I love it when the Etsy Finds email brings me something truly unique and delicious! A short while ago it delivered a beautiful image from an Etsy shop called
Crafterall. It was love at first sight and I immediately contacted the artist to ask about her perfect packaging. We got to 'talking' and she was so lovely as to answer a few other questions so that I could introduce her to you properly.
Tell us a little about yourself ...
My name is Marnie, I'm a native Minnesotan, and I share my home with my hubby, our two young daughters, and a retired racing greyhound. I have waited tables at a pizza restaurant, greeted guests at a hotel, worked at a scrapbook store, and taught English to high school seniors. My favorite job is that of full-time Mommy and part-time crafter. I'm able to sneak in bits of work here and there throughout the day and then dive in at night after the girls go to bed. My husband telecommutes from home so we live a pretty darn idyllic life. It is sweet.
Have you always been a crafty gal?
Yes, absolutely. For me, crafting is the necessary and logical next step from my "Pack-rat-ism." For years, I would keep virtually anything with the firm thought that I could "make somethin' outta this someday." I've been able to cut back considerably on my collecting of stuff, but my collection itself is still too large and still too "precious" to cut into. I think the inherent re-purposing of most crafts is what has appealed to me the most over the years. Being able to either repair something or to make something new for myself using materials I have around me is surprisingly liberating and inspiring feeling. Frankly, it's a bit addictive, and I love it.
How in the world did you start making art with cut paper?
I have always enjoyed working with paper. For a while I was obsessed with origami, then it was on to making my own cards to send to pen pals. My high school art teacher, Mr. May taught me the proper techniques for using an X-Acto blade and it was like I was given a new drawing tool. I learned how to hold a pair of scissors and move the paper to cut more intricately, and, working at a paper store allowed me to experiment on paper styles and thicknesses. The topographic designs of much of my work began as a happy accident that gained a decent following. Even though I've cut through nearly a million layers of cardstock over the last two years, each piece has been different and that has afforded me enough creative freedom to maintain that delicate balance between art and business. Still, I continually strive to make my designs more intricate, interesting, and innovative.
What things inspire you?
I'm inspired most by little masterpieces, natural or designed. I love finding little interesting details in nature: the tidy little hands of a squirrel around an acorn, the perfect symmetry of an emerging seedling, the curve of the long whiskers over the eye's of my dog. I also get inspired by the work of others: artist Andy Goldsworthy, composer Gustav Holst, and so many of my colleagues on Etsy. I tend to carry a big "net" with me at all times, and mentally capture little details like this as often as I can without being too "spacey." I love my little camera and bring it with me practically everywhere for this same reason.
Where is your 'happy place'?
I try to make any place my happy place. Life is way too short to be grumpy about anything. Still, there are a few places that I suppose are a little more sacred: a certain little glen in the woods on my parents' property up north, being sandwiched between my daughters with a book on my lap, my bedroom on a sunny Saturday morning, a moonless night in February while walking the dog, and my studio downstairs when it's way too late and I'm just getting my second wind.
Where have you found your biggest financial success so far? (Etsy, wholesale, craft shows, etc)
Over the long run, Etsy has been a steadily growing source of success for me. I've made some great connections and contacts through it and I sincerely value the entire setup of the program. It is an increasingly complicated system to learn, and each step has helped me understand more of what it takes to be a successful independent artist. It is because of Etsy that I have had wholesale orders, invitations to craft fairs and other business-related ventures.
Marnie, it was an absolute pleasure finding you. Thank you.
Then I did one with a red velvet background just to see how the program would output it. Yuck, but this was my bad. The fabric photo is too detailed, too close up. It overpowers the photos and makes them look too flat. A field of grass way off in the distance or a nice patch of blue sky would've looked much better. This one took about ten minutes to create.
The last test for today was a doozy. I'll be the first to admit that under some circumstances I just love to push the limits as far as I can, so I through over 600 images into this one from different family activities over the last 3 years. I wanted to see how the program handled a really detailed, full 'shape' and had a great brainstorm of making a photo family tree. This beauty took a little over an hour to create ... and I'm wishing I'd bought the upgrade so I could edit it and push a few things around in PhotoShop ... maybe after payday. It's also the only way to get rid of the watermark.
Next time around I want to try some custom text ... oh, the possibilities. Go download it yourself and have a blast! So many ideas brewing ...
I lined them up and punched holes in the upper left corner. Cut a piece of chipboard slightly bigger than the cards for the covers, mod podged some pretty paper on the outsides and a plain green cardstock on the insides ... then just put them all in the binder ring. Voila! Anyone can do this quickie project.
