Last sale of the year!

20% OFF ALL HAIR PRODUCTS

Use coupon code MERRY

10% OFF ALL JEWELRY

Limited Time Only!

Use coupon code HOLIDAY10

Only on www.sassyNpunkBoutique.com

Hanging Dummy Causes Panic in China

Um, YEA! I'd be freaked out too if i saw this shit!
Whoever thought this ad was a good idea ought to be hung up there too.

An ad billboard has caused outrage and panic in a Chinese city by featuring what appears to be a man hanging from a rope.

The advertisement, on top of the Yinji Shopping Mall in Zhengzhou, features a mannequin hanging from the top of the billboard.

In a reference to the global financial crisis, it reads: “It’s better to invest money here than put it into the stock market.”

But residents thought it was a real suicide and say children as young as eight were terrified, reports Oriental Today.

After receiving complaints, the local industry and trade bureau has now stepped in and taken down the mannequin.

“Without the hanging man, it’s really not that shocking,” said the deputy director of the bureau.

Jiang Chengpu, the creative director behind the ad, says the aim was to catch people’s attention, not to terrify them.

“We are making fun of the depressing stock market here. And the place the mannequin is hanging is right next to the stock index line,” he said.

Source: Ananova Link  Filed under Weird Advertisements

Sailor Moon Star Locket

 

This week we unveiled quite few pieces in our Sailor Moon Series. All of them are special editions, meaning that they will be available in limited quantities. Only the 5 original Sailor Scouts will be available all year round, and we are revealing our 5th and last scout, Sailor Jupiter, this weekend. 

Musical Star Locket from Sailor Moon episode 22

I was just in such a creative zone these past few days, so I decided to design some special pieces. The first one is a locket based off of the famous star locket from the original Sailor Moon series. The star locket is one of the most iconic things in the entire Sailor Moon franchise. It first appeared in episode 22, The Power of Friendship,  and has since become the most rare and sought after piece of Sailor Moon memorabilia to date. In fact, if you are lucky enough to come across any original merchandise, I suggest you keep it! It has been years since any official Sailor Moon merchandise has been produce, and unfortunately it's probably going to stay that way. So unless you have up to $1,500 to dish out for the original 1992 Star Locket... save your pocketbook some grief and take a look at our Sailor Moon Keepsake Locket. It's our own twist on a classic piece of pop culture history. 

sassyNpunk's Sailor Moon Keepsake Locket

 

 Now, I didn't want to just make the design a predictable star shaped pendant because that would be kinda lame... I don't like recreating original designs. I finally came up with a fun lace heart base design, but obviously kept the star aspect of the piece. The heart is a functional locket and is big enough to actually hide little treasures inside. Plus you can take it everywhere with you b/c you can wear it on the chain. Good for keeping important things close to your heart. 

Hope you guys enjoy!

original Sailor Moon Locket 1992

Some Major Cuteness from the web

 

I loove seeing something super adorable on the internet that really makes me take notice. It's one of those guilty pleasures of mine. I could surf the internet all day long looking at cute kitten pictures or shopping for cute fabrics. Well here is some cuteness that has recently made it into my bookmarks tab, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as do!

First off, you guys know i am obsessed with all things kawaii! and it just doesn't get more kawaii than THIS! Check out ILoveEgg.com for some major laughs and awwws. This site is sooo fun! Who would have thought those little guys in your fridge led such exciting lives! Here are some wallpapers you just have to check out! Got mine set as my desktop right now!

If eggs don't do it for you, then maybe this little guy can help you out. This cat has hustled his way all the way to the sassyNpunk Blog. Check out him out at Pampered Whiskers on Etsy.com. This shop is located in Houston, TX (so is sassyNpunk) and is truely one of a kind. I could just blow up all of these pics and hang them in my studio for inspiration. I don't know what i love more about these cats, the hats on their heads or the expressions on their faces! If your kitty is in need of a new wardrobe or you just need something to distract you at work,  Pampered Whiskers is a winner!


Best of all, a portion of every purchase goes to animal rescue! I love it!

See you next year!

