EPHEMERA

what is ephemera anyway?  Well, according to wikipedia:

e·phem·er·aəˈfem(ə)rə/

noun

1. things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time.

   • items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.

   
   
2. In my whole 8 years of trading ATCs in the mail, I can't even tell you how many times I have been amazed when opening my mail.  Today was no exception to the rule.  To my complete and utter surprise, when I opened up my envelope from a swap I am hosting on Swap Bot, I found a castle die inside!  I can't even believe it.  It might be a tad too big for an ATC but I am sure it will work.  But here is an image of what I got....

How cool is this?  Over the years I have received an incredible countless number of cute little things here and there.  But mostly its bits of torn paper, or ATC sized paper, buttons, stickers, stamped images, images cut from magazines and more. From time to time, I get something super awesome, like a die, or a stamp even. There could be bits of ribbon, or brads, or stickers, you just never know!!!  It just never ceases to amaze me.  Once I received a beautiful altered box covered in vintage themed goodies and full of lovely little things for me to use in my crafting. 

This came with a lovely little letter, and a really cool hot air balloon greeting card.

People over all generally have a pretty big heart, and one of the things that blows my mind is that how much people are so willing to spend quite a bit of money on postage stamps?  I have received envelopes that have had as much as 10 and even 20 dollars worth of postage...how crazy is that?  I surely miss those days...its been a while..as I have been forced to nickel and dime.  Yes, I have been forced to cut back and as much as I hate to I have really no choice.  But sometimes I see a package come into my mail box that melts my heart and totally reminds me that there is a world out there....thank you so much to every one of you who have sent me something....I can't even beelieve myself how much I have accumulated over the years and much of it is because of ephemera!  LOVE IT...

thats a wrap folks!......

CIAO

AWOL

First of all, what does AWOL stand for?

AWOL

ˈāˌwôl/

adjective

1. absent from one's post but without intent to desert...this is according to Wiki.

Very fitting isn't it?  Considering I have been absent from posting on here...lol

At first, I was very upset and disappointed that I am not going to be able to brag about having posted in my blog for every single day of the year.  But having said that, I've since gotten over it, and quickly realized that it was really quite an unattainable intent.  So having said that, I have missed yet another day.  But I won't miss today ... lol

The reason I have been awol is for a few reasons, the biggest one being that we have switched woman caves.  Its really amazing at how fast one can accumulate so much crafty stuff!  LOL...I'm done buying any thing new for a long while.

Anyway...my new space is smaller so I think it will be a LOT less stressful once I get everything put away.  That and that alone is the stressful part.  I also believe that I am about half way done.  But the trick is that I have to stay at it.  However, the only thing is, that all that lifting, shifting, pushing and reaching has wreaked a bit of havoc in my body, so I haven't been feeling too good for the last couple of days.  I think I am starting to get a bit better though, so I can get this job behind me and get on with being creative.

I have not really done much since my Dino Flintstone ATC but I did make a super cute ATC yesterday.

Isn't it super cute?   I LOVE how it turned out...even though I used stickers.  Many artists especially on swap bot complain about "sticker slapping" but to me, this is not sticker slapping.  As long as the sticker suits the theme but is not necessarily the focal point, stickers are fine by me.

Well thats a wrap folks!

adios!

My Dinosaur ATC

I accepted the challenge of making a Dinosaur ATC a couple of weeks ago and I don't know whatever the heck I was thinking that I would be able to come up with something.  

After spending 3 days swapping studios with Abby, I finally got a fabulous idea for my "dragon" swap...(its in quotes because that is what I was thinking it was what I was supposed to do.  lol) so, I looked up on my old faithful computer a google search on how to draw dragons, and I found this cool video to teach me how to draw it, and so I started it but didn't really like how it developed.  Here it is here, you can actually see that it is intended to be a chinese dragon, so I was starting to follow it well, but something went terribly wrong when I attempted the body of it, so I gave up.  

