"H2W2" FREE eBook (How to complete your own creative projects) + Organize your life from any device with the simple interconnected world of Evernote

Starting things off on a refreshing note this week. Ever since I started reading H2W2: HOW TO DO AN ARTS PROJECT, WHERE TO GET HELP on my boyfriend's tablet (for free, might I add) I've been very productive with my time regarding my artistic projects. This is exactly what I needed! Something that gathers together every step I should take under consideration. This book has helped me understand that there is so much more I can be doing with my time than I thought, and makes me feel equiped to take on bigger things.

Contents

• Introduction (or advice to the first-timer)
• Part One: Planning and delivering your project idea (step by step)
• Part Two: Common project issues
• Part Three: Specific information for specific kinds or projects
• Part Four: More legal issues in creative projects
• Part Five: Case studies of young people who have done it
• Part Six: Where to go for help, advice, resources and opportunities.

For now I am starting by gathering a bunch of keywords & images + jotting down many many notes and sketches if all kinds and colors of things. This is where Evernote comes in handy.


It helps to organize all my ideas, which seems to be exactly the point. I know that Evernote as an app has been very popular on app stores for some time now but I haven't started using it until now. What seems so worth it with Evernote is that it is so mobile. I have the program, (it was already installed on my HP computer but you can download it from their website) I have the app in my phone and tablet, and worst case scenario, there is always the actual website. They are all synced together, your ideas follow you everywhere.

Comparing Onenote to Evernote
The only issue I have with Evernote is that it isn't enough like Microsoft's OneNote, in the sense that notebook customizations such as colors or categories/subcategories doesn't seem to be Evernote's forte, in my opinion, limiting your ability to properly organize your thoughts. I'm not going to be picky about that though. I do have a tendancy to exagerate with the way I organize any aspect of my life, wasting my time or "stalling" without fully realizing it by getting carried away with the details of the organisation itself (like those customisations I was talking about). In that sense, I guess evernote is perfect for me because it's simpler than OneNote.

Lazy Sunday night chit chat

Spent the day reorganizing cupboards and drawing for my art portfolio. I am hoping to put together a portfolio impressive enough to convince a tattoo parlor to take me as an apprentice. Marathoning Harry Potters with Oli... probably going to bed soon.

My blue hair is long gone. I "quit" temporarily by letting it fade to blonde & decided to just bleach my roots monthly because it is so much less hard on me money-wise right now. Not sure if I will be bringing blue hair back, I am enjoying being pale blonde more than I would have thought. (helps to bleach the eyebrows) Feels right for a first.

Listening to BEACH HOUSE for the most part these days.
So relaxing...


It's been raining all day, preventing me from spending time outside. It's a shame it's already night. Hope to get some fresh air tomorrow.

Henna tattoo art

Realized lately that I am much better at certain types of art than others when it comes to making henna tattoos. This is a picture of a tattoo I did on my sister yesterday morning. It took 5 minutes and I was very comfortable doing it. I think I will make an album of designs to have people choose from if I am going to take this on seriously.

My difficulty with straight lines is going to be something to take under consideration when I will finally have my REAL tattoo machine. (should be in a few months from now) GOING TO PRACTICE MY ARSE OFF before even thinking of touching someone's skin...

Bannanas Bannanas Bannanas.

Tattoo artist aspirations + practice art

Over the course of the past week I have been taking someone's suggestion that I be a tattoo artist pretty seriously. I can either order my own tattooing kitt complete with machines, practice tools, a dvd, a guide, etc, and do the tattooing at my place along with henna tattoos, or I could do an apprrenticeship at a tattoo parlor. I have a few months to decide either way.

Till then, I will be practicing and improving my art. After all, people might want to see a portfolio of some sort. Not to mention I want to be 100% sure of my ability to design and replicate before I begin practicing actual tattooing on bananas and pig ears/skin. I've got a few potential clients already. (People I know) I don't want to let them down.