I'm on vacation until January, so see you then! Thank you all very much for your companionship in blog land this year. I might be a teeny bit biased, but I think How About Orange readers are the kindest people on the internet. Warmest wishes for a happy holiday season to everyone!

Meet my friend Xyron

I didn't have any self-adhesive label paper in the house when I was printing gift tags, so I pulled out my Xyron machine. I first used one of these at a design firm to mount prints onto presentation boards, but it's so useful I decided I needed one for home, too. It's light years better than glue, little pieces of double-stick tape, or spray mount that takes two days to wear off of your fingers.

Place a sheet of paper on the tray and turn the crank to run it through the machine. As it feeds through the Xyron device, the paper is sandwiched between a clear plastic top sheet and an acid-free adhesive layer with a paper backing.

Peel off the top sheet and cut your print into stickers if you like. Then just peel the paper backing off each sticker to use them.

This machine will also laminate paper and make magnets with a laminate finish. The current model looks slightly different than my older one; you can find it here, at the major craft stores, or at Dick Blick and Amazon—cheaper!

A bonanza of free printable holiday labels

I'm in present-wrapping mode, so I've rounded up a supply of printable gift tags for myself. Need some?

Above: From Martha Stewart's 52-page collection of holiday gift tags and labels

Freebies from Blush Printables

Tags from Wee Life: get the Tree set here and the City set here

Labels from Whisker Graphics

Free font: Lemon Chicken

Help yourself to some Lemon Chicken. Designed by Crack-a-Jack Studios, it's a tasty little retro font available at no charge from Font Squirrel.

Printable Christmas gift tags

The astoundingly productive Helen Dardik has posted another freebie for us: printable holiday gift tags. Featuring her delightful illustrations, they're available right here on her site.

Holiday Gift Guide

 

Sanrio.com is a fun website that i visit often. I love all the fun toys and gadgets they are coming up with all the time. My favorite characters are the Little Twin Stars, but for some reason the twin's products are always so expensive. Hello Kitty & other popular character products are also very pricey, so sassyNpunk has provided some great alternatives to some of sanrio.com's most popular products.

Let's start off with this Hello Kitty bow necklace. It's a cute necklace, I admit, but the price is a little ugly. This piece retails for $30.00 on sanrio.com

sassyNpunk has something similar, but in bracelet form. This silver bow bracelet is pretty much the exact same thing but you wear it on your wrist and the price is not nearly as frightening. This piece retails for $10.99 on sassyNpunkBoutique.com
It's a no brainer!

Ok, so what if you're not into jewelry. You are more of the serious type, but still want something cute. You can head over to sanrio's website and pick up this Little Twin Stars pen for $7.00









or you can get this Little Twin Stars pen from sassyNpunkBoutique for $1.99... Yes, it's amazing, i know!

You are definitely going to need a place to store all the useless crap you will receive for christmas this year. Get this nifty storage tin from sanrio for $15

Or you can get a better deal for a much more unique box at sassyNpunk. Check out our Hello Kitty storage tin. Pretty cute, right? The price is pretty cute too... $10.99

DIY striped paper ornament

My Christmas tree needed more orange (of course), so I made this little thing. It appears to be a spaceship which has crashed into a circus tent. To make your own circus spaceship, you'll need two colors of regular paper, scissors, needle, thread, pencil, ruler, and two beads.

1. Cut the paper into strips that are 3.5" long and 0.5" wide. (This makes a small ornament about 3" in diameter.) Cut 9 strips of each color. Cut two 0.75" circles. Tracing around a penny works nicely.

2. Fold the paper strips in half. A crisp fold isn't needed; just a crease will do.

3. String a bead onto a length of thread. Then push both ends of thread through the needle so the thread is doubled.

4. Poke the needle through one of the circles to string it next to the bead. Then string on all the paper strips near one end, alternating colors.

5. After all the paper strips are added, begin threading the opposite ends onto the string. To do this, start with the strip you put on first (the one next to the paper circle). Take its loose end and push the needle through it. Continue threading on the paper strips in order. They'll naturally begin to fan out as you go.

6. Add the second paper circle.

7. Pull the needle off the thread. Feed the bead onto one of the loose ends of thread, then tie both ends of thread in a knot to hold the bead on next to the circle. If your ornament hangs a little crooked, thread the needle again and push both ends of thread up through the underside of the bead and out through the top so both ends of thread emerge. Tie off a loop and hang that spaceship.

My ornament has a bit of a gap on one side where the papers meet at different levels. I'll put that toward the inside of the tree, and no one will be the wiser.

A World Class Museum in the Middle of Nowhere

A 90-minute drive northeast of Calgary, between the prairies and even more prairies, lies a medium-sized town that one of my coworkers call, in a humorous and slightly condescending way, "Dino Village."



Now that's not all condescending -- even the town's own official website is currently titled "Town of Drumheller - Dinosaur Valley," so there's a bit of truth in the humor. The town is actually one of the booming natural gas producing areas in its own right, though to virtually every visitor the main reason for the detour has to do with the region's rich fossil deposits, culminating inside a huge, well-organized and truly world class museum -- the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.



Anyone who has ever taken a multi-day roadtrip anywhere in North America has the right to be skeptical of the word "museum" -- thousands of roadside "museums" exist for the purpose of showcasing anything from an old granny's collection of sewing machines to the amazing world of perogies. But Royal Tyrrell is one of the best in Canada, hosting 10 million visitors in its 25 year existence and granted royal status by the Queen. That's quite an accomplishment considering its location in a relatively remote region in southern Alberta, nowhere close to the main highway connecting Calgary and Edmonton. Visitors don't come this far unless there's a real good reason.



But why on earth would the government of Alberta invest in a world class museum in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to Calgary or Edmonton? Well here's the uniqueness of Royal Tyrrell -- the museum is situated right in the middle of one of the prime fossil-producing areas in North America, and some of the fossil displays were excavated within short distance of the museum. That includes the famous Albertosaurus, a smaller, but equally terrifying, Canadian version of the T-Rex.



Almost all exhibits were excavated from within Western Canada, with many coming from local sites in southern Alberta. Hadrosaur skeletons like the one pictured here can be found in the vicinity of Drumheller, while a near-complete nesting site had been found further south in Devil's Coulee.



Walking into any jewelry shop in Alberta and you'll find a uniquely Albertan gemstone with a wildly colorful, iridescent opal-like appearance. One of the rarest gemstones on earth, Ammolites (with an L) are organic gemstones made of fossilized shells of ammonites (with an N), a now-extinct group of molluscs that roamed the Alberta seas in the Mesozoic Era. If a fingernail-sized piece on a pendant costs upwards of CAD$500 (see Korite.com) in local jewelry shops, this 3-foot-diameter shell here must be near priceless.



Aside from serving as an interpretive museum to the public and raising public awareness to Alberta's rich fossil records, Royal Tyrrell is renowned in the academic world as a premier research centre for paleontology, complete with an excellent backyard for fieldwork. The Horseshoe Canyon, just a few kilometers to the west of the museum, contains some of the most abundant Mesozoic fossil beds in Canada.



Fossils excavated from the field are transported back to the lab for preparation and cleaning. To provide visitors with a real-life demonstration of the daily work in a paleontology lab, one of the museum's resident technicians set up a curator station with a working sample to explain the whole process of removing the surrounding rock to expose the fossil.



But what really sets this museum apart from most fossil exhibitions I've visited is its focus on interpretation and public education. For visitors staying for more than a couple hours, the museum provides a wide variety of hands-on learning programs ranging from fossil casting for kids to guided hikes to a nearby dinosaur quarry. We ran out of time, but I seriously considered joining an excavation clinic where participants learn to extract replica dinosaur bones in a simulated quarry environment.



Taking public education a step further, the museum even offers accredited paleontology courses within the local school district for high school students working towards their graduation. That's miles ahead of typical museums focusing on academic research and exhibition.



Well, even a world class museum is still a museum. The best way to really appreciate Southern Alberta's natural heritage is to walk among the outlandish rock formations of the badlands. Just outside the museum is a short, well-marked interpretive trail taking visitors through the moonscape-like layers of fossil-yielding sedimentary rocks. One word of advice though ... come back an hour before sunset for the most dramatic colors and contrasts. The above picture was taken around noon and does not do any justice to the beauty of badlands scenery at sunset. Just compare the above picture with those taken at Dinosaur Provincial Park at sunset in the next post and you'll be convinced.

