Patreon Reward and Raffle Prize from Rainbowholic

For a few months now, I've been a patron of Kaila of Rainbowholic on Patreon, and I've loved it. I've been on the "Sakura" level, which entitles me to a cute postcard in the mail every month, as well as access to secret videos, printable sticker sheets and a few more things. But more than that, a community has developed of like-minded cute stationery and journalling fans.

This month, Kaila was offering a copy of The ABCs of Journalling by Abbey Sy at one of the higher levels. It was a book I'd been wanting for a while, so I decided to upgrade. A stash of cute stickers and stationery was included -- plus the prize I won in the raffle that Kaila holds on her monthly livestream! I'm a very lucky girl.

I was too excited to do a real unboxing, so there are no photos of the outer packaging, but I can assure you it was pink and cute!

The ABCs of Journalling is a gorgeous book, beautifully illustrated and with lots of ideas for creating a diary and decorating it.

The stationery that came with it included some Gudetama and Little Twin Stars themed items. I love them all! There was a cute postcard with a lovely personalised message from Kaila, too.

Here is the raffle prize -- a notebook hand-made and decorated by Kaila, and some sticker sheets. (er, I didn't seem to get any photos of the stickers, sorry!)

I just love the notebook, which she made as a demonstration during one of her Patron-only videos. It feels so strange and exciting to see something I've seen on the internet, now on my own desk!

I love these retro patterned papers, and the 'postage stamps' are actually washi tapes with a series of different stamp-like images on them. It's almost too cute to use! I will have to save it for something special.

I've had mixed experiences with Patreon, but I've been entirely happy with my Rainbowholic experience. Kaila's positivity is infectious and she inspires me to keep making things cute every day! Her YouTube channel RainbowholicTV has frequent doses of kawaii journalling, crafts, DIYs and other fun things.



This post is purely my opinion and I have not received anything in return!

3 Days of Craft :: Semi-Festive Edition

I'm happy to say that I have my craft mojo back good and proper! So much that I decided to declare another 3 Days of Craft! True, the 3 days aren't consecutive (the public holiday falling this-coming Tuesday), and I have plans to do other things as well, but I'm not letting that stop me!

Technically I didn't make this first item during 3 Days of Craft, I made it earlier in the week, but I'm sharing it anyway. It's Husband's birthday cake!

It's not actually a cake, it's the Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies from an older issue of SBS Feast Magazine. The fudgy chocolate brownie mix is given a heavy dose of peanut butter sauce, swirled through it before baking. It's supposed to be served with more peanut butter sauce, melted chocolate and ice cream, but I just made a chocolate icing and decorated it with store-bought white fudge writing icing and mini chocolate eggs. He loved it!

Now to 3 Days of Craft proper. Unfortunately there was a bit of a hiccup on Day 1 (yesterday). I decided I wanted to make a Christmas project (possibly a pair of advent calendars), so I just quickly hopped on to Pinterest to get some ideas. I ended up spending all day on there.

Oops.

It did help me narrow down my options and be more realistic, though. To make a really nice pair of advent calendars is going to take time and money. Even the more budget ones involved supplies that I don't have. (How would I get hold of 48 matchboxes??) I think we'll just buy a couple of kiddie ones this year, and I'll start earlier with making some really nice ones next year. Having pinned pictures of hundreds of festive craft projects, I decided to start with something quite simple - a Christmas garland!

I crocheted a chain using some red acrylic yarn leftover from another project. I held it together with a strand of sparkly silver yarn that I saw when I was re-organising my projects. I hung it up in front of the lounge room window. Then, using photos from Pinterest as a reference, I cut out some circles of paper and cut them into snowflakes. I'm a bit ashamed to say, but copying designs from the internet makes prettier snowflakes than ones I've made in the past.

Then all I did was staple them onto the garland! I have only done 5 snowflakes so far, and the garland is less than half full. But I figure: it's not even December yet, so I have some time to finish it!

Then, I was inspired to start doing decoden! If you read my last post concerning the nature of decoden, you may have wondered, when is it going to actually happen? Well I declare it happened today! But it's still just baby steps so far. Here's my decoden setup:

I happened to have a cute tin from Ikea lying around, so I'm using that to keep all the supplies in. So cute! I used an old envelope to work on and squeeze the glue onto. A plate to put the gems on. As for the chopsticks, I'd read that you should have a thing called a Magic Picker to pick up the gems with, but Violet le Beaux said that a skewer or chopstick with a blob of blutac on the end works just as well. And it does! I used the other chopstick to dab glue onto the projects.

I have to say - those gems are darned tiny!!

But the 'Magic Picker' really makes it so easy! yay! I decoed my lip gloss (inspired by the photo of the decoed lip gloss tube, which I showed in my last post), a pen, and popped a couple of gems on the ends of 2 of my crochet hooks. I had a bit of glue left over, so I went rushing into my room in a tizzy to find something else to deco. I grabbed my BB Cream and glued a little bow to it. So fun!

Maybe a cheap disposable pen is a strange thing to deco? But it's only a few gems, and every time at work when I look at it, it'll remind me that I'm more than just a public servant salary-man drone. Here's a juicy close-up:

Other things I've been working on lately:
✔ As I mentioned above, I re-organised my craft projects. I put some wintery ones from the lounge back into the hobby room, and brought out some that I do want to work on so they're handier to get to. Yesterday when I was on my Pinterest bender, I also created some more specific pinboards for different crafts, so instead of spending hours trawling through stuff, I can go straight to what I'm looking for in future and hopefully spend less time on the internet. (I'd like to think that time spent wasn't all in vain!)
✔ The Rainbow Afghan. I've finished all 14 sections now, and I'm just waiting for the black edging wool to arrive from Bendigo Woollen Mills to finish it off.
✔ I've been working quite a lot on the Babbi Blanket. I'm on the 2nd-last square (out of 20), but I realised today that I don't have enough edging yarn left to finish it off (I've been using it for the Squares Blanket as well). So I had to place another order with Bendigo Woollen Mills! Oh dear! ツ
✔ I've decided on a new zombie afghan project and I have both the wool and the pattern all ready to go. BUT - I've vowed not to start it until I've finished BOTH of the above projects. I promise!

Happy crafting!

[Later]
I found a parcel on my doorstep soon after writing this post - it was my wool! So happy! I can finish off my Rainbow Afghan now!

A Trip to the Library, Part 2

The next book I borrowed was A Guide to Making Decorated Papers by Anne Chambers.

Sorry, this was the best picture of the cover I could find.
Published in 1989, it's quite an old book, but still contains much valuable information. The history in the introduction was short but interesting. Of the 9 techniques, the ones I found most inspiring were paste papers, orizomegami and suminogashi. Paste paper involves cooking up a flour and water paste and adding colouring. Then you spread a layer of paste on your target paper and mark it using various methods. Once dry, areas of light and dark shading are created. This technique was quite exciting, because it's so easy and, with almost endless variations available, you can make a paper that looks funky and modern, or baroque and intricate.


paste paper - raspbery & blue, originally uploaded by lubsy1uk.
Orizomegami involves taking rice paper or another absorbent paper, accordion-folding it, and then dipping the corners in dye. I have seen this technique before recently, but using paper towels and not acknowledging its Japanese origin. I was a bit iffy on it then, but Anne Chambers' explanation of the process and her use of a more substantial paper was a lot more interesting to me. The illustrations showed some beautiful results, reminiscent of stained-glass windows.

Suminogashi is a close cousin of the more well-known marbling technique that uses oil paints swirled on a turpentine bath. This technique however, uses writing ink and water, which is much less messy and toxic. The result is a light, delicate marbling effect with a lot less effort than you would have thought.

I will be trying all of these techniques in the near future. Another interesting section was on rubber stamping - a concept that's pretty straightforward, but Chambers demonstrated some shapes and configurations that I hadn't thought of before. Using rubber stamping in combination with the paste paper decoration seemed particularly intriguing. I'm definitely glad I borrowed this book!

In other news, I'm going away on a mini-holiday for Easter! It's fast turning into a tradition that Boy and I go somewhere with lots of food and wine at Easter. Cos that's what it's all about, right? This year, it's the Mornington Peninsula:


ashcombe-maze, originally uploaded by thealexandertoddwilliams.
There's hedge mazes, too!

A Trip to the Library, Part 1

I think I'd like to talk about some art & craft books I borrowed from the library over the last few months. Firstly, I borrowed The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery by Karen Michel.

I'd heard quite a bit about this book from other journal artists, and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps it was just because most of the techniques didn't fire anything up in me. Maybe it was because some of the materials are quite hard to come by. Perhaps it was because I don't like the author's style of art - which is completely a personal thing and has nothing to do with the content of the book. I put it aside for a couple of weeks, and when I picked it up again, I started to see it in a different light. I started thinking about which techniques were more 'me', and how I could apply them to my art journal.

The first section deals with altering photographs. There is some amazing stuff to be done with rubbing, scratching, colouring and bleaching original photographs. Unfortunately they're a lot harder to come by than they used to be, especially since the Polaroid camera was discontinued. All of my photos these days are taken with a digital camera and then printed out with my mini photo printer (I love it! <3 ) However, Boy has informed me that techniques involving chemically altering the image emulsion are not going to work with photos printed in this way, which was a bit disappointing. The last part of this section has some interesting examples of how to incorporate the altered photographs into a collaged and painted artwork.

The second section looks at altering images digitally using photo-editing software. It has some interesting techniques, some of which I hadn't thought of before. It doesn't go into the nitty-gritty of how to use particular programmes - there are so many out there, it would just be impossible. There's some food for thought here, though.

The third section covers altering found images (from magazines, etc) and incorporating them into artworks. I've seen all of these techniques before in collage books dating back to the 1970s, but it's nice to see them presented in a new way - and in colour!

The fourth and last section is a gallery of pieces by artists working in the altered and/or mixed media genre. Some of these got me really excited. I started to think about which particular artists, both in this book and online, I like the most. And looking at their styles got me thinking about what my style might be when it eventually emerges. I haven't come to any firm conclusions yet, but there are certain techniques and juxtapositions of elements that I seem to be using more than others. I'll do some scans soon and show you what I mean. I know I've only just scratched the surface when it comes to using different materials and techniques, and I know I'm a long way off from being able to define my style, but I feel I'm inching closer and closer.

In other news, I've been writing away furiously at my new zine - and I've started a second one! Busy busy writing time.

Have a great weekend!

The Art Journal Stimulus Project begins!

The Art Journal Stimulus Project has begun! Here is my first page.

In a nutshell, the task was to write down negative feelings, then cover them up with layers of paint, and collage images, words and symbols that have a positive association for you.
I like the colours and the drawings, but I hate the composition. Collage has never really been my thing. I think the double-page spread was too large as well. I had an urge to fill it up with 'stuff' - quantity over quality.

I did most of this page when I was very sick. The part I enjoyed the most was layering the paints for the background. It was easy and I liked working with pure colour and mixing the paints. It also felt good to cover up the boring, whining text I'd written underneath!

I got most of the collage elements from a charity lottery brochure. I glued them all down with gel medium - it's the first time I've used it in this way, and I really like how it seals the papers and gives them a slight gloss. I don't like how the collage turned out (the composition) though - I don't think I'm very good at collage (yet?).

Next I got out all of my markers and experimented with which ones would work best on this surface. That's helped me a lot already. I also drew some things that make me happy, e.g. my ipod.

One thing I have trouble with is writing on my journals (I have a separate writing journal so I have an instinct to keep them separate), but then I remembered this is an Art "Journal", so I drew a picture of an event that made me happy recently (i.e. having a pie lunch with friends). I know there isn't much actual writing, but it's a start!

To finish, I sponged some light green acrylic mixed with gel medium over all of the pictures and some of the words. That improved the look of it a lot, as if it bound it all together.


Just a few problems I had with it -

* some of the pens needed a long time to dry, and they even smudged a little when dry when I added gel medium on top. But I got around that by being careful.

* the pages curled a little (you can see that better in the detail photo) but not too bad.

* the finished page is now quite tacky from all the gel medium, and the pages stick together when I shut the journal. I am going to insert a piece of waxed paper, and hopefully that will solve the problem.

