HOW TO USE PUNCHES

Blade Rubber Stamps has just published my article on "How to Use Punches" on their website.


Shelf liner
copyright Susie Jefferson








There are three projects included, so I hope you'll take a look - including the shelf liner, above.

I hope you'll find this a useful resource - it'll probably tell you more about punch art than you ever knew you needed to know!

There is also a troubleshooting section for jammed punches, blunt punches etc. If you have a tip not included in the article, please do email me!

MORE SNOW PICTURES

Well, I just couldn't resist!

I actually wrapped up specially and went out to take more pictures of the snow. I managed to get my husband to take a couple of shots of me - in between dodging snowballs (he's 58 going on 7) and although he thinks I'm mad (that's a given, LOL) he graciously obliged. (I hope you're wildly impressed by my hand-knitted scarf - 5 balls of wool - as it's the first thing I've knitted in over 40 years. The last item was a sweater for my Sindy doll).

So here's a little gallery of more Snow Day pix all (not so boring as wading through one by one, if this isn't your thing).

I'm enchanted by it all - I was brought up in the tropics so Proper Snow - as opposed to a light scattering, is still a novelty to me.

I was an Army brat: Singapore at 6 months, then Kuala Lumpur, Port Dixon, Singapore again... then back to the UK aged 4 for 9 months, then Paris, and Singapore again... back to Blightly at age 11. The first time I ever saw snow was aged 4; we were in Brighton on the south coast, and demanded to be taken out to see it - it was swirly down, virtually a blizzard - so after having been bundled up in every wrapping known to man, my long-suffering mother took me out... only to have me scream to go indoors again 30 seconds later. I think I somehow thought it wouldn't be cold...

SNOW DAY!

It's a given, snow just doesn't happen in London - so naturally everything has ground to a standstill: no planes, trains or automobiles as per the title of the film.




Image copyright Tack-O-Rama

I've cancelled my appointments, battened down the hatches and I'm IN for the duration... but oh, it's so pretty! Here's the view from our windows this morning (9.00am).


View from the bedroom window (front of the block)









































Views from the living room window (at the back) into the gardens below - even the neighbour's garden table opposite (sheltered under that huge umbrella) has snow on it!















I'd reckon we have at least 4 inches of snow!

Just think, in Canada, Scandanavia, Norway - even the north of England, it's business as normal (in Scarborough, North Yorkshire - where my husband comes from, they have the grit wagons out at the first signs of snowfall) but here in London it's so unexpected that everything travel-wise has collapsed!

It's still snowing as I write this blog (10.28am) and we have a Severe Weather Warning - blizzards! I don't think there's been a blizzard in London since the Old Master paintings of people skating on the River Thames back in Elizabethan times:


Oil by Hendrick Avercamp 1585-1634

BLADE RUBBER BLOG LINK

OOPS!

Album copyright Susie Jefferson






I put the wrong link on my groups email re the Valentine's Countdown project for a Japanese stab-bound album: you need to go to the BLADE RUBBER BLOG.

You'll see the full project details there.

Sorry about that - it's what happens when you cut&paste in a hurry! Then you hit the Send button and it's gone before you can do anything about it.

THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE

Here's the most wonderful little video link I found on the web, for all you book lovers:

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

If you loved this, you'll love the item on Su Blackwell I posted earlier on the blog:

Aren't there some wonderfully talented people out there!

As you know, I love altered books and making altered books. I feel absolutely inspired to have a go at some trees. And Spring is coming, after all...

PLEA FOR HELP: PHOTO STORAGE

Here's a question for all of you altered art & photography fans out there.


How do YOU store all those digital photos?




Copyright-free photo from Tack-O-Rama

As you will know if you read my computer rants on the blog, I have had a few crashes and had to install a new hard drive. Luckily, I had done sporadic backups and so have around 20-30 CDs full of pix - many of them duplicates. And an external hard drive, which I did a backup onto - and the next backup started to copy the identical information again!

So I need to do 2 things:

1. Configure/organise/instruct the external hard drive just to backup the new stuff or changed stuff (not recopy all the old stuff already on there, especially my huge music section).
2. Totally revamp/reorganise all those photographs, so I can get rid of all these CDs and actually find what I need.

My problem is this: my old web is written in MS Front Page - I loved it; it has an autothumbnail capability. Unfortunately MS no longer support it, so neither does my web server - so I have to completely rewrite the entire website. I bought Serif's new package - which doesn't do autothumbnails (waaaah!) so I am now saving my pictures in 3 sizes (original 300dpi, 72dp for the web and also thumbnails) and even more versions of the same pic if cropping for closeups or alter for digital scrapbook/journal/altered book pages.

It's all become a nightmare, totally out of control, and I want to organise it all once and for all, before the situation snowballs even further.

So if anyone has a solution, I would LOVE to hear it!

HELP!

DIGITAL VALENTINE

And here's one I made earlier...















Here's an idea: if you are really stuck for a Valentine, or want to do a quick ATC etc, think about reworking some of your old journal pages: scan them, cut out portions and use them to make new artwork. Teehsa Moore does this to great effect, and if it's good enough for her etc...

Isolate the portion of image you want to use and crop it - then either rework it back into another piece, or print it off and collage/decoupage it, or even just mount onto contrast card and use as a topper for a card.

Here's the original journal page which says:
Young love or old love, live long and laugh often.















I wanted the page to illustrate my feelings that true love lasts forever, doesn't matter what age you are. I love to see older couples together, affectionate, joking, just comfortable... Your Other Half in fact: your soul mate, best friend, the one you can't wait to see and talk to at the end of a long day.

You should be able to do this with any graphics programme:

• If you want to print the image, set to 300dpi for the best reproduction (although as this is meant to be distressed/distorted, you could probably get away with a lower resolution. If it's for the web only, then 72dpi is fine).
• Crop the image (I included the printed twill and photocorners).
• Next, posterise it (play around with the levels until you are happy - mine was around 6%)
• Sharpen the image (and if this doesn't give you the effect you want, use the Unsharp facility, which should be in the same tools section)
• Print off (set the image size to 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches for an ATC or topper - if it's for a card, set to whatever you like!)

I'm 56 now, and my husband is 58 - second marriage for both of us - and we've been together a total of 15 years and had our 10th wedding anniversary last November. (We got married Friday 13th, his birthday is on the 13th, mine on the 31st of the same month... spooky!) And there still isn't anyone else I'd rather spend my time with.

Aaah, Love