In another lifetime…
Credits: Art Journal Caravan Parcel 8 (Scrapbookgraphics); K. Pertiet Basic Journal Spots (Designer Digitals); brushes from A Rockwell’s CU grunged pattern brushes (Scrapartist); font is Academy Engraved
An Artist Trading Card
For the Altered Artspirations challenge on StudioGraphics.
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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”.
I wasn’t feeling very creative this week…
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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).
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!)
Cover for new journal?
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Credits: Fonts: CK Ali’s Hand, ShangriLaNF Small Caps; Pink and grey plane “sticker” from the “Greetings from Paris” digital collage sheet by Itkupilli; Page Border from the KitschGarden Brushes set by Studio Berna; all other elements and papers from the Studio Tangie Steamer Trunk, part of the Art Journal Caravan.
I’m planning on printing this out at 8×8 (well, getting it printed on an 8×10 sheet at somewhere that does nice photo prints and cutting it to 8×8) and binding it with about 30-40 pages as the first month’s journal. There’s no point trying to use the one book for the whole year – I know I get BORED, and I know that the book would get hopelessly fat and ratty over that time frame.
I really like the overlay on this page – that KitschGarden Brush set was something I Just Had To Have as soon as I saw it – luckily I was able to grab it on Christmas Day as my last bit of the quota free download.
I’m off to the respiratory specialist on Wednesday, just the two year checkup to see how I’m doing with my sleep apnoea and tolerating my CPAP machine. I’m about 25 kg lighter than the last time he saw me, so I’m hoping he won’t rouse on me too much! I find it almost impossible to sleep without the mask (connected to the machine) on; although apparently I can still fall asleep enough to snore if I put the mask on and forget to restart the machine if I get up in the night. No, it’s not particularly romantic, but neither is having Mr Beloved lying awake, tense, waiting for me to start breathing again!
Steamy here today, after the lovely rain (4 mm yesterday – we’re not getting the wonderful (flooding) rains they’re getting down South, but 4mm isn’t bad!) and I’m off to get bread, milk, and the post. Oh, and of course the new Sacred Hot Water Bottle of Happiness…
(ETA: D’OH! Boxing Day is Mondayised this year, TOOWOOMBA is SHUT!!)
Phew! Next!
Happy Christmas to those who celebrated. I managed to avoid saying that AT ALL yesterday (although Mr Beloved did utter it once, to my parents in The Christmas Phone Call.)
We had a Very Geeky Christmas: our internet provider had a quota free day and I was able to snag an abso-bloody-lutely GINORMOUS set of digital scrapbooking stuff – well over a gig. Took about 7 hours.
Not something I would have been able to do at all, usually – and what’s more, I had a coupon (from joining Tangie’s Art Journal Caravan) so it didn’t cost me financially, either! WOOOT! 9 kits of different colours, some repeats, but – what a resource! Now I just need to find a way (that works with Linux) of organising/tagging my digital scrapbooking stuff - there’s too much to just try and remember what was in which kit.
Any suggestions?
Mr Beloved was very patient and late in the day he was able to download a rare Brain Eno and Robert Fripp live recording, so he was happy too.
[start whinge here] Our internet usage is a constant source of angst: every month, we run out of quota, but because we’re on a grandfathered plan we get Such A Deal. And given that our internet access is via ancient copper with dirty old corroded lead joins, which tends to be unreliable at best and non existent if we get enough rain, there’s not a lot of point in trying to buy more bandwidth. Grrrr. The exchange is “Scheduled to be enabled for ADSL2″ by our ISP but they’ve been saying that for a couple of years now. (And of course, that won’t fix our phone line…) I am so envious of US friends and other people who have unlimited access! [end whinge]
I’m seriously looking at investing in that Bind It All machine… it would be super cool to have journals the size I want with the papers I want and with a coil binding – I COULD make sewn journals, yes, but I really want to make loose pages of various papers into a book to use. Many books, actually. But I can’t buy it from the (possibly cheaper, local megacraftstore place) S***Shite, because what if I need warranty service or help? They’d be bloody useless.
Anyone got one and have advice to offer?
And in sad news: The Sacred Hot Water Bottle of Happiness perished. Long Live the Sacred Hot Water Bottle of Happiness. *sigh* For now I am making do with a coke bottle filled with hot water, wrapped in a sock (!) but it’s nowhere near as effective, of course. On Monday we shall hold the coronation of the new Sacred Hot Water Bottle of Happiness, with due pomp and ceremony. These things are important.
Inspired…
There is much HaPpY dAnCiNg at the house of Caitymakes today: the new issue of Somerset’s Art Journaling arrived! WHEEEEE!
It’s so exciting to see stuff from bloggers I read all the time as well as people who are completely new to me. I didn’t get much past the first flick through before I had to dive into my art supplies… don’t you just love it when that happens?
Also VERY high on the hApPy DaNcInG list today: Mum and Dad bought me THIS (well, they gifted the money, which I chose to use for this, *mwah* thanks!)
[clicky to go to the Art Journal Caravan blog]
As soon as I can work out how to get the blinkie working, you” see a link over on my sidebar there. I’m super happy about this because it’s designed to combine digital and physical stuff, (or can just be one or the other) and Tangie is an AWESOME designer! Starts January 1, but you can join anytime, and it’s 52 weeks worth – oh bliss!
If I can sit up today I’m, hoping to start work on a cover for my expedition journal.
The “if” is because – dagnabbit – the PAIN IS BACK. Yep, the exact same endometriosis type pain, lower abdominal, radiating down to my knees and through my lower back – in other words, the same sort of pain I had every bloody month until the relief of the TAHBSO (job lot clearance of all the girly internal bits) op.
Went to the doc yesterday, who agreed that yes, the eating fatty foods then doubling over in pain an hour or so later is very likely gall bladder related, but easily solved: don’t eat fatty foods. Duh. The possible return of the endo (coming soon to a theatre near you: Gutwars Part II: The Endo Strikes Back) (ewww!) will have to wait for the Feb appt with the very nice gyno doc.
I haven’t yet decided what format the journal will take – at this stage I’m leaning towards a box full of separate, differently sized pages which will eventually (when I have *sob, please, I want one sooooooo much* one of these – and to continue this dreadfully parenthetic entry, I *could* theoretically go buy one in the next fortnight, but I am trying to carefully carefully carefully shepherd the wonderful parental gift $ Just In Case … (Miss Constance needs to go to the vet again, or Something Else Dire happens.) where was I? Oh yeah – loose pages, varying sizes, eventually bound together. Yep.
Only problem I can see with that is the possibility probability that I will lose pages, or be tempted to chuck the ones I’m not 100% happy with. Both of which would be Bad and Not At All In The Spirit Of The Thing.
Right, I’m off to see if Mr Beloved will make me some lunch (whiiiiiine!) and refill the Sacred Hot Water Bottle of Happiness. These things are important.
Man, this is HARD!
So Friday night at social scrap (aka playgroup!) I actually made a PHYSICAL, not digital, scrapbook page. And it was HARD! There’s no undo button when you cut paper the wrong size, and I always have issues with glue, dammit.
Another customer commented “If I could do pages like your art journal, I wouldn’t bother doing ordinary scrap book pages!” – but I WANT to be able to do scrap book stuff too. Except now I realise I need to stay true to MY style, especially in physical scrapbooking. Even Mr Beloved says “I prefer your digital stuff…
Okay, so here (complete with lousy flash photography and parallax error, sorry!) is the Actual Paper Page (sitting on a white paper bag to keep it clean):
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Things I like: I vaguely remembered seeing a tutorial on how to make these paper roses, so had a go on the night. Not too bad, I think. (Although now I look at the instructions – not so much!)
Things I didn’t like: Grrr! I had issues with GLUE. And the photo didn’t really pop.
Credits: Cardstock: Bazill ColorMates; Papers: Basic Grey (all the oranges) and Kaisercraft (all the greens); Journalling tag by Michelle Coleman, part of the “So Charming” digital kit from Little Dreamer Designs; Chipboard alpha by Heidi Swapp; Grey pearls by Kaisercraft; pens: various (seriously, you want me to remember PENS?!)
And tonight I made a digi version:
(clicky for biggy, this one is MUCH nicer!)
