I now have those fancy social icons... and guess what I made them myself!

   

Time to pat myself on the back. I created all these pretty much from scratch in Photoshop in less than a half hour

AND gathered all the web addresses

AND created the HTML code
AND easily added them to my blog!

All in under 30 minutes...
Now that may not seem all that quick... but seeing as I have a bad habit of doing a million things at once and never doing one thing at a time and finishing quickly.... 
Well this time I did. so Boo-YA!

Now it's your turn... This is how... I did it.

I  needed a  coding refresher soooo I admit followed the blog on Sew Many Ways
Where  Karen nicely explains how she added social buttons from CarryLoves to her own blog so that even I could read through it quickly and understand.

Well I tried to use the buttons from Carry Loves but Photobucket was frozen and refused to let me sign in or sign up. So if you need some buttons, and have more patience to wait on photobucket than I did... hurry on over to  CarryLoves
and pick out one from her MANY colors to choose from. And while your there take a peak at her page too....

BUT  don't forget to stop back at Simply Shantastic ;)
----ANYWAYS---
Instead, I played in photoshop and created my own :D

 

IF photobucket ever lets me create an account or if I get a flickr later tonight I will share the codes for you to use my buttons for your blogs as well. :)


Oh yeah the shopping cart is for my ARTFIRE store ... because they don't have their own buttons.... I may have to close this shop soon their traffic seems to be lacking... So be sure to keep checking out that shop because I may be posting some sales before I close it but you could easily use the shopping button for any store website you may have to link too.


Now I have some more bloggin' matience to tend to. Trying to get all organized and acceible for you guys :)

Until then try taking a peak at the Etsy Shop :)


Happy Crafting!

Let her grow: Painting for a friend

Let her Grow - 16x20 Custom Painting by Shannon Cook

NOTE: We NEED a new photo together ASAP!
This was way to hard to find in a 2010 album!
What in the heck have we been doing that we
never take a photo ever? This needs fixed!
New 2013 Goal get a good photo with each of
my good friends :)

 I had been busy doing a lot of paintings for shows towards the end of 2012. I filled Dante's bar and the Culinary Cafe as well as Allegany College of Maryland Campus' and a few festivals! I'd say I kept pretty busy in the studio.


Well my fabulous bestie of friends Michael had been begging (Okay, maybe not begging but hinting rather strongly) for a painting I had. It was slightly different than my Let her Grow piece that I created JUST for him. (This is where he smiles really big and sends me a big :D for thinking of just him.)  None of my other friends got custom paintings surprisingly.

 Just my brother whose doesn't count because a Halo themed painting is not on  my list of favorites. (Sorry bro, glad you liked it .)

Anyway. Let her Grow , is one of favorite paintings. Lime green has always been BOTH of our favorite colors for quite some time ( Unless he mysteriously changed favorite colors recently) Plus he had mentioned he would have loved the original painting even more if it were green. And so it was created.

He in return gave me a HUGE mixture of Christmas goodies. So many cookies, cupcakes, and fudge to die for! I wish I would have snapped a picture because it was every sweet tooths dream. No lie!

Too late now though, its ALL gone. Me and Dutchers tore it up! A long with a few nibbles from friends who stopped by for the holidays..... I'll admit I ate most of it myself... SHHHH though I tried to tell my family I didn't eat to much sweet stuff living on my own! Oh well, I'll try to do better this year! Look out 2013 I have a lot to look forward too.


Oh yeah Real quick here is a photo of the Original painting from my Dantes Display and Live Painting event ( Reed more here....)

Hope you all enjoy it. If you would like a CUSTOM painting of your own or for someone special please feel free to Contact me. :) I'm always open to ideas and commission projects.

Candy Cups : An easy gift for the guys, or sweet tooth in your life!

This was the perfect gift for my Uncle Joe , who is terribly hard to buy for!

 Holidays may have come and gone , but gift ideas are needed YEAR ROUND!

I had seen many of these little candy bouquets in passing on pinterest and other blogs. They seem to have grown pretty popular!  

My uncles birthday falls on Christmas (Poor guy he always gets jipped on celebrating) So I try to give him a birthday present as well as a Christmas gift. 

 Since he turned 50 a few years ago I had always tried to do an "old fart" gift as kind of a joke, which I also did this year ( I will post later it was pretty cute ) but   anyways!  I spend maybe  $6 bucks on this awesome little gift. 

Things I used: 

 Larger Snickers and Mr. Good bars (because those are his favorite.) 
Mini Candies  ( Which I had enough of to make a candy bag for Benj when he came from Alabama with Kay)

Styrofoam Ball (From an old floral arrangement)
Coffee Mug (I used it for a base because I have a running joke of getting him one every year since I can remember)
Tissue paper (For decoration and to hide the ugly Styrofoam)
Shishcabob (< Is that how that is spelled lol?)  Sticks (could probably use any kind of rods or Popsicle sticks)

Hot glue gun  / SUPER tape

SOOO NOW......

