I’ve started to like this pairing a bit recently. It’s cute. ^^ It *sort of* makes sense, since Kurama and Yukina are the sweetest characters in Yuu Yuu Hakusho.

Mainly, though, they’re just both fun to draw. :3

Another cute animal drawing done in The GIMP. It’s not even funny how much I love that program. ♥_♥ Good thing it’s free…

You’re free to use this for your own kanzashi- even the ones you sell. Kanzashi are beautiful, but their tendency to fray makes these Japanese hair ornaments a bit annoying at times, as well as decreasing their shelf life. Hopefully using this method will help, just a little. It’s based on the traditional method, but altered a bit to result in stronger kanzashi, with the individual petals being thicker and the ends tucked inside, so that no frayable edges are exposed.

I made this ipod / cellphone / gadget case for a friend. It’s shaped like a chibi-fied version of her pet rat, Mimzi. The tail, face and other features are hand-embroidered and it’s fully lined. Kawaii! :3

I also got a bunch of things for less than $2.00 USD apiece from Yamatoku Classic’s Ebay Store. Two yabane patterned komon + a michiyuki that looks a *little* bit like Megumi’s from "Rurouni Kenshin." (I also have an ama michiyuki which looks more like hers- I could easily fold it up and baste it to make it look short enough.) Guess who’s going to have a lot of Meiji-era fun at the next cosplay convention? ;) I also now have the right-colored kimono items to go as Yukishiro Tomoe. :3 I can’t quite decide who to cosplay as yet, but it’s fun to have a lot of options. (And it would have to be a kimono-wearing character, of course. X3 )

The kimono I got from Yamatoku:

I love this penguin! He’s so cute and roly-poly and huggable. X3

Artist links:

Blog
Etsy
Flickr

Items for sale by this artist:

Mr. Raccoon Netbook Case / Tote Bag with Lining, Zipper, Pocket, originally uploaded by SnowFoxCreations.
A zippered lined tote bag / netbook case made for Mom. She loves raccoons (Dad actually nicknamed her “raccoon” long ago) and she uses a lot of tote bags (she’s a teacher, and they have to lug around a scary amount of papers and books) so I made her a raccoon tote bag for Mother’s Day. :)

Raccoons are like, one of the cutest animals ever. They’re really smart, too- almost like furry little people. We have some in our neighborhood who started coming on the deck at night to steal Tenchi’s cat food, and it’s really fun to watch their antics. ^^ They’re fluffy, cute little clowns. Raccoons, otters and foxes are my favorite wild animals. (^_^”) (Featured by SnowFoxCreations)

More photos of Mister Raccoon (click to view):

butterfly garden bulletin board, originally uploaded by SnowFoxCreations.
Custom bulletin board I painted for my “art studio” (part of my bedroom lol.) I have fun making custom bulletin board slike this. I’ve been doing it for years, but this is my first one in a while. (Featured by SnowFoxCreations)

Plum Blossoms at AAMU, originally uploaded by SnowFoxCreations.

(Featured by SnowFoxCreations)

A print of this image is available here via Zazzle

Foxy Finds Logo : Final Version, originally uploaded by SnowFoxCreations.
The logo for Foxy Finds, a blog featuring indy art and crafts. The FaceBook page for it kept demanding a profile image, so I did this in The GIMP.
(Featured by SnowFoxCreations)

A logo. We has it.

The page is ***here***, BTW.v

1.) First, you need to log in to your Etsy.com account. It doesn’t matter if you have anything to sell- you just need to join Etsy.com, which is free.

2.) Head over to the "Etsy :: Your Etsy Mini" Generator Page. It will look something like the screencap below. Notice that there are two types of code that will be generated: Flash and Javascript. They do basically the same thing, but if you’re on LiveJournal, MySpace or most other social sites, you’ll want to use the Flash code, since those sites won’t accept Javascript. (If you have your own domain, Java is better- but for now, we’re working with Flash, which works almost everywhere, thereby being more versatile.)

3.A) Select "My Shop" under "Items to Show." Even if your shop is empty, this will generate the code we need.

3.B) Now select the size of image you want- thumbnails are small but perfectly square; gallery size larger but crops your images into rectangles, which occasionally makes the product look weird (i.e., crops off important features.) I’m going with the gallery size for this tutorial, since it looks better. ^^"

3.C) Choose the layout- make sure that it’s not bigger than the page you’re going to put the mini in! D: (Yes, I’ve made that mistake before…) For a nice widget with Gallery-sized images, 2×2 is good, but feel free to toy around with the layout.

4.) By now, there should be some code sort of like this:
<table style="text-align: center;"><tr><td><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.etsy.com/flash/spots/etsy_mini.swf?user_id=6221158&user_name=LittleSnowFox&item_source=shop&item_size=gallery&rows=2&columns=2" width="354" height="362"><param name="movie" value="http://www.etsy.com/flash/spots/etsy_mini.swf?user_id=6221158&user_name=LittleSnowFox&item_source=shop&item_size=gallery&rows=2&columns=2" /></object></td></tr><tr><td><a style="color:#D35701; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight:bold" href="http://www.etsy.com">Etsy: Your place to buy &amp; sell all things handmade</a><br/><a style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#0192B5; text-decoration: none;" href="http://LittleSnowFox.etsy.com">LittleSnowFox.etsy.com</a></td></tr></table>

Paste this code into a text editor.

