Travelin' Rabbit

In my fervent quest to create my own animals, I have produced another lovely creature - Travelin' Rabbit.

Actually, it's so simple right now that it could be a rabbit or kangaroo (missing its pouch) or rat or any number of things.
Be on the look out for additional members of this wild kingdom. :)

PS. Isn't the vintage-inspired color combination gorgeous?

Masterpiece Rabbit

You know how you spend a lot of time trying to figure out what you're good at and what you could potentially make a living from? Or, at least, some pocket money, if not a real living. I've been trying out different artistic mediums all my life, more so in the last 2-3 years than in my 22 years of existence... but you know the story... artist since very young age.

I've always been one with many interests. I could no sooner choose one medium to stick to and make it my career than I could with food, politics, lifestyle, and all those important life details. Then I discovered -- stumbled upon more like -- Stephanie Congdon Barnes and... well... the rest is a temporal history. (At least until the next medium comes a-knockin'.)

I don't know if you've seen Stephanie Congdon Barnes's work but her animals and other items are gorgeous. Down to every detail she is brilliant beyond brilliant. If I could, I would purchase each and every one of her masterful creations and put it on display. Her work -- the attention to details, the intricacy, and her talent for hiding finished seam work -- is deserving of gallery/museum attention!

I'm just saying. The gal knows what she's doing and has been for a while. Nothing that great gets conjured up in minutes or hours.

And... if you're anything like myself, when you cannot afford something but really, really, really want it, you think to yourself: I'm not a shabby seamstress/artist, I've got a sewing machine, I know how to hand-sew, I've got the materials, I'm gonna make it myself!

Several hours later... The finished creation. I've sewed rabbits before (a total of two) and even attempted a teddy bear, but I must say, a person's skill can evolve so drastically. It certainly took me by surprise. A welcomed surprise.

The pattern-making took a good hour to figure out. Lots of sketching and tweaking and enlarging. Then the actual sewing took another 8 hours or so. I really surprised myself with this rabbit. My previous stuffed toy attempts were no where near in quality, craftsmanship and dedication.

It's amazing what you learn about yourself and your capabilities when you're forced to make something yourself.

Now I'm dreaming up animals galore! LINEN animals galore! I can't wait to get started with my own menagerie of sculpted/tailored animals.

Some things take time

As I am learning right now... while in the middle of a last minute cram session before my first midterm of the semester. My LAST semester, mind you.



I could only wish to have the patience to bake such wonderfully appealing bread. Until then, I live in the wonders of cooperative living! Mmm... aren't they just delightful to look at? I do not think I've ever seen anyone bake bread before (minus foccacia and banana bread).



My patience has been tried ever since receiving my first screen print kit. I've used it several times and have made plenty of items (must remind self to show photos at some point), but nothing has taken longer than this unfinished print. This is my first attempt at a print and will be in very limited quantities, but I hope someone somewhere will enjoy it. It's still missing one element and it's a very simple print. Explanation to come.



But nothing pushes the envelope more than trying to knit a sweater! With cable! Using the vague and somewhat inaccurate patterns by Wenlan Chia, no less! I know, I know... amateur knitter attempting difficulty task. I think I've heard that fable somewhere. ...Oh, right... it's me. :) Despite the wonks and kinks, I believe there is hope for this sweater yet. (It had better because this silly hobby of mine is costing me lots of moolah! Wenlan's prices for yarn are not exactly for the faint of heart.)



Despite all the other challenges to my patience, there is a silver lining. Just look at this gorgeous shoe rack! From Ikea, painted purple because it's the paint lying around in my room and I didn't feel like looking for other paint. I think it looks pretty nice and really brings out the colors of my shoe collection (my other shoes are back home with the parentals). I, um, have a, sort of, minor, problem,... with spending money. *shrugs shoulders* What can I say? Appearance matters to me and the appearance of my room has been atrocious of late. But, hey, at least my shoe rack is a dandy alternative for my eyes.

Stay tuned folks... I'm already in the sketching stages of a new print/cut out (or both, really, cuz I'm ambitious like that!). I'm also trying to get some dolls made (got the parts cut out but never sewn up... hmm.. that must be fixed). I'm also in the process of purchasing some fabrics in hopes of making a few bags (SANS pattern - I'm not a pattern gal; they're great to have when you're completely lost, but patterns generally confuse me more!). Oy! What a run-on sentence I weave. For shame.

Lotta Jansdotter + Screen print samples

I am sooooo incredibly late with these photos of Lotta Jansdotter. She was here in SF for a printing workshop of sorts in June. It was nice to finally meet the woman behind the books and the famous designs. I haven't looked through all the photos yet but here's two!



Here is a photo of some simple mushroom cards I created with my not-so-new screen print kit. None of them are perfect but I've found the imperfections unique. They're just screen print samples. They're so cute! I'll be putting them up in the shop as individual cards, along with envelopes. And meanwhile, I've been perfecting my skills on a print I mentioned earlier. Photos to come!

Presenting the lovely Lissie Doll and many cool pictures!

As promised, here is the onslaught of photographs of my latest projects from the past month.

But first, let me introduce my new Lissie doll! Isn't she just the sweetest? And her hair might become a trend I say. After all my final exams and papers and projects are completed and after I'm back from a weeklong trip to NYC (so, probably late late May-early June), I'll have a few of these dolls in my shop. (This image was taken at night so it does not do her justice. I'll take better pictures later.)

And this is Lissie's friend Olive, who will make an appearance in the shop too! A one-off though (because, don't tell her, but she was just a practice doll... shh! Olive will be jealous that Lissie is the one I want to replicate). :)

And now... lots and lots of pretty visuals!

I helped a housemate make this gnarly camera case for her friend Beth. It's a picture of her dressed as a man on one side. I will never ever attempt this again! haha.

And more stationery! I really love these colors and I love this simple floral design. They're sort of meant to be pussy willows. What'dya think? Should I attempt to make a few of these for the shop?

a lamp made of lotta jansdotter fabric. love the colors. and really needed to update my lamp from the cheapo mesh it came in.

look! i can do other things too! sorry about the horrible pictures. i can't decide if i want to keep this (when it's finished) or sell it.... hmm... the perennial problem of the artist and his/her artwork... to keep or to sell...

i tried my hand at making a shirt/vest with no patterns. i modeled it after another sleeveless shirt i had but found i needed to add some thick side panels because i grossly underestimated the differences between the stretchy material of the original and the non-stretchy-ness of this material. oops! but it looks nice on me and the darts are form fitting. :)

yee! look at the pleats!

i didn't make this but i had to share a great find. this is a barney's bag that only cost me $12 with some broken handles. i took it to a shoe repair shop and they fixed it right up for $18. not bad for a $400 type bag. :)

anyone who has lived with me for the past two years knows that i'm a bargain hunter and huge fan of designer clothes. and where i live we have this great store called jeremy's department store. it's kind of like a Ross Dress For Less or a Marshall's or a TJ Maxx for designer clothes. They're mainly store returns, things with holes or a missing piece or out of season overstock. I love being able to find things that once retailed for anywhere from $100-$700 but I only paid anywhere from $1 to $50. i generally avoid spending more than $50 for any item and wait for the price to be marked down. but it's tricky because it good be snatched up by someone else the next day. i once got a pair of Sonia Rykiel shoes for $11 when her shoes are $700 and upwards. they're the best shoes ever and all they were missing were some adornments on the toes. it left an icky leather patch of glue behind but i just took a pair of thread rippers (sorry, the correct term left my mind) and took the leather patch off and they're almost as great as new. i'll have pictures of said lovely shoes next week. i could start a separate blog with just the findings and results of my shopping sprees. i really ought to call them my 'spending sprees'. :) :) :)

and who knows? maybe i will start a blog just on my shopping adventures. like the aqua silk halter top by emilio pucci that i got for $1, or the silk blend brown tank top from barneys for the same price.

oh.. if only i were slightly rich....

meet my bunny; winners; MY SHOP's OPENING

I've finally got my act together and opened my new shop at etsy! Please do hop on over and check it out. And, please, by all means purchase up the lovely note cards if you are so inclined. :D Please leave feedback! :) I am so excited and happy to have finally opened shop.

