Postcard Swap 2010

Hanna of the ihanna blog is hosting an international postcard swap and I have already joined. See post here: http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=1047

Each person makes 10 postcards and will receive 10 in return. Sign ups close Feb 7th and sendouts are Feb 14th, so hurry up and get started! I'll be tracking my progress and arriving postcards.

Swap and a break up spread

I am starting signups on craftster today for a 1000 journals type of swap. In this swap we are sending individual pages to our partners in order to avoid flakers keeping entire books of hard work, should there be any. Check us out on the swap sign ups board!

Sending love out to the Sakura company, did you know you can buy their pens according to color?! I complained just the other night how quickly I go through the black glaze and white souffle pens and said how they should sell colors individually- well they do! You can buy them in sets of two, which is pretty amazing (to me).* I found this lovely information here: http://www.shopatron.com/products/category/294.0.1.1.9960.10718.0.0.0?pg=2*


Here's another page that was featured in my first video about journaling the unhappy things. This is about my breakup with my ex fiance: the background is made up of bits of journaling I did on scraps of paper leading up to the breakup then covered in blue acrylic. The "singles ad" is from a quilting magazine and I think it summed me up perfectly. An old photo of the two of us has been distressed with sand paper and stapled onto the page.

I have a boat load of spreads to photograph and if it's dry out tomorrow I will get it done =)

*They don't pay me. But perhaps they should =) I love them.

Additions to the Blog

In addition to the new wintery background, I have also added a slide show feature in the sidebar of photos from my flickr account- Rouge Raven. I am still working the kinks out of the youtube channel feature; every time I try to specify only my channel I get weird videos not made by me. Until I can figure out why it isn't working you can find my channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/RougeRavenDesigns. Subscribe or leave a comment so I can see your videos too- I am always looking for new inspiration!

Skull and winter spreads

You've been starved for too long, I finally made it to the library- 20 minutes early in fact. I am trying out a new blog layout, let me know what you think! I picked it up at Smitten Blog Designs. (Please suffer me, I am learning html slowly.) Here are some pages from both my A Prompt a Day journal and my winter 09/10 journal.

I achieved the ink color by first writing my text with a orange sakura souffle gel pen and allowing it to dry and then very lightly going over the letters with a orange sakura glaze gel pen. I love the color I got from this and I will be using this technique again. It is very important to be light handed with the second layer, otherwise you'll scrap away the first layer of ink- give it plenty of time to dry. The skull is from the mojito paper pack by
the Crafty Chica- Kathy Cano-Murillo . The semi circle is actually a watercolored coffee filter.

This spread was created by squirting paint on the pages and then shutting it. I allowed it to dry over night and then covered it in a thing layer of gesso so that they colors would peek through.

Returning

I know I haven't posted in forever- my wireless is down and I am relying on the library for the time being. The giveaway didn't go as planned but I've learned a lot from it and will approach it differently next time. I will be awarding Tasha with prize because she posted on the contest post and I feel like someone should get it =)

No photos at the moment, I will have to snag them from my laptop but I do have a lot to share.

I'm in a funk at the moment. I don't feel inspired to make things right now, I want to create but I just don't have any ideas and my pages are turning out "blah." I don't know what's going on but I am trying to work through it.

How do you get out of artist's block?