Monday, December 13, 2010

Our List of Brick and Mortar Stores

Our list of brick and mortar stores that carry our products is expanding across Georgia!  Here's some quick links to thank these stores for loving our products so much! <3

http://www.reinspirationstore.com/

http://www.frontierathens.com/2801.html

http://sparkle-ga.com/

http://www.madeyoulookstore.com/

and finally, we just sold some items to:

Ann Peden Jewelry ~ The Studio Store in Watkinsville GA


We hope to be expanding this list and moving more towards selling wholesale than at fairs (they're hard work!) but a huge and grateful shout out to our fair patrons, we couldn't have gotten this far without you! <3

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Vintage Bird Cage for a Fairie

Okay, so I am totally in love with own creation. I may not be able to part with this one - at least until I make a few more. First of all, let it be known that the fairie who makes this cage her home has total control over her own comings and goings. No caged fairies around here!
Here's a view through the front door. She has a crocheted rug on a floor of moss, a twig chair, and a vintage cocktail napkin for a table cloth.
A close-up of her hammock, a cotton quilt encased in brass-colored tulle. Notice her overhead crystal.
 
And finally, a rear view. The back of her cabinet is decorated with an actual butterfly wing, and bells are strung from the outside to tinkle in the wind.
Okay. One more picture. This one shows the basket of flowers on the table, the mirror on the back wall, and the antique radio on top of her blue cabinet.

I have another vintage birdcage awaiting decor and have spotted a few more at the local flea market. Can't wait to start on the next one.

A FEW MORE NEW ITEMS:
In this scene, a young bird awaits a fairie's return.


And here's a really cute owl purse recently completed by Aline.

 
Wow! That's a lot of pictures. We've been busy making, but not keeping up with our etsy store and our blog. Do check back soon. Lots of new stuff is due to go up on our etsy site.

November 13, visit our booth in Norcross at the Pinckneyville Arts Center holiday sale. Then, the next day, join us in Athens for an intergenerational Fairy Harvest Scene workshop at the new space Whole: Mind, Body, Art. You can register here.

That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading. ---Lorena

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Trip to FL and Contest Piece #2 Is On Display

Wow, lots of things to blog about, first a quick pic from our trip to Florida.  And we promise we didn't just go to forage for faerie house supplies! ;)  Though we did find some great parts of palm trees and black shells.  I'm excited because black is such a hard color to find in nature, and there have to be some gothic faeries out there!
 Here's my fiance Edmund on the beach looking for shells early one morning.

From Blogger Pictures
 Next, update on the miniature contest; all the entries are in and on display at Miniature Designs.  Mine is next to one of my best friend's pieces! (Amanda Carmen)  She did a great piece of a mouse that is using only human sized things he could find around.  If you don't recall the rules of the contest, check out my past post on it.

From Blogger Pictures
There was also another faerie themed piece there!  Done by Sandra Jusak.

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

NANOWRIMO

If you can pronounce 'nanowrimo'...you might be a writer.  Next month, November is National Novel Writing Month.  You are encouraged to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November of any novel, any genre.  Nanowrimo stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth and I just signed up today!  I am allowed to start planning before November, but no actual writing until November 1st.  I encourage everyone to be apart of this and use the available motivation to help them get that idea that's been floating around started.  To win, you just have to finish your 50,000 words in those 30 days.  Good luck! <3

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Recent Projects

Here's a faerie pouch i made for a swap on swap-bot.
I also made a tea faerie house


I hope you like them <3Aline

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Happy Equinox and Updates for October

Happy Equinox everybody!  Just a quick note about some of our plans for October;
We've got the oh so popular miniature Halloween cabinets up on etsy and some in the works as well.
We are planning a Pink promotion since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
We are also starting a line of felt gift card pouches for the upcoming holidays!
And last but not least we are getting our felt scarves ready to go as the weather cools down.  Bundle up! <3

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My Second Faerie Miniature Contest Piece!

So I am about to turn in my second faerie miniature contest piece ever!  you might remember the library faerie that lived inside the book was the first one.  This contest is being done by my local (an hour away) dollhouse miniature store, Miniature Designs.  The theme is Christmas in July and we were given a 6x6 base and a tree to make whatever we wanted out of.  Here's a link to the actual contest.
And heres some pictures of my entry, I did a harvest festival including the tree.


Personally, I love the greenman face on the tree.  I tried to figure out a way for it to be the tree topper, but i like this better.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Whole Opens and We Teach There

There is a new artist community center opening up in Athens, Whole Mind Body Art, and we are part of it!  We have planned definitely two workshops, one for faerie houses and one for felt items.  They are not happening until November but I got some great shots of the inside of the center where some of our items are on display.






