February 2009 – Dabbled

New Watercolor: The Creator

Dot — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:44:00 +0000

A tad geeky and esoteric, yes? With almost a vintage 70’s movie poster feel to me. The Creator is a programmer of sorts, creating life from the simplest binary form. He’d better hope it’s not breezy, or his work could be lost to the sands of time! Yeah, that’s reaching. I’ve got a really cute thing in mind for the Breezy prompt for illustration friday, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. So check back, I’ll be back with a even more inspired piece!

c nancy dorsner 2009 – Watercolor/ink

If you missed it, check out how to make this fun, cheap and easy bracelet!

And, if you haven’t voted for my chocolate covered chocolate hearts instructable yet, please do so if you like it! I really need a fourth t-shirt!!

How to Make a Lovely Eco-Friendly Disc Bracelet

Dot — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:48:00 +0000

This is a fun and easy project, costs less than $1 to make, has tons of possibilities for customization, requires no jewelry making skill or real tools, and is a way to recycle stuff that would be thrown away! What could be better??

This was inspired by something I used to do when I was a kid back in the eighties, make friendship bracelets out of fishing tackle (specifically a barrel swivel). You can buy these anywhere they sell fishing gear – I paid 99cents for a pack of 12 and didn’t even use them all.

I combined that with my love of faux shrinky dinks from #6 plastic (previous instructable here or check out my Shrinky Dinky Test Lab experiments) for a fun, updated twist!

Of course, bracelets aren’t the only thing you can do with this — you could make drop earrings, necklaces, bead curtains, or whatever! This would also be a great project for kids to do, I could see this at a pre-teen girl birthday party…

All the instructions are here as an Instructable

PS… Don’t forget to please go vote for my Chocolate Dipped Chocolate instructable in the Sweet Treats contest!

I don’t know if anyone else did these in the Eighties, but if not, maybe you can find other Eighties stuff you did do at Crafting with Cat Hair!

Oh, and the winner of the Anti-Valentines contest hasn’t contacted me yet. I’ve tried to find him/her and haven’t been able to. So please contact me in the next 2 days for your choice of prizes. Otherwise I’ll just start giving them out to the other winners, and you’ll have to take what’s left :)

The People have spoken! People's Choice Winner of the Anti-Valentines Vote..

Dot — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:56:00 +0000

I know, I know… valentines is long over. But we have one more award to give, and here it is!

Congratulations to Jeanne at The Candy Corn Chronicles for winning the People’s Choice Award for her delightfully creepy Anti-Valentines entry: Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.

Thanks, Jeanne, for playing, and email me at holiday -at- dabbled.org, please!

To all the finalists, your stuff was great! Be sure to grab a finalist button here (at the bottom of the Judges’ Picks post) to show off your coolness. And Jeanne, you can get your Winner button here as well!

Be on the lookout for future contests. Last year we had a fun April Fool mini contest, which we’ll be repeating this year in March. Not sure if Summer Doldrums is making a repeat appearance, but we will certainly be having another World Famous Halloween Extravaganza and Contest in the Fall, so stay tuned!

And hey, if you’re new to Dabbled, don’t miss a thing and Subscribe via Email or feedreader*… or Follow Dabbled on Blogger!

See all the Anti-Valentine’s Winners here:
Overall Winners HERE, Check out the Finalists HERE, and Art Winners HERE.

In other news, an update on some of the Cephalopods that swam off to new homes. Bella Sinclair requested the little blue octopus and it made it to Japan – I love her little diver swimming with it! Here are two more that were custom created Valentines gifts from the Valentines Day Special. And the auction for Ethel is over–she’s on her way to Nevada, and her proceeds have gone to the relief efforts for the Australian bushfires!
Want one for yourself? Email me or check out my Artfire Shop.

*(Don’t have a feed reader? Follow a bunch of blogs? I recommend Google Reader). If ya don’t know what this RSS stuff is, read this.

How to: Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Hearts

Dot — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:29:00 +0000

I wasn’t going to post this yet, as it’s part of a swap package I’m doing for this round of Sweet Goodness Swaps, but since I accidentally leaked it to my swap partner already, I figured I’d share it with all you guys as well. I wrote this up as an instructable – go vote for it in the Sweet Treats Contest! Pretty Please?

Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Hearts – and ways to fix and avoid chocolate problems. – More DIY How To Projects

It’s got some good hints for working with chocolate, and ideas for rescuing chocolate projects, too!

Don’t forget, voting ends today in the Anti-Valentines People’s Choice Award Vote

PS: If you are a winner in the Anti-Vday contest (judge’s choices) and haven’t emailed me, be sure to do so asap, so I can get the prizes out! If you don’t email me, you’ll be stuck with what’s left of the prizes!!

Random Monday

Dot — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:39:00 +0000

You have until tomorrow to vote for your favorites for the Anti-Valentines People’s Choice Award — spread the word and go vote for up to 3 favorites. It’s pretty close between several top choices!

I’m taking the day off today mostly recovering from a fun weekend (totally recommend a visit to the Terrapin brewery — the Sunray Wheat was my favorite!), but here are a few cool random links for you!

Bacon Stuffed Waffles
How to Make a Guitar Hero Scarf
About Digital Comics – really neat ideas
Pro Darwin Merchandise
Funky Layered Jello
Cassette Tape Lamps (via)
Funnest 18 seconds of video
Bleach Stencil Placemat
Guacamole Han Solo and Jar Jar Salad
Eaten by a Bear sleeping bag

Oh, and my latest squid love – last week’s Illustration Friday, if you missed it.

Illustration Friday – "Instinct"

Dot — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:30:00 +0000

My plan was to have another in the watercolor robots series for you here today, but I didn’t have time to draw today. So I present to you the commissioned graphic for a t-shirt I just finished, instead. Don’t blame the giant space squid when he has you for dinner, he’s just acting on Instinct!

PS: Anti-Vday Winners HERE (Overall), HERE (Art), and Vote for People’s Choice HERE.

c nancy dorsner -2009
Ink, colored digitally

Oh, here’s Last Week’s Robotic Octopus if you missed it.

Anti V-Day Art winners

Dot — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Our special guest judge has examined the finalists, and we have results!

The top picks, and his comments:
1) Missed it by This Much – I loved the craftsmanship that went into this piece! Well thought out and executed. The tiny arrows sealed the deal for me.
2) Cat-pid – I’m a big fan of cartoon-y art. I dig the expression on the cat’s face. It’s kinda like it’s his 1st day on the job, and he’s not quite sure what he’s doing.
3) Caged Heart I’m also a huge fan of really graphic work. The red/black combination is very striking. This could easily be a tattoo.
4) Impasse The negative space created by the white forms in this piece really caught my eye. Also the one little splash of red really adds something.

Winners, email me, and feel free to go snag yourself a nifty little Winner button HERE.

Go take a look at all the cool finalists!

Caged Heart
Not a Valentine
Cat-pid
Cupid Missed
Impasse
Vacuum Card
Barry White

PS: Voting is open til tuesday for the People’s Choice Award — spread the word and go vote for up to 3 favorites from the main contest.

Anti-Valentines Art sub-category finalists…

Dot — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:38:00 +0000

It’s kinda hard to draw the line between art and craft… craft techniques can be used to create art, and art can be 3 dimensional, not just a drawing on a sheet of paper. As we were judging this contest, I decided I wanted to pull the art/illustration category out separately. This somewhat subjective–For our purposes, it generally it includes illustrations and paper cards. This means I’m actually giving our more prizes, but hey, that’s just the kind of girl I am!

Realizing that all our judges are crafters rather than illustrators (as far as I know – they *are* multi-talented!) I added an additional judge to this round as well… Aaron of Near and Far webcomic (also one of our fabulous sponsors!).

PS: Voting is open til tuesday for the People’s Choice Award — spread the word and go vote for up to 3 favorites.

So, the hand picked art finalists —

Caged Heart
Not a Valentine
Cat-pid
Cupid Missed
Impasse
Vacuum Card
Barry White

—winners announced tomorrow! (Because I like to torture you–it IS anti-valentines and the terms of the contract clearly state that I can torture you.)
– 2/20/09 : Go HERE for Winners

Anti-Valentines – Judges pick the Winners!

