Sunday, January 12, 2014

Note Cards and Post Cards

I love photography, I always have.  Around 2007 I had this crazy idea to somehow turn my photographs into note cards.  I researched prices for paper, printing, envelopes, sizes... the list goes on!  By 2008 I had started selling my note cards at my local farmer's market in Urbanna, Va.  Time went by and I quickly got distracted by my other artistic endeavors.  I tried to quit doing note cards, not because of cost but because of time, but I have 3 loyal customers (my dad, mother-in-law, and cousin).  I have found a new outlet for my note cards!  Mind you I don't make nearly as much as I would if I did it myself but I don't have to do the grunt work plus I can reach a larger audience.

I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with Zazzle and that's where you can now find me! The name you can find me under is Kimagination13 or you can just click here  

I keep adding to my store every day but it takes Zazzle up to 24 hours to post.

If the link doesn't work you can also just type in zazzle.com/kimagination13

I am sorting through literally thousands of my photographs  and I will have obvious categories like Colonial Williamsburg and Amish Life, quilts, animals, flowers and seasons.  But if any of you out there have a weird or strange request I'd love to hear it!

Here is one from my Animals collection:

I am creating note cards and postcards, some with words and some without.  Zazzle gives you the option to create larger cards, etc. with my design too.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Another New Endeavor

In 2000 I started garment sewing.  I eventually started quilting, something I said I'd never do, but that's another story.  It only took a few years for that passion to fade but I still loved my sewing machine.  I think the reason why that passion died was because I could never get the clothes to fit right. Plus I found other artistic endeavors to pursue.  I definitely have ADD when it comes to my creative brain!

My husband and I have been long time fans of Project Runway and for me fabric has always been a great source of inspiration.  I love their challenges!  One of the challenges was to shop a pet store for materials and one contestant made a dress out of dog collars.  One of the things I noticed on each episode was that they used dress forms.  Hmmm, I wonder if I got a dress form in my size would that would help me?  Yes!

(Stick with me here)... I LOVE Pinterest and have over 100 boards on my page.  One of my newer boards is called "Altered Clothing".  Instead of starting from scratch I could piece-meal different clothes.
This was the first piece I fell in love with (not created by me):
And this is another one (I love how she did the flowers):
And one day I aspire to do something like this (if only there were more hours in a day!)
So you guessed it!  My newest endeavor is Altered Clothing!  I went to my local thrift store last week and bought three articles of clothing.  A gray sweater which will be my base piece.
A black net-like shirt for draping:
And a dark charcoal gray knit shirt because I liked the "crochet" detail on the back:
                                                           Front:
                                                        Back:

My first cut was right up the middle of the front of the sweater because my original thought was to make a cardigan like the pink one in the first picture.  I ended up sewing it closed closer to the neck and leaving it open at the bottom, eventually adding the charcoal gray knit to that area so I could wear it like a sweater without my belly hanging out.
I cut the crochet off the back of the knit shirt and hand sewed it onto the back of my sweater.  I had two flowers left over so I added some detail to those and sewed those on the front.  For the net-shirt I used the sleeves.  I reattached these to the cut off sweater sleeves.
And this is the end product:






I finally bought myself a dress form for Christmas and I love it although I do wish I was on the smaller end of the measurements but alas I am not.