Want to live well this time of year, without a lot of cash? Some fun and thrifty links for you today:

-Tons of Christmas Stocking stuffing ideas at Want Not. What do you put in stockings?
-Make something! Handmade Fabric Gift Bags at Crafting in a Green World. Reusable and fun!
-Holiday Gift Ideas, under $5! At Indie Fixx.
–Entertaining on a Budget at Hostess with the Mostess. I love her gorgeous ideas.
–Chica and Jo have a shopping guide! With nice links to Discounts and such.

PS, if you missed it, don’t forget to check out the Holiday Contest (Recycle!) and get your links to your stores to me if you want to be chosen for the Dabbled Shopping Guide!.

One more thing, I’m trying out Tumblr. Currently it takes the feed from Dabbled and my twitter, plus some other stuff I add occasionally. So if you’re on there, follow “A Smidgen of Dabbling” if ya like!

Now, for the Tag:

1. You must link to the individual who tagged you and post the rules of TAG (which you are currently reading).
2. Post 7 random facts about yourself
3. Tag 7 friends and link to them and
4. Let them know that they have been tagged by leaving a nice little message on their blog.

So, Peter Breese tagged me, and I really adore his work. He loves robots as much as I do, and his style is fabulous, especially his silhouettes and dark shaded work. Check him out! (PS, I’m obviously flattered to be chosen, because I hate doing these things because I can never figure out what to write!)

7 random and possibly little known facts about me:

1. The most popular picture on my flickr is this one, currently at 144,732 views. No, it is NOT me.
2. I have an MBA.
3. Currently reading… comic: xkcd.com book: Little Brother, Cory Doctorow magazine: Reason
4. Red wine and dark chocolate are divine foods, followed by salmon nigiri. Well, and a good hefeweizen too.
5. I’m a moderator on the message boards for the Sluggy Freelance webcomic.
6. I’m older than you probably think I am.
7. I met my husband through a blatant setup by our best friends.

7 links (Only 7? OK, I’ll do mostly artists because I don’t link to them as often.) I also love to interview people that inspire me, so check out some other people I recommend!

1. Samae – Because I just want to tag her, my bestest girl friend, and always fun to read blogger!
2. Josh Pincus Is Crying – Such a strong style and images, and each one has a great story.
3. Juan Carlos Federico – Just incredible collage style artwork.
4. sketched out – Clever, funny, and a must read on my Illustration Friday list each week.
5. Honor Bowden – I love her gorgeous ladies and she’s so clever too.
6. Alice of Futuregirl – This was one of the first craft blogs I started reading regularly, and she was a big inspiration for me to build Dabbled. And she’s got such cute stuff!
7. Cory Godbey – Really inspired me to get back into my artwork and was a huge photoshop help with his tutorials on The Photoshop Experiment (interviewed here)

2. It looks huge– I see you have multiple areas both inside and out… Does it keep getting bigger?
It has grown over the years, but I think I have reached the size limit, I’ve ran out of yard and house. The entire front yard and facade of the house changes from a Florida home to an old abandoned Victorian-style house. The inside of the home gets a face lift as well. The living room becomes old and weathered, the breakfast nook has a creepy meal all prepared for the tasting, the kitchen becomes a witchs’ layer, and the dining room is set as a wake for a loved ones passing. This year’s addition to the side and back of the house has became the Scare Zone for the adults and older kids, complete with a corn field, butcher shop and many other frightening sites. So like I said I have reached my size limit, but my future goal is to reuse or enhance the decor I currently have. I want to always keep the kids surprised.

3. What’s your favorite part? (include pic links on flickr if you have them) My favorite part is what ever is in front of me at the time. When I start to think that something is my favorite, I enter a new area and get excited all over. I have so many very different and distinctive props that I could never say one thing is better than another. Take a look at photos of my props on Flickr! http://flickr.com/photos/gorenmore/sets/72157608125906375/show/

4. Do you have a professional background in building sets, or are you just creative and handy? Do you build it all yourself, or do you have friends/family helping out? I am mostly creative and handy. All the props you see I build myself, and only take on a little help from my family when the props are to big or heavy to put up by myself.