I then realized that I had created a dragon ATC using a faux postage stamp that I created using my printer and some jagged scissors.  I looked to see if I had one in my trading binder but there were none left at all.  So, I made another one similar but not totally the same.  It wasn't until I finished making this ATC:

that I remembered, "Crap!!!  It was supposed to be a DINOSAUR ATC!!!  Not a stupid Dragon ATC!!!!!

GGGRRR so you can imagine my frustration.  So, I set aside my two dragon ATCs, and then I started looking at how to draw dinosaur videos...lol...It took me a few attempts so here is the first one, I was really proud of what I drew but screwed it up colouring...sigh...so, I looked for another video 

And this is what came out of the next one that I attempted, 

And it wasn't doing anything for me at all so I gave up on this one, and looked for another.....

This one was starting to form...but the more I kept drawing it the more it looked like a boogey man and not a dinosaur.  

Until finally it hit me...Dino from the Flinstone's should be pretty easy to draw, so I did a google search, (I frikkin' LOVE Google) and I actually found a video on how to draw him, and this is my outcome...I LOVE it....I almost don't want to part with him, but at least I have a photo of him to prove that I ever drew him.

So out of all of those dinosaur ATCs that I made are that there is actually really is a dragon ATC swap also, so they are not going to be wasted...whooo hooo.  

Thats a wrap folks!!!

aloha 

Almost Half Done

WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! 

When we talked about doing this last summer, I had NO CLUE how big of a job this was going to be!  Holy Crap!  I can't even believe how big my eclectic collection of artsy crafty stuff has gotten in just EIGHT years!  We have even pulled everything out of the closet that was in this room when Abby occupied it, and we installed 2 of those Ikea shelves in the closet!

So crazy, I have lost some space, some shelving and so on, but I should be able to get away with this smaller space.  I am going to have to because I am NOT going to move any of this stuff EVER again!  Its just too dang stressful!  Its no wonder I am having trouble keeping track of it all.  I am trying to go through everything and keep only what I want and what I need and I will donate whatever else I don't will get used.

I am so close to getting all of my stuff out of my old studio and so badly want to finish it off tonight so Abby can work on her room tomorrow at whatever pace she wants.  But she is at a stale mate until I get the rest of my crap off of the big shelves for her.

I am really going to have to micro organize here because I have slightly less space than what I had and will just have to make sure that everything is shelved as appropriately as possible.

Anyway I think I am done for the night though because we have totally worn ourselves out.  On top of the switch over, Abby did some snow blowing and some shovelling of snow off of the roof...

so this is a wrap and totsiens!

Swapping Woman Caves

We talked about doing this last year but it just wasn't the right timing.  I have always had the larger  room because Abby always felt that I needed the room for my art stuff and the elbow space to work on everything.

Well that was before when she thought she was actually giving up on her sewing.  But we have recently joined a 50's + group where they have different interest circles going on almost every single day.  I have already blogged about this.  But one of these groups is a sewing group which has raised her interest on this topic back up.  So we are swapping rooms to encourage her to sew again.   She has already made a skirt with pockets for her sewing machine.

Anyway all the stuff that was in her room is almost all in the living so we can swap desks and shelves.  Going to be a crazy thing to do.

Au revoir

Worth The Drive to Tottenham

Today we picked up Spencer.  It was a lovely day to go to Tottenham to drop in on an old friend after discussing the possibility of introducing us to his mother's dog.  So we all agreed that today was as good a day as any.

It was a beautiful day when we left, the sky was blue and therefore cold.  But the sun was shining and thats something we hardly ever see up here in the winter. We saw a few really cool sites on the way there, 

To me, there is nothing better than an old bridge, or an old broken down dilapidated barn.  

Anyway, Spencer Tracy seems to be settling in quite nicely. But for now its bed time as tomorrow is another day...sionara

Happy Mail Report

wow, so far this week has been a fabulous week of Happy Mail!  Ohhh I am SOOOO Happy!!!!   On Monday I received 5, yesterday I got 1 and today none.

