Sunday, April 22, 2007

Happy Earth Day, Everyone!

Whenever I hear "earth day" it conjures up memories of my college days, when I was very heavily involved with student government, and served as the student body representative of environmentalism. I would plan events to help create environmental awareness. Earth day was always my big 'hurrah' because I would have hemp bracelet knotting tables for the students to make their own free hemp bracelet... free vegetarian goodies, stuff like that. It was always a lot of fun to try to think of something new to do for the students.

It was also a huge undertaking, and it really burned me out after a while. I highly recommend NOT getting involved in student goverment (at least, not on a college level), because you get involved in too much, and it really takes away from the time and energy you need to devote to your school work.

Anyways!

Some stuff that I've been working on lately... and I have pictures! This set of pictures are from a deco I designed for one of my favorite groups, EphemeralNotions. I hosted our monthly 'boxanotions" swap last month... basically, for our boxanotions, we are given a list every month of items to include in this box. Of course, the list is subject to our own interpretation of the items. For example, if the item is "Purple Ink" -- you can send a purple ink pad, or a purple ink pen, a jar of purple india ink... it's completely up to you what you decide.

Anyway, one of the items that I was to include in my boxanotions for my wap partner was "Wild Deco" -- and I created this deco (I didn't completely embellish it, but I put it together, and created the cover and first spread of the deco, and left the rest blank so that the artist who receives it can circulate it and have a deco for themselves when it's done)...

As you can see, I interpreted the phrase to create a circus deco. The top image is of the cover. As you can see, I had a lot of fun with distressed embossing powders -- one of my favorite art supplies! The second and third images are of the first inside spread. I had a lot more fun with this theme than I thought I would!

Anyways, I hope that my swap partner likes it.

That's all for now... I am nearly caught up... woo hoo!

~Anne

I'm getting toward the finishline!

At least, I think I am! I have been working my tail off to get myself caught up. I'm still behind on a few things, but, I hope to get them finished by the start of next week ... and I think I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

A few things though -- I do foresee another delay in the 'zine. :( I'm sad about that, but it's unavoidable. No excuses -- I've just been occupied with other things to be able to sit down and actually finish work on it. I'm nearly finished with it, however, the most difficult part (at least for me) is still to come, and that's the proofing and editing. I have a bit of a perfectionist side to me, and that, paired along with the noisy inner voice trying to shoot me down telling me that I'm not really an artist... well, these two aspects start gunning off in my head, and I end up proofreading the entire text 12 times before I am satisfied with it.

*sigh*

Anyway, I know I won't have it to the printers by the end of April. I hope sometime in May, it will be on it's way, but it may be as late as mid-June ... it will really depend upon how I'm doing with a few other commitments that I have -- I want to have everything else out of the way -- FINISHED! -- when I get the pages back from the printers so that all I have to focus on is assembly, which is a monumental task in itself. When I have too many things distracting me from that, I am not able to focus on it the way I want to.

I do have some art to post! I finished some chunky book pages earlier this week -- it's a different kind of chunky book in that the pages will be ATCs, rather than 4x4s. The concept is "dreaming tree" ~ here's my submission to the book:

Every page is original (not photocopied or digital), so each of the 33 cards is slightly different. The backgrounds were created using alcohol inks and copper metallic ink, and the tree was painted using india ink. The tree patterns is where most of the differences lies in each card, because I handpainted the trees rather than stamped them, so each tree has it's own unique characteristics.

It was a lot more time consuming than I anticipated too! I had hoped to get these mailed in at least a week before the deadline, but, with all the different layers -- and wait time for drying -- I was right at the deadline! Oh well, at least they're off and on their way now!

*big sigh of relief!*

Well, that's all for me today... I still have a lot of other artwork to post, and will do that as soon as time allows for it.

Enjoy the day! (and don't forget to take along your favorite cuppa tea!)

Friday the 13th!

Are you superstitious? The only thing I'm superstitious about (well, that I can think of off the top of my brain) is opening umbrellas indoors. I've always been like that... I just don't like having open umbrellas inside.

But since 13 is a lucky number for me, I certainly don't have a problem with 'Friday the 13th'

Anyway -- I have some new art to display. The first is my deco spread from Linda B's "I Love Lucy" deco. Confession time ~ I was never a big fan of the show, so when I saw the theme for her deco I was a bit intimidated. But I came across a package of collector cards and they sort of inspired me... and I ended up having a lot of fun with this theme.

These next pictures are a couple of charms that I submitted for a swap I'm in. The charms are all very similar, almost identical, although each are slightly different since they all have handpainted backgrounds. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to alter dominos! I put off making these charms for a while, mostly because I was afraid to drill them! But, after I finally worked up the courage, I found it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I kinda like power tools! (cue Tim Taylor grunt)

Anyway, that's about all from me today. I have loads of things to sort out that I've scanned and photographed... I hope that in a week or two I will be able to get them uploaded here to share with you. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, April 10

The time has flown by! I've been so busy trying to get caught up... there are a few things that I still am lagging very behind on... yet for the most part, I feel pretty confident that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Why I feel that way, I'm not exactly sure... but the feeling's there.

Yesterday, I managed to get two decos completed, and two others started and well on their way toward being finished. I also am nearly finished with my charms for one of the swaps I'm in, I hope to get those finished in the next day or two so I can get them in the mail.

As for pictures, I decided to post a few 'older pieces' -- well, they aren't terribly old, but from January. I did these Rolodex cards for a swap with the Art On a Budget group. The theme was "Love"

I actually did a total of 6 cards for the swap, but I can't find the scan for the sixth.

Anyway, I hope the new owners of these cards enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them, and as much as I'm enjoying the cards I received in return!

~Anne