5. Settle a bet I have with my husband, what are the faux facades (like the tower) made out of? All the facades on the house are made of 2X4’s and plywood. I want to make sure that my props withstand the Florida weather conditions since they’re up & outside for the entire month of October.

6. So anyone can come by and check this out halloween night? The house is open to trick-or-treaters of all ages from 6 to 9 pm.

Anything else you want to say? I want to thank all the Halloween home haunters on-line. They provide many resources, tutorials and inspiration that help create my home haunt.

Thanks so much, Dave, for sharing your brilliant achievement in the field of Halloween Decorating! I wish I was in Florida so I could road trip over to see it all in person!

And readers, if you’re in Florida anywhere close to Davenport, you should definitely check it out!

More of a Dabbled Halloween
All of the Dabbled Interview Series

News/reminders:
– Halloween Contest ends next Wednesday – get those entries in! And check out what’s already been entered for your own halloween inspirations (in the comments)
– Two new Dabbled Interviews in the works, one is Halloween related… watch this space :)
– Also, much Halloween love will be packed into the next week.
– Making/putting together a halloween costume this year for you or the kiddos? Post it or put it on flickr and email me with the link!

Don’t want to miss something? Subscribe!

So, want more Dabbled but I just don’t update this enough for you? Follow me on twitter, and between the random chatter, I also post interesting links I find that may or may not ever make it to Dabbled… There’s also a link to the last few tweets over in the sidebar –>
Some cool links I twittered today:

A tutorial on this making this Cinderella Pumpkin is at Resurrection Fern. Cute!

Martha, of course

Paper Pumpkins from Hostess with the Mostest

Crafting with Cat Hair — Halloween Tea Set

Tooth Earrings! via Craft

Halloween Bottle Brush Trees spotted on Whip Up. Here’s the original with the tutorial.

From Make: Instructable: Cast your face in plaster… This has definite decoration possibilities!

For Karen: Yes! It’s a Bacon Tiara. via Craft

From the Instructables Blog: Instructables on Halloween Costumes – Wow!

Pom Pom Pumpkins – Tutorial Tuesday on Indie Fixx

oh, and if you missed it, check out the interview with Hello Naomi, the latest in the Interviews series.

Get your halloween buttons here, including I WAS FEATURED if you’re featured as part of the halloween series.

Related: All Halloween Topics

Enter the Halloween Contest:

Your cake designs are wonderful — so creative and excellently crafted! How did you get started? How long have you been doing it?

:D thanks!!! I have always loved baking and making cupcakes but I got into decorating them early last year when I did a beginners cake decorating course. That taught me how to work with fondant and a few basic things that allowed me to figure out how to make what the things I want to.

Without giving away trade secrets, can you tell us anything about your ingredients or techniques?

Umm well I guess this is a big secret to give away but it is important, I use an Australian brand of rolled fondant “orchard” it is really good for two reasons, it has a really soft texture/ look and also it tastes really good. A lot of people tell me that they don’t like the taste of fondant and so I guess you should try a few brands to find one that tastes nice and is good to work with.

Is this what you do with your life, or do you have a “day job” as well?

No its not, I would really love to have a shop and I am working on starting a business but sometimes when I spend sooo long making my stuff I wonder if I will ever be able to make money from it! So at the moment my “day job” is that I’m a computer engineering PhD student. I get paid to program robots to play soccer and its pretty fun :D. [ed- gets paid to program soccer robots? how cool is that!]

Do you have other creative outlets?

Umm no I haven’t got time! I would love to do a million creative things but at the moment cupcakes are my only release of creativity.

You’ve done some really fun stuff, like the Pac Man designed cupcakes. Where does your inspiration come from? Do you classify yourself as a geek?

Haha umm no I don’t class myself as a geek… maybe more of a nerd..?! But being a computer engineer I do have alot of geeky and nerdy guy friends so after a while of making them pink cupcakes with rainbows and flowers I thought I should make them something a bit more suited so that’s when I thought of video game themed, robots, lego etc.

What are your favorite things to surf to on the web?

Cupcakes of course! When ever I can I’m looking up cakes, cupcakes, cake decorating supplies etc.

How much would it cost if I wanted you to ship a way cool birthday cake from Australia!?!!?

Umm that’s a good question…A lot of people ask me but I’m not in business yet so I haven’t really looked into it, a few cake shops in Australia do it so it cant be too expensive… I think?!

Thanks for the great info! Love your work…

Previous Dabbled interviews, including Cory Godbey, Shannon Riffe, Diana Evans, & Diane Gilleland

Really nifty writeup on Craftypod, a review of The Pocket Paper Engineer– a book on how to create pop up books! These are so fun and look like some really great projects. (*adds to ever growing list…)

Betz White made this fabulous Etch-A-Sketch Laptop cover! I’m in love… When I get a new laptop, i may have to try this… (via)

Several really cool things from Hostess with the Mostess
– a Wii themed party
– Child’s Candyland themed party
– Denture-like Ice Cubes – too cool and creepy, these might be good for halloween.

No Interview this Week… I’m looking for suggestions of people you guys think would be cool to interview! If you have nominations, let me know!
Previous Dabbled Interviews:

Interview 1: Diane Gilleland, of Craftypod
Interview 2: Diana Evans, Artist
Interview 3: Shannon Riffe, of Make It and Rifferaff
Interview 4: Cory Godbey, Artist and Author of “Ticket”

All Interviews

1. Let’s get the standard stuff out of the way first… In three sentences or less.. who are you, what do you do, how long have you been doing it, and do you do it full time?

I’m Cory. I draw things, I’ve been doing it for a while, and it do it all the time.

2. So, Portland Studios.. your profile says you’re in South Carolina! Are y’all just trying to sound like you’re from Oregon!? Seriously, as a fellow southerner, what are your thoughts on being an artist in the South?

Portland was a place where we wanted to end up and somehow the name was supposed to help get us there. Fortunately, we got hung up on making things and doing the work rather than the name and after a while we never bothered to change it. As far as living the South, I deal just fine with humidity and the cost of living is unbeatable. We have some local clients but mostly our clients are scattered from NYC to LA so our region doesn’t really come into play all that much.

3. The quick personal question.. you married? have kids? if so, how does that effect your creative time?

Married with three cats. And a white couch in my office at home. The cats like to scratch it (and since it’s the only thing they go for we gave it up a long time ago) and my wife Erin will read or something if I’m working in the evenings.

4. I have no idea how (you know how it is with the internet!), but i first started following you when you started ‘The Photoshop Experiment‘ blog. Honestly, as an artist who was not really versed in PS as the time, it was a great help in honing my own techniques! What made you decide to share your Photoshop techniques with the world?

I’m glad the The Photoshop Experiment was helpful! I even named it “Experiment” because it was an experiment for me to see if people even cared about how I get from point A to point B. It’s always helpful for me to see how another artist works. I got a crash-course lesson in Photoshop once and spent the next few weeks struggling to make anything look even remotely passable. I wanted to put something out there, sort of a catalogue of studies to give anyone who wanted a boost in Photoshop. It can be beyond frustrating learning it.

5. Your latest project is Ticket. I understand this is a labor of love, tell us a little about it! It looks way cool, though i admit I haven’t ordered it yet :) (ed-I ordered it! )

Well you better get on that, there are a few left! This post here : http://lightnightrains.blogspot.com/2008/07/ticket-how-why.html : contains a lot of pictures of what I’ll mention here about Ticket. I spent about 3 months worth of evenings, nights, and early mornings preparing the book. Work during the day was too full to hold anything else so when I came home I then worked on Ticket. The company gave me a chance to make something so I spent a lot of time thinking and making storyboards and thumbnails. I made a list of everything I like to draw and decided to sort of weave a loose story through them. I made a small book for my wife when we were dating called “Curious Events.” Curious Events (yet unreleased) has since developed into a little library of four distinct, interweaving stories. I think of Ticket as almost a “postlude” to Curious Events. You don’t have to have seen Curious Events to appreciate Ticket though, more or less, Ticket reprises most everything I love about these four little unreleased books.

6. Do you consider yourself a writer as well as an illustrator? What challenges did you face trying to do write the story? You did Ticket more independently, will you try to sell that to one of the ‘big’ publishers?

I love to write. My hero is Maurice Sendak. To make “story” and “pictures” that what I want. Really, what I’m most interested in is telling stories. With Ticket I knew that this would be “a story in pictures.” Part of the joy of that comes in finding what other people bring to the pictures or imagine the story to be. The original version of the “Curious Events” book I mentioned earlier had no climax, nothing happening exactly, just a collection of pictures that were (hopefully) interesting to look at. With Ticket I really wanted to make a rise and fall in the narrative — a definite climax and dénouement. As far as selling it to a big publisher, I don’t know. One of the reasons we are interested in self-publishing is that the artist is able to control ever step of the project. We have really been overwhelmed with the response Ticket has brought.

7. You just went to ComicCon in SanDiego… was that purely a work thing for Portland Studios? Do you go to other Cons? I’m sure it was a blast, but did you find it professionally rewarding as well?

It was work; we had a booth, we sold a lot of stuff, and met a ton of really awesome people. What I got out of it professionally, you could say, was sneaking away from the booth long enough to see the drawing and painting demonstrations by the likes of Jon Foster, Donato Giancola, and Gregory Manchess. Those demos were eye-opening. Also getting to chat with the guys at Flight and Imaginism was fantastic as well.

8. What advice would you give an artist just starting out?

Draw. All the time. And learn how to draw the human figure.

Check out (and buy!) Cory’s stuff here! https://store.portlandstudios.com/ is where you can find all of our products, including Ticket. A Big Thanks to Cory for taking the time to talk to us and share his art and vision!

Click here for All Previous Dabbled Interviews..

Interview 1: Craftypod * Interview 2: Diana Evans, Artist * All Interviews

For the 3rd Interview in the Dabbled Series, our focus is craft and the business of craft. Today we have Shannon Riffe, who writes the blog Make It – a blog about building a craft business, and is the silkscreening designer/crafter behind Rifferaff. I’ve been enjoying Make It for a while, and Shannon has documented a great deal about her journey to making it in her own craft business. A lot of times we only hear someone story after they’ve become established, but I think the process of how you get there is fascinating as well. So I’ve invited Shannon to share some of her wisdom here!

1) So, first off, the easy stuff… In 3 sentences or less, who are you, what do you do, how long have you been doing it, and is this your full time gig?
I’m Shannon Riffe, I currently live in Cambridge, MA but am moving to Ann Arbor, MI at the end of August with my boyfriend who will be a graduate student at the University of Michigan. I officially started my business in October 2007 making screenprinted paper goods. I work part-time as an office manager and part-time on Rifferaff.

2) You have some great designs… How did you get into printmaking?

Thank you! I left a full-time job in 2006 to take an unpaid internship with Mod Green Pod, a young organic textile and wallpaper company. What I lacked in income I made up for with exposure to design and the ins and outs of running a small creative business. Mod Green Pods products were all silkscreened, so that’s when I really saw up close the versatility of the medium. Up until that point I had experimented
on my own with batik and block printing with mixed results. Eventually I want to move into fabric design as well; I knew that teaching myself to silkscreen would allow me to do prints on paper and fabric.

3) Where do you get your inspiration? And what are your favorite sources of inspiration, both for your business and for your art?

I never get tired of reading about female design entrepreneurs. I’m fascinated by the businesses and the women behind Lotta Jansdotter, Orla Kiely, Port2Port Press, Virginia Johnson, Amy Butler, the Saltwater clothing line (I could go on and on…) These women are my business inspiration. They all have a unique and distinctive style, a playful sense of color, and their business are imbued with their personalities.

As for artistic inspiration, I strive to keep it simple. I want all my designs to look like they’ve been handrawn, or come from one of my block prints because they have. Design that’s done fully on the computer is just not interesting to me.

4) Without giving away trade secrets, what process do you use to create your art?

Everything starts with a drawing or block print on paper. I’ll scan that into the computer, manipulate it a bit in Illustrator and then send the digital file to a local t-shirt shop that makes my screens. When I get the screens back, I print all my products by hand using water-based inks that I mix into custom colors.

5) You’ve been documenting how you’ve started your business. Are you pleased with your progress thus far? Besides reading your blog (obviously!), what are your best hints for those who want to go into a crafting type business?

Yes and no. I’m really pleased with the reaction to my work, but not pleased with sales, for which I take full responsibility. I wasn’t confident enough in my product to really get aggressive about marketing it and getting the word out to stores and consumers. But now, 8 months in, I finally feel like I know what I’m doing and I’m
moving forward full steam ahead.

6) What has been the most challenging thing about starting your own business? What’s the thing you wish you’d known most at the outset?

Money. I’m proud to have never taken out a loan – I haven’t even asked family for money – so the entire venture has been funded by my personal savings. While that is a source of pride for me, I also think that going through the process of applying for a business loan would have been a good experience because it would have forced me to write a business plan and actually get serious about the direction I want to
take. As a result, I’ve floundered a bit as I started out; thinking I’d do one thing (gift wrap, selling via Etsy and craft shows) and have since shifted my focus (new emphasis on cards, pursuing more wholesale opportunities).

I wish I had actually run the numbers and had a business plan from the get go. Some people are able to start a successful business without a lot of pre-planning but I’ve learned that I can’t.

7) For all the readers who want to sell their stuff, what has been the most effective ways you’ve marketed your products? Least effective?

I don’t think I’ve been in business long enough – or had enough sales – to really answer that. I will say I think it’s extremely important to just think about getting the word out about your work in general. You may not see a direct correlation between advertising and sales, but every time you advertise you give someone a chance to see your work and you never know how that could play out. I was a little disappointed when I didn’t get a flood of orders from participating in The Sampler and Poppytalk Handmade Market, but now I realize that those experiences were still valuable because it got my work in front of new eyes I may not have reached any other way.

8) You’ve talked about lack of women of color in the design field. Do you think that affects your ability to sell your art? What would you like to say to women who feel like they don’t see ‘anyone like them’ in design? What would you like to say to ALL women?

No, it doesn’t affect my ability to sell my work. To other designers of color who feel like I do, I would say, keep doing the best work you can do so that you can be the one who gets on the cover of the design magazine or who gets a high profile licensing deal. I don’t want to whine about not seeing enough designers of color and then not do anything about it. I want to be the success story. This is one reason
I have a picture of myself on my blog – even though I’d be more than happy to take it off – I think it’s important that readers see me.

I think that’s a great tip for all designers. Really get personal with your audience and show them the person and the process behind your work. The Internet is so great for this, especially blogging. The revitalized interest in handmade items is all about a consumer’s desire to know where their stuff comes from. What better way to do
that than to see the person who made it!

9) So, where can we buy your cool stuff?

Right now you can get the full collection at rifferaff.etsy.com. I also have some items in Greenward (Cambridge, MA) and The Paper Place (Toronto, Canada). In the future I hope to start wholesaling my cards to more stores and have limit

ed edition items available exclusively on Etsy.