So as you can see, I have my work cut out for me.  Anyone will tell you that I LOVE LOVE LOVE happy mail, makes me smile and is completely stress free.

Mail #1 - From Patricia LaPierre on Swap Bot.  The theme for this ATC swap was PINK.  Thank you thank you thank you!!!  I LOVE the pink ATC and the pink stickers they are all awesome.  I also kept the cool bird stamp and I love the cute moose on the note page.  Here is a photo of her work.  So cute!!!  I've missed swapping with you Pat!

Mail #2 - Came from the talented Teresa Price all the way from the UK.  This was a trade from Sharon's group called ATCs4ArtSake...Teresa, I have always said that photos of an ATC NEVER EVER do ANY justice.  I LOVE these bird houses and the steampunk woman!  Thank you so much and also, I have kept the Rose image from the card you included for future use and I have added your lovely purple shades and textures of the paper you sent to my stash!  Thank you! here is her work.

Mail #3 - Another ATC4ArtSake trade from Lauren Foster-MacLeod, from Ottawa.  She sent me this most amazing and beautiful Snowy Owl that she hand drew herself.   She didn't have much in her album but we negotiated a surprise for me.  She asked me what kind of owls we have in our location, I told her Snowy Owls and this is what she sent me! WOW, WOW, WOW.  she also included some cool papers that I will be using at some point in time for future projects.

Mail #4 - From Lisa Hoel, all the way from Idaho, USA.  yet another lovely trade from Sharon's group.  Such a sweet sweet snowman!!!!  I LOVE snowmen, I am not sure why though...:)  Thank you Lisa, I LOVE him, he is super sweet.

Mail #5 - From Lori Conley who is also in the USA but in Massachussetts; and another trade from ATCs4ArtSake.  She also sent me a few little bits of ephemera.  Thank you so much.  I especially love the red wrinkled ATC paper. Is that something you made yourself?  If yes, please let me know how you did the back ground! 

Mail #6 - From Adara R (emanuella87) I love love love the way you did your background for the January ATC on Swap Bot.  Thank you for including the story of how you came up with it and for the bits of ephemera!  I thought it was cute how you put the sequins in the envelope so when I opened them they all went every where. But I have to tell you the truth, every time I picked up that envelope some of the sequins would fly out of it!!!  The first couple of times it happened it was ok but after a few more times I was getting frustrated LOL...so I ended up getting a small baggie to put them in so it wouldn't happen again until I got your precious gifts tucked away to safety...lol  I do the same thing from time to time depending on who my partners are totally deliberately.  lol  Here is Adara's work, and thank you for everything!

Mail #7 - Last but certainly not least.  My fabulous Dinosaur ATC!  It was from a a swap on Swap Bot,  for the Dinosaur atc swap.  I have never seen anything quite like this before.  This is a keeper for sure, well they are all keepers but this one is quite unique.  Its a metal ATC with etchings of dinosaurs all over it!  I still have to get mine out....but Jerry's is very cool as every time I look at it, I find another dinosaur!   I really do love it Jerry, thank you so much, I can only hope that the dinosaur card I make is just as much loved and appreciated.  Here is a link to Jerry's website on Etsy if anyone is interested.  Jringling on Etsy

Now to wrap this up, last night, I was so tired when I suddenly found an idea to make my cupcake ATC for my partner on Swap Bot.  This little thing is actually going all the way to Israel!  Can you imagine?  I am quite pleased as to how this turned out.  I used some of my cardboard card stock, for the muffin paper, and then for the icing, I used my cloud dies and just trimmed around them so that they would fit onto an ATC...I LOVE how it turned out.  I can only hope that my partner will love it too.

Well folks thats a wrap!  

Arrivederci

Friendly Circles

I have been a member of many a club, drumming circles, singles clubs, dance clubs, fitness studios but I can honestly say to you that I have never, ever, that is until last week, when Abby paid for our memberships at the Friendly Circle.   In a singles club that I used to be a part of for many many years, I was pretty much always the youngest and was quite proud of my nick name being the "baby" of the gang.

