set or brooch priced $6.99 or over.

This sale will only be available in person at the BUST craftacular show all going down on Dec.6th at the Echoplex in L.A.

Thanks for coming out!

A big thank you to everyone who attended Felt Club and supported the Charcoal/Kustom Voodoo booth!

100% of the purchase price of our cute little mini pins went to the Red Cross (and a little more thrown in went to Toys For Tots!). Thank you to my wonderful customer who purchased a gang of mini pins (they sold faster than hot cakes!) your generous donations are going to two worthy causes!

Thanks and see you at the next show!

Felt Club Craft Show This Sunday!

Hey Los Angeles! Come join us this Sunday!!

It's gonna' be a blast! Where else can you see DJ Lance Rock, Embroidery superstar Jenny Hart, Leslie and the Ly's (gem sweater!!) and more all in one venue!! No where else but Felt Club!

Kustom Voodoo and Charcoal Designs will be there, will you?



See ya' there!

Panty Pouch!

Yes that's right and it is super cute! Etsy pick of the week is...
by Samyii

I <3 Flapjack!

I was busy creating some new resin goodies in my workshop about an hour ago when I realized I was about to miss the Har Har Tharsdays lineup (as Cartoon Network puts it), which tops off with the Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack!
This amazing Newish (premiered this past June) cartoon created by cartoonist Mark "Thurop" Van Orman, is definitely my new cartoon favorite, the artwork is fresh and creative (and inspiring!!), the cheezy jokes make me giggle (or is it just Flapjack's voice and mannerisms?), and instead of guzzling down beer everyone in town noshes on candy at 'Peppermint Larry's'! I love it!!

Flapjack is on at 8:30pm on Cartoon Network, new episodes on Tharsday (said in my best pirate impression)! How adorable is Flapjack?!

The Queen Couture Collection Is Here!

Victorian Inspired Rings, Necklaces and Brooches...

Available Now In the Shoppe!

Making Your Own Product Hang Tags

Make your own simple no fuss header cards...while adding pizzaz to your handmade products!

1. design your header card in photoshop or other photo editing program (or hire a graphic designer to design one for you), make sure they fit into whatever downloadable template your printing company uses (it's a bear to edit it to fit later, you may have to start all over again, not fun).

2. order up some business size cards from your favorite printing company.

3. fold your new 'business card' in half and staple it around a necklace's chain, or most business cards fit perfectly folded over a 2" plastic baggie, staple away!

You can also punch a hole on top to hang your product from a display (be sure to allow room for this above your main images so you don't end up punching a hole in your logo!).

This will give your product a more polished professional look and only cost a few pennies more per item, plus it's uber fun to shift pics around in photoshop and dyo (design your own)!

New Crafty Chica Product Line!

Creative Crafter Kathy Cano-Murillo, a.k.a. the Crafty Chica, just introduced her new line of glitters, altars, and dia de los muertos inspired products, available at an array of Michael's craft stores! Get inspired with her very own Crafty Chica Flickr group that showcases crafts made from Kathy's new line, and also features crafts inspired by her books and live workshops. If you're already thinking that Kathy does it all, read her bio it'll blow you away! Better yet check out the entire Crafty Chica site at www.craftychica.com!

What color is your hair?

I had fun searching through this great site today called 'Beeunique' Alternative Hair Dye Photo Gallery, that features a ton of wild Manic Panic hair colors on real people (no mannequins here, no siree bob!), some of them are really creative! Rock on hair rebels!
above: some of my favorites from the site

Sailor Jerry's Jello Shooters

1.) 1 package of sugar free jello

2.) add 1 cup boiling water

3.) *stir*

4.) add 1/2 cup rum or whatevah and then 1/2 cup cold water. You can add more rum or liquor if you'd like and add less cold water (as long as everything equals one cup).

basically you are just substituting the 'cold' water on the package for liquor.

note: all I had was paper cups but these work much better in small plastic ones, or grab a spoon!

From Brooch to Necklace!

Tada!, I took a vintage brooch (an ebay impulse purchase) and made a silicone mold of it, the end result is a two tone horse necklace! Available now in the shop!

Oh Thank Heaven...

...for 711! Today is officially Slurpee day! My friend Jessica of Kustom Voodoo messaged me today to tell me about the free slurpees at 711! 'cept my lazy butt got up too late and missed the free 7am-11am slurpee rush!! I'm bummed but happy too because I found this very funny, very cool (get it, cool!) site dedicated to the tastiest frosty treat around! At MySlurpeeCup.Com you can find bullet pointed (who doesn't love bullet points?) facts about 711, Slurpee Addiction (are you an addict?), Brainfreeze symptoms and more!

Some of my fav. addiction symptoms include:

• You cry if the 7-Eleven gets robbed, and calm yourself down with another Slurpee

• Your tongue is stained the color of your favourite Slurpee flavour

• You deliberately take your time while drawing your Slurpee from the machine and wander around a bit before going to the till, in order to "defrost" before heading back into the cold.

• You know when the "rush hours" are, and (thus) when to go for a Slurpee in order to guarantee the best possible consistencies.

