framed my scrabble-sentence project (you don’t realize how few scrabble tiles are ACTUALLY perfectly cut rectangles until you try to line them up).
Tag Archives: art
epic hobby
the other day i was telling a friend (rather dramatically, i’m sure) how much i was in need of a New Project. “once upon a princess” was done; my lightbulbs-in-canvas project is sorta done (need to get some glue to hold it all in place. note to self), i made the giant ampersand, tried my hand at sculpting (not my forte)… i just needed something new to play with.
the letter-writing and moleskine projects were good surrogates, and so i went to etsy to see if i could find some cute stationary to help inspire me to write letters. this became that, and i found myself looking through pages of letterpress embossed cards. and oh my goodness. love love love.
i ordered a TON. and the more i looked into it, the more convinced i became that letterpress embossing was going to be my new hobby. i was going to start writing letters and i was going to start making cards. my mind practically exploded with possibilities. not only is this cutesy and artsy, but it doesnt require fine drawing skills. (the thing is, i LOVE artsy stuff, but i don’t do it real well. which is fine. i’m content. but something like this — easy peasy. it basically comes down to tracing images and cutting them out. THAT i can do.)
the universe was particularly well-aligned for my purposes that day; shortly after deciding that i needed a new project, and discovering this one, i stumbled across a DIY crafty blog that was having a promotional deal for a home letterpress/embossing kit. i wish i could pass the info on to you — but the deal expired, and i cant remember the website. (i had to reformat my computer the other day so the URL isnt in my firefox history… but to be fair, i found it by googling letterpress promo or something like that. so i’m sure its easy to discover if you are so inclined.) anyway i ordered the kit, it came today, and i gave it the ol’ more-enthusiastic-than-skilled heave-ho. i have some practicing to do, and some directions to learn to follow — but so far, im LOVING it.
so that’s the lifestyle epic 6 tool. seems simple enough, right? i mean it has a HANDLE. like old school pencil sharpeners. which 4 year olds can use. how hard can it be?
a little harder than i thought. it comes with some fixins’… which were actually a bit intimidating. a lot of things that look similar but are made of different materials so i assume they serve different functions.
the things is, despite the wealth of Other Things, one thing this kit does NOT include is instructions. oh, it has a little booklet with words that must mean something to someone. but they aren’t that useful. the reviews online had warned me about that, though, so i was ready. what would we do without youtube, the internet, and common sense (or naivete)? i shudder to think.
this is my first embossed card. not too shabby for attempt #1 based off of a youtube video, if i say so myself :) i mean, the kit came with the stencil-y thing. it’s not like i drew that. so all i really did was turn the handle and guide the thing through. but baby steps, right? :)
the stencily thing slid around a little so the embossing came too close to the edge, but live and learn. and apply those sticky things that the kit DID come with. thats what they are for (now the directions make sense). i also need to learn to add ink–the color ones ares so so so SO cool.
here’s the etsy card i got that inspired it all. one day, i too will make tiny umbrellas in cute cute orderly rain:
a-twinkling
this is my next big project. eeeps. fingers crossed!
something like a fairy tale
once upon a time, i started writing a little story with a sharpie and some colored markers. i posted some of it on this blog for a while, but then, when i began to seriously edit and revise it, i took it down. but now (at last?) it’s done! and thanks to this awesome (of the love-love-love calibre) program called blurb, i’ve put the story together into a little book.
if you’re in the mood for a once-upon-a-time with a happily-ever-after and a very different in-between, take a look. (click the cover to view the book’s preview at blurb)
ok so there’s no easy/delicate way to say this, but i feel sort of compelled to: the blurb site has a “buy” option, but don’t do it. not that you would want to, but if on the random off-chance you did. but not that you would. anyway, its too too pricey, and as much as i love blurb, i’m not using it to try and sell you this book. the preview option is just so great that i couldn’t help using it. also, click the “full screen” option in the bottom right corner for more convenient viewing.
sometimes you need an umbrella
and sometimes you need corel draw x5.
i went to bed last night completely on media/internet/input overload… i couldn’t quite find words to express my frustration, but within a few minutes i had an image in my head… i went to bed increasingly frustrated, though, because i couldn’t seem to capture the image the way i wanted to with pencil and paper.
so this morning, i downloaded the 30-day free trial of corel’s new draw x5 suite. bingo.
a few hours later (yes, it took me forever, i know. but this is the first time i’ve used corel in FOREVER…and i was stuck with whatever fonts i had on my lil computer), i worked all that angst out. aaaaaaahhhhhh :)
punctuation precipitation
so, i know it’s nowhere near as cute/awesome/brilliant/well-done as the pic i posted yesterday, but i decided to post my attempt at capturing the image in my head (in spite of my admittedly-abysmal art skills). i’m still working on getting the idea to match what’s in my head, but this is my first (presentable) attempt. truth-be-told, it’s closer to my 9th attempt. i spent much of the morning trying to figure out how i wanted to do what i wanted to do… it definitely needs some fine-tuning, and i need to find newspaper clips i feel are more relevant (this is just a collage of pages i didn’t think anyone in my household would mind me cutting up). i might prefer one solid page of copy instead of a collage, too.
i still want to do one with falling stars, rain, gumdrops, snowflakes, and a lot of other things. punctuation marks are just easier to draw :) maybe one day…
anotherumbrella print
love love love. thanks to sho for sending this!
click for original source.
[edit: this is such a great pic. now i wish i was an arteest. i would draw a picture of a kid holding an umbrella upside down, collecting....raindrops or stars or gumdrops or rainbows or confetti or OTHER COOL THINGS in it...]
