a children's board book, altered

all of the pages of the book are finished, except for the cover. i decided that the cover will be completed later, and i was impatient & wanted to post scans....

cold

i've come down with a cold. arggh. i have a stuffy nose and i am constantly thirsty. yesterday i did go out with some friends, and we watched the pursuit of happyness. it was a very good movie partially i liked that it was set in san francisco, but it didn't really show too much of the touristy parts, it's more of just everyday things - like being on the bus and listening to a crazy person talk or climbing up hilly streets, riding bart. the little boy was of course, adorable. it was funny and sad and an all around good movie to see.


a cup and a gift band i bought from anthropologie, both were on sale. i think i will use the gift band as a necklace or headband...

an altered book in progress

the book is a children's board book which was very easy and fun to alter. i loved altering sturdy pages and not having to deal with hundreds of pages. the cover isn't done yet, most of the pages feel complete, but two spreads are not. in the past, i've been very frustrated with altering thick novels - having to glue the pages together takes time and i also didn't like the size of most of the novels out there. so this altered book was great fun to work with and i think i will keep altering children's board books. i will post up scans of all the pages soon when everything is complete.

packing tape transfers

atcs i've made for a tea cups, tea pots swap at atcards

lately, i've been playing around with packing tape transfers, which is a very simple technique that many artists have used. it's simply applying clear packing tape to a image from photocopies, magazines, etc and soaking it in water for a few minutes. then you can peel off the back of the paper, and the image has been transfered to the tape, resulting in a transparency. i don't know why i hadn't tried this before, because it makes my collages have more depth to them.


circus images are from ten two studios

my work in two zines

i am happy that my art is in two art zines this year.
The first is in Lisa Vollrath's Bad Influence zine with the theme of everyday things and the second zine is Melissa McCobb Hubbell's Erracticus zine. My work is in the (now sold out) limited holiday edition of Erraticus #7. yay!

busy with finals & recent artwork

i haven't been blogging much lately as you can see. i was pretty stressed out over a final i had yesterday for US women's history. the professor gave us three in class essay questions to study, and on the day of the final she would chose a question for us. plus she's a hard grader - the class average for our midterm was a C- to a D. i was worried she would chose a question i wasn't as prepared on, but she didn't...she chose the question i wanted. you should have seen the reaction of the class when she announced it - there were loud cheers, shouts of YES! and a bunch of groans as well. i was extremely relieved and then wrote and wrote until my hand hurt and the class was over. hopefully i will get a decent grade on the final.

recently, i've become a part of the Ten Two Studios design team! I think this will be an exciting and interesting opportunity for me. I've been having fun using the collage sheets from the company & here are the results:



this is an collage in my art journal, with messy smears of red crayon, random bits and pieces of collage scraps, alice in wonderland faux postage & my attempt at rubberstamping w/ the butterfly. i rarely rubberstamp stuff, probably because rubberstamps are expensive and the only ones i have are from the company penny black because my aunt worked there and gave them to me. i also do not have many ink pads. i have a purple inkpad from memories and a basic black inkpad from a japanese company that takes forever to dry.


I've been neglecting to finish up my atcs for the alphabet swap at the atcards forums,which is a great place to join in on organized swaps as well as trade one on one. people there are really friendly and helpful. i only have a three more atcs to make: J, Z, and Q to complete the alphabet of atcs. Q is really stumping me...any ideas? i'll have to browse through the dictionary for ideas.


this is a 4 x 4 collage. and i swear it looks better in person. sometimes scanning can be off which is a shame. somehow it didn't turn out exactly the way i wanted it to be, but i'm satisfied with it. i wanted to make a piece that made the circus look magical and dazzling, like the way a child would see it for the first time.

small gifts come in lovely packages

i had bought small gift sacks with little starlite mints printed all over them last year for christmas. they went unused, so i was determined to use them this year. i also wanted to incorporate the gift tags i had made. i also realized i had no christmas gift wrap around the house either, and as much as i adore the designs i've seen in stores i didn't want to fork over money for a roll either.

instead, i looked through the christmas gift catalogs that we've recieved over the last few weeks. i ripped out a few pages that appealed to me. the size of each item is small and compact, so even the size of one page from the catalog was a bit too big. i cut the paper down to a smaller size & wrapped the gift. then i slipped the gift into the gift sack. to attach the tag to the gift sack, i folded down the top part of the gift sack, hole punched the gift sack in the middle and inserted the tag's ribbon and tied a bow.



back view of the gifts:

mosaic of my recent artwork

1. christmas cards, 2. book of library pockets, 3. one inch collage squares, 4. arm, 5. off the record, 6. altered book, 7. altered book, 8. fashionable lady, 9. in guangzhou, 10. sailing, 11. blue mail, 12. to unite, 13. orchids and pearls, 14. nerves, 15. warmth, 16. skin, 17. neutral, 18. tags, 19. tags, 20. please fasten your seatbelts, 21. nov 1st, 22. handmade christmas gift tags, 23. on being a girl, 24. for the travel postcard swap, 25. for the travel postcard swap

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

bargains

yesterday i went to big lots with my mom. while she browsed for curtain rods, i looked around the school supply/scrapbooking aisle. if you don't know what big lots is, it's basically a big messy closeout merchandise store. i think it's where merchandise that other stores/companies don't want anyway so big lots gets it to sell at cheap prices. i love the place because of it's great bargains but the only downside of going there yesterday is that it's gift shopping time & the store was crowded. lots of loaded up shopping carts, a long time to wait in line, and the store itself is a bit too cluttered. but i did find some great stuff for cheap. i bought a paper trimmer for $2 and two collage sheets for 50 cents each!

i might have to go back for more, they're selling little boxes of photo corners for $1, gluestick for 50 cents and packs of cardstock.

christmas (cards)

the christmas catalogs have been arriving at our house these past few weeks. pottery barn, williams sonoma, harry & david, papersource. i flip through them and wonder who actually buys fruitcake or the humongous box of cheese & meat. i do like ripping pages out and cutting out little things, like bows and the pretty patterns of wrapping paper. the way chocolates are lined up and decorated so prettily.

i find christmas exhausting and exciting and an annoyance all the same time. it's about trying to find the right gift, or having no idea what a person wants. the small nativity scene and the colorful lights that adorn a house across the street. it's seeing the big christmas tree lit up on union square. the constant ringing of the salvation army bell in front of stores and trying to find good gifts that fit under a tight budget. i like the decorations & wrapping paper & sending christmas cards & presents, of course. i am making wallets made out of paper for friends.