PDX!!! zines!!!! fabric shopping!!!

i have totally neglected blogging about this! i came home, got super sick, and then quilt guild stuff took over my mind - now it's a month later, and i'm finally sitting down to write about my trip to portland the last weekend in august.

i went down to check out the portland zine symposium. i've been saying that i'm going to go for oh, about 10 years now, and never made it down, so this year (the 10th anniversary!) i was DETERMINED to go!

my original plans fell through, so i ended up going down by myself, and it was fabulous. i stayed with a household of awesome people, did some shopping, checked out a couple of my favourite stores, got incredibly lost in portland a multitude of times (thank god i'd bought a mapbook at powells!!), ate yummy st cupcake cupcakes, met awesome people at the zine symposium, several of whom i've been talking to online or via letters, but had never met in person, went to a couple of really interesting workshops, traded zines until i ran out, bought a million more, and then finished up my trip by spending a day with the amazing angie and her partner and son. i love them almost as much as i love angie! it was super awesome to see her and durin, and to finally meet warren!



i also finished a zine to take down with me. what was that? oh yeah, I FINISHED A ZINE! hell yeah.

despite compiling compilation zines, and having a large folder of stops and starts, i had yet to actually finish a perzine in my life, so this was very exciting!

look!!!




the covers are cardstock, with a lino print cover. i wasn't actually all that happy with the covers... i used that speedball easy carve stuff, and it was a royal pain in the ass! i get much better results just carving erasers.. but they still turned out cool.

the zine is 1/4 size (my favourite size for zines) and is 34 pages long. i added a pocket in the back to hold a mini zine, and sewed a sample of one of my favourite craft supplies onto one page, and the spine is sewn on my sewing machine.

some of the topics i wrote about...
- fear of the permanence of words
- honouring the journeys our lives take us on
- genderqueer identity
- femme identity
- chronic pain, dis/ability
- consciously choosing to live an honest life, authenticity
- a skirt reconstruction tutorial
- a favourite craft supply, along with a sample and instructions of how to use it
- hand embroidery
- a favourite recipe
- a list of things i love, my current favourite words, and least favourite words
- a mini zine written 6.5 years ago about gender, kinda like a issue #0.5 of this is where i'm at

there was SO MUCH more that i wanted to write about, if i'd just had more time. now i can't wait to make a second issue!



i drew little pictures for the tutorial, added some image transfers from an old issue of craphound, and glued a colour picture of the recipe into each one. i like the little details.

i'm alternating between being proud of it, and being really self conscious about it, but a dear friend of mine read it and insisted that i HAD to share it, and the amazing Amber (who i got to meet in person!!) from Hello Amber! wrote an awesome review of it, so i've been persuaded. it's up on my etsy, if you'd like to check out a copy in real life.

i also picked up a ton of zines in portland...



ha! i'm still working my way through them, but i finally got another zine shelf (it's the perfect size!), so i need to assemble it and then i'll be able to put them all away. most of them are still in the suitcase at the moment!

and of course, while i was in portland, i had to do some shopping... unfortunately, i completely forgot about my camera after my first stop, but oh well.

i went to bolt fabric boutique on alberta, which i adore, and bought some yummy fabrics.







and my goodies -




while i was on alberta, i wandered down to collage, and picked up some more goodies. i went downtown to powell's, of course, and checked out reading frenzy as well.

i tried to go to SCRAP, which i love, but they'd moved, and i didn't think to doublecheck their address before leaving for my trip. luckily, while i was driving to St Cupcake for my first visit of the trip, i drove right by SCRAP's new location! so i stopped, obviously. ;)

i didn't make it to Knittn' Kitten, or to Fabric Depot, but that was okay. on the way home i stopped in at the Sewer's Dream Fabric Outlet in Burlington (cotton quilt batting for $8/yd!!!), at a Target and at a Joannes. i was sad that target didn't have halloween stuff in yet - stupid back to school crap, i want skulls! i'll just have to make a quick trip down to the closest Target before halloween...

Fabric Friday - flowers!

i'm feeling awfully crummy, and i'm all doped up on pain meds, so i won't try to babble away.

here's some eye candy in the meantime, and hopefully i'll be able to get caught up soon!

this is super yummy, i found it a few weeks ago. hand silkscreened in hawaii

i'm not fond of the super cheesy hawaiian prints, but this one's a bit more subtle.

and a vintage calico, with a poppy print.

