A peek inside my sketchbook

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I’ve been playing around in my sketchbook this past week practicing my typography skills!  I have always wanted to be able to naturally hand draw typography that just flowed. I guess the only way to get there is to practice and learn more about it!  I’m making all my quote art about crafting and creativity, things that I apply to my life and know others like me would love.  So take a peek into my sketchbook…which one is your fave?


Hope you liked my doodle typography creations!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Craft Supply Organization My Way

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New orange bins

This weekend I spent a lot of time organizing my craft supplies. I have always struggled with organizing my things. It goes way back to childhood. I always had random odds and ends that I ended up stuffing under my bed or in a drawer. So, for me, really breaking down my stuff and creating a home for everything is honestly a challenge for me.

Before I had so many craft supplies and was in my first apartment, it was actually a whole lot easier for me to be organized, but as I’ve acquired more and more things, I’ve find that the tiny embellishments, bottles of paints, and scrapbook papers can easily get pretty overwhelming pretty fast.

I bought the orange bins a while back at IKEA and I’m making good use of them now 🙂 I’m excited that they all look the same. That’s the hard part of organizing craft supplies…finding a way to make them look good without being such an eyesore! Up until this point, I’ve always had random bins in different sizes and colors. I still have a lot of different plastic and wooden drawers/bins/organizers. I either have to find a way to disguise them or arrange them in a way that is pleasing to the eye.

organized bin

So here’s a few of my supplies. The organizer I got above is a clearance find I got at Target today! I had all my pens, markers, and pencils in a bin before and it was hard to see what I had, so I thought this organizer would be a nice way to see everything and choose from!

brushes

Here’s some of my cheapy brushes. Brushes are something I don’t really invest in cause I always inevitably leave them in water or get dried out paint on them. I know that’s bad, but atleast I’m truthful with myself.

talk to the hand

I love the “Talk to the hand” sticky pad!

markers

A fun selection of my Tulip® Fabric Markers.

red man meets minnie

And here’s some of my pens, markers, and my vintage letter opener. Isn’t he cute?

What’s your organizing style like? Do you struggle organizing your craft supplies like I do?

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Wednesday is Lensday: Button Edition

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ready for their ring blanks

Thought I’d bring back Wednesday is Lensday and this week is all about buttons! Here’s some photos of random buttons I’ve taken as well as projects I’ve created using buttons. I just love them so much cause they are just so darn colorful and pretty. I love all the shapes and textures. There’s just something so cool about running your hands through a bowl of them in search of the right one! Oh, and by the way, the photo above is button rings I made using the big 1.25″ buttons layered with other buttons.

buttons & bows
This is a button necklace I made for a friend a couple of years back. Love the bow buttons!

button colander
No, my buttons weren’t dirty, I just liked the colors for a photo!

red, black, and blue
Here’s a basic button necklace I made for a craft show.

all earrings, all the time
Buttons and googly eyes, yep this pretty much sums me up.

Woodland art fair...here I come
These rings are one of my favorite crafty things to make!

Yep, they make me very happy! How about you? Do you love buttons or is there another crazy craft supply you can’t seem to get enough of?

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

I made my first video!

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I got a video camera this weekend and I uploaded this little video showing off some of my craft goodies that I am making/using.

For all of y’all who wonder what I really sound like and look like, this is for you. Super exciting stuff…NOT!

Hee hee. I always think it is weird/cool when you see a person talking in a video that you’ve only seen in pictures. Let me know if anything about it surprises you. Haha.

Oh and if you are interested in some of my little button packs, you can find it here on my Halloween Etsy Shop.

Hope everyone had a super swell holiday weekend. Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

What’s on my mind?

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surfaces

Halloween, of course! See all these surfaces and supplies? Well, I plan on doing something with them…the question is what?!? Ugh, I tend to get a lot of ideas in my head about what I want to do; however I want them to really be good and original! I see all kinds of ideas that I see that have already been done, but I really want to give my own original twist on what I see. I want it to be a new, fresh idea!

It is very hard to have an original idea these days! Everything is a spinoff or hybrid of something else you’ve seen. When I actually see a new idea or invention that is actually REALLY clever, I am super impressed. It’s so hard to stand out from the crowd and to make something totally unique! I hope to create a few projects this Halloween that are unique and different…things that will make you excited and things that you’ll actually want to do!

Just a little FYI…now that September is here, my posts may be a little shorter. I have a lot of accomplish in the next month and to successfully do that, I think the blog is going to have to suffer a bit. I hate that, but I don’t want to wear myself thin. It’s important that I accomplish what I set out to do for October!

In the next few days, I’m revamping and going to launch the plans for Terrorific Tuesdays, so keep your eyes peeled!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Colorful crafty photo day!

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Yo yo. This week is just flying by! I am a busy bee as of late. Spent last night trying to actually organize some things. I don’t know about you, but I have to be in the mood to that and then when I’m on it, I’m on it! If I get distracted or have to go somewhere, everything goes to pot. I just have to be in that mode. I get really frustrated when I clean/organize for two nights in a row and get really excited about my progress, and then have a string of out of town/out on the town activities to do. It’s not that I don’t enjoy doing these things, but by the time I get back into organizing again, my place is worse or and I have to start over all over again! Ugh!

