It's The Little Things - Augusto Esquivel

My second favorite thing to use when crafting (my favorite is felt...of course!) is buttons.  I love to find fun new ways to incorporate them into my crafts..  Today I came across this hanging button sculpture of an upright piano by Augusto Esquivel.

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This is by far the most creative button art I have ever seen.  If you look at this side picture you can see that it's three dimensional.

{source: What the Cool}

This one is my favorite.

{Source: What the Cool}

It is so inspiring to see someone take such a simple object and turn it into a beautiful piece of art.  It makes me wonder what new things I can think of if I just open my mind to see something simple in a whole new way.  I want to try all of the crazy unfinished ideas I have hiding in the back of my mind just to see what happens.

Are there any artists that really inspire you?

Jim Henson

I was browsing Etsy today like I do very often and I came across this post about Jim Henson.  It's about an exhibit the Smithsonian is having all about his amazing work.  Who doesn't love Jim Henson??  Sesame Street, The Muppets, Labyrinth, Saturday Night Live...Fraggle Rock!!!  And that's even everything!

Anyway, Jim Henson also made commercials in the 1960s and one of the videos was posted in the Etsy article.  I watched it, loved it and proceeded to watch a ton of other Jim Henson videos.

Here's one of his commercials.

This IBM training video is so funny!  Recognize anyone?  ;-)

Here's a video of Lily Tomlin and Scred on Saturday Night Live.  They make a cute couple.  Hehe!

Jim Henson was such a fun artist!  :-)

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Have you entered the Dreaming in Craft giveaway yet?  Tomorrow is the last day so you better hurry!  :-)

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

Holton Rower is why!  Have you seen his paintings?  They are amazing!  I first saw a video of one of his paintings on The Whimsical World of Laura Bird.  I love the idea of using such a simple concept as layering paint to come up with such a beautiful, elaborate result.

I love the different layers of the wood pedestals, too.

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The Move

Do you read The Etsy Blog?  They posted this amazing animation by Mandy Smith this week.  I love it!  Everything in the animation is made of paper!  Can you imagine how long it took to make all of the pieces?  And then to animate it??  Crazy!!  But totally worth it.  It's beautiful!  I wish that paper house was real because I kind of want to live there.  ;-)

The Move, Paper Animation from Mandy Smith on Vimeo.

Art-o-Mat

I found this website yesterday and got really excited.  I had to share it with you!  Have you heard of Art-o-Mat?  A group called Artists in Cellphane got a bunch of retired cigarette vending machines and turned them into art vending machines!  How amazing is this idea?? 

People can put $5 into the machine and they get a little piece of art.  There are Art-o-Mats all over the world.  There is even one in Austin!  I want to go see it and take a picture for my project.  I might have to get a little piece of art while I'm there, too! 

The machines alone are pieces of art that I would love to see.

 

I'm thinking about trying to submit a project in the spring to see if I can get accepted.  I was going to make ACEOs but now I think I want to try something completely new and special just for Art-o-Mat.  I probably won't be accepted and if I do it won't be a  big money maker, but it sounds like a really fun project to be part of and I could share my work with a whole new group of people.  I'm going to keep my ideas a secret because I still haven't figured it all out, but I will be sure to tell you when I'm ready to submit something.  :-) 

Coffee Break - Paper Sculpture

People can do some pretty amazing things with paper!  I'm sad to say that I'm pretty useless when it comes to paper crafts.  Give me some fabric or a piece of felt and I'm good to go.  But paper...not so much.  I don't know why.  I wish I could come up with great paper crafts.  Maybe I'll try to work on that this year.  :-)

I came across this website a long time ago but I didn't have a blog to share it on.  So when I saw it again last week I thought it would be perfect for a coffee break post.  I'm hoping to get inspired to try some pretty paper art. 

These are a few pictures of some of the most amazing paper art I have ever seen.

Jen Stark

Simon Schubert

Emma Van Leest

Amazing!

Yulia Brodskaya

David Brownings

You really do need to visit this website to see even more.  I guarantee you will be amazed!

Have a great day!

