Finally Starting School

Well, after missing the first day of school due to power outages shutting the place down, school has finally started!  I am excited about my classes which can be summed up as follows: Digital Imaging (Photoshop), Intro to Computer Graphics, Digital Painting (Using Corel Painter), Digital Photography, and Motion Graphics.  The projects sound fun and I'm ready to start creating some things!  Good thing I have lots of photos piled up from the last few years of messing around with amateur photography to use for some of my projects.

While I was waiting for school to start, I did some more sewing and made myself a large bag and pencil case (totally non-matching).  Here are some pictures:

Sewing galore

Finally completed a couple of sewing projects I had wanted to get to.  I'll go over a little of my process and thoughts as practice.  I've been sewing since my mom taught me when I was about 10, and try to find time for some fun projects when I can.  Luckily I have a nice "vacation" to get some projects in right now.

First of all, here is my Cockatiel wall-hanging quilt.  It is about 14" x 16".  This was my first-ever attempt at an art quilt.  It was actually a lot of fun!  I felt like a kid again doing somewhat of a color by number project.

I drew the design myself, then figured out where my pieces should be located and where to use what color fabric.  I traced my pieces onto Steam-A-Seam 2 then stuck this to the appropriate fabrics.  The Steam-A-Seam then became the stencil to cut the fabric out.  This was my first experience using Steam-A-Seam and it was amazing because it has a temporary double-stick nature (hence the "2").  This allowed me to move the pieces around during the layout phase to re-align when necessary.  After everything was lined up, all it needed was some quick ironing to fuse everything into place.

I decided to attempt some stitching work to add in detail and nail down the fabric securely.  Unfortunately, my sewing machine is not set up for free-motion so I had to work in mostly straight (or straightish) lines.  Here is a sampling:

I am pretty happy with the way it all turned out considering it was my first project of this kind and would try another if a good idea strikes.



Ok I found this fabric and fell in LOVE.  It is highly adorable and it has birds - what more could I ask for?  I found this free mini-purse pattern called the Buttercup Bag at Made By Rae's Blogger site and thought it was fitting.  Would like to give her props for writing such a cute and very easy-to-follow pattern.

I have a small bag of extra buttons from garments, and found the black button there.  Easy and fun!

I just completed another bag this morning.  This bag is much larger and could probably fit a notebook.  I found this pattern on artsy-crafty babe's blog.  She has a couple free patterns, including the Pleated Tote found in pdf format.  Another wonderfully put together yet easy and quick pattern to make.  I decided to replace the suggested loop closure with a magnetic snap inside.  I'll probably be using this as a shoulder bag and purse for school.

Well I have a few other ideas cooking up.  I will probably make at least one more of the mini-bag with some other cute fabric I have!  Hope you enjoyed the sampling of some sewing things I do.

Photography walk

Thought I'd share a photo from my walk the other day! It was nice weather for a winter day, and since I am unemployed I went for a mini "nature walk" in my neighborhood and snapped some photos. This is my favorite from the outing before I've gotten to photoshopping...

Zazzle Store is up!

Well I created a few things on Zazzle!

Check out my Zazzle store here (theBirdFlew)

My favorite so far are my blog-themed shoes. This shoe designing thing is SO fun.

Birdie Shoes by theBirdFlew
Try out the custom shoe builder online at zazzle

Bamboo FUN!

Hello, it's time to post some things!

First off, this one needs some explaining.  My boyfriend wanted to get me some customized Keds shoes from Zazzle.  I am a bird lover, as shown by the title of my blog.  I have two Cockatiels (who will probably end up featured in my art), so these Cockatiel Shoes seemed appropriate.  The shoes are adorable!  Props to Zazzle designer BadSnorful.  I think the birds know I'm posting about this because as I am writing they are singing away!

The catch to the shoe purchase was that I design something for the side of the shoe that didn't already have a design.  So, here's what I came up with using some of my newly downloaded brushes etc:

Second: Here is a rough Van Gogh's Starry Night that I cranked out as practice getting coordinated on the Wacom graphic tablet.

Fly birdie!

Hello all,

I'm a recent university graduate, class of 2007. I somehow started my career off in the manufacturing/office drama/paper pushing side of the biotechnology industry and found out it definitely wasn't for me. After some interesting timing, becoming yet another victim of this year's layoffs, and after much thought and pondering... I'm setting out on a new path.

I've decided to pursue my true passion - creativity. So, I'll be going back to school to study multimedia arts and technology, more specifically: 3D animation and video game art. I'm hoping to use my combined love of creativity and being a geeky gamer girl to find my new career.

So, once I get all this unemployment paperwork out of the way and straighten out my life, I'm ready to have a good holiday and hit the ground running in 2010!

My plan is to use this space as somewhat of a portfolio to keep track of new things I learn and show my projects and maybe write down a bit of my creative thought process.