Thursday, March 31, 2011

Where the HELL Have You Been? Do You Know What Time It Is!?

I know I haven't been over here blogging all that much lately, but I don't want you to think it's because I don't love you all.  Amidst and amongst the usual excuses of the colder, darker, wetter winter season, I have been working on some fun stuff.

Glitter Bitches Handmade logo
(art by Wenchkin)
Life of a Glitter Bitch - My team, Glitter Bitches Handmade has been crazy busy over the past year since we first formed.  Initially, we figured we'd simply cross promote across our fan bases and give a few things away as a group.  After we added four new members at the end of last year, the group started to morph into a full fledged "guild." We expanded our presence on Facebook and opened an ArtFire shop to cover our growing administrative expenses like mailing prizes, business cards and promotional items.

Around the time we were setting up our shop, our good friend and fellow Glitter Bitch Kim Mayhew of Ant Farm Studio** was diagnosed with an aggressive form of uterine cancer - and there she was, with no insurance.  Well if you don't already know this, you can knock a Bitch down, but she'll get right back up again.  Fighting.  Hard.  So we started adding items to the shop to raise money to help Kim out.  The Teal Ribbon Fund, as it came to be known, has been a runaway success, thanks in large part to Kim's friends and the DIY community who turned out in force.  We even list items donated by some well-known non-Bitch artists & crafters as weekly featured Guest Artisans - Honorary Bitches, if you will.
**you can find Kim online at Got-Ants.com, on Facebook or in her ArtFire shop!

Hmmm.... Let's see, what else?  Oh, one of our members, ArJay of Kiss Zombies, has started up an inspiration contest series to help spark creativity in our collective fan base.  The current round ends on April 7th - Fabulous Prizes are a definite possibility if you enter....

Glitter Bitches Handmade Inspiration Contest
"Bitch Favorite" Prize
2" Pendant of Old Growth (detail)
(ends Thursday, April 7th
check here for details on how to enter)
Random prize:Loco Folko Vampire PEZ dispenser
by Kim Mayhew of Ant Farm Studio



Anyone may enter, as long as they follow the rules ArJay has set forth here:  INSPIRATION CONTEST GUIDELINES AND RULES.  The "Bitch Favorite" entry will win my twinchie pendant (doesn't Brooke look cute modeling her twinchie Glitter Bitches pendant?), and a random winner will receive one of Kim's awesome "Loco Folko" PEZ dispensers - I have a few of them myself and love them.


Art Stuff - I have been working on a few new pieces, but they are mostly in the sketch phase or are "secret" and not available for public consumption.  Yet.  Sorry, but that's just part of the deal I struck.  I've been keeping up on my prints and pendants (which were featured in December on Rings & Things' blog), with earrings in the works.  The prints and jewelry have become a very popular (and affordable!) way for people to collect my art.

Oh! And my new business cards came in yesterday!  Next week's shipments will have them.

I've been replacing the headers in my sites with the newer, more Krissified image.  This blog is next.


Makeup - It was a weird winter and several indie makeup companies have been outed for a lot of bad/unsafe/unethical practices, which makes me sad for the good companies out there.  However, I have tried to focus on the fun part of makeup, rather than turning into a Mean Makeup Girl.

For those of you who want to see what I do when I'm painting my face, you can follow it on my relatively new Facebook page: Krissi's Makeup Studio.  I will remind you that I am not a makeup artist; I am an artist who likes makeup.  However, there is some cool (to me anyway) stuff over there like my series of tutorials on the color wheel called Beginning Color Theory for Non-Artists (so cool, in fact, that I am in the process of copying them all over to this blog too).



Life - I continue to spend just about every day enjoying the life as a Jack Russell Terrier's human.  Abby keeps me sane and happy.  I am THRILLED that the clear weather is finally upon us so that we can take more breaks during the day and get outside to take pictures and dig for voles (I do the former, she the latter).
Me in my 2007 Z4M Coupe at Thunderhill

Finally, I have started tracking my car.  For those of you who don't know what that means, it means that I take my car to the racetrack (yes, a real one, not an oval) and run it around.  Fast.  As I write this entry, I am preparing for my second track day on Friday, April 1st at Thunderhill Raceway here in Central California.  It would appear that the Skelekitty has a need for speed....




Enjoy the Spring and I'll really TRY to check in over here more often.  In the meantime, you voyeurs can spy on me over on Facebook.
Read more ...