Where Women Create - REVIEW

Where Women Create - Stampington & Company

Here I am at page 20 of Where Women Create. Still with almost 140 pages to read yet I can confidently post a rave review!


This is a book to be savoured, poured over, inspired by.
Each page will be turned without peeking ahead... completely taking my time. There is no question I would love this book. I adore looking at artist workspaces. The craftspersons workbench is where the magic begins! Plus don't get me started on my penchant for storage, decorative boxes, indexes, colour, memorabilia, history, stories... Where Women Create has it all. Perhaps if I read it hard enough some of it will spill over into my own work space.



I liked this quote by Rebecca Purcell, artist behind the first featured studio.

Exercise for honing aesthetic skills: Find an object that you are immediately drawn to and decipher why it attracts you. Do NOT settle for "I just like it!" Explore both the physical and psychological affects, as well as every detail. You may be surprised with what you learn.

... back to my coffee and magazine!

Where Women Create is available in store now!

Artful Blogging - REVIEW

Artful Blogging ~ Visually Inspiring Online Journals

The four word by-line really sums this magazines contents: Visually. Inspiring. Online. Journals.
Somerset Studio have put together a collection of some beautiful art orientated blogs into this publication.

Reading through the pages it is obvious they were looking for great images, meaningful art and sharing from the authors about the impact and benefits blogging has rewarded them. And this magazine is full! I appreciated not having to flick through pages of advertising - in fact the only advertising I noticed was some promotion of other titles they run and that was it.

When Artful Blogging first came out I was rather skeptical, using the logic that if people wanted to look at Blogs they would look online. However as I continue to develop my own Blog and of course our store one (that you are reading! heheh) this title became of special interest. Reading through its pages I enjoyed learning how other people approach their blog entries, their unique focus and there is some lovely art eye candy and beautiful photography throughout.

Towards the back of the mag there is some helpful information about starting your own Blog (its way easy!), using photographs and Blog ettiquette.

Page spread featuring Blogger Dina Wakeley

By the end of the magazine I had added some new Blogs to follow in my Bloglines, made a note to find out more about Technorati and wondered if I had time to submit for Illustration Friday! Ohh and then there was the mention of Vegetable paper... must find that blog!

Recommended for current bloggers who want to read about others blogging experience, readers considering starting their own blogs (though don't be scared looking at the lovely pages within - just start), or readers who just want to find some new art inspiration online.

~ Kathleen

Page spread featuring Blogger Suzanne Duda

~Available now in store at New Zealand Scrapbook Company.

Inspired by work spaces!

Hi All,
Hope you are having a fabulous week! This week I have been getting a lot of enjoyment out of Cloth Paper Scissors's special issue - Studios. I admit to being a bit of a magazine junkie however in recent months (ok many months!) much of them have had barely more than a flick through. Not this magazine though - I have POURED through it TWICE (this is saying alot) and am know I'm not finished with it yet. There is something truly fascinating exploring another persons creative space and this issue is FULL of workroom eye candy.

The featured studios show all sorts of different kinds of artists and crafters, they ALL exude personality and make you want to look closer and see the yummy things. Anyways if your looking for inspiration for your own space... recommended reading! $15.95 In store now.

~Kathleen

Wonderful Walnut Ink!

Hi All,
Now I could have come up with as many W alliterations as possible (I had to google the word Alliteration to make sure I had the meaning right! heheh)... wonderfully wacky wild walnut.. but lets just get straight to the point (come'on Kathleen! get to it!) how to use:

Walnut Ink

Last night at our Product Preview: Core'dinations "It's what's inside that counts" (so fun!) our lucky participants received among other things, a Walnut Ink sample to take away.

The brand we stock are the Walnut Ink Crystals by Tsukineko and yes, Walnut ink really is made from walnut husks! Used at a high strength it is a favourite among Calligraphers but for scrapbooky, card makey, altery, collagey (do made up words with y's on the end count as an alliteration too???) purposes we generally use it much more dilluted to create a vintage or aged effect.

The instructions are: 1 level teaspoon of crystals per 1/2 cup of hot water.
To be honest, I never measure. I have a feeling this is actually stronger than I would make it. Start off with putting your sample sized portion into a small tupperware (one of those smallest Gladware containers would be perfect and add about 1/4 cup of hot water and dissolve. Then on a scrap piece of paper brush or sponge a little of the ink to see how dark it comes out. You can then add more water to dillute further if desired. I usually go for a med - light brown/tan. The neat thing is this stuff stores forever! I just keep adding more crystals and more water... perhaps not the 'right' way, but it works :)

Ideas for using Walnut Ink:

• Create aged paper from white paper (sponging).
• Tone down a too bright paper (also sponging)
• Paint or draw a design with the ink (ink pens, water brushes filled with ink, regular paint brushes)
• Drip ink spots and dots for a vintage effect.
• Dust with crystals and spritz with water - super cool.

Here's a layout I did a few years ago for the Book of Me series of classes we were running. The background started off as just plain cream cardstock but I wanted it to appear like an old newspaper so I sponged it with walnut ink and then added darker walnut ink splotches for good measure.

Hmmm... if you read the layout you can work out how old I am... but you wouldn't do that would you? Hey! I can hear you counting!! hehee.. ok don't tell though will you :)
By the way, just for interests sake - see that title? hand cut with a scalpel... that was BEFORE the days of the Cricut and Cuttlebug! To make your own layout like this HERE is an interesting website where you can select a date of your choosing and it brings up historical events.

And if you wanted to make your own walnut ink from scratch HERE'S another interesting website. Where you would come up with a five gallon bucket of black walnuts I'm not too sure!

Anyways I hope that gets you started with inking! If you didn't make it to our Preview Event last night we made up a few extra sample containers. They are in store now and are just $1. Alternatively the lovely big jars of ink crystals are also available - 56g for $17.95

Byes for now!
~Kathleen