ornaments

Finally finished up the ornaments I started last Christmas...

playing with papers again

in the middle of another craft book- I just love this paper- it's a combination of an old paste paper overprinted with a piece of lace, and digitally overlaid onto another of my papers using swirly fonts on a red background...I could play with these all day.
I used it as a background for cut paper Chanukah candles...

or may use this version... have the flu so am not making decisions easily.

 Through 'TRACKLE' found this lovely ref to my fall book. Thanks Elisse (http://elissestuart.wordpress.com) for using 'IT'S FALL' in your library's display!

.......There are two more fun fall books for children that we’ve found over the years that I want to share with you. I think they are unique and fabulous because of their illustration styles.
The first book is called It’s Fall! written by Linda Glaser, the cut-paper illustrations by Susan Swan.
                                 photo credit:http://hotlibrarytechnician.wordpress.com
It was the was the three dimensional cut-paper artwork that really grabbed my attention. Being a scrapbooker, I was fascinated by her designs. The illustrator layered hand painted papers. When she hand painted the paper, she was able to give the effect of depth and dimension, not to mention the gorgeous colors of autumn.
Paper layering is a scrapbooking technique that I have used several times on my pages, but not with the fabulous results that the illustrator had here. She featured Canadian geese, Monarch butterflies, and squirrels, all fabulously detailed with layered paper. My favorites were the tiny nesting owls.
The author and illustrator have also teamed up to produce books for the other three seasons. I plan to purchase them just for the amazing illustrations alone.

girl scout map up on web

The Daisy Journey interactive map is now online and last night UPS delivered the poster version. I always love seeing the stuff I do out in the world. It is possible that a couple of the flowers may be turned into a 3-d version which would be loads of fun to see. Some of the flower characters didn't get much use in the final story; I'll show the whole bunch here so they can share in a couple of seconds of fame....

aackh...out of work...

....for the first time in a long time- but frankly glad to have a couple of days/weeks (no longer or I panic) to breathe, work on 'the site/the blog'!... the garden (though after so much rain it's mostly too wet, play housewife (that remark was for the husband)...
and... must send out mailers to drum up work. Here's one that will go out next week to school book clients... typical freelancers lament- too busy, not busy enough. I don't think it matters how long you've been in business; you never get used to it.

texas snowman

I think I will actually get a holiday card out to clients this year... I cheated and used an image I was fooling with last Christmas and the letterforms were adapted from an alphabet I did for a book.

cleaning up files

Here's a slide show of Poloroid transfers done several years ago (and some 'fake' transfers using new photos and old transfer borders done recently). Poloroid has stopped making the film I used for the process but I understand that Fuji has put out a similar film that I can try... I've heard that the colors are even more muted. I was always trying to brighten them up. The part that is peeled away when you make the transfer is often very mysterious and interesting too. The last slide of the birdhouse on the fence (orange hue) is an example.

more paper

I've got a million of 'em

What will I do with all these?

hearts

We went to a wedding this weekend and I wrapped the gift in one of the more elegant of my spotty papers ( not the yellow and red spotty one here!) with a big lace rose on top with some chiffon wrapped around the box- kind of over the top but fun, and I made an pop-open heart card adapted from one at www.origami-fun.com. You hold the top sides of the heart (which I had glued together with tiny dots of Elmer's- cheating, I know, but it looked better that way and made it so you couldn't see the message inside) and pull it open- the message inside pops up. Kind of hard to get the idea from these scans.

turpentine experiments

using the pages of National Geographic. Makes for some interesting collage backgrounds.

slideshow

playing with the slide show again- pointless photoshop variations of the butterfly teabag paper

talented family

This was done for my step daughter who has become a fine photographer of children; after so many requests from friends to take pics of their kids she decided she had better go into business. We considered several concepts for her logo but decided on the first, simple was best. Her website/blog. Our grandson, is also a wonderful photographer and is attending school in Dallas. His blog.

was pleased to get a mention

on Anastasia Suen's blog.

The series (written by Linda Glaser, happily illustrated by me) is a few year's old now so I'm especially thrilled that it's holding up well.

http://5greatbooks.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/5-great-books-for-fall/

cleaning up files

These were done with real and digital collage using my stash of Poloroid transfers, family photos, and ephemera for last year's GREAT CARDS AND TAGS book. Fun to do.

