From the Journal Post

I'm running out of regular gel medium! The white flake medium is interesting I guess, but I'm not sure what kind of things I should be doing with it! What is it meant to be for?

In the meantime, look at these cool stencils (ahem... "masks") that came in the mail today! 

Super Update

Oops, I totally skipped yesterday. First day back at work completely wiped me out I guess. But after so much awful sanding, priming and painting, our bedroom is now looking super classy in that grey. *Whistles*

 

 

Of course, not without a bit of drama in which a store employee had a mishap with the mixing machine which led us to paint dark patches on the wall, which led us to buy twice the paint we needed in order to fix it - *inhale, exhale* - but it's looking good now. I still want to try painting on a subtle pattern with the same colour but in gloss but that's probably not going to happen unless I want to buy more paint. 

noooo.

What else? Just a little journal play. I haven't been incorporating too much beyond acrylic paints at the moment as I've been working from the couch. It's also really relaxing to take an image that is already there and just... paint around it. Rotoscoping might be my calling.

Another thing that happened last week is I finally received my package from peachycheap which contained several sheets of beautimous stickers! So beautimous. These will make scrapping my few trip photos a load of fun! 

I'm not sure about the word stickers but I'm completely smitten over the date stickers which are just PERFECT for journaling! Aaahhh, I can't wait to play with them!

 

From the Post - Inspiration Deck

Remember the Inspiration Deck Swap?  Well, it finally arrived today! Fun, fun. This is definitely the largest card swap I've ever received. 

What's funny, is that I am absolutely not a fan of inspirational quotes and messages. Items that just say "breathe" for example, make me gag. And sometimes, just because it's written on a piece of wood or a pretty photo posted on Pinterest, doesn't mean it's good advice. 

Just saying. 

What I do like, is to see how everyone transformed their deck of cards! Some are very simple, and others have a lot of textural interest (my favourite)! I think one of them is actually a piece of burlap. Another is very sticky. Some are glittery. I loved looking through them all. 

This is where I usually store all of my ATCs (and Sailor Moon cards... woop woop) and it's getting a bit too full now. They look right at home, here!

I think I would be interested in doing this again. 

From the Post - Studio Calico

Lovely little package in the mail! Every once in a while, Studio Calico has a clearance sale, and I simply couldn't resist. 



Replenishing my dwindling supply of tapes with this low-key floral...



I'm so excited to use this awesome tiny stencil! Hexagons again... hmm



And I don't even know what these are for. They're wooden stickers that look like buttons! Can't wait to try these out :3

From the Post - Stickers!!

Soooo guess what else I got in the mail? Stickers! Tiny, adorable and super high quality square stickers. Love love love love them. But I don't know exactly what I plan to do with them... I might save them for art shows, or should I come up with some new creative idea?



Since the wedding cake is finished, and my life may shuffle back into normalcy, I feel a bit revitalized! So I finally went ahead and downloaded I'd Rather Be In The Studio. I am taking it in slowly and purposefully and hope that it is just the kick I need to make things happen.

The first step is to define success, and you know, I have to wonder if a million other people are also reading this book because I've been thinking an awful lot about defining success lately.  If you had one big unrealistic expectation, what would it be?

Me, I like to keep it simple. What seemed like unrealistic wishes to me a few years ago quickly became reality! I never thought I'd be a homeowner or a driver and now I'm BOTH! It makes me wonder what other dreams could come true?

What is my art business dream?

Oh ummm let's see.

I will feel successful when...
When I can make at least $800/month through my business! It's small potatoes, but at that point it could replace my day job entirely and I could be my own boss. Awesome.
I dream of having a tiny art studio in a cozy area with lots of foot traffic! I would open the doors and have little parties with visitors!
I'd love to have at least one solo exhibition, even if it was just once, even in just a local gallery. That would blow my mind. Of course, I'd love if it resulted in lots of visitors and some sales!

Just thinking about it gives me such a boost that I could go on and on and come up with bigger and bigger wishes!

If you could have everything you've ever wanted, what would it be?

From the Post - Moo cards

Awwwww yeah! Free Moo cards arrived today! I looovvee the mini cards. It's less fun to have so many of the same image (usually they are all different ones), but I can't complain. I can't wait to give them out!

This week I decided I would begin a sort of month-long experiment; once a week I will go and do some kind of art in a "public" space (shops aren't really considered to be public, but we'll go with it) and see what happens.

Me, I am a shy type who always hated when people watched me draw things. It's a natural thing, I don't know anyone who actually likes to have a live audience.  Yesterday I bought a sugary drink and claimed a table near the window and doodled for a bit. Two interesting observations:

1) It was surprisingly crowded and full of people just milling about and socializing. Extremely socializing. The weirdest part to me, was how professionally dressed they all were. It was, like, 9am or something. Business dress but no one was working. Where do I sign up?

2) Sit around long enough and you'll end up with free samples of things! Look at that baby frappe up there! So cute! I am also so incredibly buzzed from the coffee and the sugar that everything is an exclamation!