- - - - -

i forgot what name i gave this bunny... so for now, it's just bunny. :)

i don't like bunny's long arms... it's almost freakish. but whatev... it's my creation, so therefore i must love it unconditionally...

and for the drawing... since there were only four comments, it wasn't too difficult to draw two names. haha. using a random number generator, dre and tania are the winners. i'll get your cards out to you soon (and soon can mean this week or next week or even later... haha).

dre, email me your address so i can get that to you soon.

card-testing + giveaway

Boy, do I love packaging things up nicely! If my job were to design packaging materials and to put together packages done up nicely, I'd be a happy gal. I sometimes find more fun in wrapping presents and putting together little packages than making the things themselves. Are there folks out there who share the same sentiments?

Cutting to the chase, I just printed out a test batch of my lantern cards with my trusty old hp inkjet printer - sorry, no fancy schmancy digital art printer. Below are some photographs featuring the stylish 'do of my test batch cards. Tell me whatcha think cuz your opinions (at least on this matter) do matter!


And, of course, with every test batch there are some kinks and some wonks and some funky stuff going on. In other words, not all the cards were printed out perfectly. Darn printer for wasting good paper and ink! Hmmph! But you, my dears, get to benefit from the icky printing problems. I am giving away two sets of my test batch cards - one of each color with matching envelopes (the matching is up to you). The only major glitch in the cards is the blurry printing on one of the lamps on the papaya colored card.


Cards are printed using Paper Source cardstock, in chartreuse and papaya, with matching envelopes of the same source, in pool and strawberry. How you mix and match is up to you! I'm no dictator here.

The giveaway will be open through until the end of this week (meaning Sunday, 11:59pm Pacific Western Time, cuz I'm on the west coast of the americas). (I needa go buy some stamps... sheesh.) Please leave a comment on this post only. Two names will be drawn in whatever method I choose. May be random, may be not. And please, comment! It's free stuff! :) (Friends and relatives are allowed to participate too. The more the merrier!)

Psst... I finally took some photos of my latest projects. Will upload that later this week. Yay for visuals!

let's all be brilliant and bright!

one paper done, two more to go and don't forget the quiz!


i just finished a quick-ish sketch of some beautiful old-timey ethnic-like lamps. will definitely have to look into doing something with the image. it's just oh so scrumptious. (the lamps are based off some images from the anthropologie catalog for this spring).

i've also made a few new things (new to me anyway) and i think it's fab-o-luss!

don't mean to be a tease, but will share those photos soon. perhaps next week? (when my last paper, for now, is completed and turned in). i promise. i swear. i mean it. :)

ta ta ladies (and gents)!

blogger is being dumb so no photos after all.... maybe later i can upload it when blogger decides to cooperate.

in the sketchbook...

vintage flowers by shirley lei (C) 2008

not long ago i purchased a discounted hardcover moleskine accordion page sketchbook of sorts. from half price books (my fave local used and discounted bookseller).

it was the best investment i could ever make with my $1.95 (i'm still aghast that i managed to get a hold of it and that no one else had purchased it as it is easily $10+ in retailers.) but hey, no complaints here.

so here i share with you a few of the sketches that adorn this wonderful little keepsake.


by shirley lei (c) 2008

by shirley lei (c) 2008

by shirley lei (c) 2008

wouldn't some of these images make nice stationery designs? i am obsessed with stationery! :D

tell me how your day went. i'd love to hear. and i'd love to meet new people.

a week in my life...

As a student, I spend about ten minutes a day thinking about school work and then I shove it aside for better, more interesting subjects. My mind is quite picky about the contents that swirl in my memory bank and, quite frankly, I really don't care about education or intelligence. *GASP* Did I really say that? Hmm....

Meanwhile, a typical week involves some bit of shopping, crafting, putting things in
neat little arrangements and finding cute things, for as very little money as possible!