• If you don't arrive at your usual 7-11 store as you usually do, they ask what happened to you the next time that you go there.

• You know when the month has changed only when you notice that the "flavor of the month" has been changed.

• You do favors for others only because you've been promised a Slurpee reward.

• You find yourself lecturing others on Slurpee Etiquette, the importance of Consistencies, and the best 7-Eleven’s around town.

• It's not uncommon for you to phone them up and ask what Slurpee flavours they have and what the consistencies are like. (That is, if you haven't been there yet that day)

• When your sister wakes you up in the middle of the night and asks if you want to come to the 7-Eleven with her, you only hesitation is whether or not you should wear a jacket.

• You dedicate a website to Slurpees.

haha. I love these, there's even some reader submitted 'addiction' symptoms that are equally as lol-able! Oddly enough, I'm craving a slurpee just about now.

Rear Window-Photoshop Fun

Hey everyone, I hope you had a great 4th of July! The park near my beau's house had a fireworks show again this year (after a two year hiatus) so the good thing is that we can sit (or stand) in his backyard and see the whole show without having to fight for parking and wrestle the crowds! On top of the 'bombs bursting in air' we had a great bbq, thank you grandma Gloria and mama Alice, with hot dogs wrapped in bacon (a cholesterol watchers dream!) with steaks, potato salad, corn and beer (you didn't know that corn goes great with beer?)! It was a lot of fun!

So after a long night out I usually veg out in front of my computer the next day and that's exactly what I'm doing now. I had some pictures on my desktop, one of Drew Barrymore and one of Princess Grace Kelly (I watched Rear Window yesterday on TCM, I love G.K.'s style!) and thought I'd 'Drew Up' the Grace pic and try and recreate the antiqueness of it! So here's what I came up with:

Rear Window, Before & After:

Inspiration:

Like most photoshop stuff it wasn't that hard to do but took a little trial and error. Basically I just started off with the Grace Kelly photo and changed the opacity (in the layers palette) to around 60% and added a frame picture in the background (probably should have put it first) and lightened it and changed erased the harsh edges and then added some burns and scratches around the edges (with my selections from the brush palette) and again erased any harsh areas and spots around the subjects faces. Tada!

The burn and scratch brushes were downloaded from Deviant Art members: Lailomeiel & Chain. I *Heart* DeviantArt!

P.S. Did I mention that tomorrow is my birthday?!!

Etsy Roulette-Week #2

The rules are simple:

1. Go to Etsy.com
2. Come up with a word. 'Mustache', 'Boxer', 'Dracula', etc., now enter it in the search box.
3. Click and see what comes up.
4. Look at *Everything* that comes up under that word.
5. Choose your favs and post them in your blog (give credit to Charcoal Designs for 'etsy roulette' in your blog too if you please)!
6. Yeah, it's a gamble but that's how I like it!

Etsy Favs From Week #2 "Camera":

Cute:
$16.00 Fluffington

Clever:$18 Camera Case by Librarian Barbarian

Better Wait Until Payday:$110 Lamps Reborn

I've got enough in my Paypal for that:$1.25 Loverly Ink

Love At First Sight:$13.80 Plushism

Tune in again next week as I shall spin the (etsy) roulette wheel again!

I fought a good fight...and lost.

I now listen to folk music, and I love it! I guess I've been fighting it for years, my mom and pop are kinda into folky stuff (Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan among others) but it took me years and years to finally give in. I think the turning point was this documentary on PBS about the folk singing group The Weavers (mostly about their lead singer Pete Seeger) who were popular in the 60's until they were blacklisted for allegedly being commies! Alot of their songs are classics that many generations grew up on, let's bring 'em back, hootennany anyone!?


So yesterday my beau and I went to the library to return some books and I spotted what I never saw before, CD's! Yes, amongst the junk was a folk CD with you guessed it some songs and duos with Pete Seeger, also a full length Pete Seeger CD and a full length CD by The Weavers! Check your local library first or if you live in L.A. county you can request stuff here! Love it! So I still don't listen to Joan or PP&M but any start is a good start, now if only I can STOP listen to stuff like Hall & Oates...Nah, Never!!

Making Fiends...On Nickelodeon!

Good News, Nickelodeon is introducing a new show called 'Making Fiends', Since I'm already a fan of Nick shows including Jimmy Neutron, Yo Gabba Gabba (Nick Jr.), The Mighty B and iCarly (hello, she has her own web show that she and her friends promote!), I know this show is gonna' rock too! The best news is that my long time friend Ego Plum of the Ebola Music Orchestra is going to compose the music for it!! Oh happy day!

I haven't found any news about it on Nick.com but you can get a bit of info. here at: Ebola Music!

Ironic Arts

We've all heard of the ironic t-shirt but there's something about this ironic art that I love. I have been to Amsterdam (luckily twice in my lifetime!) and have escaped there Delft Free, if only them made 'em like Charles Krafft does!


Charles Krafft's Disasterware: God Bless Our God

King Of Kitsch

Uzi

Crucified Mickey

Machine Gun Round

Martha Steward Prison Plate