Party Squids Reinvented!!!!

We are back! Florida was lovely. The week after vacation is always the hardest. I dearly miss the cool waves washing over my feet, but with all of this warm weather longing, there is still a ray of sunshine in this little head of mine, 'cause we can now reveal the super secret project!!!!!
A long time ago, Michael's little sister saw a drawing of mine called "Party Squids". It was just a silly ink blot I'd made for Michael before we started drawing together. Well, she fell in love with it, so this year when she also fell in love with skateboarding, we decided she should have some party squids of her own. We gave it to her this week, so now the rest of the world can see it too. Get ready to be bombarded with Squids…

The last one is some fancy grip tape cutting that Michael did on the other side. Yeah, I know I may have gotten carried away with the pics, but hey, why not? This is our first skateboard deck and we're pretty happy with the results. Don't worry, this one will be hanging on her wall rather than riding down the road. We have 4 more decks to illustrate, so we'll see what happens :)

Time to Get on the Road

Well, we're off to Florida for a week in the fine sunshine. All of our coworkers have been threatened with bodily harm should they choose to call us during the trip. The Etsy shop is set to vacation mode, but we'll still be accepting emails. And so we'll leave you for now with this lovely ink blot domino that will be made into a pendant when we return. This one reminds me of a thousand quilts my grandmother made. A bit of lace, squares of fabric savaged from old dresses, and a bit of delicate stitching. Oh, and down below is an awesome pic that Miss Courageous sent us of her wearing her bottle cap bracelet she won in the Bottle Cap Challenge. Congrats again! Have a good week everyone!

Wrapping Up the Bottle Cap Challenge… Literally.

Whew! The last of the Bottle Cap Challenge thank you packages will be sent out tomorrow! I couldn't resist making some cute little thank you notes special for the event as you can see above. All of the prints of Whole Hearted Half Toned are printed on 100% recycled paper and the cello bags are completely biodegradable and compostable (made from corn). We're also really excited to show the grand prize! Below is the custom bracelet made specially for our 1st place winner. She did an awesome job picking out the caps that adorn it. Thank you to everyone for making this such a fun experience!

A Starry Eyed Soliloquy

We just finished this rockstar-esque bracelet for one of our coworkers. We liked the idea of the stars so much that we cut enough for two bracelets, the second of which will be listed in the shop in a few days. This is going to be a super busy week because Saturday we leave for Florida!!!! Hooray!!!! I need this break. We'll be gone for a solid week. When we return, we'll be able to reveal the secret project we've been working on. I think this is going to shape up to be an interesting month overall. :)

A Little Birdie Told Me…

… that it's time to freshen up the shop. It's amazing how time gets away from you. I'm hoping we can update sometime next week with some new items. It seems like we've been distracted with a million other things. In case anyone was wondering, we did find enough gas to get us to my parent's house to paint my mom's kitchen (the gas shortage here in Atlanta has been awful). She loved the color we picked out (called "Drizzle") and the apple painting. I'll be on the hunt this weekend for more plaques to paint. If anyone has any suggestions about what I should paint, leave them here :) I was thinking coffee cups or pears, but I have no idea what people hang in their kitchens.

How 'Bout Them Apples?

So amidst all of the bottle cap craziness, we're going to my mother's house this weekend to paint her kitchen. Since Michael's family lives in the same city as we do, they often benefit from our free labor. While she tries not to show it, I know my mom wishes we were around to help her too. It's never easy balancing the family, but we do try to keep things as fair as possible. The apples above are a little something I whipped up yesterday afternoon to hang above her stove. They're cute right? I rescued this wooden plaque from Goodwill. It had a respectable, but really outdated painting of an eagle on it. After sanding down the old chipping paint and cleaning up the pretty brass hanger, I thought it could use some color. She doesn't have internet, so I don't worry much about spoiling surprises. I think I may try to find more of these plaques to salvage. Does anyone think there is a market for this sort of thing? They'd be something different in the shop. I've been in a painting mood.

