Deco Book

I love deco books! I'm in a Fairies, Gnomes and Elves Deco Round robin in ATC_World and we're almost done!! I'm so excited!! How it works is we each make the book, with however many blank pages as there are players (in this case 9) and the hostess makes a list of players. We each send our book to the next person on the list. They decorate a page according to the theme and send it on to the next person on the list. And so on until the book comes back to you. Our time period is two weeks. I should be getting my book back in a little over a week! I can't wait to see it! After I get it back I'm going to post the pictures of it, as well as all the pictures of the pages I've done in everyone else's book. The next book theme is going to be Alice in Wonderland and I believe we're starting that in January.

Since I liked making the other book so much, I decided to make one in an asian (of course) theme for me to work on bit by bit. I put 24 pages in it. (alot i know) And I've already done the first page in it. A player in one of my inchie swaps sent me a hostess gift of some interesting asian ephemera. Some neat looking pieces from a large rice bag. I thought they'd be perfect to make the covers for my book. (thanks again Helen!!)

Here's the front cover. I used plain paper bag for the background (to match the bag look of the rest of the cover) and cut out the picture from some asian cardstock I had. I then painted some acrylic lacquer over her to make her shiny. You can see the ceramic blue and white beads I used on the binding. Along with a coin-like charm with dragons on it at the bottom.


Here's the inside front cover. The crane pic is from the rice bag over black bazzil lined cardstock. I then coated it all with glossy gel medium.


Here's the back cover. It's the largest picture from the rice bag. I think it's too cool!!


I did the inside back cover just like the inside front. The copper paper on the left hand side is part of the end of the book's binding I put on since I made the front and back separate and not all one piece. Haven't figured out how I'm going to cover that up yet. If I had thought about it before I did it, I would have coated the whole copper colored piece with paper bag. but... too late now. ;) lol!


And here is page 1! I used the pretty inchie doll I made last week and added some cranes flying around her. Very simple and plain. I like it.


I'll post more pics as I work on the book. I have quite a few other swaps I need to be working on including a hundred inchies to make for a SCS swap! Got to get busy!! (I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad I'm laid off for a couple of months! Gives me time to create!!)

Thanks for looking!!
Kary

Inchie Doll

Here is my first attempt at making an inchie doll. It's pretty neat! I can't wait to make more for an inchie doll swap I'm in on the 1x1inchies yahoo group.


hehe... she can even move her arm to cover her face. The arms, elbows and waist are connected with brads (the waist one is covered by the yellow mulberry paper) so that she moves.


Thanks for looking and 'Happy Turkey Day'!!
Kary

Punk Pixie

Here's my latest creation that I can share. I was playing around with the fairy charm. She looked a bit 'naked' so I decided to give her some 'clothes' with my sharpie marker. (hehe) looks pretty cool. Then I gave her some black streaks in her hair like I have, and decided she looked a bit 'punk'. That gave me the idea for the card. I used my gold leafing marker to highlight the black fibers. And the sharpie to color the star brad black. I used black acrylics to paint streaks on the gold around the edge and the gold words.


Thanks for looking!
Kary

New inchie

Well, I finally tried out a technique I've been dying to try. It's an inchie made entirely out of UTEE. I made a mold out of aluminum foil and melted a layer of UTEE in it, then put in little pieces of paper, and added another layer of UTEE on top. I got the technique out of Bernie Berlin's ATC Workshop book. I love the way it turned out! The only problem it figuring out where to sign the back... LOL!


Thanks for looking!
Kary

Well it's been a while since I've posted anything new... I've been working on swaps and deco books that I don't want to post until they've been done. But I have been working on something else interesting. I've taught myself origami. hehe I've tried different times over the years and was never able to do it. Finally! I've been able to!

The first thing I tried was a simple cat and dog face from the book I have. A blue cat for my older daughter and a red dog for the younger. The red dog has been lost (as 4 year olds are very good at doing ;) ) but here's the cat...


The next thing I attempted was a box. this is a rather small one, but I made another out of a 12x12 piece of patterned paper also. I keep them on my craft desk and keep litlle doo-dads in them.


I got up enough nerve and tried the crane... the first one I gave my mom but here's some others that I've made. It's my favorite to make. I love the way they look.







I made this one for my Dad. hehe It's made out of a one dollar bill. (as if you can't tell) This was very difficult because I had to fold the dollar into a square and that made extra layers of paper. Plus the dollar is a thicker paper anyways. Don't believe I'll make another one soon. hehe



Then I started making the rest of the patterns in my book. This one is supposed to be a cicada.




a pencil (obviously lol)


and a samuri hat.



I went through all the ones in the book I wanted to do and needed more... (it's like an addiction) So I started searching the "all knowing" internet and found this adorable little character that's a favorite of both of my daughters... of course, I had to make two. lol He's so cute!


In my boredom, I also experimented with different sizes... the first one started out with the standard 5 7/8" x 5 7/8" orgami paper, the second 2 1/2" x 2 1/2", and the third 7/8" x 7/8". You can see by the 1" lines in the background that the tiny one is about a half of an inch wide! The perfect size for an inchie! Yay! hehe



Well, that's about it for now... I'm going to an all day crop tomorrow (today I guess, it's after midnight... had to stay up to watch Doctor Who again lol!) and have several projects to work on there. I don't know how much of it I can post, they're mostly for swaps, but if I can manage to get some other stuff done, I'll try to post it. :)

Thanks for looking!!
Kary

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Originally uploaded by kynara

Funny girl

More atcs

This one I made last Tuesday. The background is a dictionary page with watered down black acrylic paint. I then used masking tape to give it a old torn look. Painted a bit more watered down black acrylic and lightly brushed silver over it all. Then I put black magic mesh over that. The notes are cut out with my lovely sizzix machine (i love that thing hehe). The treble cleft is a plasic embellishment, and the letters and the piano are metal. I just love this card. I sat down to make some cards to post on ATCards to trade, but ended up making one that I don't know if i'll be able to let go. LOL!


The following are some jester cards I made last nite. I've been wanting to make some more jester cards. I got some jester hat stamps that I've only used once (see my profile pic) and I received some wonderful harlequin style paper and accessories in my 'august wish' from my All4StampSwap yahoo group. (That's where the brads came from) The backgrounds are stamped with white and pumpkin pigment ink on a black background. Then the hats are stamped silver and gold. The jester itself came from a playing card, scanned, shrunk and painted with watercolors. The fibers are some that I got at Hobby Lobby.

Any opinions out there about these?? I'd like some input about them.




Well, thanks for looking... I haven't been posting many atc's lately, it's been rather difficult creating lately, with both kids around I have a hard time focusing. :( It's ok though, school will start soon... hehehe

Laters,
Kary

Stop Blaming MySpace

This is a bulletin going around on MySpace and I thought it was important enought to post here. First, however, I want to point out, that I do have a 14 year old who is on myspace. Her profile is set to private so that only people on her friend list can see it. The only people on her frienld list ARE people that she actually knows, no strangers. Also, her and I had made a deal when she was allowed to get a myspace site, I had to be on her friend list. That way I am able to see her site and know that everything is ok. This is the type of parental responsibility the following is talking about. Not just letting kids go crazy with the computer. I'm sorry if this offends any parents out there, but it's the truth. Just as the person who wrote this says "I don't want to lose MY myspace because a bunch of kids can't behave". If myspace closes, the predators will just find another way to try to get to the kids. The kids will find another way to talk to each other. The solution is not to close down every possible way for kids to communicate with each other (i'd rather my daughter talk to her friends on the computer than tie up the phone line). The solution is to teach the kids to be more responsible. I realize that with teenagers, this can be a very daunting and seemingly impossible task at times. But we just have to be persistant.

"Anybody happen to catch Nightline the other night on ABC? In case you didn't, one of the hot topics discussed was MySpace. It is no secret to anyone who reads the newspaper or watches the 6 o'clock news that MySpace has been in the limelight because of "sexual predators" trying to "abduct and corrupt" the youth of the world. ! I see dozens of profiles a day showing 14 year old girls dressed like sluts, wearing four inches of make up and 32 layers of eyeliner, displaying their age as 18 years old and profile lines stating "Oh, I'm So Sexy" or "Hey There, Wanna Check Up On It?" Come on! The youth of today's world are already corrupt enough due to the undying need to be "older" than they really are. I seriously doubt there are tons of people on MySpace stalking "innocent young girls" who just happen to have tramped up profiles and ages 4 years greater than their own.

