Make Your Own Squirrel

Make Your Own Squirrel

The Art of Pho

The Art of Pho, by Julian Hanshaw

December Horoscopes

December Horoscopes:

This is going to be the last batch of horoscopes for a while — with the Christmas break coming up, and Steal Like An Artist coming out in March, I need to take a break. (I’m sure y’all will do just fine without them.) Thanks, as always, for reading!

Read the year’s worth of horoscopes →

Otras dos que me gustan

Otras dos que me gustan: De David Markson:



"La definición de escritor
de Thomas Mann. Alguien para quien escribir es más difícil que para otra gente".

"Un oficial de la Wehrmacht en el estudio de Picasso
durante la ocupación de París, en referencia a una foto del Guernica:
¿Usted hizo esto?

A lo cual
Picasso: No, lo hizo usted."

DIY - Decoraciones Otoñales / Kirigami Fall Decorations

DIY - Decoraciones Otoñales / Kirigami Fall Decorations:

Ahora ya si se empieza a notar el otoño con estas temperaturas, lluvias ... el olor a castañas asadas, las hojas caídas, etc. Y son esas hojas las protagonistas del DIY de hoy. En Zakka Life os dejan unas plantillas para poder recortar estas hojas tan bonitas y decorativas.

{Fotos y Tutorial: Zakka Life}

Os dicen también cómo doblar el papel para poder conseguir los círculitos. Me parecen tan de temporada, que los veo en paredes, mesas ... ¡en girnaldas! :D

¡Feliz Miércoles Creativo Otoñal!

Snowflake Braided Cube

Snowflake Braided Cube:

A braided (or plaited) cube with any three different seasonal papers makes an attractive ornament. For a silhouette effect use any punches you have or use my cutting file to make a snowflake design. I like how each face of the cube shows a different color combination.

Review the instructions here. I suggest making a plain paper version first to practice the plaiting sequence.

How to make a plaited or braided cube from three papers

Cut 3 strips of paper: 2 strips that are 6 squares long and 1 strip that is 5 squares long. If you are using 12" square scrapbook paper you would have 2" squares.

Or download cutting file PDF or DXF or SVG.

Score between the squares and crease.

Punch the strips as shown, if desired, on the 2nd and 4th square from one end.

Place one 6-square strip vertically on your work surface. Be sure the end with two unpunched squares is at the top. Spread glue on the two unpunched squares.

Place the 5-square strip horizontally at the top of the 6-square strip and glue them together. Glue the second 6-square strip below the 5-square strip.

Start plaiting the cube. As you braid, the punched squares will always be on top of the unpunched squares.

Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: pop up cards, movable and mechanical cards, digital crafts and unusual papercrafts.

How to Steal Like An Artist

How to Steal Like An Artist:

On his blog, Austin Kleon (who I wrote about previously here — he makes newspaper blackout poetry) has posted a talk he gave How to Steal Like An Artist (and 9 other things nobody told me), explaining how his creativity works or a “list of 10 things I wish I’d heard when I was in college.” (First seen here.)

Book Collecting: A Day at a Bookbinder’s

Book Collecting: A Day at a Bookbinder’s:

Last year my friend Cathy gave me this lovely tunnel book by Dominic Riley. It has slits along the sides to let in more light. Click on the images below to see an even larger photo.

Antibooks and Antipoetry

Antibooks and Antipoetry:

My friend Sharon sent me a link to pictures of Francisca Prieto’s The Antibook, described as a “non-conventional book of Nicanor Parra’s ‘AntiPoems’. It is a visual expression of his ‘Anti’ idea–opposing conventions. The essence of the book was analysed and its components abstracted in order to re-define the conventional form of a typical book.”

This kept me busy for an hour, looking up “antipoetry” (defined by Wikipedia “as an art movement that attempts to break away from the normal conventions of poetry… and sought to reject the belief that verse holds any mystical power. The poems have been described as prose-like, irreverent, and illuminating the problems of human existence.”)

The movement was founded by Chiliean poet Nicanor Parra. To get an idea of his poetry, here is one from his book Antipoems: How to Look Better & Feel Great

Stop Racking your brains

nobody reads poetry nowadays

it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad.

See more poems and other writing here.

Wicked Witch in the Book

Wicked Witch in the Book:

Check out these whimsical bookmarks I found recently on Etsy.

Shall We Dance? Making & Designing a Flipbook.

Shall We Dance? Making & Designing a Flipbook.:

In 2005 I started a new flipbook about a girl who is both a ballerina and a hip-hop dancer. My idea was that she would start off as a ballerina doing an adagio, and when she does a pirouette she turns into a hip-hop dancer who shows off her moves before turning back into a ballerina again. I drew rough pictures and made them into a movie but didn’t like the result. A flip book has to work both forward and backward, and I couldn’t make the story work in both directions. (My experience is that about 50% of the people who look at my flipbooks start from the back and the other half start from the front.)

A month or so ago I happened upon the folder with all the drawings, and I took another look at what I’d done. Since 2005, I’ve made an enormous number of the flipbooks I sell in my shop and I’ve honed the production down to an exact science. I realized just by looking at my sketches that if I applied all that experience to the story I’d started, I could make it work. Of course there are a lot of steps, at least for me, before I’m ready for producing the books. First I had to flesh out my story and draw more frames. These need to be scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop. I draw the pictures in black and white and color them after scanning, using Photoshop again. I get a more even color across the frames if I do the coloring digitally. The second picture above is an example of my first sketch and the final cleaned up and colored version. The hands and head were too big on most of my sketches.

I put all the frames in order in layers in Photoshop, all the same size, so I can turn layers off and on to see how things are lining up. I also print out the frames on one sheet of paper, like a condensed film strip, again so I can make sure everything is sized correctly, that the details in the illustrations show up, and the colors are okay. Here’s an example of that:



A flipbook is sort of a movie, but depending on how fast the reader thumbs through the book, it can be slow or fast or smooth or jerky. But to get an idea of how the book would flip in an ideal world, I also make a movie using IMovie. Here’s the book playing forward:

Finally, I’m ready to assemble everything for printing and binding. For that I use InDesign. To make cutting the books easy, I put a grid on the page, then put the same frame in each slot on the page, then repeat for all the frames in the book. Now when I print the pages, the book is collated, and all I need to do is chop it, staple it, and glue on the binding strip at the top. There’s no chopping necessary after the binding, to even up the edges. The page below shows the grid — the blue lines are the cut lines after everything is printed. The paper is letter-size (8-1/2″x11″), grain long (the staple/binding goes on the long edge so the pages flip well). I use fairly heavy text-weight paper (32 lb) — cover stock is too thick to flip well, and thinner paper tends to stick together.

That’s about it. All my flipbooks are are available here. I have other posts on my blog about flipbooks here.

razorbladesalvations:by Adriana

razorbladesalvations:

by Adriana:

razorbladesalvations:

by Adriana