Detail of the left hand side of the page. The blue piece on the left is my first attempt at making a decorated paper. I used rubber stamps, dotted acrylic paint and a watercolour wash on a security envelope. I didn't like the composition of it at all, so I cut it into strips.

Includes some 'swirlies', which I always tend to end up doing when I'm doodling.

5-Minute Obsessions - #3

Bookbinding!

I've been feeling an urge to do nothing but write the last few months. That's why I've had very little craft to show you lately. But, like craft, there are writing supplies and special things to be had. The Jetpens website has been on high rotation on my laptop, and I'll just burst if I don't place an order soon. Paper has taken on more significance for me as well, especially since Boy starting his drawing course. So of course I have to have some lovely journals to write in before I can even start to write anything, right? So I've been cruising Etsy and Notemaker as well.* And if I've learned how to make them myself (hopefully using up some of the insanely large stash of junk in the hobby room at the same time), that's even better! This is my procrastinating brain in action. I'm sure it will all come together one day soon. I hope so, or I might burst.

At 6am this morning (today is Saturday), I woke up suddenly and realised something. A few months ago, someone had asked me how I made my sidebar for my blog. I had always meant to answer them, but it's kinda complicated, so I kept on putting it off and feeling guilty about it. But when I woke up this morning, what I realised was that I needed to write a tutorial to explain it properly ... and that involves writing! My favourite thing of the moment! Plus research, which I'll never say no to (yes, I'm an information geek). Well, I couldn't just lie there in bed and try to get back to sleep with my brain buzzing like that, so I jumped up and madly started typing. I'll post it in a day or two when I've put the finishing touches on it. Probably the most important of which is to get Boy or someone to read it and make sure it's more than just incomprehensible 6am insanity.

Meanwhile, I have prepared a lovely mosaic showing some glueless bookbinding methods, Coptic Binding and Japanese Stab Binding, to be exact:

[I'm afraid it's been ages since I last made a mosaic, and I accidentally deleted the photo credits. =( But these photos are all from Flickr.]

Have a lovely weekend!

---

* I placed an order on Etsy a couple of days ago - I can't wait til it arrives!

Finish A Project Month

I've declared this month Finish A Project Month!
(It was nearly going to be No-Buy Supplies Month, but I'm just not that strong.)

I noticed that I was cycling through new projects pretty regularly, while the old ones lie, languishing in the back of the cupboard. They really need to be dusted off and given some love.

Here we have my set of three embroidered Art Cards which I finished yesterday:

flowery
(A new project, I know, but I haven't gotten started dusting yet!) Some are for swaps on Swap-bot, and I'll probably chuck the spare one on Etsy if I can get a good photo of it. I've already started a new set of 2. I also made these bookmarks for another swap:

Bookmarky goodness
The idea was to make them with stuff you have lying around the house. Materials include paint, a patterned paper bag, a brochure for the Bell Shakespeare Company, and a copy of National Trust magazine. I'm quite proud of some of them.

Yesterday we all left work early due to the possibility of the trains being cancelled due to a storm (I work for the Government, okay??) and I was a bit bored. I was listening to some craft podcasts and got inspired by what I perceived at that moment as a lack of receptacles in my bedroom. So I made these:

They're crocheted bowls (not quite finished yet). I made them to keep bobby pins in. The taller one falls over when I put bobby pins in it, so I made the wider one as well. They're OK. Now I have an (even more) insane amount of projects on the go.

More in progress means more to finish! Yay!

Pronto!

Hello! Just a quick update on what I've been making.
I apologise in advance - all my photos came out a bit fuzzy today. It was just one of those days, I guess!

There's these bookmarks that I made for a swap. The actual swap was for a Reading Log - these were extra treats:

Creative, no? No, not really.
[The text reads: "Let's get married, go home and read a book. "Sure thing, dollface!"] It was quite fun working with the airbrush pen and collage, though I think my mojo was a bit off that day. Then today I made this:

L for Lenny.
Well, technically I cut it out last week, embroidered it on the weekend and sewed it tonight. It's a pouch to keep my mouse and laptop cables in. Note the wonkiness of the sewing along the zip and ric rac. It's actually a lot more pronounced in real life. It's just for me though, so who cares! I bought a bulk lot of 50 zips on Ebay today, so I'll be able to practice quite a bit!

