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.