Hippity, Hoppity, Happy Easter!

"Springtime Flutter" - Jacquard Dyes w/Ink

Blessings for a 

Joyous Easter Season 

to You & Yours...

He Is Risen!!

Jump on the "Zine" wagon straight to Funsville!

 

I may have come late to the party but several months ago I came across something of interest that apparently was not a new idea at all... where had I been? This was just up my alley, it's hard to believe that I hadn't gotten in on the ground floor of the "ZINE" phenomenon... for those of you who are even farther behind than I am, here's what some main stream resources have to say...

Wikipedia 

• A zine (zeen; an abbreviation of fanzine or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts images reproduced via photocopier.

  
Even Merriam Webster Dictionary came on board: Zine

• a small magazine that is written by people who are not professional writers and that usually has stories about a particular subject
• a non-commercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter

  The Urban Dictionary chimed in with...

•   "Zine" is short for fanzine. For all intensive purposes, a zine is a cheaply-made, cheaply-priced publication, often in black and white, which is mass-produced via photocopier.

• Most zines revolve around a music scene of some sort, but others are dedicated to artwork, poetry, cartoons, editorials and short stories.

So, I guess it's official... Zines are simply a creative, self expressive and fun way to share just about anything of interest to anyone who'll take the time to read it!!

For the past few months I have been working on my first Zine... every time I got started, I allowed myself to get side tracked... not sure why, but I just couldn't get it done! Recently, my interest was rekindled by a fellow artist at AFA who completed her first zine and has made it available for trading. So, I jumped in and persevered until I had once and for all finished my own zine in hopes of trading with her! 

Janoodle Art-Zine

Below is a pic of the finished layout of my zine... (I decided on a single page, 8 panel style zine)... It is now ready to print on the color paper of your choice... (* take note that the top & bottom rows are going in different directions, this is necessary for all of the pages to be correct when folded in half)

Zine Layout - 8 Hand Drawn Panels

Below is a template to show how to fold and cut your 

printed page to create your finished booklet

Zine Template - easy to follow guidelines

Below pics show steps of folding after cutting the opening to 

create a finished booklet... give it a try, 

it actually is quite easy once you see it in person!

 Hope you will jump in and try your hand at a "Zine"...

you just might have fun!

Until next time, Blessings to one & all!!

Gearing up for ART & Fun... what's not to like?

The last week-end of April, I will be attending "SeARTle", an art retreat and gathering of fellow artists from the website ATCsforAll in Seattle, Washington. This will be my maiden voyage into an event of this kind, I was tempted out of my "solo artist" comfort zone at the prospect of meeting several artists who's works and talents I have come to appreciate as well as admire since joining AFA. So, how could I possibly pass this opportunity up with it being so close to home? From reports of past events around the country, I am sure that a good time will be had by all!

With my decision to attend, I now need to work towards creating some "trade" inventory... I definitely want to walk away with a treasure trove of work from my fellow artists... the best souvenir of all! Soooo, production has begun... trading is much like selling... my motto: the more choices there are, the easier it is to hook them in!! (Selling 101, hehehe!) 

Today's Show and Tell is a look at a few projects that I have started to make for SeARTle. A couple of them I have created in the past but with a bit of "design tweaking" to make them new & unique to this event! 

Below: First up are my... Mini SeARTle Domi-Books... much like regular sized domino books, this version is created from miniature dominoes that I recently came across... they were just too cute to pass up!! 

Inside: Janoodle Style - Jacquard Dyes w/Ink 

Below: Next up... "Mini Muse" Dollies... in the past, I have created these little dollies in a variety of sizes but these are the smallest version yet, approximately 5 inches (hair included)... even though their message may be the same, each doll has it's own unique Janoodle design as well as stylin' with a variety of hair colors!

 

Below: Finally... "Tip-ins" for a Universal Sketchbook aka "USK"... if you're not familiar with these little books, they are a blank accordion style hard cover book to either create directly on it's pages or in this case, insert "tip-ins" that are created on separate pieces of paper & attached to the inside panels of the USK. I have recently become addicted to making these pages, mostly because of their size (3.5 X 5.75 inches)... not too small & not too big, just right for my attention span!! (Color is kinda weird in this pic, just couldn't do them justice!)

Assortment of USK's for trading

As usual, I do appreciate that you stopped by to take a peek...

Until next time, Happy ARTing!