New, new, new! I like NEW DISCOVERIES!

Oh! Have you ever been working on so much, your brain just boils over? AIEEE! I received an email today from someone who requested a file from me WEEKS ago wondering where I went -- I have been so overrun by projects and such, I completely forgot! And here I thought my email filtering system was good enough to keep stuff like that from happening!

*waves* to all my new visitors! Feel free to look around and pester me with all sorts of questions -- I'm now checking my email & flickr comments more carefully and promise to not miss much! *laughs*

A bit of business. Tomorrow is the LAST DAY FOR PRE-ORDERS. The 'zine's off to the printer next week, and honestly, I don't know how I'll ever decorate this many envelopes for all the pre-orders -- I suspect a weekend spent outside on a drop cloth with spay paint and my new stencils. ;) I cannot WAIT to get all of them pretty and stamped and ready to go!

And yes, the 'zine is accepting submissions for our fall issue. If you've anything art-journal related, email me!

Uggg! I went to get my x-rays done (yes, still with this shoulder/neck thing from LAST MONTH), and THIS time, they wanted me to wait because my registration from Monday expired. It wasn't my fault they wouldn't let me get them then! They wanted me to wait 40 MINUTES!! ARG! I'm SO going in before work tomorrow to GET THEM DONE because I WANT this shoulder to get better because I can't paint for long! *laughs* Of course, I could use this as a time to experiment with doing art with my non-dominant hand. You know, I was ambidextrous when I was little?

Look what my dad found in the print shop today!

Isn't it COOL? They're lead letters from an old press (his print shop is closing). There are at LEAST three fonts in there -- I found an & that is TOTALLY FUN! He found some rubber-based ink, too, and this weekend, I am having tons of fun stamping them. I was also thinking about drilling through the lead and making charms out of them. Wouldn't they be CUTE? Now I just need to get my own press. OMG I would DIE if I got a letterpress. That stuff is AWESOME.

Nancy's cracker-box tutorial yesterday reminded me that I've ALWAYS wanted to bind a journal that way, so I got out some book board and FANTASTIC paper I found -- OMG, let me tell you! It's 90lb. card stock that's SMOOTH and everything writes on it perfectly and my Sharpies -- I cannot LIVE without my Sharpies! -- DON'T LEAK THROUGH THE PAPER! Do you know how RARE that is?!

So, I totally had to make my own. I covered the board with wallpaper and then played with some stencils I got at Michael's this afternoon. Half my colors are missing, though, and my purple wouldn't work! I really have to get NEW paint because some of mine have been out there for YEARS. I really want to get rose and a pretty green....I figured out how to make two-colored stuff...it is SO fun! *G* I need to get an apron, though, because last time I got spray paint on me, it didn't wash off for a WEEK!

Here is the journal I made! I added pretty reddish end papers to it. I don't like how far apart the signatures are, but it seems like the journal will grow into it's cover.

Here's a tip for working with bookboard: you ALWAYS want to cut WITH the grain. How do you figure that out? Try "bending" it. Whichever way bends easier, that's what you want to cut AGAINST. If you've made a journal and the covers bow out all funny, that's why -- keep this in mind. It was news to me when I first learned bookbinding.

I totally had to SPILL yesterday. My brain's FRIED from all the tiny details I've had to go back and fix -- Dawn, how do you design books without going insane?! -- so I took a break and just went all CRAZY on the page. My desk ALWAYS suffers after this, though, because I can't SPILL without making a MESS. Then again, I LOVE that kind of CHAOS! I want to keep my work area messy for a bit longer so I can SPILL in my new journal with it's pretty paper.

This week, I got an idea to make my OWN PLANNER. Like, design the pages and get it bound and such. I am TOO CRAZY sometimes -- just when things are slightly slowing, I think up something new!

And next week, I have an interview to be an assistant producer for an educational series. WHEE! I'm SO STOKED! Wish me luck!

*waves* Love you ALL!

<3 Kira

Oodles of Doodles!

Thanks for all your helpful comments. Sometimes, I forget that not everyone's working on a widescreen display (I have a MacBook, so it's widescreen and now normal for me!). And thanks SO MUCH for your compliments! I'm so very happy I still can do this digital collage stuff!

A week or so ago, Dawn asked us to compose an art journal page out of doodles. Seemed simple enough -- doodling is something everyone does, if only subconsciously while on the phone or watching TV.

The thing is, I've never felt confidant when it comes to doodling. Hell, I use a pencil to plan out WORDS, and now I was going to doodle? Planning them out kind of defeats the purpose, and I was scared, so I didn't do a page, even if it would never be seen by anyone else.

I've admired those artists who can take a pen and make wonderful, swirling marks, topsy-turvey designs inked without mistakes, lines bold but clean. In college, I couldn't do much camera work because I shake too much, and for that reason, I never could quite accomplish the clean lines I so wished I could.

What I've discovered is this:

All you need is confidence.

Seriously. Yesterday, I went to the doctor, finally, for my injured shoulder and neck; after those kinds of visits, you always feel worse from the poking and prodding and all that, so I was a little out of it. I sat down in front of the TV, pulled out my new pigment liners and small notebook, and just started doodling. I've always wanted to make a sheet of doodle labels -- there's something about them I just adore -- so I started making the ones I'd want to use on my own artwork. Once I started, I couldn't stop -- labels just kept coming out! And then wings, because I love the idea of wings as embellishments on the labels, and wow! When I finished, I just couldn't stop looking at them -- I can't wait to get them printed and start sticking them all over my pages! *G!*

 

Here are two I did last night. *G* The one on the left I colored on the computer, the other, with some new pens I bought along with my doodle notebook. ;)

And here's the labels. They're printed out on sticker paper, so you just cut 'em out and stick them on. Right now, I've got 'em in black, as this is my first doodle collage sheet, but I'm sure I can color them after a little experimentation.

