Giveaway

As we get closer to Christmas, it looks like companies are doing more and more giveaways. Huzzah!

Right now Silhouette is giving away a huge package on their blog. And I just found out that Roberts Crafts is giving away a $450 prize package of DCWV paper products on their blog. Double Huzzah!

Who knows? Maybe it'll be an especially merry Christmas!

Fish!

Just recently, my cousin, Rich, got married in Flordia on a lovely beach to a lovely lady. I wanted to make a card that fit the non-traditional wedding. Along came a neat challenge on Splitcoaststampers: Use the phrase "One fish, two fish..." from the famous Dr. Seuss book as inspiration for a card. Voila!

 

The inside reads: One fish/ Two fish/ Together "I do" fish.

Ok. Corny. I know, but what the hell, it's a wedding.

Grade Book

There are a great many report books or grade books on the market. They boast various ways of tracking and organizing student information, have various page layouts to make finding data easy, blah, blah, blah... But they're all just plain boring on the outside. I mean, this thing is probably the one book I have with me all day, every day, and it looks just like every other drab grade book in the world.

Can't have that, can we?

So I hit A.C. Moore and found some awesome papers by Cosmo Cricket (the "Mr. Roboto" series). They were on clearance! Some coordinating stickers from the discount bin, and I was all set. After a bit of cutting, stamping and doodling, this is now the front cover of my grade book.



Much improved, right?

I just did the back quickly, so that it would match.



For two bucks in supplies, I think this was well worth the effort. Now to find some clear contact paper to protect it from wear and tear...

Art journal

I've been thinking a lot about art journaling a lot lately. I haven't been writing as much, and I need to fix that. At the same time, I've been moving towards being more visual, because I need to explore that side of my creativity more. I'm hoping if I can overcome inertia and start art journaling, I'll find a place for both word and image. It's funny, because for me writing revs me up, while collage relaxes. I wonder what will happen when the two meet.

When I read Tara Ross' article "How I Journal" in Somerset Studio (July/August 2010, is that great cover art or what?) recently, I was intrigued by her reference to a video on making easy journals. So I (finally) went to check it out. Good, good stuff. I need to explore that blog more, because I love Teesha's artwork.

Anyway, the video, so I don't loose the link... The Amazing 16-page Journal.

Also, if you go way down to the bottom of her blog and click the archive for November 2009, there are great videos on painting, collaging and lettering for journals.

Splitcoast

So, a friend suggested that I check out Splitcoaststampers, as a place to share my papercrafting. I went a ahead and became a members, and then was immediate overwhelmed by how crappy my cards are as compared to some of the amazing work featured in their galleries. Because I'm like that. Anyway, today I finally went ahead and posted two cards, both a response to a color challenge.

The first was a sympathy card for my friend Angela, who recently lost her beloved cat, Ginger. They think it was a rattlesnake bite, of all things! Anyway, having lost a few dear cats myself, I wanted to let her know that I understood the hole left behind when a feline friend passes.

Of course, nothing went right when I tried to actually make the card. I played with the base for a while, trying to get something that looked right. Then my decorative scissors gave me trouble. Then I messed up the stamp. Oh well. At least she liked the card. And I really like the kitty cat and the layout.


Then I had a base or two left over. I decided that the colors would do very nicely for a friend's wedding I was attending that weekend. So I took the scraps, made some flowers and created a second card. I really like this one. Though I do need to keep tweezers around for when I work with tiny pieces like those little flowers and tiny dot centers.

Old ATCs

I recently found scans of some ATCs I did forever ago. They were some of my first attempts at the format. Most were reactions to what I was reading in magazines like The New Yorker and Newsweek. I really like the Dalai Lama one, for the absurdity of the text, and the Harry Potter one, because well, I'm always fascinated when people (authors, critics or academics) weave the Jesus myth into modern day literature.

I haven't done many ATCs lately, and I don't really know why. Part of it was time. Part of it was having no one to swap with. Part of it was a feeling that my ATCs just sucked compared to everyone else's. (I do that a lot.) Maybe that'll be a project for today. To play with a nice, easy, small format.

Paper collage from magazines

Sometimes you just need to get your hands a little dirty. One of my favorite things to do is to get out some old magazines and create collages related to whatever is going on in my life. Some are more serious than others. Some are just for fun. Some function as my own personalized motivational posters. It doesn't matter, the process is always the same. This is keep it simple kind of stuff involving nothing more than cardstock, old magazines, a glue stick and some scissors. Often I keep supplies around for my girls too, so that they can collage with me.