Jamie and Cameron

Hello Beautiful People! With only a few weeks left, we finally have our second entry in the wedding cake topper contest! This is from a couple who I met recently at Crafty Wonderland's Spring Wedding Extravaganza. Enjoy!----

We met playing Left 4 Dead on Xbox Live when Jamie was living in Michigan and Cameron in Washington DC. 

At first, Jamie thought Cameron was a pompous jerk and hated her, and Cameron thought Jamie was too awesome to exist (true), so he started calling her "SparklePony" because of her inherent unicorn nature. Haha. 

Eventually, after thousands of zombie apocalypses and lots of trivia, they began talking on the phone and then video-chat for hours and hours each day. Cameron would ride the train for an hour to go to the Apple store to make Jamie videos of him serenading her. Jamie sent Cameron mixed CDs with pictures of unicorns on them. After months of falling in love, Cameron got on a plane to Michigan because he couldn't stand being away from Jamie for one more second. They had an amazing weekend, but Cameron eventually had to get on a plane and go back to DC. After a week of being apart and miserable, Jamie got in her car and drove to Cameron. She never went back. Home is where your unicorn is. :)

After traveling thousands of miles together and making a beautiful son, they settled in Portland, OR  where Cameron grew up. Cameron proposed to Jamie by Xbox, just as they fell in love. He called her downstairs to play as usual, and she found the ring on her controller. He instructed her to open her messages where there was a message from him, a very familiar sight. She cried, which she only usually does when there's no more cheese.

We're getting married in September and are having a super personalized wedding. We wore zombie shirts to our engagement photos because they brought us together. The unicorn toppers would mean the world to us. It's a nod to how we fell in love and we would cherish them forever, just as we will each other. :)

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Aww--thanks for sharing your story! Got one of your own to share?  If you want to enter to win a custom set of your very own, click here to read the full details on how to submit your story! Not getting married? No problem! I'm holding a special drawing foranyone to receive a $250 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for all cake topper referrals between now and May 31st, 2013! If you know anyone getting married who too shy to enter the story contest and in the market for custom cake toppers and , or even if they want to choose from the over 100 designs in my Etsy shopmy Etsy shop, have them drop your name and email address when they place their order before May 31st and I will put your name in the hopper for that gift certificate! No limit to how many people you can refer -- you'll get one entry per couple who orders by the deadline! 

Neil and Laura

Hello Beautiful People! We have our first entry in the wedding cake topper contest! This is actually from a couple who I recently made a set of cake toppers for, just before the contest launched. So you get to see photos of the finished toppers and hear about why they commissioned this special pair based on the sari fabric in the wedding attire. Here's the story of Laura and Neil:

Neil and Laura might have met over a decade ago when Neil was working in San Francisco and Laura was an undergraduate in the Bay Area. Their chance of meeting diminished briefly, however, when Neil moved to Paris to study French literature. They might have met again when both of them moved to the University of Michigan for graduate school. 

They took classes in the same buildings and volunteered as ushers for the same theater program, but still somehow failed to meet. They also could have met when they both attended the AIIS summer language program in India (Laura made the mistake of skipping the orientation in Delhi), or when they spent a year there doing research for their PhDs (once again Laura made the mistake of refusing to go to Delhi). 

They came even closer to meeting after returning to Michigan where they wrote their dissertations at different branches of the same coffee shop, worked out at the same gym, and lived within blocks of each other.

Neil moved to Pittsburgh in 2010 to start teaching, and Laura followed one year after. Laura moved into the same neighborhood as Neil. On campus, their offices are just minutes away from each other. They still failed to meet until Laura substituted for one of her colleagues in a seminar on the difficulties of French translation. 

As she sat down to deliver her comments she was introduced to Neil. She quickly realized that: 1- He was much more qualified to discuss the difficulties of translating gender in French and Hindi than she was, 2- this was a problem because she really wanted him to like her. Neil graciously forgave the flaws in Laura's talk and invited her to lunch the next week. They went to the theater together the following night and haven't spent a day without talking since then.

