Weebly Website: My new, revamped Artplaytoday.com website!

Artplaytoday.com

I just finished working on my new Weebly Website!

I don't know about other free website builders, but building my site with Weebly has been pretty straight forward and easy.  Weebly makes it simple with a drag and drop interface, and if you use one of their templates, it's really a no brainer!

You can even have your own storefront.  I just used my paypal account to link it to, but there are other Ecommerce options as well.

I kept mine pretty simple, but there are a lot of themes you can choose from.  You can also choose to use a third party template, but that involves a little more work.

Now I need to learn how to get my website seen!  That's a whole other story.  I will need some more time to research SEO (search engine optimization) and whatever else is involved in getting a webiste to come up in peoples searches.

I would love to get feedback from anyone who can find the time to navigate my site.  I need to know if it's easy to use, or if I need to tweak anything to make it a better experience.

And last but not least, if you think my website is worth sharing I would love if you would share with your family and friends!

Let me know what you think! I would be happy to return the favor!

xoxo
Kristen

Make your own K Cup holder

After coming home to a mess of slaughtered K cups on the kitchen floor (my dog), I needed to come up with a better storage solution! The store bought carousels take up too much counter space and are over priced, so I came up with my own low profile solution! This fits right on my window sill, out of reach of the dog, and uses NO counter space! The best part is, it's free, easy and recycles your used K Cups! You can make this bigger if you want, just add more cups, change the pattern/design to fit your needs!

How to:

1. Collect your used K Cups

2. Empty coffee grounds into your compost

3. Tear out the paper filter from inside the plastic cup and rinse and dry the plastic cup your left with. 

4. Heat up your glue gun and glue the empty cups together in a pyramid or other functional pattern!

Getting ready to do a video tutorial on using UV Curing Resin...

I'm excited about a new video tutorial I will be putting out soon! It's been a long time since I've posted one. I forgot how much work goes in to it (at least for me...video editing is not easy and very time consuming).

 In the tutorial I will be demonstrating different ways to use UV Resin in jewelry making and mixed media embellishments. Here are some experiments I've been working on! These soon to be pendants are layers of resin within a solid copper ring, with watch parts and other embellishments embedded in the layers! I think once I've perfected these they will be a hit! Pictures don't do them any justice...

And other news...

Look at this great thrift shop find that will be sure to make it into future pieces of jewelry!

Crappy old tackle box, $3.00

The contents of crappy old tackle box, PRICELESS!

I can't wait to use these old clock parts in my future artwork and jewelry!

I've been in Jewelry mode!

Here is some more jewelry I've been creating...I love creating charms and dangles and wire wrapped beads and combining them into interesting pendants, bracelets and necklaces!

A great way to get some creative time in each day!

This is what happens when I avoid housework...

Not the greatest picture, but I had a lot of fun making these beaded charms. A few days ago I had the pleasure of going to a bead warehouse called Shipwreck Beads. I used some of my stashed money from Christmas.. Wow, talk about visual stimulation overload. I was simply overwhelmed by the size of this place and the volume of beads and other jewelry making supplies. It didn't take long to spend almost $200!!! yikes, I always have buyers guilt after spending that kind of money. 

At any rate, I have plenty to keep me busy for a long while! I couldn't resist the urge to sit down as soon as the kids were off to school.  Of course I really should have been doing laundry, vacuuming, planning dinner etc... Now it's almost time for the kiddos to come home and (shameful) I'm still in my PJs! Oh well...now I have some cute new elements to add to my jewelry projects. 

Life Happens...But, I'm Back!

So first I wanted to apologize for being gone so long! As you all know, life can have a way of distracting you from your true passions.  My two beautiful girls 11 and 15 are growing in to such beautiful young ladies, and my heart and time is devoted to their lives first, before art.

I've never been good at managing my time, and as our lives have gotten busier with competitive gymnastics, select soccer, high school sports, choir practices/performances, coaching etc...my time for art and art related activities has dwindled quite a bit.

While my heart belongs to my family first, I also have realized that I can't be the best Mom/Wife/Friend to those I love, unless I make some time for art play of my own.  I miss being involved in this blogging community of creative thinkers.  I miss seeing what you all are up to, and I miss sharing my own work and techniques.  I miss the feedback and support that you are all so good at lending, and I miss giving support and feedback to others as well.

My time is still limited of course, but I am going to make every effort to get my feet wet again.  I'm hoping to complete some more video tutorials, and I have a few great ideas up my sleeve...but for now,
apologies....I've missed you.....and

I'm Back! Yay!

Glogster

This is my daughter's 5th grade presentation on Deforestation.  She did it on a really cool sight called Glogster.com.  I thought I'd share, as I know many of you have school age kids too.  But also, wouldn't this be a cool way to share an art lesson or project?  I might just have to try it out for myself!  It's basically an interactive poster! Cool!