That is not dead which can eternal lie...

...and with strange aeons, even death may die!

Wow. So it has been two years give or take a few days since I last posted to this blog, with much upheaval in my life. Our houseguests whose apartment building caught on fire were here much longer than intended, to the tune of a few weeks turning into a few months, and unfortunately there was a lot of unpleasantness about responsibilities, attitudes and money. Suffice it to say, I've been burnt and it will be a very long time indeed before I let my charitable nature get the better of me. The relationship they had broke down and they parted ways shortly after moving into a new place and both of them have since returned to their home states, and frankly I couldn't be happier about it.

In any event, that all got me pretty run down for a long time, very stressed and not in any kind of mood to do anything. It's long been since cleared up though, and I've been busy since I picked up a second job again. Today is a rare day off that my other half and I share, and so we're trying to pull together an outing, and I'm not sure where we'll go yet, but I'm excited to go.

In the meanwhile, here's some pretty stuff to look at. I made thank you cards for some guys at my main job who have been instrumental in my development and actually in getting the position I enjoy now. I thought they turned out pretty neat, and I tried to make each one relevant to the recipient. One loves talking about kayaking and fishing, one's a filmmaker, and one's got a great eclectic, hipstery personal style, and I hope that came across.

If you care about that sort of thing, here's the stuff I used to make them.

Fish and Paisley: Bo Bunny's Lakeside Retreat from the Trail Mix collection, the green paisley from The Paper Company's Classics, Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Stormy Sky, the greeting is from a stamp set by KI Expressions.

Tattered Ticket: Base card from My Mind's Eye, paper from DCWV's Tattered Time collection, stamps from Inkadinkado's Vintange Expressions and Graphic 45's Le Cirque. I used Tsukineko's Memento ink in Tuxedo Black, some white VersaMagic and the fine strips down either side are Martha Stewart Embossing Powder in Antique Gold.

Cluttered Thank You: Base card from My Mind's Eye, paper from Echo Park's For the Record collection. The stamp is from a Martha Steward collection, stamped in Tim Holtz Distress Ink color Salty Ocean. The grey and yellow washi tape come from My Mind's Eye, and the blue and pink are actually from Target's store brand office supplies.

Orchids and Creepy Baby Angels

I went through and uploaded some pieces to my long-neglected DeviantArt account. There's a lot more that needs to go up there, too, but I thought I'd share what I got up there here, too. These are some resized versions to fit nicely in the blog, but there's links to the individual deviations as well if you'd like to see them  larger. Everything interesting after the jump!

Movin' On Up, and a Question About YouTube

Just FYI, I'm losing my mind this week trying to move and balance both workplaces. Packing up my art materials is always the hardest part, because I know the minute I tape up the box is the minute before I'll have an idea. The great thing about the new place is that I'll finally have a space dedicated to being studio space; a nice finished basement where I'll have space and no television or video games to distract me, so here's hoping that I'll be more productive as a result.

It's a silly question, but I was playing around with the video function on my camera the other day. I know a lot of artists have livestream channels where they invite people to come and watch them paint or draw. I don't really have a webcam, but how interested would anybody be in art and crafting video tutorials? I know YouTube is inundated with that sort of thing, but honestly I've seen several that aren't done particularly well, or they are, but pretty obviously aimed at the stay at home scrapbooking mom/grandma type. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I often have a different perspective and background than a lot of the people I see presenting these things, so I feel like it might be more interesting and more engaging for people who tend to veer away from demographic--applying these sorts of techniques to alt fashion accessories or to modeling for tabletop gaming, even if it's just a change in the aesthetics and the subject matter, or directing and reviewing resources like books, websites and retailers. Hell, I'll do bits on whatever it is people suggest. I just keep finding more to do when I've already stretched myself thin!

Anyway, I look forward to reading your opinions and catching up on everyone's blogs sometime next week!

Green Lawn, Take Two; Silver Clay & More!

My PMC arrived in the mail! It's such a small packet, but I can't wait to start working with it--plan on doing pendants to start with. I have a friend who has tools for shaping rings, but I think I prefer to start with something where size is less important until I get a feel for the shrinkage. I've worked with polymer clay now and then as a replacement for ceramic clay--I'd done a few ceramic pieces in high school and loved the idea of fabricating jewelry pieces, but it's hard since I no longer have access to a kiln. The silver clay can be finished with a torch, so it's somewhat more convenient. Very exciting, and I can't wait to share the results.

Red Wolf and I went back to Green Lawn Cemetery on Sunday to pick up a few of the boxes we hadn't had time for last trip. They're technically only open from noon til four on Sundays, so we had kind of a narrow window, and I didn't fuss around taking as many pictures this time. We picked up all but two of the seven box series "A Royal Garden Party" by DrWatson; one is gone and the other is a bonus box, the clue to which takes some deciphering. We also got a couple of stand-alone boxes and picked up another hitchhiker; Wereallinthistogether's "Eve Was Framed." It was originally planted in 2007 as a mystery, and moved its way up from Florida (St. Cloud, near my old home town of Kissimmee!) through Ohio, so that was pretty amusing.

Speaking of which, there's a good chance that I will be going to Florida this summer with my in-laws, so I'm seriously considering carving up a hitchhiker to turn loose down the empire of the rat when I finish with the melon heads stamp. Green Lawn photos after the jump.

Hey, do you crochet?

I know there's a few crafty types keeping on eye on me here, I just wanted to share the Etsy shop of a lady that has some awesome cute amigurumi and other patterns, as well as finished plushes shops of a couple of nifty ladies that crochet and provide crochet patterns. I can't crochet to save my life, but I thought it may be of interest to someone else!

Congrats Card

Super busy day ahead of me, but I thought I'd pop this up before I took it to work! A coworker of mine at Job #1 was promoted from an assistant manager at our store to a salaried store manager for another location in the city. I thought it would be nice to make a little something and have everybody at our store sign it.

The flourish at the bottom didn't turn out quite right when I stamped it, and the ink dried so quickly that I couldn't emboss it or anything. So out came the raspberry colored Sharpie and I filled it in by hand.

Etsy Treasuries

Horror is off to an early lead, but there's still a few days left to vote! I'm already brainstorming ideas.

Meanwhile, I've been on Etsy for some time, I've never really made use of the Treasury feature until now--I've actually started to be included in several treasuries myself, and it's an awesome feeling, so I put one together.



And in addition, here's a few treasuries I've been featured in, after the jump.

Extemporaenously Kate! :O

Of Extemporaneously Kate, since comment button on her blog seems to be broken. GIRL, GET YOU SOME OF THESE: Knifty Knitter Looms. I sucked at needle knitting too, but I picked these up and they're super easy to work with. Granted, the only things I've made so far have been dishcloths and scarves, but I've found several books with all kinds of patterns for things like hooded vests and jumpers, and how to work all sorts of different stitching, and I've also read that you can pretty much adapt any standard knitting project to a loom. If you don't like plastic, I've seen wooden knitting looms and wooden ones with metal teeth, too, but those are a little more pricey. I made some scarves for my nephews and niece for Christmas; they all look pretty samey and they're really the first pieces I've done so they're not perfect, but you can see now nice and even the stitching comes out. Someone get her ass over here, I'm dumb and can't find contact info on her page.

The Snowpocalypse

Living on the southern end of Central Ohio, I fortunately missed out on the worst of the massive snowstorm. We did get some ice and wind, and there's just a little snow flurrying down now. I haven't been out driving yet since I've been off of work for a couple of days, so tonight will be an adventure. Our power got knocked out a couple of times, but only for a few minutes each time, so luckily we didn't freeze to death. So looking forward to warmer weather! I've been working on some paintings since we haven't been able to really get out and do much, and I've tossed up a button over in the sidebar to my Etsy shop. Only it's mostly full of old stuff that's not so great right now, so don't look now, look back in like... a couple of days once I've got some stamps carved and paintings finished and things printed.

I have had so many projects on my plate, including helping out with a friend's comic project, getting started on my first comic. Hours have been cut at work, so while the time to just chill and do creative stuff has been nice, but as a result I've been stressing about finances and for the first time ever did my taxes just as soon as I got my W2. Can't have it all, I guess.

Winter Holiday Cards

There was some small interest in seeing other random crap that I do, so until I hop back out in the field, here's some holiday-type cards I've been working on. These are all made with scrapbooking papers and cardstock, various paper punches and commercial stamps and it's really only my second venture into cardmaking. Three more after the jump!