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This was a very special one that I made for a dear friend! It's a plywood shelf of her adorable little dog, Jolene. I had fun painting it and trying to get the blending right on some of the colors. You can't really tell from the photo, but there are lines engraved with a rotary tool. I think painting it kind of made those not stand out as well, but up close you can tell. I hope I did Jolene justice!

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March 2021

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I kept seeing pinterest posts of people making baskets by zigzag stitching rope. It looked so easy and in the end created a cool useful thing. And guess what? It was pretty easy!! Getting it started and then ensuring its not stitched loose enough to leave gaps had a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it you could really churn these suckers out. I made this one, which I store ink stamps in, and another larger one that has lotions and skin care stuff in it. And I bought some black rope too, but never made anything with it. Maybe I should bust the sewing machine out and do another basket some time.

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September 2024

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More jigsaw and rotary adventures from a few years ago. Our good friends bought a big house, and to commemorate it I made them this little plywood ornament. It's kind of boxy because it's the actual silhouette of their house. And yes, they have a silly last name.

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May 2021

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Here's another recent Christmas gift I made. Well, two actually. These are metal hanging decorations I did for my mom using sublimation ink pens and stamps. I wanted to give her something colorful and fun, but not take up too much space. She's been trying to pack to move, and I didn't want to add on to the clutter too much!

I think the stamp turned out nice in and of itself, but the overall design I did on the metal sign isn't the most inspired. It was also my first time using several of these colors. But I love how the other one turned out. I based the design off a set of plates we got a few years back from Pier 1 (rip) where each plate had different wildflowers. The sublimation markers are a little tricky since their blendability is almost zero, but it turned out very cute. And it's interesting to see how different the paper looks after pressing!

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December 2024

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This really should've been done on the Cricut, but I think it was actually before I got it? I'd seen all these cute paper cut-outs layered and framed on Pinterest (yes, Pinterest, the last bastion of fighting boredom). I wanted to give it a try but didn't really know how. I've since learned, and you may remember the Journey shadow box I posted previously. That one was done properly.

But for this, I winged it. Sometimes my philosophy is to just go for it rather then hem and haw and spend so much time researching or buying supplies. So I used what I had and threw it together. These are actually origami papers! The colors worked well for the design, but if I were to make this again knowing what I now know, some of these layers would've been done differently. I had meant to make another as a companion for it, but never got around to it. Maybe someday?

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April 2021

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Here's a recent one! Every year my aunt sends me a little Christmas decoration for our fireplace mantle. Last year she sent a very cute gingerbread house with glittery snow, and it even lights up. So in return I made this for her along with a few other punch needle ornaments. It's kind of hard to get the detail of frosting lines, but I think the overall effect is there. What's funny is she sent a thank you card, and of course it had a gingerbread house on it!

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December 2024

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I love bees and I LOVE black and yellow as a color combination, so I painted my little bathroom off my crafts room in a bright yellow with black detail. The border around the top was done by cutting some shapes I drew with the Cricut onto sticker paper, then using them as stencils. It's a very bold look with the stark black paint, but I'm so happy I did it. And I can't stress enough how grateful I am to live somewhere where we can paint and do more permanent things like this. 🐝

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July 2021

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This was my very first wood project when I got my jigsaw. I don't know what it was that made me want to get a jigsaw, but something in my brain compelled me! It had to be done! So I made this little planter box. It's maybe six inches wide at the most, and would need to have a bag or lining inside if I really wanted to put a plant in it. Right now it's in our sunroom but has some fake flowers in it instead.

March 2021

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I recently made a little fandom merch store and had a limited time run for my first set of items. I made these patches with rubber stamps and sublimation. I had a fun time making these and figuring out what works and what doesn't.

Chances are, most of you aren't going to recognize these logos, but they're all for DC characters!

February & March 2025

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I was trying to find interesting ways to use polymer clay and ended up doing this light switch decoration. I like the way it looks, but practically speaking, its three dimensional nature makes it a little difficult to hit the switch. This is in my little reading room/office that's decorated with flowers and leaves.

May 2021

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Keeping with the bunny theme from last week, here's one a little shrink plastic hairclip I made for myself because I wanted something cute. I'm pretty sure I made this in less than 10 minutes on a whim. But I do still have this and once in a while I wear it!

And this post is actually going to be the last of the really old stuff unless I happen to come across something I missed. I mean, there are many, many creative things I've made in the before times, but a lot were either more of the same that you've already seen, or just not a caliber that I think is worth sharing here. I'll continue posting things from 2020 and beyond, but thank you for letting me do a bit of show and tell for the older things. It's nice to know they have a home here now, even after all this time.

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March 2012

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A shelf I made for a friend! I don't do a whole lot of wood projects, but I did buy a jigsaw during the pandemic and put it to good use. It's sort of hard to tell with t he lighting, but this is painted with a gradient, which let me tell you, took A While on this plywood. I hope that it's still holding up alright, as I only used wood clue to affix the little shelves. I'd like to make more stuff like this, but alas where is the time.

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March 2021

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Another bit of fanart from back in the day. I have a feeling a lot of people will know exactly what this is from. It's a pin of Haruko's vespa and bass guitar from FLCL! That's one of the pieces of media that had a huge impact on me. Even now it has a special place in my heart, and always will. I know I had this on the table at an artist alley, but I don't remember if it sold. Hmmmm wonder if I still have this somewhere.

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June 2010

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Continuing my adventures in stamp carving, here's this flower I did. I always struggle at drawing flowers, never sure exactly how the petals fold over or layer. But this actually turned out pretty good. I stamped it, then sublimated onto a pouch with a few other designs (stamps can be found here), and you can see that in the end I did color a few of the flowers before pressing. That pouch was really more of an experiment to get a better feel for all this, and now I use it store the stamps I've made, although it's starting to get full!

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July 2024

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Well this one is really going to be out of the ordinary for me. It's from a long time ago when, yes, I was a Black Butler fan. I was watching/reading as it came out back in the early 2010's and that was My Thing at the time. When I see it nowadays in the wild, I can't help but cringe, but I'm getting better about that.

Anyway, for a short while I sold fake nails. The character art was stuff I drew. I'd print these out on sticker paper, put them on fake nails and dremel the edges. Then coat it all with a very thick topcoat. Actually, my first set of custom nails was only featuring drawings I did of Grell, and it got a Daily Deviation over on DeviantArt, so that was pretty cool!

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April 2012

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This is an unusual one! I have a little closet that is on the front side of the house, so it has a window. So of course I immediately wanted to turn it into a reading room and decorate it all cute. Part of my cozy little dream room was to have plants hanging down from the ceiling, so to accomplish this I got a bunch of lattice work from the hardware store, a whole bunch of fake ivy, and a small pack of fake wisteria. All that plus glue gun and A LOT of time to assemble = this! I will say, getting it hung up was a real pain, but it was definitely worth it. And the string lights give it such a cool feel. I've since converted this to my home office, so I get to enjoy the room daily.

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October 2020

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I used to do all kinds of sewing just for the heck of it, and skirts were my favorite. Ignore the uneven hem, attention to detail was never my strong suit. 😅 I always loved the fullness of this one with how lightweight it is. Plus, who doesn't like black lace?

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May 2009