Category Archives: Linkity linkity link

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is grateful to Mayhem, who performed lap-warming duties for the duration

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Contest(s)

Bookity

Think, Make, Learn, Do

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

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Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Collage Journeys: A Practical Guide to Creating Personal Artwork by Jane Davies. What it says in the title. 🙂 Definitely one I’ll pick up for my collection – I think I like it the best of the collage-related books I’ve read.
Mixed-Media Journals: Creatively Chronicling Your Life by Katherine Duncan Aimone. My guess is that this scrapbooking book was all written and the editor decided they should try to pick up the art journaling crowd, so they changed the title and did a search and replace to use “art journaling” instead of scrapbooking a few times near the beginning of the book.

*bright cute thoughts* -Mayhem

*nefarious thoughts* -Chaos

Linkity linkity link

The least amount of linkity ever in a linkity post

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During my linkity creating time, I was at a goodbye gathering for my boss, whose last day is actually today. He’s moving on to another opportunity. I’m sad, because he’s the best, most supportive boss I’ve ever had. And I’m also tired, as it’s been a crazy busy week at work. Chaos has the right idea here…

*drowsing off* -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity was glad to have escaped all of the snow they had… 15 minutes away

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Bookity

Think, Do, Make, Learn

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Fun with Washi: 35 Ways to Instantly Refresh Your Home, Accessories, and Packages with Washi Tape by Jessica Okui. I saw it on the shelf at the library and was curious… Pretty sure I won’t make any of the projects in this book, but some of them were quite imaginative, such as using washi tape as nail art or to make a fake headboard for your bed…
Washi Tape: 101+ Ideas for Paper Crafts, Book Arts, Fashion, Decorating, Entertaining, and Party Fun! by Courtney Cerruti. This was much better than the previous washi tape book I skimmed through. (Hey, they were beside each other on the shelf at the library, what can I say…) Some of the ideas in this book included covering switch plates, marking cables and chargers, making bandaids and binder clips more fun, adding color to glass cups and vases, and many more.
Making Mini Books: Big Ideas for 30+ Little Projects by Kathleen McCafferty. Pretty much what the title says – the projects in this book are for books that are a few inches across down to earring-sized books. While many of the projects exceeded my personal acceptable fiddliness level, there were a couple (such as the matchbook-style notebooks) that seemed as if they’d make great gifts.
Bookcraft: Techniques for Binding, Folding, and Decorating to Create Books and More by Heather Weston. This book provides a bit more history of various book forms and includes some more unusual forms, such as carousel and tunnel books, along with how to use paper cutting and folding techniques in the books you make.
Urgent 2nd Class: Creating Curious Collage, Dubious Documents, and Other Art from Ephemera by Nick Bantock. Somewhat interesting, but not engaging. I would hardly consider this to be an “art class”, as the back-of-the-book blurb asserts.

“The big kitty loves me very much!” -Mayhem

“Her persistence wears me down…” -Chaos, resignedly

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity loses an hour grudgingly

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Bookity

Do, Think, Learn, Make

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Map Art Lab: 52 Exciting Art Explorations in Mapmaking, Imagination, and Travel by Jill K Berry & Linden McNeilly. Loved! Definitely need to buy my own copy because the library copy is just bristling with “try this” bookmarks.
Making an Impression: Designing and Creating Artful Stamps by Geninne Zlatkis. Pretty good book about getting started carving rubber stamps, although it was definitely focused more on using the templates provided by the author than on actually designing or creating stamps.
Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction, David Aja, Javier Pulido, & Alan Davis. I’ve been intrigued by the out-of-context Clint Barton snippets I’ve seen on tumblr, so I decided to check out the actual comic book. I did skip the Young Avengers comic in the back – probably would’ve read it if it had been in the same style as the rest.