A World Class Museum in the Middle of Nowhere

A 90-minute drive northeast of Calgary, between the prairies and even more prairies, lies a medium-sized town that one of my coworkers call, in a humorous and slightly condescending way, "Dino Village."



Now that's not all condescending -- even the town's own official website is currently titled "Town of Drumheller - Dinosaur Valley," so there's a bit of truth in the humor. The town is actually one of the booming natural gas producing areas in its own right, though to virtually every visitor the main reason for the detour has to do with the region's rich fossil deposits, culminating inside a huge, well-organized and truly world class museum -- the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.



Anyone who has ever taken a multi-day roadtrip anywhere in North America has the right to be skeptical of the word "museum" -- thousands of roadside "museums" exist for the purpose of showcasing anything from an old granny's collection of sewing machines to the amazing world of perogies. But Royal Tyrrell is one of the best in Canada, hosting 10 million visitors in its 25 year existence and granted royal status by the Queen. That's quite an accomplishment considering its location in a relatively remote region in southern Alberta, nowhere close to the main highway connecting Calgary and Edmonton. Visitors don't come this far unless there's a real good reason.



But why on earth would the government of Alberta invest in a world class museum in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to Calgary or Edmonton? Well here's the uniqueness of Royal Tyrrell -- the museum is situated right in the middle of one of the prime fossil-producing areas in North America, and some of the fossil displays were excavated within short distance of the museum. That includes the famous Albertosaurus, a smaller, but equally terrifying, Canadian version of the T-Rex.



Almost all exhibits were excavated from within Western Canada, with many coming from local sites in southern Alberta. Hadrosaur skeletons like the one pictured here can be found in the vicinity of Drumheller, while a near-complete nesting site had been found further south in Devil's Coulee.



Walking into any jewelry shop in Alberta and you'll find a uniquely Albertan gemstone with a wildly colorful, iridescent opal-like appearance. One of the rarest gemstones on earth, Ammolites (with an L) are organic gemstones made of fossilized shells of ammonites (with an N), a now-extinct group of molluscs that roamed the Alberta seas in the Mesozoic Era. If a fingernail-sized piece on a pendant costs upwards of CAD$500 (see Korite.com) in local jewelry shops, this 3-foot-diameter shell here must be near priceless.



Aside from serving as an interpretive museum to the public and raising public awareness to Alberta's rich fossil records, Royal Tyrrell is renowned in the academic world as a premier research centre for paleontology, complete with an excellent backyard for fieldwork. The Horseshoe Canyon, just a few kilometers to the west of the museum, contains some of the most abundant Mesozoic fossil beds in Canada.



Fossils excavated from the field are transported back to the lab for preparation and cleaning. To provide visitors with a real-life demonstration of the daily work in a paleontology lab, one of the museum's resident technicians set up a curator station with a working sample to explain the whole process of removing the surrounding rock to expose the fossil.



But what really sets this museum apart from most fossil exhibitions I've visited is its focus on interpretation and public education. For visitors staying for more than a couple hours, the museum provides a wide variety of hands-on learning programs ranging from fossil casting for kids to guided hikes to a nearby dinosaur quarry. We ran out of time, but I seriously considered joining an excavation clinic where participants learn to extract replica dinosaur bones in a simulated quarry environment.



Taking public education a step further, the museum even offers accredited paleontology courses within the local school district for high school students working towards their graduation. That's miles ahead of typical museums focusing on academic research and exhibition.



Well, even a world class museum is still a museum. The best way to really appreciate Southern Alberta's natural heritage is to walk among the outlandish rock formations of the badlands. Just outside the museum is a short, well-marked interpretive trail taking visitors through the moonscape-like layers of fossil-yielding sedimentary rocks. One word of advice though ... come back an hour before sunset for the most dramatic colors and contrasts. The above picture was taken around noon and does not do any justice to the beauty of badlands scenery at sunset. Just compare the above picture with those taken at Dinosaur Provincial Park at sunset in the next post and you'll be convinced.