An Artist Trading Card
For the Altered Artspirations challenge on StudioGraphics.
{clicky for biggy}
Background: Studio Alana “Before Dusk” paper turqmetal (from SBG Welcome Wagon)
Digital Scrapbook Place “The Haunted” creepy chequered floor element
Curtain from a freebie by Freubel (site may be considered NSFW, be warned!)
Tangie Baxter’s “Journal Anthology” kit fish(“Pinkfishiefoo”, love that name!),banner and frog
font: Beyond Wonderland
Crown from Ztampf! ARTiStrokes Heart to Heart
Studio JenU door (from her “Doors” pack)
I’ll be printing this out at standard ATC size (2.5 x 3.5 inches) later this week.
No big plans for Australia Day – popping round to friends for a cider in the arvo, that’s about it. Don’t like yobby crowds so we’re avoiding any official “celebrations”.
YOU MUST, you simply must…
…head on over to this post on Ricë’s blog. But empty your bladder first, okay? I swear, she makes me laugh so hard…
I wasn’t feeling very creative this week…
[clicky biggy...]
The verb of the week was “Accept” and one of the tasks was to make an illustrated calendar.
Background is my own watercolour paper scanned in; most of the elements are from Studio Tangie and/or the Art Journal Caravan packages at Scrapbook Graphics; grassy alpha from MissBehaving (link to come).
And it’s baa-aack!
I have done something to my back ARRGH! I can hardly move. The worst part is that it’s in a totally new place, one where I haven’t had severe pain before. DAGNABBIT! Off to the chiro tomorrow (I missed my usual Monday appointment because I was too sick to go.)
In happier news: remember all the hassles we had getting our solar panels and solar hot water installed? Well, they’re starting to pay off. For the same time last year our electricity bill was around $350. This year? FORTY EIGHT DOLLARS. Holey moley shoot the pony, what a difference! Mostly down to getting rid of the old electric hot water heater (which we now know would have made heating water by burning currency look cheap); but the almost $80 rebate from power our solar panels put back into the grid was lovely too.
And the gas bottle saga continues: When Origin came and filled the bottle, they discovered that it was too close to the solar panel inverter box. *sigh* (Why the various officials who signed off on the solar didn’t know this I don’t know, but I am MAD AT THEM!) So we have to pay for a plumber to cut the gas line and move the (now filled) bottle to comply with the regulations, and reconnect the gas. Good news: we picked a plumber and phoned them on Friday- they offered to come round and do a quote – and they did! And he called before he arrived! And he’s coming back tomorrow to do the job! So if it turns out well, I’ll let you know who it is, in case any Toowoomba readers need a plumber… the rest of you can just grit your teeth and weep in envy.
Art tomorrow.
Happiness!!
One of the Neighbours from Hell – the one with the Houdini Rottweiler (who beats up his other dog frequently); the one with the suspected drug connections (one day a week with lots of short trips out in the car then returning to base… just a BIT suss!) the noisy car driven like a madman, and who in the past has been quite troublesome – has MOVED THE DEAD CAR FROM HIS BACKYARD! It had been there over two years. He’s also moved another dead car from his carport. And I just saw him – for the first time EVER – spraying the weeds near our fence.
HaPpY DaNcInG – I reckon he’s moving out, don’t you?!
Yeah yeah, I know, better the devil you know – but at least a DIFFERENT devil will be a change. And I won’t miss him being self-important on his mobile phone in the backyard at all hours of the day or night; nor will I miss him screaming across several house blocks at somebody else’s dog to “SHUDDUP, YA MONGREL!” while he nurses his breakfast beer.
Now, if we could just get the other annoying lot with the psycho (and notified dangerous) dog to move…
Linky Dinky Dooo!
Just a quick list of some of my faves:
Teesha Moore (THE Goddess of art journals)
http://www.teeshaslandofodd.com/1/temp.html (main site)
http://www.teeshascircus.blogspot.com/ (her blog)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z6qmXGRrsE&feature=related (Her you
tube videos start here with making your own journal – but the collage
and lettering ones are AWESOME!)
