Friday Round Up

&rew: Itajime

Amy: Next Step

Ang: OUCH

Beth: Funky Tree ATCs

Corrine: Pyramid Swap

Jeanne: Eklutna Village, Alaska Spirit Houses

Judi: I Think This One Is Spot On

Karen: Shadow Journal

Kathy: Getting back on my feet

Maralena: Henna Hands and Feet Deco

Natalie: What I've Been up to

Nicci: minutae

Nici: To Bead or Not to Bead

Pattie: Page 26

Zhenia: square

Insect ATCs

I decided to go with felt for my insect atcs. I started by cutting out the felt shapes and gluing them to cardstock, then I went for hand-stitched details in black embroidery floss.
When I finished stitching, the background still looked a little blah, so I decided on silver outlines to help pop the shapes a little more - thanks for looking! Can't wait to see the rest of the buggy goodness!

suzi blu

this is both amusing, and worth a watch.
just do it, baby.

link love.

xox
nicci

Friday Round Up

&rew: A Week at the Center for Book Arts: Paper Treatment Workshop

Amy: Playing Again

Ang: Bouncing ART

Beth: Solitary Leaf Completed

Chrysti: I'm a Calendar Girl

Jeanne: Thoughts on Art Medium Choices

Judi: What's Not to Love?

Karen: No! She Screamed...

Kathleen: Hello, My Name is Kathleen and I am a Purseaholic

Maralena: Halloween Sketch

Nici: The Skinny

Pattie: It's a Beginning! Skinny Book Pages

Wendy: New Art for the Wall

Zhenia: Insect ATC

EC Paper Exchange - Hello Autumn!

Sock Monster Swap

Alright, Wendy has now accessed my inner lemming and FORCED me to go create a sock monster to swap with y'all.



Please allow me to introduce Eufamia. She can only eat foods that begin with the letter A: Apples, asparagus, artichokes, arsenic . . . you get the idea.

She's looking forward to finding her partner and discovering her forever home. Won't YOU help by joining the Embellished Circus October Sock Monster Swap?

Technical note: Directions for Eufamia and more like her can be found in the book Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy. These critters are FUN to make--I put togther Eufamia and a different critter for me in an afternoon. The directions are crystal-clear, and the work is straightforward.

green/yellow/red handmade paper

it's that time again! the hand decorated paper swap. well, this time i decided to play, and made my paper instead of just decorating some other paper. i was thinking of originally doing something similar to the envelope decoration i did for this group's altered envie's swap, but i have been recently making this paper. here's hoping everyone likes green! this paper is pretty simple, as with the other cloth papers--it takes linen, a lot of thinned down glue, and several layers of tissue, with spray pigment over top for some of the red and yellow... or rather, butterscotch and cranberry color. it ends up being pretty thick and durable, and would hold up well to being a base paper for ATCs, or even as a cover stock for some sort of journal. can't wait to see what everyone else sends! (tempt, tempt!)

here's a detail of this particular paper in which you can see that it carries a lot of yellow and red as well as green. i took a piece of it and started making a miniature book from it. it looks pretty neat with a grey on white striped interior paper. pix of that to come, of course, when it is finished and embellished.

Sneak preview of Sock Animal swap....

I thought I might entice some of you into joining our sock animal swap with a picture of two animals I just finished. I just adore sock monkeys and soft sculpture! I had a great time creating this cow and mouse this weekend!

artist book - star

artist book - star
Originally uploaded by anongrrl

i got a little crazy combining my handmade paper (remember it from my post here the other day?) when hand binding a book. i decided to do smal, portable size sketchbook whilst pondering what to do with a larger book i am working on. i say only a little crazy because there is not yarn exploding from the interior, the spine, and crazy things dangling off every inch of this journal. at least not yet!

take a sneak peek inside this little book, or go to my flickr to see all the gorey details of this little star embellished creation.

i learned to do the hard spine type binding in a workshop with jennifer d. anderson, a printmaker from santa monica, CA.

one tip: if your glue is too thick (when you are making the paper itself), it can tend to crack when it's folded tightly to make this sort of book cover. perfectionists might wanna try this sort of binding with thinner papers!

detail - cloth paper

red/orange/gridded paper - detail
Originally uploaded by anongrrl

i took a day out for making some paper... well 'cloth paper'. which is a layered paper thing using muslin as a backing. boy can it be labor intensive if you're making large pieces. you have to be really careful not to tear the tissue paper while it's wet, or it globs up. glue glue glue. i found out just how important a thin glue is. also, how much of it you go through making a large piece (a lot!) with layers. whew!

has anyone else tried this? got any tips or tricks? i found running a brush of glue lightly over each piece of tissue paper as it goes down is very helpful to your overal sanity and workability. keep the brush wet or you're going to have things sticking and ripping. it's very much like throwing on the wheel that way--if your hands aren't wet, it creates drag, and things tear!

you can see a full image, and links to other details and images of today's paper @ my blog.

xox
nicci

Friday Round Up

Amy: Paint Play!

&rew: Book Arts Couterie with Pam Sussman

ANg: What's Next?

Beth: Candle's Flame Completed

Jeanne: Faux Watercolor Polymer Clay Pendants

Karen: Spray-Paint Papers

Kathleen: Jewelry

Kathy: Playing with Watercolors

Maralena: Anything but Paper ATCs

Nicci: Fat Chic - Interview

Nici: Day Counter

Pattie: She Wears Her Heart

Penny: Industrial Junque Deco

Serena: Through my stash and out it comes

skullie sketchbook

skullie sketchbook cover
Originally uploaded by anongrrl

since my stuff arrived from GA (ah, the move), i have been digging through it looking for a couple of specific supplies among, oh, 18 bins or so. (whyyy do i have so much stuff? i don't know!)

i found my binding system, so i put together some little journals i had waiting to get punched and clipped. i started a hand drawn/painted series of funky 4x4 inch journals. you can see more over on my livejournal, or just click the image and go right to flickr!

i am in love with the black and white ribbon. i bought some of it cheap 2 years ago, but the spools were very short lengths. i adore skinny b&w striped patterns... ribbon and borders. anyone else have an obsession like that?

this is also, btw, how i bind my chunky books swaps when i host them! it works very well. the system, btw, is called ProClick. lurve it. the only thing i love more are eyelets!

Triptych

It's good to be back creating something other than a tonne of non-fiction prose. Below is the first of many several ATC triptychs (I have the centre panel for another one finished).



acrylics, ink, found paper, embroidery floss

Plushie love

I'm sorry ... I just *had* to make these, sigh .....

Charity Auction for Breast Cancer...

Yesterday I dropped off a bench that I painted for our local breast cancer coalition...They invited 75 artists to do a garden themed item for auction....I was one of those invited. Thought I would share what it was that I did!! It is a wonderful thing to give back to my community...and a heartfelt joy for this charity... http://www.explorethecolors.blogspot.com
I highly recommend doing anything like this in your community...It does so much for you!! Both heartfully and getting your name out there....