Ughhnn...

Ok, so that power-positive post I made on December 31st might have been a nail in my resolution coffin.

I have never ate so much crap food (like dessert for breakfast!), drank so much booze, slept so little and wasted so much time!! It was kind of entirely awesome. A friend came and spread his bad influence over at our place and it was great.

BUT my clothes don't fit, my shop is neglected and I have a to do list that won't even fit on a standard lined paper. I am foolscap territory! (<--Its long paper people, come on now.) So uh, that New Year was a practice. I get a do-over!

I did manage to list my new block print! Its Batcat Chow, an edition of 15 is available.

I am going to do a very limited run of this image with full colour hand tinting too. Maybe only 4 or 5, I will have to see how they turn out...

So Happy Tara New Year! *chomps on broccoli in festive manner* WOOO!

Still alive!

Not having to tend my Etsy Shop is weird! When I hear the email ping I don't feel like I have to run in the room and check right away. I am so unpopular.

I have been busy this week but I can't show much as they are gifts...What if the giftee saw it?? Horror.
- I finished up a gift for new bundle of baby!! Its SO not my usual colour scheme.
- did a little Christmas illustration decoration, which I guess I could make downloadable later this week...yes.
-sketched up a *ton* of new print ideas. Its a sheaf.
-and printed up a new lino print (Which I can show you!)

I had this stamp carved for a year or two, and have used it a few times on paper for tags and things, a few times on fabric. But it was time for a proper print run. These teeny little prints are oil based ink on thick and smooth watercolour paper. They will be listed in my shop when I return on December 30th.

The oil based ink works so much better for me than the water based did. I think I may have to switch permanently. Sure I risk brain damage when cleaning it up...

So even though I have orders from my dude to "not work and watch movies," I don't feel that happening today. Its a day to produce! Vampire boys don't draw themselves you know.

Twilight remorse, Jonny Lee Miller recollection

I feel a bit bad about trashing Twilight. Maybe if I had thought the dude from the movie was cuter I could have been won over to the dark side (or the Mormon side, or whatever...) Ok, the feeling passed, its still lame.

My lino printing is also kinda lame. Its not a disaster by any means, but its not as perfect as I envisioned it.

I made a LOT of prints and most of them are too "quirky" for me to be happy with. The ones that are good are good. I want to try some different inks before listing anything. I also want a printing press now. There is one at the art supply store I go to all the time. Its only like $500. :-(

Here is a new product I just listed. Stickers!

I am a label person. I just like them. Plus its useful, cheap and cheerful. (ok, maybe not quite cheerful, but they could be if I wasn't such a freaking closet GAWTH.)

I think a lot of stickers will be in my future. I have approximately one billion ideas for sets to draw. Most of them include gravestones. Ha! Next up is a Batcat set. I have the sketches complete, now I just have to draw them in Illustrator.

So its Cyber Monday (in the states). Today. Yep.
*crickets*
Pretty much what I expected. I hate being told when people are supposed to shop. Who says Cyber anyway? Welcome to the 90's. *Runs off to watch Hackers.*

Lino!

Screw Twilight. I don't have the review ready that I promised. I spent the weekend buying gifts and eating my hopelessly burned peanut butter cookies instead. I also messed with my blog layout and tried to not headbutt the screen while messing with codes in seemingly random fashion. So this is what it looks like now.

Then I started a new little project...

I am starting a little lino carving!

I don't know how to carve linoleum, but that rarely stops me from doing things. I did some lino prints when I was a kid I think. And then one or two in highschool (or was it university?) Whatever, I touched lino block some time in my past.

I usually use softoleum (or soft-kut) for my stamps and fabric prints, which is way softer and easier to use. But its hard to get small detail. I wanted to try something new. And lino seems so much more grown up for some reason.

I also have the dullest lino cutter ever made by human hands. Its so crappy. They never have the size of blades I like at the art supply store. Why do they hate me?

So I have been warming the lino block under my bum (Hey, warming it helps you carve it!) and then carving teeny lines, which will be the guide for the deeper lines. I should be finished the carving by the year 2010.