Another cover - and I'm hooked

I am officially addicted to having my art appear on magazine covers.

I get such a trip from seeing my work there. This month, Get Creative in Australia has my 3D popup birthday cake card on the cover. I really hoped I would get this cover. The article was perfectly timed, it is the magazine's birthday issue and this cake card is so wonderful.

While paper engineering isn't my forte, this card came together so well and it really is a very smart design. It folds flat and then assembles with two pieces of double sided tape - how cool is that. It comes complete with its own built in candle! It features papers from the wonderful Sassafras Lass collection too.

If you're in Australia, you'll find it at good newsagents and Spotlight stores. Inside, in addition to a template and instructions for the card, I also have a rebuilt notebook project and a method for making cute scrunchy wire beads using packing peanuts.

Enjoy!

I'm a cover junkie

It's confession time, I am a total cover junkie.

It gets like this, you know your stuff will be in a certain magazine in a certain month so that is, pretty much a given. What you don't know is when you will get a cover. It might be a line or two describing your project, it might be a small image or it might be the whole enchilada.

It's the first thing I look for - did I get a cover?

This month, when the September preview issue of Get Creative arrived from Australia, I knew I had some fun pieces. One of them is a minibook on graffiti and I had 'altered' my face in a photo giving myself glasses and a moustache and goatee beard. They published it all! And I had this wonderful painted card which I love more than nearly anything I have done before and a cute felt necklace. But no cover..

Well, it took me about half a dozen times of looking at the cover before I realised OMG I got the whole enchilada! My necklace was the lead photo on the cover - I'd been looking at the panels down the side but there it was! How cool is that?

I loved this necklace and lived with making it through Photoshop World in Orlando and a flight to New Orleans and back. I'd pack a mini sewing kit with all my felt pieces, fiber fill and beads and take it with me. I'd sit on the plane or waiting for classes and sew darts into felt, sew and fill I don't know how many felt strawberries, I'd bead them then top them with little stalks. It took weeks of 'filler' time to complete. And was it worth it? Yeah! it looked so cute on the cover.

Inside they described it as having "an innocent retro charm" - I was so stoked that they 'got it' and they saw it for what it was and went with it. I love these folks, they make a great magazine which gets better each month and they are committed to showcasing a range of stuff from very current mainstream to some funky cool ideas. I don't know if Australian crafters know what a gem of a magazine this is, if you're an Aussie crafter, I suggest you check it out.

Get Creative - Feb 08 cover

Opening the mags that come in each month is always exciting as I love to see how my stuff has photographed.

February was a special month as I didn't even have to open Get Creative from Australia to see one of my pieces - I just love getting covers! And all the more so when they are unexpected like this was.

The photos in this book were taken at Jen's wedding last year and, within a week made into this box and on their way to Australia for the Valentine's issue. Thank goodness her wedding was in September - even a month later and it would have been too late!

The book is really a box that opens out flat with photos around the outside and inside edges and a mini concertina book folded inside it. I struggled a bit getting it to work. I opened one box, covered it and then tried to put the lid back on and nada! Not only wouldn't it fold nicely but also, the lid wasn't going back on anytime soon!

Second try (No. 2 box), I cut and re-folded the box, tested the lid, then adhered the cover paper (retested the lid), and held it until it all set. That time it worked and the look dictated a shabby chic sort of effect which my editor obviously liked!

I'm now all out of .25in black dymo tape so that's back on my shopping list.