Competition & Sketchbooks – what do you look for?

Magnani Journal

Thank you everyone for your entries – The competition is now closed   – the Winner was Sherrie!

So Last night I was on a Binding Blitz and cut the paper for 7 new sketchbooks, 3 around pocket moleskine size, 3 about 18cm (7″) x 12.5cm (5″) and one 25cm (10″) x 18cm (7″). The papers are varied from arches 88 and bfk rives printmaking paper to saunders waterford and fabriano drawing papers.

I’ve often been told I should sell my journals and sketchbooks but before I do I’m asking all the artists out there to tell me what they look for in a sketchbook. In return I will send one of my hand bound pocket journals to one lucky responder anywhere in the world.

If you aren’t inclined to bind your own, what books do you buy and what draws you to them?

Please excuse my blatant market research but what size books do you like? does the number of pages matter or are you drawn to a good book?

And the big one – what do you pay for your sketchbooks?

Don’t forget One lucky reader will receive a pocket sketcbook from me for answering my questions!

Conditions of comp:

Tell me what you look for in a sketchbook in the comments below – size? Price? Type of paper & cover?

Make sure to leave an email address – I will draw the winner on Sunday 13th December at 8pm Australian eastern daylight time.

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More than not much going on around here!

I was going to start this post with not much craft going on around here but actually there kind of has been a fair bit going on! Not all crafty but craft related!

Progress on R’s toe warmer is going along at a nice rate now it’s getting chilly, it’s just over a foot wide, and R quite happily used it as a belly blanket last night while watching the new Doctor Who.

I decided that the kitchen was boring and drab, and since R and I are eating in there now I thought it needed a bit of a spruce up.

So I hung two of my tim biskup’s on the walls, cleaned the crappy magnetic poetry off the fridge, and made a placemat for on top of the microwave and a pretty pink cover for my oddments shelf. (they match the pink gingham bag bag I made the other day!)

I’ve got a bit of a pink theme going in the kitchen, which is funny because I always thought it’d be red! I saw some pink and cream tins today that I may have to splurge on for flour etc!

The photo shows just the shelf cover and two lovely bunches of flowers I got from R’s Sisters and family for my birthday!

Speaking of birthday’s I have been greatly remiss and not shown you the gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, elegant necklace R. got me for my birthday last week!

He really is a wonderful man with a wonderful family, exceptionally good taste and a beautiful heart and he does put up with more than a few hang-ups, tears and insecurities on my behalf.

Now here are a few things I’m loving;

1. The little birds at http://littlebirds.typepad.com oh. my. goodness! the log sets are completely adorable!
2. Being busy at work, while it is impacting my crafty endeavours, I had nothing to do in the last few months of my old job and I was going insane! now while i may have more than a few internal moments of Oh god it’s all too much for me, I really am loving the challenge.
3. Having four opp shops within lunchtime walking distance of my new work, much cheaper than book shops and fabric shops even if I’m not game to venture into the clothes yet.
4. Inspired by the very clever people at Wardrobe Refashion I joined the melbourne chapter and am very much looking forward to meeting up with other like minded crafty girls!
5. I Autumn-cleaned on the weekend and in honour of this momentous achievement here is an animated gif of my work!

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too darn hot!~

It’s nearly 37 degrees outside~!

Inspiration? like I need more things to make!

Craftzine has offered up some real gems this week.

• howaboutorange has a tutorial for covered thumbtacks – far too cute although my past thumbtack experiments have left a lot to be desired.
• cutoutandkeep has a clever matchbook style needlebook to make
• And not via craftzine but lovely just the same Heather has made some wool flower garlands I can so see these wrapped around gifts!
• Have you checked out keriSmiths blog? not crafty but inspiring.! these are just adorable, and there’s penguins!

Things to do today…

• Mount about a half a dozen hooks in the wall
• Install an inspiration wire a la port2port and swiss miss
• Sew up the bright blue poly pop into curtains for the studio Done!
• finish the moo that is too the left, yes that pen on felt, I’m drafting out facial expressions, and yes it has pins in it, I haven’t sewn it up yet!
• Buy some ‘L’ hooks and finish my tool board.
• Hang my tim biskup prints
• Mop the kitchen floor (ugh!)

It’s been a hell of a week.

In terms of non-craft/art endeavours I quit my job and got a new one, the old boss is well, quite possibly a soiopath, the new work place are wonderful happy clouds of love. And there is a dog named jack.

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Things I love, a wip and a Tutorial!

Happy St Pat’s Day!

So the blanket I mentioned previously has been started. R. is a little put out that it has ‘holes’ in it (I adjusted the pattern to chain one, treble one) and taking this into account and the fact i have to make it a zillion feet long to cover his long legs, I am tagging it R’s toe warmer.

Only another 5 and 3 quarter feet to go! It’s a real stash buster of a project although I wont be surprised it I run out of stash about halfway through!

The bag you see here to the left I created almost two years ago, I also made a tutorial on craftster and I today realised the images had broken so I thought I’d freshen it up and add it here! It’s got it’s own page here ; Pleated Jordy Bag Tutorial

The studio is now clean, it needs decorations though! Most people’s studios I’ve been looking at for inspiration have colour because all their fabric is on display but I share the studio with the living area the fabric and other accoutrements are in another room (which is too dark to have the work areas), so the room is currently a bit beige. R. and I bought a nice chinese paper lamp (seen in the background above) but it dimmed the light too much so it will get to hang else where as decoration but not in it’s original purpose.

I’ve got a pin board full of things I plan to buy from Ikea to aid in the organisation of the other room and the prettifying of this one once I get a few paycheques from the new improved job!

Let’s Finish with some things I am Loving this weekend!

• Betz has a gorgeous tutorial for felt Rabbits! (I so want a clover felting tool)
• Craft Apple makes the most adorable pincushions in tiny bowls! (I want to try to findsome little teacups and try this!)
• And last but not least I love that R. Hijacked my blog isn’t he sweet, I promise the cleaning will only last about oh five minutes – even if you did say if I kept it clean for two weeks you’d take me to Rockpool!

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