Think Monday, Think ATC: Smile

The theme at TMTA this week was "Smile". I have to confess, I had a sudden attack of anarchy with this one, and couldn't get the image of grumpy children out of my mind.



It's not that I don't feel like smiling. Not at all!

Inchie Challenge: Mirror, Mirror

This week in Inching Artists, the theme is "Mirror, Mirror". It was a tough one - I had to wrack my brains to find what I wanted to say about that. I chose an image taken from a stained glass window - I like her introspective expression. She's reflecting.



The buttons are battered, but shiny. And one day, I'll remember that gold doesn't scan well, and avoid using it. (Yeah, like that's going to happen. Ever! I love the look of gold too much for that.)

ETA: Why is Blogger suddenly giving me instructions in German? *is puzzled*

The busier one gets, the more one puts things off

I need to be writing for this fanfic challenge - I foolishly took on a last minute pinch-hit to help the organisers out without really considering that I'd have to write the darn thing in two days. So, naturally I'm posting to my art blog, where they can't see me and know that I'm running around in a bit of a tizz.



I made some ATCs to tuck into cards going out to various friends who are having rough times at the moment - it was so nice to make a few simple cards and decorate envelopes. It's something I had forgotten that I enjoyed so much.



We have a new colour laser printer, and I printed some images onto vellum - they worked out well. It's a huge monster of a printer, though, and we don't have table space for it, so it crouches on the floor like a toad.



Things I'm excited about:
The new Temeraire novel is released soon. The first three were brilliant fun to read - a re-imagining of the Napoleonic War fought with an Aerial Corps of dragons. Very much my cup of tea.

My new lap-top that has been ordered, and should arrive on Tuesday. Until then, I have to perch on the rickety chair in the kitchen to use the desk top.

Thea Gilmore singing 'Bad Moon Rising'. I love her voice.

Dale at the Thread Studio having Hot Textiles in stock before Amazon. Go Aussie suppliers!

I think that's all the excitement I can take. Also, should be writing.

More inchies!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my ATC - this is the best part about starting a new blog, all the new people I'm getting to meet and the chance to catch up with a few old friends too.

This is a procrastination post - I have a deadline to meet. Is it procrastination if I planned it ahead? I made these inchies earlier in the week, so that I would have something to post when I knew my concentration would be wavering.

This week's theme at Inching Artists is "Under the Sea". Technically, these inchies aren't inspired by things under the sea, but things on the shoreline. I plead artistic licence on that matter.



They're made with scraps of hand-painted paper stamped with a hand-carved spiral stamp that made me think of crashing waves. The gold foil I saved a long time ago, and I'm glad that I could finally use it, because it got a bit crunched up, which in this case, worked well. And the words come from my favourite source of amazing words - a torrid pirate romance novel. It has all the best adjectives. And it is truly, truly hideous reading. When I bought it at the thrift store, I was caught in the act by someone from my tiny town. We chatted politely, but I've always wondered what she thought of me - the cover of the book is exceedingly lurid. It's a real bodice-ripper.

Think Monday - Think ATC (I know, it's Wednesday...)

I've had a very busy couple of days - a sick girlfriend to take care of, lots of art to do (yay!), and a looming fan-fiction challenge that I'm blithely ignoring. I'm going to be sorry about that last one in a few days when I'm slaving at the keyboard until the wee hours of the morning.

Hey, Scoured! Google Reader for the win! Thank you so much for the tip, I'm cruising along with it now, and it's awesome. And not contributing to me failing to get this fic written, no, not at all.

Think Monday - Think ATC is a weekly challenge to make an artist's trading card to the specified theme, and this week, the challenge was to use a slide mount (the little casing that goes around a photographic slide) in the ATC. This is my first time in this challenge - but oh, I love these weekly challenges already - I can take part or not, as the muse comes and goes, and I'm not letting anyone down if I feel like my work isn't up to showing to anyone.



I'm really happy with this one - I love the texture of acrylic paint when it has bubbled up under the heat gun, and it's always fun to add those wacky triangle embellishments. The face is printed on a transparency, which isn't so obvious in the scan, but the text of the stamp shows through a little.

Yay! I'm so happy to have made something this weekend.

The art is getting smaller

I'm going to sound like a creaky old woman when I say this: I remember when people started making ATCs, and a canvas of 2.5 by 3.5 inches was so tiny after working on books and cards. An ATC seems like an acreage now that I've worked on my first Inchie.



It's made from a tiny scrap of crazy quilt - I'm making some CQ ATCs right not also. I made it for the Spiral challenge at Inching Artists. I hope it's not hideous, and that I haven't broken some unwritten rule by making mine from fabric, because I'm going to post a link to it at the Inchies challenge.

Here's one of the ATCs - the silk ribbon binding looks terribly wonky in the scan. It's much better in real life. Really.

Getting the hang of Blogger

It's not too bad, Blogger - I really like the adaptability of the layout, and the ability to drag around components of my blog. I wish Livejournal had that. On the other hand, Livejournal does have a huge networking capacity - and I really miss the friends list aspect of that system. I've created a blogroll, which I can add links to with an applet in my bookmarks folder, and it notifies me when people have updated their blogs. It's not the same as having LJ compile a list of the most up to date posts on my fandom blog, but it will do for now.

So post some art, woman!

I'm posting the alternative header I made on photoshop for Dansnark Art; the one that didn't fit the Blogger proportions. I thought of this as I was picking through collection of samples of Black Phoenix Alchemy perfume oils that I got with my last order, and toyed with the bottle labeled Siren.



The oil was very musky, not the fragrance of an ocean-dwelling Siren, I suspect. So I'm wearing Sudha Segara, which smells like nutmeg and condensed milk - it makes me think of a spice-carrying pirate ship.

I used Google Images to check what images of me were up online, and happily found only images of my art work. And I have something on the Stampington website, on the ad for Gallery IV: it's halfway down, the mermaid called "Niamh".



It's a page from a tiny booklet that I whipped up the night before the last possible posting date for the Celtic issue, using clip art images that I stamped with Celtic style tattoos. Last minute projects are always so surprising. Sometimes in a good way.

The first post is the hardest.

I've been on an art hiatus for most of 2007, and now that I'm poking around the arty end of the internet again, I see that art has moved to the blogosphere. I couldn't be happier about that! I'm not so familiar with Blogger, but I hope to be getting the hang of it soon.

So, best to post some art, I think! Apart from making myself a header and user photo on photoshop for this blog, I made an altered book for my Mum's birthday. I'm using photos posted at my new Flickr page - I usually use photobucket, so hopefully they won't be all hugemungous and weird.

The cover was collaged with various papers and coloured with dye inks and paints. I used gesso to soften the intensity of the colour.



This book was a quick and dirty alteration of an old cross stitch pattern book from the seventies. Because I was doing it fast, I only made two spreads, and used the entire book block to make a niche page.


This year, Mum's birthday coincided with the lunar eclipse. In the lead-up to the event, there were reports that the moon would be red in colour, and red tones crept into my work.


Okay, I think I'll hit the post button and see what happens.

ETA: That doesn't look right!
ETA again: Let's try it again!
ETA the third: Third time's a charm...