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of sorts.

i've been working on these sweet little pendant necklaces lately to add to my shop in september. and needless to say, they definitely come with a bit of a learning curve...and i'm pretty crafty. i'm embarrassed to admit the number of glass cabochons i actually went through until i had a successful outcome. in my defense, it seemed to be the glue (or so i thought) that just wasn't meshing with my inkjet printer. so...

i wound up purchasing a *special* glue which claimed to be THE glue for ink jet printers...no smearing, no bubbles, no color changing. operative word being "claimed." talk about a total disappointment and money wasted (not to mention sheer frustration). while i was purchasing the glue i figured why not purchase some more glass cabochons since i had wasted so many of them. another disaster. 13 out of 25 pieces of glass...BROKEN. the rest, chipped. needless to say, neither of those make for a very happy nicole. however, there is a silver lining....

weeks before i found this little gem (no pun intended) of an etsy shop called pretty charmed. run by a great lady by the name of cheryl. everything perfectly packed. glass cabochons in PERFECT shape. no chips. no breaks. just beautiful crystal clear glass ovals. also the pendant trays and chains to match...perfect. i found it easiest by going with one of her DIY pendant kits. everything you need is included.

for me, i had to forgo the inkjet printer and go to my local staples to have the images printed out on a laser jet printer. the glue just wasn't working out on my inkjet printed images. now everything is good to go and i can add these adorable little pendants to my shop this fall!

{thanks for listening to my little rant about the joys of jewelry making. i'm going back to my paintbrush now...}

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Lots to do, lots to do… and so little time. You would think we would be old pros at this now, but damn if the butterflies don’t start a fluttering around this time. Paying for shows, flights, hotel rooms, airbnbs… and a whole slew of other things that will cause a bit of anxiety. But it is worth it as we love traveling and seeing everyone at the shows, which will start off Saturday with a one day horror show.

The 4th Annual Spook Show at the Halloween Club in La Mirada is here on March 5th and it will be our third time doing it. It keeps getting better and better each year; artist, crafters, vendors, food trucks, music, and much more. One of our favorite small shows, plus it is a great way to start off the con season. The show is free, but you must RSVP your free tickets to gain admittance. It is from noon til 7 on Saturday and family friendly.

There are plenty of more shows in the coming weeks, so everyone have fun and we hope to see you soon.

The post Con season begins once again… appeared first on Ghoulish Bunny Studios.

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This has been on my mind for awhile and on the long road trip I had more time to think about it. The business has grown so much in the past couple of years and the direction I want to take it has altered slightly too. The upcoming year there will be some changes, expanding products offered, a book in the works (Shawn get back to writing!), plus some creative, weird stuff from Shawn (I said get back to writing!), along with first and foremost a change in the name of the business.

There are many reasons for the name change, some minor, but  the major one has been growth. I use to share a six foot table with my friend Koko Candles and now I can barely contain everything on an eight foot table, much less a six foot table (which is why I am exploring having booths at certain cons next year). This rapid rate of growth could not have happened without someone very special in my life, Shawn. He has been supportive of me through all of this; he has given me creative ideas, does a lot of grunt work for me, and as he says his official title is, Lifter of Heavy Things. He is very much my partner in this business and I am appreciative of his contributions to the growth of it.

So on a long trip through the desert night of Arizona, Shawn and I started kicking around different names… some good, some hilariously bad. During the banter we had going back and forth it got me thinking; I love the darker side of things and Shawn loves horror (he always disappears from the booth during horror cons to spend money), and we always seem to be on the road lately. The name crystallized in my mind and it just seemed so appropriate. Without further ado I present the new name of the business…

Gypsy Ghouls

This will not be an immediate transition, so Diana Levin Art will still exist. I will still be creating new art and jewelry to have at the shows as these will be the cornerstone of the business as it expands.

And finally lest I forget to thank the people who also have made this growth possible, the fans of my art. Thank you so much for your support and love, I could not do it without all of you.

Keep dreaming and creating…

–Diana

The post Times are a changing (along with the name)… appeared first on Diana Levin Art.

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Can you say it three times fast?

Sorry I haven’t been around much in the last week or so. Now that a certain girl’s coronation birthday weekend week is over, I’m coming up for air.

