How to schedule a post in Blogger

Narrator: Tabitha of The Pairabirds

You might be like me. Some days you can't seem to get a single blog post together. And, other days, you could post five different articles in on sitting. Blogger now lets us set future post dates. Meaning if I write up a post today, I can set it to show up on my blog five days from now, at 1:00 AM.

Plus, it's easy as pie. First write up your post as you normally do. At the bottom of the page you will see a link that says Post Options.
This link will open up a little box. You can set comment and backlink settings. And, enter a date and time!

Enter in your date. I entered the 14th at 6:15AM (sorry I didn't get a screencap of that).
Next hit Publish Post. Presto! Your post is all set to appear on your blog at the time and date you arranged.

Now on those days when you are energetically writing, you can save some of the excitement for future dates.

The Making of Deena

Everything I know, I learned from PBS.
I loved, and still love, watching people make stuff. Even if it's things I don't make (quilts, scrapbook pages, pasta). So many of the shows on PBS gave me a glimpse into the life of an artist (anybody remember the making of a saxophone on Sesame Street?).

Here is my small "Making of." I'll demonstrate how I create one of my paintings. The one I will show today is called Deena.

I started this piece with the basic idea of drawing someone in a plaid shirt.

First, I took a picture of myself posed in a plaid shirt. As many artist know, sometimes your best model (or at least most convenient) is yourself. I pose for most of my pieces, no matter the gender, height, weight, ethnicity. I just need a general idea of how the clothes will fall on the body. Or, how the body's angles should go.

I then drew a sketch of the illustration. Next, I took the sketch to my printer and reduced it to half of its size. I did this so that the picture can fit within the confines of my projector, as you will see later on.

A canvas was prepared earlier. The canvas is a discarded bookcover. I glued on a page from a lesson plan book to add a background. Next, gesso was applied over the canvas.

Now, it is time to transfer the sketch to the canvas. I slid the half-sized sketch under my projector. The design was traced onto the canvas with a 2H pencil.

My former art teachers would kill me for this, but I never do color studies or drafts. I just dive right into the paint.

I like adding bright colors in the background. So, I begin by laying in a bright blue. I didn't color all the way to the edge. This gives a nice poppy expressionistic feel.

After, scrubbing in the background, I moved on to Deena's skin. There is a paint called Fleshtone that, in my opinion, doesn't match any person's skintone. I use the Fleshtone paint in conjunction with various shades of brown and sienna to create a much more natural looking human.
If you look closely at your skin, you will see more than just one color. Go ahead look!

No detailing, yet. Just general color blocking. As the skin was drying, I began painting the basic color of the shirt.

As the shirt was drying, I went back in and did some details in the face. I used a sienna mix to add the details.

Time to separate Deena from the background. This is where I brought in black linework of various weights.

I added just enough strokes within the shirt to give the illusion of plaid. I don't like to add more detail than necessary.

The last thing I did was outline the black outline with white. Signed, sealed, and done. Hope you enjoyed a brief look into the making of Deena.

Found at: The Pairabirds

How to Make a Front Page-ready Treasury

Narrator: Tabitha of The Pairabirds

I like making Treasuries in Etsy. And, I have been lucky enough to have several of the ones I curated hit the front-page. I'll give you a mini tutorial on how I go about creating a treasury. But, first, let me give you a few of the basics about front-page treasuries.

• Etsy Admin chose the front page from treasuries in the Treasury and sometimes the Treasury West.
• Images with watermarks can make it to the front, if the watermark is not very noticeable or below where the thumbnails are cropped.
• I think it is allowed for you to put your own product in your treasury, last I checked the rules. However, I'm not sure if those treasuries ever make it to the front. And if the treasury does make it to the front, your product will not be featured. The Treasury is best not to be used for self promotion. But, if you have any questions, its best to contact Etsy Admin.

Okay, now lets start. I build my treasuries way before I ever get a treasury. How? I use the Poster Sketch. The Poster Sketch is a little ingenious tool the Etsy Crew made around the beginning or middle of 2007. This tool allows you to copy item numbers into a grid, just like that of the Treasury. Not only can you use the Poster Sketch to pre-build your treasuries, but you can use it to promote yourself (just enter your own item numbers, take a screenshot, and use it for postcards, ads, etc). The Poster Sketch will save the information you enter, so that you can come back to it later. I don't believe you can access the sketch you made from a computer other than the one you made it on. However, if you have trouble getting your sketch to save, there is a nifty feature at the bottom of the Poster Sketch that copies all of the item numbers to your clipboard. Then, just paste that info into your destination of choice (MS Word, Notepad, etc). Don't forget to hit save when you paste it into your document!