Tell us a little about yourself ...
How in the world did you start making art with cut paper?
Where is your 'happy place'?
This month wiki-How is sponsoring a book for a child in Africa each time a registered user writes a new article. Registering took about 5 seconds tonight and you can even find lists of requested topics. You can track the programs project at the Charity Leaderboard. Tonight the count total is 139 books earned by the wiki-How community for children in Tanzania, Africa. I'll have to zip through the site's introductory tour if I get some free time tomorrow and narrow down my possible topics. I'm really excited. My dear hubby reads these all the time and has talked about me writing one for a long time. I guess it's my turn to peek around and see what they're all about and put myself out there. 
How about you join me? Go register. Write your article and post a linky-do here to share with my readers. (haha!) Now that brings me to another issue here ... I would love to know who's reading and what you think so far. I'll admit I lurk in and out of a lot of blogs without leaving comments, but as the blog writer I will definitely have more motivation to keep improving if I know for sure that I'm reading any kind of an audience out there. I've had a couple very sweet readers post a comment here and there, but let's get a shout out from the rest of you too. The more we've got, the easier it is to get contests and giveaways put together too. (throwing the bait out) 
Follow his other links at the bottom of that page to see all kinds of other goodies like this cover pop.
Amazing.
Maria was born in Nevada, raised in South Caroline now lives and creates in Hollywood. She has earned much well deserved praise and recognition internationally and her work is regularly featured in television and film productions. She was such a treat to talk to and was so absolutely pleasant to work with. She even made me a custom pendant from an earring set right there on the spot ... just because I mentioned that I liked the smaller set better. Go check out her website to see more of her pieces. They're stunning.
Aah ... it's time. The endless summer is over and the kids are back in school tomorrow. I will be able to have complete thoughts. Without interruption. In sequence. I've almost forgotten what that was like. I can't wait. It's time for regrouping, planning, structuring ... oh heck, it's time to cut loose a little and figure out what comes next for me and Mariposa Avenue. Ideas. So many ideas. I will need lots of notebooks to scribble them down in and lots of 'me' time to make things happen. School rocks!
#1 is Lomo-ish (effects), #2 is with the HSL Filter (sandbox), #3 is using Hypnotic (sandbox) and #4 shows you Neon (effects). I love them all! And each effect/filter has custom tools for adjusting each picture to your exact liking. Change the brightness, hue, bloom, saturation, you name it. Play and finesse to your little heart's content then save and share. Voila!
Here is the latest addition to my music/art journal from Kara's lovely class. This whole style of art is new to me. I'm way too clean, proper, symmetrical ... you know, a little drab. It's hard for me to get excited about wrinkly, bumpy pages that are their own kind of messy beautiful. I'm working on it though. It's great that this particular project is centered around music in all its forms, endless inspiration there. 
Pure genius. I want to be her. Luckily, this morning there were 2 pages still available. I sent in my email request and heard back almost immediately. April 16th is mine! Mwah-ha-ha. Now I just need to whip up a killer calendar page and send it in by next week. Yikes. It looks like there is still one page left if you're lucky enough to get it before someone else does. I'll keep you posted on my progres.
My daughter gave me her fortune this week knowing that I have a new project in the works. This is always a fun stage for me. I love, love, LOVE creating things and always have a new idea or two brewing in the back of my head. Honestly, a lot of them never come to fruition and that's the way it goes. It's easy to talk yourself out of things, to question your skill and creativity and end up throwing in the towel before you even get started. In the last few weeks though, there's been a completely different vibe in my head. Maybe it was the art journaling for Kara's class. Sometimes I just need to get the fire lit and then there's no stopping it. I'm getting things ready here and have won a few eBay auctions for key supplies a little prematurely. I'll keep you posted on this one. Hopefully there will be something to show really soon. I'm just waiting on some good legal advice first. 
If you haven't seen this yet ... you're in for a treat. I found this great site a while ago and forgot all about it until I was working on my art journal for Kara's class. It's called ... The Rasterbator (not nasty I promise) and it will change the way you look at pictures forever. This is a super cool free online tool where you can upload a photo from your personal collection and have it output as a raster (dot) image. You can crop, choose the paper size and how many pages you want it to go across in the preview mode.
When it's done rasterizing, you get a handy PDF file to print and output yourself. Regular printer paper is great if you don't have too much black area, but they also look slick on photo paper. We made one of my youngest son when my father in law was in the hospital. It was 5 pages across and 4 pages long ... the nurses were floored; it was so cool and really cheered up his room.
*These images are all from the Rasterbator Gallery. Go make your own and add it to the collection.*
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