The Shadow Box Crafty Things

I'm sure some version of this was inspired by something I've seen on Pinterest. But this was so much fun. Here's how:

• Ikea has these frames for $20.00
• I wrapped the mat that the frames came in with their baby swaddling blankets. 
• I created the calendar myself cause I couldn't find a cute etsy shop that had cute past calendars from 2011 (even tho I'm sure there is a closet full of them somewhere)
• There is the lists of baby names I made early in my pregnancies
• The wooden blocks are from Target online, they are the only ones that will fit in the frame. I had to paint some of the repeat letters different colors.
• I used only a few of the sonogram photos
• The little outfits are the ones that they wore home from the hospital
• Everything else is from the hospital, the feet print, the bassinet labels, and our hospital bracelets
• I used pins and tape to attach everything.

They work and fit on the wall now. But I'll let you know if anything falls off. :)

self promotion #2 mini sketchbooks

WHAT I DID
So one of the most popular posts I've had on my blog is my self promotion (#1) I mailed out about 2 years ago. So I'm mailing out some more this year. In 2010 I mailed out a small book with tiny amounts of my work in it. This time I'm mailing out something a bit different. I made tiny sewn mini sketchbooks (blank inside), I even sewed in a tiny business card. The average size of one of these is 5.5"x4.25".

I've made sewn journals/notebooks in the past for my 12 cousins and for my sister. I love sewing paper (my sewing machine has a different opinion, but the old gal hangs on). Sewing paper is kinda MY art. Also check out my recent physical portfolio, and my recent business cards, all involving recycled sewn paper pieces.

WHAT I'M TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH
I figured that giving out self promotional mini sketchbooks that the creative people of these Dallas/Ft Worth agencies can USE would be more effective, than giving out printed pieces of my work. We will see! Anyways I'm currently trying to find an ad agency to "love on" a bit (freelance or something more permanent). My portfolio work can be found at CrystalRoznikCreative. In the meantime, I'm currently setting up an etsy shop to have my art and design reach the masses. Wish me luck. Peace.

FEEDBACK
I need some constructive feed back on these. Friends in this business, creative directors who actually hire people, or from the recipients of the notebooks. How can i improve these? Am I dumb for trying snailmail promotional stuff for an art director? You can leave comments here or you can leave them on my facebook.

new business cards

Made some business cards this week. 20 total. I know that doesn't seem like a lot. But this was a all-hands-on-tedious process that made me borderline homicidal by the end. Its ok we are all alive.
All in all i kinda love them, I bet you wish you were one of the 20 people who will get one. :)
But they look cool. Let me know what ya think in the comment section.
I'm also now on facebook, go "like" my page. I only used my name, number, email, and portfolio url. I blurred the phone number in the pictures, I don't need crazy people calling me.

I cut out business cards from thick paper. I have 2 sizes, the normal 3.5"x2" (white) and 3"x2" (from neon index cards). I typed out info on typewriter (this is harder than it looks) KUDOS! to typists prior to 1970ish. I think i typed about 3 words a minute and spoke about 4 curse words a minute. I backed them with fabric i had laying around and sewed them up.

About 2 years ago i made some direct mail promotional pieces, you should check out. I hope to do something similar soon.

Since Instagram came to Android phones I've gone overboard with the vintage square photos, and i don't see me slowing down anytime soon. You'll have to just wait it out. Whatever it makes the photo cooler. I also have similar Photoshop Actions i found.

Peace

I painted a dog for my sister

My sister owns a quite energetic black Labrador named Reba. So for my sisters birthday i painted her a picture of her mutt. :)

i want ... Dream Job E-course

I always see the Red Velet e-courses and i really love the themes, but i've never signed up, but i actually think i'm gonna try this one. I'll see what its all about. Its called Dream Job. And i'm really excited to see how she started her business and dream job. :)

3 hand-bound notebooks

So a little different from the 12 notebooks I made my cousins. I made my sister 3 notebooks for christmas 80 pages each and I sewed the covers like my cousins. But the difference is i hand sewed the spine for my sister's. Here's the fronts, backs and spines.

 Should i blur out the care bears? ;)  {i get my images from all kinds of magazines, including some old Rough magazine samples}

The January afghan

So nothing i do will be as extensive or big as the 2010 afghan. But i'm sticking to the 12 afghans in 12 months resolution so far. This month i finished up an afghan i've been working on since March, it started as a scarf, but one can only have so many scarves and live in Texas, so i kept crocheting until it became this afghan. There was a really fun ball of yarn that i used that changed color randomly as i crocheted (most other multicolor yarn has a pattern to the colors they use).

12 cousins=12 notebooks

So i have 12 1st cousins on one side of the family. And we are all pretty close for cousins, i love them all very dearly and truly cherish the fact that we are all very close. This past x-mas i made each of them a notebook. 40 pages held together with staples. (my new long-range stapler is absolutely amazing). Then i sewed the covers from left over scraps of papers and things i've been collecting. Sewing paper is kinda my thing. Here's some photos of the finished projects.

The 2010 afghan

Most of my new year's resolutions start with a pretty naive sense of time, this year's resolutions are no different. One of my resolutions (there's always more than one) is to make 12 afghans in 12 months. Hopefully if i have everything planned out right i can do this. I have started 2 afghans 1 for JAN (started it last year) and one for FEB (started at Christmas). We shall see. But this post is about the 1 afghan i made in 2010. That's right it took me all year long. Its granny squares, lots of them. I Started this afghan right after christmas of 2009. I worked on it off & on in 2010 and right before thanksgiving, i finished it.

Also i bought 2 pink-fuschia plants at home depot the other day. Its called a Hawaiian ti, or a red sister, hope i don't kill it. :)

the self promotion

Some of my direct mail promotional pieces. I am mailing them to potential employers. They are 3"x4" and they have a small smidgen of my professional and student design work in them. I made them out of paper i already had lying around, and a canon inkjet. I'm putting them in handmade envelopes with a "Hello my name is" sticker holding it all together. Hope it works :)

i've been crocheting

I've been crocheting like crazy. After i finished my mom's mini blanket for Christmas, I took a 2 month break, then i picked it back up in late February to just use up some scrap yarn on some simple granny squares, my intention was to make a blanket like in this picture, 

found on design sponge

but the white yarn i bought was way way to white, so i'm just making super colorful squares with *shock* no border, I'll have to piece them together very carefully and i'm haivng to set aside yarn to piece them all together. But right now i'm just making colorful granny squares and turning them into 9 piece bigger squares. Here's some of them, my current goal is 324 squares and i'm somewhere around 70.

oh and here's my mothers finished scarf. its superlong and supersoft. :) i just used a simple double crochet and went back and forth 8 times. split down the center with the color, because Homestead heritage (where i got the yarn) didn't have and more cream in that weight, bummer. :)

365 for 2010

so i am one of those people who are taking a picture everyday of the year and blogging it on Flickr, hopefully at the end of the year i'll have 365. Here's a link to my photos on Flickr.

Some are artistic, some not so much!!! Here's a picture of a scarf i crocheted for mom on day 03/04/10. 

The scarf was made from 100% wool that was hand sheared and hand spun till it was yarn. Each ball was $15, it took 4 balls of yarn. The scarf was blue and white when it was finished and went from ankle around neck and back to ankle. It was huge. More pictures soon.

Hopefully i can start blogging again. I've been so busy lately. IT was Christmas and then super busy work time, then we bought a house, I'll be fixing the house up this spring and summer so expected a lot of before and afters