the scatterbox organized

Happy Early Halloween!

Tomorrow's the big day!

I look forward to Halloween every year, and every year, it sneaks up on me.  There's usually some grand plan I had in mind that ends up not getting done, and this year, my big fail is that we haven't even had our traditional pumpkin carving while watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Scandalous, I tell you.

Let's pretend for a sec that I did have my act together, and you can enjoy these pumpkins that we carved three years ago!  They were from our best carving year so far, so I don't mind the fact that I just copped-out and pulled up old photos.

This was the mister's, which he very nicely recreated from one of those templates that can sometimes go awry.  Not in this case, however.  I dig how the flames on the pumpkin look particularly... flamey.

And this was mine, from a design I whipped up myself.  I was actually quite pleased with how well it turned out.  My favorite personal pumpkin.

To add a little flava, here's some great Halloweeny items that caught my eye on Etsy.  You can click on each image to go to the listing in that seller's shop.

 

Trick or Treat by Multiple Personality

Love how the shadows depict who they really are...

 

Candy Corn on Crazy Cat by Crescent Hill Designs

How do you not love some candy corn rockin' out?

Instant Cemetery Display by Crafterella

This one is a big seller every year at this time on Etsy.  Great detail and concept.

 

Bunny Bandito by The Decorated House

.............buuunny.....

Eyeball Pillow by Crow's Cloth

Big ol' eyeball pillows made out of velvet and silk taffeta?  Stop it.

Don't forget about the Halloween bonus this year -- Daylight savings time ends Halloween night!  You'll get an extra hour to sleep off any partying you do on Saturday night... If you remember to set that clock back before you pass out.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Doodle Love: Amanda Visell

One reason I love Amanda Visell, as with other artists I find myself drawn towards, is that she is primarily self-taught.  The other reason is that she draws influence from Mary Blair, renowned for her work as a concept artist and animator for The Walt Disney Company in the 1950s and 60s (more on her later!).  Aside from originals and prints, Amanda has a great line of books, sculptures, and three-dimensional toys as well.

Amanda's work has a dark-yet-lighthearted edge, and I love her bold use of color.  Check out her website to learn more!

These are some of my favorites:

(I love the moon's face!)

 

("Lost Safari" commemorates the Jungle Cruise ride at Disney.  I first saw it in the art gallery at Downtown Disney in Orlando and fell in love with it.  This is the first of Amanda's work that I had come across.)

I've got paint on my hands!

It's about flipping time.

Ladies and gents, I've finally started initiating the more-artsy-in-my-craftsy movement that's been sprawled on the Etsy shop page for months now.  It's been a long time since I've done any proper art pieces, and I've been thinking about it ever since.  So here's the deal on what's going down:

My original Etsy shop, scatterbox, will continue to exist.  True to its name, it will be the homefront for my photography and general craft inklings, most of which will be of a recycled/repurposed nature.  The photography, some of which you may have previously seen in the old, now defunct, photobox shop, will have a little flair added to it.  That is still in the works and will be updated here when ready, fo sho.

The new artwork and related art-laden items will have their own home on Etsy under the username/shop name of TinaJett, address of http://tinajett.etsy.com.  It's quite the blank page at the moment, but I am hoping to have that officially open within the next week or so and trickle in the new pieces, both prints and originals, as they come.  I will be updating the Twitter and the bloggity-blog here with all the happenings and unveilings, so be sure to stay tuned!  Passing it along to friends and family always welcome. :)  I also have a mailing list that I use from time to time when appropriate, so if you or someone you know would like to be included, please forward the address using the contact link on the left side of the page here.

That said, they haven't been scanned yet and we have suck lighting in the house that makes the color look a little wonky... but without further ado, I present to you my first two paintings for the shop!