Step one : All I did was Hot glue the candies to the shishcabob sticks , you could probably use SUPER strong tape if you are making this with children or are glue gun-less.

 Step Two : Pushed styrofoam into the coffee mug tightly so it wouldn't come loose

Step Three: Attempted to arrange candies nicely so that all could be seen , similar to a floaral arrangement 

Step Four: arranged tissue paper to cover any ugly glue or Styrofoam

And WAA-LA

That was Easy :)

Please exscuse my terrible photo, I DIDN'T take it . My loveley boyfriend insisted he take the photos of me handing out gifts to my family so it's a bit blurry. Oh, and don't let my uncle's startled face confuss you. He really LOVED it after he got it all out of the gift bag.  He loves anything sweet like me :P

 

 

Happy Crafting

Halo Themed Painting For my little brother

 I do not take credit for the Red vs Blue theme of the Halo Painting.

In fact, I wasn't even thrilled to be doing a Halo painting. BUT  I love my little brother and he begged for something Halo themed and he LOVES those Red vs Blue Halo videos. So when I found something similar to this while searching, I figured I would give it a shot for Christmas.

Here's how it turned out : 

 

He does pretty good at pretending it's awesome.  However I found it sitting in my Grandmas kitchen on New years just chillin'. I will give him a pass because it was near his Xbox and his room is currently under some construction, but knowing my grams house it may sit in the kitchen for a while. What a random place for a  Halo painting right?

 

It must not have been to bad because Dutch even said he liked it. He's a hard one to please sometimes painting wise!


I need to work on some more guy themed paintings. When I was in college I use to paint lots of video game characters, oh how things change!

Back to Crafting!

Tree Branch Necklace.

I made this one for my best friend Kayla and sent it home with her to good ol' Alabama.... Now I can't wait to make more.

Hope she shares it with all her awesome friends down there.
I love how it turned out for a first try.

  It is a rather large piece that lays over the chest.  But it can be arranged a bit to lay how you like.


 It can also be customized with whatever color  "leaves or blossoms" you would like as well.


 I want to make a copper one with brown or fall colored leaves soon. :) I will for sure post some awesome pictures.

 

My aunt said it reminded her of lighting.... Hmmmmm maybe that will be of some use. Sounds like some good inspiration.


I will post photos of my next one Asap!

Until then ,

Happy Crafting

Hello 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

    Lets hope I accomplish more this year than last! Though I shouldn't complain 2012 was an AWESOME year for Shantastic! It was our first full year of getting stuff going. Now to get organized and ready to go!

Time to make a list of goals I would like to accomplish. :)

1. Organize the Facebook with  Good Albums and Updates
2. Create a facebook group for other friends that sell goods so we can expand our circles 
3. Create at least 100 new products 
4. Keep the Shop updated AND the blog!
5. Ship more items to new places
6. Work on my PAINT THE STATES campaign and goals (More info soon!)
7. Organize my craft studio- and keep it NICE!
8. Organize the house - ALL the rooms so it looks like those pinterest dream homes - OR as close as I can :P
9.  Perform 10 live paintings , in at least 3 different locations
10. Help my Grams more , and go on more Grandma Shopping Dates! - There can never be enough!
11. Make at least 12 new friends, one for every month :) , These can be online or around town. I just think it's a good idea to meet new people!
12. Visit my Best friend  in Alabama.
    
    
    I may add more to this list , as the year goes as well but for now that's a pretty good start!
    
    
    
    What are your goals for 2013?
    
    Leave me some comments maybe I will join you. :)
       

Photos from my Christmas Holiday

 I know the holidays have come and gone. I wish I would have kept up with the blog better there were so many awesome things happening I wanted to share with everyone!

 Before it gets to late in the year I wanted to share a few photos from the holidays that I enjoyed taking.  Here are my holiday festivities in a Photo form:
 
Kayla and I one Christmas Eve

 Cozmo is my best friend Kayla's kitty. He is a cutie for sure! Such a sweet little fur ball!





>>>> Me playing with my new Nikon D5100

My beautiful opal ring from my boyfriend. He gave it to me on Christmas Eve 2012 how sweet<3

 My brother and Grandma on Christmas 2012

 Gingerbread man and the Front Pine tree from the snow storm the day after Christmas

 The outside kitties were crying for some warmth so I brought them in to get a few Christmas photos , they weren't very cooperative. Oh well at least they are cute!

This was a Christmas bulb on our Downtown Christmas tree.
The dedication is to one of my highschool teachers who passed
She was truly and amazing women.

Downtown Cumberland Maryland Christmas Decorations