WOW

I sent this email thank you to the client at Happy House- they did such a great job!

cutting paper

I was thinking more about what I said last time about enjoying the little craft projects that I'm doing for Arena... I don't think I realized how much I missed the hands on- the feel of paper- even just punching or tearing out shapes of my papers- using my favorite purple handled exacto knife- making little origami pockets, or clasps for envelopes, or hearts- feels good. Think it may be getting time to do some real cut paper work again.

crafty stuff

Another fun project for a book packager finished and out of here- I get to be crafty and come up with cards, tags, wrapping papers and make them different by cutting, folding, tearing...Who knew I would love teabag folding? Or punching... It's mostly because I love designing the papers- the projects look amazingly different depending on the papers I use. I have to reign myself in because I tend to come up with ideas too complicated and time consuming for the average crafter to want to tackle. And because I love pattern I can make every thing much too busy. I throw in some very clean simple things every once in a while to give everyone a breather. I have now have a huge store of paper designs that I've got to do something with...
Here are a couple of images that may or may not have made it into the books, not sure.

There are other variations of this '2' card in another post I think.

package on doorstep

containing the Highlight's Pewter Plate cover of the year Award for this:


These projects seem to just disappear into a great black hole; it's lovely to know someone actually appreciates all the very hard work.

Cut it, fold it-It's done and out of here!

Teabag package topper....



Tea bag frame for a card with the beautiful Morgan as the star. My husband's very talented photographer grandson (Gabe Gonzalez) took the lovely photo of his sister.


Iris folding used for these man in the moon variations.


Another book for the wonderful Leslie (Arena Books) done unbelievably quickly- lots of fun though to make up for the lack of sleep (and money) -these projects are so different than my usual illustration work ... feeling so very crafty these days -and have discovered that I love teabag folding- especially if I get to use my own papers. I have become obsessed with designing papers and have no idea what I'm going to do with them all! I also love making envelopes with templates from.....The Kreate-a-lope www.greensneakers.com. They are torn -not tediously cut out and all the more charming I think for the irregular edges. They can be glued as usual or even better, fixed -I guess we all must say affixed these days, with origami folded clasps or torn or punched bits of paper and strings. I'm enjoying printing paper with a different design on each side or using very rough kraft color hand made Japanese paper for the envelope and adding a colorful insert or even a piece of corrugated paper for strength and textural interest. I'll gather a  few more images here eventually.........

I think these are so cute. I designed a double sided
teabag folding paper for the book that wasn't used, rose pattern on one side, red check on the other. The idea was to use these shapes inside a card with a message tucked inside. I'll try eventually to add links to the patterns I've used just in case anyone wants to try them.

what I'm doing today...

I've worked up several ideas and finally narrowed it down to four.
This was the design I preferred (it was originally one of my photo transfers from a few years ago that I played with in photoshop until I got this even more romantic version)


.....but the bride wanted something in their favorite color and went for the design below (which is a photoshopped version of a paper sculpture I did for self promotion). There was a folded cover for it, with vellum, a ribbon closure and, of course, lots of printing and cutting and assembling. It took forever but the bride and groom loved the results so it was worth it. I guess. And we used them in GREAT CARDS AND TAGS so they are famous.

Have been busy, busy, busy- thank God

Finally finished the Girl Scouts book- the style was a little different but fun- anthropomorphic flowers- a 'petal powered car' zooming across America. Lots of different looks- landscapes, diagram of petal car, maps....had to literally work double time to get it completed in time. I think I have a very happy client. Always a nice feeling when you actually get genuine happy feedback.

cleaning up files

this scan of a paper doily resist print experiment--

became part of this tag for last years craft book....

 

and part of this wrapping paper (which I don't really like as a repeat- just showing it as part of the stream of things... and we wanted lots of different designs for the book anyway).

and part of this experiment- which I haven't used for anything yet- but maybe it has possibilities?... besides the doily background which is mostly obliterated, I played with a photo of a bunch of roses in Photoshop and used some digital brushes of lace from Katie Pertiet (which are incredible fun to play with!).

and after a long hard day this...

I know! Time to quit for the day.

fireflies

love these little guys I'm doing for the GS book....

totally immersed in girl scout adventures

I have hardly been separated from my computer for a while now but am really on a roll.
Living and breathing the adventures of the flower pals.

This is the piece that cinched the assignment for me. In the rush of things I hadn't been told that I was up against anyone else to do the job- glad I didn't know because I might not have done it. A little quirk of mine. We're always competing against so many other artists I want clients to have made up their minds by the time they contact me. Anyway, I got the job and they are truly wonderful to work with.