Tag Archives for etsy

Crafting for a Cause: The David Bowie Button

As I’m sure many of you have heard last week, David Bowie passed away – his music had a profound impact on my life, and was the soundtrack to my early college years.  When Ross shared the news last week, I thought he was kidding, to be honest – but my Facebook feed said otherwise.  I spent the rest of the morning trying not to burst into tears while I got ready for work.  As I went through my day, I saw the reactions of my friends on social media, and wished there was something I could do to help them, and to help myself feel better.  We were all hurting.

And then I saw this tweet from my friend Josie:

I have graphic design skills.  And I wanted to do something creative as an outlet for my Bowie-related feels.  So I responded to Josie’s tweet, and together, we took her idea and turned it into a button.  She told me she had an idea for a button with the lightning bolt from Bowie’s makeup from the Aladdin Sane cover, behind the letters RIP – and that the spaces in the R and P were Bowie’s eyes.  I took that idea, and turned it into the following design:

bowie_eyes

Josie thought it was great, and so I shrunk it down into a button-sized graphic, which she printed and turned into buttons with her button making machine.

button

Josie came up with the idea to make more of these buttons, and sell them on Etsy to raise money for the New York Theater Workshop, which is currently running Lazarus, a musical written by David Bowie, as well as to raise money for cancer research – and I thought it was a great idea, so she’s selling the buttons we’ve made.  If you want to pick up one of your own, you can get one from Josie’s Etsy store for $3.

Josie’s got a little something to share about the process, too:

Anyone who knows me knows I love buttons. I have a bag covered in them and am planning a button-covered dress to debut at New York Comic Con (or an earlier event, if I complete it before then). I got a button-making machine for my birthday, but had not yet designed or created any of my own pins by the time David Bowie died a few days later.
I’m not ashamed to say I was devastated by the death of my idol, and creating this button with Beth gave me an outlet to do something with my grief. Even if nothing comes of it, even if I only sell a few, turning my grief into something proactive and positive helped me to heal. I hope it did the same for her.
-Josie

And it did help me heal. Together we ended up crafting for a cause, with my design skills and her button maker.  Making the design felt like a good creative outlet for my feelings, and helped me process them in a productive way, and it helped Josie as well.

David Bowie Rest in Peace button – $3.00, Etsy

Entering the world of Etsy

I’ve been on such a huge cross-stitching kick lately.  I tend to go through crafting phases, where I’ll be incredibly focused on doing one type of craft, and right now, I’m nose deep in DMC thread skeins and Aida cloth.

by alison.anne on Craftster

By alison.anne on Craftster.  This is me right now.

I’ve even jumped into the world of making my own cross-stitch patterns.  I’ve had some mixed results with that – some images just don’t translate well to a cross-stitch pattern.  But some stuff I made has come out really, really well.  And I thought to myself, “Why not put these out there for everyone?”  Why not, indeed?

So, I resurrected my Etsy shop for the umpty-millionth time.

I’ve sold a wide variety of things in my Etsy shop, under a wide variety of names. It used to be called Bee’s Crafts, then Dreaming Pixels Crafts, and now it’s The Crafty Nerd’s Closet.  I’ve sold punch embroidery pillows through there, and plain old boring pillows made with Sailor Moon fabric.  I’ve tried to sell Doctor Who scarves out of my shop, with no success.  I even tried selling the mess of scarves I’ve made through there – nobody seems to want homemade scarves, however.  But I think I’ve stumbled on something people will actually want to buy.

I think.

I’ve currently got a bunch of My Little Pony patterns up, and one lone Sailor Moon pattern.  I’ve got some scooters in there, too (I’m pretty sure my followers will recognize Mia and Scooterlou, haha), and a couple of little finished objects too.  So far I’ve sold one pattern.  I may have very excitedly started creating more patterns once that first one sold – someone actually wanted to make something with my Crescent Moon Wand themed pattern that I put together at 6 am one day before I went to work (and ended up getting in late because I was flailing about, trying to finish the pattern).

One of the awesome things – and potentially bad things – about Etsy: finding more things to make.  Sure, you can find all sorts of “vintage” things there, and handmade objects for your every need, but finding patterns, stuff to help you make things yourself, now that is what I’m excited about.  I may have found six or seven little cross-stitch patterns that I want to make that are all coffee themed.  At this point, I’ll likely end up covering every wall in cross-stitch projects.  And I have no problem with that whatsoever.

Oh, Etsy, I get the feeling this is going to turn into something resembling my relationship with Pinterest – I visit you for what I think will be two or three minutes, and then hours later I’ve found nine things I want to do and am still sitting in front of the computer in my Rainbow Dash bathrobe, needing to leave for work in ten minutes, heheh.

Go check out my shop – if you’re a fan of The Crafty Nerd on Facebook, you’ll find a code for 15% off any order.  (And if you’re not a fan on Facebook, well, what are you waiting for? 😛 )

I mean, come on, how can you say no to that face?

I mean, come on, how can you say no to that face?