Dot — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:28:00 +0000

It’s time to reveal the winners of the 2nd Annual Anti-Valentines Day contest–at least the crafty ones. Art/Illustration will be tomorrow (just trying to keep the suspense up!!) It was a hard fought battle, and we had so many awesome entries, I don’t know how the Judges did it. In addition to the Winners picked by the judges, don’t forget YOU have the opportunity to vote for the ‘Peoples Choice Award’.

First off, a special thanks to our lovely judges:
The lovely and ingenious Diane, of Craftypod , the clever and delightful Alice, of Futuregirl and the charming and talented Rachel, of Average Jane Crafter. These ladies did a fabulous job picking our winners and finalists — and with so many good entries, that was hard!

Secondly, another special thanks to our sponsors:
Some Art Fabric, Crafting with Cat Hair, Near and Far Comic, and The Booty Bag ™. These are the cool people who donated prizes for you guys to win!* Go visit them and tell ’em thanks!

So, first place goes to Samwise’s Melting Heart

As a judge said “I love not only the creative use of wire, but also how elegantly this piece represents the idea of a heart coming apart.” If you have a website, I’d love to link to it.

Second place goes to Crafting With Cat Hair‘s Kiss Me Deadly Poison Lipstick

“Not only does it make really precision use of craft techniques, it’s so subtly funny.”

Third place to Lemongrass Studio’s Pecking away at Love Original Hand Hooked Rug

“Alison’s latch hook entry is is a perfect execution of the contest theme. At first glance, it’s a charming bird and heart, and then you realize what the bird is doing and in an instant you get the true message of the anti-Valentine theme. I love that this piece could be displayed year-round, inviting second glances and “a-ha” moments no matter the month. Great work, Alison!”

Winners, Please email me at holiday -[at]- dabbled.org. And go look at our prizes!

And soooo close — some of these were just a point away! Our Honorable Mentions, in no particular order:

a: Pompom Serial Killers
b: Skeleton Bleeding Heart
c: I heart Maggots!
d: Lili Doll

And you can see all the finalists in the Poll for the People’s Choice Award. Do you know better than our judges? Go vote for YOUR favorite(s).

Winners – Grab yourself this nifty WINNER button! Just copy the HTML in this text box, and paste it where ever you want a button. Easy Peasy!

FINALISTS – Grab yourself this nifty Finalist button to show just how close you were!! Just copy the HTML in this text box, and paste it where ever you want a button. Easy Peasy!

*Note – Sponsors were given no consideration within the contest for being sponsors, and were allowed to submit entries. They are simply cool people who donated prizes!

Anti-Valentines Contest- your chance to VOTE

Dot — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:18:00 +0000

The final votes have been tabulated, and our Judges have picked their winners. I’ll have them posted tomorrow… Just doing a final write up and fixing up some nifty “I Won!” buttons. BUT we had so many good entries, I decided that we would also have a people’s choice winner, picked from our finalists. So here’s your opportunity to make your voice heard.

Note, these are the finalists, but do NOT include the judges’ First Place pick. Also, we judged Art/Illustration separately, so those are not included in the finalists.
You may vote for up to 3 finalists for the peoples choice winner!

(Links are listed below the poll)

Online Surveys & Market Research

http://kleiosbelly.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/the-anti-valentine/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackstarjewelry/3235830543/
http://realitysuckspeanutbutter.blogspot.com/2009/02/broken-heart.html
http://wildwoodsartstudio.blogspot.com/2009/02/anti-valentines-day-contest-v-20.html
http://picasaweb.google.com/alisonamaurer
http://pterodactylpants.com/?p=604
http://paperclipsandplaypens.com/?p=114
http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftycarolinagirl/3245126161/
http://peachstreet.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-anti-valentines-day-contest-entry.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepperstitches/3273423235/in/photostream/

Get yourself a VOTE NOW button! Just copy the HTML in this text box, and paste it where ever you want a button. Easy Peasy!

FINALISTS – Show off and grab this nifty button! Just copy the HTML in this text box, and paste it where ever you want a button. Easy Peasy!