Shiny!

The Geekiest Lamp in All of Geekdom

I had this floor lamp that I loved very much, but some of the panels had been damaged over the years, so I decided to cut all the panels out, replace the ones that were too badly ripped and salvage the ones that weren't. Maybe I'd add some small embellishments, I thought. Then it turned into an epic stencil project that took up all my crafts-for-me time throughout January and February. And then I discovered that it's really hard to take pictures of an item that is itself a source of light. Especially since when the lamp is off (or I tried to use the camera flash) you can't actually see any of the designs - it just looks like panels of plain paper. So this post has taken quite a while to get organised!

Because it's for me, it's a bit messy in places and I tried some techniques that I won't try again. But I actually quite like how it turned out, overall. I'm definitely going to try to use some of these ideas again for smaller table lamps I can sell, but that'll require quite a lot of research and planning!

The biggest problem I had with taking photos was the difference between the Bat signal panels and the other ones. With the naked eye there isn't as big a contrast as there are in these pics.

Or Things I Meant To Post Before Now, Part Two of Umpteen.

Working through my back log of things that couldn't be posted before Christmas, and first up is this wee back pack/tote bag. This was done with a combo of stencils for the stars and free hand painting for the swirls. There are three different colours of sparkly paint involved, but as per usual two of them look almost identical!

 

Also, January totally doesn't count towards the overall feeling of 2011, right? Because January is always a month of catching up and cleaning and cold and a to do list of doom and general miserableness, and this one's shaping up no different. But I can still look forward to the rest of the year being better, can't I? *crosses fingers*

I got featured in a few more treasuries on Etsy over Christmas and New Year and I thought I should share two of them with you. So much amazing stuff there - I keep having to remind myself that I'm there to sell stuff, not to buy!

So, there's a Mario treasury here:

(Take a gander at Hooby Groovy's whole range of cases and accessories - they are all just as fabulous as that Goomba iphone case.)

And a Star Trek one here:

(OMG those cushions. I want those cushions so much. Please check out Yellow Bug Boutique and marvel at her work. I want to buy ALL THE THINGS!)