On Nightline, there was a story of a 12 year old girl who was a drug-addict and attributed it all to MySpace. She claims that Myspace allowed her to easily find drug dealers in her area, as well as older men to have sex with her. Now, at the age of 14, she has been checked into a drug-rehabilitation clinic and has been away from her family for 5 months. Her parents would rather place the blame squarely on the shoulders of MySpace instead of their daughter, who even admitted that at the age of 12, had already tried weed, crack, X, and had slept with numerous guys older than herself...but of course, it wasn't her fault, it was all because of MySpace.

Once again, COME ON! When are parents and children going to stop passing the blame and grow up enough to take responsibility for their actions and the actions of their children.. Parents: monitor your children online, take some responsibility for YOUR children! Children: if a profile name sounds like something that comes out of a cheap horror movie, like "DARK ANGEL OF DEATH WHO EATS THE BRAINS OF GIRLS"...chances are you DO NOT WANT TO ADD THEM AS A FRIEND. Apparently there is new legislation in Congress now to block MySpace in all public schools and public libraries across the United States. All because little girls want to act like sluts and don't want to accept the consequences of their actions, and parents don't want to accept the fact that their "innocent little girls" are posing as 18 year old crack whores trying to buy drugs.

A 14 year old girl and her mother have filed a law suit against Myspace.com because she was sexually assaulted by another user. She said he lied by saying he was on the high School football team, and THAT gained her trust. Obvisiously if thats all it took to gain her trust, chances are she'll pretty much trust anybody and anyone (not really MySpace's fault). She's suing Myspace.com for $30 million because she believes MySpace has poor security. WHAT A CROCK! Myspace is not a babysitting service, take responsiblity for your own actions!!! What happened to her is a terrible thing and should never happen to anyone, period. Where were her parents? Why are they not held responsible for what their daughter does in their own home? Myspace has many many ways of blocking out/screening people, some are: you have to ACCEPT the person you may or may not know as a friend, as well as DENY people you do or do not know, you can have certain sercurity measures added like making your profile private, or asking for last name and email address, you can block a person, you can only associate with people you ALREADY know or simply you can NOT be on MySpace if you lack common sense.

Eventually, if this continues, MySpace could be totally outlawed from the Internet. Restrictions will be put in place in order to make MySpace "safer". I don't know about you, but I use MySpace to keep in touch with my family and friends, use it for messages, and just to have a space that is my own. Just because some children want to act grown up, does that mean I may have to eventually give up my MySpace? If you feel the same way I do, please, repost this in your blogs or bulletins, or both as "STOP BLAMING MYSPACE". If enough people post this and spread the word, maybe people will get the picture and stop blaming MySpace for every little thing that their children do wrong. As a user of MySpace, we should all repost this and take some sort of action. This is not a chain letter, and nothing will happen to you if you don't repost this in 321654987 seconds. However, of all bulletins you will read today, I am sure that this one is the only one that actually has a point to it."


Thank you for reading this. Repost the quote on your blog if you want. I'll get off my soapbox now ;)
kary

Bunnies

These are pics of the bunnies my step-dad has... started with 2... then here's 3-4 more then a few weeks later... 2 more... needless to say, their separated now hehe I just thought they were too cute!

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Originally uploaded by kynara

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Originally uploaded by kynara

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Originally uploaded by kynara

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New ATCs

I've had some trouble creating lately... I made the first one on saturday, and the second one saturday nite/early sunday morning... I haven't really made anything since then and I'm just now getting around to posting these now. (Lazy me)

This one, I wasn't sure if I would post or not, cause it's kinda personal to me... In case you can't read it, it says "A way to get thru the day... when you feel like the back of your head will explode" I've been getting daily headaches since I was in high school (about 18 years ago). There are days I just have to take something. I know there are people out there with much worse problems than me, and I'm not trying to whine about it. Just wanted to explain my card. I made it to put a little humor in something that's not so humorous.
The image is an image transfer onto packing tape. My mom actually made that. It's funny cause the day before I had gotten the idea for it and had been looking for the perfect picture for this. Plus I wanted to make a mica card with an image transfer in it, but didnt have the gel medium needed for the transfer. It turned out pretty nifty. Her transfer didn't go as well as she had hoped (the back of the head was missing) and she was going to throw it away.. So I asked to have it and voila! My 'headache' card! LOL



This one... well, I went to bed saturday nite, but laid there and laid there and couldn't sleep because I had this idea in my head. My curse is that when I get an idea, I can't sleep or function well till I do it. So I got up and two and a half hours (!!) later, I had the pic. I took an old pic of me and used acrylic paints and some very tiny brushes to paint the jester outfit and white hair on. Then, with that done... I went to bed and passed out. LOL The next day I finished it by putting it on another one of those nifty nifty gold atc-sized pre-cut cards, put a piece of mica over it and set some eyelets in it to secure it all (which btw is what's securing the above card too). I tried different fibers on this one because I didn't like just leaving empty eyelets, but didn't like the way it looked. So I left it 'as is'.


Well, that's about it. If I could just get motivated enough to make something else I'd be fine. I don't know which is worse, staying up all nite cause I have to finish an idea that won't let me sleep, or not having any ideas at all.

Laters,
Kary

Teenager

Teenager
Originally uploaded by kynara

Finally back from Ireland and pigging out on spaghettios and cucumbers! LOL!

fun little doodad...

You Are 85% Tortured Genius

You totally fit the profile of a tortured genius. You're uniquely brilliant - and completely misunderstood. Not like you really want anyone to understand you anyway. You're pretty happy being an island.

Are You a Tortured Genius?

What percentage are you??

Silly puppy! Part 2

Silly puppy! Part 2
Originally uploaded by kynara

She loooves a good car ride

friendly plastic, new cards and 'i'm not worthy' hehe

well... i tried to fix em... better, but still not as happy as i'd like to be. i'm going to try it again with an atc sized card... maybe i'll have better luck.


this one i made tonite... i scattered UTEE over the card to give it the 'rain' look. i'm really happy with the way it turned out.


first let me say... this card isn't mine. (unfortunately lol) i talked my mom into trying atcs... well... of course she passed me up BIG TIME!!! This is one of the bestest cards i've ever seen! i was soo floored when i saw it. she used a dictionary page in the background... added some watered down green then red acrylics... mixed white and brown acrylics to get a nice tan for behind the image... then did an 'image transfer' with a laser image (from 'the altered abbey' where i got my fairy image in my last post) and gel medium. whoa! way cool results! she emailed me this pic and i asked to be able to post it here... i can't wait to see it in person!

well... that's about it for now...

laters,
kary

ugh!!! friendly plastic not being too friendly!

I got some friendly plastic today. I've been looking forward to trying it out for the past couple of months... finally the other day I found a place online that sells it at what I think is a good price... plus they were having free shipping till the end of the month with no minimum order (www.jewelrysupply.com). So I bought a few sticks of it... I'm almost embarassed to post these inchies. But I was hoping someone out there with any experience with friendly plastic could give me some pointers. The one on the left ended up with a big bubble in the middle that I attempted with bad results to pop. LOL! It was just like those cartoons where the more the character tries to get out of the stickiness and just keeps getting worse! I actually started laughing even though I was getting frustrated. The tweezers I used to pop the bubble got stuck... so I tried using my exacto knife to scrape the melted plastic off the tweezers and they got stuck in it too! The more I worked them around to get them unstuck... the more stuck they got!! hehehe I'm thinking maybe if I reheat it... and stick something in there on the spot... it might look ok. (that idea just came to me as I was typing this or I would have done it before I posted them... I'll post the results after I try it. Same with the other one... on it i tried the stamping technique... but it looked too deep, so I reheated it to try to soften the look of the stamp. I think that one... I could reheat and put one of the asian coins I have in it and it might look ok. We'll see...


This card turned out ok... the colors in the picture actually go with the rest of the card (subtle golds, black and some pinks) but it doesn't show up too well in the picture. I also got my order today from 'The Altered Abbey". If you're an artist and haven't checked out Chrysti's store... you should! She has some wonderful things there at a good price! Everything on this card including the picture (on of her collage sheets) came from her store. With the exception of the black fiber (Hobby Lobby) and the lil black swirly wire doodad in the bottom left corner (I made that). The skeleton leaves are really cool! I got some tiny charms (including the moon and the bird on this card) that will be perfect to make inchies with.


