Pikaland: The Illustrated Life

I found this great website and store. Pikaland is about everything illustrated. It features different artists and welcomes artists to submit their work to be sent out in the PikaPackage. I have already gotten two Pika Packages and am looking forward to my next one. In both packages, I was so pleased with the artwork - I want to put everything up on my walls, but I literally don't have any more room!

On the site you can see all the profiles of all the artists that send in their work, as well as the work(s) that were sent in. So many artists contribute their work, that you really are surprised on what pieces you get because the PikaPackage comes in either a 4 or 8 item package.

Amy, who started this whole concept is so sweet! She responds to all comments on her blog and lets you know when your PikaPackage is shipped out. It comes all the way from Maylasia which seems to make the package a little bit more special. I just love this and hope to continue getting a package every time one comes out!

A Quartzy Life

Another great addition to my wonderful array of art is a beautiful piece from A Quartzy Life, titled "As I started looking." Lauren, a College student, makes beautiful (and all original!) pieces of very affordable art. All her pieces have some message to convey through them. They all incorporate lots of colors or textures (like mine!) that make her work very unique.

My piece of art was a mixed media piece painted on light weight wood. I love mixed media pieces especially if they are on wood because you don't even need to frame them! They look great on their own. If you don't want to buy a frame or worry about framing one of her works on paper, she has a few pieces for sale that are already framed for very reasonable prices.

Lauren was such a pleasure to deal with. She was very accommodating and kind. If you want an inexpensive, unique and original piece of art, go check A Quartzy Life out! I can't wait to get a bigger place so that I can add another one of her originals to my collection!

More Art...Now from krize

Well here is another cute little shop to feed my addition to art! Kristin Sabaite's Shop takes you away into her imagination. Her shop is filled with quirky people and fun animals. She is a children's illustrator from Lithuania but now resides in Spain. Again, I had a hard time deciding exactly what I wanted from her shop because each illustration is so unique!

Once again, I had to get something with a dog (is this an obsession or what?) and of course one of her quirky girls. I chose three! things in the end. I got the "Sea Theme Note cards, " "About Friends" and a mini notebook with a cute little pup drawn on the front. The sea theme note cards are great, but I'm being a bit selfish and am going to frame them instead of sending them to friends - they are too cute, can you blame me?

The "All About Friends" print fits me so perfectly..straight from Kristin's Shop.. "There are days, when you feel especially sad, hours - full of loneliness and gloom ...On these days you sit down and close your eyes. At least your best friend is here ... at least you are far away from everything ... Your friend doesn’t speak, because at this moment you don’t need words. You need his presence. Nothing else. If you have a friend like him, does the sadness really exist?
You rise and give him a kiss on his wet little nose and say "Let’s go my friend, it’s very cold here." And all that is left are a few footprints in the snow ... yours and your friends." After reading that how could I not get it?

Lastly I got the mini notebook with the dog drawn on it. I'm a sucker for notebooks & journals so when I saw a dog drawn on one, I knew it had to be mine!

Although I did not get anything from Kristin's second shop, It's full of bags and jewelry with her wonderful illustrations on them! I recommend checking both of her shops out, maybe you'll also walk away with some art of your own!

Inspiration

Lately I haven't had any inspiration until I talked to my Etsy soul mate, Lynnette (from http://originalsbylynnette.etsy.com & http://ohtwovintage.etsy.com) and she got me back to sewing. I am changing it up a bit and making reverseable aprons, wine gift bags, and reusable shopping bags. I will have them listed in my store soon!

Now to talk about one of my favorite artists on etsy, LaMaga, http://lamaga.etsy.com - She has beautiful & very original pieces of art. In fact I bought two pieces from her and hopefully i'll go to Ikea today and buy some picture frames for them!

My Baobab


Magical Forrest

I also have an original painting by Ali J. from http://aussiepatches.etsy.com. She has a very unique style and I absolutely love her girls! I hope that I will be able to buy a few more originals from her before she becomes too famous and I won't be able to afford anything any more!

Sleeping Bird

That's all for now! Hopefully i'll find some pretty frames at Ikea!