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That's Better
2007-10-31 03:26:00
No more pink. Instead, it's REALLY REALLY yellow. He he.

Oops.
2007-10-30 23:55:00
I promise I never meant for this blog to end up so...pink. I like pink. I do. I'm just not fond of this current design. I was playing around with my blog templates the other day. I hit "preview" and decided I didn't like the look of this at all and hit "cancel". I thought I cancelled it, anyway. Guess not. Sorry if you now have an eye injury. I will fix everything as soon as I can. Later.

Choosing a Printer
2007-10-27 07:48:00
I see people inquiring about the "best" printer on the Etsy forums on a regular basis. Unfortunately (or not), no one can really tell you which is the best. You need to do the research (or get someone who likes you a tremendous amount to do it for you). Some BIG questions to ask are: - How much money to you want to invest? $100? $10,000? - What are you going to print? Business cards? Greeting cards? Posters? Fine Art Prints? - How much space do you have? Some printers are several feet wide. - How much can you lift? Some printers weigh over 100 pounds. That's plenty of questions for now. If you have more, definitely write them down. That's what I do, or I forget quickly. Where was I? Oh yeah. Research. The first place I went was CNET to look for possible candidates. They had a great deal of information in an easy to understand format. The reviews ended up being a great jumping off point for further reading. Yes. More reading. Buckle up. LOL. My friend Google was a huge hel...
More About: Printer

It's Been Too Many Days
2007-10-23 23:31:00
I have been very busy creating and not blogging. Sorry! My Etsy shop has been stocked with a few new pieces including this one. I'm excited to finally be up to 15 pieces! I can also see I have a long way to go. This is the first work I have done on the new Ampersand Deep Cradled Hardbords. "Hippo" measures 8x10 and is acrylic and ink. The giclee prints I have made from it are once inch smaller on all sides to allow for a boarder. I'll let you know when I post the original for sale in a day or two. In other news, I am currently on the front page of Etsy! Woot! I have a screen shot, but I'll spare you. lol Okay, I have a super huge pile of laundry to do and a shower to take and a house to clean up. Oops and I need to make dinner. My darling husband will be home in an hour. Anyone want to guess how much I will accomplish before he gets here?
More About: Days

A New Way to See the Halloween Witch
2007-10-17 17:40:00
I read this the other day and it struck a chord with me. I decided to post it here in order to share it with more people. I'm not Wiccan or Christian, but I do love the diversity of perspectives on this planet. Here's the original source at Bella Online "The Halloween Witch Each year they parade her about ... the traditional Halloween witch.Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose. Gnarled, knobby fingers twisted into a claw, protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, or merely a Halloween caricature.I disagree. I believe this to be how witches were really seen.Consider that most witches: were women, were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness, to be presented by the light of day as a confessed witch.Few, if any, saw a frightened, normal looking woman being dragged into...
More About: Ween , Allo

Popularity
2007-10-15 20:39:00
I ended up having to order paper from out of state. There isn't a sheet of cotton rag for inkjet printers with my name on it in the entire Twin Cities. Hard to fathom, but unfortunately true. In the meantime, it's waiting time again. Always awesome for business. lol This piece is currently my most popular. It's called "Giraffe" and it's an 8x10 print with a 7x9 image on it. The original is acrylic painting with an ink drawing on board. I have run out of this print until I get more paper.  In the meantime, I'm getting everything ready for printing.
More About: Popularity , Pula

Sea Turtle
2007-10-14 21:39:00
I have been working away scanning all of my artwork and cleaning it up for printing. I decided to try a small copyright in the upper right corner in my web display images. So far, it's not bothering me, so I think I'm going to stick with it. My new 17" Epson Professional printer has been getting multiple test runs along with all of the other new gagets (the scanner and color profile thingy). I will post further on the products I chose and why and how well they perform at a later date. Right now, my husband and I are focusing on getting everything up and running with the most perfect print output possible. Tomorrow's task will be sending back the new Somerset velvet I ordered and running to a local printing place to find something more suitable. I'd order on the internet, but I want that paper right away and don't feel like waiting another week to fill my little shop. For those that aren't aware, never ever buy a paper that isn't coated unless you want fuzzy (crazymaki...
More About: Turtle

Tags Revision
2007-10-09 22:24:00
As usual, I decided that my original attempt wasn't good enough. Black and white is a bit too harsh for my shop. This time, I went for five different colors:
More About: Tags , Revision

Tags
2007-10-09 06:26:00
I spent most of this evening putting together thank you tags for my packages (okay- and watching HGTV). Up until this point, I've been writing them all by hand, but I can see where that just can't go on. Plus, I'd like something just a bit more professional. I will still be writing a note on the back. Everyone likes a nice note. Unless they are made of stone. These are 2x3.5 inches. I tried several permutations. Nothing looked right except a nice rectangle. I have a sneaking suspicion I might like those Moo cards. Something about a rectangle. Paper money is rectangular. I like that a lot. Perhaps that's the connection.
More About: Tags

