Stuff I've been working on this week

First, I have to say it is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous this week. Makes it hard to be productive. :)
My facebook contest ends tomorrow, so if you haven't liked my page and a post or two that's really all you have to do for a chance to win a free pair of custom Converse.

Here's my Diva Challenge...
I love how it always forces me to think outside the box.

My Powerpuff girls in progress... 

And I've been hard at work on my blocks for the Art *O* mat project. I've got about half of my 50 done now... so that's coming along nicely!

Deadpool Converse

These are a recent custom design. I knew as soon as I saw the Converse themselves that they were destined for a pair of sneakers I'd been dying to make. (This style would be AMAZING for Harley Quinn too)

These took a little longer than sneakers normally take me but I am really quite pleased with how they turned out. 

Now, I think it's time to go work with pen and paper for the rest of the day!
I need to post them in my shop too, but that can wait til later.

Hope everyone is being super productive and creative today!

Diva Challenge 186- String theory Leaves, leaves leaves!

I love fall so much. It's my favorite season. I love the warmth of summer, the promise of spring (especially after my arctic winters of endless snow) but the color and breathtaking beauty of fall make it my favorite. I love the crispness of the days that alternate with warm days that feel like presents!
I live in NY so.... I associate fall with warm cozy sweaters, new boots, POT ROAST!!!! and new school supplies, freshly sharpened pencils and blank notebooks...
So.. ALL MY FAVORITE THINGS!

Today's Diva Challenge  was leaves.
Ok.

Here's what I came up with and I had so much fun doing this. I used brown, a dark green and red from my heritage color pen set and then coordinating pencils from my inktense set.

Loved it. Might even do more of this one.

Princess and the Pea (My "Let's make the bed" template challenge!

I finished mine. If you aren't sure what template it is, you can read about it on this post.

I'm happy with it, it was fun and I was obviously inspired by one of my favorite stories from childhood. The little puppy is something that I've been drawing since 9th grade. He doesn't have a name but he's like an old friend. :)

I hope you had fun with it!

Well I feel productive! (and a new challenge template!)

Ok, I said the other day that I needed to get busy and catch up with challenges... and so I did.
I competed a bunch of the challenges put out weekly by Laura Harms over at I am the Diva (If you don't follow her or participate you totally should!)
But I was behind since.. sometime in early summer. So in the last few days I completed... not 1, 2, or even 3, but 8 of hers!
177-185
Wow. Really, she's up to 185, and now I am too! (I still haven't posted all the first ones that I went back and did, I should make that a project this fall!)

So without further babbling...
177- Truffle. I like the way this one turned out so organic. It makes me feel like I fell into Alice in Wonderland or the garden or something!

177- Use the Tangle Truffle

 178- Duotangle by the letters, using tangles with the first letters of your name.
So, K & B
Two of my favorites Krli-Q and Bales!

178-Duotangle by the letters

 179- Be like Bijou, Tiny tiles! This isn't actually a tiny tile, or "twinchie" because I don't have any. I actually ended up doing this in the corning of my Marketing homework!

                   179-Be like Bijou

 180- This is a UMT- (Use my Tangle) This one is called MacDee, and I love it, cause it's PLAID! I love PLAID!!!

180-UMT MacDee

181- Water.
I am not sure about this, but my daughter loves it. It's to use water as an inspiration. This is different than many of my other pieces but it's kinda fun and hey... COLOR!

181- Water

182- Stripes. A fun opportunity to use a bunch of tangles!

182- Stripes

183- UMT- X-Did. I don't think I "did" this one right, but I am happy with the result. It was new to me, so you know what that means right? PRACTICE!

183- UMT X-Did

184- New Tangle by Molly. I like it. I'll use it a lot, another one to practice though!

184 New Tangle by Molly

185- Duotangle Phicops & Diva Dance. Not sure about this one but it DOES have a lot of movement to it.

185- Phicops and Diva Dance

AND I'm CAUGHT UP on those!
but...
I also fell off the alphabet wagon. :( Cheryl over at Artful Creations had a cool alphabet challenge going, for Tackle it Tuesday I stopped somewhere around K I think. (I'll have to check) I want to finish that but I'm not sure when... but the fates aligned and the day before  I looked to see how behind I was... she had launched a NEW CHALLENGE! So I am throwing myself in and encourage you to do so too! This week was to use Tangles that started with S, E and P.
Here's mine.
I used Peaknuckle, which I love but never feel like I have quite perfected, Sand Swirls which is a favorite and EEZ.
I'm very happy with this one actually.

So then there's one more thing...
I've been posting challenges here and there for a while, mostly there since my 30 day (Which I WILL be running again in the future!!) but I promised you a new template for fun. So....
We "Grew a Garden"
We "Built Houses"
Now... Let's "Make the Bed"
(Can you tell I have too much housework to get done these days?)
But I think it'll be fun and I actually have something that's been in my head since I was a little girl and read the Princess and the pea for mine.

So here's your template.

I know they don't look like much but it's really the prompt and giving you a few things to work around to make it a challenge... so, what are you waiting for?

DOWNLOAD IT HERE
Please play along and you can share too!

Christmas cards, already?

I've been working on Christmas cards lately,I know it seems so early but if I don't get them started they won't get done!  Because it seems so early I'm not going to post what they look like yet!!!  I'm already hearing about Christmas in stores. Eeek.
How soon do you start on your holiday stuff? Either for gifts, or sales if you sell or decorating? I really wanted to be further on them, but I'm still all about Halloween so I'm struggling to get over that creative block!