Then this happened! The plushes that I bought in the Softies for Mirabel auction arrived!

I have decided to call the one on the left Miranda. It just popped into my head and I tend to trust that. The car ones on the right are called Beep, Toot and Vroom. I am going to keep them in my car. (It's my first anniversary of getting her it, so they're a bit like an anniversary gift.) My own Monstrous Muriel has popped up in the middle there. She just loves to socialise! This morning I almost had the feeling that she was looking at me, but then again, it was 6.30am and I was distracted with getting ready for work. I do like the way her face has turned out though - much more expressive than I had hoped for.

Speaking of Monstrosity, Etsy has created a new item category for dolls, which has forced me to decide whether Muriel et al are toys or dolls. Or art toys or art dolls. Or soft sculpture. Geez, I don't know!!

What I Did Last Weekend

I meant to write a post about all the exciting, crafty things I did during the week, but I didn't do any. D'oh! So I will just have to talk about what I did last weekend.

Firstly, I bought these:

This purchase was completely justifiable as I needed pink yarn to finish the Pinks and Purples scarf, plus everything in the basket was on sale. Every single thing. So I'm sticking to my guns! Nyer!

Then I did this:

Before; After
I baked a cake for Boy. It was chocolate with rum and orange flavoured cream cheese icing. It disappeared mysteriously during the week. (It was quite yummy, if I do say so myself!)

Then I worked on this for a bit:

Actually, the Pinks and Purples scarf was the only thing I've been working on this week, on and off. On Sunday I was tidying off the desk in the hobby room, had a sudden hit of inspiration and made this:

double mini zine
I stole appropriated the idea from a zine I recieved in a swap, of making 2 mini zines and stapling them together so they have twice the number of pages of a normal mini zine. I wanted to make up a quick, little zine that would be fun and relaxing to make. I was inspired by another zine I had recently recieved which was in the form of a list, with a page dedicated to each item on the list. Going with the 'fun and relaxing theme', I decided to do 7 Things that Bring Me Joy. I've been going through a pretty stressful and annoying time at work lately, and I needed to give myself a 'relax and just chill out, dammit!!' kick in the butt. I could wang on about how I wasn't just making a zine, I was actively meditating, blah blah blah. But I really had a lovely afternoon designing it, drawing it, colouring it with watercolours, and drinking pots of green tea. Then I scanned it and printed it and stapled it, and it came out perfectly! I chucked it on my shop straightaway. I'm so pleased with it that I made some bookmarks a few days later to give away free:

I printed pithy sayings using different fonts onto a piece of cardstock. Then I cut it up and collaged them using some papers and stickers I found lying around. Then I laminated them. I don't know if they have any artistic merit, but they were a huge amount of fun to make. It was one of those rare situations where I had an idea and I was able to just get to and do it straight away. It gave me a great sense of satisfaction to be able to make them. I am giving them away in my shop with every purchase of 2 or more zines. (I know I have been selling far more zines than anything else lately but I figure, why try to buck the trend?)

Last but not least, I finished the amigurumi beer that I was making last week as a pattern tester. This is all I have to show for it:

Artists' (i.e. my) impression
You see, whenever I make something as a gift for a certain deadline, my camera dies for one reason or another, and I don't get to take a picture of it. It happened with Sparky's blue jacket, and her penguin, and her Babe Sweater, and now it's happened with the Ami Brewski too! I had decided to give it to a colleague at work whose last day was on Wednesday. Of course, on Wednesday morning, the batteries in my camera had gone flat and I couldn't take a photo of it! It keeps happening to me. I think it must be my Thing.
P.S. When I drew this it was the first time I used Boy's hinga-ma-jingy what's-it-called Graphics Pad, so the picture is a bit wobbly. It was fun though and I might experiment with it a bit more if I ever get time.

I'm a bit posted-out now, so I won't go into my June wrap-up and July goals this time. I'm gonna go play some computer games now! :)