*looking winsome* -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is never ready for the start of Daylight Savings Time

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Contest(s)

Bookity

Do, Learn, Make, Think

Cookity

Gluten free

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
The Decorated Journal: Creating Beautifully Expressive Journal Pages by Gwen Diehn. Very good book about art journaling, covering everything from choosing materials and blank books to types of journals people keep to prompts and journaling ideas to instructions for binding your own journals. Recommended. I got this from the library, but a used copy of my very own is already on its way from Thrift Books. 🙂
The Decorated Page: Journals, Scrapbooks and Albums Made Simply Beautiful by Gwen Diehn. I didn’t think this was quite as good as her later book, The Decorated Journal: Creating Beautifully Expressive Journal Pages, but I still liked it enough to order a copy through Thrift Books. I felt that this book really showed the scrapbooking roots of art journaling and, in fact, at the time (2002), the term “art journaling” doesn’t seem to have been in use, based on Diehn’s discussion about what such illustrated journals should be called.

*dorking out* -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity is still in shock that it was 58F/14.4C in Minnesota in February

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Bookity

Think, Learn, Make, Do

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Adventures in Bookbinding: Hand Crafting Mixed-Media Books by Jeannine Stein. I enjoyed seeing some of the unusual techniques the author used to create these books. And I thought it was cool/clever that, for each book, the author provided regular directions, shortcut directions, and “master” directions.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

“Is this all there is to life?” -Mayhem

Covers, Linkity linkity link, Reviewettes

Linkity really didn’t expect allergies in February

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Congrats to Susana, who won Lovers Leap by JL Merrow! Lovers Leap will be released by Riptide Publishing on February 29.

If you’re using mobile and things are weird, it’s probably because I have the mobile plugin for my site turned off right now – it decided that everyone was on mobile. *sigh*

Bookity

Think, Make, Do, Learn

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Mixed Media Revolution: Creative Ideas for Reusing Your Art by Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson. So-so whirlwind overview of many, many mixed media techniques. Some of the techniques required you to scan QR codes or visit the publisher’s website for more details, which I found annoying.
The Mixed-Media Artist: Art Tips, Tricks, Secrets and Dreams from Over 40 Amazing Artists by Seth Apter. This did not fare well being read after An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I was completely unprepared for how this book sucked me in – I read it in one sitting, tissue box close by.

“Soooooooo bored!!!!!” -Mayhem

*falling asleep, balefully* -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

The return of linkity!

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Bookity

Learn, Do, Make, Think

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers by Danny Gregory. Good look at the journals/sketchbooks of 50 different artistically minded people, including (in their own words) how long they’ve been keeping a journal, why they keep up the habit, and their preferred materials.

*sleepy glaring* Why are you laughing at me, Mom?! You are mean!!” -Mayhem

I was laughing at May’s little “catlick” from Chaos. 🙂

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity hopes normal service will be restored next week

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The insurance company now owns the remains of my old car. I now own a new-to-me car and will pick it up today, when I’ll deal with a few final related things. I’m hoping things will be back to normal next week. Here’s some brief linkity, in roughly the order it would be in if there were headings and all. 🙂

Reading Update
Book Play: Creative Adventures in Handmade Books by Margaret Couch Cogswell. This book starts with a very thorough overview of materials and techniques, then moves on to making a few basic books before finishing up with some unusual and creative interpretations of the book form. Definitely a good reference book.
Paint Mojo – A Mixed-Media Workshop: Creative Layering Techniques for Personal Expression by Tracy Verdugo. It was ok. I think. I skimmed a lot. Here it is, six days later, and I remember pretty much nothing about this book. D’oh.

*contemplating his diabolical plans for world domination… after he figures out how to get the lock on the kitty food pantry cupboard open*

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity needs a nap – move over, Chaos

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Congrats to Elisa, who won A Bear Walks into a Bar by Eden Winters!

Bookity

Do, Think, Learn, Make

Cookity

Gluten Free

Artsy Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Creative Foundations: 40 Scrapbook and Mixed-Media Techniques to Build Your Artistic Toolbox by Vicki Boutin. Too many exclamation points, too cutesy, and too much time spent pushing a certain line of products.
Art of Layers: Simple Techniques, Inventive Scrapbook Pages, Imaginative Papercrafts by Ronda Palazzari. I think I just need to stay away from books with “scrapbook” in the title.
Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media by LK Ludwig. Interesting overview of different ways in which artists work together and exchange work, such as swapping art and working together on a work or works. Although this was published in 2009, it felt more dated than that – probably because most of the collaboration and swapping was coordinated via Yahoo groups.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos