D.Z. Mars Creative

Yay!  It's Thanksgiving break!  After two eight hour days of parent-teacher conferences, I'm ready for some time off.  Yesterday, I was at conferences from 12 to 8 pm, and on Monday I had the same.  I managed to sneak in some time to print up a penguin shirt using my new penguin blocks. It's a plus-sized shirt (2XL), and I think it turned out rather well.  You can see it here in my ETSY shop . I also made a sports bra in size XL, using the same penguin block.  I'm on some kinda penguin kick now, I guess.  You can see this item here in my ETSY shop as well. Because I was gone for the past two evenings, my mom was kind enough to take my pup over to her house for the evening.  She took him for a run on both nights, going 4 miles the first night, and 3 the second night because it was pouring.  She said he was an excellent running partner, so maybe she'll take him again :0)!  My mom runs marathons at almost 60 years old, which is quite cool.  My little brother got her

I made yet another penguin stamp in the last two nights.  No pictures as of yet, so will have to upload one later.  I'm on quite a penguin kick lately, and as I got a nice big sheet of pink SpeedyStamp, I can carve to my heart's delight for at least a while.  I also made a small bow stamp that I can use as a penguin hair bow (do penguins need hair bows?) or bow ties.  I am on a total carving kick. It helps that I am making sales again (amazing what actually putting effort into something will do!).  I sold a penguin shirt I made from a screen made on a piece of curtain fabric and using an embroidery hoop as the frame.  I used screen drawing fluid and filler, but because the screen is held in such a crappy frame, it's starting to crack.  It's okay; I'm trying to move from screens to stamps because I like the variety of designs I can get from three stamps together, as opposed to a screen with a set pattern.  Strangely, a sheet of stamp material is cheaper than a blan

I spent a short few hours tonight watching random tv shows (Old Christine, Glee, Ghost Whisperer), and while I did, I carved out this stamp: It's actually a pretty big stamp at almost 3" or so.  It's the first stamp / block I've managed to make that actually has some semi-fine lines on it!  Hurray! :0) It actually turned out well, considering I free-handed the original picture in under 30 seconds, on an index card, during my lunch break at school.  If only carving took such a short time.  But it's actually kinda therapeutic in a way. Well, that's that.  I'm so in need of vacation.  It's nice being a teacher; I get a lot of time off, I get time to make a bunch of stuff, and I do have a  good time while I'm teaching.  I have parent-teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday, then the rest of the week off.  Can't wait....

This is what I made today :0)  I think it's kinda cute, but then again, I really like this little cupcake stamp.  In any case, it's a dish towel, in case you couldn't tell, and one of those vintage-y looking ones made of faux-sackcloth.   You can get it here if you are at all interested. I am rather disappointed in my other project, though.  I used my new little fox stamp to stamp on an old hoodie sweatshirt.  As my students would say: "Epic fail."  The first time I did this, the paint stuck to the stamp, for some reason, and then blotched on the hoodie.  I tried to fix it by reworking the stamp a little and then restamping over the first lines in a darker color.  Okay, that was better.  Set the paint and decided to wash it because the hoodie was all creased from being folded up. Turns out the paint wasn't set.  Most of it came off, the black paint kinda smeared and it looks like a total fail, which I think it is.  Here you can see my shame: The foxes wer

hi there!  I'm back!  I let this blog lapse for some reason, like for more than 9 months, I think.  How terrible is that?  I'm not sure anyone was too disappointed. I got back onto this blog because  I felt the urge to start carving blocks again and printing thousands of pounds of underwear again.  So I have a whole new crop of those in my etsy store . I carved a kawaii sort of cupcake block two days ago.  Here's a picture of some underpanties I printed using them: They made me smile anyhow.  I'm planning on putting the block on hoodies some time soon.  You can get these panties here .  You can also convo me if size 5 is not your size, and I'll custom make you a pair.          I also carved a really cute little fox block, but it's not printing clearly on fabric because of the detail and the thickness of the fabric I was using.  I'll have to deepen all my cuts before I print with it again, and not sure how deeply I can cut, because this is my first time

So I haven't posted in a while. It's been so cold here in the midwest that school was canceled in most districts two days in a row. I got Friday off, and Monday is MLK day, so I really have a four day weekend. Made and sold a few things over break, and I have about $100 in my paypal account now, which is awesome for me. If I just listed things more often, I'd be $500 richer a month, right? Ha. Laziness gets in the way. I made my first two stenciled hoodies for my brother and my sister-in-law. We have been into making gifts for each other, and hoodies are everyone's favorite thing to wear in the midwest in winter, right? Anyhow, I am abnormally proud of these sweatshirts, so here they are: The DNA Geek one is for my lil brother. He is a biologist and a self-proclaimed geek. I am telling everyone that you haven't really lived until you've cut a stencil of a DNA double helix. Really. This one was for my sister-in-law, who reads more than me, wh