December frequently escapes me somewhat, with birthdays, increased busy-ness at work, and the forthcoming seasonal festivities, all piling on top of my days which already feel very full. But earlier this week I did manage to make time for another get-together with the lovely Britta of JaguarSnail. We had some fun playing with my new envelope punchboard – we struggled to follow the instructions, bluffed our way through to success by trial & error, then found that the instructions did make sense, after all… 😉 I really love the results & there will definitely be new TangleMail-designed envelopes coming soon (probably not until the new year).
Britta brought with her a brand new zine, the seeds of which were sown on our last crafternoon a few weeks ago. On that day she made a miniature mock-up of the concept, and I have to say she’s done an awesome job of following it through. If you have ever aspired to invent a new life form, this is the mini-zine for you!
Each page features an ordinary creature – man, lion, eagle, cobra, goat and carp (some interesting choices!) – and each page is split into 3 segments so that you can mix & match your own mythical beast! There is even a section at the back of the zine where you can log and name your favourite hybrid creations. The drawings are really cleverly done, with lots of character, and perfectly aligned so that any combination (of the many possible!) slots together smoothly – yet another example of Britta’s talent! There are only currently 5 copies available of this labour-intensive, slightly-larger-than-average mini-zine, so don’t miss out!
Britta was also inspired by the sea of stamps that were overflowing in a corner of my craft room, and followed up on her previous stampy works by customising a couple of stray notebooks I had lying around. One of these was snapped up overnight (the other is still available, at time of writing), inspiring me in turn to follow her example – see pic to the right for even more First Class Notebooks, this time stampified by me. These are all one-of-a-kind creations, so if one of them catches your eye, be quick!
There’s something about that repeated motif – the same but different every time, thanks to the unique combinations of postmarks – and the patchwork effect of the randomly combined colours that never fails to fascinate me…
Britta and I generally have no problem thinking of new creative ideas, but our ‘crafternoons’ are definitely motivational for both of us to actually get down to putting the ideas into practice. When I say that a sea of stamps was overflowing in my room, I’m actually being literal rather than gratuitously poetic – but now we have actually made a real start on crafting them, I feel far less like I am about to drown in them…!
Here’s to crafty afternoons!
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