For the second time in my life, or maybe even perhaps the 3rd, or 4th? lol I have found myself in a situation where I am either too young or too old for joining in on anything.  For example when I was in public/high school, I had failed grade 5 so I was held back a year, so any year after that I was always the oldest of the class, and often too old to join anything, and it seemed to happen every single decade of my life one way or the other.  But I can handle being at the younger end of the spectrum, I love hanging with older people, I always have.

I am looking forward to being the "baby" again in another group.  I am sure I am the youngest of all of the 50's+ up there in that club anyway.  They have weekly meals, and sewing, and line dancing, yoga, art group and all kinds of things going on all through the week so you could actually go to something every single day!

Today there was a lunch put on by the Diner's Club of South River, so we were invited to go to that, so we did.   It was an $8.00 meal and we were served a bun, salad, beets, and some chicken pot pie made by the owner of Memere's where they make entrees to sell.

But for now, I am sticking to the Art Group.  There were 4 of us today, and I got to meet and be creative and socialize with 3 other lovely older and talented women with the exception of one lady she is so new at art.  She took everything out of her bag and everything was all new still wrapped in packages.  lol...she was cute she said she wanted to learn how to do trees, so I invited her to sit beside me and follow my lead.  She was a wonderful student, and I had no idea that I would be teaching someone and she kept complimenting me as to how patient I was etc.  So that was really nice.

One lady showed us a super cool new technique on painting water colour birch trees...of which I was super excited to learn....I wanted to come home and paint one but sadly I had no energy left by the time I had to cook dinner and do email and a few other little things including this....night is young but I have a couple of busy days ahead of me tomorrow and Thursday...but having said, that's a wrap, catch you on the flip side!

Valentine Time

It has been a few days now since I have made anything, or painted or coloured anything so I decided its high time I did SOMETHING.

I was looking for ideas on google, OMG, I LOVE google.  If I want some ideas, I just type into the search something like, Book Page Valentine ATC images.  And it would totally blow you away at the hits you would get.  But then most people are quite aware of Google by now.

Click here to see an example of what I mean.  Hmmm the idea I found for the ATCs I just made did not come up but it was like the 4th or 5th one in the top row.  Regardless, I found this amazing idea with many thanks to Anna Orsmond, she is a talented Stampin Up rep in the UK.  You can check her blog out by clicking here.  So thank you very much for sharing your work so that I was able to get such an awesome idea from you.

Here is my version of what I came up with.  I hope you enjoy it.  Its not as perfect as hers is but I really like them.  I especially like the idea, so when I remake them I will for sure apply the steps a bit differently

Stay tuned for some more art for later on, as the day is young yet.

I have also made this today for the Heart Art Challenge...this is week #6.

Party and a Play

For the first time this year I actually missed a day of blogging.  I knew it was inevitable because I am not home 365 days of the year!  I do get out once in a while which is a good thing!

We went to Toronto on Friday to help our friend Rupert celebrate his twin milestone of his 65th birthday and retirement.  We had SOOO much fun!!!  It was great to be surrounded by other trans folk who have either been around for a while or for those who are just getting started.  It was lovely to meet some new people and even lovelier to get to see some people that we have not seen in at least 5 years or more!  Here are some fun photos!

After leaving the party, we drove to my Mom and my Dad's out in Embro, which is about half way between London and Woodstock.   e didn't get there till around midnight or so.  It was a short visit but a great visit! We had a good time of conversation and reuniting, so it was fun and awesome to get to see them again.

Then on Saturday we drove back to Toronto.  After finding out that Dan was available to spend time with us between 4 & 6.  Which was great!  We ended up spending a bit too much time driving around and looking and deciding on what we were going to do and where we were going to eat.  We ended up going to this place called Toby's.  I spotted it because I used to love going to Toby's Goodeats over by the Finch Bus Station years ago...but I don't think that chain exists anymore.   But anyway we went in because Dan wanted a beer, and so did Abby. Dan had a hamburger, Abby had a plate of Chicken Fingers and fries, and I had the best most amazing Nacho plate I EVER had...it had chicken and cheese and tomato and sour cream and so on.  It was all so YUMMY!!!

So then we ended up driving Dan back to the theatre and we parked the car.  We went to a coffee shop where they had cheesecake like you wouldn't believe which we didn't have any of, so we were good...there was far too much to choose from so we only had coffee to kill some time.

When we got into the theatre it was not busy at all but they showed us to our table which was front row to the left of the stage.  We sat with family related to Linda, and we enjoyed meeting them.  Then the show began with amazement and surprise.  It was called Rumplestiltskin.   The actors and actresses were all incredibly talented, and we laughed at all the puns that we could follow anyway...there were some British references that we had no idea of though.

But it was amazing to connect with my nephew again and very happy to see that he was happy and enjoying life like it was meant to be enjoyed.

We left Toronto around 10 pm and we were both awake and alert for the drive home for the most part...by the time we got to Barrie we had to stop at the en route for Abby to rest her eyes for a bit and then carried on.  We stopped in Orillia to grab a coffee..and by the time we got to North of Huntsville we hit an almost white out condition on the roads.  So the last half hour or so of the drive Abby was in heaven as she LOVES driving in those kinds of conditions.  I know, she is just weird, but she is all mine, people...lol

The snow storm didn't slow her down at all, in fact she instantly became alert again and wanted to keep on going in it.  But I was happy to be home and to sleep in my own bed again...

My Brother Labeller Printer

One of the very best things that I have EVER purchased to help me in my processes for making ATC's is my Brother Labeller Printer which the model number is QL-700.

I unfortunately can't remember how long ago that we bought it but I am pretty sure that we have had it for about 5 years.   I can't even really remember how much I paid for it but it now retails for around $139.00.

It absolutely amazed me at how long ONE roll of labels lasted.  I only just replaced a roll about maybe a month ago, (give or take a couple of weeks).  But my Labeller was a birthday present from Abby and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  I have even had it for a LOT longer than my first paper cutter.

I actually found a great video about it, so if your interested in seeing what I am talking about, you can.  The narrator is a male and easy to listen to.  Click here to see it.

I thought I would keep today's blog on the short side as we will be heading out on a small over night adventure shortly.  We will be travelling to Toronto for our friend's 65th birthday party and then to my parents house for the night. Then tomorrow we head back to Toronto to see my nephew in his play, so I am excited to see him and to see him in action!

Have a lovely day everyone.....

My Artistic History

I took art in High School but only for 1 maybe 2 years.  I never really took to it back then. So I am not an artist who can brag about having dabbled in it all of my life, like many of my fellow sisters' in art can say, but it was reintroduced to me by my sister in law, but not in the form of drawing, but fully, totally and wholly in style of paper.  Hence why my blog name, The Paper Manipulator.

It actually came at a good time because we were caring for our dear friend who was like a brother to us.  Alan was diagnosed with fatal kidney cancer. We cared for him from time of diagnosis to death.  The entire experience was pretty harsh, but one I would happily do all over again for anyone in a similar situation if the circumstances were all correct.  But I can't tell you enough how much art is great therapy for such a loss...

Many of you may have heard me say ATC a million times in the last 8 years. So you might be saying to yourself, what in the heck is an ATC?  Well an ATC is simply an Artist Trading Card (ATC), your canvas is a sturdy piece of card stock that is 2.5 x 3.5" in size, and are traded any where in the world.  Artists create, trade and collect in organized swaps in online groups around the world or in person.

The idea came from trading baseball or hockey cards but with an artistic twist. ATCs is a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss Artist M. Vanci Stimemann in 1997.  He called it a Collaborative Cultural Performance.