Here's a sampling:

above is a hairclip i turned into a pendant. wasn't so hard at all! and next to it is a bright satin flower i made with a button in the middle for added effect. i'm in the process of sewing on a pin to attach it to the purse below as a brooch. lovely!


here's the purse. i found an easy little tutorial (will have to find it again for linkage). took me two hours at most. the cutting and thinking took long. the sewing, maybe 15-30 mins tops! am thinking of making more... and fyi, the blue/brown fabric came from an urban outfitter's curtain i bought on sale.


there were a bunch of jam jars going old and modly in the back of our refridgerator (this is what ensues in a house of 40 women with 6 fridges! things get lost and forgotten!) and i thought it'd be neat to put my pretty (and random) things inside it. the left holds my bits of pretty ribbon and the left holds my spool of raffia as well as a couple of necklaces. prettiness.... *drool*


fortunately for me, the nearest paper source (www.paper-source.com) in berkeley has a little box containing samples of letterpress invites, stationery, etc. from their projects. so, ever since i made this discovery, i visit every so often (it is across town, no where near the university campus) and collect quite a bunch! they're free after all and make great inspiration. sometimes i also re-use them in my projects (e.g. the vintage boxes in a previous post, matchbook notebooks in a very, very old post). i might use some of them as end papers/inside covers in futuer notebooks. i need to use up the pretty papers i've bought so i can buy more! :)


and lucky for me, near paper source is a crate and barrel outlet that sells really nice kitchen and home things for a lot less than their retail store. and i was able to pick up a couple scrap pieces of marimekko fabric for 25 cents each! would've bought more... not sure why i didn't. i'm thinking the red cherry blossom print will make a nice purse (using same design/technique as purse above).


forgive me but i just had to post about these condom wrappers. they look so modern and lovely. i'm sure it's a gimmick to get us young folks to purchase them. i've never heard of the brand but i guess i'll have to check them out. hee hee hee.


and finally, another picture of me. it's a bit blurry but i rather like the pose and the outfit i wore. the black free people sweater came from our house's free pile (a free pile in the cooperative sense is essentially a pile full of things you don't want anymore but don't want to throw away and am willing to give away for free). the green cashmere sweater came from a discounter called jeremy's department store (it's j.crew and i got it for $15! love the feel of cashmere - i've since added more cashmere pieces to my wardrobe). and the dress (not a skirt) is an ella moss piece also from jeremy's. love that dress. one of my fave. can dress up or dress down easily. and of course, i'm not a college student if i'm not in my flip flops! :)

take care folks. up soon will be pictures of my lastest endeavors in art. just quick watercolors and a sketch in my sketchbook. i would show them to you now but i'd run out of things to share with you, now wouldn't i? (although i am really excited about one of the designs and i hope i can do something with it - turn it into stationery or something - I LOVE STATIONERY!)

i love writing letters too! would you be my penpal?

toodles!

scrumptious crafting

this is me...


and this is my room... (excuse the mess - i'm too young and busy to clean! :))




and these are the valentines i made for friends. tiny little pocket-size notebooks. and below it are the latest books made. this time using raffia as binding. such a simple thing to make and yet so pretty. paper from papersource.



and these are my latest sewn goods with my newest fabric purchase. one's a wallet, the other's a messenger type tote bag. teal fabric from urban outfitters curtain. printed fabric from auntycookie and cheekybeaks.




including a notebook with cheekybeak fabric!



and what have I been up to this past week? making beautiful vintage-y, victorian-y boxes of course! inspiration from martha stewart living magazine, feb 2008 issue. can find the article on her website. the materials used: lovely quotes from martha's templates printed on thrifted paper, repurposed wedding invitation cards from papersource (the berkeley store has a box full of free printed samples, from which i help myself), papyrus cards and envelopes (who says i need to use it for letterwriting?), cheapo and reused ribbons. the velvet ribbon monogram can be achieved using velvet scraps (preferably on some thickness), rubber stamps and an iron without steam.





and i know we all love to journal so i thought i'd show snapshots of my latest one. i've been using my lovely journal from paperiarre as a visual diary for inspirational purposes. taking scraps of fabrics i've purchased, business cards, pieces of stationery, mailing labels, etc. anything that's visually inspiring is glued into this journal! :)





and finally... i've decided on this particular sketch for possible stationery or cards or whatever. not sure yet. and i kind of like the squared graph paper in the background. what do you think? what uses could i have with this design?


happy sunday!