***

Hat Shop, 8x10" acrylic on canvas

This painting was inspired by a most charming Goorin Bros. hat shop in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco that we discovered on a recent visit.  Most hats look incredibly dorky on my large-faced head with short hair, but I was determined to find one from their awesome collection to take home just so I could say that I bought something there.  Alas, I did not, but had the best time just eyeing up all the great displays, hat boxes, decor, and fantastic window dressing.  I'm a sucker for cute little shops and cafes.  I just love love love love the red font I found for 'capello', which is Italian for hat (chapeau is French).

***

Lucille Gets a Helping Hand with her Alterations, 9x12 acrylic on wood

Lucille and her sewing notion beehive popped into my head when looking at a curled-up measuring tape one day.  It made me think of Grace from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and how she had all those pencils stuck in her hair.  I'd imagine that if Lucille took out a hairpin here and there, she'd unearth that fabric pencil and bobbin she's been searching for.

That's all for now... More to come!

Doodle Love: Matte Stephens

I find myself intrigued by Matte Stephens.  His work just plain makes me smile.  The consistency of his color palettes and unexpectedness of his pattern choices; the recurring themes of animals and smoking pipes (or animals smoking pipes...); the whole purposefully imperfect retro-ness of it all.  The other reason I am intrigued is because he is primarily self-taught.  I love finding artists I like with the added bonus of having figured it out all by themselves.  The 1950s/60s era of illustration and graphic design is my absolute favorite.  I think Matte does a fantastic job of capturing that innocence, simplicity, and fun.  It also helps that he is surrounded by that goodness in his home, which you can see in this great interview of Matte by Grain Edit.

These are some of my favorites.  Be sure to check out his Etsy shop and Flickr pool for more happiness!

 

Shoe Portrait

 

Canal Street New Orleans

 

Beehive with Birdies

 

Irving Is an Avid Bird Watcher

Best purchase of the summer

You know you want one!  And it was red and "white", and it was made by Slinky, which makes me also want a Slinky.  I'm so... six.

MAN, has this blog has been boring, or what?  That's my fault.  I've been hibernating like a champ as of late, for better or for worse.  On the good side, I'm getting back into the swing of re-vamping the shop, which will be more art-centric.  Just about everything on there at the moment is on clearance, and once I get enough new swag together to make for a nice update, I'll be removing those unsold items for good.  Hopefully this will take place by about October/early November at the latest, in time for the holidays.  Until then, I honestly don't mind hermiting away from the crap heat and humidity out there these days.  I was sweating from the kneecaps today.  Who does this?!?!  I spent a couple nice sweltering days at the Atlantic seashore recently, but really, fall needs to get here stat.

In case you had been looking for it, I closed down my photography site, Photobox.  The recent plan was to put everything in one shop, but now that I'm getting a better idea of what that will look like, the photos still cry for their own home.  The new site will be under a different shop name, which is good, because I'm going to bring them back with a little more... flair.  Stay tuned!

Doodle Love: Brigette B.

I don't really remember how I stumbled upon Miss Brigette...  Perhaps it coming across an item of hers on Etsy, but I'm glad I did.  Noseying on over to her blog, I unearthed a treasure trove of doodle love.  I so love the retro vibe, from the character's faces...

 

Tattooed Lady

to the surreal color choices she uses...

Pink Trees

...the one that totally reminds me of my friend Abby...

 

Librarian Bookended

...and especially those quirky-awesome coyotes.

Even the simple ones that remind me of my childhood.

Snow Day

(all artwork copyright Brigette B.)

I seriously can't stop looking at her work sometimes.  I really need to buy something and have the hardest time narrowing it down to the first piece.

Be sure to check out this post, as well, where you can see and read about a campaign she worked on for Swarovski.  So friggin' cute.

Thanks for making me smile, B!

Doodle Love: Kei Acedera

I discovered Kei Acedera a few weeks ago and she instantly became a favorite artist of mine.  Based in Toronto (What is it with Toronto?  I feel like I'm doing theme week on Wheel of Fortune...), Kei is a freelance artist who also produces work for Imaginism Studios, and is currently working on the new, very exciting, upcoming Alice in Wonderland film by Tim Burton (featuring Johnny Depp and an amazing supporting cast).