This (in the picture) is something I started as a lazy scribble and it ended up a challenge. Blue hair, of course. Gotta get this fascination with long blue hair out of my system.

Also still working on all my other projects, here and there. The moleskines, the iphone cases, the jewelry...Though I am thinking of putting up a sign somewhere that says I offer my services as an intermediate level henna tattoo artist, that I believe I can handle most demands that come my way perfectly fine as I have in the past, and that I am dedicated to being honest with my clients about my abilities concerning the tattoo project. Sounds a bit scary, but like I said, I think I can handle it. I'm doing fine with my henna tattoo jobs so far.

Those are all things I will need to either think about doing or get done. No excuse to vedge out.

Designing my First Kraft Moleskine Diary

Hot summer day today. Bijou's relaxing and I'm drawing on the cover of my first kraft moleskine (got them yesterday at Staples). It's stressful and really requires I take my time to make it look as professional as I possibly can. I hope the end result will look good enough for the prices I've decide on...

Pocket Diary: 12$

Medium Diary: 20$ 

(the one I'm working on)

Large diary: 30$

( - What do you think? - )

• The background will be a swarm of little berries coming from the top back, pouring toward the bottom in a curved motion. A bit like this drawing I made a few years ago: 

• On the bottom will be a nicely shaped box reserved for the buyer to write their name, and if there's space, the year.
• The coloring will probably be partial... my best bet for professionalism is to properly mix the drawing with the gorgeous Kraft textured background. Still not sure how I am going to do that without a pattern, otherwise it might start to look more like a colored drawing... Maybe I'll make one.

Moleskins project

I have been having a tendency to write my posts very spaced out date-wise. I would like to try and blog more often for the next while and see where that brings me. Nothing much to catch up for, except I finally have blue hair now! (after previous trials and errors)

I have a new idea! I know ideas keep coming and projects aren't being completed but I know that finding the right project to fully devote myself to is very important and that once I get things going this will all be a thing of the past.

This new idea involved purchasing MOLESKINES and hand illustrating their covers to sell on Etsy. For publicity, I could record the illustration being made every time (or most times) from beginning to finish and post it sped up on YouTube with some of my favourite music playing in the background. These types of videos tend to get allot of views.

ALSO I would like to set up my scanner today to be ready to scan at all times (or close enough). I used to have a blogspot blog when I was a teenager, PSYCHEDELIC RAISINS, and I had hand drawn (then scanned & edited) all the images in my blog. I would like to get back to personalising my posts that way.

This is not to say I am giving up on my jewellery creations and so on. The way I see it, a bit of diversity can't hurt.

new Etsy seller frustrations.

This is not an article complaining about Etsy. On the contrary, I would just like to express how frustrating it can be for a new seller to get started on Etsy. I've been working at this Etsy shop project for almost a year now and I know the day will come when I get my first sale, but I feel like I'm really stuck where I am at the moment and have a hard time catching the eye of buyers.

   MY SHOP'S PROS:

• My prices are affordable
• My tags are precise and trendy
• My photos look good & make my products look good
• I am polite in everything I say
• My descriptions are inviting
• I am in the process of translating my shop in French (as an option Etsy provides) to reach French speaking Etsians across the world
• My shop appearance (banner, icon) is personalized to look modern & professional
  
  
  MY SHOP'S CONS:
  
  
• I don't have enough item (haven't filled out my first page yet)
• Shipping is high (don't have much of a choice, it really is what it costs...)
• The attention my shop is getting is coming from other sellers only
• Jewelry is a highly over saturated product on Etsy with lots of competition. There is way TOO MUCH choice. Despite my tags, buyers do not find my products at all.
• I only have 2 sales. To the same person. And that would be my mom.

All I can really do now, if I got this seller thing right, is add more items, keep advertising my items in Teams (which can at least bump my items up a notch in searches... though barely.) and continue translating my pages to French to gain a French audience that may or may not see me. I am constantly doing these things, because I am just chalk full of hope & won't give up. But that doesn't mean this isn't extremely stressful for me as time passes by and my efforts seem to be going unnoticed and result-less.