In other news- Bottle Cap Challenge Participants - it looks like our protective cello bags won't be arriving until next week, but your prints will be mailed out as soon as they arrive. Oh yeah, and they're biodegradable too! Thank you for your patience :)

Bottle Cap Challenge Winners!!!!

We're very happy to announce the winners of the 2008 Bottle Cap Challenge!!! The contest was a great success. We greatly appreciate all of the entries. All of the caps we've received will soon be turned into fabulous bracelets for the shop. We'll be contacting the winners over the next few days about their prizes and everyone's complimentary art prints will be mailed out this week, so sit tight! To see how this all began, click here. So without further ado:

Congrats to Miss Courageous for her winning 1st place entry: "Kona Beer"

Congrats to Hoshitora99 for her winning 2nd place entry: "Waialua Soda Works"

Congrats to Amy Skye McCaskie for her winning 3rd place entry: "Henry Weinhard's Root Beer"

Thank you again!

Recycled Bottle Cap Bracelet: Soda Caps

We were recently asked to make a bracelet with all soda caps for a teacher who couldn't wear beer caps around her students. Soda caps seem to be the most difficult to find since typically, restaurants don't serve them and consumers just trash them. Throw in the sad fact that most sodas are going with plastic packaging these days, and you'll find yourself in our predicament. I sincerely wish that more people out there would buy glass anyway. It's much more easily recycled and it's made from natural materials. Plastic is plastic. Even if you recycle it, eventually it will end up in a landfill, on the side of the road, or in the ocean. Glass can be recycled over and over again, and aluminum is better still since it takes the least amount of energy to recycle. Of course, we've all heard the theories that aluminum cans are linked to Alzheimer's disease, so we'll stick with glass.

In other news, we've officially decided to extend the Bottle Cap Challenge through Sept. 20th for a few late entries we know are on their way. If you haven't put yours in the mail yet, there is still time!!! Do it today! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here.

Local Favorites: World Domination!!!!!!

This weekend we had a blast at Dad's Garage Theater in the Little 5 Points area of Atlanta, GA. They were performing their annual World Domination TheaterSports Tournament with impov groups from the US, Canada, and France. We used to go to Dad's Garage quite regularly, but it seems like it's been a while since we've had time. I'm so glad we planned ahead and didn't miss this. If you haven't been to an impov show, please make the effort to go. Dad's Garage is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the arts through plays, impov, and classes. Just watch that potty mouth. Anyone , including the actors and audience members can get a "scum box" by saying a dirty word or lewd suggestion. You have to wear this nasty box on your head while the audience sings, "The scum box! The scum box! It's time to wear the scum box! Everyone knows your a dirty bum, when you wear the box of scum!" Ahhh... world domination...
And what a small world it is indeed. The day after we saw World Domination, Michael happened across a neat story on Digg about a social experiment in which someone left a camera on a city bench with a note asking passersby to please take a picture and leave the camera. The author said he would then claim the camera that evening and see what developed. (hahaha) As Michael looked through the pictures, he realized that he recognized the street corner that they were taken on. It was our very own N. Highland Avenue, which we frequent rather often. The article was one of a series in a quirky online magazine called The Plug. Check out the article here. Further investigation led to the discovery that one of the authors is none other than Rene Dellefont, who had hosted World Domination at Dad's Garage the night before. I am just giddy at the coincidence.

It's Elemental My Dear

In our efforts to add more color (thank you Racheal), we're experimenting with different ways we can dress up the blots. Round one- splatter paint. While I love the splatters, I'm not crazy about their relationship with the blot. I'd like to try some other things with splatter though. I think next we'll try some different colored ink. We think the spike on the right side looks like a radioactive piece of corn. What do you see?

Here is a clue to one of the secret projects we're working on. It's a present, so we'll have to wait until the recipient has it to show off the whole thing. Look for it sometime in October :)


Thank you to everyone who has entered the Bottle Cap Challenge so far. There is still time to send your bottle caps. Don't hesitate to send us a message if you're afraid your caps won't make it by the 10th. We may be extending the contest for a few late entries. Find out more here.