Coffee Break - Light Drawings

Back in September I wrote a Coffee Break post about my love of freezelight photography.  Yesterday ArtFire posted some awesome freezelight photography from Pablo Picasso on Twitter.  These photos were taken in 1949!  That's crazy!!!  I was so excited to see it!  I thought I would share a couple of them with you for today's coffee break. 

{Life}

{Today & Tomorrow}

{Today & Tomorrow}

{Today & Tomorrow}

Have a great day!

Coffee Break - Lubu

Hello!  I am so excited to share this coffee break with you!  Today is all about Lubu!

On Monday I was browsing Etsy and found this little cutie.

Incognito Bot

I fell in love instantly so I looked through the whole shop.  Lubu was created by Jenn and Tony, a very creative couple.  They make all kinds of robots and other cuties from polymer clay.  I've never worked with polymer clay but seeing these makes me kind of want to try it.  :-)

I picked a few of my favorites from their Flickr page to show you today.  There are so many good ones.  It was almost impossible to choose.  You can also visit their blog to see what they are working on.  And, of course, visit their shop so you can have one of these lovelies for yourself.

Kawaii Record Player Brooch

I love this!  I'm a music nerd and I'm all about listening to the oldies in the original way they were played.

Double Rainbow Ornament

They should send this one to Nathan Fillion for Christmas!

Mythbuster Bots

I love Mythbusters!  I wonder if they'll make on of Kari.

Wizard of Oz

This picture is so great!

Coco Bot

I love his hair!

Edward Bot

He must be in the sunlight because he looks all sparkly.  ;-)

VW Bus

My dream car!

Lilly the Pet Rock

She's just really cute.  :-)

When you have time head over to the Flickr page so you can see some more of the awesome characters they have made.  I looked through all 56 pages of awesomeness and it was so worth the time.  I have a list of bots I want to buy now!  Just gotta get some money first.  ;-)

That's it for this week's coffee break.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I have lots of fun stuff to share with you for the rest of the week so keep in touch.

Have a great day!

Coffee Break - Urbanscreen

Hi!  It's coffee break time!  I was having a lot of trouble trying to come up with a topic for today's coffee break post.  I finally went over to vimeo and started looking around for videos that have inspired me in the past.  That's when I remembered Urbanscreen.  This is a really cool company.  They create large scale projections.  They basically turn something as ordinary as a building into a huge work of art.  I picked two of my favorites to share with you.  They are a little long but worth every second.  It can be a double coffee break day.  Who doesn't love double coffee anyway??  ;-)

555 Kubik

555 KUBIK | facade projection from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

Kreisrot

KREISROT | Bauhaus Dessau | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

You can also visit Urbanscreen's vimeo page if you are interested in seeing more of their amazing work.

That's all for now.  Time to get back to work.  Have a great day!  :-)

Coffee Break - My Paper Crane

Hello, Friends!  It's time for another coffee break.  I decided that I would spend this week sharing another crafty hero of mine.  Today is all about Heidi Kenney from My Paper Crane.  Everything she does is so wonderful!  Her website makes me very happy.  Even her banner is super cute!  She has an Etsy shop full of lovelies, too. 

She makes the cutest felt food I have ever seen.  I have thought about trying to make some food themed plushies, too.  After seeing her work, now I really want to!  I just have to find a way to make it uniquely mine.

Strawberry Ring Donut

Tomato

I have been brainstorming music plushie ideas, too.  She has it totally figured out.  Look at these cute records!

Then there are her silly plushies that just make me laugh.  look at this toilet paper roll!  She can make anything look cute!

I love the way she makes faces on her plushies.  I've been doing a little experimenting of my own in that area.  I hope I cam make mine as cute as hers one day.  look at the faces on these cute dandelions!  Love them!  :-)

You want to see more, right?  Well, head over to her Flickr page and see all the little cuties Heidi has made.  You'll have a new crafty hero, too!  :-)

That's it for today.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  I'm going to see Rent at Zachary Scott Theatre tonight so I'm very excited!

Coffee Break - Steff Bomb

Hi!!!  Welcome to this week's coffee break!  I have a new crafty hero and I wanted to tell you a little about her. 

Etsy had a feature on Steff Bomb a few days ago and I fell in love with her shop!  She is very talented.  It was so encouraging to know that she just started sewing a few years ago and she is already so good at what she does and so successful.  This gives me a lot of hope for my own sewing.  I know I have a lot to learn, but I believe that I will get there. 

