Art & DIY Book Destash begins

Book Arts: Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books by Mary Kaye Seckler

The Great Book Destash continues.... 

I've been downsizing my house this year and have given away at least 100 books. Plowing into my art room now and decided to reactivate my ebay shop. Starting with books, I will be adding new items every 3-5 days. Everything is priced to sell with bids starting as low as 25 cents. Each auction will last a week.

Altered Art Techniques for creating Altered Books, Boxes, Cards, and More

Anything that doesn't sell will either be added to my Etsy shop (at higher price) or donated to the local library. So... get em while they are hot!

Today I've listed an assortment of how-to art books, photo/art history books, writings by the Dalai Lama, and a collection of erotic literature - I had to spice the list up a bit (winks). 

Clicking Here will take you to my Ebay listings 

(seller name is Artsnark)

By the way, if you are over 18 and a US resident don't forget to enter Thursday's random drawing. One lucky winner gets 100 custom postcards printed with their own design from PrintRunner.com! To enter just leave a comment on my blog before 1 am EST on 10/18. Click Here for details

Music Monday - King of Spain & The Pack A.D.

Hello, Monday. 

Where did you come from?

02 Motions (PureTone Remix by Gabe Loewenberg) FINAL MIX

Somehow I am already behind this week, so it is another post-and-run this morning. Right now I'm chilling with King of Spain while pushing papers. Click the link above to have a listen to their tune Motions on soundcloud. (please note: it opens in this window tho so you'll have to hit the back button to return.)

Got my wake-up jolt earlier from The Pack A.D. Just to let you know (in case you've got kiddos in the room) there's lots of arm flailing & punching in this video. Great tune tho.

Looking for some more Monday music? Pop over to XmasDolly's - today is a freebie so there will be a big-ole variety to listen to. 

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Quick note: last few days to enter Thursday's random drawing for custom printed postcards. Click here for details. Or just leave a comment to put your name in the hat.

Everybody's Talkin

Musical Monday - Turn up the radio!

Popped over to Xmas Dolly's and found that this week's theme is "songs that make you 'turn the radio up' You know, songs you can only listen to on 'High Volume'."  Swwweeet!

(this one is quiet at 1st but the chorus/bridge requires a good crank-up). 

.. like an espresso for the ears..mmm..mmm...good

....must turn up at 35 sec mark....

"Egyptian Pharoahs fell from the sky & played the blues:... somehow this makes sense on a where's-my-coffee-Monday-mornin'.

Looking for some more ear-candy? Pop on over to Dolly's and have a listen. 

Never know what you'll hear over there. If you're in a sharing mood, post your own and join the hop!

Sorry about the crazy formatting - Blogger is misbehaving again. I'll try to clean it up later.

B.T.W., if you haven't entered the new random drawing (goes off Oct 18th) be sure to leave a comment. if you're over 18 & reside in the USA you are automatically entered to win 100  Free postcards printed with your very own design from PrintRunner.com . Click here for details

Illustration Friday - Mirror

telescoping mirror with miniature eye painting

Mirror is the new prompt from IllustrationFriday.com this week.  Another inspiring one! 

I'm disappointed that I haven't had time to make anything the last few weeks... and this one looks no better. So, I'm cheating & sharing this old mixed media altered mirror.

The mini eye is painted with acrylics, ink and metallic paint. It is secured to a telescoping mirror. These were a lot of fun to make (& play with). Pretty sure I have another unaltered one around here - I'll have to keep an eye out while sorting through the scary mess of my art room.

Well, time to run. Hope you have a wonderful weekend & if you are inspired by "mirror", be sure to  share your creation with everyone over at Illustration Friday.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul. - George Bernard Shaw

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By the way, have you entered the latest random drawing for 100 custom printed postcards from PrintRunner? Leave a comment before 10/18 to enter (US residents only, sorry international folks). Click here for details

Pinterest is a small world after all....

untitled photo by Deb Schwedhelm

Spotted this fun (but unattributed) photo on Pinterest. Love the pic but one of my pet peeves is sharing visual images without proper credit*.... so I went digging. 

Luckily the image was linked to the photographer's, (Deb S) flickr account. Poking around there led me to the evocative images on her website http://www.debsphotographs.com/. The "about" page had a picture of this talented artist, Deb Schwedhelm. Here's the small world part - her son used to talk Lego with mine at the walkers pick up spot after school. It really is a small world!

* Now, I will admit that I have gotten sloppy regarding re-pin attribution too. ( & apologize for this). But I try to give credit when I can. While http://images.google.com/ used to be my go to place for identifying original sources, nowadays so many leads link to uncredited pinterest or tumblr pages that it has become a challenge to give credit where it is due. Questions for you:Do you use pinterest, polyvore, tumblr, etc? How do you deal with the uncredited artist problem? Do you have a favorite source search? 

An Embarrassment of Riches

my closed door- don't say I didn't warn you

I've been griping for years about how my "studio" - a bedroom converted into a craft room - has become an uninhabitable boxroom. Too many years of Don't know where to put it? Chuck it in and shut the door. The time has come to put on my big girl panties and dig in.

peeking in...Beware. Here Be Dragons....

I'm sharing these embarrassing photos to give myself a final (shameful) kick in the keister.  Hey, they'll make great "before" pictures eventually. (You know, that unfinished blue painting has been sitting there since 2008 or so - sigh. I have my work cut out for me.)

Can you spy the remains of the last foolish brave visitor?

To help keep me on track, I've signed on for a fresh round of Beth Dargis' Declutter Club. (Psst... You can get her free Declutter Calendar here). My task this time around is to turn this soul-sucking  disaster into a creative space. 

my desk is under there... somewhere

The extra accountability & support really do help; with ideas and encouragement from Beth's group, I have purged a unbelievable amount of excess from the rest of our house and office in the last 6 months.

boxes from failed attempts to get organized

However, my space now reminds me of the infamous Dorian Gray's portrait (via Hoarders)... as the rest of our space grew beautiful, my room became more hideous and corrupted. 

closet - perhaps I can wish it bigger??

To be fair - this is totally my fault. So, taking a deep breath and wading in. Wish me luck. If you don't hear from me in 6 months, send for backup.

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Before you run screaming from my torture chamber, leave a comment to entered my Oct 18th random drawing for 100 custom printed postcards from PrintRunner.com. Click here for giveaway details