Here are some of my faves:

 

A Little Break, 2009

This one really has great elements of retro illustration that I love.  The fluid lines are fabulous, as is the way the colors in the grass reflect the colors of the girl's clothing.

 

Little Red and Wolf, 2008

I know we all know the story, but doesn't this drawing make you want to read the version that goes with this?

 

Good Bunny, 2008

It's carnivally.  The end.  Not to mention, who doesn't want to give a huge carrot to a huge bunny?

 

Enoki Forest Song, 2008

Raise, raise the lantern high,
Darkened riverbanks roll by,
The small skiff drifts, the band plays on
And the fireflies dance along
To the enoki mushroom forest song.

LOVE the detail. The shadows of the creatures in the back... The little frog playing maracas!!  Stop it.

To find more great art from Kei (and to purchase prints and originals!), check out her Imaginism link, or run a search to see other online galleries.

***

And hey, kids... It's Wednesday, April 1st... Don't forget our date tonight!

City sidewalks... busy sidewalks...

One type of subject matter that I seem to be drawn to when surfing the Etsy interwebs is city art.  Illustrations of city scenes, particularly juxtaposed tall buildings or detailed storefronts, seem to resonate with me.  Perhaps it's the attention to detail that the artist pays them, or perhaps it's also the way that even while it may be just a pile of bricks and glass, each little building has its own character and its own story to tell.  Today, I thought I'd share some of my favorites that I've come across so far:

 

Riga in February II, by artquirk

 

Houses, by Carambatack Design

 

Brooklyn Snow, by the wonderful Lauren Castillo

 

Christmas in Holly Ridge, featuring the amazing folk art of Catherine Holman

 

La Patisserie, by Monjojo

I am particularly fond of little shoppe fronts like Monjojo's (that absolutely call for the "shoppe" spelling, another favorite of mine).  Do you see how the little mouse has set up his own patisserie out front?  Adorableness.

While we're unfortunately not seeing any snowy sidewalks here, it's at least nice to not be in 70-degree weather anymore like the day our tree went up.  I actually had the patio door open.  I mean, really.  Hopefully those without power in the northeast will get theirs back soon, as while winter weather is nice for the holidays, being sans electricity is not.

Hope you're having a good weekend, wherever you are!

Giggle.

   

I found this over at Mixed Plate and it gave me a much-needed boost... From Olerattlesnake, $40 (hint, hint).

I got blurbed!

I received a lovely little note today from one Miss Starr who told me she was featuring me in her blog of Etsy finds.  She did a wonderful write-up about my leaf garland and my shop.  She's got some really cute treasures on there from the wonderful land o' Etsy, so be sure to stop on over and check it out here.  She's also got a couple shops full of jewelry and beads linked on there for you to scope out, too. 

One of her previous features was of artwork by Brigette B., who I actually had the fortune of discovering on Etsy just last week.  If you've ever looked at my favorites on my Etsy page, you'll see that my artwork faves are usually on the cartoony/illustratey side of life.  One of my new goals is to do more artwork, and oh, how I'd kill to take some real classes in illustration.  (Though the thought of racking up tuition again makes me vurp.)  For now, I live vicariously through those who have such talents.  Brigette's also got a pretty funny blog, and you can see more of her great illustrations there.  I immediately fell in love with her style, likely because of the great 60s vibe it's got.  Especially this great little fox with a scarf.  It reminds me so much of the logo from Fox Books in the movie You've Got Mail, which is one of my most favorite, of course.  But seriously - how friggin' cute is this guy:

He looks like he's from a children's book, which makes me want to know what he's up to.  Perhaps I'm drawn in also because I'm going to be living 24/7 with a scarf on now that I've decided that with the cold weather breezing in, hey -- now's a great time to chop off all my hair!  Silliness.  Maybe I'll add a little orange splash for some autumn flavor...