I caved in after lots of inner cravings. I bought “a few” rolls of what is called washi tape in Japanese. It’s really patterned masking tape, and there are all kinds of pretty patterns. Dots, stripes, squares…

Some came in “cakes” with ribbon and topping, so cute you could eat them! All of these were bought from Pretty Tape at Etsy, a seller from the US that I can recommend.

I think there is quite a lot of tape in each roll. These will last me a long time for sure, and the craving is stilled for now. I plan to use them in my Art Journal and art, just for fun and colour.

I couldn’t help but to take a few photos, just to make you all realize how pretty these are… See:

(more…)

Right now I’m really digging the small piles of new stuff that is laying around here. I want to dive in and use them all, as usual, but summer is keeping me outside enjoying the warmth against my skin. Just thought I’d post some photos to remember that I really want to craft something with these somethings. ;-)

Bought at Panduro for my birthday check! YUM! Smilla stickers, a big wooden H for a journal or the wall (?) and some new water colours.

Sweetest Tilde-fabric ever. 2 FQ pretty fabric.

sequins in pink and green (my favorite combo).

(more…)

Continuing with grids, this time more of a Paper Sampler, as suggested for the June crusade. I have only used papers I’m really drawn to right now, so this sampler is really showing “my style” when it comes to papers. Lots of green, pink and yellow. Lots of polka dots and flowers, some letters and some more personal and grungy looking papers.

I cut out small squares 4×4 centimeters (that is 1.5×1.5 inches), and glued them in rows on a painted page.

It’s not a typical Art Journal page for me, but I think this is a fun prompt that we could all do a few times in each journal really. In a few years all of these papers will be used up and my stash filled with other papers. Then this page will be a scrap page of memories. I will look at this page and think back to what pretty papers I enjoyed in the end of 2010…

I will also print the list below and tape it in the journal. In this way I will remember where I got some of the papers and how much of them I had, a few of them are just scraps from the beginning and therefor precious.

Page turned sideways, so you can see all the yummy papers. They are…

1-4. Pink Scrapbook Papers, two dotted and two with flowers.

5. Scrapbook papers in pink and yellow, with a metallic shimmer.
6. Pink paper with dimensional glitter, a birthday present from Christina 2 years ago.
7. Tilde wrapping paper in turquoise with pink roses and birds, bought last month for Panduro birthday check.
8. Sample piece of scrapbook papers, sent to me as a gift.

9. Wallpaper, from a big sampler book.
10. Wallpaper (a favorite, see below) that I got in a swap package from Nancy B a few years ago - more of this kind is on my wish list!
11. Wallpaper - with a brown pattern, on the roll, thrifted and a cheap paper I love using.
12. Pattern from a magazine image of a wallpaper.

13. Dotted yellow and pink scrapbook paper.
14. Striped scrapbook paper that I spraypainted with black dots last summer. Love this!
15. Another scrapbook paper in green that I spray painted with pink big dots. Yum!
16. Chinese lettered paper, from a package I bought from Kelly Kilmer two summers ago.

17. Handwritten vintage notebook paper, found at a flea market here in Sweden once. Fab!
18. Patterned magazine clip from a book catalogue.
19. Bright pink paper saved from a delicious paper bag. Love this colour!
20. Green scrapbook paper with white swirls. Simple but pretty.

21. Notebook paper that is splattered with paint, turned a beautiful pattern. Me like.
22. Old green scrapbook paper with both flowers and grid.
23. Checked pink fabric found on my desk while doing this grid. I think I will do a grid with only fabrics too soon.
24. Baby blue wrapping paper with big white dots - a favorite. Recycled from a gift I got once.

25. Handmade background paper. Charcoal pen swirls on ledger paper, covered with a coat of green acrylic paint.
26. Piece of watercolour paper with crayon marks.
27. White wrapping paper with metallic silver flowers.
28. Blue scrapbook paper with dots. See a dotted pattern in this grid? ;-)

29. Pink scrapbook paper spraypainted through a letter stencil.
30. Book page coated in pink acrylic paint.
31. Plastic drawer paper with a sticky pack, bought recently at IKEA.
32. Blue security pattern from inside an envelope.

