I just got ANOTHER Kreativ Blogger award - which has stunned me completely. This has been some week.
Thank you to Beansieleigh of Beansieleigh Babbles, crochet guru extraordinaire!My head is going to be so swelled soon that there won't be any living with me! I am beyond touched.
The rules with this award are to:1) List 7 things you love.
2) Link back to the person who gave you the award.
3) Pass it along to 7 other bloggers.
7 THINGS I LOVE:- Making books. This is an abiding pleasure, starting from a bare piece of grey board and building it from the ground up. I really get a blast out of it. I have a nasty feeling I said this before, somewhere... It's true, though!
- Riding on the top of a bus. I get some of my best ideas this way, crawling along in a traffic jam, staring out at countryside, shops - or nothing in particular! The mind is in freefall, you can't DO anything - so there's plenty of space for an idea to pop into your head.
- Blogging. Seriously! I never kept any kind of diary for even a week, so I never thought I would keep on posting the way I do. I love all the gadgets and widgets, the posting, the comments, the sense of community and getting to know people... This week I got a Search tag, joined Twitter and now have a chandelier!
- Photoshop. Something I never thought I'd be able to get the hang of, but it's all finally coming together (only had the programme 8 years - and too scared the first 7 to even try to use it!)
- Reading - another abiding pleasure. I read EVERYWHERE - and I mean everywhere. Even when I go food shopping, I take a paperback - always stop for coffee, and out comes the book. Ditto travelling on the tube or train. Not on buses though - too jerky, and I like to just stare out of the window.
- Dining out. One of my favourite things is to have dinner out, in a nice restaurant, and take my time about it. Good food, good conversation, good company. What could be nicer?
- Teaching. Yes, really. When I was at art college, it was all "Those who can do, those who can't... teach." NOT so. In the craft/art/mixed media world I have found myself in, if you can't produce the goods, put up or shut up, you won't last long. And I have found I really enjoy showing someone something new, then seeing their face light up. (Bookbinding especially. Yes, I know... but there really is something very special about holding a book - a thing, a significant object - that You Have Made Yourself). Or maybe it's just that I like the sound of my own voice, lol.
LINK BACK TO THE AWARD-GIVER
Thank you
Beansieleigh!
Icon copyright Beansieleigh7 BLOGGERS I AM GIVING THE AWARD TO (As always, this is the difficult bit)
Zeborah's BlogZeborah Loray creates some wonderful pieces and is very generous with her tips and tutorials. I love her altered bottles, dripped with wax, aged, distressed... she does amazing things with Fantasy Film which I just adore.
FreubelRian Freubel is a fantabulous digital artist, and has some stupendous links and tutorials which she willingly shares. She even shares how she creates her digital art, step by step. Not sure I'd ever be that generous! Originally Dutch, the blog is written in English, so you'll have no problems following along. I love what she does - there's always something new!
The Graphics FairyKaren at the Graphics Fairy (who is also the Background Fairy) has a blog with nothing but freebie images for you to use in your art (and backgrounds for your blog). Which takes a lot of time and effort to track down, scan, enhance etc. So I think she totally deserves an award for selflessly sharing all these lovely images with us, day in, day out.
My Story Art
Sharon House is one of life's great raconteurs, and her blog is one to settle down with and spend TIME reading all her posts. I recommend tea & cake, or your own favourite combination. Sharon has traced the genealogy of her family and posts all the whys and wherefores, twists and turns - how she stuck with it I'll never know! She'd make an ace detective. Add to this her fables and fairy stories...
La La La IllustrationLeanne Ellis is an artist and illustrator whose stylised ladies are adorable. Very few artists are confident to work in just greys and blacks, but Leanne isn't - neither is the result dark or gloomy. Her creations are charming: luminous and full of light, very sweet and very whimsical. You'll therefore be delighted to learn that
Sugar Nellie have made some of her artwork into stamps!
Spark Your Imagination
Debrina Pratt is a mixed media artist with a wonderful sense of colour, who makes lovely assemblages, shadow boxes and dolls etc. She also has some nice freebie vintage photos on her blog, which are available for download, as well as collaged and photoshopped background papers (also free). She does lovely work!
BakerellaAnd now for something completely different, but close to my heart (and stomach). I no longer cook as much as I used to (I lost interest), but oh boy do I enjoy watching other people. And looking at pictures of food. Bakerella has the most wonderful foodie site, devoted to all that is wonderful in the world of cakes, biscuits et al - and the most amazing artistic presentation. How anyone can spoil these creations by eating them.... then again, just let me at them! Now we have a new cooker with a decent sized oven, I might just get into baking again (I used to win prizes for my cake decorating back in The Day). Bakerella posts great how-to photos, so you can see exactly how she achieves those wonderful effects step by step, so go forth and cook up a masterpiece (a batch is even better).
It's been so hard to choose, yet again - so many brilliant blogs out there, and so much wonderful artwork to view.
Written by Mrs Marie Edwards, an Old India Hand (as they used to be called).
For those of you unused to playing around with your images: jpgs are lossy formula (each time you save, you lose a little definition, eg: a photocopy of a photocopy).
