So here's a very abbreviated version of the whole tale behind this. I read Spells, LOVED Laurel's hair decorations piece she gets in Avalon and was like, Hah! I can do that.
And I did. Turned out great. So why did it take me from June till NOW to get a picture up?
I needed a hair model. After many crisscrossing schedules, I finally decided, aw, hell, I'll put it in my hair. Which poses another problem. I needed someone to take the picture for me.

Anyway, I finally coerced someone to do it. YAY!

Wanna see pictures? I know you do...




Yes, that cursed last picture was the thing that took forever.

However, I'm proud. The last picture is the white version of the strand. I have red hair and pink looks awful with red... alas.
I DO have these for sale on my Etsy!. Please take a look and share around!

Curses to Blogger! This was supposed to auto-post at noon. Unfortunately thanks to irritating Blogger, it did not. So sorry for those of you expecting it then!

Guess what! Shadow Hills is getting re-jacketed! I’ve seen it and it is so very pretty. I can’t wait for May!

If you missed yesterday’s pieces, they are here: Ticket to Anywhere and Reading Angel.
There is also another piece today at: Books Out Of The Bookshelves
The next two blogs with puzzle pieces are The Book Cellar and Meow Mix Blog

Trivia Question:
What kind of car does Graham drive?

The prize for this trivia question is SIGNED poster of the hardcover of Shadow Hills!
If more than one person answers the trivia question correctly, I will use a random number generator to pick from the correct answers. Good Luck!



Don’t forget to check out Anastasia’s site, blog, Twitter
And the Shadow Hills Facebook Page

Want to buy Shadow Hills now?
Indiebound
Book Depository
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

So I've been utterly embarrassed about my lack of posting lately. As well as my lack of crafting. *face of shame*

However!!
I am doing prep work for a new craft that will be linked with a giveaway! So yay!!
And on that note...

I'm entering a giveaway for MATCHED and you should enter it too!!
Jen Bigheart is a local book friend and her blog has hit 250 followers so go on over and check it out!
http://jenbigheart.blogspot.com/2010/11/250-follower-giveaway.html

There will also be another post tomorrow for the Shadow Hills Street Team!

This the first of several giveaways I'm doing! These things have been sitting since Smart Chicks and this stuff needs to leave my room. Hah!

Okay so, for the Texas Book Festival they had a Zombies vs Unicorns panel with 18 young adult authors including Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld, Meg Cabot, Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl, Heather Brewer, Andrea Cremer, and oh so so many more!

It was an evening of hilarity with two teams versus each other. The two teams were asked to create mascots. Team Z created Fierce Dorable, a zombie Hello Kitty and Team U created Horny, a unicorn with a giant, giant horn. All thanks to Margie Stohl on that one. The crowd, which was originally Team Zombie, was turned thanks to Horny. Myself included.

AND guess what? They did a drawing for Z vs U audiobooks and guess what I won?!
A Z VS U AUDIOBOOK!!! However I don't do audiobooks (blame the ADD) so you know what that means? A GIVEAWAY!

Unfortunately, Meg Cabot had to leave early and I didn't get her to sign it (and I was pretty bummed about it) but here it is! Shiny, pristine Zombies vs Unicorns audiobook signed by Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld AND two bookmarks!

So how can you win this? SUPER, DUPER easy.
Respond with the following:
Name
Team (Unicorn or Zombie or Zombie-Unicorn)
Email
That's it!
If you're a follower, mention it and I'll give you an extra entry, but it's not required!

This giveaway ends November 7th at midnight CST! Have a happy Halloween!

I'm about to head off for about two weeks and I will have internet, but I've been really guilt-ridden over this very neglected blog. No more!!

So I will *try* over the next two weeks to start on Movie Mondays! Movie Monday is basically Movie of the Week, but with a cuter title. And rather than going on why I love a particular film, I'm going to tell you *why* you should see it.
Have you ever watched a film (possibly even a classic!) and heard it was oh, oh so good and then been like 'um, what? Why did I waste my 2 hours on that?' Well I'll try to take the task on of what makes it good. Or not.