When I first started making ATC's after my sister in law told me about them, I caught on like wildfire and started collecting things to make them with.  Acrylic Paints, paint brushes, protective sleeves, envelopes, what ever I could.  I found though that back then, (since 2008) that there were so very few videos about techniques and products that I should have got on the bandwagon when I started to get more involved in blogging and keeping things a whole lot more organized, as I could have been at the bottom of the ladder and making loads of money like Tim Holtz or some of these other more famous mixed media artists.

So not having any experience in art at all, I didn't know any better about techniques or nothing.   So I figured that all I could do were collage and something with acrylic paint. Amazing how time has fast forwarded and exploded in the most amazing world of mixed media.  Now people are posting journal pages, technique pages and all kinds of wonderful and amazing things.

My absolute most favourite thing about making, trading and collecting ATCs is getting Happy Mail...which you should all be aware of by now.  I belong to a few groups on Facebook, Swap Bot, and 1 yahoo group.  I used to belong to many more but sometime politics are too much for me to care about.  But because of difficult times, I've been forced to slow down big time to a minimal number of swaps per month.  Many times I have gone a wee bit over budget mostly because I just can't help myself.

Has anyone ever wondered what my very first ATC looked like?  Quite surprising actually.  Using a mosaic technique background and a few small purchases from the dollar store I was able to put something fun together.  I have made many an ATC since, some good, some bad, some really good and some really bad...lol...you get my point, same as getting returns, some some are awesome and some not so awesome.

And here are two of my most recent ATCs that I have made, I sure have come a long way, haven't I?

and Here is one of my most all time favourite ATCs that I have ever received.  Isn't my teacup poodle just the most adorable thing you ever saw?  lol...so cute!

I have since dabbled in more than just ATCs, I have participated in a Round Robin, I have made journal pages, I have produced a video about something I've made, played in many many many different types of swaps and have art from many countries around the world, and I LOVE it.  I am now currently putting all of my ATCs in binders in order by artist, and my ATC collection is my pride and joy.  Oh and the best perk about being an artist and getting to swap with all of these talented people are over the world is that we are all like one great big happy family!  One I plan to be a part of for a very long time. 

Lately I have been dabbling in water colour painting and mixing my own colours.  LOVE It so much...its amazing what one can do with the right bit of direction.  

Well that's a wrap for tonight.  Tomorrow we head to  Toronto & Embro and then back to Toronto before coming back home again.  

February 1, 2017

How could it possibly be February 1, 2017 already?  WOW....my how time flies when your having fun!  Today was a busy day, it started with getting up and loading the car with all of Abby's bins and bins of sewing material.  We took them up to the friendly circle up in Burks Falls where there was a sewing circle today.  She went there last week with her notions and stuff and altogether made about 30.00 which in this day and age is nothing to sneeze at.

While she was in her sewing circle, I was in my water colour art class.  Its so hard to believe that there is only one more class.  I know for sure we can't afford another one for me just yet, and have to be content with Stampin Up make and takes and the Friendly Circle Art Session.  But in the mean time, I am looking forward to finishing up this beauty!

I don't know how much more she wants us to do to it but thats only because there is only one more week.  Sheesh...lol...but you should have seen it last week, it was an absolute mess!  But she helped me to save it today!

Then after the sewing circle and my art class, we actually decided to go to Ha's Restaurant in Sundridge for a most amazing lunch.  I LOVE it so much...its absolutely the best Chinese cuisine I have ever had anywhere.  They do  not use any preservatives like MSG in their food at all!  And you can actually taste the rice, taste the egg rolls, taste what ever you eat there, and it stays with you....your not hungry again an hour later.

Then after Ha's we came home and just relaxed...and now tonight, I have been tackling some piddly organizing of all of my bling, putting the stuff into little containers and labelling the containers.  Things like brads, buttons, bling, etc you would not even believe how much of it has been sent through the mail as 

ephemera.  

Anyway....time to get back at it...now that the sorting is done for now, I am going to label each of these little thing for easy finding.

wish me luck lol