My Little Dia De Los Muertos!

This is one of those mini-projects that ended up taking way too much time and frustration, and I still don't think it's done, but John told me to just post it already OR ELSE, so here she is:

My sugar skull-inspired Pinkie Pie!

(Remember her from my "how to fix frizzy doll hair" post?)

I won't tell you how long it took me to paint her face, or how many washes of paint I used to keep it paper smooth, or how many months she stayed in my closet after I angrily chucked her in there when I messed up the outlining. Nope. NOT TELLING.

With Day of the Dead coming up, though, I decided to dust her off again and try to salvage a pretty picture or two from the situation.

  

Stand back a ways, and I guess she's not too bad.

Although she'd probably look better with painting down her neck and legs, too.

Which I am so not doing. 

;)

The headpiece is made of four silk flowers hot-glued to her ears. It was tricky finding flowers small enough, and even then, I had to cut out some outer petals:

At least they have the advantage of hiding some of my worst paint snafoos. Heh.

 

Happy Halloween, everyone, and may you have a beautiful Dia de Muertos, if you celebrate!

Disney's Aladdin Just Made My Whole Week... Again

I think we all have that one Disney movie that becomes forever ingrained in our hearts and minds when we're young. For me, it was Aladdin:

I saw Aladdin in the theater on my first-ever, non-adult-chaperoned date - a date my mom allowed only because A) it was with a trusted boy from Youth Group, and B) my father was out of town on a business trip and never needed to know.*

The date ended up being as painfully platonic as an Amish quilt circle, though, so in the end it was the movie that won my heart.

 [*Until now, of course. Hi, Dad!]


My friend Chris and I immediately adopted Aladdin as our own personal playbook of spontaneous quips and sing-alongs, right there in the back of Freshman Science. We discovered this movie has a quote for literally any situation, and to this day, I still tell John where he stands on a scale of 1-10.

Chris and I weren't as interested in the love story bit, so while all the girls in our grade were caterwauling "A Whole New World" to the radio, we were belting out "Arabian Nights," "Prince Ali," and "Friend Like Me."

October Art Roundup: Star Wars Sugar Skulls, Dinos In Scarves, "Cutepunk," & More!

Time for my favorite geeky art finds this month!

These "Cutepunk" watercolors by Ben Byrd Artwork really live up to their name:

Plus he also has great fan art selections like these:

 And more cuteness like this:

Hee.

Ben has over 100 prints to choose from, and they all start at just $7. Go see the rest here!

I can't believe these little wood block illustrations of Jack & Sally haven't been snapped up yet:

The 4-inch blocks are a collaboration between Bonnie Wong & Dennis Hansbury, and cost $30 each.

Here's some more of Hansbury's wood block art:

 Luna, $15

Jack-O-Lantern, $20

And there's lots more in his Etsy shop!

With Day of the Dead coming up, it seems only right to show off these sugar skull-inspired Star Wars helmets by CaptainMagnificient:

"Imperial Trio" - which has all 3 on a single print - $30

In fact, nearly his entire shop is filled with Day of the Dead Star Wars characters! I especially like the Droids:

 "Rebel Trio", $30

Again, plenty more where that came from, including a little Doctor Who:

Go check out the rest here.

Some vibrant superheroes by Lorraine Yee:

Prints start at just $7!

Yee also has a softer, watercolor sketch style I'm loving:

Head over to her Etsy shop to see the rest.

More watercolor goodness, this time by Felicia Cano:

AAAA!! LUNA!!!

::ahem::

I love Cano's take on Umbridge's office:

And if you like these, be sure to follow Felicia on Facebook; she's been posting a whole Harry Potter series over there for Inktober!

And here's a stellar Day of the Dead postcard she just posted:

The good news is Cano DOES have an Etsy shop here, but it's empty! Maybe if we all ask politely she'll restock?

Speaking of art we can't get, I'm still waiting for Piper Thibodeau to offer prints of her amazing daily (DAILY!!) paints. Her Autumn Dinosaur series this month has been especially delightful:

And my favorite:

You can follow Piper on Twitter to see each day's new piece, or head to Deviant Art to see her full gallery.

