Anchor

I just had a chance to see Mindy's music video for Anchor yesterday and fell in love. This is the title track of her lastest album which came out last month. The wings they used throughout the video are gorgeous and the illustrations by April Meeker give it a dreamy surrealism that makes you want to float away.

Embrace Book

OK, I couldn't wait anymore! Here's the inside of #3's Embrace book. Everything in the book came from the young women in our ward and our fabulous leaders. They each wrote cards and letters and quoted different songs and scriptures that would help her get through some dark days. I pulled different pieces from each of the letters into picture frames and such to emphasize them. The letters are all tucked into their own envelopes so she can physically pull them out and read them. McKenna's letter included a list of 15 songs that help her feel better when she's down - so I indulged myself a little and took the opportunity to burn those songs to a CD to add into the book as well. I did the same with the other songs people gave her and put a separate playlist on a different CD in the back of the book. It was fun to see the project keep evolving along the way.

The book itself was a brainstorm I came up with on my own for once. It's 12 inches tall and the pages alternate between 7" and 5" wide to give it a great layered affect. All the coordinating double-sided paper was from a nifty little package I bought from Scrapbook Steals last year. The picture frames and alphabet letters came from the same kit and were a dream to work with. #1 was my design consultant, as usual, and she even added in all the doodles to help dress it up and fill in the empty spaces. I'm so completely thrilled with how it turned out! I had the whole thing spiral bound at Office Max and I hope it's something she will treasure always. She even took it to her mom's house so M could read it too. Love that!

I know the images here are small. You can see them better here.

Save the Date: Beehive Bazaar

Here are all the details you'll need for the annual spring Beehive Bazaar. This is the first time it will be hosted at Thanksgiving Point and I'm so excited to be participating. I've taken a few seasons off and am ready to get back in there. It looks like there will be oodles of young local artists there. They each have a little blurb on the BB website. You can search them by name or category here. Be sure to mark these dates on your calendar if you're local and hopefully I'll see you there!

Animated Love Notes

When you have a minute, go to Imagination Cubed and make a happy little drawing to send to someone you love. I had a few extra minutes while the phones were slow today to dink around a little and sent one to my hubby and one to my sweet friend. The email will actually play the animation of you creating your drawing. I wish I could actually play an example for you here here, but we're out of luck. Anywho ... anyone can do this. Go try it out for yourself.I know they're not anything to go all gaga over, but hey, I only had a few minutes. :D

Love that Old Lady!

I'm a few days late, but have just purchased Kara's new class "Fall in Love". I think it will be just what I need. I've been needing a pick-me-up and her ideas are always fun to play around with. Kara Haupt (17) is one of my favorite young phenoms. She writes a great blog called 'Old Lady in a Teenager' and is always creating something amazing. I'm sure you will hear a lot about her if you keep reading me. This is her third online class and here is a smidge of what she has to say about it:

"This is a class about discovering your autumn and taking advantage of this magical season. This workshop includes instructions on how to create a book centered around fall, included are journaling prompts and lots of inspiration to keep you creating!"

Perfect! I even took a quick drive up the canyon this morning to really get in the mood. (Fall hasn't really hit us in the valley yet.)

Business Cards: Managed

I have this bad habit of collecting business cards when I go to different shows and boutiques. Yes, I'm one of those people. I have little piles of them stashed all over the place. It makes it really inconvenient when I need to find someone specific. So! I cleaned them out today. I sifted through them and threw out any that I wouldn't need. The lucky ones I had left have been put into this nifty little ring. It was easy-peasy and only took about 10 minutes.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.

Artist Crush: Crafterall

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.

Just For Fun

During the summer I try to have the kids keep up their math skills by doing worksheets and logic puzzles. Sometimes they love it. Sometimes they think I'm the devil. Either way, while searching for new material this summer I bumped into krazydad. All kinds of free printable games and puzzles here for you to enjoy ... and a lot more than that. At the bottom of the page you'll find his Flickr Color Picker where you can click any shade of any hue and receive a collection of flickr photos to enjoy. You can even use the slider for a lighter or darker variance. Follow his other links at the bottom of that page to see all kinds of other goodies like this cover pop.Amazing.

Meet Maria

One of the best parts of our trip was meeting all the wonderful artists alongside us. Maria White was one of my favorites. She was one of four artists who were given the Award of Excellence at the SF show, so we decided we had to meet her. She was fabulous. Her ceramic pieces have a look all their own and as much as I really wanted to come home with this beautiful bowl, my wallet said otherwise and I had to comply.

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.

SF: Click Happy

SF: Post Two

We met all kinds of fabulous people at the show and several who told us we should really try to go to SCRAP while we were there. (I'm thinking scrap yard, scrap metal, not really fun for me) But noooo.

"SCRAP is a creative reuse center, store and workshop space founded in 1976 in San Francisco, California. Donations of high quality, low cost, re-usable materials such as textiles, paper, jewelry findings, wood, buttons and plastics are collected from businesses, institutions and individuals then sorted, displayed and distributed by SCRAP for artists, educational and community groups. Free materials and art activities are provided through our community outreach service. "

That was it. I had to go. We mapped it out and figured if we hit it right when it opened on Saturday, we would have about 30 minutes to zip through it and grab some goodies before we had to get back to the show. Now ... we didn't budget in time for any wrong turns, so we really only had about 10 minutes to enjoy it, but I'm so glad that we did. It was truly fantastic! It was inspiring to see all the materials that had been donated and to bump into other artists and teachers shopping for supplies. I snapped a bunch of photos just to be able to relish it more later, then bought a couple scoops of buttons before we had to run out the door. If you get a chance, take a look at their website and see all the fun things they are involved with. They even give you tips on starting your own scrapping business.

SF: Post One

I promise not to drag this whole thing out forever, just thought I'd hit the highlights in the next couple of posts. Now, after a year of really ugly sales figures, I was pretty nervous about accepting the invitation to the show in the first place. So ... I decided a long time ago that this would be my birthday trip. Hopefully I'd be able to recover my costs, but this way it took all the pressure off right from the get go.

I roped a dear friend into going with me since hubby couldn't get the time off work ... and spending that many hours at an art shop would have sent him through the roof anyway. We packed up the car with everything I could think of and hit the road Wednesday around 3pm. After filling up the tank, we drove on the long, long, straight, unpretty highway to Reno. We pulled into the Silver Legacy, drove up the 17 story parking structure, got checked in and went to find some sandwiches for dinner. The next morning, we grabbed a decent breakfast downstairs and got back on the road. After we made our way through dozens of construction zones along the way, we landed in SF just after 1pm.

It took us 4 hours to get the booth set up and presentable and we were able to meander through the other booths for a smidge to get a sneak peek of the competition. Then we were off to find us some yummy-licious seafood at Pier 39 and take a stroll to relax before the next 3 days of work, work, work. Luckily, we were able to find and check in at the hotel before dark ... we were warned that it was in a dicey neighborhood.

This was our home at Fort Mason and the finished booth photo. Like my new breezy CK blouse I got for the trip? I found it on overstock.com ... gotta love point and click shopping on the fly.

Picnik Anyone?

If you haven't found Picnik.com yet then I have a real treat for you. It's a great free-ish online photo editing playground. You get access to a handful of fun tools for free and loads more if you buy the upgrade for an almost free price. I've been editing the photos from my trip and thought I would have some fun with some of them.

This little treasure was one of the great porch decorations on Lombard. I love the repetition and the angles and am dying to know if it lights up at night. Anywho it was a great piece for my little illustration here. This is the original. I just uploaded and cropped it in the Edit tab and then used some of my favorite effects from the Create tab.

#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!

Diary 2010 Project - Check

Here it is. I finished up my page for April 16th ... not the product page I had planned, but a self portrait instead. Not that I'm such a little hottie that I can't get enough of myself ... I just didn't want it to look like a yellow pages ad. I hope it fits in alright with the rest of the year. As a bonus, it forced me to get my hands into Adobe Illustrator which has been collecting dust in my computer for about a year now.

Life is Great

I live for days like this. For starters, it's my oldest son's birthday. He's a big 14 yr old now .... (sheez I'm getting old fast) and I couldn't be more proud of the young man he has become. We started the day a with birthday breakfast of scones and monkey bread, per his request. The other kids all made our standard table decorations (placemat, chair sign and crown) and we sang happy birthday as he blew out the candles in his scone tower. A beautiful morning!

Then I went to search for blog/project ideas and was lucky enough to find Fantazya Fantazies' Flickr page. Wow, try saying that five times fast. I was hoping to find out more about this recycling phenom and was led to her Diary 2010 Project. Why don't I have ideas that are this brilliant? Note to self: must ingest more good vitamins and nutrients on a regular basis. She is soliciting 392 artists to each design one of the 392 pages in the calendar. Each participating artist must have an existing website where they sell their own art/crafts. We put our url in the page design and get free publicity. Free art for her. Free advertising for us. Right from the start, there will be at least 392 people who'll want to buy it publicize it because they are featured in it.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.

Mark Your Calendars

Get all the details here. I can't wait to see how this turns out. I'm hoping it will be like an old school Portland Saturday Market. (I miss that so much) I'm taking the girls and some friends and plan to make a day of it. Hope hubby has his schedule open to tow the boys around while we're gone. I promise to take lots of picture and will post them afterwards.

I'm excited to see Emily Burnett from Zeene Designs again. Her work is lovely.And it would be great to meet Danielle Murphy of Card SharksIf you are anywhere in the area ... I think you should definitely check it out.

Brewing ...

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.
"Creativity is a drug I cannot live without." - Cecil B. DeMille

Let's Rasterbate! (It's Not What You Think)

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.*