Art of a Different Ilk

For me, scrapbooking has waned a bit. I know its just a phase, I can feel my love for it bubbling under the surface, but for the last few weeks I've struggled getting pages done. I am taking a class by Ashley Wren to help jump start things and I'm calm, knowing my love for this art will override my recent dry spell.

In the meantime, for no apparent reason, a variety of other crafts have caught my attention. Here are a few samples of other art that I've been toying with:

First off, I made a set of ATC cards that I created digitally, and installed them in a gum container. I made these little 2.5 x 3 pages at http://www.scrapblog.com/ saved them to my computer and printed them off.

I backed each page with patterned paper and sent this set of family photos to my friend Christine.

If you haven't played with scrapblog yet I highly recommend it. Its easy to learn and oh so fun when you just aren't in the mood to drag out supplies.

Then there is clay buttons! Using Sculpey III or other Fimo products, I have been playing with buttons and have made 300-400 at this point. I even had to start a swap to help clean out some of my inventory! My favorite thing to do is stamp them after they are flattened and then antique them after they come out. I've also used eyelets on them and pieced them into the shape of flowers. Right now I'm toying with the idea of selling bouquets of them on Etsy...I'm just trying to work out the logistics of mailing them as they are somewhat fragile.

I made a boatload of cards...

its weird how influenced by the seasons I am when it comes to color choices. It was very hard to use these "fall" colors in early August!

Then there is good ole fashioned photography, which had suffered in recent months but is now at the forefront thanks to my brand spanking new 55mm lens, a gift from my dear friend Lisa. I can't stop taking photos with it!

Next up are inchies, which I did mention earlier in July on my blog. Hopefully this is a different set than the ones I featured then! I really enjoyed these for a week or two, I liked the less mess and they seem like a great thing to do "on the road" since you only need to bring a punch or two, some scraps, a pen and a sheet of images.

Next up are ATCs. Artist Trading cards are playing card sized works of art that you trade but don't sell. I have made several using musical artists from the past as my primary topic. Gustav Mahler is someone I have been studying lately so he got a whole series. Turns out the man can handle a word as well as a baton!

Then there is http://www.wordle.net/. A great place to play with words. This is a card I made using the site for my friend Debbie. Debbie, the card is in the mail (with inchies enclosed!)

You can type in a quote or a series of words and it will format them for you, with alot of creative control at your fingertips, or you can type in a blog address and it will create word art from the info it finds on the blog.