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Showing posts from November, 2012

It's an Omen!

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For those of you who are fans of Douglas Adams ' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , you will know why I am seeing an omen here... :) Thank you again to all of you for supporting me in my little venture. Here's to making it a bigger venture! *Clink!*

My Shop is Live

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If you look at the bottom of my header, you'll see a few tabs, one of which says Shop. If you click on it, you will find that you can now purchase my Basic Folded Book Tutorial directly from this blog. The best part about it is that after purchase, you have it delivered automatically via the magic robots that do that sort of thing. This is only the first item to go in the shop. I will be adding the Alphabet and Number pattern sets soon. When the lowercase letter pattern set is ready, it will be launched exclusively from this new shop. BTW, I will be combining it with my uppercase alphabet set and selling it at a major discount for those who've already purchased the uppercase set. Yay! I'm still keeping my Etsy shop for a while, but really think this is going to be better, both for me and for my fellow folders. Who doesn't want to get their product right after they order it? Sheesh! That's the biggest concern I have right now - people having to wait for me

On the Rocks

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 A couple of weeks ago, I was working feverishly on my lowercase alphabet pattern set. Then, I came down with the worst cold I've had in years. I had to miss a few days of work (in a ROW!!!) and felt like doing nothing more than sitting and staring at a wall. I've mended now, but the fever for folding books has been tempered a bit. I am impatient to finish the pattern set, but am still a bit torpid. I still just want to sit and do quiet things. I believe one of my struggles in life is to overcome the need to DO DO DO DO DO all the time. I had a dream once where a person asked me "When are you going to stop?" I looked at the dream person like they were crazy. But since I keep remembering that dream, it is most likely a message to me. (eek!) Enough about philosophizing. I love this spider webby-looking rock. Spiral stitch, made up as I went.

New Shop in the Works

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I've got such good news! Two things: 1) Rhymes With Magic Art is on Facebook . Please go take a look! I will be posting my art and my art thoughts (such as they are...) on a quickie basis. It's all good. And... 2) I'm in the process of starting up a new shop . This shop will be linked from my blog and one will be able to purchase my downloadable tutorials and pattern sets and get them with NO waiting! Right now, the way it is with Etsy, a person has to wait for me to get their email and then I send the file. Ugh. So old-fashioned. With this new shop, the download is instant and I REALLY look forward to that. I'm a little nervous, too. Yikes!

Little Letters

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Look what is coming soon!

Hearts and Love

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A special order for a customer... I am sick right now. It's been several years since I last had a cold, but this one's got me knocked for a loop. I can't taste any of my food. What is there to live for? :)

Moody Paintings

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This painting was done a couple three years ago. I began to try recognizable things - landscapes in this case. I was still copying my teacher at this point, using the micron pen to divide up my painting. It kinda reminds me of looking out a window. Or through wires. I love how the "trees" seem to evaporate into the sky. It is important to note that my edges are dirty on this piece. I did have masking tape on it, trying to keep it even, but failed utterly. You can see that I have totally abandoned the "keep the edges nice and neat" thing. Someday art historians will look back at this and say I was in a confused period and my art echoed the chaos in my life. Baloney, really, but I like how it looks.

My College Watercolors

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I finally found my stride in my art major about four months before my BFA project was due. Before this time, I was still struggling to find my art voice. I actually dislike that term, but I don't know any other way to describe the thing that happens when you stop copying others' work so obviously and begin to timidly step out onto your own road. I had a teacher I really admired who did little watercolors. They were the most beautiful things to me. He tore his watercolor paper (the large sheets) into 16 smaller sheets - all about 6x8 in. big.  He drew with his micron pen and then watercolored over it in beautiful abstract washes. I was mesmerized. I thought it was magic and I wanted to paint magic, too. I honestly don't know how I found this style of painting. I think I started out by tearing my paper really small - 4x6 inches (half the size of my teacher's stuff - I was dainty and feminine!). I then taped out a rectangle and drew a few lines to delineate areas

Honeycomb Book - Tutorial

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♥THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR HELPING MY SISTER ♥ A while ago, a person showed me a really pretty picture of a book whose pages looked like honeycomb and asked me how it was done. It reminds me of those decorations of the 70's - did anybody else have those at their parties? They were the height o' haute. I kept the email in my inbox because I promised her I'd show her how it was done. Here's my take on a honeycomb book: Supplies: You need an old book, glue and a pencil. I also used a colored pencil but you don't have to. Use a page to fold in quarters (see marks 1, 2 and 3). Using your folded paper as a guide, make marks in pencil where your folds are. Using your marks as a guide, draw lines down across the fore edge of your book using a ruler or a piece of cardstock to make them nice and straight. THE TOP AND BOTTOM EDGES COUNT AS A MARK. If they aren't perfectly straight, that's not really a problem. Approximate is good enough.I

My Sister is Stuck in Sandy Aftermath - Please Help!

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My beautiful sister, April, is in Mendham, New Jersey. She was the other half of Rhymes With Magic until we separated the word jewelry from the book art. Now she is on her own at anythinggoesbeads.etsy.com , selling my word jewelry and her own creations (both of words and other beaded designs.) They are beautiful... This past week Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy left its mark on the East Coast. It left its mark on my sister, the family she lives with and her community. Here is an excerpt from her email to me this morning: The news is correct, there is a limited supply of gasoline and food. Pres Obama was here for a quick visit, under a few hours, then was off to continue campaigning in Las Vegas.  Everyone is grumbling about that, because he came cause he had to, but did not do anything.  They announced tonight that starting Saturday morning, you can get gas depending on your license plate. If your plate ends with an "even" number, you are allowed gas on "e

Heather

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Last year I decided to take part in a Pay it Forward type of thing which is due to be completed this year. I decided to make ornaments for all of my PIF friends. This ornament is one of those empty glass ones you can get at Michaels. I tried out several different fillers - flowers, beach finds, shells, broken glass (looks like diamonds), and curled book pages. This particular ornament is filled with dry heather. For me.