The Wizard of Oz - on "Zazzle"

Happy Wednesday!  Have you heard about a site called Zazzle?  Today I want to share something new with you - well, it is new to me - maybe you have heard of this already...

My brother is an amazing artist.  In addition to the stained glass lamp and window business that I have mentioned here in previous posts, (Century Studios in St. Paul, Minnesota), he also does some painting and book illustration.  We share a childhood fascination with the Wizard of Oz - though his has developed much further.

One of my favorite childhood memories is of the excitement at our house when we got our first color TV (yes, I am that old!). We were finally able to see the transformation in the classic Judy Garland movie when she opens the door of her house in the Land of Oz and the picture turns from black and white into color.

Dorothy

Bill has been collecting Oz books most of his life and shares his collection and other information on his blog, The Oz Enthusiast.  He recently started doing a series of paintings based on the illustrations of the Oz characters by John R. Neill.

Jack Pumpkinhead

The original paintings are 12 x 12 inches and I have added watermarked copies of some of them to this post.  Eventually the series will have close to one hundred paintings.

Polychrome

Zazzle is a site that allows you to create custom printed items of all sorts - mugs, pins, buttons, stickers, magnets, t-shirts, sneakers, neckties, bags, cases for electronics - the list goes on and on.

Tik Tok

Artists can make their work available to be ordered on various items - so if you are an Oz enthusiast or know one you can create custom items at a reasonable price.  These would make great gifts for the holidays or anytime.

Toto

The artist who creates the image that you use is paid a small fee when you order something from their shop.  You can request custom combinations of images and products by leaving a comment in the OzShop section of the Zazzle site.

Wogglebug

There are so many options available and a wide variety of types of art.  It is something that you just need to see to understand all of the possibilities.  I have pasted in the "official" description of Zazzle from the Introduction page on the Zazzle site.

Zazzle is the world's leading platform for quality custom products. Zazzle's proprietary technology enables individuals, professional artists, and major brands, including Disney and Hallmark, to create and offer billions of unique products for customers worldwide. Zazzle's rapidly expanding product base covers every topic imaginable and includes t-shirts, business cards, invitations, in addition to a variety of custom gifts. Upon creation, products are instantly and accurately visualized on the site and offered in the Zazzle marketplace. When ordered, each product is made on-demand, typically within 24 hours. Launched in 2005 and based in Redwood City, California, Zazzle's vision is to redefine commerce, powered by the world's imagination.

I think it is a very interesting way for artists to make their work available and I expect to spend some time checking out more of the shops on this site.

If you would like to see more of the Oz images and the products available, this LINK will take you to the OzShop on Zazzle.

If you are curious about my brother's Wizard of Oz collection, this LINK will take you to his blog, The Oz Enthusiast.

 In case you were wondering - Polychrome is a sky fairy and the "sweetest and merriest of the daughters of the Rainbow."

Thanks for all of the nice comments about my "upcycling" project.  I need to drink lots of orange juice to get more caps so I can make some more projects with them!  Watch this space....

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Some inspiration and a challenge...

 

Things have been very busy around here.  I have a couple of big "secret" projects I am working on.  I am also trying to do more organizing of the craft chaos and discovering all sorts of forgotten "treasures" in the process.

The photo at the top of this post is a stained glass window designed and made by my brother and his partner.  You might have noticed it in the blog link in the left side bar but I loved it so much I wanted to brag about them a little and call it to your attention.  Their business is called Century Studios and you can read more about the window and see how it was made in their blog post HERE.  It would be great if you could leave a comment to say hi from me!

I thought that the story of the window might provide some inspiration.  There are so many "cute" owls around in the papercrafting world and it is nice to see owls that look a little more like their real life counterparts!

Today, since I was thinking about inspiration, I decided to post a challenge for you.  I save so many things because they give me an idea for a project. There are far too many of them in my space.  One of the items I found as I was cleaning was this take out box from a restaurant.  It has been kicking around for at least a year and it is time to recycle it. 

 

I saved the box because the pattern on the top looked like a sketch for a card or scrapbook page to me. I realize now that I should have taken a picture of it instead of keeping the box around so long (I did wash it out before I took it downstairs to my craft room!).

I am challenging myself - and any of you who want to play along - to use this design as the inspiration for a project.  I want to try a few variations - maybe a card and a layout.  A year ago, I signed up for a linky service but I only used it once (and no one played along...I think people are more familiar with these now).

Please make whatever you want and use the linky tool to post it here.  I set the limit for one week and I will look around and find a prize to keep things interesting...

I wonder if you think I am a little crazy - seeing layouts on the top of take-out containers!  Well, we all have our quirks!  Just click on the blue froggy button to add your link.  Let me know if you have questions or have any problems with the linky tool.

Have fun creating - I hope that you remember to look all around for inspiration - you never know where you will find it!

edited to add...

Directions on linking your project for the  "Take Out Box " inspiration challenge

Several people asked about using the linky tool to add a project and participate in the challenge.  I took some screen shots to show you how it works.

First, scroll to the bottom of the blog post HERE and click on the blue froggie link box.

