I am in Two Treasures

Iris Heart @ Karen Fulkner Original Art

Thanks for Karen from Karen Fulkner Original Art . I am in two Etsy treasures right now. The unique art of Karen is demonstrated in the image above. Please check her site for more pretty and special watercolors.

The treasures include one of my original paintings and another is the Spring Print. They are:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=42838
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=45053

Please check them out!

Order the Skins

You can order the Spring laptop skin and Laminated Print on Wood Block here (using the Buy Now button).

Merry-go-Round: How you do your craft/art?

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month's question that myself and 6 other women will answer is " Explain how you do your craft."

I'll explain how I did my painting and illustration.

The actual implementation of a painting is very fast. I usually do it within one day. But the whole process starting from searching for an idea till a painting is finished is very long.

The most important thing in the process is the idea, the inspiration. I am constantly looking for it. Looking at other people's work is one important source of inspiration. I also go to visit parks and nature reserves and hope to find some there. Magazines, books, newspapers or advertisements, anything that I get into my hand will make me think about something that I can paint.

Recently, I found one important source of idea is from my customers. When they want me to do something that they like, I found that there is something that I never thought about it before.

Sometime, ideas come in a stream and I can develop many at one go. But sometime, I just cannot think of anything suitable. If I try very hard to come up with something at this kind of moment, most of the time it failes.

One thing I realized is that if you do more, you get more ideas. When I was painting daily before, some people asked me where I get so many ideas to paint. But actually, if you do everyday, one thing triggers or leads to another, you will find that you have so many things that you can paint.

Thus, the more you do, the better you get and the more paintings you can produce as well.

Once I have an idea, I normally visualize it in my mind how the painting will look like. The colors, the mood and the whole sensation. I get myself excited and cannot wait to put it into paper. Sometime, the result will be much nicer than what I imaged. But sometime, it is very difficult to get what I want and I left it for a while at the corner. In the second day, I try to tackle it again and normally I can achieve the desired result.

Cherry Blossom Print or Laminated Print Mounted on Wood Block ($18 + $8 S & H)

Please don't forget to read others:

• Agathe, Le Bar du Vent
• Andreanna, Glamasaurus
• Charlotte, of Fancypicnic
• Fabs, Easterya Jewellery Creations
• Marian, Florcita's Art
• Ruth, Birdland Creations
• Sara, Sara's Texture Crafts

Best Sellers of the Laptop Skins

Just an update of the the new best sellers of the laptop skins. I found that customers tend to follow others to buy. Thus, the best sellers my help you to make a quick decision.

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Owl is always the best seller. The pink one is the best. The brown and blue are also very popular.

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Red bird is the recent winner. I like it very much as well.

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The pink version of the Lotus is third best. I guess it suits a pink laptop nicely.

Adding Glass Pendants to My Own Online Store

Finally I added the function of buying of glass pendants in my own store LilyPang Art&Design. Please check it out.

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Follow My Heart Laptop Skin and Etsy is Down

I like the line work in this piece and made laptop skins for it. It is follow your heart and the heart is your home.Order the Skins

Today Etsy is down for maintenance. I anxiously want it to be back because I need the information in my convo (Etsy emails) to process my orders. It is such a big event for many people. Just read some comments on Etsy blog. It is so funny.

Hello,

My name is Sophie and I’m an addict.

Like everyone else.

HURRY UPPPP!!!!!

*scratches arms and legs and face*
*twitches uncontrollably*

Good morning everybody!! You all are so funny!! I woke up so early and now I dont know what to do! :S Hey Christy, your blog is awsome!!

Relax!!!!
;)

My Art Pendants

Finally I got a set of glass pendants from my art ready for my shop at Dawanda and Etsy. It still takes some time to be ready in my own online shop.

It's really fun and enjoying to make these pendants.

I thought it would be nice to be a model for these pendants myself. My husband helped me took these photos. The sizes of the pendants are very nice.

Actually one of them is already given as a gift when one of my friend saw me wearing it yesterday. Since she really appreciated it a lot, I just took it off and gave it as a gift.

I yet to setup my own store for you to purchase the pendants. For now, if you like any one of them, you can just using "By Now" button in the left column. You just describe the pendant that you like from the list to me.

• Lotus
• Spring
• Baby Owl Pink
• Bird and Poppy
• Red Bird
• Red Poppy
  

Each pendant will be shipped with a pretty jewelry box tired with a ribbon.

Each pendant is $15 + $5 (S & H). The shipping fee for each additional pendant is $2.

Pendant Pendant

There were lots of activities today. In the early morning, I attended the Etsy VAST artist trunk show. It was so much fun to show my work in the virtual lab with virtual seats and gave virtual presentation. It was so early, actually I wear my sleeping cloth and did the presentation in my bedroom. Haha... This is so much difference from the presentation I used to do. I need to wear crispy business suit and skirt and spent a lot of time to make myself presentable as well.

I just got the pendant making kit yesterday and couldn't wait any longer to make my pendants. These are the ones I just made today and they are still drying on my working table.

You can see they are from baby owl, the kiss, spring, peony, the bird and poppy and the singing designs.