(at least i think they look like poppies!)


pretty much all i've managed to do this week has been some listings in my new vintage etsy shop, so be sure to go check them out!

here's some of the things i've listed, or will be listing soon -

new ephemera packs added to nimbleheart.etsy.com, and today's prizes!

while gathering up goodies for today's giveaway prizes, i bundled up a whole bunch of ephemera and goodies and listed them on etsy! i'm so proud of myself, i've been saying that i was going to do this for ages!

i did ledger sheet packs -

10 pages with graph-like lines. 7 different page in the 10, the majority are ledger sheets. the largest sheet is folded for shipping.






Fun and Games packs -

over 60 pieces!









Sheet Music Packs that are apparently too big to fit in envelopes, so i haven't listed them yet!

12 sheets of vintage sheet music, including one handwritten page





and my favourite, but also the most time consuming by far, the Book Pack

over 40 pages from books varying from first aid, plays, hymnals, bibles, dictionaries, textbooks, encyclopedias and more. includes french, polish, german, russian and more.








For Today's Giveaway prize, I've put together two ephemera and papercrafting bundles. In addition, each bundle will ALSO include one of each of the bundles above! I think i'm going to regret my generosity when it comes time to ship them.... ;)

The Prize Bundles are pretty much the same, with just a few variations. Things like playing cards are obviously different, and the info typed on the catalogue cards, the words on the German/Russian dictionary pages, the images in the slides, the holes in the player piano paper etc. in addition, one set includes a 7 gypsies walnut ink tube, and the other includes the glitter that Megan from the Upstart Crow donated.

Bundle 1





Bundle 2!






after going through so much stuff yesterday, i'm super inspired to play with it all!


but not today! can you believe that i haven't even found the time to enter any of the other giveaways? so silly!

etsy etsy etsy!

today has been all about etsy, really. i've been saying for YEARS that i want/need to open a second etsy shop to stashbust and to share some of my awesome finds that i just don't have space for. i started photographing vintage aprons a few weeks ago, but still haven't gotten around to measuring them all, and last week i started scanning a ton of patterns from my stash that i knew i'd never use, but again, didn't get around to listing them. but today i did!! i listed 3 pages of simplicity, mccalls and new look patterns in my second etsy shop, nimbleheart (things to fall in love with quickly!) now that i've got myself started, i want to keep up the momentum by listing the aprons (20+ of them, i'm paring down my collection), listing the vintage hats that i photographed months ago, and working my way through the pile of stuff that i've been collecting in my livingroom, in the "etsy" pile. hopefully!

all this etsy business made me realize that i never posted the vinyl wristlets when i listed them on my regular etsy shop, nimble! i posted one group shot that didn't even include all of them, and then i forgot to come back and post in more detail. whoops!

there are a TON of pictures, so instead of posting them all one by one and totally overwhelming y'all, i made fancy scmancy thingies (that's the technical term, fyi) of them instead. you can, of course, click the links below to see them in more dteail on flickr, or go to the etsy shop to check them out.


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Created with fd's Flickr Toys.


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Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

the last one includes some pencil cases that haven't made it to etsy yet... much like the machine embroidered pendants that need to be listed and posted here as well!

FINALLY!

i've FINALLY updated my etsy shop. whew. there always seems to be so many things to make, i can never find enough time!

the last few weeks i've made the time, and i'm really happy with the stuff i've finished and listed.

today was a really really long day, and i'm not up to posting aaallll the pics right now (there are lots!), so i'll just post a few to arouse your curiousity!





this isn't even all of them, there was another set that i finished after this was taken. if you're super curious, you could, of course, go see them all with lots of detail in my etsy shop!

flying love monsters!

my valentines swap package has been received, so i can post the stuff i made!

i made one of these for the swap, but i was so in love with the results, i had to make more (see my etsy!)!

Flying Love Monsters!

i've now made 8 of them, my first prototype, and then 7 more. i can't resist their eyes!



it's an army of love monsters!







they're made of cotton candy pink shaggy fun fur, a luscious deep red upholstery vinyl, and lots of love! each 5.5" tall monster has lovely wings that are about 10" across, big pink safety eyes with red eyelids that look up at you adoringly, and a sweet little red vinyl heart on his body. they have plastic pellets in their bums, so that they sit up straight, and the rest of their body is firmly packed with fiberfill.

i was so excited about them that i had to name them, and give them all personalities!