I'm not as happy with my results today as I usually am... (with the fairy card... I love the stuff I used... I just think I could have done a better job with them) Today has been kinda hectic and I'm feeling 'not quite right'. The doctor gave me a new medicine yesterday and I think it's drugging me up and blocking some of my creativity. Either that or I'm coming down with something. (bla) Or it could just be that my back's getting the better of me. (SIJ dysfunction, sciatica, and arthritis) I know... whine whine whine... lol! I hate it when people whine. I hate it even more when I whine... so I'll stop now! haha I'll get over it. It's really no big deal, just frustrating. Hopefully tomorrow my creativity will be back to normal. I need to be able to create something that I'm happy with. It's a satisfying feeling. Kinda like when the house is alll clean and neat and you can sit, relax and enjoy it. Not that I feel THAT too often with my house hehehe (Don't look at me like that mom... I know what look you're giving the computer. LOL!) Ok, before I say anything else that may get me a lecture in my comments section from my mother... I'm gonna go, and maybe even go to bed before midnite.

laters,
kary

ps mom, you know i was joking about the lecure thing... (I don't actually think you'd give me one in my comments section.) chuck chuck chuck

More atcs

Yet more asian atc's. I did these collage/decoupage style. The wooden beads I sawed in half so they would lay flat on the card. The two cards are very similar but have a different main dragon picture in them. I saved these in my computer differently and if you click on them they get really big... you can see the detail very well.


Time to go to bed now that these are finished...

Thanks for looking!!

laters,
kary

New ATCs

I went shopping last week with my mom, and got some cooool asian stuff to try out. Here's some of what I've made.

The first three pictures are my first attempt at a folded card. I think it turned out ok. The dragon inside is a clip art pic I got online (I don't remember where now...). I printed it and cut it out with a craft knife (exacto knife, whatever you want to call it lol). The symbol at the top is the 'dragon' symbol, or so it told me online :) (all hail the internet, eh?)

front...
back...
ta-da!!

Here's the next one I made. The vellum fan paper is some paper I got from a fellow yahoo group member for a 'wish thing' we have going on. (All4stampswap) And the background is a gold ATC-sized cardstock I received today as a hostess gift in a swap I'm doing. I haven't fastened the fan paper down all the way yet. I don't have any vellum glue or tape, so I used my glue runner on the part of the vellum that's covered up. Then I'll finish gluing/taping when I get something that won't show through.


This is the next one. And I think my favorite so far. I looove the black and gold paper. The background is another of the ATC-sized cardstock I received. And so is the black and gold paper. The symbol and word are rub-ons. My first attempt at rub-ons. Now I see why my mom like them so much! The knot, I believe, is called a 'good luck' knot. It's not actually mizuhiki cording, it's some waxed cotton cord my daughter had in her 'craft stash'. I may end up having to buy her some more... I think I'm going to make more knots (hehe).


Well, that's all I've made so far with my new stuff. Thanks for looking!! Please sign my guestbook...it took me an hour to get the buttons to look the way they do, then another couple of hours to figure out the right html coding to get them there. LOL! I had a splitting headache from the html coding by the time I was done! But it was well worth it. Also, feel free to leave comments, I now have it set up so that you don't have to be a blogger member to leave comments (didn't realize, before, that it was possible).

Gotta go... need to make some more knots (hehe)

Laters,
Kary

ps... my last two posts (the pics of the moth and the silly puppy) were from my phone. I found out I can send blog pics straight from my phone thanks to flickr.com! too cool! (again... all hail the internet)

Gorgeous moth

Gorgeous moth
Originally uploaded by kynara

Anyone know what type of moth this is? Its huge!! And beautiful!

Silly puppy!

Silly puppy!
Originally uploaded by kynara

Whiz trying to escape the fenced in backyard by jumping in the trashcan I used to block the only remaining exit. Lol!

inchies inchies everywhere!

Here's some more inchies i've made... they really are fun to make! There are a couple of inchie swaps on splitcoaststampers.com... come join us and try em out!!

here are links to the two current swaps right now...
NEW Inchies Swap - ANY THEME! NVR *Due 9/15*
aunt sallys new inchie swap

you may have to be a member to see the swaps i'm not sure. you do have to be a member to join a swap. membership is free. try it out!!








thanks for looking!!
Kary