Slowly But Surely

Slowly but surely I’m getting my handmade journals documented and posted to Etsy. This foxy journal is one of my faves of all time. I love the colours and of course… foxes. The cats of the doggish world. lol

This one has lots of writing space, images of foxes and woodland creatures/scenes, eco dyed printed pages, etc. It comes with a writing board, lots of tags, clips, and extras.

My shop as always is found here: IceKat Design Studio.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts on until Nov. 30th, 2020. I guess that means I better hurry up with the new listings!

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Grimoire Pages Swap

To me, these are a bit small at 4×6″ for a grimoire, but they’d make nice journal cards for such. Hopefully my photos are clear enough to make prints from. I went back and got individual shots with that in mind.

I really like how the paintings came out, especially the Moon Water and Yule Stag. But Black Phillip amuses me, and I’ve been wanting to do a pen and ink with just the goat’s head and “Live Deliciously” banner. Eventually I’ll get to it.

Looking forward to seeing my returns!

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2020 Santa Ornaments

I can’t post these on Facebook because the recipients will see them, and no one checks here. So, here they are! The masked Santa ornaments for 2020 for my mom and Phrixy’s mom. The backs say 2020 in gold paint. Not that these could be mistaken for any other year. LOL

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My First Challenge Entry

Vintiquities on YouTube is hosting a Halloween birthday challenge. I’ve always thought October 13th is the second best birthday to have, so she’s super lucky! lol

So, this is my entry. I’m not expecting anything to come of it, but it was fun to work on something pastel-oween for her.

This is a loaded paper bag with all sorts of handmade goodies. I think the most fun was making the teddy bears from Halloween papers, though the whole project was fun. This is the bag loaded up. I used ghosty paper for the bag. The paper pad I used is called Pinkaboo, from Michaels last year or the year before.

This is the bag unpacked with all the goodies. There’s a custom sequin mix for Halloween, pastel-oween recipe/rolodex cards, little note cards, 2 decorated paper clips (still on the bag), lots of die cuts and stuff from the paper pad. And the purple skellie on the far right. In the treat bag are a bunch of different gem and such stickers that go with the theme.

And the last photo shows the back of the bag, with the cute Day of the Dead skull, also from the Pinkaboo pad. There’s also a little wooden box of wooden Halloween cutouts that can be painted for any colour scheme.
So, the package is on its way! I know I have a lot to learn in terms of layering and such, but I’ll be studying all the entries to up my game for next year.

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Donations for St Vincent de Paul

I made a couple of travelers notebook journals to donate to a church fundraiser coming up. Not my usual style, but they help to use up papers I wouldn’t normally use. So it works out for me! Honestly, if I had an unending supply of hardcovers to cannibalize, I’d make more random donations like this because it costs me very little to help out. One more masculine, one very pink and fluffy-ish. I only got a photo of the blue one’s cover, but I have a few of the pink one’s interior.

This first one in blue has one booklet inside, with two elastics. There’s a matching folder with ephemera, and pockets inside the front and back covers for more tags and such.

The cover has burlap under the main image for a bit of texture. Inside, there are pages with positive words and home/family vibes.

 

The pink book… I actually really like it even though I’m not so much into pink for myself. I love how the boho feather looks on there. The washi tape on the stem isn’t actually what holds it on, but I thought it added a little something. There are touches of gold throughout the papers in this one, which is kinda nice.

This book has four elastics, two booklets, a folder with ephemera, and pockets on the front and back interior covers.

 

This is the interior front cover and first booklet. That pink paperclip has a charm on it, and you can see the tags and such in the pocket.

 

 

 

This is the back of the first booklet and front of the second.  Another paperclip with a charm. See, this paper collection is very pink and girly. LOL But that’s okay. I used a bunch of it for my Starless Sea project, so this is a good use for the rest…

 

 

This is the inside of the folder, along with the ephemera: tags, sayings, etc. I included a date book with both TNs, because I had them on hand and they’re approaching expiration. Better to have them get some use, I say!

 

 

And lastly, this is the back of the folder, and the inside of the back cover. I used the big butterfly as a tuck spot, which I did in the blue book also. I kinda like it now that I started doing that. The envelope has a wrap-around string closure, and is made from the page of strips that comes with most paper pads lately.