Also! Thanks to an awesome week of Smart Chicks Kick It tour and meeting some kick butt authors, I'm planning on some giveaways AND a very cool craft project giveaway that I'm still mentally planning before executing, but here's a hint: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl :D
Excited? I am.
(Please note: no, I have no read an ARC of Beautiful Darkness, so crafty ideas are based on Beautiful Creatures... which everyone should go read, it's fabulous!)

See ya!

So I've spent more hours than I care to admit talking late night on Twitter to some rather dubious sorts. Okay, not really. More of that "losers I call my best friends" kinda thing.
The players: are myself (obviously), Carla from The Crooked Shelf and Jeremy and Jeffrey West from Novel Thoughts. It started as We Americans want to hear Carla talk (she's from the UK, you know!) and then I guess to be fair, we all decided to do it!
The challenge: read a chapter (or so) of a book and vlog it.
Good Lord, I did not anticipate how anxiety-ridden this would be! I HATE reading aloud. I can much better talk aloud to a crowd just freelancing it. But with reading off of something, I tend to skip over and add words at whatever my brain feels like doing at the moment... and I know I did that here. But I wasn't going to record it again so, oh freaking well! No one is really reading for the story, we're reading for accents.
And I'm from Texas, so go ahead and watch and hear what Texans sound like. (Please note that not every Texan sounds like this... I so happen to be from a pretty urban area.
ALSO! My hair was cut recently and gah! I hate it... especially my bangs. So yeah. Apologies. *hides*



Here's Carla's Vlog Off: Here
Here's is Jeremy's Vlog: Here

Okay, so I'm a primarily craft blog, I know. But the crafts are book and movies and this that. See how I justified that? Like it? Good.

So Anastasia Hopcus is a LOCAL author for me (how cool is that?!) and she personally invited me on Goodreads to a signing she was doing and because I'd never been personally invited to anything by an author, I sought out the book and read in order to go to the signing. Oh, and I kinda freaking loved the book too. Perfect situation, no?!

I will have to use my creative juices to see if I can turn this into a craft project. I know I've been slacking lately. :( Blame the need for money!


But! In the mean time! Read the book! The e-book was just released! Check it out!!
Barnes and Noble e-book
Amazon Kindle

Be excited! I'm on a street team! YAAAY!!

Well, the title says it all. I LOVED Shiver. Want to know why? Because it made me cry on the very last page. And I never cry. Unless I'm hormonal. But Shiver was just so beautifully written and so well-developed that yup, I cried.
And then Linger came out. And I didn't cry, but I still just straight up loved it. So Maggie Stiefvater was coming to Austin. Oh mah goodness. I had to celebrate!

I spent 3 arduous days laboring over designing and making 2 shirts for me and my friend Stephanie. We had to look rockstar, after all. And of course, we got a ton of comments on them at the signing and asking if I was selling them. Yeah, hah, at like $50 a pop!
AND (the highlight of my night) was when Maggie asked where I got them printed and I was like oh, no no, I made them. She was impressed. I beamed.

Now this process was so long and complicated that I couldn't begin to tell anyone at the signing how I did it. But here's my tutorial of sorts. And I'm sorry for the lack of progress pics, I suck at stopping and thinking "picture time!".

All right, if you have ever used freezer paper stenciling, that's what this is basically.

You'll need:
- freezer paper (found near wax paper in the grocery store)
- an iron
- stenciling sponges (I used the ones without wooden handles)
- acrylic paint (or fabric paint, but I have a preference with acrylics and I used BASICS brand paint)
- X-acto knife (or craft knife)
- pencil
- stencil blanks (Hobby Lobby has them!)
- masking tape

1) First I drew the trees and made them the sizes I wanted.
I actually scanned the drawings, blew them up and printed them off so I could just trace them on to the freezer paper.

