malinmaskros

I´m trying to get my hands on a set of Prismacolor coloured pencils, without it costing a fortune. Not easy here in Sweden, let me tell you. I found some for a great price on Amazon, but they wouldn´t ship them to me. Now I´m trying Dick Blick - I hope they won´t charge too much for shipping...

I´ve began working on my pages for the Itty Bitty Summer book, and so far so good. But I´m doing these all collage, and I don´t know how much I need to collage them - I don´t want to glue an image to cardstock and be done with it, but it´s hard to find images that work together, without making it too cluttered.


This is how they look so far. I think that maybe I need to add some more elements to them?

Today I mailed off 5 envelopes with chunkies and ATCs - I hope the recepients will be happy! And yesterday I sent off the first batch of chunky PAT pages, I´ll give the last set of pages two more days, and then I´ll send the remaining ones.

I had a wonderful mail day today - only fun things! I recieved my returns from the Cupcakes swap, a contribution for the Tea Party chunky swap, and bigger binder rings (thank you, AnitaM!). The rings were perfect for my Marie Antoinette book - now I can add more pages!

I have a problem uploading photos to my computer - suddenly it doesn´t work. But I managed to snatch one photo, of my pretty super girl:



I got the camera uploader to stay open long enough to copy my photos to a computer document, so you can see my latest chunky as well, a Parisian pretty girl:



I do like them both, I was very inspired by Suzi Blu, and tried my hardest to do layers and as mixed media as I could. What I really would like, though, are some acrylic paints and gesso, I´ll try to find some tomorrow when I get payed. Hopefully. 

I´ve mentioned Suzi Blu before, when I joined the Pretty Girls swap. Then I never looked at any of her videos (could be explained by the lack of computer), but now I have, and they are wonderful. She´s possibly the quirkiest person I´ve ever seen (which is a good thing), and her art, and to see how she makes it - well, it´s just amazing. She has a blog, and a ning group, and lots of other fun and creative things going on as well, you can start by going to her blog, and click your way from there. flickr is also a good place to look!

   

Despite the fact that I´ve been glued in front of my computer all day, I have actually painted some as well! One atc, Flower Marie, and one Pretty Girl chunky page, Pippi Longstocking. They both are for trades.

 

Today I finally got the PAT pages I´ve been waiting for from jonquil, along with her Tea Party pages. And since all of my Maries are here, you get to see them as well! Don´t swoon over the gorgeaus pages, now!

I´ve spent a couple of hours assembling my Marie Antoinette swap pages, and I´m not sure how I feel about the result. I was so sure that the ribbon I found would look so perfect, but now I think it almost ruins my pages. And the backs seemed like such a good idea, with the recipe for the Princess Cake she´s wearing in her hair, but I´m not sure I like how it looks. I´ll give the pages time to dry, and the ribbon might need some ironing to lay flat, and then I can see how it really ended up looking. But for now, the big feeling is disappointment...

 


ETA: I decided that I didn´t like the ribbon on the pages at all, it totally destroyed them, I think. So I cut it off... I think I´ll add some lace, or a beaded fringe instead. I wish I had realized this after the first page, not after making all 19...

Something that makes me happier, is that three gorgeaus Marie Antoinette pages are on their way to me! And bigger binder rings - my book has outgrown the ones I have.

Oh, and I do like the gold polkadots I added to the fronts!

I´ve been as busy as a bee this weekend, and the Marie A. pages are almost finished - all of them are painted (including a gazillion gold polkadots that are currently drying), I´ve printed out the backs, added a coat of paint and cut them out. I just have to figure out how to add my info, and then sandwich the pages - front, back and a ribbon in between, and they are done. Unless more than two more people sign up to the swap - then I have to make more pages. But it looks good so far (knock on wood!)!

Then, I have an ATC, two pretty girls chunkies and 8 tea chunkies to finish, before it´s time to do the pages for the itty bitty summer book!

I´ve been waiting for the last Marie Antoinette page to arrive (from the chunky PAT), before I punched holes and added them to my Marie A. book, but this morning I did it anyway. My book sure looks amazing, very fat and very chunky. Actually, it´s a bit too fat - my binder rings are too small... I´m searching for bigger binder rings on AFA, because I hope to add about 15 pages or so to my book... It will be even fatter, and more amazing! My other option is to make two smaller books - yes, it would work, but wouldn´t be as much fun...

 


And speaking of chunky Marie - I´ve painted 7 pages so far, only 13 to go!

I´ve painted three out of 20 Marie pages, and started on a few. They are turning out rather nice, I think, even though she looks more like Marge Antoinette... Of course I need to add a back and some embellishing, but it does like I´ll finish the pages in good time before the due date.


Oh, can you see that I´ve joined a photo editing site? My favourite part is the cropping - now can I make chunky photos without the ugly edges on the sides. I also brightened the photo a bit, much needed, because of the lack of light here at the moment.

I´m also going to join the Itty Bitty Book Club (of course I couldn´t resist!). It´s $2 a month, and I think it´s so worth it. Sad part - I´ve missed several giveaways of itty bitty books... Good part - I´m doing a tea swap with follow your bliss from the book club.

I´m so tired, I´ll head back into bed in a while. Later I´ll finish the Marie pages, and I really hope for a big mail day - I´m waiting for two sets of pages for the chunky PAT (which was due yesterday), pages for the Tea Party chunky swap, and lots of Marie Antoinette pages should be here as well - some of them I´ve been waiting for for quite a while. I am one of the most patient persons out there, but now I want my pages!!!!

I´m home sick since a couple of days, and apparantly that works wonders to spark the creativity... I´m doing the pages for the Marie Antoinette 4x4 swap on Marie Antoinette Mail Art, so far we are 16 participants, but I´m making 20 pages, in case more people want to do it - there´s about two weeks left to sign up. Since I don´t do any computer based art, and don´t have a printer, I´m tracing all pages by hand. Let me tell you - there are lots of pages! I see a silver lining though - the swap could be bigger - some of these swaps have 40-50 participants. Meaning that you do 40-50 pages... And even if you print the base of your page, you still have to do some assemblage and embellishing. A lot of work! I´m painting a Marie portrait with a bit whimsy to it - she´s got a cake in her hair, and you can see her hand sneaking up there for a taste of the cake. I did a Swedish Prinsesstårta (Princess cake), because it looks pretty, and the name is appropriately regal too. And then my plan is to have the recipe on the backs, so everyone can make Prinsesstårta. Oh, and then I have the most fantastic ribbon (do you still call it ribbon when it´s 3-4" wide?) in pale blue and yellow/gold, which I hope will look perfect on the pages!

I´ve done a chunky for a 1/1 trade, she´s supposed to be a "pretty girl" version of Amèlie from Montmartre, but looks a bit too mopy to be a pretty girl...



And then, for a change, an ATC. I really wanted to trade for a Wolverine card on AFA, so I had to bite the bullet. Since I can´t do wolves to save my lige (which was the other option), it became a mermaid: