Something About Nothing

FYI: In an attempt to catch up the blog with the last year AND stay up to date, I'll be attempting two short posts a week. One that will show what I am currently working on, and one that will be back dated. Hope it doesn't confuse anyone too much  (myself included!) Took a live online Mini Book class with Seth Apter through Facebook. Monoprinted deli sheets for collage A Few Words A big mess was made, therefore you know I had fun! Look! Ah, Senor, you have greatly troubled my mind. Do you think me such a child?!? I hunt no animal. Come with me. How divine she was! Mister supervised, as usual.  

I'm pretty new to the washi tape scene.   I've seen other people use it and be obsessed with it  but I didn't buy in to the craz because I didn't want to get in to something new. Famous last words. A month or so ago, I had a play date with my friend, Dana, a book artist, and the next thing I know I am the proud owner of 17 rolls of washi tape. Oh my!  However it's a good thing I bought all this tape because Quarto Publishing asked me to review a book for them: Paper + Tape: Craft & Create by Marisa Edghill. There are 75 projects in this book and they are pretty creative, like the paper beads pictured on the front of the book. One of my favorite things is this simple gift box made from scrapbook or washi paper, and washi tape.  Where was this idea when the kids were in school and needed clever containers to give Valentines candy in?! There are 15 templates in the back of the book.  One of the things I like most about these templates...

My daughter wanted a stamp to put her name in her books. I played with different ideas earlier this month before my other daughter helped me come up with an idea.  I went with the musical instruments because she enjoys music of all kinds but I really didn't like the lettering. I cleaned it up a bit before I gave it to her. But honestly, books are really more her thing.   She is getting her PhD in English Literature and so I went this direction with the new stamp. She likes it! But I still think I need to make a new one. I also need to buy her a stamp pad. It might be helpful for her to have ink to use with the stamp!

My friend, Dana Ryan Perez, invited me over for a book making play date.  Dana was an environmental scientist (before it was cool) and is now a talented book maker and mixed media artist. Dana and I in front of her son's fabulous painting. Her studio was beautiful!  Lots of skylights for wonderful lighting but I was more focused on the scene below. Her father was a printer and the printing drawer on the wall was his. Dana has been making these adorable little Washi tape covered books.   The measurements on the mat give you an idea of how small they are.  The book in the middle was created with little pockets to store feather treasures in. Dana said she finds herself collecting them from the park and golf course where she jogs in the mornings.   Isn't this adorable!!! The books at the bottom of this photo were created by Dana in preparation for a class she and another friend, Toni, taught to the Utah Surface Design Group w...

Making a high quality custom book from  Blurb  is so easy!  They have created a   2013 Gift Guide  to  help you find inspiration. I love all of the children's book on page 6.  I have dreamed about writing a children's book and maybe this is just the way to do it, even if I only sell one copy to myself!  The Gift Guide is also an instruction guide on how to make a beautiful  Blurb  book gift for anyone in your life. Get a head start on your Holiday gifts by creating your own  Blurb  book and save 20% through 10/7 with code EARLYBIRD20.

Look what came in my mailbox yesterday! I've been busy with a visual feast ever since. Martha Sielman's  Art Quilt Portfolio: People & Portraits: Profiles of Major Artists, Galleries of Inspiring Works is a collection of beautiful art quilts depicting, what else, people and portraits! The collection of quilts in this book is just amazing.  You will be able to spend hundreds of hours studying the details in each and every quilt.  The only thing better would be to have each quilt in your hot little hands.   Each designer creates their pieces in a unique way.  Some by using "traditional" piecing,  appliqué  as well as whole cloth paintings and some very unusual methods such as the portraits created by Mary Pal with cheesecloth!  Yes, you read that right - CHEESECLOTH.  Visit the link, you WILL be amazed! Once you get through the eye candy there is a lot of information to read and explore as well.  Martha prov...

Are you still making stuff?!? Oops, me too!  But  I'm making more than just the usual stuff I love making.  It's time to take a few minutes and pull together all my best photos from 2012 to make a book with   Blurb .   I get so wrapped up in the book making because it so easy.  I just figured out I can also make a planner for 2013 full of my favorite photos.  So many possibilities!  I have so many fun and crazy pictures to choose from.  This might take a minute or two.  If you need more ideas and inspiration go to:  Blurb.com  or  Blurb.ca.   AND from now through 1/7 you can save 15% on your entire book order with the special code BOOKS15OFF.

My first go at scrapbooking in the 80's was in black paged photo albums and then I moved on to acid-free colored papers. These early scrapbooks are some of the ugliest things you have ever seen.  In the mid 1990's I had a wonderful neighbor named  Stacey Julian .  Those of you into scrapbooking might recognize the name.  She was a stamper when I met her and was just starting into scrapbooking.  She and my other friend, Terina , self-published a book called Core Composition  and they used some photos of my kids within their pages. I learned a lot about design from Stacey and Terina.  I also learned that the self-publishing world was hard and expensive!  In the last 20 years that world has completely changed.  It can still be very expensive to come up with the initial investment to publish 10,000 books and then there is the issue of finding a place to store those 10,000 books while you find places and people who want to buy them, but tha...

During the Spring Retreat the group made 20 or more of these mitered corner baby receiving blankets to give to a local charity.  They are so easy and cute too.  I need to keep an eye out for flannel and make a stack to have around for baby showers.  The last day of the retreat is always a show and tell and as usual I didn't pull my camera out until part way through!  Here is a journal cover someone made in my Midnight Madness class. Lots of fun quilts made over this past year:  This little guy kept us entertained throughout the retreat. A gorgeous quilt top made in Bonnie's class.  Flower on left Alice made in Sandy's class. Alice also made a piece of lovely redwork in Charlotte's class. Beautiful butterfly quilt top Julie made in Flora's class.   Julie made a memory quilt for each of her children from her husband's shirts, along with a few other blocks and photos transferred onto the fabric using TAP. ...