Luna, the Magazine and a new Gourd

Where should I start this post...? Should I start by saying that my traveling doll Luna is in a magazine, (yaay!!) or should I say that I still haven't been able to find that magazine in town so I chewed up my nails to the quick? (Agghh!) :oP
I am not even going to mention that poor Luna is still swimming somewhere between FL and the UK, in the middle of the volcanic ash clouds from Iceland and all. I'll say a little prayer for her safe arrival, she's such a little thing after all.

As for the Gourd part of the post: Just listed one on etsy! Take a look HERE it is Frida inspired. She is holding a pineapple and a calla lilli.

Tomorrow I will be hunting for the Doll Magazine!

Old banana ACEOs

I was re-organizing some files in the computer (since I burned the heck out of my skin, in our little outing over the weekend, I really don't want to go run errands till I am not purple anymore.... but that's another story!)
So anyway, I was going through a bunch of files and I found some old ACEO images I wanted to share here.
Some are from before I even started this blog, when the ACEO group was just barely over 100 people and we had one thread in the ebay group that was hilarious, and for one reason or another we started to discuss bananas.
My buddy Deb Company was there, and if I'm not mistaken, BlueEyeDuck as well. Gosh girls! Can you believe we have known each other for so long? I wish I remembered all the people at that moment! All I know is that I laughed till it hurt...
Based on that topic, we all went to make banana ACEOS, ...not food, mind you, but art cards inspired by bananas! :oP
Here's some of what I made then:





The ironic part is that this last ACEO about the last banana... didn't sell! I still have it! How is that for irony?? :oP
I might list it, it looks crisp and pristine like if I made it yesterday, which tells me that using good materials makes your work last for a long time.

I also found one Alice in Wonderland I painted/sold in 2005. Wow... and right now it is still the rage!

Earth day

OK I am posting late, but I hope everyone had a nice Earth day. I am not a tree hugger, but I love Nature. I can say more stuff about it but I want to keep my blog Artsy Craftsy oriented so, in our precious planet's name, I made a little organic sculpture:



I have been working on it for a few days and you will see him and his friends on Etsy soon. He is a real walnut and I think I'm falling in love with his crabby face :oP
What do you think?

A baby boy...

I finished my baby boy, his name is Duane. I think he is a cutie, but then again, I'm the momma :oP




He's a little bit bigger than 6 inches tall. And listed HERE

Do you like bears?

As I was surfing the blogs, I ended up in South Africa of all places (don't you love the net?)
And anyway, I bumped into a wonderful posting of a giveaway, by an artist in my neighbor state in AZ.
HERE is the link to Desertmountainbear:

And here is the bear:


I hope I am the lucky one! Next thing you know I will be bear-crazy hahaha But after my cute puppies (yes, they are still mine even if they are gone!) that look like polar bears, I kind of want to see bears.

Both my kids first toys were of course bears. For my son was a panda bear, and for my daughter is was a dark brown bear. Both stuffed animals still live with us.
And that is one fascinating thing about teddy-bears.... they stay with you for years! For ever in many cases.
And in my girls case... one is not enough. She has a whole tribe of bears of all kinds of colors, sizes and materials.

Treasury and tips

I made an Etsy treasury:


LINK HERE for now... not sure how long it lasts.

Well, while making it, I realized something important for anyone that sells: In an online search you have the viewers attention for 2 seconds.Period!
If somehow your picture or text catches the viewers attention, they will click, if not.... they are gone.

I went hunting for items, and with the roll of observer/buyer. Usually when I shop I go for a specific item, so there's not real "hunting" but for this treasury I really understood the importance of a GOOD picture.
We all know it is important, yes. But did you know how much time the buyer's eye stays with your item? I didn't.
I thought it was much longer, as in 2 minutes!
I guess I should've known better.... I used to design billboards and printed ads.

TIP: Go try browsing as a buyer on your own listings and see how your pictures compare. Be critical and open minded. See things in the photograph, not only the item for sale. Is your picture blurry? dark? too many things in the background?
It should look focused, with good lighting and with a very simple background or something complementary to your item.
I wish I could post pictures of bad and good examples, but I'm afraid I would get in copyright trouble. And I am not going to go get permission to use a picture as a "bad" example :oP
Improving our pictures is hard but a wonderful opportunity to learn and have our work noticed!

Now, enjoy the treasury while it lasts!

Four little piggies went to market...

And one little piggy stayed home....



Actually, it was not piggies but doggies, and they didn't go to the market, but to a new home. :oP
This past few days have been crazy. We said good bye to Wickham first, then Bingley .... couple of days later Darcy left, then Bennet. Tomorrow a nice teacher will come and fall in love with Collins, who is very funny and full of energy.
Now they have different names (Champ, Sugar, Bolt, Doug) and soon, they won't remember me, which is a bit sad. But I won't have the marathon feedings and cleaning at 6 AM after five doggies and I am sure that by itself will make me miss them a bit less :oP

New baby in the making

I am currently working on a new baby. I think this one will be a boy, but you know how it goes! You can't never be sure until the hair and outfits are on!
I took the picture before sculpting the ears, I think is looking cute so far, what do you think?
Well... gotta go feed the poopies!

Everything changes...

Seems like every other day a website changes the rules, the format, the way to link to other pages...
Just yesterday I noticed the links on ebay are all different, to access the personal page. They switched the order on me! I kept clicking on the wrong think hehehe

Etsy added some things, removed another stuff. Sometimes by the time I learn about a change, they took it off the site, so one less thing to worry about, right?

Youtube is another one that changed recently. I think this change is here to stay, so I made a how-to, based on my channel but it works the same way in any other channel. Just look for the marked links in the picture below.
They got rid of the star system, and only use a "thumbs up, thumbs down" now; the icons are a bit hard to find from inside the channel. They are still having a glitch with the new comments. Mine don't show in some of my videos, and when I comment, you don't see a sign that the post went through, so you find yourself clicking frenetically at the button.... :oP well, I hope they fix it soon!

Click on the image to see how-to find the video rate area now:

Did you know?

Some time ago I found this nifty site, with a "best days to list" calendar. I am not sure if it really helps but HERE it is. I think there is always a good day if the right buyer/collector finds you.
In any case, I am listing often both in ebay and etsy and I am thrilled to have sales. Thank you very much to the buyers, the new and the repeated collectors.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a good weekend and a Happy Easter.
May our hearts fill with the love of His resurrection.
~*~

Now, here is little edited picture of Panzón we made yesterday.
Yes, it is really silly.






Note:
I hope everyone is OK after the earthquake in Mexico and southern California. I felt a "poff!" by the window, like when a car is blasting the stereo... nothing else. it was a surprise to hear it was so big, and so far away from here!

Stop and Smell the...Spring Sale!

I reduced the price in items in my Etsy store, so if you were keeping an eye on something, you might like to take a look HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE just to name a few... The title indicates on sale, which is 40% to over 50% off in some cases.



And I will be listing more ACEO on ebay too, like THIS :oD

Have a safe Good Friday and a wonderful Easter.

A cat's perspective on puppies...

We had fun making this little video, I hope you enjoy it!



Link: HERE to see it in the site and please don't forget to rate (*Note: youtube removed the star rate, so now there is only "thumbs up" or "thumbs down"), maybe leave a comment there if you want :o)
There is a blue box with the new way to navigate on youtube (at least it will be there for some time anyway! till they change it again hehehe)