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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Potholder Teaser

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

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!

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

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.

Get your free fairy name here!

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to me

happy birthday to me

happy 21st birthday

happy birthday to me!

;)

Recent swaps: Dollhouse and iPhone

So, my two recent crafty swaps have been for a matchbox (the large 250 size) dollhouse, and for something handmade.

I got carried away with the dollhouse swap and made two...*sheepish grin*




For the something handmade swap, my partner had a husband with a new iPhone and a 2 year old son who liked to play with cell phones, so I made her son a stuffed iPhone toy

Mini Suitcase Swap

So, my first swap from Swap-bot is for a matchbox...that's really all the requirements. So I made a faery suitcase for my fellow faery loving partner.

I just covered a matchbox with leather and glued the straps on top. The old fashioned customs stickers are printed out from the computer.

Inside I put the faery's favorite things, a tiny faery house out of sculpy, some ribbon and stickers, faery charms, a mini candle, bell and tea cup, and a mini passport. I also made a little shirt from wool I had laying around (thanks mom). The shirt was inspired by Salley Mavor and her book Wee Felt Folk.

I also wrote a letter form the 'Faery Adoption Agency' and printed it on nice paper, I couldn't get a good picture though.

I hope my swap partner likes it, I had loads of fun making it and my mind is already forming new matchboxes to add to my etsy line...

-Aline

Surprising Portrait

So we (mom and me) were at a local art gallery here in Athens and suddenly I found myself staring at...myself! A portrait of me was in the show. It was done by Leah Mantini (check out her website and the picture of me http://www.leahmantini.com/portrait/ ).
Just a funny thing that happened today...

More later about my faery houses.

Woodchuck Love

Last Saturday, Aline and I set up a table on her back porch and decorated matchboxes for a few hours. It was a beautiful spring day (even though it snowed! two days later), one of the first. Behind her apartment is a huge empty lot that's covered with kudzu, and within the kudzu lives a woodchuck (rather cute for a rodent). Aline's fiance, Edmund, named him Woodrow Charles (get it? Wood Chuck) last fall. Woodrow went to sleep for the winter and now he's back with a "friend." Reminds me of Captain and Tennille's "Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam" But I digress. The point is the matchboxes. Lots of new ones: Birthday, Wedding, Thank you, Best Friends, Graduation, Love, Baby, Mother's Day... Be sure to check out our etsy site. Choose your occasion and let us select the box. $5 for one; $12 for three.

Welcome. The Green Griffin is live.

Okay. Here goes. Aline and I are jumping in with all four feet, intending to make a real and profitable business out of this. Follow along and help us out and don't forget to check out our etsy site.

For starters, I held my first altered sweater workshop about two weeks ago. It was lots of fun and very productive. Aline was in New York (it was spring break), so I had to go it alone.

Laura (who's due any day now) made these awesome baby pants from two sweater sleeves. Check out Leigh's purse. Of course, she's pretty talented. Just give her materials and watch her go. That's Leigh in the third pic. Cleta made a scarf for her granddaughter Evie (very cute and girlie). Beth made a square purse. Mary Jean made a ragamuffin from a design by crispina ffrench (full instructions in her book "Sweater Chop Shop"). Everyone made potholders. And everyone made a donation to Relay for Life.

Our next workshop will be Sunday, April 11, from 1-5 pm in Dacula, GA. Email us if you'd like more information.