We did it, folks. We survived a sleepover birthday party (plus days of other celebratory activities) and lived to tell the tale. I’m not exactly sure how she hypnotized talked us into the sleepover. All told, it went pretty well, though, and thankfully, the girls got along.

One highlight of the party was “Pass the Parcel,” which our daughter learned from her British (and half-British) friends in Germany. It’s really a fun, sweet game, and you can organize it so that everyone feels like they’ve won.

Basically, you have a small prize wrapped up in layers upon layers of wrapping paper. You pass the parcel around while music plays, and each time the grown up stops the music, the person holding the parcel gets to unwrap a layer. Ideally, each layer holds a tiny prize (in this case, Jolly Ranchers) and there’s at least one layer for each player.

We got distracted a bit while wrapping our parcel, and some layers—oops!—were empty. Nevermind, the girls were gracious and divided the candy evenly at the end.

At the center, we placed a collection of polymer clay beads and linen string, so each kid could make a necklace, bracelet, or key chain thingy. I had them pass the bead collection around and let each child choose a bead until they were all gone. Thankfully, there wasn’t much fuss about who got what colors. They’re all pretty, right?

Then each child strung the beads into the desired shape. So fun.

My kids and I had made the beads months earlier, with no thought of a party. I was inspired by this lovely post, which includes instructions, but I couldn’t figure out a way to string them in a way that suited me, so they sat around for months. I think I’ll try making some for me again—we have more clay.

Anyway the beads were a hit, and the activity was just enough—not too long, not too frustrating. We may have to make “Pass the Parcel” a party staple!

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Well sir, it’s a heckuva week.  Book stuff is happening out the wazoo, but for a moment I’d like to concentrate on what else is going on in the wider children’s literary world.  What say we Fusenews it up a bit, eh?

• Of course there’s no way to begin today without a hat tip to the late, great E.L. Konigsburg.  The only person, I believe, to win both a Newbery Award and a Newbery Honor in their debut year.  Top THAT one, folks!  The New York Times pays tribute to one of our luminaries.  We had managed to do pretty well in 2013 without losing one of our lights.  Couldn’t last forever.  Godspeed, Elaine.

• Speaking of deaths, I missed mentioning my sadness upon hearing of Roger Ebert’s passing. Jezebel put out a rather nice compilation of Roger Ebert’s Twenty Best Reviews.  I wonder if folks ever do that for children’s book critics.  Hm.  In any case, amongst the reviews was this one for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  It’s rather brilliant.  See for yourself.

• New Blog Alert: Now I would like to brag about my system’s children’s librarians.  They are uniquely talented individuals.  Smart as all get out.  One that I’ve always been particularly impressed with is Stephanie Whelan, a woman I trust more than anyone else when it comes to finding the best in children’s (not YA) science fiction and fantasy fare.  Now Stephanie has conjured up one doozy of a blog on that very topic.  It’s called Views From the Tesseract (nice, right?) and it looks at a lot of science fiction and fantasy specifically with side views of topics in the field.  You’ll find posts with subjects like A Matter of Taste: Preferring One Genre Over Another, Five Fantasy Pet Peeves, and the fascinating delve into the world of Tom Swift in The Swift Proposal.  Stephanie also has access to galleys so be sure to check out her early reviews for books like William Alexander’s Ghoulish Song and Sidekicked by John David Anderson (which I’m reading right now on her recommendation).

• Turns out that the Mental Floss piece 11 Book Sequels You Probably Didn’t Know Existed spends an inordinate amount of time looking at children’s books.  Check it out for mentions of the 101 Dalmatians sequel (missed that one), the E.T. sequel The Book of the Green Planet (which, if memory serves, was illustrated long ago by David Wiesner and is the only book he no longer owns the art of), and more.

• Nice blogger mentions this week.  Thanks to Sara O’Leary for mentioning my new website and to Jen Robinson’s for the nice review of Giant Dance Party.  I appreciate it, guys!  Plus Jen is the first review I’ve read that draws a connection between my book and the Hunger Games series.  Few can say so much.

Speaking of reviews, I owe Travis Jonker a debt of gratitude for reviewing Marguerite Abouet’s Akissi.  I read that book in the original French a year or two ago and was completely uncertain if it would ever see the light of day here in the States due to a final story that, quite frankly, DEFIES anything I’ve seen in children’s literature before.  The kind of thing that makes Captain Underpants look tame.  You have been warned.  Great book, by the way.  Let’s not lose sight of that.