I was so happy to see that she posted a video of how she makes a plushie.  I love to see how other people work.  And it's really cool to see when they make things in a similar way to me.  It means I might actually kind of know what I'm doing!  ;-)

This is how I make a carrot! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

These are just a couple of the awesome things in her shop.  You should definitely check out the entire shop and website to see more.

Twanga Twanga Twanga

I thought this was a real banjo until I read the description.  I couldn't figure out why she would be selling a banjo in her shop! Oh...because it's not real and the entire thing is hand sewn!!!  WOW!!!

Ice Cream Sammy

Yummy!!!

Carrot

I had to have the carrot!

I even love the way she packages her buttons!

See??  Isn't she great?  I hope to have work as good as hers someday.  ;-)

Thanks for stopping by for a little coffee break time!

Coffee Break - Nonesuch Garden

Hello!  Welcome to this week's coffee break.  Do you have your coffee ready?  I have something very special to share with you today! 

I have been on the hunt for new techniques I can learn for my plushie designs for the past few weeks.  I came across the flickr page for Nonesuch Garden and fell in love.  Seriously...this person is my plushie hero.  I want to learn to make felt plushies like this.  I would settle for half as good.  These are amazing!  They are more than just felt plushies.  They are works of art!

Nonesuch Garden is the creation of cartoonist and artist Megan Baehr.  She created Nonesuch Garden as a way to support herself with her art.  If I could afford to, I would buy each and every one of these plushies.  :-) 

I thought I would share a few of the pretty felt plushies with you today.  They are all so wonderful so if you are interested in seeing the rest you can visit Nonesuch Gardens on flickr.  You can also purchase some of them on Etsy. 

Meili the Panda

Cocoa the Puppy

Sullivan the Turtle

Grace the Doe

Jenski the Stegosaurus

I'll leave you with those for now.  It is just a coffee break after all. ;-)

I'm a little behind on my personal crafties because I wasn't feeling too great last week and I have been working on three projects at once.  I plan to have lots of goodies to share with you this weekend and next week.  So, stay tuned!

That's it for this coffee break! 

Have a wonderful day!!

Coffee Break - Art Bus

Good  morning!  Do you have your coffee ready?  It's that time again...coffee break time!!  :-)

I went to a back to school event at UT for work yesterday and when we were driving back to the office I saw the Austin Art Bus!  It was awesome!  I saw it again when I was driving to church last night!  Weird!  I had never seen it before and all of a sudden I saw it twice in one day???  I had to share it with you.

I was driving when I saw the bus so I couldn't take pictures.  I found these on the internet.  They didn't have a picture of my favorite part!  You can see part of it on the second picture.  I loved the little light bulbs with wings.  :-)

According to Arthouse Austin this is a project sponsored by Capital Metro and 3M.  The artist is Cybil Guess.  I would love to find more of this artist's work.  Does anyone know where I can find it?

This is just one more reason why I think Austin is so great!  Art is everywhere!

Okay, back to work everybody!  Break time is over!

Have a great day!!!

Coffee Break - Coffee Cup Art

Good morning!  I hope you are having a lovely day.  :-)  I think it's about time for a coffee break.  Care to join me? 

I saw this coffee cup on a blog once and thought it was amazing!

This coffee cup art is by an artist called Boey.  I didn't realize there was a whole series of them until Monday when Swapdoodles posted it on Facebook and Twitter.  I sat down and enjoyed every single picture from the Flickr page.  It was  a very inspiring way to start the day.  So, I thought I would spread the inspiration around and share some of these amazing coffee cups with you for our first coffee break together. 

I love that he doesn't just stick to one style in his art.  He does it all!

I tried to go through and pick just a couple of my favorites but I ended up with 1 1/2 pages of links to the ones I loved the most.  :-)  So, instead I just went through my list of favorites and picked a few random cups for you to enjoy.  I highly recommend you go and look at all the rest on the Flickr page. 

Thanks for spending your coffee break with me today!

Now...

Back to work!!!  ;-)


p.s. Today is the first day of registration for Craft Academy!  I loved the summer semester and I am so, so, so excited about the fall semester!  Anyone want to join the fun?  :-)