33. Brown paper bag, first wrinkled and then gessoed.
34-36. Thin Japanese Origami paper, in the back from Kelly Kilmer. Love this stuff so much!

37. Wallpaper with medallions and stripes, from a thrifted roll.
28. Piece of wrapping paper in orange with both grids, squares and dots!
39. Black magazine piece with white pattern, cut out from a old art magazine.
40. Panduro wrapping paper in pink with a lace like pattern. A roll I got as a Christmas gift from mom.

Check out the June crusade Grid Lock if you haven’t already. That’s where Michelle Ward writes about this exercise;

Or you can do what I call *Me First Journaling* - where you cut and paste clippings from new finds, or favorites from your stash, saving a little bit for yourself in your journal, thereby freeing you to use the rest for something else. Helps to be less pack-ratty :)

Join us, make your own grid and then cruise among the other participants, listed in the side of the crusade page. Thanks!

Are you aware of the therapeutic value of cutting out magazine images? I know some of you already do this regularly. Saving images to a personal imagery archive of clippings (to be used in future diary pages, collages or art journaling) is very calming and always cheers me up.

Recently I have “swiped through” and cleaned out a whole bag of donated interior design magazines, making more breathing room on the shelf (and in my life). I do this by going through them one by one and cutting out everything that looks interesting. I am obsessed with pretty images and photos. I love collecting them, and the piles of paper pile up… fast.

Before I start I always think that I’m going to try to sort it all into piles but that never happens. When one magazine is weeded out the mess around me is taking over everything. There will be paper scraps on the floor and a desk filled with papers in front of me. I guess I go into the flow of it and forget that I am supposed to be organized and thoughtful.

I think of going through a pile of magazines and then putting them in the recycle bin as de-cluttering, thought it really is the opposite, hehe.

The process is now in several stages, I just have to accept that. First 1) Cutting everything I like out and then 2) Sorting through the piles several times and 3) cutting out smaller images more accurate. Finally 4) putting it into flat chocolate boxes or transparent plastic folders for storage. No sorting by category like I once tried. The only sorting is by size and that background images and patterned papers are by themselves.

The Benefits of Magazine Cutting Therapy

* The prettiness of magazine images cheer me up
* The text and headlines occupies my brain and distract negative thoughts
* The cutting calms me down
* The mags themselves were donated by friends, so it is a very cheap therapy
* The fun of it turns me in to the creative flow
* Creative flow makes life easier
* When in flow you forget about time and just enjoy yourself more
* The idea of throwing away old magazines makes me feel free of clutter…
* Clutter clearing is known to be good for the soul, makes us breath deeper!

You see why I love it so much? The flow if like a antidote to depression or tiredness like I’ve mentioned before. To me it is my therapy when I want to Do Something but don’t have any ideas in my head… If you have tried it you know what I’m taking about. This is how you get started:

Sit down with a few magazines that you have read and are not saving. Poor something to drink, I prefer cold coffee. Use small but sharp scissors and start browsing. Cut out everything that speaks to you: pretty patterns, words, quotes, images, illustrations. Tear out whole pages. Make a big pile of yummy images and leave the cleaned magazine in the recycling bin. Enjoy yourself.

What to do with your images? Make a pretty collage in your diary or on a printer paper that you can stick to your wall above your desk. Make postcards, book covers, collage art, file folders, dream boards, experiments… Or just keep them because you like them, sort your images into a small box and enjoy your pretty collection.

And, my dear friends, if there are any yummy images left in your magazines when you decide to part with them, give them to me.

Did you like this? Then save the link to your Delicious Bookmarks and/or share it on Twitter. Thanks!

(more…)

Wonky chickens on my computer. They just wanted to say hi!