• Not too long ago I spoke to a group of 6th graders at Bank Street College’s school about contemporary book jackets and how they’re marketed to kids.  Only a portion of my talk was dedicated to race or gender.  Fortunately, the kids have been thinking long and hard about it.  Allie Bruce has posted twice about a covers project the kids have participated in.  Be sure to check out race and then gender when you have a chance.  Food for thought.

• For a certain kind of person, the title of this website alone will cause a flutter and palpitation of the heart: The Last Unicorn Screening Tour (featuring Peter S. Beagle and fans everywhere).  You know who you are.  Big time thanks to Marci for the link.

• Newsflash: Americans Still Love Libraries.  Comes with its own infographic, so you know it’s true.  Thanks to Lese Dunton for the link.

• What do Pinkalicious, A Ball for Daisy, and Square Cat all have in common?  Read ‘em to your kids and you’ll be teaching them that consumerism is king.  So sayeth a 196-page thesis called “Cultivating Little Consumers: How Picture Books Influence Materialism in Children”, as reported by The Guardian.  And they might have gotten away with the premise to if they just hadn’t brought up I Want My Hat Back.  Dude.  Back away from the Klassen.  Thanks to Zoe Toft (Playing By the Book) for the link.

• You may have heard that Simon & Schuster finally announced that it will start making e-books available to all three New York City public library systems.  The press certainly picked up on the story and many articles have been generated.  Curious?  Then read these pieces in Mashable, The NY Daily News, MediaBistro (Galleycat and Fishbowl NYC), Publishers Weekly, Fast Company and The Associated Press.

• Okay.  I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and say it.  Marjorie Ingall has created, without a doubt the most impressive children’s book footwear post of all time.  Honest-to-god, if you don’t bow down before her for that English Roses shoe, you have no soul.

• Required Reading of the Day: There are few authorial blogs out there even half as interesting as Nathan Hale’s.  And when the guy gets a fact wrong in one of his books, he’ll do anything to set it right.  Even if it means going to Kansas.  Here’s how he put it:

We made a HUGE historical error, and we are going to fix it! We are going to learn why Kansas wasn’t a Confederate state–why it was a “Free State,” and how it happened. We are also going to visit Kansas on an official apology and correction trip. When we are finished, all Hazardous Tales readers will know how to correct their own copy of Big Bad Ironclad! Stay tuned!

You can see the official ceremony here, but be sure to read all the blog posts he drew to explain precisely why Kansas was a free state anyway. You can see Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six.

• Daily Image:

It’s not the holiday gift giving season, but if you know a librarian in need of a unique gift, I have your number.

Awesomesauce.  Thanks to Marchek for the link.

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Night Owl Reviews is running another awesome Scavenger hunt. Full Moon Halloween Scavenger Hunt runs from Sept 1st through Oct 31th. Click on the banner then visit the blogs, find the information and plug it in to win. Tons of incredible prizes, free books, jewelry, and more. Continue reading →

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If you are looking for a great classic Valentines gift for women check out DiViene.com.

DiViene specializes in fine gemstone jewelry.  They have pendants, necklaces, earrings, and my personal favorite stackable rings. 

I received the Sterling Silver Ring with Large Heart Genuine Black Onyx Gemstone, and the Sterling Silver Twist-detail Amber Cocktail Ring.


Both of the rings are high quality sterling silver and are made to last.  I love the thickness of the heart ring and the twisty band on the amber ring.  From the picture on the site I wasn't sure how big the rings would be, but they are a pretty good size.


You also can't tell this from the picture on the website, but the ring has great color and dimension.  I love the different flakes of gold and black.
To Buy - All of the DiViene rings are made in the USA and can be ready for you in 3-4 business days.  The Black Heart Onyx ring retails for $71 and the Amber Cocktail ring for $87.  If you love the shape but are looking for a different color, they can do that too.  The heart ring also comes in Blue Topaz, Amethyst, Citrine, and Garnet.  And the Twist Amber Cocktail ring can also be purchased in Jade or Onyx.

To Win - DiViene is giving away both rings to one of you!

To Enter complete Any of the Entries on the Rafflecopter form Below. *Note* Javascript must be enabled to view the form. If you are on the main page of my website, you may have to click read more to see

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When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; 0 Comments on Bracelets at JCC Project Runway: Detroit as of 1/1/1900