I think they go really well with the art of the flowers that they are displayed with.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Faerie Foraging Bag from Zazzle.com

Check out our new items on Zazzle, here's a great reusable bag!
Faerie Foraging Bag from Zazzle.com
Much <3
Aline

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Free shipping on all potholders!

In order to celebrate our new line of funny novelty potholders (which are up on etsy BTW) we are having a sale where all potholders (even the older ones) have free shipping!  Get them quick, we've already sold a few, and free shipping won't last forever!
Also we have a few new treasuries on etsy, be sure to check those out!
http://www.etsy.com/people/thegreengriffin/treasury

<3
Aline

Friday, September 3, 2010

Potholder Teaser

Heres a quick look at some of our new line of potholders.  We'll be putting them all up online soon...teaser!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

It's Like a Concert Tour But with Sketchbooks!

I just signed up for 'The Sketchbook Project' from the Brooklyn Art Library.  And they say it's like a concert tour but with sketchbooks!  Basically you choose a theme and they send you a sketchbook.  you decorate the sketchbook with anything (drawing, painting, collage, found objects, poems, ect) and send it back to them.  Then they send it and all its companions on a journey around the country to different galleries and museums.  After that is done they archive it permanately in their collection!
The Sketchbook Project: 2011
There's still time to sign up!!  It costs a base $25 for the sketchbook and then they have optional extras like a t-shirt.
The theme I chose is '...you'd be home by now'  I plan on extending it to be 'If the Earth was your home, you'd be home now' and doing lots of nature related things, photos, paintings, pressed flowers / leaves, maybe even some pictures of faerie houses since they make the earth their home!  a very sustainable / recycle-y / hippie kind of thing. lol  I am super excited and will be sharing the process when I get mine!
<3 Aline

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Assorted Faerie Stuff

First I wanted to give you a list of great faerie related books. These all link to Amazon, but we are also proponents of your local library. That is until you find out how great they are and have to buy them!

Felt Wee Folk This is a great instructional book about making little faery figures. It includes some great pictures of groups of faeries that I find very inspiring
Fairy Island This is probably my favorite faerie book. It is a little thin on story but the pictures are so incredible! They are incredibly detailed pictures of these houses that the author found on a faerie island.

Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book I just bought this one and am so excited! There are multiple Lady Cottington books and they are all brilliant and funny. My fiance described this book as similar to how people press flowers...but with faeries.
Fairie-ality This is a great book of fashion designs for faeries. They are made form natural materials and the book includes both design drawings and photographs of the finished products.
A Witch's Guide to Faery Folk This one is less of a picture inspiration and more of just text about faeries in general. It is a great book to lean about the different types of faeries and such, and who knows what will inspire you!

And here's a little bit of fun, a Faerie Name Generator! <3 Aline
Your fairy is called Gossamer Willowdancer
She is a caster of weird dreams.
She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottos.
She is only seen when the bees swarm and the crickets chirrup.
She wears tiny black spiders on her dresses. She has delicate green coloured wings like a cicada.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Thanks to those who link to us!

Just a quick thanks and link back to those who are linking to us!

Bloggin in PA

Prayer Bedes

Thanks so much! <3 Aline

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Green Griffin @ Flickr

The Green Griffin has a Flickr! We have loads of pictures of our faerie houses and some nature photography taken around the country. Check it out!
www.flickr.com/photos/thegreengriffin/

Any be our friends on Flickr if you're on there!
<3
Aline

Monday, August 23, 2010

New Faerie House!

I'm blogging form the library! Be proud mom!
So I have some new pictures of another finished faerie house that I'm finally going to put up. It was inspired by sort of a Mongolian yurt mixed with Peruvian mountain houses, but its not exactly based on anything, just my strange imagination.
I liked the idea of these cultures using carpets on the walls as insulation, so I wanted the whole thing to be covered in carpets.
I bought a ton of carpets from ebay and used most of them, I had one left that I'm using in a faerie sewing room that's set in an embroidery hoop.
But more of that when that's finished...









I hope you like these and please comment and let me know favorite parts and such!
<3 Aline

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Finally finished faerie bedroom


I finally finished this fairie bedroom. It's just been waiting for the bedclothes. Last week I discovered a stash of crocheted and antique lace trims for 25 to 50 cents each. Crocheted circles for faerie rugs, lacy linens for canopies, and pretty trims for blankets, like this one here (even though you can't see it in this pic).

Today I spent the afternoon traipsing through the woods in 100 degree heat, searching for wooden treasures that are decayed enough for interest but not so decayed that they're falling apart. One piece is a network of roots. I sawed them off so that they stand on a flat surface. The result is the framework for numerous faerie rooms, with branches to hang mini windchimes, faerie laundry, lanterns and prayer flags. I can't wait to get started (but, alas, the work week starts tomorrow - maybe next weekend.)

