Tutorials Page Added

If you would all look to the top of the page there is now a link to tutorials. There are only two there for the time being but I am gathering the old links and plotting and planning new ones. But they will be a lot easier to find now that this page has been added. When there are more links I will break them up into sections to make the process of finding what you are after even easier. Enjoy

I had planned..

for this to be a upbeat image filled post with a tutorial on something or another.. But at the moment I am pretty jaded. I woke up this morning at 3:30 to a dark figure standing on my partners side of the bed.. To which I kinda yelled theres a guy in our room, which in turn woke the bf up who started to yell and chase the guy out of the bedroom, through the lounge through the closed blinds in the main room and out the courtyard and down the street. The partner came back, given he had run outside naked and without contacts there wasnt much else to do. I was standing there calling the cops when the guy came back just standing there looking inside to get his cap to which I screamed and the bf went out and tackled him down to the grass and then held the guy the cops turned up after a little while and took the guy in. Now that was fine.. I felt like justice would be done.. We get a call at about 7:30 this morning telling us the guy was out on bail and is only banned from one of the streets we live on and not the other ( we live on a corner). This is not comforting at all. I walk around here to get to the bus while most of it is the street he is banned from the one that the bus stop is on isnt.. what about all the other areas.. what if i see him at the shops.. and what if he gets together with his mates after seeing what else we have in the unit and comes back armed and with other people?

I will end my rant there. At the moment I feel physically sick and fairly upset/concered for my own safety within where i live and around it. I am just lucky that my partner was home and I wasn’t alone.

Dear Trusty Readers,

I would like you all to know that soon I will be posting more again. I got a job so a lot of my time has gone into that lately. I have a bunch of stuff I am working on so thanks for sticking around!

Love you all

Adopt a Friend – Melville Byron Nox

Melville is up for adoption.. if you think he might be a friend you could hang with and want to give him a nice home.. please do

I will be adding more as I get them done… Hope you are all having a nice weekend!

Binder Tutorial

A few days ago I came across this lovely blog and art of Ingrid Dijkers.  And it drove me to want to have custom binders of my own to fill up with pages and bits and pieces. Most of you know that a lot of the time I work in books which I make.  I do actually find this quite restrictive, there are just times when you want to use a CD for a page.. or a piece of cardboard that is floating around unused from another project. So this was my solution, some cardboard and some binder rings which I am a huge fan of and have acquired a few sets of over the last year.

Some of the things you are going to need are:
Scissors
Craft Knife
Ruler (if you have a metal one with measurements on it that is best)
Pencil
Hole tool (or you can use an awl)
Binder Rings
Card Board ( from boxes, ideally you want something 3mm thick and sturdy) I used some packaging cardboard for the first one and some harder type of the same which for the second, the second one (blue) is more sturdy because of it but the other one is just normal corrugated board you get from beer cartons and boxes, you could use a game board if you wanted)
PVA Glue ( or Gel medium if you prefer)
Pages (inside mine are standard cardstock and cut up manilla folder left overs.. You can use anything!)

You will need to decide what size you want  your folder to be, and the middle will depend on how large then rings you are using are.. You want at least 3mm on each side of the rings to spare for when it is closed so you dont get marks on your front cover.

Mark where the middle of your binder spine is and where you will want to have the holes in your pages. I made a template page and used a normal hole punch to figure out where mine were going.. but if you wanted to use more rings  you would need to punch the extra hole as well.  As you can see I have not set the ring to sit in its middle but closer to the join, mark this on both sides of the line. Using the hole tool make the back side hole a little bigger than the other side so you can slip the rivet joint through more easily.

I like to score my lines outside of the line I drew for the spine, it will give a more accurate fold when you close the folder and add in the rings.. as cardboard is thicker than paper this makes a big difference.

Fold the folder up and put your rings in to make sure there is plenty of clearance and that they fit well. Then take them out.

Now the really fun part! Time to decorate your cover! I used an old instruction manual from my Ikea chests which I store my various bits and pieces in on the desk.. as well as some old lined paper and security envelopes, I went with a blue white and little black scheme. (You could also use contact paper, paint on it, fabric whatever you like on the cover)

Glue those down as you wish. After I had done this stage and the gel medium had set I painted over a wash of white acrylic to take down the brightness.  Fold the edges over and glue them down, Cutting off a triangle from the corners makes this a little easier (but leave the same thickness as your paper between the cut and the corner of the board!)

While you are waiting for that to dry you could start on some of the inside pages, or another binder..

A coat of sealer later and here we are..

This is the original one I made, made from whatever I had around that was cream, brown and tan. Including some paper decorated with Derwent Inktense pencils and masking tape.

As you can see in the back of this one there is also a paper fastener piece to add in extra paper (this was added before covering the front/back to make it secure and more attractive).

If you have any questions about the project be sure to leave me a note and I will do my best to give you a helpful answer Most of all.. Enjoy!

Hello there..

I am still here somewhere.. mostly as I sad before.. Applying for jobs and finally getting back into painting and drawing.. I have been / still am a little lost and unsure which direction to head.. but I have made a choice to work bigger.. I am thinking about putting some of the study/sketch pieces online for purchase at some point but I will see where that goes.. If I do it will be through my website over at www.nyxcreations.com so here are the two pieces I have taken pics of over the last week to share.. Enjoy

Be sure to check out the larger sizes of both..

Cheerio!

Still here somewhere..

At the moment I am not spending a great deal of time at the computer save applying for jobs.. As a result the time I get to spend not doing this is spent trying to chill out, not alot of creating is going on at the moment.. I have picked 5 new winners as the last 5 did not leave emails or links so next time I will only pick people who leave emails… I will get in contact with the 5.. so congratulations! When I hear back from the main winner I will put thier name up

Congratulations!

I decided yesterday to extend the prize.. I am still not sure if I should extend it or not.. I think I will.. so the top 5 people get a prize.. ( I would like to give it to everyone but maybe another time! Wouldn’t that be great… a giveaway where everyone gets stuff.. Though there are still the patterns I drew up and handed out for free which you can still get here… And worst case (:P) I do have a pattern sheet up with 20 pieces on it.. Which you can get here… ok ok.. onto the good stuff…

Here is the list.. the top 5 get a prize… so congratulations.. You will need to leave a comment with your details otherwise I will default to the next 5 who did leave email addresses and you will miss out sorry!
1. D – pin and pattern sheet
2. Jasmine – pattern sheet
3. Shiela – pattern sheet
4. Anne – pattern sheet
5. Barbara – pattern sheet

I will email the items out.. the winner of the pin is D however if it isn’t claimed in 7 days as there is no email addy I will give it to the next person who has one listed according to the random listing

I hope you all enjoy your prizes!

Thanks and check back soon for more goodies!!!!!

xoxox Jenn

Patterns on Etsy

I bit the bullet and designed some bird patterns, there are 20 designs on the page and there is a page with the designs reversed for you to use if you choose you like them facing the other way.. Be sure to post a link if you end up doing some and I hope you like them!

Sorry about the low quality preview pics..

Get them here!

Choose a theme

Do you have a favorite theme? Let me know if I choose to use it you will get the resulting PDF a freebie. Most popular will be chosen but be completely honest with your choice please! There will be weekly freebies anyway!