Now, the real fun!

I look for products that have wonderful photographs. This part of the equation is *so important.* Since we are all selling online, we do not have the benefit of letting are customers hold and touch our products. So, we have to show the beauty of the products by having gorgeous photos. Sometimes I save things in my favorite that I would not normally buy. But, the product's photos are so beautiful, I just have to find a use for it!

I usually begin my treasuries by looking through things I recently marked as favorites. In this case, I chose Pillow Monsters's Simon the Frog. Isn't he cute?

I also chose Blossom Earrings by Contagious. A beautiful piece of ear decoration.

I drop these two into my Poster Sketch.

At this point, I have no theme in mind. I don't like to lock myself into a theme. Like if I a theme entitled, Wildebeest and Green Space Shuttles, chances are that there are not many products that fit the bill. So, I go with the go with the tried and true, color and material. I chose Rheta's Defragmented Ring to match the sterling silver Blossom earrings. Three Birds, Two Buildings by A Life You Love, has a pretty ochre color that you see in Simon's pants.

I need some warm colors now, to balance the cool blue tones. I added Shelby Healey's wonderfully unconventional My Mascot and Maye Rain's Screw Ring (I love rings as you will soon see); it has a nice warm pink background. Because I really like the ochre color, I added
Rifferaff''s hand-printed Jigsaw Scrapbook Paper (that paper would make some really nice abstract wall art *thinking of buying it to frame and hang on my walls*).

Now a theme is starting to come to me. All of these items have an unconventional, non traditional feel. So it looks like I have an Offbeat theme. Offbeat goods make my heart sing (la la la).

I saw this bag by Cork and Cotton the other day in the forums and had to showcase it. And, Pamela Tang's original art is just as beautiful as her clothing and bedding. Notice the Cork bag has similar color and texture as the Jigsaw paper. Pamela's piece picks up the warm yellows and abstract feel of several other items.

I wanted to bring out the red color of Simon's mouth. So, I headed to my favorites again. And, right there is Reqbat's self published book, Falling. Not only does the story look enticing, but the red cover goes with Simon. Plus (bonus), the pink hues match My Mascot and Screw Ring.

Just two more items, now. More cork colors and unconventionalness (is that a word?). Blushing Butternut's Turtle Diorama adds charm. Factory Trails by Fields of Aphelion adds drama. Into the sketch they go.

Oh no! We forgot the alternates. The alternates are the items that are not viewable to your treasury's visitors. The alternates serve as replacements, if the main items you chose for your treasury are sold or inactivated. The alternates should be just as grand as the main products. I typically do not save finding alternates for last. I add all of the items that work, then move the products according to where I want them. The thing about a good collection of Alts is that you have a hard time deciding if they should be main features or alts. I often go back and forth with what should be featured!


My alternates are: IMOTIME's Exit clock (wood and cork color in background), Lady Marmalade by Artsy (brings in more red), Jessica Sharrah's Back in Black Ceramic Ring (pulls out the black in the products, to anchor them), and Kitkuare's Not a Vampire (more pinkish hues). Done!

You can use the Poster Sketch's handy copy tool to copy to your clipboard.

Now you have a treasury all ready for when you get a real one. One tip about when you have a real treasury: Click on the item in your Poster Sketch. Check to make sure it is not sold before you put it in your real treasury. If the item is sold, I check to see if the seller has more of that item or similar ones.

I enjoy making treasuries. I don't make them to necessarily be on the front-page. Creating pretty and interesting treasuries is my main objective. The most important part about making a treasury is not "is it good enough to be on the front." The main point is to create a collection of things you find interesting and would like to share with the rest of the gang.

How To Hang Photos

How to hang photos or other paper art with stuff you have in your jewelry box and office desk


Narrator: Tabitha of The Pairabirds


Alright. You have a bunch of photos. You don't have much wall space. Can't afford a frame. You like to upcycle. Okay, this should work for you. I'll tell you how to hang photos with a clip on earring and a thumbtack. It gives you a really contemporary look.


What you'll need:

photo (or any lightweight paper you would like to display)

clip on earring (you can find them in your jewelry box, thrift store, garage sale)

Thumbtack

1) Slip the thumbtack through the opening of the clip part of the earring (as shown below).

2) Tack to your wall. Depending on how hard your wall is, you may want to pre-drill/hammer a hole in before you tack in the thumbtack and earring.

3)Clip picture of choice and Presto! Modern/Retro display.

Variations

You can add pages torn from a vintage magazine or scrapbook pages to act as a "background." In the pictures below, I used some pages from an old Saturday Evening Post magazine.