Craftside

American flag 4th of July card inspired by the book One Drawing A Day

Today's bit of 4th of July craftiness was inspired by this page from the book One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media. It features the art of Dominick Santise. The top art is an American flag out of people and hand prints. The bottom art includes thumb prints. So I made an American flag themed card with my finger print.

Try making some of your own art combining two other pieces—it's fun!

More about the Quarry book:

One Drawing A Day:

A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media

by

Veronica Lawlor

Through 46 daily exercises which make up a complete 6-week course, you will keep your artistic skills sharp and your imaginations fertile by doing One Drawing A Day. Each spread in the book features a beautiful drawing by one of 8 professional illustrators, with a description and comments by the illustrator as well as a companion exercise. Each exercise includes suggestions for various mediums or mixed-media solutions, advice on how to approach and execute the drawing, and professional tips.

Veronica Lawlor is currently on the faculty of Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design. Her work may be seen at www.studio1482.com/veronica. She blogs at www.veronicalawlor.com and contributes to www.onedrawingaday.com and www.urbansketchers.com.

 

 

Mail Art inspired by Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

Today I have a fun project that gets its inspiration from something that some of you may know about and some of you "young'uns" might not know about featured in the book Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail. Back in the day Deadheads sent (by mail) their money and requests for tickets. They would create art on the envelopes in hopes of enticing the ticket people to open theirs first thus insuring themselves tickets. Well, my spin on this is below. I have been going to on-line bill paying but I still get the envelopes. I do tend to still mail some stuff so I thought I would dress up these plain envelopes with my new Suzi Blu rubber stamps from Stampavie.

I had so much fun I can't tell you!

 

All I did was gather up the stamps, the recycled envelopes, the ink pads in a variety of colors, and the  colored pencils...oh, and a copy of Suzi Blue's book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish.

Then all I did was stamp away on the fronts and backs of the envelopes.

Then I colored in the girls as pictured in the book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish.

I still have more to do but I can't wait to get back to them and make more!

If you appreciate envelope art or the Grateful Dead I bet you will love this book:

Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

by

Paul Grushkin

Foreword by:

Bill Walton

Whether or not you've heard every song in their catalog, spent countless hours learning the chords to "Casey Jones," or were one of millions lucky enough to have seen them live, odds are the Grateful Dead are not complete strangers to your world. Since the band's earliest days, Grateful Dead staff saved tens of thousands of decorated ticket-request envelopes sent to them by Dead Heads hoping to capture the ticketing staff’s attention with their mind-bending designs. These envelopes are inspirational and hugely insightful, not to mention brilliantly illustrated and unique within the world of rock. Now, for the first time in print, these unique pieces of art have found a home.

This book collects more than 300 of these mind-blowing envelope masterpieces, all presented in 14 thematic chapters. Fully authorized by the Grateful Dead, Dead Letters also includes, for further historical context, many rare historical photos and memorabilia, all creating a trip, as it were, down memory lane.

Paul Grushkin is one of America’s top rock & roll historian. For more than 25 years Grushkin has been at the forefront of rock merchandising. As VP/Sales and Marketing for Signatures Network, Sony Signatures, and Winterland Productions, he designed and led the retail merchandising campaigns for nearly every top rock, pop, and country music band, including the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Ozzy Osbourne, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, New Kids on the Block, John Lennon, Madonna, N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, and hundreds of others. Visit him online at http://www.paulgrushkin.com/.

    

I love Crafty Blogger Links

Can you believe it's already February? How was your January crafting? I got a few things done and even more "in progress" (wink, wink).

Traci Bunkers, author of The Art Journal Workshop: Break Through, Explore, and Make it Your Own and Print & Stamp Lab:52 Ideas for Handmade, Upcycled Print Tools, posted a fun little video on how to stamp with an orange. Check it out:

 

More crafty links to inspire and delight!

 

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has a cool Steampunk-inspired Valentine artist trading block tutorial for you.

Craft Buds
Learn how to frost cupcakes like a pro and turn your favorite chewy candy into some fab cupcake toppers!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy takes a look at one of The Crochet Dude's newest books written for those of use who donate our crochet goods to charity.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
You can transform plain glassware into unique home decor. Check out Eileen's first attempt with transparent glass paints.

Mixed Media Artist
How can you resist a resist? Especially when it's as much fun as gel-based school glue!

RockPaperInk
Jason Tselentis dissects the graphic identities of the Republican Presidential candidates in "Points, Pixels, Paper: GOP Typography Roundup."

 

Traci Bunkers' cool video on how to make moldable foam rubber stamps

I love making my own stamps. I tried Traci Bunkers' technique featured in her book

 Print & Stamp Lab:

52 Ideas for Handmade, Upcycled Print Tools

and shared with you my scissor stamps back in this post. In addition to her great tutorial in her book, she has made a video where she shares not only all sorts of results from stamps she has made but a tutorial on how to make your own moldable foam rubber stamps.

