Little box o’ color and a little clarity too

Aug 312011
 

I’m tired so I forewarn that there is much fatigue in this post. I’m in training classes all week through Noble Desktop – Advanced Dreamweaver and JavaScript/JQuery. The paying attention all day has me wiped. On top of that I’ve been doubling my normal walking routine because class is farther away than where I work. So, yeah, tired. But a good kind of tired.

What makes me happy is that this class has given me a few aha moments. I’ve been taking a refresher HTML/CSS class through the Oreilly School of Technology (one assignment left to go!) and man oh my, that class glosses over so much. I don’t even see things covered all that well in ebook they provide. I’ve been finding the O’Reilly CSS lessons in particular to be cumbersome and baffling. But in my Dreamweaver class, the CSS coding became clearer…simpler too. And that’s including whether I hand code it or use the Dreamweaver interface. This clarity will make my last project for the O’Reilly class so much easier now. Woot! I’m already signed up for JavaScript and XML classes with O’Reilly and based on how the HTML/CSS class has been going, I’m a little worried, especially since I have the same instructor for all of them. Fingers crossed that it goes ok….

The other thing that’s making me happy this week is that my class puts me close enough to a Blick store that I can raid it during my lunch hour. Today I did just that. I got a few new pieces of charcoal and a few conte crayons. I also got this set of pastels:

These are so pretty! I’m afraid to use them now. They look so pristine. It’s been so long since I’ve drawn let alone used pastels. And last time I used pastels, I stuck to black, white, and sienna. I decided to tray a sampler of some colors this time. I can’t wait! Should be fun! :)

I also got some marbled paper that I hope to try with a few Scherenschnitte patterns soon:

I have no idea how well this kind of paper will cut well but it’ll be fun to try it out. Yay!

And that’s that for how this week is going. Hope you are all doing fabulous this evening! :)

Scherenschnitte: A Skinny Santa and Mrs. Claus

Dec 142010
 

I tried out a new paper cut template last night. It’s cute. :) If I can find wrapping paper, I may paste it on that as the backdrop:

If you’d like to try the template out yourself, download it here.

Scherenschnitte: Mayflower

Nov 212010
 

One last paper cut for today. For this one I used a template of the Mayflower, only I didn’t do the year that was listed on that ship in the original. I like it better without them. :)

I think next time I’m gonna have to change some things to pirate it up and make it more interesting. :P

Try the template out yourself here.

Scherenschnitte: Woe be to swirls and skinny lines

Nov 212010
 

I tried out two paper cut templates today:

Skinny lines are so hard! Especially when you don’t have a steady hand, which as you can see I do not. Something to work for though. I’ll have to try again… :)

Try out the templates for yourself: Varda Girl, Love Lasso

Scherenschnitte: Cinderella

Nov 112010
 

I tried out one of Cindy’s recent scherenschnitte templates from her blog. This one is of Cinderella. I created mirrored versions of her and positioned them slightly off-kilter on the scanner. It kind of makes me think of two women just out doing their laundry. Then crazy birds try to steal it away. :P

You can download the template to try out yourself here. :)

Beautiful/Decay: Cut Paper, 3 Parts, 9 Artists

Jun 262010
 

Beautiful/Decay has a great piece on paper cutting up. It features 9 artists: Bovey Lee, Peter Callesen, Chris Natrop, Georgia Russell, Hunter Stabler, Kako Ueda, Natasha Bowdoin, Emma Van Leest, and Andreas Kocks.

I so want to learn to paper cut like this some day:

Bovey Lee, "Atomic Jellyfish", 2007

It’s awesome! :)

And trees, I can never get enough of cuts with trees in them:

Emma Van Leest, "Bucolica II", 2009

Check out the article here: Part 1, 2, 3

(via Paper Forest)

Scherenschnitte: Rumpelstiltskin

Jun 182010
 

Cindy posted a new scherenschnitte template on her blog and I gave it a try:

You can download the template to try out yourself here. :)

A Map Comes to Life

Mar 152010
 

This is a fantastic stop-motion animation. I love all the paper cutting! It’s called “A Map Comes To Life” and was created by Andersen M Studio.

(via Paper Forest)

Two Paper Cuts: Alice in Wonderland and Mermaid Anchor

Mar 142010
 

Worked on a few paper cuts this weekend. These are the latest free templates Cindy Ferguson has made available on her blog: Alice in Wonderland and Mermaid Anchor:

That’s that. Off to practice cutting out swirling lines more. You can try out these templates for yourself here: Alice, Mermaid

Lost Things

Mar 072010
 

I love this! It’s a gorgeous video! It’s a stop motion short film, written and directed by Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths. Starring Alison Sudol from A Fine Frenzy. Music is “Sleepwalking” by A Fine Frenzy. There are a few paper cuts in this and they were done by Mr. Yen.

And like Cindy from Scherenschnitte, I’m now wondering if I can get away with that shade of red hair. :P

(via Scherenschnitte)

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