Sunday, May 31, 2009

Things your dog should not eat

"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet." ~Edith Wharton

I saw a great poster the other day at the vet's all about what your dog should NOT eat. But I can't find one online. So I poked around and compiled my own. Nothing was copyrighted, so feel free to copy the 3 pages and keep them around for your reference. I'm always arguing with my brother in law about what Maggie Mae (shown above) should and should NOT eat. His favourite line is "well it probably won't kill her." That's just not the risk I'm willing to take. Plus, even if it 'only' makes her vomit and poo everywhere, do I really want to deal with that? Noooooo....

If you would like the pdf copy of this listing, please let me know and I'll forward it to you.




Tuesday, May 26, 2009

for Janice...

Janice

I hope this will show the difference. I scanned in a part of a recent painting to show you the difference in scan quality. Perhaps the web will negate the difference and I'll have to bring the files on a stick... We'll see!

The second picture is the larger file size and larger dimension and will print out a higher quality larger print. However, the first is a great space saver on your External Drive, and will be fine for most things you are planning to do with your photos.

4x6, 300 dpi, dimension of 1200 x 1800, file size 1.5MB, print out at 4x6


4x6, 300 dpi, dimension of 2400x3600, file size 5MB, print out at 8x10

Monday, May 25, 2009

Hello Birdie!

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." ~Maya Angelou


I had so much fun making these little gift cards! There is a mango coloured set as well. The little bird is from Hero Arts - Hello Birdie stamp set, and the ribbon is a Target special. My sister is always buying small packs of cards and ribbon for me to use (since I don't live in the US and therefore am precluded from the fabulousness of Target). The cards she bought for me last time had an embossed V and an embossed D on them. Not so useful unless your name is Deloris or Vivienne. Until I cut them down and made these little gift cards. Now they are uber useful. I just posted them on etsy this morning. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get around to posting the tags I made out of the leftover... oooh how much fun!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Family

"Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts."


I did this little canvas up for my Mum for Mother's Day (shhh, don't tell her yet - we're heading up to RD tomorrow, so she'll get it on Sunday). It was a lot of fun to make too! I have the Silhouette die cutting machine, and this text block is one of the designs. I didn't realize it until I had cut it out, but after cutting it out on the machine, I would have to reposition everything back into the square block. hmmmm.... I had a few spacing issues, but I think it looks pretty good. I sealed it all with Mod Podge, and then a satin sealant. It made it all crackley, which was quite neat, so I did it again, and swept some excess butterscotch die over it as well, just to seep into the cracks. I found ribbon in my 'I will never use this' pile (what do I know, eh?) and it matched perfectly! I glued it to the sides and left a generous amount to tie a lovely bow at the top. Presto! Graphic Art for the Office. Hope she likes it. I posted the photos on my etsy site too, and maybe someone else will want to have one for their office (or home).

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Tree

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.


I just posted this little guy (he's 2" by 2" by 1/2") on my Etsy site. I'm a little anxious posting the new art I've been doing, since I'm not a 'trained' artist. I feel a little fake on the credentials side (since I have none!). But I love the acrylics I have - I've not used oils or watercolours and I'm not sure if I ever will. Acrylics are so much fun! And there is the added bonus of being able to have alcohol inks react with the wet paint, and the dyes that soak into the paint, and then the choice of sealant.

One sealant actually reacts with the dye I've put on some paintings - a neat effect in itself. I wonder if it's a toxic reaction... hmmm... Hope not. The sealant is non-toxic and the paint says it is... so I wonder what's reacting.

Anyway, this little tree was fun to do. I started with hot pink, believe it or not. I added dibs and dabs of paint and then a good spray of butterscotch dye, and try as I may, I could not prevent the dye from coming up through subsequent layers of paint. Finally, I mixed up some matte gel medium with a little water and slathered that on. Presto! The bleeding stopped. I added the slight blue to the sky and considered the piece fiddled with enough.

I took it to show someone, and it ended up in my purse for the better part of two months. Found it again, and decided to post it for sale on Etsy. I'm just guessing it will get better exposure there than in my purse! haha