Flash and a furball

Craftiness was mostly shelved this week to make time for Flash fun — fun equaled a midterm project due Thursday.

So I took on my first-ever music video for a song by The Cow Exchange aka The Singing Answerman aka Plat aka my husband. The song "Getting over being scared by bugs?" and lyrics are on his FAWM page.

Lessons learned that you can skip if you just want to see the video
1. Drawing literal illustrations of bugs is fun, fun, fun!
2. Making a motion tween in CS3 compared to CS4 is almost completely different.
3. Creating an interesting frame-by-frame without tweens is kinda hard.
4. Tweens are the awesome.
5. Quicktime export is not my friend. Remnants, be gone!
6. The video was Plat-approved, which was super-nice because while he's not a harsh critic, he's a legit critic nonetheless. It was his song afterall. His enthusiasm made me all sorts of happy. And this isn't really lesson but I'm leaving it the list anyway so :-P.

Sooooo if you want a jitterbug, bugaboo and a Volkswagen logo dancing in your head, check out the video.

Check your speaker volume first and clicky!

Jitterbug star from music video "Getting over being scared of bugs?"

To round out this blog post just a bit more, I also took some time to update my animation of the Loops and Links sheep. Now she hops a little more smoothly with the aid of motion tweens.

Hoppy sheep!

So I had Flash to distract me from crafts. And I had the new bunny to distract me from Flash. And knitting the neverending second legwarmer distracting me from the bunny ... so really it was a big busy circle this week. But really ... who can ignore the sweet, innocent face of Mr. Mitzy who is probably secretly plotting how to chew up all plastic in the room?

Hello from Mr. Mitzy!!

Hoppy afternoon to you! My name is Mr. Mitzy. Tawny and Plat adopted me from the Bay Area Humane Society yesterday.

I was born Jan. 9. I had been crashing at the humane society with my ma and pa rex bunnies for just a few weeks. Ma Ruby is super hyper and has a pretty white stripe on her neck. She kept hopping all over me and fussing over my fur. My sister Tilda found a home a day earlier. Pa Smokey is all gray and loves to cuddle. So I think I'm got my pretty gray fur from pa and my lil white foot is from ma. I hope they find new homes soon too! (oooh, cat toy!)

OK, I'm back. Today I went to the animal hospital. Woah! What a surgery I had. First, they thought I was a girl. As if!! I'm sooo a boy so they had to go and find my boyish parts for a snip-snip. It kinda hurt but I know I'll feel better in a few days. I even get some meds that make me really sleepy.

Tawny pet me a lil bit and then showed me my new home. Woah, it's huge! When I get better, she's even gonna put a shelf lounge in for me to hop up to. I didn't really explore much tho. I'm pretty sleepy. So I'm gonna plop down by the door and take a nap.

Ooh, while I'm sleeping, can you help Tawny and Plat pick a new name for me? So far, Tawny likes Pixel, Einstein, Wesley, Billy, Mouse, Echo, Claude and Smudge. I was Mitzy as a girl and I feel like it's still kinda my name, ya know? So you can call me Mr. Mitzy now.

Bunny kisses!

Pillows in progress

Today is a pillow day. While working on a requested order from theinfamousbakabaka for a Liberty pillow ...

I'm torn between red lace or pompons for the Mr Mittens pillow. He's gonna be a hefty sofa pillow at 18x18 inches, too! So whadya think? Lace or pompons?

Loco for logos!

When I said so long to my newspaper job last year, I thought I would be a freelance graphic designer. Lately, it seems I've become more of freelance craft designer instead. And I'm considering part-time graphics jobs now so I can keep doing crafts. Who knew?

But I need my graphics fix every once in awhile til I find a job. Here's what I've been up to ...

Knits by Zoe

In January, I created a logo package for Knits by Zoe. She's an awesome friend who is knitting for some cash on the side. She recently made this replica stocking for a client ...

And while it wasn't for a client, this is also amazing and makes the fangirl in me squeal with glee ...

Loops & Links yarn shop
I think I've got the crafty folk demographic for my graphic designing. Because I've also done some things for this cool lil yarn shop in De Pere. Last year I created some fun t-shirts for a Stitch 'N Pitch baseball game.

(scrapbooked by Emily)

This spring I will be updating that design for some tote bags instead. I think I'm going to give Mr. Sheep a baseball jersery ... and maybe even cleats!

I also recently made this little flash for Shana, the shop owner. It was the first assignment in my class so it's very basic and I have plans to make a smoother version soon.

Bay Area Humane Society
About a month ago one of my knitty friends, Holly, told me about a logo contest for the Bay Area Humane Society. It's not a money-maker but definitely a portfolio-builder ... and it was fun, too! I just barely squeezed in two submissions before the deadline this past weekend.

And making logos is exactly what I'd like to do for a living. Sure, it's challenging but it's something way different from newspaper work. And I would be making something that would hopefully last years and not just a day in print.

Speaking of the Humane Society, I'm starting to research a bunny aquistion for the spring. It's been so very quiet since Kern the hamster passed away and I need a daytime friend. The last time I had a bunny was many years ago in Milwaukee and I'll leave you with a cutie photo of Dutch Boy the bunny.

Midnight madness launch!

My daytime Etsy launch became my night-time launch since my dear lil hamster required some attention*!!

It's a little launch but a bunch more pillows are on the way. I'm working on those armwarmers and legwarmers. And I just bought some yarn for some lil animals.

Up for sale by midnight are ...

And these two ditties are reserved for the awesome lily1029 ...

But if you like those, make a request here or through Etsy and we'll work something out. :-)

* Enjoy hamster heaven, Mr. Kern Flimpins. R.I.P Spring 2007-March 5, 2009