I'm usually working on about 12 different things, so here are a few work in progress shots of what things look like here and sadly very little completed work the past few days!

I'm working on another block for my AIC project as practice and soon I'll be working on my first batch of 50!
It's painted and ready to go, I should have it done in a day or so. You know if I get to pull out my pens today! I actually LOVE this stage, the block has been painted and edged in black and is basically a completely blank canvas. It's really the complete definition of possibility to me.

Here are a pair of Deadpool Converse I'm working on, they're still in the pretty early stages.

I did finish a new vine video. Turn off the sound, I'm still learning.. and what I learned on this one is oops... turn off your music while you're doing stop motion. Ugh, it's pretty disjointed and I haven't figured out if you can edit sound on Vine yet. 

I did some tangling...

I got my welcome package for my CZT certifcation, and have been planning some ideas for that! I'll be official in November!

And while this isn't art related it's pretty cool. This is a fact finding mission for the family tree project my cousin is working on. I just started helping her with it, it's very cool. I love vintage pictures!

I'm missing challenges. Both the ones I like to participate in, and the ones I was posting myself. 

I promise to get one up here on Friday this week. I even know what it will be and I am going to make time to catch up on some of the other challenges out there too.

Have a great week everyone if I don't see you before then!

Art*o*Mat® and Artists in Cellophane (A.I.C.)

I wanted to share some news with you that I've not wanted to discuss until it was official...and now it is so I can tell you about it!
I've been accepted to participate in a pretty amazing project and have been accepted as an Artists in Cellophane (A.I.C.).

I'm in the process of making my first edition of 50 small works of art that will be heading to an Art*o*Mat® near you. Well, actually I'm not sure WHERE they will be heading, since there are currently over 100 (See the locations)!

So what am I talking about? "You're speaking in riddles" you might be thinking... well that's ok, I do that a lot, but this time let me explain by sharing some info..

Art-o-mat® machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art.

 Find out more here http://www.artomat.org/about/

The story behind Art*o*Mat

• The inspiration for Art-o-mat® came to artist Clark Whittington while observing a friend who had a Pavlovian reaction to the crinkle of cellophane. When the friend heard someone opening a snack, he had the uncontrollable urge to have one too.
  In June 1997, Clark was set to have a solo art show at a local cafe, Penny Universitie in Winston-Salem, N.C. He used a recently-banned cigarette machine to create the first Art-o-mat®. It was installed along with 12 of his paintings. The machine sold Clark’s black & white photographs mounted on blocks for $1.00 each.
  The show was scheduled to be dismantled in July 1997. However, owner Cynthia Giles loved the machine and asked that it stay permanently. At that point, it was clear that involvement of other artists was needed if the project was going to continue. Cynthia introduced Clark to a handful of other local artists and the group Artists in Cellophane (AIC) was formed.
  The machine remained unaltered in its original location until 2010.
  AIC is the sponsoring organization of Art-o-mat®. The mission of AIC is to encourage art consumption by combining the worlds of art and commerce in an innovative form. AIC believes that art should be progressive, yet personal and approachable. What better way to do this, than with a heavy, cold, steel machine?

Pretty cool huh?

So anyway, my prototype block has been sent off and approved, my supplies are ordered and I'll begin production probably next week I hope! My first edition will be for 50 blocks and I'll share them here before I ship them. I also launched a new page to keep track of where my art finds a home. I'm pretty excited about that, so if you happen to have a piece of my artwork, or even if you just want to let me know how you know about my art, check it out!

It's back to school week here!

That means chaos as I'm sure many of you know.
I've had the opportunity to finish up a prototype and get that sent off as well as work on a few little things. I'll talk more about the prototype and whatt all that means in a couple weeks.
I've doodled more than ACTIVELY created stuff this week.
It's kind of a sloooowllllyyyyy return to normal and get back in my groove after summer chaos kind of week.

I am launching a series of vine videos, I'll do that officially starting on the 21st, between now and then I'm mostly just playing around with them. Feel free to let me know what you think about them, and be gentle! I'm just learning!

Happy September!

The holidays are fast approaching and before it starts I wanted to make sure that my facebook, etc is visible. If people don't know you are out there they certainly can't order from me right?
So I launched a contest on my facebook and I am giving points for comments here, etc. I'll be doing some fun things on the blog that aren't related at all, but I DID want you to know you can participate. You do have to like my facebook to qualify though. Once today's post is done, unless someone asks something I think needs clarified I'm not really going to talk about the contest over here until it's over. 

Liking or commenting on a fb post from Sept 1-Sept 30 2014, (current posts, no going back a year!) will get you 1 entry.
Sharing something on fb will get you 2 entries.
Comments on my blog will get you 2 entries.
Referring people to any of my social media will get you 3 entries. (I have to know you sent them, either they or you can make sure I know.
If you don't follow me on instagram, facebook, g+ or vine yet, you can get the 3 points for each you want to start.)
If you share a blog post or any of my social media stuff, tag me in it so I know or email me a link at whimsybykelly@gmail.com
On September 30th at 11:59 EST I am closing the contest. The winner will be announced by Oct 5. on facebook.
The prize is one custom pair of high top (or low top) Converse. I sell these for at least $100 a pair. If you prefer, I will do a messenger bag instead.
I will work with you to create a design of your choice in the size you select or you can have me just create something cool for you.
Winner will be selected at random from all the entries.
I will be placing all the entries into a box throughout the month and will finalize the first week of Oct.

Good luck, tell your friends. :)