What Makes Me Happy: Dr. Seuss and Dr. Dre

This is pretty amazing! This is one of many Dr. Seuss and Dr. Dre mash-up videos.
 

What Makes Me Happy: Graphic Design + Letterpress

Check these out, they are really cool and perhaps remind me greatly of another letterpress artist from my past.

I accidentally stumbled upon her from a worm farmer's page no less. Hmm... weird, but cool. And have only learned a little bit so far, but I am most excited to learn she was the graphic designer for Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel. Which was very eye-pleasing.

This one is also great!

Back in the Saddle

I think Facebook posts may have hi-jacked my blog posts approximately 6 years ago! Wow, 6 years!

I have debated getting off Facebook for a good number of months if not longer but never did, for fear of losing a platform of connection and being out of touch.

Well here we are in the middle of COVID-19 Lockdown and as of a week or so ago I could no longer stomach Facebook. At first, it was an overwhelm of "you should do this to *FILL IN THE BLANK* during COVID. It was too much information and some perhaps tone-deaf if not shaming or fear-inducing. No thank you!

Then it was because it brought me anger and impatience for my fellow human beings for turning everything about COVID into a political stance. Let me back up, political or not, the sentiment that if you don't agree with my amazing after-the-fact hindsight opinions about what should and shouldn't have happened then you are obviously a dumb-ass. *puke emoji*

Finally, today in the once every few days I hop on, it turned into an almost comical copy of the tabloids you find at the grocery store register.

How was I fooled for so long?

I don't want to lose faith in humanity. I want to be able to meet someone and not have any preconceived notions  (outside what kind of bumper stickers they roll up with on their car). I don't want to witness the worst in everyone so freely. I don't want to waste time on what feels like temporary trash for cheap highs or lows.

Yesterday I was still puzzling over how to share the good and avoid the bad... duh! I blogged before I ever social-media'd

So here I am!

I am back to share the things that make me happy and give me energy and perhaps to rant occasionally but not through hastily typed out reactions to the million pin-balling ideas that is Facebook.

Oh and this is what I am looking like these days...

It Was a Sunny Day!

I had to get outside and enjoy the crisp, sunny, fall air as much as possible I am glad I did as it turned to quite frigid temperatures early this fall.

Scraps and Punch

More paper scrap projects!

Paper Scraps- Repurposed

It was craft night last night and I got some solid hours of cutting and pasting.  I used about a fiftieth of the paper scraps that I have but really like what came of it.  Very strongly graphic.

Design: Announcements

I recently finished creating and printing some baby announcements for my friends. 
Now I have a lot of paper scraps from cutting them to size. I have a few fun ideas for how to use the scraps.  Another post on that soon!

Temporary Compositions

I've recently started using Instagram @amdesign and realized that it would be a fun and easy excuse to put together quick, impermanent collages (#noglue). Doing collages in this manner means I can do them everywhere and often.  I also loaded some of my already established (with glue!) collages.  It's fun to see what other collage art is posted too.
Here are a few examples:

Earrings!

It was time to refresh my earring collection because sadly I have slowly lost one half of my favorite pairs. I enjoyed making these today rather than cleaning up my backyard.

More Zines!

One from a visit from my high school girlfriends... It is so awesome to have them still!
As you can see, I used some of the papers I made in the last post.

 And then Maggie's 2 year Maggie-zine!

Pavilion

This collage is one that I made awhile ago but let sit because I didn't feel it was complete. Looking at it again, I am not sure what I would add... so here it is!

Paper!

I was getting tired of the stack of papers that I had to pull from in my crafting stash and the Archiver's store went out of business here in Denver not leaving too many options for unique papers. I decided to make my own. Here is a sampling:

Forget me Not

Oddly Ironic... I forgot that I made these. It was a subconscious effort from the beginning I suppose. Another shot at a Valentine card... for no other reason than it was the season and there are hearts on them.

Royal Secrets

These were the closest I got to making Valentine's cards this year. They have the appropriate amount of hearts curly/frilly things and X's and O's so I think they pass the Valentine's test. I especially like the softness of the color pallet in combination with the soft curves of the lady. Enjoy!

Man and Beast

Looking back through my flash drive archives and I realized that I haven't posted here since late last summer. Picking back up from where I left off... I made these gems in October, right before Halloween though I don't believe I had any specific intention to combine Man and Beast for the holiday. A lot of the background material for these came from "Office Ephemera" meaning I cut out pictures from junk mail I received at work and used the insides of security envelopes. I am amazed at how many different pieces of paper pass over my desk that I am inspired to incorporate into collages.