Thanks so much to Shannon for sharing a little of her journey toward ‘making it’ in the craft business!

(all images c Diana Evans – www.dianaevans.ca)

Last Week: Craftypod * All Interviews

For the 2nd Interview in the Dabbled Series, our focus is Art & Illustration. we have the fun and whimsical Diana Evans, an artist and illustrator and prolific blog proprietress from Ontario, Canada.

Let’s get the basic dull stuff out of the way. In 3 sentences or less, what do you do, how long have you been doing it, do you do it full time, and how did you get started?
I am a full time Illustrator and Artist living in Ontario Canada. I have been into art my whole life but just started working on it full time over the last few years. I used to do work through word of mouth and through various people in the business but since the world wide web you can work with anyone in the world and not even have to meet your clients. I started by setting up a web site and getting a bunch of on-line portfolios set up. Most recently my agent located me on Jacketflap and started communicating with me. He loved my work so much he took me on and I am fully represented by him now.

Your work is so fun and lively! What mediums do you create your art in? (Yes, I know i ended the sentence in a preposition)
My work is an escape from the everyday and it is so much fun to create without thinking about anything else at that moment. I work traditionally with pen and paper…something about the tacit feeling of it…and then I scan my work and color it digitally because I love the clean and bright feel of working this way. I also work with watercolor and acrylic paints and various other mediums as I discover them in my studio.

You seem to have a passion for sweets… do you cook as well as draw delectable edibles?
I have a passion for everything food. When I started my blog as a daily look into the life of an artist and illustrator I took special requests for food treats. I called this my “Yummy Sketch of the Day” series. I love food and I am addicted to baking special treats, especially cupcakes. You will find numerous food illustrations in my portfolio. I love to cook and bake and eat. Cooking to me is so much fun and so relaxing.

How many hours a day do you spend creating art? on the internet? chasing kids?
I spend about 4 – 8 hours a day creating art. I spend about 3 hours a day on-line updating my site, checking e-mails and learning new things. We have a son who is 2 and he is all over the place. He loves to draw and paint and spend a lot of time outside and I am with him through his adventures. I spend anywhere from 3-4 hours outdoors gardening, swimming, playing and creating. Life is truly a gift.

What’s your ideal down-time scenario?
I enjoy traveling to our family cottages and enjoying water sports. That is the ideal down time for me, but I still bring along my sketch book and create new things. It is what I feel happy doing.

The only down time I schedule in each and every day is an hour for my soap opera…”the young and the restless” It is something I enjoy watching and it gives me a breather. Everyone who knows me thinks that I have way too many things on the go, but the truth is that is the way I like it.

Can you pick your 3 current favorite artists, either classic or current?
Mannerism movement – Michelangelo Buonarroti – He was a true master in painting. I think he was the closest any painter got to God. His work is amazing and the fact that he painted ceilings blows my mind…

Surreal Movement – Salvador Dali – I was a true follower of his work and was amazed at the wonderful surreal and impressionistic work he created. I mimicked some of his style in the late 80’s and early 90’s…my high school and college days

Art Nouveux movement – Gustav Klimt – I was addicted to his work because of his “tree of life piece” and the fact that he founded the movement that enabled so many young artists to have a chance in a conservative art world.
I also have numerous wonderful illustrators that I admire and you can find their links on my blog.

You seem like such a nice person! Is it because you’re Canadian?
Thank you for that…but I think being nice is so much more easier then being mean…and I try to be positive each and every day and I hope that it rubs off on people. I think one of the most important things I have learned over the last few years is that when things happen we can’t change the fact that they happened, but we can decide whether we dwell over the negative or pick up the pieces and move onto better things….I used to have a short temper but I learned that was wasted energy for me. I also think we attract more positive things by being positive.

Thanks so much to Diana for sharing a little about her work and life! Loving what you do is always inspiring!