Felipe adores hugs, kisses and cuddles, but he hates it when you ruffle his hair!

Francisco adores secrets, sweet nothings and sly kisses, but he’s not so fond of PDAs. (public displays of affection) He’s a bit shy!

Fernando is very fond of chocolate hearts, but thinks cinnamon belongs in baking, not little red candies! He adores little valentine cards, much like the ones we received in grade school, and never throws away letters.

Ferdinand has a soft spot for singles, and would love to make your valentine’s day happier! He adores ice cream, wine and cheesy 80s movies, and always knows how to make you feel better, no matter how bad it seems. He’s the perfect date for a “dating sucks” night in!

Filbert is a little bit geeky, in that adorable nerds are the best lovers way. He’s a bit shy, because he doesn’t understand his own appeal, and is very loyal and true. Once you win Filbert over, he’s yours for life!

Fitzroy is a dashing monster, who is a little bit vain about his luxurious fur. He adores being petted, and loves hugs as long as you smooth him down afterwards. Kisses are great, since they rarely ruffle his candy pink locks. Fitzroy has a weakness for dames in short skirts who aren’t afraid to kick it up a notch!

i was going to name one Flloyd, and then find another name for the prototype, but i decided i loved Ferdinand and Fitzroy too much, so i sent my swap partner a Ferdinand, and named the prototype Fitroy2!



oh! and if ANYONE knows where to get more of the eyes, PLEASE let me know! i can't find big ones anywhere, unless they're brown! these one are old stock, i got them from the thrift store, but i know they came from the store i used to work at years ago (i recognize the price tags - small world, isn't it? )

shopping, cleaning and paper crafting

i was so excited by the results of my first carving attempt that on friday, despite my body's best wishes, i went to langley and went to the art store in search of more carving blocks. i got some block, and some ink, and another brayer (cause damned if i can find mine!), and somehow convinced myself to get some liquid latex, cause i've been dying to play with it for a while now! i also had a good conversation with one of the clerks, and got the name of a store in delta that carries silicone in not huge tubs! i really really want to experiment with silicone. but not right now.

and then on saturday a friend came over and helped me clean and organize my studio in the afternoon. we got lots done, though it still looks like a disaster - it's just a more organized disaster!

the cleaning pretty much wore me out, so i haven't gotten much crafting or sewing done this weekend, though i have been working on my inchies.

(whats an inchie? here are some fabulous examples! one, two, three and four.)

i started out trying to make inchies that were JUST paper. i painted, i stamped, i bitched, and i decided i hated my background. i spent ridiculous amounts of time resizing images to fit the inchies, and then i finally accepted the fact that i'm really unable to NOT include fabric or trims in everything i make, and made a few sets with lace.




blogger is cutting off the pics, there are actually 10 of each set. click on them to see the full pic!)

these are still in progress, they're drying, and still need rhinestones. i'll get better shots once they're done (i know the naughty set are very blurry!)

the naughty set are small black and white polkadot scrapbooking paper with white lace and then black lace glued on top.

the nice set are bigger pink and fuscia polkadot scrapbook paper, with pink and fuscia lace glued on.

and then i made these ones, using old microfiche as the backing.

the if you're stout one is an old lane bryant ad, and the mustache one is an old anti-balding ad!

i LOVE the "female lay eggs" lady! she's from an ad for douching, she's telling her daughter how important it is to be "fresh".

the background of all of them is microfiche from a new brunswick newspaper, with a white cardstock square behind them.

i still have two more sets of 10 to do for the swap, but i need to stop doing them right now and focus on my tip-in page that's due to be mailed on friday. i've got lots of ideas floating around in my head, i just need to get my butt in gear!


in other exciting crafty news, i swapped some stuff on etsy! i swapped the cherry wristlet bag for three resin pendants from resinated.etsy.com, the anatomical heart necklace, the red glitter heart necklace, and the virgin mary necklace. i'm super excited!

i also sold one of my crow bags a few days ago, so tommorrow i'll be mailing them off. my etsy shop looks so sad now! i need to make more stuff for it!