2) Draw the trees on the MATTE side of the freezer paper and cut it out.
So it looks like this:


3) Position it and get that iron ready! And iron the sucker! Iron all over, especially the edges. Some tutorials say to iron both sides. I never did that and I had no problems with it.

4) Now, spread some paint out and try to coat the sponge evenly. Then dab the paint on the stencil. Now it's not as important with freezer paper stencils, but be sure to make the motion up and down and not pushing the paint side to side at all.
I've ruined many a good shirt doing that...

5) Let it dry. Why I like acrylic over fabric paint is because fabric paint needs to be heated or something and I don't have the patience for that. Bah.
With stenciling, the acrylic paint layer is really thin so it doesn't take long at all to dry!

6) Peel off the paper. And voila!
Now repeat this a billion times. Or so.


7) For the leaves, I used a plastic stencil blank and just cut them out once (3 different batches of leaves). Instead of ironing it on, just use masking tape to secure them. The leaves part goes really fast.

Also, to get the color/fade effect that's on the cover of Linger, place the first trees higher up and color them the light green, medium in the middle and dark green in the foreground. That's a distance/proportions thing.
Click on the pictures to see a bigger version!


Now did I have Maggie sign the shirt I sprained my index finger's first knuckle on? Yes. Yes, I did.



YAAAAYYY!!!

And so you know what all this leads to...?
MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Now I'm a little beginning baby blog, so this is going to be super easy.
Comment on this post to enter. You MUST be a follower to enter.
Just post your name and email. That's it!
And YES! It is open internationally!

(edit) This is for a SIGNED SHIVER!


Want more than one entry? You can do one or all!
- With the comment include what you LOVED about Shiver or Linger OR stroke my ego and tell me what you thought about the shirts! (I'm kidding... kinda...)
- Twitter - RT this contest on Twitter with the hashtag #FYshivergiveaway or @ me (JustlyJennifer) into the RT (and if you do this, please make it easy on me and include your Twitter name with your post...).
- Facebook - Post it on Facebook (and provide a link in the comment).

Contest will end a week from today, August 6th! Yay! I'm excited! :D

Since I've graduated from college, I've exactly gotten a job. Haven't been looking either. So here's some of what I've been up to recently!!

Chalkboard Coasters


This serves the basic function of wine charms and all that froofy stuff. But I saw this on another VERY awesome craft blog: Shrimp Salad Circus
And they are super easy to do!

But then I thought 'if you use these, you need chalk nearby and chalk is messy...'
And so... I made a coaster holder!

Cute, no? How did I do it? Lots of measuring, no lie! I poked around on the internet looking at other holders and I noted features I liked. While this too is made out of cork, it's also chalkboard. I LOVE chalkboard paint. If you see more random things painted chalkboard you know why...

Secret Jewelry Box
I also saw this and HAD to do it. SO cool. Basically take a shadow box (one where the front opens) and put a picture against the glass. At a glance it looks like just a picture:


But when you open it... secret compartment!

Now I haven't had a chance to hang jewelry in it, but still! Fun!

And last, but certainly not least...
Lady Gaga inspired shoes!
Now with this blog I am trying to keep it to book and film inspired things (obviously not with this post) but music is also something incredibly important to me. I love classic rock and appreciate everything from the 40s up. But I also love me some glam pop Lady Gaga. So sue me.

About 8 hours. 700 rhinestones. And more nail glue than one should breathe... I present to you...


Awesome sauce.

And now back to our regularly scheduled topics... VERY soon, I will be posting a blog about this INSANE craft I'm working on for Maggie Stiefvater's Linger book tour. I'm very excited. The signing is on Thursday and I'll be debuting the work there and after that, expect not only a new blog, but my first GIVEAWAY!!!!! :O

July 9, 2010

An oldie, but a greatie! I absolutely adore this movie and it's one of my (few) favorite Spielberg films. And what's funny is when I was five, I was so scared by this movie that by the time the T-rex chomps down on the lawyer, I had run from the room not to return until it was over. But as an adult, I love it. I even read the book in 8th grade and it has so much about genetics that by the time I got into Biology in High School, I had a step up in the class (first and only time ever!).

What I love so much about this movie is that it is a huge turning point in the difference between "old" film and the new CGI age. At the time, it was not possible to do a completely convincing CGI dinosaur film, but the total use of puppets was just not something Spielberg was interested in. So, this film blends them both. And perfectly, I might add. I could go through the film and point out what is a puppet and what is not (even more amazingly what the actors are actually seeing and what they aren't) and if you are a shrewd film watcher, you might be able to figure it out, but really, why bother? It still looks so fantastic!

I must say that I end up quoting this movie easily on a weekly basis. 90% of them delivered by the absolutely amazing Jeff Goldblum, this man can do no wrong in my eyes, ever. Here are some of my all-time favorites.

[Amusing how often this comes to my mind.]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: God help us; we're in the hands of engineers.

[I say this with a ridiculous frequency, or at least think it with ridiculous frequency...]
Ray Arnold: Hold on to your butts.

[Whenever I speak computer nerd this line comes to mind...]
Lex: I'm a hacker!
Tim: That's what I said: you're a nerd.
Lex: I am not a computer nerd. I prefer to be called a hacker!

Henry Wu: You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

[why did he not win an Oscar for this line?]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility... for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!

[I really want this on a shirt I love it so much.]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...

Muldoon: Clever girl.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, expands to new territory, and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously.

Okay, I realize this has been mainly quotes. Oops. Oh well, this film perfectly blends action, science and humor in one terrifying blend.
Need a movie for the kids on the same theme? Don't do what my parents did to me, get Land Before Time. That's for the kiddos.

First, I have to give a little shout out to this site (non-craft shirt, but very cool). If anyone wants to bribe for any reason, let it be known...
Snorgtees.com

Mini Raptor Earrings How freaking cute are these??	Dinotopia Necklace Wear your dino pride loud and proud.	T Rex Lollipops Now you can take a bite out of them!	Jurassic Amber Soap w/ Insect So simple and yet so clever.
GiantEye.etsy.com	pannikin.etsy.com	SweetLollipopShop.etsy.com	amandalouise.etsy.com

Thunder the Brontosaurus Dinosaur So adorable!	Mommy's Little Velociraptor T-shirt If I had a small child...	Jurassic Park Sketch Card Love it!	Kirigami Jurassic Bobblehead Pop-up Card Series Scare people when they open your cards.
woobiNwawa.etsy.com	babywood.etsy.com	dannylimor.etsy.com	popupcardmaking.etsy.com

FYI!! I apologize for the spread-out-ness. Apparently Blogger does not like tables. *eyeroll*

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
July 3, 2010

With this film having just come out on DVD I thought appropriate to review something I saw far too many times in theaters.

Now first off, I LOVED the books, so there's a slight bias in my review there. But I also LOVED the movie. Why? Not sure. Maybe because it was totally entertaining. Or maybe Logan Lerman is pretty sweet on the eyes. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it and wished it had done better in the box office. A lot of the faithful readers complain over the adaptation of the book to the screen. And, yeah, it is different, but there are a lot of problematic cinematic issues with the book. For one, it is very episodic, which is great for young readers, keeps them interested, but incredibly hard to do well in a film. Films are short! This also influenced the actors' ages. It's hard to coordinate 12 year olds constantly getting rides and such, though I think after the film came out this was less of an annoyance to the readers. Another big irritation is the whole 'going after my mother' plot. But, dear readers of the Percy Jackson series, you must admit that even the book going off after a lighting bolt where you have no idea where it is, is thin reasoning at best. Even in a kids book. The mother subplot in the book is a much better plot for the movie. Flows better.

Now, all that aside, I still really enjoyed the costumes, casting, humor and even action! Christopher Columbus kind of sapped me out with the first two Harry Potter films, but he redeemed himself very well! There were still sap bits, I mean he is a family film director after all. Now this seems obvious, but keep a watch out for Logan Lerman, that kid is going places. He's already signed up for The Three Musketeers and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which I could NOT be more excited for! The book is awesome!).