Pretty cool huh? If you like this and want to grab yourself a kit that contains foam shapes or her Doodle Textures, pop on over to Traci Bunkers' blog.

More about her book filled with 52 ideas on how to make stamps out of all sorts of things.

 

Print & Stamp Lab:

 52 Ideas for Handmade, Upcycled Print Tools

by

Traci Bunkers

Artist and popular workshop instructor Traci Bunkers can turn just about anything into an interesting stamp, printing block, or tool. In this book, she shows readers how to see overlooked, everyday objects in a new way, and how to "MacGyver" them into easy to use printing blocks and tools. Readers learn to create 52 print blocks and stamp tools, all from inexpensive, ordinary, and unexpected materials--string, spools, bandages, flip flops, ear plugs, rubber bands, school erasers, and a slew of other repurposed and upcycled items. The book also shows how to use those simple tools to make gorgeous, multi-layered prints and patterns that can be used to enhance journal covers, stationery, fabrics, accessories, and more.

Traci Bunkers is a passionate and quirky self-employed mixed-media and fiber artist living in Lawrence, Kansas. Through her one-woman business Bonkers Handmade Originals, she sells her nifty creations such as hand-dyed spinning fibers and yarns, original rubber stamps, handmade books, kits and original artwork. She also creates an artzine called Tub Legs, designs knitwear, and is a knitting, spinning, and crochet technical editor. She has been teaching workshops across the US since the early 90s and her visual journal pages, artwork, and knit designs have been published in numerous books and magazines. To learn more about her work, visit her web site at www.TraciBunkers.com.

 

Carson Rubber Stamp Show info and crafty blogger links

Happy Halloween! I have another fabulous show to tell you about that happens here in SoCal.

2011 Fall
Rubber Stamp Convention
at the Carson Community Center

November 12 & 13, 2011

Saturday, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sunday, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Pop on over to the Stamp In the Hand website for the full list of vendors and classes!

And if you are one of the first 400 through the door you are in for a treat!

We have new Makeready blank journals made from the new book Unfurling, A Mixed-Media Workshop with Misty Mawn: Inspiration and Techniques for Self-Expression through Art and one of these unique blank journals can be yours to customize and enjoy!

The Story of Our “Makeready Journal”

You may have noticed the unusual appearance of the cover and interior. The cover and the interior pages of this book were made from scraps that are normally thrown away as trash. Yes, we could have made this book look perfect, but we really like the funky effect of random pages—and hope you do, too. 

The covers are made from the “makeready” of Unfurling, A Mixed-Media Workshop with Misty Mawn: Inspiration and Techniques for Self-Expression through Art. Makeready is the waste created as the printer calibrates the correct ink colors while “making the press ready” for the actual print run, which will create the finished sheets.  Usually, these 200–300 sheets of makeready are thrown out. Craftside used these sheets in the manufacturing of the cover and the endpapers of the book.

The interior pages were created from scraps, as well. Mill end is the paper left on the roll at the end of a production run.  Although they’re usually thrown out, we used mill ends to make the pages in this book. This is why they are not all the same color.

More about the book:

Unfurling, A Mixed-Media Workshop with Misty Mawn:

Inspiration and Techniques for Self-Expression through Art

by

Misty Mawn

Unfurling is a workshop in book form, offering a unique mix of inspiration and technique exercises to get your creative juices flowing. This book is for any creative person who wishes to open up more to the process of making art. 

The book begins with art exercises in drawing and painting that include portraiture, contour drawing, backgrounds, layering, and working with a still life, followed by collage and image transfer techniques. 

The second section offers exercises and projects in stamp carving, paper pottery, sculpture, origami, paper doll making, and surface design. These tactile explorations offer an enjoyment of the process as well as wonderful handmade projects. 

The last section shares a variety of approaches to visual journaling. There are instructions for binding your own journal, prompts and ideas for working on your pages, and a variety of exercises using photography and poetry as ways to inspire and inform your journal keeping.  

Also included are a set of gift book plates and a beautiful paper doll designed by the author and printed on perforated cardstock in the back of the book.

Pop on over to Qbookshop and hit the Google Preview button to see more inside Unfurling.

Over at RockPaperInk there is some great info about research:

And now to crafty goodness from around the web...not the spiderweb silly Halloweenies!

Aileen's Musings
Hard to believe but Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Aileen is gearing up by offering you a freebie pumpkin biscotti recipe card and a pumpkin label for you to download and print for your own use.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi creates one special Christmas card using rubber stamps and paint.

Cindy Gimbrone Beads
Cindy and her blue fingers review The Handbook of Metal Clay.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Combine some basic crochet skills with soap collecting for this charity donation idea.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Rather than stashing your mom’s jewelry away to tarnish and gather dust, combine some of your favorite pieces into a M.O.M.s (Memories of Mom) necklace.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi's hand stitched silk top quilt is all finished! Whew!!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how to make a secret window in a glitter decoupaged book with a Fiskars Everywere Punch.