Eesh, I'm going full-on cute this month, aren't I? Well, might as well run with it, 'cuz this next series by Steph Lew is actually called "Cuties":

Spock!  Is it... DUSTY... inhererightnow?

(That was my terrible written Shatner impression. Sorry/not sorry. :D)

Here's Cap' & Peggy:

And Jasmine with Rajah!

Prints range from $10 to $15. Go see the rest here.

And finally, to cap off the adorable overload, BEHOLD. The art doll Fennec Fox that's made John and I lose our ever-loving minds this month:

I am ded. DED WITH TEH CUTE.

That's by Wood Splitter Lee Cross, who continues to amaze me with her art doll and puppet creations. Seriously, your jaw will be on the keyboard. Go follow her on Facebook, or check out her work on DeviantArt, since odds are none of us will ever afford one of her originals. ;) (They get auctioned off on Ebay, and usually end up in the $1200 range.)

********

And now: Give-away time!

As always, comment below for a chance to win your choice of prize from my Art Give-Away Board! In addition to one "wild card" winner, I'll also be choosing two of you to win these:

(Fun Fact: The original of that baby Harley is hanging right behind me in my office. :D)


Be sure to mention in your comment if you like either/both of these prints, so I can enter you in those drawings, too.

I'll announce all 3 randomly selected winners in a few days. Happy commenting!

UPDATE: The give-away has ended, and my winners are announced in the next post. Thanks, guys!

Did You Notice? EPBOT (Mini) SITE OVERHAUL!!

You guys, John haz a sad, because no one has mentioned all his GLORIOUS work tweaking the Epbot site design lately.

This is totally John right now. Don't let him tell you otherwise.

Granted, we were pretty much aiming to make the changes so subtle that no one would notice/mind, but what can I say? Men are fickle.

So now I'm going to painstakingly point out all the slight differences, just so you can compliment my husband and also Aric, our web guru dude (gurude? Duru?), and maybe even me, if you count nit-pickiness and demands for a "more cheerful orange" as a contribution.

So first, we added those oh-so-subtle gray sidebar backgrounds:

...to help the content section "pop."

Next Aric embiggened the header design and gave my social media buttons an overhaul:

Then we futzed around with brightening the Epbot title:

... which looked terrible at first.

Until:

AHAAA SUCCESS.

Bigger, bolder, cheerful-er.

And I'm really digging the darker outline on the 'bot.

All together, now: THANKS JOHN! (AND ALSO ARIC!)

Reader Show & Tell: Eyeball Wreath Edition!

Even though I write a lot of craft tutorials, it still always delights me when one of you actually goes and makes the thing. So I can't tell you how fun it's been to see all these different eyeball wreaths popping up on Facebook and Instagram, inspired by this month's tutorial!

From Rachel V.

The frog skeleton is a fun switch!

From Jennifer B.

From Sherri E.

Love that yellow door!

Kim added spiders and a buzzard:

From Kim P.

From Nikki T.

This Caution Tape makes a great backdrop:

And this skeleton has his own paper top hat!

GeekyBaker19 used an extra eyeball flower to make her daughter a creepy headband:

Now she has eyes on TOP of her head. :D

And finally, MissInth here made her own version of my Haunted Mansion wreath from last year!

LOVE the purple leaves. And she sculpted the clock from clay - isn't it perfect? (Plus her Leota head is better than mine, dangit. TIME FOR A REDO.)

Thanks for posting all these, guys, and I'm sorry if I missed any! Please keep sharing your creations of *anything* inspired by Epbot over on the Epbot FB page, or tag me over on Instagram. I really love seeing all your different takes on projects; you crafters really inspire and challenge me. So hey, rock on with your bad selves.

*****

P.S.  Did you know you can sign up to get an e-mail every time I post something new here on Epbot? It's super-duper handy if you find yourself missing stuff, and you ONLY get e-mailed when I post, promise. Click here to start!