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Wow--that's an amazing story. Got one of your own to share?  If you want to enter to win a custom set of your very own, click here to read the full details on how to submit your story! Not getting married? No problem! I'm holding a special drawing for anyone to receive a $250 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for all cake topper referrals between now and May 31st, 2013! If you know anyone getting married who too shy to enter the story contest and in the market for custom cake toppers and , or even if they want to choose from the over 100 designs in my Etsy shopmy Etsy shop, have them drop your name and email address when they place their order before May 31st and I will put your name in the hopper for that gift certificate! No limit to how many people you can refer -- you'll get one entry per couple who orders by the deadline! 

Woo Hoo! Two wedding contests to put a little spring in your step!

 Hello Beautiful People!  I'm excited to announce that I reached a personal milestone last week and now have over 100 designs in the weddings section of my Etsy shop!  And to celebrate, I think it's high time we have a little contest. Oh, did I say "a" contest? How about adding in a little $250 drawing on the side just for fun that anyone can enter as many times as they want?

 The first contest is for couples getting married who want a custom cake topper to grace their cake. I love hearing stories about how couples met, so bring them on! 

Tell me your cutest, goofiest, or most swoonfully romantic story of your "I do moment," the moment you knew you had to spend the rest of your life with your partner, or a sweet story that will make me smile. Then choose one or more of the designs on my Etsy site or one you spotted hanging out at the Chapel of Bunny Love that I can use to illustrate your saga on my blog. Send a picture of the two of you to sweeten the pot. I'll publish your stories between now and 11:59 PM, Pacific Standard Time on May 31st, 2013 and then we'll open it up for the readers to vote on which story made them go "awwww!" or "ohhhhhh!" or "mmmmmmmmm!" 

The grand prize winner will get a custom cake topper set that I'll make with whatever critters make their hears go purrrrrrr!!

Please limit your entries to 500 words. This contest is intended for currently engaged couples. I'll post them as they come in. Email them to me at bunnywithatoolbelt@gmail.com. 

Not getting married? No problem! I'm holding a special drawing for anyone to receive a $250 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for all cake topper referrals between now and May 31st, 2013! If you know anyone getting married who is in the market for custom cake toppers, or even if they want to choose from the over 100 designs in my Etsy shop, have them drop your name and email address when they place their order before May 31st and I will put your name in the hopper for that gift certificate! No limit to how many people you can refer -- you'll get one entry per couple who orders by the deadline!  

Arfabet opens tonight at Velvet da Vinci Gallery!

Here's a few images from the Arfabet installation at Velvet da Vinci Gallery

Arfabet launches this week!

If you're in the San Francisco area this weekend, I hope you can make it to the official opening and book launch of Arfabet!  The show runs from October 24 - November 25, and the opening event is this Friday night from 6-8pm at Velvet da Vinci Gallery.

In the meantime, here's the animation I created to go with the book. Enjoy!

getting ready to animate

Hello Beautiful People!

I have an update as I prepare to shoot the sequences for my Arfabet stop-action animation! It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since I've done this, and I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to get into the swing of it this time.  For any of you who are new to this conversation, this animation is a companion piece to my forthcoming sophomore publication Arfabet, due out in the next month.  There will be some advance copies available in late October at my book launch at Velvet da Vinci Gallery on the 26th. I just got the postcard in the mail the other day and am soooooo happy with it. If you're in the San Francisco area, please come by and see the show and say hi if you make it on opening night!

But I'm here to tell you a little about my work on the animation. I am not sure if it will be completed by the time of the opening, but one thing is for sure: I need to film it before the show since it stars the pieces that grace the pages of Arfabet that will only be in my hands for the next few weeks! I have worked up a basic idea of how it will work, and it seems that most of the pieces I made for the book are perfect to use. There are, however, a few pieces that I decided to rework in order to animate them.

The Kookierhondje with the kumquat just needs to jump, so I made a stunt double so I could do this on a flat surface.

Similarly, that Zuchon just wouldn't be as fun if it weren't jumping over the Zuccotto, so he's also got a flatter version for the animation.

I decided to remake the Dachshund as well, so that it could show the layers being stacked up to make the Dagwood sandwich. The piece in the show is much larger and glued into one piece. I will eventually glue this one together if I decide to sell it, but I'm also thinking about keeping it in parts to use as a demonstration piece for the future--or possible April Fool's deli platter. You never know.....