So, I took a few photos last night that I wanted to share. They’re crafty inspirations, I guess you would say. I’m actually thinking about selling some of my old scrapbook/paper craft stuff like these things and putting items into mini bundles on etsy or ebay. I have a lot of things I just don’t use and they are just sitting around not being used (the types of things I bought for just one project, but have no use for otherwise)…if I can make a little bit of money off of them, I’d rather do that than just hand them off to Goodwill, ya know?

craft

letter chipboard

star of the show

I wanted to remind everyone of my current contest/giveaway
Just leave your name in the comments and check back next Wednesday. I’ll announce a winner then to win my cute vintage-inspired pumpkin man!

Also, a reminder for anyone wanting to participate in Terrorific Tuesday! Get those blogs posts up before next Monday at 6pm! And then e-mail me. Read all the rules here if you are interested in participating.

Have a great day Swellions!

Alexa

Wednesday is Lensday: It’s Craft Time!

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I wanted to share today some of the many materials I work with in my crafts. I have so much stuff that I have yet to use on an inspired project!! Atleast it can take center stage in my photo, even if it doesn’t turn in my next best project.

Colorful Beads
colorful beads on display

Ribbon
ribbon

I’m one messy painter!
i'm one messy painter

A couple quick things about today….

1. My friends Retta and possibly Chris are going to the Renegade Craft Fair in a couple months in Chicago. I have never been to one and have been dying to go. Retta and I share a lot of the same sensibilities, so she is super psyched as well. Yippee!

2. Bought some stuff tonight at Old Navy…a pair of black pants for work, a green top with smocking detail (I noticed all the styles are so dainty and girly pretty right now), 2 pairs of flip flops and get this – a red denim skirt for only 99¢! I love deals like that!

3. Wal-mart has nothing copper-colored in their craft section other than one roll of wide organza ribbon. Boo! I did notice that they were putting up the new planograms and Martha Stewart has a huge new section in there. It looks different than the look for Michaels…must be an exclusive Wal-mart deal. I bet some people aren’t too happy with her being in there. I also noticed a lot of really unique new cutting tools including markers that also cut while you use them. Yeah, it was weird, but I was intrigued enough to see how it worked…it’s like an exacto blade is in the marker!

4. I heard on NPR’s Marketplace that Flickr is partnering up with Getty images and offering some of the photographers licensing deals to use their images. I need to read up more on it, actually…found an article This a link to an article from the Seattle PI Newson it.

Yeah, this post is short and sweet. I’m super tired and have to clean up that paint mess. Ick! I hate doing that!

Until we meet again Swellions!

Alexa

All content/photos copyright, © Alexa L. Westerfield, 2008

The best of intentions

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If you craft like I do, I’m assuming you have the best of intentions with every purchase from a craft store. You leave inspired with thoughts of that next great craft project churning in your head. Well, if you’re also like me, you find that plastic bag several months later, revealing the sad reality that you never actually accomplished that said project. Case in point:

i intend on making stuff with these

These are random things I purchased over the past couple of months from Hobby Lobby and Michaels with intentions of making stuff. I just haven’t gotten around to it. Don’t know when I will. I’m pretty sure I purchased these things cause they were 50% off or on sale. I’m such a sucker for sales and 40% off craft coupons (about the only time I actually redeem coupons)!

Anyone who comes to my house really can’t believe the amount of crap that I do have. They are always telling me that I should weed some of it out a.k.a. purge, but I can’t do that. Even with vast array of ribbons, pens, scrapbook papers, glues, glitters, paints, beads, felt, etc. there is always, always, without avail, something I have to go to the craft store for. A true crafter has stuff coming out there ears! If they are smart, they somehow find a way to organize it efficiently. I need to study up on that one! Anyway, one purchase I gave into tonight that I did not have on hand was these (I swear, I’ve been eyeing them for a year)…

I finally bought some...

I do have restraint most times when I do go to the craft store. Sometimes, believe it or not, I leave empty handed. These stamps only cost $2, but they are something I always want, but deny myself. Tonight I gave in. It’s not such a bad thing, I just need to find a cool project to use them for now.

I also walked away with this lovely magazine, Stringing. This is actually a splurge for me. I am super cheap when it comes to magazines, but the cover was just so darn pretty and there were a lot of inspiring ideas in there. I just had to get it.

stringing magazine

Yes, this is my workspace. The rug in front of the TV. It’s a mess, but how I do it. I like being able to watch something and relax in the floor. I’ve always done this since I made friendship bracelets taped to my dresser drawer. Must have been 9-10 at the time. Some habits never change.

I seriously wish I had more time to accomplish things, but I guess it’s nice to know I have a stash waiting for me if I ever want to get reinspired by one of those projects. I really need to do that, rather than spending more moolah on stuff I don’t really even have the space for! I seriously need a bigger space.

Be proud of me swellions, I ate pretty healthy today and I walked tonight. Yay. I’m not going to buy bigger pants. I’m not going to buy bigger pants!

Until tomorrow, Swellions!

Alexa

All content/photos copyright, © Alexa L. Westerfield, 2008