This sheet is now available on my little shop page. *G* If you have pre-ordered Page by Page and want to purchase a sheet, please either email me or let me know in the comments part of the PayPal order so I can ship them together. Shipping on the sheets is already included in the price.

Pretty!

Lookie!

After being envious of everyone and their fun, artistic banners, I decided to upgrade my account so as to have one, too! You might remember that girl from a card I designed a few months ago...I just love her facial expression. *G* The only thing is, I'm used to hard-coding everything, so I can't seem to get the image centered or fitting right up there with this typepad thingy. Can someone help me out?

<3
Kira

adventures in print-making

I haven’t been working in my journal as much as usual this week as my ‘zine’s eaten my brain…I’ve been teaching myself InDesign while laying out the ‘zine, and, well, it’s trial by fire. Thankfully, I’ve got the design down and am to the point where I’m doing little tweeks here and there in order to get it ready. Because the printing equipment I’ll be using is being swapped out next week, the ‘zine will be printed not this Monday, but next Monday and in the mail by that Wednesday. We just heard today that this was happening, and I’m sorry for the delay.

I did decide to include a few cut-out sheets at the back to help facilitate the journal prompts I have in there, part to make the ‘zine more fun, part to say I’m sorry for the delay!

And I must say, I am OVERWHELMED and so FLATTERED by how many pre-orders I’ve gotten! I never expected such a response and love each and every one of them! I have a stack of envelopes that I’ll be decorating for mail art this week for each one of you!

Onto business! Or play, I should say!

I’ve been experimenting with different materials and methods lately, feeling a little closed in by established practices. And I’ve always wanted to try the printing tutorial in Claudine Helmuth’s second book.

Gum Arabic is expensive, but on my last trip to Carolina Moon, I found some in powdered form for less than $4 dollars and couldn’t put it down. Today, I caved and got the linseed oil and a tube of dark grey oil paint and got to work.

I decided to start with something simple, so I used the silhouette image I’m in love with since it’s solid black.

I don’t have a spray bottle, real brayer, or any of the paper she said to use in the book, so I made do with my hands, my hand made brayer, and freezer paper. It worked out very well when I transferred it to some vellum bristol paper, so I wanted to use a more complicated image.

This is my niece from a few years ago. I edited it with Photoshop (just desaturate your image, boost the contrast and lower the brightness…you can do this in iPhoto and Elements, too) and printed it on a laser printer. I transferred it the same way and look how well it came out! Now THIS is something I’ll be doing a lot more of in the future. Next, I want to transfer to some canvas I colored and striped.

Phew! I’m looking forward to the weekend! I’m going to spend it relaxing and taking a bit of a break from my projects!

Oh! The art journal mailing list is organizing a supply/journal page/act of kindness mail art package swap thingy. If you’re interested, click the link up over there on the right and join the list. We don’t bite!

miniature disasters & minor catastrophies

Wow. What a weekend! 

My laptop didn't want to load the drivers for my printer, something I needed to work as I'm doing final layout edits for the Page by Page 'zine, so I decided to go ahead and re-install Mac OSX (yes, I am a hard-core Mac girl!). Well, let's just say it didn't go smoothly, the back-ups or the installation, and I was out of a computer from Friday until this morning.

Okay, fine. I can just work on art, right?

Nope. My shoulder injury from the car accident a few weeks ago has gotten bad enough that painting for more than five minutes is very painful, so I got wild colors and a few layers of gesso down in an hour period before grumbling in frustration and trading my brush for a pen to doodle with.

But all is well, now! With little to do yesterday, I cleaned my room and re-did my art area. It's now all organized and no longer strewn about my floor in a haphazard, oh-my-god-i'm-going-to-die way. I figured, as I'm out of gel medium, that I'd use beeswax, and didn't think having one square foot of my desk free to work with hot wax was a good idea.

While cleaning, I found a beautiful wood frame just begging to have some pretty art in it, so I took an hour last night and made a simple collage on a 4x6 index card.

This smaller format was easier to work on as it didn't take many strokes to cover the entire card. I

managed to not only paint one background, but two -- I disliked where the piece was going about halfway through and so coated the entire thing in a light turquoise. Thanks to Nancy, I have discovered and purchased punchella, something I'd never heard of before but am loving for the fun pattern you can make. Ooo...I should combine it with bubble wrap and go polka-dot crazy!

Ahem. Anyway. I also got some joss paper, something I've wanted forever but never could justify the cost. I knew I wanted to use both of my pretty new supplies in the collage, as well as some dollar ribbon I grabbed at Michael's earlier in the day. There's actually two layers of ribbon on there, as I started with one and then saw it didn't really fit.

This girl sits on my desk and guards my dreams. The joss paper, traditionally used at Buddhist funerals, symbolizes that she's not a living entity -- that I can't rely on those around me to cheer me on at all times and guard my dreams. She's part of me, that part that says screw it all and go for it. As a child, she's free from the judgmental voices in my head. She reminds me of what I'm working towards and gives me the confidence to do so.

I do hope you all have a great day. I, unfortunately, have gotten the flu in the summer, and am snuggled in a nice comfy chair watching crappy daytime TV. It's a good combination  for doodling in my journal. ;)

If you haven't pre-ordered Page by Page, go do so! I'll be closing the pre-orders on Friday. After that, you'll have to pay the full $6 for a copy. And oh yeah....I found out I can do more of it in color. :)

<3 kira