Happy Birthday Mr. Shakespeare

Hi, hi.

I know I said I had blogger's block, but if there's anyone who can spur me into putting pen to paper [OK, fingers-to-keyboard] ... it's Shakespeare, whose birthday is celebrated today.

So, in honour of wonderful old William I thought I'd dust off this old- but still much loved - project I made when Kirsty Neale and I used to run The Copy + Paste Project:

The tiny head shaped shrine is home to the quote:

 "I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a King of infinite space."

[Hamlet Act II, Scene 2]

It's one of the many quotes from Hamlet which has followed me around ever since I first studied it. The idea that no matter where you are, you can think yourself free.

Similarly the quote at the very top of the page is one of my all time favourites:

"...nothing either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."

An ever-useful reminder of the power of thought and interpretation in any given situation.

I won't even attempt to say anything eloquent now ... there's no way to compete, so let me just say:

Happy Birthday Mr.S. Thanks for all y'know, the words ... and stuff!

Jx

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Feel free to leave your own favourite Shakespeare quotes, so we can all enjoy them today. :-)

Scrapbooking: Chasing Rainbows

Hello. How's Sunday been treating you?

Mine began with toast, jam and watching 3 huge cooling towers disappear from sight out of our back bedroom window during controlled demolitions . So, y'know ... just an average ordinary Sunday ...

We did manage to snatch some photos of the disappearing act ... so watch this space. But, until then ... here's a page I made earlier.

It's been raining quite a lot lately, which is good for [at least] 2 reasons:

• [1] because there's been a lot of talk of droughts hitting the UK recently, so hopefully this is helping alleviate things for now; and
• [2] because when you don't get rain, you don't get rainbows.

And when you don't get rainbows ... you don't get to scrapbook rainbows:

This particularly spectacular and scrapworthy rainbow sneaked up on us while driving home from York last month.

I'd grabbed the camera to capture a huge rain cloud gathering alongside us [the kind of huge, dark, glowering thing we refer to as an 'Independence Day' cloud ... iykwim?].

And immediately after snapping this shot:

... I turned around and gasped when I spotted this: 

It's intense colours and sudden appearance made me shiver for a second ... and then it made me want to get a decent photo of it.

So James turned off the main road as soon as he could and we drove along a country lane, trying to get closer to it:

 And, more specifically, trying to find the end. This is the closest we got:

... we couldn't get any nearer without driving into [and across] a farm! But the view, and the photos I took, were certainly worth the mini-detour.

This 7Gypsies rub-on quote seems to say it all:

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The word 'Rainbow' in the title, the little snippet of rainbow beneath the photo and the words at the top:

... were all cut from a vintage comic and are another example of one of my favourite methods of scrapbooking:

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If I'm honest, despite having lots to blog about, I've been suffering from an uncharacteristic bout of blogger's-block lately. But I'm sure I'll be back later this week with something ... or other ...

J :-)

Featuring Magazine update

Hi, hi.

As some of you will know I'm part of the creative team for the new quarterly - printed - mixed media magazine Featuring. 

We've been working on the debut issue since last November and now we're able to share the magazine with everyone else!

Here it is:

It's currently at the printers where it's scheduled to begin printing this week. Here's the test copy being checked over by Marit, Featuring's Editor and creator:

 If you look carefully you'll see my grinning face peeking out there?  ^^^ at the bottom of our 'Meet the Team' page!

My role as Contributing Editor means I not only work on creative/artistic projects of my own [eg. for the VIP feature], but I also get to write on wider topics [eg. Etsy] and contribute general ideas, interviews and more ... all of which satisfies my love of writing about wide-ranging creative topics, not just my own work.

If you think it might be your kind of read you can flip through the preview here and if you want to see more then the magazine is available to pre-order now from the Featuring store and will start shipping as soon as it arrives from the printer's!

We're working on Issue 2 now [for Summertime release] and there's lots of ways you can get involved too:

• there's the Theme Gallery: - contribute an artistic work in response to the given theme.
• general Submissions: see here for the full details.
• AND the Inchies section - inch-square affordable advertising space for all creatives - visit here for the details.

To coincide with the launch Featuring now has a Facebook page - so if you want to keep up to date with the magazine from there, then you can 'Like' it here.

 

I've seen the final draft as a digi copy and now can't wait to get a real papery one in my little messy hands! There's nothing more we can do now except wait and see if other people like it as much as we do ...

 

All of which is a touch scary but hey ... do one thing every day that scares you, right? Nothing ventured, nothing gained ... and all that.

 

Here's to shiny, new ventures. Mine + yours.

 

Julie :-)

Card: Eat, watch TV, sleep ... arrange your 'bits bag'.

Hello, hello.

During last week's posts about art journaling I mentioned how I might write about the kind of items I make journal pages from, along with how and where I store them. Since then I've taken a few photos and put it on the list of 'things to blog when I get chance' list.

Similarly I've also been asked for posts on how to use the 'Interesting Bits' kits [from my shop] which I must admit, I've found a little trickier. Not because I can't use the kits [there's nothing in them I don't already use myself] but because each kit is one-of-a-kind and the contents are so far-ranging it's hard to show a project which is representative of any single kit without me actually using the kit ... and then I can't sell you it! So I'm still thinking around how best to do that one!