As for advertising via social networking, the issue is I have never gotten any luck with that. The problem has never been that my content is uninteresting, but rather that no one sees it in the first place. I do however have Twitter, Instagram and (obviously) a Blogger blog. Planing on a Facebook page as well.

The most frustrating thing in all this is that people around me (my adolescent sister and her friends) seem to have blooming businesses on Etsy the very second they open their shops without even trying. Their shops aren't very full at barely 2 pages and they don't have to bother with extensive daily advertisements like I do considering they already have enormous audiences on Facebook, instagram, and that sort of thing. I wish it were as easy for myself, and I wish I didn't look like such an idiot trying so hard with nothing to show for in comparison with their instant effortless success.

I have high hopes for the iPod case project. Looking forward to getting those cases in the mail. Maybe that'll help. Crossing my fingers and not giving up.

@GabrielleCaramelle on Instagram

Recently joined Instagram in the hopes of gaining traffic to my Etsy account. I also include Polyvore sets daily (clothing ensembles) and photos relating to me and my life. I have to say, this is kind of my new Twitter.

 

@GabrielleCaramelle

3D Glittery rocky iPhone Cases

This is my first finished product from a new line of products I am planning to set out. This is decidedly the project I will be sticking to for my shop from now on.

I've always loved the idea of gloop. Thick slime or oil spills, something about it feels so bold and intense. And I often like to stare at some of the beads in my enormous bead collection and find them so yummy, like real eye candy. I like to play with them and combine them with one another. But in all honesty I've never been much of a jewelry kind of person. Well, actually, I love simplistic jewelry like tiny pendants on tiny chains, things like that. But beaded jewelry, as much as I love to see it on others, has never really been my personal thing, despite my love for beads themselves.

Anyway. So one night I got the idea of making an art piece: I poured acrylic paint on a thick sheet of black paper, covered it in my favorite shimmer powders and stuck my favorite beads in it in a way that I thought would complement a room if hung in a frame on a wall (to give it a 3D crafty artsy look.)

When I woke up the next day I tested the page's resistance to movement by making waves and bends in the sheey (I like to test my products for any potential damage before thinking of selling them) and the dry paint puddle cracked and opened up to a sub-layer of still wet paint. Had to put it in the garbage in the end.

Then my boyfriend suggested I do it on solid iPod cases, and I got the idea of not only using beads but nature as well. Rocks, twigs, this sort of thing. Made this iPhone case and 24 hours after it being listed, I was able to gather 10 admirers and 6 views from my usual team thread games. May not seem like much to an advanced Etsy seller but it's a start... Not to mention my case seems to be featured in the first page of a number of popular searches I've made to test it out, so the keywords really help. I have a good feeling about this.

Ordered these two cases on eBay yesterday. This may sound ridiculous but I don't have enough money to buy more than that. My mother is planning on buying another bracelet from me though, so I will be using the money from that sale to get another iPhone case or two. When I have enough iPhone 4 cases in my shop I will get iPOD cases, then dip into the 5th generations of both. I have many ideas for this project and I am very excited!

BAT FOR LASHES ( Haunted Man : Marylin ) + musical impression evolution with time

Can not / refuse to get this album out of my head.

I can't believe how much my impressions of an album change from the first listen to multiple listens later. For some odd reason I always misjudge an album when hear it the first few times, to the point that it almost gets annoying  I guess it all turns into the same noise eventually. And then suddenly, as I'm listening one day, it just switches completely. Suddenly I am getting those songs in my head and understanding them completely and wondering how I didn't get addicted earlier. Next thing I know I love it. All this to say I've learned not to trust my instincts on music, and to keep a list of potential likes in memory to try again later when re-stumbling on them instead of ruling them out completely. It helps me keep an open mind. As a result, I have widely diversified the music on my iPod in a way that really suits me.