i feel a need...

to shake the dust off my gocco printer and get on with some serious gocco love this week. i've had one ill little cherub with some weird fever-y lurgy this week, the older cherub succumbed last night to its evil clutches, so he's off school today, but if i get a chance i want to unearth my pieces of linen and make some zippered pouches, i also have an urge to sew at the moment too.

on farm-front news, we visited a really lovely old fashioned factory and looked at the replacement sash windows yesterday, and i'm really excited! i've got to decide at some point whether to have them painted white or go for a colour. i'm thinking of a greeny grey tone. i've been looking at the farrow and ball website and i'm rather taken with ball green or the delightfully named (although i've never seen one that particular colour) cooking apple green. hmmm...

plan b

total disaster! i am of course referring to my original little gocco tree design, as opposed to our weekend in london which was great fun but totally exhausting...trips to museums aren't that great when you go to late night parties the night before...so there were a few tears and all round grumpiness, and that was just me ;) anyway, i burnt the teardrop and circle design first and from the start it went all wrong. some of the design didn't burn into the screen properly...i tried to remedy it with strategic pieces of ink blocking but to no avail. so i very quickly drew these 'bubbles' and they worked much better! it's hard to see in the pic, but the cardstock is a soft creamy yellow with a slight ribbed effect. really yummy. feeling pretty smug with my 'by eye' registration too...it's not perfect, but that's part of the charm, or so i'm told!

which colour?

droooool...look what i had waiting for me when i came home the other day? lots and lots of new gocco ink colours. i was so over-excited when i did my order i forgot a ton of other essential stuff like more racks and gocco cleaner. never mind, it's another excuse to spend more money i guess.

i've just finished a new design, this time funny little trees. i want this to be a two screen design, shown above, so fingers crossed it'll come out how i hope. will post the results, but probably not straight away, we're off for another weekend in ol' london town...see you next week!

cards

aforementioned cards...in four yummy cheerful colours.

ps...printer has arrived, am itching to open it, but not today, got company... hence short post :)

home sweet home

i've made a series of 10 collaged gocco prints using my little houses drawing called 'home sweet home', just listed on etsy. i've rather abused my first little gocco screen already, i think i may have been a bit heavy handed with the cleaning of it. never mind, it'll make these pieces more special if i can't print any more of them! i've also used it to print some flat cards in different colours, rather sweet and whimsical if i do say so myself. it's nice getting back into the etsy swing! oh yeah, nearly forgot, i just ordered an archival printer...i'm soooo excited!

back again

hello all!

i was planning on a break until the new year, but i've actually done some work so i thought i'd share. my fabulous husband bought me a gocco for christmas, yay, so the other day i made my first screen based on a little doodle/sketch of houses. i'm sooo glad i did lots of reading up on the process before jumping in at the deep end. i only got a couple of screens in the box, and i was worried to death that i'd ruin them both! but luckily it went swimmingly, and the result is 'little boxes'. this has been printed over a small basic collage of various papers, then hand coloured using watercolour brush markers...i'm kinda pleased with how it turned out, someone on flickr said it reminded them of the 'mr. men' books, which is exactly what we've been reading to the boys at bedtime. you never know where you're going to get inspiration...without even realising it! ;)

the other things that have caught my eye...

no pics today, have done nothing (well, actually i cleaned the house like a maniac, i even dusted my lampshades. yes, you read that correctly, my lampshades. they were foul.) at all today. i also explored etsy, which was a lovely indulgence and i thought i'd share my finds with you, and perhaps show you some clever little peeps wth some clever little products you might not have seen before. (and some you've probably seen alot.)
first up, kalliART's 'rolling waves cards,' absolutely beautiful and very handy to have around the house for forgotten birthdays and totally unisex. gorgeous.
next, this company has been on a billion blogs, but for good reason. the green chair press shop is so yummy, especially the type and text prints.
remake is a brilliant find. all of their paper goods are made from recycled and salvaged paper and envelopes. especially great are the envelope covered notebooks for just $6, and the terrific screen printed decorative labels for just $5 for 12. really unique and for five bucks, who can say fairer than that, eh?
last but by no means least, linea carta's shop is lovely, in particular the 'take a walk' gocco printed notebook. yum, yum, yum.
so, my loyal band, there you have it, a few of my etsy favourites that may persuade me to part with some hard earned moolah.
right, can't decide whether to scoff the open pack of dairy fudge that's in the cupboard or whether to make myself a cup 'o tea. i think it had better be the latter, it's weightwatcher's tomorrow. oh bugger. how many calories are in an enormous bag of fudge anyway? who the hell put temptation in my path? (not looking at my husband at all) actually, random question, why is it that men can have few of something i.e. fudge sweets and then forget about them, where as i sit there and can feel the damn things calling me through two walls?

this is the last time, i promise!

i know you're probably sick of these, but i wanted to prove to myself that i can finish projects off! now it's done i have no idea what to do with it. too detailed for a lino print, but maybe i could do sections of it. any suggestions? if only i had a print gocco. *sigh* oh well.