Catula

Well, it’s almost Halloween, and I’m supposed to show off some Halloween inchies I made for a swap. Unfortunately, still I haven’t found the time to prep them for posting here and on Flickr. So as a backup (just so I don’t miss out on the Halloween spirit — pardon the pun!) I’m reposting this Halloween scrapbook page from my other blog, Scrapbook Cats. This is from last year, but hopefully it’s still as fresh as a newly buried vampire:

Happy Halloween! For the past three weekends, I had agonized over finding the right layout for this page. Meet Bloo, a.k.a. Catula, a name given by my brother. Bloo’s got a knack for showing off his fangs, whether or not it’s Halloween! But despite the scary looks, Bloo’s a sweet cat who doesn’t bite.

Notes: Patterned papers from Stone Accents Studio’s SAS Halloween Mega Kit Freebie by JulieO. Fonts are Blood of Dracula by Brad O. Nelson, and A Charming Font by A. Hofeld.

Have a purr-fectly spooky Halloween!

Source: http://scrapbookcats.blogspot.com/2008/10/catula.html

Photo Source: Swap-bot

The creative folks over at Swap-bot have this cool giveaway for Swap-bot members: over $50 worth of to-die-for ATC goodies! These include a Revolving ATC Holder Carousel from 7 Gypsies, which comes with 20 blank ATC cards. A great way to display your ATC collection! Also included are 20 clear ATC sleeves, 20 black tab dividers for the carousel, and an ATC punch for making notches on cards to be hung on the the carousel. Gee, I wish all this stuff were mine!

Read more about Swap-bot’s HUGE Giveaway for ATC Lovers here.

You're special!

Finally added my inchies to Flickr, and hope to add my ATCs as well. Later on I’ll add photos of the artwork I received from my partners at Swap-bot. Do drop by and let me know what you think!

Take time to dream!

Whoa, I’ve been gone for ages and I’ve got a list of lame excuses right in front of me as I write this. I won’t bore you with the details of Excuse #1, but suffice to say that transitions aren’t always easy, and I’m right smack in the middle of one right now. Sheesh, I can hardly wait to get past this one. Not much I can do at the moment but to wait it out — and probably take time to dream of better days to come. They will. I just know it.

Lavender Gold by Kathy Greene, Angel Kat Creations

Yipee! My first ATC arrived in the mail last week, much earlier than I expected! This one is “LavenderGold” by artist Kathy Greene of Angel Kat Creations. Kathy is currently a stay at home mom with five kids and three grandkids, and lives with husband Steve in Pendleton, SC, USA. Kathy enjoys paper crafts, crochet, knitting, cross stitch, plastic canvas, and needlepoint, to name a few.

Now this ATC is so pretty — it reminds me of a fresh, dew-filled Easter morning when everything’s in bloom. I just love the colors! Too bad I couldn’t capture the gold butterflies very well in the photo. I’ll have to work on that.

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this ATC, even if it’s just the picture. I’m lucky because I got the real thing! Thanks again, Kathy!

Inchies with Wings

OK, here’s the first batch of inchies I made for a swap. The theme is “Wings” so I decided on bugs, birds and angels. I snail mailed them today to my swap partner in Scotland, two days before the deadline. Whew!

I used a variety of materials and techniques here. Clockwise, from top:

Dream Butterfly inchie: Aluminum flash tape reverse-embossed and colored with permanent markers.

Angels inchie: Iron-on transfer on cheesecloth on a washi paper background, embellished with a bit of ribbon and gold dimensional paint.

Harmony Dragonflies inchie: Dragonflies and Chinese character stamped in black ink on red cotton, and dotted with a tiny bit of gold dimensional paint.

Ladybug inchie: Handmade paper with grass and petals serves as the background for a ladybug doodled on red paper and finished with a dome sticker. (Thanks to my sister Choi for showing me how to make ladybugs!)

Happiness Bird inchie: Iron-on transfer on cheesecloth plus a layer each of maroon and white tulle, all hand stitched together, with a hole cut in the tulle to reveal the image. Happiness stamped on a strip of handmade paper and stitched above the image.

All inchies are mounted on sturdy card. If you have questions about any of these techniques, feel free to drop me a line!

ATC: la chanson de la mer

I made this ATC for a beginners’ swap over at Swap-bot.com. I’ll be snail-mailing this ATC soon to my swap partner in Argentina, and I hope she likes it!

This ATC uses a vintage image from Art E-zine’s Little Darlings collection printed on iron-on transfer and, well, transfered to a piece of cheesecloth.

The image inspired me to add the torn piece of sheet music and the title, “la chanson de la mer”, or Song of the Sea. It took me some time to find the right piece of lace, though (I had wanted to use this lovely scrap that looked partly like a fish net, but it was quite unwieldy and so it ended up as the background for the photo shoot!), and it took me just as long to decide whether or not the dainty lace and ribbon would contrast too much with the rough cheesecloth (which is mounted on some handmade paper). Well, I eventually decided to push through with the dainty stuff, and I’m glad everything turned out pretty well.

BTW, I had just as much fun shooting this card as making it! But I’ll probably save that for another post…

Technology is great when it works the way you expect it to. As a crafter/artist, I’ve come to rely on technology mainly for imaging – taking digital photos, scanning precious ephemera, printing text and journaling – and for research and communication as well: tapping into vast resources online for trends, tips, and lots more images; drawing inspiration from fellow crafters and artists through their websites, and sharing my ideas and “evil experiments” with family, friends and like-minded individuals.

There’s another thing I’d like to master, though: how to use technology to boost my micro online business. Early this year I signed up for a basic (free!) shop at Artfire to sell my digital stuff. I was elated when I made my first sale ever, but I wasn’t able to leverage on that due to some really lame excuses. So now I’ve decided to get really serious with my online shop and am trying to learn about online business basics while continuing to make crafty/artsy stuff.

With this in mind, I subscribed last week to TechnoConvergingZone, a blog about “Business matters and financial views, tips and opinions mixed with eccentric flavors of articles around the globe.” At least that’s how owner MeanMissy – my college buddy – describes it.

For the most part, the blog delivers on its promises, from the numerous practical how-to’s on using tech for your biz (Your Website as a Doorstep in the World of Business – Yay! Just what I’m looking for!), down to the somewhat “eccentric flavors of articles” (Getting Rid of Bedbugs through the Herbal Way or a review of the Air Mattress. Hmm.).

Don’t laugh. I suspect that these seemingly irrelevant articles help pull in the traffic that helps pull in the dollars, and vice versa. As a matter of fact, in her post on TCZ’s first anniversary just last month, MeanMissy said that TCZ’s Google page rank went from 1/10 to 3/10 in a matter of months.

(For those of you who aren’t familiar with page rank, it’s how important a web page is in Google and how likely it is to show up at the top of the results page when you do a search. The higher the number, the better, and a rank of 3 is pretty decent: gazillions of websites and blogs don’t even have a page rank – like this one, boohoohoo! Not yet, at least. You’ll have to help me get there, hint, hint).

In short, it looks like TCZ practices what it preaches. If you can forgive the occasional off-topic post, TCZ is a good resource, and a blog to keep on your radar.

We are not amused.

Oh dear, I think I’ve a problem with FeedBurner. The last entry I posted didn’t end up in my mailbox, so I’m guessing those of you who subscribed haven’t received it either. Will go check it out and hope to fix it soon…

Another assignment in Everyday Moodlings, the free online craft course I enrolled in, was to alter a can and make it into a vase. This required painting a recylced tin can, wrapping a strip of fabric or patterned paper around it, and prettifying it with ribbon and flowers.

In my version, I plastered a Pik-Nik canister with handmade paper (recycled from a set of paper window blinds I made years ago), glued a swath of beautiful Japanese washi paper round the middle, trimmed it with gold ribbon, then topped it off with a four-layered flower of handmade paper held together with a fancy brad.

While working on this can, I made it a point to stick to the colors on the washi paper: red, pink, blue, yellow, white and gold. Hence, the gold trim and the layered flower made with blue, pink, red and white paper.  I also patterned the cutout flower after the design on the paper, down to the gold outline and the tiny white bloom in the center.

Actually I’m extremely pleased with the way it turned out. I think it’s the washi paper that pulls everything together — and come to think of it, it’s the washi paper that inspired me a lot with this project!