In just one day I got four (4!) great packages in the mail! Including postcards, zines, paper goodies and hand written letters! I just have to share it on my blog, because it is soooo good. This is what I call a Really Really Good Mail Day!

In the cool stamped envelope from Jennie Hinchcliff (writer of the book Good Mail Day) I found stickers, ephemera and a small zine that is called Mail Art Zine. It’s awesome and even though it is small it includes lots of mail art inspiration. Just look:

Quote by Robert Filliou, the artist who first proposed “Art’s Birthday” in 1963. He suggested that 1,000,000 years ago, there was no art. But one day, on January 17th to be precise, Art was born. Filliou says it happened when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water… I ♥ photocopied zines!

From Åshild in Norway I got a whole surprise package of “little stuff” that are cool, cute and/or fun! I love everything in it, but a favorite is this postcard that she sewed, inspired by my machine sewing into papers lately!

Mailbox from Åshild to iHanna - just the packaging is awesome, and on the outside was taped down a handwritten letter. And then when I opened it… OMG!

Spread out it is so much papers and beautiful things to play with that we need to have a closer look at some of the goodies she sent me, right?

(more…)

Hehe, it’s a new year! Now is the time to ask everyone:
- What did you get for Christmas this year? If they say “I got this or that” you know how to answer;
- What?!!! This year? But Christmas haven’t even happened yet!
Hehe.

That’s the Repeating Joke in my family, year after year… Nobody is fooled these days - but we all still try. Today I just wanted to show you the stuff I got this yea for Christmas 2009 in images. Here they are:

Polkadot papers wrapped up with string, these are a few of my favorite things…

(more…)

I love both collage and patchwork, maybe the ultimate thing for me will be exploring both these topics together creating mixed media fabric art? So I want some new books on collage and also these, books on fabric art:

Collage Fusion by Alma de la Melena Cox looks yummy! In the preview at amazon I saw this book includes wood burning and fabric, and also using mirrors… don’t ask me how, but it sounds interesting,huh? I also love the images of Connecting Art to Stitch by Sandra Meech. This book sounds like it would be about embroidery, but I suspect it will be more about sketching designs… Maybe. I like both concepts, so I’ve ordered this book together with two other new books on fabric art - I guess that’s where I’m heading a bit more right now.I still love collage, but I want to combine that with fabric art, call it art quilting or mixed media fabric collage or what ever… The books ordered (and I will review them as soon as I read them next year) are Transparency in Textiles by Dawn Thorne and and the above pictured Fabric Art Collage by Rebekah Meier.

And of course I still want to read Ricë’s book Creative Time and Space, so I added that to my order (which is actually the Christmas gift of my parents). I think it’s cool that I “know” some of the artists in books coming out in the US, through blogs, twitter, etc. It’s a small world shrinking.

I’m not sure I should get favorite artist Lynne Perrella’s new book Art Making & Studio Spaces said to Unleash Your Inner Artist with An Intimate Look at 31 Creative Work Spaces, because I know I will be so envious of people’s studios… But when it comes out in I might not be able to resist…

Oh by the way did you know Twyla Tharp has a new book out called The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together! I loved her previous book The Creative Habit, a book I should re-read soon, maybe next year. Her new books looks like something one could really need setting up a creative business and partnering up with someone else.

(more…)

There are so many nice new books out right now! These are just a few I’ve got on my wish list that I thought I’d tell you about. I get inspiration from just looking at these beautiful covers, I bet the inside of these books are great too. I want to stamp and print with Traci Bunkers, make painted papers and create fab mail art all day!

I don’t really need the new book Image Transfer Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson, because I already own another great book on this subject by Karen Michel called The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery (Mixed-Media Techniques for Collage, Altered Books, Artist Journals, and More) that I haven’t written a review about but it’s on my book recommendation page! I never take time to do transfers so I should really practice some of these methods. Sometimes getting a inspirational book will get you creating. It’s like energy infusions, and to me, books are a necessity of life.

On my wish list for Christmas! What books are on your wish list?