Kelly Rae (Very different style, very cool – you’ll need to scroll down
to get past all the Christmas stuff and see her art)
http://kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/
Dina Wakley – QUEEN of stencils and masks (and very cool scrapbook
pages, too)
http://dinastamps.typepad.com/ponderings/
Marsha Jorgensen, Tumble Fish Studio (her stuff looks so complex you’d
think it’s digital but it’s ALL hand cut, coloured, and glues. Freakin’
amazing. I wanna be her when I grow up.)
http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/
Nancy Baumiller (Crowabout) – I did a class with her in November and
she’s a cool teacher! She also gives away a free collage sheet every
week (via Flickr) – the link is in her sidebar.
http://crowabout.blogspot.com/
Different style again (and she’s been in a lot of scrapbooking mags:
Julie Fei Fan Balzer, very cool art journals
http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/
Samantha Kira was featured in the most recent issue of Art Journaling
mag and I love the way her stuff is messy
and honest!
http://www.journalgirl.com/
And the digital/hybrid year long “Art Journal Caravan” class I’m doing
via http://scrapbookgraphics.com has a gallery here:
http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3500
(I’m rather intimidated by everyone else’s work there, to be honest!)
Is it just me…
or does anyone else think that January 4 IS TOO DAMN EARLY FOR THERE TO BE HOT CROSS BUNS AT THE SHOPS?
(BTW – Easter is April 4. 12 weeks away.)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash…
We ran out of bottled gas on Saturday, just as we were trying to cook tea. See, we only use it for the cooktop – everything else (including the oven) is electric, so we just don’t use that much gas.
We didn’t realise just how little we used until we were able to connect with the gas company today:
(After climbing the ^!(#&^!* menu tree and the requisite wait:)
“Do you have your customer number?” the Gas Company man asked.
“Um, no, sorry, I can’t find our last bill” I said.
(Then we go through the rigmarole of me proving who I am so I can buy something- gah!)
“Now, if the company comes out and there is gas on site, you will be charged an $88 fee.”
“Believe me, THERE’S NO GAS!!”
“Right, I’ll just see when your last fill wa…. oh. Your last fill was in October 2007, that’s over 2 years ago! Obviously we’ll get someone out there today and we’ll be making sure we schedule more regular deliveries.”
That’s us, the McFrugals.
Next!
Happy 2010!
Well, we made it! (All of us except the Bank of Queensland, whose EFTPOS machines decided that it was 2016 and therefore all cards were expired…)
We had a fairly uneventful New Years Eve, where I didn’t even last long enough to open the bubbly – I was out like a light by 9 pm. I woke up again after some commotion at the end of the street (very drunken girl and her friends from one of the parties around the place, behaving stupidly ) and again when the roar of “THREE… TWO… ONE… NAPPY YEW HEAR!!!” (or something of the sort) rang out.
For NYE 2000, I believe I was chatting (IRC, oh, how long ago!) with friends online. And for 1990, I was having a wonderful (ahem!) time under the stars with my delightful dairy farmer, near Corryong … can that really be TWENTY years ago? I feel so old.
I had a fabulous day yesterday – went to Brisbane with friends – long day, but good company and some fun shopping. (Thanks, L and T!)
We went to Photo Continental at Mt Gravatt. Did I think to buy more matte photo paper for my collages? Nope! We got to the scrapbooking side of the shop and spent 2 and a bit hours wandering in a bit of a daze… they had a lot of older lines in stock (which were new to me, since they were before I discovered just how cool scrapbooking supplies are!) and I grabbed some more O-wires for my Bind It All machine at half price. (Yes, I succumbed. Expect to see LOTS of coil bound books this year!) I wanted a new alphabet stamp set but decided I’d already spent quite enough…
Then we went to IKEA! Oh maaaaaaaaaan I love Ikea. It’s pure fantasy island. Especially the kitchens (even if some of the display kitchens would take up our whole house, LOL!) And of course, we had lunch there:
I’m pretty sure that on January 2, 2009, I was having this exact same lunch at the Ikea store in Adelaide! (We make our own traditions…)
Buys at Ikea: a new kitchen clock, with a sweep second hand so we can see when the battery has run out (D’oh!) for $3.49; a new rubbish bin for $2.99, and a pack of face washers for around $7. Wins, eh!
Then on to the new Kaisercraft Outlet store at Browns Plains, where I grabbed a couple more sheets of my favourite (old) range, “K-Bots”. I’m hoping they’ll release it as a digital set soon (although their digital stuff is overpriced, IMHO, compared to the value from places like Scrapbook Graphics, Designer Digitals, Scrap Girls, and Pickleberry Pop.)
And now I must get on with the Art Journal Caravan pages I want to make today. Our first assignment (and one shared in other places, including the QuiltArt list and Ali Edward’s blog, who links to this very useful worksheet by Christine Kane on discovering your word) is to choose a word we want to inspire us for the year. (I am NOT into all that “wooooo” stuff about “manifesting” – but I do want to keep this particular word in my heart, mind, life, and art this year. All will be revealed next post.)