Craftster Swap
2007-10-05 04:47:00
My swap partner finally received her package, so now I can share without spoiling the surprise. Hooray! Something to blog about! The theme was Tea Time, Most people send teacups and beautifully embroidered tea towels and such. I didn't feel like sending a teapot and a cozy. I also wanted to include only items that I made myself (except the tea, because growing tea is a bit much for me). Since I have two book arts classes under my belt from college, I decided on a book, a box and two bookmarks. Don't you immediately think of bookmarks when hearing the word "tea"? The blue box is a portfolio that I filled up with Good Earth tea. The inside is lined with paper that I marbled at Open Book. To make it fit into the theme a bit better, I painted little yellow teacups down one side.  The small yellow book is a simple accordian book. I painted one litle red teacup on the front. The bookmarks are black mat board painted on the front and back, but only one side is illustrat...
More About: Swap

Eating Well
2007-10-02 17:33:00
I have decided to devote more time and attention to our diet here in the Standing home. I really feel it's necessary to eat as many vegetables and whole grains as possible and add fruits,proteins (chicken, tofu, nuts,etc) to round out meals. We have a stack of cookbooks. Some of them,like The Whole Foods Market Cookbook (Sonoma Chicken Salad mmmmmm) are really great. We also have several books on eating raw and the Macrobiotic diet. I found them fascinating and quite useful- albeit a bit too extreme for my tastes. Trying to keep everyone happy is key (and challenging). It's a tall order, but certainly attainable. I'd like to have the meals sorted by the time my new printer arrives and the shop gets updated. Ha. Totally kidding. It will probably take weeks. Hopefully, we can stay away from McDonald's in the meantime.
More About: Eating , Well

Trade Secrets
2007-09-27 00:17:00
I'm super excited because my first batch of Ampersand Deep Cradled Hardbord surfaces arrived. They are perfect and I can't wait to use them for my original works. I usually work on illustration board, but it's not very good for display. It curls when painted on and needs to be mounted and matted and framed. Too much nonsense for me. I like the simplicity of having art ready to hang right away. I know sharing supplies and sources is generally a no-no in this competitive world, but I had to share. I don't mind if you plan to steal that idea. It's a good one. Now, I am just waiting on my new printer and I will be quite content.:)
More About: Trade , Secrets

I Heart Tea
2007-09-23 22:11:00
I joined a craft swap with a tea theme over at Craftster. It's my first swap and I'm getting excited to get going on my projects. I need to make a trip to JoAnn's for a few things crafty. I'll also be including a few things arty. Well, at least one thing. This piece was something I was working on while contemplating joining the swap. It's acrylic and ink on board. 7x9 inches. Speaking of tea, I'm low on caffeine. Need to make another cup.
More About: I heart , Heart

Tortise Redoux
2007-09-19 23:33:00
Here's my second version of that tortise/turtle/whatevah that I posted yesterday. I like this one much better. I know that I use a lot of blue in my work. It's an addiction. An addiction to blue paint. 7.5x6 inches. Acrylic and ink on board.

Tortise
2007-09-18 21:46:00
I've been reading a lot recently on the debate over whether or not to watermark web images. One party says you should and it shows you care about your work (uh...okay- I'd venture to guess most all artists care). The other side says that your image will be stolen anyway and the waterwarks often look terrible. I can say that I've seen a few instances where the watermark didn't destroy the work. I'm still on the fence. If anyone is going to steal my images, they will only get a lossy 72 DPI jpeg not not anywhere near the original quality. Plus there's that bad karma for thieving... This tortise is about 7.5x6 inches. Acrylic and ink on board. Also, now that I'm seeing it on my blog, I'm not entirely sure it's done. That figures. Ha. UPDATE- I completely wiped out all that crap in the backgound. Too much stuff going on (even for me). Right now, I have a cute little turtle (tortise??) floating in negative space. I'll post the new image as soon as I can.

On the Hunt
2007-09-18 04:12:00
I am deep into some professional printer research over here. Currently, anything I have made into prints gets sent to me from New York. No big deal, except I live in Minnesota. I think I may have spotted the perfect specimen, but I'm not going to jump the gun and gush until I have more information. I AM finding that pretty much anything under $2K has issues. Thank goodness for tax deductions. Yikes.
More About: Hunt

Hare
2007-09-14 23:43:00
I'm not quite done with the tortise yet. Maybe tomorrow. This one is acrylic and ink on board. 9x7 inches. I applied to and got accepted on Trunkt! Woo hoo! The site is absolutely full of very talented artisans. Go and take a look.