However ... I did come across this card, made a few weeks back, and realised that it's actually related to both the topics I've already mentioned:

Apart from the grid design washi-tape which a friend let me use, everything I used on this card came from one of the zip-lock bags I keep 'bits' in.

'Bits' in this instance can be:

• stickers:- like the section of tape measure sticker on the bottom of this card and the little blue cloud.
• ephemera:- the bingo number paper background.
• leaflets, postcards etc:- like the 'eat, watch TV, sleep' card which was cut from a video game promo postcard.
• anything which isn't a standard, branded scrapbooking supply: - the panda die-cut came from a pack I found on sale at TKMaxx.
• supplies I've had for a while and think need using in a new way:- like photo corners. I'm on a mission to make these interesting again ... I'm bringing photo-corners back ...

Then all such odds and ends get thrown into a bag together to fend for themselves.

Really the only rule I put on these 'bit bags' is that they must weigh slightly less than my body weight just so I can drag easily pick one up to carry to my work desk, the crop or to the sofa [the places where I do all my crafting].

And really, this is how it's a bit like using an 'Interesting Bits' kit as because I know there's a little bit of everything in there, I know I'll be able to pull something together from just that bag, a blank card and some adhesive.

Also - the kits are colour-themed already for you, which was actually the only criteria I had when selecting bits for this card. I started with the bingo card and pulled out everything else that co-ordinated - no matter what it was.

I love this way of working:

• of only using what's in the bag;
• of not having any pre-conceived ideas of what I'm going to make [I mean, really, imagine me sitting down proclaiming "Today I shall make a card featuring a panda and a bingo card and some clocks and a cloud and washi tape and ancient photo-corners. Oh I do hope I have precisely all those things in my stash". Wouldn't happen.
• of taking my inspiration from the materials and interesting bits in front of me;
• of making it work;
• of using up oddments, scraps and things I've had for a long time.

I find it so serendipitous and inspiring and I think the key to it working is that you're only using a little bit of any one thing:

• some of those old items of stash might be super-ugly when viewed with the vast set of matching items it came with ... but lift it out ... move it to a safe distance .. and then you can judge it on its own merits. [If it's still ugly then .. you might want to put it in the paper recycling bin ...]
• lots of vintage style ephemera can give a vintage/grungy feel to a project - which is fine f that's the look you're going for - but I prefer mine mixed in with brighter kitschy kitsch bits for a lighter, modern feel.
• it makes each project unique, stand-alone, one-of-a-kind. You won't see a million replicas of it on Pinterest in the same month.
• it makes creating in an eclectic style easy. A no-brainer. If your base materials are a bit of this, a bit of that, drawn from various interesting sources ... then the end product can't help but be a bit different and unique too.

I hope that insight into my bit-obsessed mind was of use to at least one person out there!

Now that I've finished jotting all that down it's suddenly struck me as an odd thing to have just spent a morning writing about ....

I'll be back soon with some exciting magazine news ....

Soon, soon.

Julie :-)

Art Journaling: Collaged Characters [3]

Hi, hi.

If you've been reading me all week you'll know that I created this week's prompt [available as a pdf download] for the for UKScrappers 'Art Journey' feature, and here's the 3rd page I made to illustrate the idea of 'Collaged Characters':

Once I'd decided that I was going to focus on discussing ways to customise body parts to create your own characters with the prompt, I sifted through my journals and discovered that I swap heads and bodies a lot! [Not me personally you understand ... in my art journaling ... ].

And for this page I took my scissors to the head of a little lamb:

I know on the Art Journey forum there's been some discussion about where to look for interesting images to cut up. Maybe I ought to do a post dedicated to just this topic sometime ... but for now, here's a run down of what's on this particular page:

There are no two elements taken from the same original source image here:

• the lamb came from a Barker & Stonehouse furniture catalogue from a feature on wool carpets;
• the dress is from an Oilily children's clothing catalogue;
• and the arms and legs are from old Elle fashion magazines;

• the 'Important facts for you to know' wording was cut from a page of 1950s book showing how to wire up something elctrical;
• 'dress' is cut from a 'Collection's Elements' brand of alpha sheets;
• and the other words came from supplements + junk mail which fell out of the Guardian newspaper.

It's another thing to love about this style of art journaling ... there really is a wealth of free resources right there under our noses, seeking us out, every day:

• whether it's dropping through our letterboxes;
• slotted inside our magazines;
• thrust into our hands as we stroll through shopping malls;
• marked with 'Please take one' ... and more ...

 It's perfect if you're creating on a budget and/or if you take your inspiration from the materials at hand, like I do.

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Thanks for swinging by today.  Am thinking I need to make samples with my Etsy kits ... but that means taking time away from making Etsy kits to make somthign with Etsy kits ... you see my problem here! I'm considering some sort of Guest Designer might be a nice way around this ... so I'm going to have to mull it over.

Anyway ... I'm sure I'll be back soon with something, sometime. So I'll see you when I do.

Julie :-)