Credits: Background paper: Jen Wilson’s “Midnight Jack” kit; Orange/red papers and green paper behind photo (modified) “Sweet Sensations 2″, Lori Barnhurst of Little Dreamer Designs [get in quick if you want this, her store is retiring Dec 12!]; Journaling Tag: Michelle Coleman, “So Charming” kit, Little Dreamer Designs; Butterfly and Flower elements from Holly Designs “Naturally” kit; Alpha is Katie Pertiet’s “Basic Bare Chipboard Alpha” (modified); photo frame and staple are from Katie Pertiet’s “Classic Curled Photo Frame” pack; leaves (modified) from Thao Cosgrove’s “Beautiful Life” kit.
Hmmm. Yep. Which format do you think I should persist with?
Digidare #157
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Credits:Template: Chrissy W Freebie 34 Amylift (modified); Michelle Coleman Bohemian Summer paper ( x2) from Little Dreamer Designs, ribbon from same kit; Fonts: Credit River, CK Wellington, Circus Ornate; Swirl brush from Celeste Rockwood-Jones “Blossom Brushes” freebie.
I’m not thrilled with this layout, but I am pleased to have captured one of our non-traditional traditions. And yes, Mr Beloved and I do get quite silly!
This was the brief:
Non-traditional!
This time of year is SO nostalgic for me. I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood during the Holidays. There are the typical memories of finding the perfect Christmas tree, listening to holiday music, making gingerbread houses … but there are so many more obscure memories as well!
This week I want you to think of a non-traditional holiday memory you have from your childhood (or even a more recent year if you wish)!
Here are some examples of my own non-traditional memories:
- Traditional would be decorating the tree as a family. Everyone does that. Non traditional would be that our family eats frozen peaches for breakfast on Christmas every year.
- Traditional would be singing Christmas carols. Non traditional would be the funny way my dad sings a particular Christmas song every year.
- Traditional would be opening presents Christmas morning. Non-traditional would be the year my parents actually put coal in my stocking.
Dare Flair:
- If you don’t have a photo of the event, it’s ok to use no photos or stock photos.
- Since we’re talking about non-traditional memories, let’s go with some non-traditional colors as well! No red or green allowed!
- Let’s see some white space! Your photo(s) & elements can only cover 1/4 of your layout. Journaling, however, can cover as much space as you want.
- You must use at least one swirl brush
- You must use some fabric of some sort (felt, fabric, ribbon)
Creative Therapy: Catalyst 85
SO over at Creative Therapy blog, this week’s catalyst is “What’s the most daring or scariest thing you’ve ever done?”
When I left my first husband, I truly believed that if I didn’t get away RIGHT THEN, I would die. He had been drinking and hitting me all afternoon as we drove down the coast from Sydney on our way back to Albury. When he eventually passed out drunk in a caravan park somewhere on the coast I grabbed my bag (no money, lots of cassette tapes, since that was where he insisted they be carried) and ran to the nearest phone box. (This was waaaay back when mobile phones were the size of besser bricks and were rare as hens teeth.)
I remember somehow getting connected via the emergency number to the only local taxi driver – it was a very small town – and he got me to the police station and waited with me until the police came back from patrol (two man station) and left me with them.
Long story short – the police got me to the next biggest town, then their police got me to the next biggest town and bought me a train ticket to Sydney, where my sister rescued me. (She was always the brave one.)
Now you know that back-story – leaving my second husband was scarier. Not because I was afraid of violence (although he did put on quite a show for the police and neighbours) – but because I was so ashamed that I was leaving another marriage. I was hurt, angry, miserable with snot and tears running down my face as I drove away – but I knew that if I stayed I would keep slowly dying, becoming less me every day.
It was absolutely the right thing to do.
This piece took me ALL DAY to make! I really wanted to use the birdcage because it’s such an important symbol to me – but it was from an image I’d torn out of an old magazine, and the cage was hanging over a background of quite blurry leaves and tree limbs:
So it took me AGES to extract just the birdcage from the photo. (For those who care – had to do it ALL with the polygon select tool in small sections, some of it while viewing the image at 200%. Magic wand tool only works when there is a solid colour to select!)
Then I had to learn how to use a torn edge mask over the paper I wanted to use. EASY in photoshop, apparently, but I’m pov and therefore open source and therefore use GIMP. So it took me a while to work that out too (but geesh, I’m getting much faster at doing this stuff!) – and after the second time I mistakenly saved the resulting image as a JPG (low information, doesn’t play well with other layers) instead of a PNG file (saves all the layer information, like saving something as a .PSD in Photoshop) I got even faster!
And so to bed. Ahhhhhh!
