another fabulous art/craft website - ETSY.COM

"Your place to buy and sell all things handmade"
...and you really should buy AND sell, because everything I've seen on ETSY is wonderful, beautiful, and surprising.
Felt barrettes, crocheted hats and jewelry, earrings, aprons, paintings, clothes, infant clothes, pet accessories... you can pretty much find anything your heart desires on this website (made from almost any material). And it's all with a handmade, artistic flair.

I am not poetic or graceful with words, so I won't ramble. Check it out! You won't be disappointed.

[ this post was inspired by the 'little paper airplanes' post by mel<3 ]

"Little Paper Airplanes" makes my heart soar!

This is what I love: Artists getting together, supporting one another and selling decently priced prints of their work. Go to Little Paper Airplanes to find cute pieces of art, clothing, adorable accessories/buttons and -- my personal favorite -- zines and papergoods. Most items are around $20, but prices range.

Here's a snippet of info about how the site got going:

Little Paper Planes was started in December of 2004 in Los Angeles. As of July of 2008, Little Paper Planes calls San Francisco its home. Everything is stored/shipped in San Francisco. I started it to have a place where my friends and I can could sell stuff we make to help us make some money while we focus on our painting careers, but now the store has grown so much and is a place for all sorts of artists and designers. I feel honored that all the people who sell on the site are a part of it. Everyone is very talented and I have made lots of new friends. Oh and I love all the customers too, and even some of you now sell on the site! Anyhow I am going on and on, just wanted to say thanks.

Thank you so much for visiting Little Paper Planes. xoxo-kelly

Oh, and they accept solicits from other artists too.

(Props to Hilary Weisert for pointing the site out to me!)

Bummin' around on Bomomo.com

I just spent way too long creating psychedelic art online. With Safari and Firefox, you can "paint" and print your work here.

I can't really figure out how to control the paintbrushes that fly around, but isn't that the fun thing about it?

If you make something cool, post it as a comment.

Photos on the Cheap: Toy Photography

I've been told the Holga, a cheap, plastic toy camera, was the top hipster gift of last holiday season. But after you shake off the irreverent glam, this hollowed piece of plastic holds it's own, and is an incredibly good find for photography artists looking for an inexpensive, low-fidelity look.

The Lomography Society, a collective of toy camera enthusiasts, sells the camera for about $70, though you can find them on eBay and elsewhere for as low as $20. The camera itself takes 120 medium format film, not the usual 35mm film your old pre-digital cameras took, which is relatively inexpensive at about $0.20 an exposure. Developing the photos is the biggest expense, but many community centers and schools allow cheap or free access to their developing and scanning equipment. You can also buy the supplies online to develop film yourself. This guide describes the relative ease with which you can process your negatives, bringing your development costs as low as a penny or two per shot!

While a digital camera may seem like the cheapest way to explore the world behind a lens, a decent digital camera may run $250. With that kind of money, you can afford at least a few hundred Holga shots, and have much better looking results in the end. All it takes is time and effort.