Great movie for kids and adults!

And now, for the Percy Jackson goodies!! (Be warned, there is some shameless self-promotion on the first two items. :)

JD1360.etsy.com	JD1360.etsy.com	evietees.etsy.com	quercusdesign.etsy.com

TTCouture.etsy.com	TTCouture.etsy.com	TwilightTammy.etsy.com	WandsAndSwords.etsy.com

Well, introductions first.

I'm Jennifer and I LOVE arts and crafts of all kinds. I'm an unpublished novel writer and currently a freelance videographer. I was always artistic and loved all kinds of art all the way through K -12. In high school, I started making jewelry and picking up arts and craft projects like sewing, cooking, etc. Then about 3 years ago, I read these books (maybe you've heard of them) the Twilight series. And I joined TwilightMOMS.com where my arts and craftiness soared and I started my Etsy with Twilight jewelry (now retired) at: http://jd1360.etsy.com (I never foresaw me actually using Etsy to sell, so I didn't bother coming up with a cute name, I regret it now...)
I became an Aro moderator over the Arts and Crafts section and predominately over the Apparel and Decor forum where I learned a lot about all crafts in all forms. (I'm MajorWhitlock on TMs) I'm also the Assistant Administrator on MundieMoms.com, presiding over graphic design (Chairman Meow on MMs).
Aside from all the website stuff, I have participated in two Altered Book round robins (and currently doing a third), altered clothes, shoes and art, scrapbooked, baked decorative cakes, made invitations, designed T-shirts, and oh man, even more! I'm pretty sure there is not a medium I haven't dabbled in at some point.

So, back to the original purpose of the blog. After successfully creating my Twilight jewelry line, I created the Camp Half Blood necklace for the Percy Jackson series and I even though I really do NOT blogs, I was thinking there should be a blog that's dedicated to fandom jewelry and crafts. Boy, is that up MY alley....
Since I love books AND movies, why don't I do both? Spread the love! However I do have few rules (hey, it comes with everything right?).

1. NO copy write infringement. As a film student, the basic principle of not getting a logo you can't pay for or own in a shot is beaten into your head. Same thing. Book covers, movie images, movie logos and designed owned by production companies will not be advertised. This includes things like, the Cullen crest and Robert Pattinson. Unless you took the picture yourself.

... well that's the only rule I have for now! But it's a very important rule!
Please note that this blog is NOT for web banners or images; things created on Photoshop. This is for physical and usually for sale products.

Now I'm going to show some of my past crafties!
This was made for the Breaking Dawn release party. I was going as Jasper. And I wanted to be a soldier. This took about 20 hours to hand stitch all that gold brocade.


This is one of my very favorite Altered Book spreads. Done in the Twilight round robin, it was a "Mrs. Cullen" spread. I have a deep fondness for silent era films and such and this Mary Pickford in the picture.


Another spread, this one in a New Moon one. Yes, that's real cracked glass and it was SO much fun to do. :D


I miss making these. They were fun. Hand painted on rocks. They were so rockstar.

If for whatever reason you're interested in my drawing and photography, check out my deviantArt here: http://davetheedgeevans.deviantart.com/ but I'm not going to post them here.

These were my main bestsellers on Etsy before I retired the style.


This is my current best seller on Etsy, it's the Camp Half Blood necklace inspired from the Percy Jackson series. Hand-painted on 14 mm wooden beads.


I actually paint a lot better now, but haven't updated the picture. :x

So what should I expect with the blog?
Tons of cute stuff!! But seriously, I'm going to feature literature inspired crafts (most of them will be for sale), feature film inspired crafts and have a weekly movie review with crafts related to the movie!
On top of that, I'll even post about some really cool how-to's to some really neat crafts! Nothing is impossible! :)

Thanks for reading!!
I also hope to be able to hold some contests and such after I get myself a bit more established.