So anyway, if you ever follow me on the facebook, you might know that I signed up for some kind of Mystery Project from the Co-op. They send out a prismacolour marker and participants make some kind of art with it and leave it in a public place for some stranger to find. I haven't heard much online from other participants except that someone got Cinnamon Toast colour. Lucky! I got Crimson Red.



I have no idea what I'm going to make with it. Even less idea of where I will leave it. I don't much want to litter, and also this is Surrey. I don't think anyone will find a drawing and go "omg this is cool I'm going to keep this, I'M HAPPY!" I'm pretty sure a more realistic response would be "What is this? Who left this here? Into the recycling bin with you!" Which is kind of a shame. 

It's such a vague project and the theme I got was also so incredibly uninspiring ("The Future of the Year" - wtf does that mean?) so I decided just to sit and play with the pen and some watercolour paper.

Which, btw, is probably not a good paper for markers. It sucks the ink right out of that marker.

 

I love the brush tip because of how "stiff" it is, I guess. I've had brush markers in the past that were just too wobbly, but this one is pretty easy to control. It has a medium tip on the other side as well.

I made a large zentangle and now I don't know what to do with it.

Custom stamps

What an awesome mail week!



I ordered this custom return address stamp from modernartstamps a while ago. I fell in love with these designs and wanted one for myself. After all, writing the return address gets a bit tedious after a while. And it never involves adorable flowers.



There were so many cute designs to choose from... I think the only reason I settled on the mod flowers is because I was worried that more complicated designs would become too large for small envelopes, and the postal service is easily confused.



This one is unmounted and doesn't (according to the shop) cling to mounting blocks. I haven't actually tried yet because it's sturdy enough that I can stamp it without using any additional tools.

Obviously, I'm going to have to get an inkpad in some colour other than light blue, lol.

I love surprises!

I got something completely unexpected in the mail yesterday. In fact, after its arrival I decided to gaze at it suspiciously instead of read it.



Creative Quarterly sent me their most recent issue of their magazine! I don't know why and I'm afraid to ask. Perhaps this is the first issue that I submitted to (and failed to be included), but I didn't keep track of it. It seems unusual that non-winners would get a copy, so I don't know if this is awesome or a mistake! lol Whatever, I'm happy.



You know what automatically gets them in my "good" books? The fact that canadian selling price is only a dollar higher than american. Hell yes. When novels are DOUBLE the price in canada (for political reasons, not good ones), this is a refreshing change! You rock!



The only other mag of theirs I've seen is the 3x3 issue I bought a few years ago. And the art in this magazine is almost identical, actually. Do they keep publishing the same artists over and over? I don't know.

Anyway, it was a lovely surprise! And the artwork inside is fantastic. I don't know about other places but it's a struggle to find magazines like this here. It's like stores skip from photography tips right into country-time scrapbooking without ever acknowledging large categories of fine art! It's puzzling to me. I only ever saw one single copy of Creative Quarterly (3x3) in a store and I snatched it up, even though it cost $25 and I was even poorer then, haha.



One thing: I think I spend too much time on the internet because reading some of these artist profiles and opportunities reminded me of how posh and exclusive the professional art world can be. I couldn't help but feel way out of my league when reading the artist profiles. Seeing the qualifications I may never have. Reading the answers to the questions and feeling suddenly inadequate.

Am I inadequate? Am I supposed to be fond of reading essays? Are my parents supposed to be the most influencial people in my life? Should I only watch classic films? Should "travel" be how I spend my free time? Should I joke about religion and politics in my answers, if only to show how smart and educated I am?

It seems like a completely different world when visiting galleries and reading magazines. It's really no wonder why I was so discouraged from art careers before.

Does this mean I am naive now that I have a bit of hope?

I'd prefer to think that the world is being turned up over its own heels, that ideas and beauty and opportunities and fulfillment are no longer reserved for the upper class! I'd prefer to think that someday we are going to take it all back...

Artist Highlight - Yellena James

Oh my goodness, it was a good mail day yesterday. Look at this print from Yellena James! I couldn't take advantage of her print sale, but it's still running so maybe others could grab them up.



I love her use of colour and her tiny, tiny details. These look like a lot of fun. I could definitely get lost in this. This painting is called "Silk".



A detail from her thank you card!



This is a little extra piece. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Don't you just want to colour it??



What also came in the mail yesterday was a little bundle of printer ink! Woot-woot. We haven't had a functioning printer for a couple of years and it's driven me nuts. Honestly, it will still drive me nuts because it's such a cheap, awful printer that it's no good for images. Like, at all.

But this means I can print out text, forms... maybe even try out paypal shipping?? I still won't be able to print photos on paper which is lame, but I guess I should use the colour ink for something.

I can't believe ink cartridges for this hunk of junk run over $50 each. I get that the cartridges do all of the work, but the work that these do kind of suck. Not worth it. Refurbished for the win! Amazon had some for ten bucks with free shipping! I should have looked ages ago.

Inner Voices

A beautiful package arrived at the post office for me today!

I ordered Nolwenn's "I believe in Possibilities" print, and it's just as vibrant as I was hoping. In fact, that's what made me want it in the first place!



Look at this envelope! I love envelopes, and I especially love the ones that look pretty and have cool stamps I can peel off and glue someplace fun...



This is the best kind of mail!