Last week, one of my favorite local shops for papercrafting supplies decided to close up shop for good. They had a great reputation, an interesting selection of items not carried by the big-box craft stores, and a regular schedule of how-to classes. The staff was very friendly and helpful, even when they were baffled by my questions and quests to use scrapbooking supplies for non-your-typical-scrapbook projects. I always left there with new ideas and sometimes…
I recently opened my second jar of YES paste. It took me nearly two years (maybe longer) to use up my first jar of paste. A little paste goes a long long way, and it took me a while to learn to love it. I bought my first jar to use in cardmaking to glue decorative paper to the generic white cards I bought in a value pack. Glue stick was inexpensive and easy to…
I am addicted to paper. Some artists “collect” fabric, others yarn. I collect paper. The worst thing that ever happened to my wallet was the day I discovered decorative scrapbooking papers. Put it on sale and it’s like crack for me. I always need more. To be fair, there is so much I can do with it. I glue it to the front cover of my sketchbooks and spiral notebooks. I tape it to empty…
When I start a new sketchbook, I open the front cover and write my name and the date on the first page. Sometimes I’ll write “NEW SKETCHBOOK!” or add a random color. It’s my way of overcoming first-page paranoia, in which the artist obsesses over what to draw on the first page of a new sketchbook and what to do if the drawing “isn’t good enough”. So now, as I open the front cover of…
Early in 2011, I signed up for a series of online workshops offered by Strathmore Paper to promote their Visual Journal line of sketchbooks. The workshops focused on art journaling, something I had not tried previously, using materials I was unfamiliar with. Collage. Gesso. Acrylic paint. Scribbling. Doodling. Writing down private thoughts and then covering them up with another layer of paper or paint. More writing. More doodling. I blogged about a few of the…
