Update

I had an incident with a wren this afternoon. It decided to have a holiday in my living room. Not the most welcome visitor when I've just had new carpet laid. Feisty little bleeder too. I couldn't catch it despite using my softest voice to tell it everything was going to be OK. It finally found its way out via the door. Hope it isn't away to tell its siblings about the new carpet.

Update on my news: I finished my Open University course - thank goodness. Not the most inspired course I have taken. As the old school reports often say, 'Could do better'. Just waiting for the results now. I have also been getting alot of greetings card work to do. Handmade cards seem to be very popular. Time to expand the line a bit I think but I am not sure which way I will go. I also took part in an exhibition, sold all my pieces and was invited to do another one at the end of August.

On the downside my online shop was shut down through no fault of my own. The guy running them just decided to finish up with them. The trouble is he didn't tell anyone and I found out by chance that they were gone. So now I have to think of a new idea for selling online without having to spend alot of money on it. My stuff does not sell on Ebay but Etsy seems to be popular. The trouble is that Etsy only sells in dollars - not handy for my UK based customers. I still have not managed to update my art web site due to lack of web publishing applications and I am getting really concerned about that. I might just shut it down and use Art Wanted as my base. So much to think about.

Mysterious world

Today I received something in the mail that got me wondering. It was a postcard in a handwritten envelope with a first class stamp (no expense spared!) advertising a web site. This web site states that various heads of state are psychopaths. Mmmm, strange - in more ways that one. It seemed to originate in Edinburgh although I am not totally sure of this (blurred post mark). I am not in touch with someone who might have sent me this, do not know anyone in Edinburgh and am currently wondering if having my home address on the internet is wise. My family's reaction to this incident was telling me not to touch it as it might be infused with anthrax. I'm not sure whether to worry about their state of mind or the rest of the world's.

Beady I

I have been inspired by the ladies making beads on Art Techniques this week. Lots of pretties. Plus there is an article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors about paper beads. So I made some myself. Fabric beads, paper beads and some from metal tape.

A simple ATC holder

These are my instructions for making an accordion ATC holder specially for the ladies of the Oriental Stamp Artists group - but anyone can use them :o)

What you will need:
1 sheet of paper - at least 11 3/4 inches long. You can use A4 size paper (11 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches) or 12 x 12 inch scrapbook papers (there are some lovely double sided scrapbook papers around)
2 pieces of cardstock - 4 1/4 x 3 inches
Ribbon or fibre approximately 17 inches long
Your choice of glue/double sided tape/sticky tape/scissors/trimmer/etc

Method:

Cut two 4 inch wide strips of paper from the sheet.

Make pencil marks every 2 3/4 inches along the length of the two strips. Fold along these lines to form 2 accordions.

Each of the accordions will have a small lip at one end. Glue the lip of one to the unlipped edge of the other. This makes one long accordion.

Take one of the pieces of cardstock and stick one end of the accordian to it to form a cover. Repeat with the other side. (You may want to cut a piece of paper 4 x 1 1/2 inches, fold it in half lengthways and stick it to the unlipped edge at the end of the accordion. This forms another lipped edge so that it can be stuck to the second cover and means an extra page to store ATCs in. Otherwise just stick the last page of the accordion to the second cover.)

Using the ribbon/fibre attach it with glue or sticky tape to the middle of one of the covers with a tail of 4 1/2 inches overhanging one edge. To hold the book closed wrap the long end of the ribbon/fibre around the book and tie the two tails with a bow. (The sticky tape used to attach the ribbon can be covered by decoration afterwards.)

One accordion style ATC holder.