Anyway, here is my newest bedroom. I'll post it to etsy when I get take some better pictures. Thanks for looking.
----Lorena

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Mushroom Tutorial

How to... make mushrooms out of drawer pulls

You will need,

Wooden drawer pulls, mushroom shaped

Paintbrushes

White paint

Red paint

Palette


You could also play around with different colors, but I’m using red and white.

First paint the ‘stems,’ the sides of the knob, white. I did two coats, but you can judge based on how thick you paint. Set aside until dry.


When dry, paint the tops red. I do this by painting a line along the edge right next to the white.





Fill inside the line with more red paint. Then wait for it to dry again…


Next paint the white dots on top. I usually do them in concentric circles with one dot in the middle. This works for all sizes and looks relatively natural.



And then...no more waiting. They’re done! Great for decoration in potted plants or faerie houses!



There are endless possibilities as far as color combinations, sizes, and uses. Have fun!!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

New Faerie Houses on Etsy







Here are a few of the newest faerie houses. We have several more completed but haven't had time to photograph and post. Check back often.


Our etsy shop is at thegreengriffin.etsy.com

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Etsy has gone to the faeries!


New faerie houses and scenes added to our etsy! You must check them out, and look for more soon!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thegreengriffin

Kiva

I am adding a Kiva banner to the blog, but I thought i should make a post about what it is also. Kiva is a great microcredit loaning system, where people can lend as little as $25 to budding entrepreneurs to help them achieve their next business goal. Basically if someone in Africa needs a small loan to purchase stock at the beginning of a season, they will apply on kiva and if you choose to lend to them, your $25 (or more) will add together with other people's money to give them the funds they need. It is a loan however, and they will pay you back as they make their profit. It is a great way to help women and other underprivileged groups become self-sufficient. I encourage everyone to at least look at the site, if not loan (only $25...and you get it back!)

http://www.kiva.org/


Here are the profiles of two women I have lent money too currently. I put in $50 years ago and have just been recycling it as soon as it gets paid back.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/195670

http://www.kiva.org/lend/195661

So lets be honest with ourselves; this is a way to give charity, without losing anything yourself. Check it out!


-Aline

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Our First Tutorial...sort of

I decided to do our first tutorial on here as something I just wanted to try. I found this tutorial for a recycled t-shirt bag based on the design of plastic grape bags. I wanted to try it with a thin sweater, so I decided to take pictures of the whole process and post them on here. And I did. Except then the pictures got lost in cyberspace. They weren’t on my camera or computer...I don’t know where they went, but I can’t find them.

Anyways, here’s a link to the t-shirt version tutorial, and a picture (retaken later) of the finished product of the bag I made.

http://pm-betweenthelines.blogspot.com/2010/03/quick-fix-grocery-bag-tutorial.html

The only differences between doing this project with a t-shirt versus a sweater, is that if your sweater buttons up the front, you have to sew the button part closed. I also added a little fold over closure on the top to further make use of the buttons.





I think I cut the slits too large and I might play around with doing loose zigzag over them to close it up more. I also could’ve left the collar on, it just would’ve made the opening a little smaller.

-Aline

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Winder next Saturday

We will be in Winder GA at the Spring Craft Fair at First Methodist Church next Saturday, May 29, from 10-5
We hope to see lots of you there. Last chance to get graduation matchboxes before most graduations!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Scrap Bag Kitty

Looks comfortable. Wish I could fit in there. --Lorena

Burning Matches

When you fill matchboxes for a living (or partial living), what do you do with all of the matches? Aline has filled several hundred matchboxes, meaning she has emptied several times 3200 matches. After a few mixing bowls have been filled, it begins to seem like a fire hazard, and so we staged a bonfire. With great fanfare and ceremony, we lit the matches outside on a rock and then jumped back. All in all, it was a very satisfying blaze.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Athens Farmer's Market


So here's a picture of our great colorful booth at the Athens Farmer's Market! It was a ton of fun and we did pretty well selling wise. My favorite sale was trading a matchbox for baklava!


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa



Okay. I realize we have to get better at taking pictures. We'll read up on it and practice. I promise. Also, when I started this blog, I promised I wouldn't go remiss and fail to post. Alas, I've gone remiss. We'll try to do better. But we have been doing admirable things, namely getting ready for the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa this Saturday. The Green Griffin will have a booth from noon-7 pm at the corner of Clayton and Pulaski Streets. If you live in the area, please stop by. Shown is the banner that Aline made for our booth. We'll have matchbox greetings, felted wonderfuls, hair flowers, flower pens, and fairy wonderfuls. See you there.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Altered Book



Aline's entry into an altered book contest at Gwinnett County Public Library.