And that’s it for now. I hope these TNs help raise lots of money for their programs. I had fun putting them together. 🙂

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Boho Feathers

paper boho feathersBoho feathers, made with paper, gold wire, real feather fluffs, and bling. Some may get some sting and beads, we’ll see. The two ‘owl’ feathers on the left are for my Starless Sea projects, and the design was done in watercolour on regular copy paper.

I was introduced to these in a boho journal group, and I just love them! These go into journals for an extra dab of pretty.

So, the Starless Sea project… I read Erin Morgenstern’s new book recently and fell madly in love with the world of secret libraries, magic doors, beeswax, honey, keys, swords, owl kings, and so on. I just new I had to make at least one (but probably more) journals celebrating that world. So watch out for more creations for this project. It’ll likely take me a while to put it all together, since there’s a lot to do. 😀

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Holiday Antler Girls ATCs

I was a bit worried about doing the ATC swap, since I haven’t done any in a long while. But I want to get back into it, because the frequent art practice really improves my skills.

So here are my holiday antler girls! The challenge was to decorate them for the winter holidays in some way. My fave is the blonde with the candles on her antlers. It feels very Yule to me. I enjoyed trying to do some different skin tones as well.

These are watercolour with ink and gold and glitter gel pens for accents. You can’t see it, but there is sparkle in the flames, and I made some sparkle snowflakes behind the girl with the ribbons, in the green background.

So there’s my quick update. Just waiting to get the host’s address so I can send these girls along on time!

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Etsy Updated With New Goodies

I finally got off my butt and did my least favourite of things: Updating Etsy. I don’t know why, but it’s the worst part of the whole process of making and selling for me. It’s not like it’s difficult to fill in the information and upload this pictures. Let’s just call it Resistance, and leave it at that.

And the truth is, I have a bunch more journals that I need to photograph now that the weather isn’t nice for being outside… My own fault for procrastinating, of course. But I need to try to get decent light inside now and do it, because they need to find new homes!

I also put everything on sale, because why not? Hopefully I can clear out the studio and make new things to sell. 😀 Because it’s all about the making, and my piles of patterned paper are really getting out of control. LOL And I put the digital downloads on sale because MONEY.  Since we’re being honest.

The update isn’t huge, only 4 travelers notebooks. These include Ganesh (above), which is one of my absolute faves; the coffee journal on the right here, which… coffee is awesome; the Callanish standing stones book of shadows (below left), which has 3 booklets and is quite cool if you ask me, since I love the idea of being able to take sections out and change them around–this one is big!; and lastly the Farscape sci-fi book (below right), which was fun. I love that show.

These all (except for the coffee book) also include prints of my own artwork, because why not? That’s what makes them original. And I love the idea of upcycling old hard cover books into something people will use again as notebooks and planners.

So that’s it for now. I have errands to run today, and tomorrow is supposed to be a snow and freezing rain day, so maybe I’ll manage to get those other journals sorted out while I’m stuck inside then. Maybe. The lighting in here is just SO bad. LOL I’m still stuck in my head with my novels, so there’s that. It’s not like my procrastination involves doing absolutely nothing… One day it’ll be published, and that’ll be the work of a decade. No really. A decade. o.o

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Winner Winner!

I got my words in for “L3” at last! The story isn’t nearly done, but I finished NaNoWriMo early. I’m feeling scattery, though, so I think I’ll move back to “L1” and do some edits and fill in the holes my partner pointed out. I mean, “L1” needs to be finished first, anyhow…

Plus I have a few other things I need to get done on a deadline, if I’m going to participate, so off we go with those other things!

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Backpack Fix

So I started using my little backpack because a) I hope it helps my shoulder pain from arthritis, and b) it’s cute purple leopard print. After a few uses I realized that I’m used to having a pouch on the front or something for putting things I just want to grab easily, like my bus pass.

I have a few different kitty face pouches, so I thought maybe one of those would fit the bill. I was worried it might get torn off if I put it on the front, so I sewed it to the side instead. I should have checked my card in it first, but fortunately it just fits. Yay! And I think it looks pretty cute on there.

Now the only remaining aggravation is that the straps are a bit slippery. It doesn’t hold as much as I’d like, but maybe that’s for the best so I don’t make it heavier than I should be carrying.

Sometimes being crafty is actually useful. 😀

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