My Pinterest Page! Check it out.

I have been hearing about Pinterest for awhile and finally created a page for myself. What a fun way to create visual bookmarks for yourself as you find things of interest on the web! I can definitely see using this to mark things for artistic and creative inspiration. 

So far, I have boards for my Spoonflower Fabrics, things I find of interest in Bookbinding and Book Arts, and also Beading and Bead Embroidery. I am sure I will be adding more! 

http://pinterest.com/ccreech/

Any other Pinterest users out there?

Broccoli Leaf - Ink and Colored Pencil - Advice?

I am working on a broccoli leaf in ink and colored pencil, but am having trouble with the color. 

The leaf is actually sort of bluish-gray/green with an almost chalky look to it. I can't seem to find any pencils in my current stash to render it correctly. I am using Faber Castell Polychromos and so far on this have used light green, permanent green olive and chrome green oxide. 

I have many layers to go yet, but this shows you the initial stages of shading. The stem and underside of this particular leaf were more in the sun and do indeed have a yellow-green hue, but the top part of the leaf is almost a white-gray-blue-green. I am trying to figure out what colors to use in addition to how best to layer them. It will take some experimenting, for sure! And perhaps a purchase of some additional pencils.

  

Do you have any advice on how to get the blend of colors right? I'd love to hear from you!

I will keep plugging away and post more in-progress updates as they develop. Thanks!

Need Your Vote in the Bird Fabric Contest!

Spoonflower hosts a number of design contests and this week's is for a palette-limited bird design. Three colors were set by Spoonflower and a fourth color was chosen by the artist.

I altered the colors and arrangement of my Japanese Crane drawing to meet the design requirements and entered it!

Here is what it looks like:

I would love to have a vote for my design if you are so-inclined! See the 'Vote for Bird Fabrics' link at the end of this post. 

You can vote for as many fabrics as you want, so feel free to browse through all of the entries and click away at the ones you like. You can vote through next Wednesday evening and the results will appear on Thursday, September 15th. Thanks and happy bird-browsing!

Vote For Bird Fabrics

Great Giveaway from artist Lynne Reichhart! 50 Free Custom Brochures via Uprinting.

Check out this giveaway of 50 free, custom brochures being offered by artist Lynne Reichhart (via Uprinting) at her blog:

An artists's ramblings by Lynne Reichhart

http://artbylmr.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-am-offering-another-great-giveaway.html

What a great opportunity to get some free, high-quality promotional materials!

See the blog above for details on the giveaway and how to enter, including multiple chances to win. You have until September 8th, but don't wait too long!

Good luck!

Mousepads from Zazzle - they look great!

I recently ordered three of my designs on mousepads from my Zazzle store. They arrived yesterday and look fantastic!

The images printed up very well - crisp and clear with bright, true colors. Gorgeous! I am very pleased.

Japanese Crane - original done in ink and colored pencil.

American Red Raspberry - original done in ink and colored pencil.

Rose with buds - original done in colored pencil.

The holiday season is approaching faster than you think! You can find all my mousepad designs in my store here: mousepads

Keep these in mind for a useful and decorative gift for friends, family, employees and co-workers!

FREE Swatch Day today at Spoonflower!

Today is FREE SWATCH DAY at Spoonflower!

You can pick from any design in the Spoonflower marketplace today and order one, free swatch. Not only are there many, amazing designs to choose from, there are a number of wonderful fabrics, too, so go out, browse and order!

NOTE: I just saw that the free swatch day is between 12 noon today and 12 noon tomorrow, Aug. 19. So wait until this afternoon to order!

Enjoy!

Fun with beading - my first bracelet!

I have created my very first piece of beaded jewelry - a triple-wrap beaded leather bracelet! 

I have seen these bracelets and love the look of them, especially with semi precious stones as the beads. I also know they are very popular and can be found all over Etsy as well as different stores for a wide variety of price points, but they looked fairly straightforward to me and I thought I could give it a try.

I have used a variety of stones like this in my bead embroidery, and knew I probably already had some of the supplies to get started. 

