Peace Be Upon Sunny Ali Toy Piano

I was recently in Greenpoint, Brooklyn shooting a video for the Polish Saturday school I used to go to when I discovered a dollar store that happened to be having a clearance sale. I discovered this electronic toy piano and got an amazing deal on it.

Upon purchasing it, I immediately thought of my favorite Philadelphia musician, Mr. Sunny Ali of Sunny Ali & the Kid (www.sunnyaliandthekid.com).

The functions on this piano turned out to be quite advanced for a dollar store find, so I decided it needed to be custom bedazzled immediately:

Only the owner of this piano needs to know what these magical jeweled buttons do:

Arabic greeting meaning "Peace Be Upon You":

A man and his machine:

Before picture:

Disco Poodle

My boyfriend was in a thrift store one day where he found a broken (and glued back together) poodle wall ornament that was reminiscent of the cherub wall ornaments I previously bedazzled (http://fineitsart.blogspot.com/2012/01/merryxmas-intestine-babies_01.html).

Being the swell guy that he is, he purchased this rare gem for me and this is how it ended up:

The pink disco ball came from a pair of disco ball sunglasses that unfortunately/fortunately broke:

Disco Poodle currently hangs in my bedroom until I find a good home for him.

Fuck Technology (Ode to Letraset) Night Table

Earlier this year, I freaked out because I thought Letraset (http://www.letraset.com) was going out of business.  I was mad at myself for not stocking up on their letter transfers while I had the chance, which I used to purchase from local art supply stores.

I used the last of my Letraset letter transfers on this table:

Top:

Crappy close-up of large drawer:

After some heavy research (looking at their website: http://www.letraset.com), I discovered Letraset was not going out of business after all, but simply cut back on their letter transfer inventory.  Seeing as how people have photoshop and scanners and whatnot these days, that seems like a sound business plan but doing things by hand trumps technology any day, for me (http://www.letraset.com).
http://www.letraset.com
http://www.letraset.com
http://www.letraset.com

The End

MerryXmas Intestine Babies

For Christmas, I went to visit my family in Guelph, Ontario again. Thanks to a spectacular Christmas gift (100 Canadian dollars) I made a killing at the Value Village thrift store, my favorite place in the whole world.

Among the treasures that I picked up was this set of wall ornaments - angel babies wrapped in some kind of wreath.

After a quick paint job, the wreaths became bloody intestines and the babies became much cuter:

Side views to appreciate the Christmas lightbulbs:

Remembered to take a "before" picture this time:

Happy New Year ya'll! <3

Bedazzled Touch Lamp

In May, a friend down the street in South Philly said she was moving to a smaller room and needed to get rid of a lot of crap, so naturally I took some assorted trash off her hands, such as old buttons, rubber duckies, and this stupid Spongebob touch light:

 http://www.unitedspongebob.com/pictures/merchandise/light.jpg

 Using some RigidWrap plaster cloth, bedazzles, glue, and a green lighting gel, it became this:

In action:

This lamp is being mailed out to Los Angeles as a housewarming gift to a good friend who finally got his own place out there! Nuthin says welcome home like tacky trash that lights up.

Beddazled Owl Fan

I love where I live because of the many food options I have within walking distance. There is the ACME grocery store nearby, where I can actually afford to buy basic grocery items, the Whole Foods on South Street where I can't afford to buy groceries ever, and the Italian Market where I can buy a bag of onions for one dollar.

But last week, I was introduced to the glorious Wing Phat Plaza on Washington Ave, which houses the Hung Vuong Supermarket, where I plan to buy all of my groceries from now on:

Aside from the amazing supermarket, the plaza has a small shop where customers can purchase various Chinese home products, such as incense and statues for their alters as well as assorted crap. While digging through the boxes of assorted crap, I found a small plastic toy fan that I purchased for a whopping two dollars. Using some RigidWrap plaster cloth, it eventually became this:

And then this:

The image in the center of the fan is from some decorative paper that I purchased at the same store, that is used to be burnt at alters (known as "joss paper"):

The fan is battery operated and fully functioning.  I'm going to rig it up in my car because I am the dumbass who bought a car without AC.

The end:

Tattooed Anti-Christ Hanging Baby

One day, I came home to find a plastic baby on my bed. It was another dollar store gift from my housemate, Sally.

I gave her a little paint pen makeover as practice for a tattooed leg lamp that I am still in the process of finishing.  She's one of those dolls where the eyes close when you turn her upside down, just like Satan.

Front:

Back:

I never had much talent at drawing but, given the right materials, I can trash something in minutes:

The anti-christ baby now hangs in the middle of my bedroom (which may explain why I rarely entertain guests in my room).

Cassette Tape Christmas Cards Revisited

One of my good friends in California who received a Christmas cassette tape sent over a couple of pictures of his cassette card after seeing the blog! His had a baby boy on it because of his obsession with baby dolls.

It was definitely one of the cuter ones:

front - 

back -

Thanks, Hank Cockpit! You are the coolest, duhhh

Bedazzled Skeleton

Post-Halloween shopping at Walgreens or CVS is something I look forward to. While still in Boston, I bought two discounted plastic, dangly skeletons at the local Walgreens.  A nice boy worked there whom I only remember as Walgreens Will. He would later give me boxes to help me move.

My first winter in Philly was the coldest winter I have ever experienced in my life. Since we couldn't afford to turn the heat on, the hot glue gun was the only reliable source of warmth:

In silly poses:

There was also a plastic skeleton that danced to a Gloria Estefan song at that Walgreens but I didn't have the cash for one of them at the time. If you happen to have one of these, I will pay top dollar (cupcake) for it.

Mother Mary Night Light

My housemate Sally is as much a fan of dollar store trash as I am, so I was totally stoked when she came home one day with a plastic Mother Mary night light from a dollar store in North Philly. It gradually became this:

And now hangs in my bathroom:

In action:

(If you're religious and this offends you then that sucks, but I answer to a higher power: plastic googly eyes.)

Cassette Tape Christmas Cards

When I first moved to Philly in November 2010, I was hopelessly unemployed for a long while. This left me lots of spare time to make some detailed Christmas/holiday cards. Unfortunately I didn't  take pictures of all of them before I mailed them throughout the U.S. but there was roughly 20 of them (some were cassette tapes, some were cassette tape boxes) and they looked something like this:

 And there were lots of them: