Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media by LK Ludwig

As soon as I saw this book hit the blogosphere I knew I was going to have to get my grubby mitts on a copy. Something about knowing several of the contributing artists really makes it mean that much more. But just looking at all the pictures was enough to make me drool anyway. So I tapped my toe and watched the street for a week. The poor UPS man probably thought I was going to tackle him when it came in. But it was well worth the wait.




And if you’ve ever taken part in an art collaboration, you might be thinking to yourself that it’s quite fitting, as well. Every few weeks you send off your contribution and wait for the next package to arrive for you to add your personal touch to it. That’s what this book is all about. Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media by LK Ludwig features details of past collaborations, Inner-views with artists, projects to do (!!!), and even a Flickr group with a reader invitation.




I found the photos inspiring – not the same old thing we’ve seen before. I liked the fact that there were actually projects in addition to the eye-candy. Oh, and there aren’t just journals, either. There are postcards, fatbooks, altered books, inchies, art dolls, and more. And having hosted and stitched my little fingers to shreds on the very first Fiberfest Fatbooks, I was tickled pink to see them still alive and well and in print. :)




I've chosen just a few of my favorite pages from the book to show you. Go to the Amazon listing to see several more.

This book will join my permanent art library as one of those books to take down time and again for a creative shot in the arm. I give it two paint-stained thumbs up.

Stampin' Out Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease kills 5.3 million people every year. It is the 7th leading cause of death. It is the most common form of dementia. Almost twenty-seven million people worldwide had Alzheimer's in 2006 and this number is expected to quadruple by 2050. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is about 7 years. Fewer than 3% live more than 14 years after they are diagnosed. It is, as of this date, incurable.

If you have a loved one with Alzheimer's you are aware of some of these numbers. But really when you look at them and they don't know who you are, do those numbers mean anything?

Jen Tapler and Susanna Boyd have put together a week's worth of "pay to play" papercrafting fun with challenges and prizes in honor of Alzheimer's, Stampin' Out Alzheimer's. All you have to is give a small donation (they're asking for a minimum $5) through one of their widgets. Then through the generous help of many sponsors they are able to offer participants a whole lot of bang for their buck through free downloads and prizes. At the end of the week 100% of the money raised goes to the Alzheimer's Association. So after you've made your donation go to the Stampin' Out Alzheimer's site and register.

Jen Tapler shares the story of why she put together this event here.

Even if you're not a traditional papercrafter, won't you please consider a donation? It's only the cost of a bookstore coffee. I'll be leaving the widget up all week long on my blog at the upper left. Maybe I'll even throw all the supporters names in a hat at the end of the week and draw one out for something special. If you make a donation, make sure to sign up at the Stampin' Out site and add me as a friend. :) I'm all alonely over there with those scrapbookers. ;)

Handcarved Stamp for Straight (gasp!) Text

So when I was watching Traci Bunker's video making of a journal page here:

http://tracibunkers.blogspot.com/2009/05/presenting-my-new-video-traci-bunkers.html

I noticed that she used a stamp with lines in her text blocks. I often worry about my text being straight. (why? It's my journal. But let's not get into the artist insecurity issue. That's not just a whole 'nother post; that's a whole 'nother blog.)

Since I really like the look of handcarved stamps I thought it would be cool to make my own stamp for this. So I cut a 4" x 5" piece off my carving material, measured lines 3/8" apart, and then just cut a bit to each side of the line. I wasn't concerned with perfect lines just as I wasn't too overly concerned with getting every tiny bit of material from between the lines. I want to be able to tell it's handcarved; otherwise, I'd just order a commercial stamp. I think any larger than this and it would have to be mounted on a wood or acrylic block.

Here it is stamped on blank watercolor paper. You can see that my watercolor paper is quite textured. :) The lines would be much more solid on a smoother paper.

This artist not only makes amazing stamps she gives a much better tutorial than I ever could.

http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/search/label/handcarvedstampstutorial

So go forth! And carve! And stamp!

excuses excuses

Sorry the blog is so quiet. All four of us are sick. And we're sharing it back and forth like a good family should.

This weekend I hope to have some good stuff... a hand-carved stamp excellent for journalers, a review of LK Ludwig's latest beautiful book, and who knows what else I can pull out of my hat?

In the meantime, check out what we have going on over at Craft Critique and don't forget to sign up to win a free e-book while you're there!

Passion for Crafts Giveaway

If I dance around the house singing "mine!" do you think that will increase my odds of winning this amazing giveaway? What I wouldn't give for some Copic markers. wow.

(I see this becoming a series... "the it's the weekend and it's not a real post but check out this giveaway" post. :D )

Friday Favorites #5 - Process

Topic over at Journal Pages today is Process.

"Process... how do you go about making a page? Do you just jump in and create a page start to finish? Do you paint several pages ahead of time so that you have semi-finished “pretty” pages to write on when you’re ready? Is it something you’ve never really consciously thought about?"

I tend to paint several pages first. Then I'll go back and put images down. Do some doodling and scribbling. Then I'll journal when the urge hits me. Here are some of my pages in progress.

Just a plain and dirty painted background.


Painted backgrounds with papers bordering the edges. I like the last one so much I'm having trouble adding any images or even text to it. :)


Here I've added some images, ephemera, text from magazines. The blue one has lettering done with a marker.


These have some freehand doodling.

And these are all finished pages. As you can see I'm not snobbish about what I use in my journals, either. It can be anything from scrapbook paper to vintage labels to a dirty sketch I wanted to keep.

What's your technique?

Lists

This is my journal page for the Journal Pages prompt "Lists". One of these days I'll post some more journal pages, some finished, some in progress and write a little bit about how I get "from here to there".

You can always click on the picture to make it bigger. :)

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Go check out this dress! must.have.it.my.preshusssss....


Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Sneak Peek!

What is this? Come over to Craft Critique to find out and check out our latest product review. :)

IdeaBooks4U.com

I ran across IdeaBooks4U.com yesterday and found some fantastic books at fantastic prices. Here are my favorites:


Books like these make me want to scrapbook. And I know I'll order them just for the ideas that I can apply towards journaling. There are so many different places to pull inspiration from if we just keep our minds open to possibility.

I'm also excited to announce that I'll be teaching not just journaling classes locally, but also sewing classes. We'll probably do an Amy Butler pattern for our first class project. Her instructions are well written with quality results. And my local store will have her fabric in stock. My wallet may be in serious trouble. :D

Package from Amber Dawn

Today I got my prize package in the mail from Amber Dawn. I was a winner on her blog International Charm Day. Yay! I received the coolest (laser cut wood?) charm with a Victorian lady, a small charm with an embroidered flower, rhinestone, and pailletes, and three cute little flower bows. I can't wait to use my goodies. And I would have never thought to put pailletes on a jump ring with a charm!! You know that's an idea I'll "borrow". :) And the little lady will probably be attached to the stitching of my latest journal. Now, where to use the pink bows? Oh, to have my problems, huh? ;)

Thank you, Amber!

Twiddleybitz giveaway!

It seems this is the weekend for giveaways! Twiddleybitz is having a great one that ends Sunday. Hurry over!

Meet Posy and enter her drawing, too

Isn't this just the cutest bear and pincushion!? Her name is Posy and she's made by Ginger over at BearBits. She's (Ginger, that is) been making bears for 25 years (wow!) and to celebrate she is giving this little cutie away on her blog. And you could win her. Or I could win her. Or you could win her and give her to me. There must be some devious way to stack the odds in my favor, yes?

Seriously, go here and leave a comment to wish Ginger a happy anniversary and maybe she'll draw your name.

Winner and a free postcard!

And the winner of the giveaway is Lori of Vintage Palette Art! Congratulations! I'll email you for your address. Thanks, everybody, for the well-wishes. :D If you will send me your addresses I will send you each a postcard of the following collage.

*head hits desk*

Long day. Too tired to blog. Tomorrow's another day.

ETA: I'll post (and email) the giveaway winner in the morning.

oops, I fell off the wagon already!

Well well well. Look who already missed a day of blogging? Do I have an excuse from my doctor? Nope. A note from my mom? Nope. Just plum forgot. Start over again. Rinse. Repeat.

Today I took my 12 year old to get his shots. I got a letter from the school a couple days ago saying Texas has moved the vaccination dates up from the 15 year mark to all 7th graders must have them to start school this coming year. Figured we'd beat the rush and get them now. We ended up waiting from 9 am to 11:30 am. I wrote an article query, did the lettering on two journal pages, read a magazine cover to cover, and still had 30 minutes to twiddle my thumbs. But I have an enormous amount of patience when it comes to waiting rooms because every couple weeks I take my grandmother to her doctor appointments and to get her hair and nails done. So I was okay with it. I felt sorry for the five or six mothers with babies and toddlers. I had a nice quiet 12 year old while they spent 2 1/2 hours chasing, holding, wiping noses, breaking up fights, etc. Glad that's over with.

I did my pages for Aimee's journal prompt about lists in the journal group. I'll scan and post them tomorrow. Tried something different with them and I really liked it.

And for supper it was homemade pizzas! Yay!

Can't have a post without a photo so here's a little sketch I did awhile back that I'd like to turn into a painting.

Arabelle Jell-well and 100th post giveaway

I was sorting through some ephemera today and ran across this little leaflet/foldover promotional for Jell-well. They made packaged gelatins and puddings mid-century. I don't know anything about the company really. Since Jell-O was created in 1845 and named in 1897, Jell-well wasn't a predecessor of it obviously. The copyright date on the little paper doll is 1955.



And since this is my 100th post, if you'll leave a comment I'll put your name in a hat for an envelope of ephemera (including sweet little Arabelle!) and other goodies. I'll take sign ups until Wednesday 6pm central time. International welcome.

ETA: Wednesday evening - Comments are closed. Will post the winner in the morning. Thanks everybody! :)

Worth the sore needle-pricked fingers!

Some needle-felted fingerpuppet monsters I'm working on for possible inclusion in my etsy shop. The current one has his eyes on the ends of his stalks. Can't wait to finish him. Love these little guys. They kind of remind me of those little rubbery ones we would get out of the gumball machines. And there are so many different things you can do to individualize them. And it makes movietime more productive. :D

Friday Favorites #4 – Books

Have you ever hit a brick wall creatively? No, really! I know it’s not just me. You know those times when you pull out your creative bible, that book that never fails to inspire, the one that at leaves gives you a little inkling of an idea. Everybody’s creative bible is different. What book is your creative bible?

When’s the last time you were in a bookstore flipping through the art books and instead of writing down the title and artist of a book so you could price check it on Amazon you *gasp* paid full price for it right then and there? It really was that yummy, that informative, that spark you needed at that moment. (Or maybe you started writing notes in it before you even paid for it. Guilty!) What book was that?

When your friend emails or calls you up and says “I just don’t feel it lately. My creative juices are dried up.” what book do you immediately recommend to him/her?

What fascinating new (or just new-to-you) book have you found lately and eye-openers did you get out of it?

And, finally, listen up, authors! Tell me about YOUR books! Make me want to read them!


1. My creative bible – Lynne Perrella’s Artists' Journals and Sketchbooks: Exploring and Creating Personal Pages – never fails!

2. the book I wrote notes in? Holly Harrison and Paula Grasdal’s Collage for the Soul: Expressing Hopes and Dreams Through Art

3. Recommended Reading – Dawn Devries Sokol’s 1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations

I have lots more books I recommend and love. I encourage you to check them out on my LibraryThing. Just click on the “journaling” tag. (nope, I don’t make anything off your clicks to LibraryThing. I just feel limited sharing these 3.)

Every Day in May

French Toast Girl has made the commitment to do a painting every day in May. What a wonderful idea. She's asking people join her in committing to doing something, anything, with her.

Care to join me? I think I'll blog every day. It may just be a photo or two. But it supposedly only takes 28 days to make a habit. This could be just the thing to get me on the blogging train. Choo-choo!