5.) Visit the page of the person you want to feature in your art blog/etc. I’ll be using the page of KurokamiKanzashi because I have it open, and I started to do this tutorial since I was going to feature her art in my blog anyway. She has really nifty kanzashi. #_# She also restores antique kimono, which is something I appreciate as an Asian-textiles fanatic.

6.) Go to the text editor you pasted your code into and find your username somewhere- then select it. Make sure to get the whole name- don’t miss any letters!

Then go to edit>replace or press the shortcut to start the replace function on your text editor. On Windows Notepad I believe it is CTRL + R; on Gedit (which I am using) it is CTRL + H. It will bring up a window offering to replace your username throughout the document with whatever you input.

Go back to the feature artist’s page and copy their username from the last part of their url. Input it into your text editor as the text to replace your username with and then have the text editor do the replace function.
YOU AREN’T DONE YET! READ THE NEXT STEP!

7.) There should be a string of random-looking numbers in your code, like this image below. That is the individual number given to every Etsy.com user. The number there now is still yours! YOU MUST CHANGE IT TO THE OTHER ARTIST’S NUMBER.

Select your number just like you did your username and go to Edit>Replace just like before. It will bring up a window kind of like this one:

Now you need to find out the other artist’s Etsy ID Number. Go to their shop and hover over the sidebar link labeled "Profile&quot. You should see a different string of random-looking numbers at the end of the link. It should look something like this:

Those numbers at the end are what you need to input into the text editor to replace your own number. It’s possible to just copy them down, but I’m lazy and I like the right-click + copy link, then paste the link url into something (such as a new browser tab’s address bar or another text editor file) and cut/copy the numbers off of the end. Doing it this way also prevents typos. (NOTE: It won’t work to visit the link and then copy the numbers from the address bar after the link loads- I’ve tried it, and the link in the sidebar redirects to an address based on the username instead of their number, so it won’t help you. Just copy the link url and work from that.)

KurokamiKanzashi’s user number is 5598200, so we will replace the user number already in the text editor with that via the already open "Replace Text" function. Now, you should have code something like this:

<table style="text-align: center;"><tr><td><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.etsy.com/flash/spots/etsy_mini.swf?user_id=5598200&user_name=KurokamiKanzashi&item_source=shop&item_size=gallery&rows=2&columns=2" width="354" height="362"><param name="movie" value="http://www.etsy.com/flash/spots/etsy_mini.swf?user_id=5598200&user_name=KurokamiKanzashi&item_source=shop&item_size=gallery&rows=2&columns=2" /></object></td></tr><tr><td><a style="color:#D35701; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight:bold" href="http://www.etsy.com">Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade</a><br/><a style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#0192B5; text-decoration: none;" href="http://KurokamiKanzashi.etsy.com">KurokamiKanzashi.etsy.com</a></td></tr></table>

(BTW, look at the code- see how it specifies how many columns and what size the images are in your Etsy Mini? You can edit that code manually to avoid having to do all of this over again. Thank God!)

Inputting this into a blog entry or widget will give you

THIS SPARKLING FANCY SUPERB RESULT (Clickable!):

Now, I can finally do an art feature of this store once I have the time. ^^; Although, honestly, she’s probably going to get more hits from this tutorial than from the feature. lol

x-posted SnowFoxCreations.com + SnowFoxCreations FaceBook Page

Sale listing: @ Etsy

x-posted SnowFoxCreations.com + SnowFoxCreations FaceBook Page

x-posted SnowFoxCreations.com + SnowFoxCreations FaceBook Page

x-posted SnowFoxCreations.com + SnowFoxCreations FaceBook Page

I also bought that antique rose-painted Nagoya obi I’ve been eyeing for months. The seller relisted it so many times, and I was a bit concerned that they’d quit relisting it, so… ^^;

I’m thinking that it may be from the time immediately following WWII- I’ve heard reports of kimono/obi being ‘painted’ in this manner since dyeing was too expensive in the post-war economy. The fabric is very thick and luxurious- I *think* that it’s silk, but I’ve never felt anything quite like it. :?

Really, though, I bought it because I love roses and wanted to wear it with this Taisho-era irotomesode. And it would have been JUST PERFECT, but after ordering it, I remembered that Nagoya obi are a bit too informal for tomesode. ^^; Not that anyone in my state would even notice that. TT_TT I live in the middle of a kimono desert… :(

Cats and sakura- two of the best things ever. There is a huge gallery of these photos here.

Oh, the things that people can accomplish armed with only felt and a sewing kit. Isn’t this plushie Noah’s ark cute? ^^

The artist does tons of cute things like this, so if you like cute felt crafts, it might be fun to add her as a contact on Flickr.