I plan to start shooting this week, so will check back with more behind-the-scenes updates as this project nears completion! 

pssst! sneak preview of Arfabet!

Hey Beautiful People! I got my sample copy of Arfabet yesterday! Here's a sneak preview I made especially for you.

the ElePhotoBooth lives on!

I had a great day yesterday at Green Bean Books during the Alberta Street Fair and added over 100 new entries to the ElePhotoBooth Flickr set! Click here to see all of the new ones - here's a few of my favorites below:

Arfabet - final presale day!

Hey Beautiful People! It's the last day of the Arfabet Kickstarter campaign so I'm posting another update, as promised, to give a sneak peek of some of the pages I've been working on for the book!

Here's the cover, starring our Queensland Heeler

I looked closely at the original cover for Arfabet so the two would look good together

I'll let you peek at a few inner pages - but first a reminder of the original Edward Lear alphabet that inspired the project:

Here's my interpretation:

There might be some slight design details that still need some TLC before I go to print, but I'm about halfway done with the interior pages at this point, but will spend the next three days nailing those down, writing the glossary, etc. 

Phew! It's been a big month putting this together and I've loved being able to share it with you. I'll post a few more updates here in next few months to show you some more inside pages, and my work on the animation, creating the backer rewards, and preparing for the exhibition and book launch at Velvet da Vinci Gallery this October! Of course, if you're a backer, you'll get this sent directly to your email. 

If you miss out on the Arfabet Kickstarter campaign, I suggest you sign up for my email list so you'll know when the book is available for sale. Don't forget: the prices I set for the Kickstarter rewards are only available to those who signed on during this campaign. (I'm always up for creating custom dog figures though--click here for details.) 

ONE FINAL BIG THANK YOU TO MY KICKSTARTER BACKERS!!! I REALLY COULDN'T DO THIS BOOK WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT IN HELPING ME COVER PRINTING AND PRODUCTION COSTS. 

YOU ROCK!

photo shoot!

Hey Beautiful People! I'm back yet again to show you some behind-the-scenes views of my photo shoot today for Arfabet! 

I put together a mock-up version of the book last weekend, where I took my own photos so I could make some big final decisions like the best background colors, how to position the figures so the text would interplay with the dogs, and then to see how the two facing pages looked together. This is a really important tool to have when I go for the real photo shoot because it saves me precious time and money to be able to refer to my mock book, set it up, and then have a real pro take the final shot. Please note that the text you see here is only a placeholder--I will use a different font for the letters, and I haven't even finalized the exact wording of the rhymes or the phrase at the bottom of the pages, but it's just enough to help me going, and serves as my first draft of Arfabet:

you may be able to see here in the J page that I didn't like the original placement of the figures, so I moved them around in Photoshop--then we matched that in the photo shoot. I also decided to change the background color from gray to pale blue.

Here's the entire cast of Arfabet, layed out on a nearby table so I can grab them as needed. There will be six backdrop colors--red, yellow, pale blue, sky blue, pale pink and hot pink. The front and back covers, as well as the title page will have white backgrounds, just like Elephabet.

Here's a few shots of my photographer Dan Kvitka working on the A photo. We first do the actual shoot, and then Dan takes it over to his computer to look at it up close to make sure everything is in focus, dust or dirt particles are removed, etc. 

When there are clouds involved, the wires or other support mechanisms are digitally removed.

Dan loves to bring his sweet dog Manny to work with him - here he is critiquing my version of a Yorkshire Terrier.

We had a mid-afternoon visit from artist Ryan Berkley, whose studio is in the same building. His daughter Ramona loves dogs, so she and Manny were instant buddies.

Some shots are a little trickier, like getting the Xoloitzcuintli and Xouba to ride these waves in the book that are different from the ones in the actual sculpture. I'll crop the sides for the book, of course.

So now I get to spend the next few days putting the book together! I'll check back one last time before the Kickstarter campaign ends to show you a few of my finished pages. If you are still waiting to pledge, the time is nearing! Click here to choose your reward and help me get my second book in print!!