These boxes will pop up.  If you have a blog where you have posted the project, you can just fill in the blanks and click "next step."  If you know the URL of the photo you want to post you can add that instead of a blog address.  If you just need to fill in something to get to the next screen you can use my blog address in this blank and then go to the tab on the next page that allows you to upload a photo from your computer.

This will take you to the blog post you linked and ask you to select the image to upload.

If you don't have a blog but have posted the image online - in a photo site, on a message board, or somewhere else you can provide the direct URL to upload.   You can find out the URL by right clicking and selecting "copy image location" from the list - then paste it in the blank.

If you don't have the image of your project anywhere online, you can click the third tab and upload the image directly from your computer.

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft

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A little bit of this and that...

I have a few interesting things to share with you today.

First, I want to let you know about an event in New York City next month.  Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia will be holding their annual holiday craft sale which is held in the company's creative headquarters.  Members of the Crafts team offer their handmade gifts for holiday shopping.  The sale date is December 4th.  I think it would be fun to attend and see all of the crafts and meet some of the craft designers.  Maybe I'll "need" to go see our son at college that weekend!

There is a contest to choose three lucky crafters to be vendors at the sale.  You can get all of the information HERE.  Submissions are due by Friday, November 5th at noon.  What a fabulous opportunity to have your work seen by thousands of people and kick start a crafting career!  (Just promise to remember the rest of us when you make it big!).  You can check out photos from last year's show HERE.  (The bird image above is from the contest page - isn't it clever!)

I have mentioned my brother's blog, The Oz Enthusiast, which is about all things Oz a few times.  While his business is making stained glass lamps and windows at Century Studios, he is an avid collector of Oz books and illustrations.  On Monday he posted about a great project. - a book of the Wizard of Oz made featuring Riley and Company stamps.  You can read his post HERE and when you go there you will find the link to see the book.  You can find more information about the stamp sets HERE.  The stamps feature Riley and Sophie dressed in many costumes - maybe I need to get a few of these to use to practice coloring with the ProMarkers.

Speaking of the ProMarkers, did you have a chance to visit Enfys and see her cards and tutorials?  She'll be posting them all week and you can enter to win a full set of 148 ProMarkers generously donated by Letraset.  If you have been wanting to try these markers this is a great opportunity for one lucky winner - maybe you!  This LINK will take you to Enfys' blog,  Going Buggy

Finally, I was away most of the day Tuesday so I wasn't able to test cut some of the designs I showed you last week.  There is one more preview of a snowflake I created at the top of this post.  Can you guess which cartridge I used?  I hope to have some crafty time Wednesday so I will be able to post a few finished projects made with my "doodle designs" soon.


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Century Studios (shop hours sign in vinyl)

Sometimes it can be very handy to have a Cricut crafter in the family! My brother and his partner have a wonderful shop in the Twin Cities. They create Tiffany reproduction lamps, custom stained glass windows and other stained glass art. After 20 years in Minneapolis, they have moved the shop to St. Paul. Along with all of the other work involved in renovating the new shop and moving the business to a new home, there are the little details that need attending to - such as posting the store hours on the door.

After a local sign shop quoted over $60 to make the lettering for the door, my brother asked if this was something I could do. I told him that my Cricut and I could do almost anything....(well, a lot of things anyway...) and that I could easily cut him some vinyl lettering for the store door.



The plan was to post the hours on the front door - in an area about six inches square. I looked through my font cartridges and decided that the "opposite" font on "Opposites Attract" had a bit of an "Arts and Crafts" feel to it. I set about laying out the sign information on my mat.



The grids made it easy to get the size and positioning right. I quickly had my design done. I wanted to cut the letters and numbers so they could be stuck to the inside of the door window and read from outside the shop. This meant I needed to have the sticky side of the vinyl "on top." So I needed to flip my design.



If you are working with letters and numbers and you try to flip them, your words won't make sense. You can see in the top example - from the outside of the shop this would say "SROUH." To get the letters to read correctly after flipping, you need to enter them on the keyboard in backwards order. Then, when they are flipped, they will be in the correct order, as you can see above.



Here you can see the screen shot of my final design (well nearly final - I did go back and add two little dashes in the phone number).



I use medium pressure, medium speed and blade depth 4 to "kiss cut" the vinyl - cutting cleanly through the vinyl but leaving the backing paper intact. After the cut was completed, I "weeded" it by removing everything but the letters and numbers of the design.



Above you can see the vinyl that was removed by "weeding" the image. The centers of some of the letters and numbers were also removed. In this photo the vinyl is "sticky side up."



Next, I applied transfer tape to the weeded design. Transfer tape is extremely helpful for a project like this where everything needs to stay lined up perfectly.



Here you can see how the design looks when you lift the transfer tape. The side that you see is the sticky side that will adhere to the inside of the glass door window. You use the transfer tape to "carry" the letters to the place where you want to install them and then stick them to the surface and burnish them on, carefully pulling the tape away at an angle.



I sent the lettering to St. Paul and the shop door is now complete with the relevant information posted and easy to read. The cost of the small piece of vinyl I used was far less than the $60 quote from the sign shop - and I feel like I contributed in a small way to the new shop. I wish them much success in the new location!

If you live in the Twin Cities area and happen to be interested in this type of artwork, you may want to check out the shop sometime. Here is a LINK to the Century Studios website and here is a LINK to the blog.