I rooted through my bead box and found a nice stash of small, 4mm round Mookaite beads to use. According to the insert that came with them from the store: 

"Mookaite is a jasper named after the local area it comes from, Mooka Creek in the Kennedy Ranges in Australia. Metaphysically, Mookaite is said to be a very protective stone, and is particularly good as an emotional protector. Hardness: 7"

Interesting! Regardless of metaphysical properties, nifty as they are, I love these stones mainly because they are multi-colored. The strands I have are a swirled with a warm range of colors from maroons and tan/gold, to warm white and dark brown. So pretty! With that in mind, I bought some dark brown leather cording at a craft store to go along with the warm-colored beads.

I did some web searching to find some details on how to make these and found both an online text tutorial as well as a YouTube video that were really helpful:

How To Create A Beaded Leather Wrap Bracelet

How To Make Wrap Bracelets - AuntiesBeads.com

Without getting into too much detail (that's what the tutorials are for) I used:

• Fireline thread in a dark color to blend with the leather cord. It is much stronger than the Nymo thread they mention and works better for a bracelet like this. You can also use contrasting thread to make it stand out for a different look.  
• For the closure, a 'vintage' button from a tin of buttons from my grandmother's stash that I inherited years ago. 
• I did not glue the thread down on the ends as recommended, though I probably would do so if making another one. Either that or more securely sew the end beads so there is a little less movement.

I read/watched both and basically just decided to jump in and see how it would go. I can't emphasize enough that you should measure accurately! Twice I had to restart because I was short on thread and/or cord...in too much of a hurry! As my Dad always said, "measure twice, cut once!" 

It only took me probably less than two hours to make (once I had the right length of thread, etc.), even with interruptions from the kids. It was pretty easy to do. One nice feature of these bracelets is that they can be made with an additional space or two at the end for the closure so that it can be adjusted to different wrist sizes.  I can't wait to make another one!

Have you ever made one of these? What is your favorite type of bead to use?

FREE Swatch Day at Spoonflower! This Thursday, Aug. 18th

Guess what? This Thursday, Aug. 18 is Spoonflower's 3rd annual free swatch day!

Having just joined Spoonflower earlier this year, it is the first time that I have had a chance to participate in, as well as order, a free swatch.

You can find my designs at my profile here: CCreech Studio - Fabric Designs or just click the Fabric Designs on Spoonflower link in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

Even if you are not interested in one of my designs, this is a great opportunity to stop by, have a look around and see what piques your interest.

If you have any home decor or other sewing projects coming up or just want to see what it's all about, mark your calendar and get your free swatch!

P.S. I'd like to send out a big THANK YOU to the individual who purchased a fat quarter of my Japanese Crane design this past weekend. You are my first official customer! :) I hope you enjoy the fabric!

Fabric variations! Trees and Feathers.

Isn't it fun to play on the computer? I've been working on creating some variations for my fabric designs in Spoonflower.

I have created several different backgrounds for my Maple Tree Buds. I love how the buds line up in the repeat and think it would make a terrific home decor fabric for pillows, placemats or table runner, or chair cushion cover.

 

I have also been playing around with the feather illustration and created a few new variations (see different background colors in my Feathers collection):

 

 

All of these designs are not yet available for sale until proofed by me. I would love to know what you think and which you like best!

If you are interested in any of them in particular, or think another background/colorway would work better let me know! 

In honor of Shark Week!

Guess what? It's Shark Week! The annual Discovery Channel special features new shows about this fascinating animal. I am not a big water person, but for some reason, I just love Shark Week.

Spoonflower, perhaps not coincidentally, is having a Sharks-themed design contest with submissions ending tomorrow 8/2. Rather than go with a typical full-body shark or silhouette, I decided it might be fun to focus on teeth instead.

I used some public-domain reference photos and rendered a couple of smaller teeth alongside a larger tooth in ink and colored pencil. Though not entirely to scale, the larger tooth represents the ancient, extinct Megalodon which was the largest prehistoric shark.

Check out the Spoonflower contests page later this week to vote for your favorite shark design!