I'll add bails to the glass pendants tomorrow and show you more fancy photos.

Taking Photos for My Online Shops

It is easy to show art work such as print or painting. There is no need to take photos in a surrounding environment and you just display the images.

Now I have to learn how to take nice photos of objects that I am creating such as the Wood Block Print. People are talking about frontpage friendly photos, which means you should take a good photo that can be chosen by other people into an Etsy frontpage.

There are a lot of guidelines out there. I read some. One thing you can do is to try different versions and ask some opinion at the Etsy Forum. There is a Critique Forum section. You can ask people to tell which one is more attractive.

This what I did, most people told me that the wood block on wall is nicer than the garden one. I really love the garden one. But if you are aiming on Etsy frontpage, you have to make it simple.

The article, Are Your Photos Frontpage Worthy? in Etsy told us a good way to see if your photo is good or not. You can use the tool of Treasure Poster Sketch to pick some of your favorite items and put your item into it to see if it fits into the other items or not.

I did this of this Owl Print on Wood Block and realize that the plain background one is better.

What you think?

Singing Navy Blue Laptop Skin

One of my customers asked me about this navy blue design. She told me that she would like to match her navy blue laptop. I never thought about it before. I really appreciate many of my customers. Their requests opened up my mind.

This color is really nice with a navy blue laptop. The flowers and the bird glow from the background.

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Monday Orders Laptop Skins and Prints

Monday is the day that I spent most of the time to process the orders. I found mostly people order at the end of weekend and weekends.These are the laptop skin orders. The red bird and rose tree are the first time orders. The colors are so vibrant and beautiful. There is a wrist area skin of the poppy one. The middle is the touch pad. This part of the skin is cut out nicely.
The above are the prints on heavy art paper. They are not laptop skins and have border for framing. The prints are much more beautiful when you see them physically than in the photo. I love to print them. It is such a great satisfaction to see a beautiful piece of art coming out from the printer slowly. It is always exciting when you see a physical print than the image of the computer.

How to Order the Prints
Each print in my store are priced at $18 + $5 (S & H). For each additional print, the shipping is charged $3.

For example, if you order 3 pieces of prints, the price is 18 x 3 + 5 + 2 x 3 = $65.

Laminated Print on Wood Block (LPWB)

Look what I've got these days. I have being busy with developing these little laminated prints on wood frames. They are so cute and sweet.
The Size

Each one measures 8" x 10" x 0.87"/20 x 25.5 x 2.2cm. It made with wood frame like canvas. But it is heavier than canvas. The sides are covered with prints. You can also hang the print at the back on the wall with a hook like a stretched canvas. Or, you can also just put it on a table

The surface of the print is laminated which means you can clean it with a web towel and the picture won't be spoil. The ink is pigment ink, thus you can hang it outdoor in your garden wall or patio. The print won't be faint under sunlight.

How to Order the Prints or Laminated Print on Wood Block

Browse through the prints galleries in my store. When you see a print image that you like, you click it and it will lead to the order page. You can select the format of order you like from the order page.

You can browse through the print galleries order the prints from there.

Browse the Prints Galleries

Spring and Laptop Skin

Spring is the recent hot topic. Many groups that I am in want us to produce things related to Spring. Here is the one.

I love the wet and rainy atmosphere of Spring. I remember most of the Spring days were rainy days in China. Singapore being a tropical country has only one season which is summer. I can only recall the picture of Spring that is so far from me now: black trunks of trees and foggy green filled air.

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Strawberry Bird Red and Art Pendant Project

I am starting working on my new project now to make art pendant from the work that I have. The first thing is that I ordered the tool kit from Etsy after failing getting from Singapore craft shops. Singapore craft shops cater more to assemble type of jewelry making. The store I made purchase is kristenskrafts. There are many supply stores there. It really takes time to make a purchase.

I also found a very nice supply store located in Hong Kong in Dawanda. It is really cheap. It is called findingsupplies.

I am very excited about the new project. Hope to get the tool kit really soon.

This is the red version of Strawberry Bird. This is another crimson color design apart from the Crimson Singing Bird. I like the color that matches black laptop nicely.

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Just Resting and Laptop Skins

I just added this design into the laptop skin bird collection. It would be perfect for a light color laptop. It is specially for someone who loves birds like me. It is a nice reminder for you, don't work too hard, take time to rest. Have a nice weekend!

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Red Bird and Laptop Skin

I started to work on my new year resolution and try to find something for making jewelries. But after visiting all these familiar craft shops in Singapore, I couldn't find the things I need such as diamond glaze, glass tiles and soldering tool. The only thing they have are the beads, ribbons and fabric paints.
I need to do more through searching.

Although I was very tired going through shops by shops, but somehow this image kept popping up from my mind. I didn't do anything last night after my baby went to sleep, but finishing this red bird.

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Splendid Night Owl and Laptop Skin

I like owl very much and the more you work with it the more you get to know it. I have asked to work on some birds that I never painted before. You need to spend a lot of time to understand it in order to paint it in a way that reflects its beauty.

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