Let it Snow

We had our first snow flakes of the season last night so we celebrated by lighting the first fire in the fireplace! We're ready for winter now - go ahead and let it snow!

What is it about evil alternate universes and facial hair? Why is a goatee a sign of evil?

I was recently in a Star Trek swap on Craftster.org and my swap partner (ClonedBravo) made me an alternate universe surival kit - I laughed so hard and had to try it on!

Ouija Memories

Do you love being scared? I don't like "horror" but I do like a little fright every now and then. When I was young the cool thing to do at sleepovers was to break out a Ouija Board and see if we could get it to tell us the name of our true love and then scream hysterically when it actually spelled something.


It's been a long time since I used a Ouija Board but I happened to be in a toy store a few weeks ago and noticed that they still sell them - only updated! They had Barbie pink Ouija, glow in the dark ones and even a Bratz Doll version! I don't know which one scared me more!


The glow in the dark one did inspire me to make a new necklace though. This is my version of a glow in the dark Ouija Board. I painted it with two layers of glow in the dark paint before giving it a final coat of resin. Now I need some photography advice. How do I get a picture of the pendant glowing? I tried using my digital camera without the flash and just got a black screen. With the flash of course it didn't work either - too much light. Here is the non-glowing picture. :)

To Blog Or Not To Blog

To blog or not to blog, that is the question! Okay - so do any of the rest of you get blog guilt? I do love my blog but I've found it hard to keep up with it, my Etsy shop, Facebook, Flickr, Craftster, and the zillion other sites I frequent. Now I feel guilty that I haven't blogged.

I used to feel the same guilt with my diary when I was a kid - I'd write in it every day for 3 months and then I'd go to once a week, then to once a month and then I'd find myself apologizing to my diary! "Dear Diary, I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote in you..." Like the book cared! Now I know a blog is slightly different seeing other people actually read it (or at least that's the goal I think) but do I need to feel guilty for not writing?

Well, I've decided to feel guilty no more! Life is short and my blog is what it is. Thank you to those who still wander in here from time to time and read my ponderings. Perhaps I'll do it more often and perhaps I won't...Just know that I wish you all sunny days, positive thoughts and a life filled with at least a little geekiness!

JUMPCON UPDATE

For those of you who followed the horrible Jumpcon debacle last July, here is an update:
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090428/NEWS01/304289925

Looks like Shane may finally get some of what is coming to him and I'm happy to see some justice done.

Gocco Experiment #2

I’m getting better with the Gocco! Yeah! This is Dalek print try #2 and they turned out a zillion times better now that I’m using the paper ink on paper. I fixed the other newbie mistakes as well. I didn’t take the original off the master right away and I used a steady, stable surface to print on.

I tried printing these on a couple different paper types. I took some pages from a Doctor Who book and printed on those. So far it’s my favorite – I love the look of the image over the text. I also printed on some silver card stock. The cards had a bit of a glossy sheen to them and it took the ink twice as long to dry on those as it did on the book pages.

I came up with a great idea for what to do with the prints on the book pages. I’m in a Doctor Who swap on Craftster right now and I’m going to make this for my swap partner so I can’t share it here yet, but if you’re a Doctor Who lover – you’re going want one too!

Go Gocco!

Hello Everyone,
Sorry I’ve been away so long. It was a busy end to 2008 and I overextended myself a bit doing craft shows and burnt myself out. So, I took an extended craft break for the last 2 months and now my creative juices are flowing again and I’m ready to get crafting.

I started last night. I’ve been wanting a Gocco printing machine forever and I finally broke down and bought a used one on Ebay. For those of you who don’t know a Gocco machine is a Japanese made unit that basically makes instant screen prints. You can print on paper or material and do it from the comfort of your dining room table.

To give you all a little insight into my crafty world I thought I’d share my Gocco experiences with you. I got my Gocco about 5 days ago and even though I’d been yearning for it for so long when it arrived I was suddenly scared to death of it. I’d read a zillion tutorials online about how to use it but when faced with the box, ink and lots of instructions in Japanese I froze!

So, last night I decided the best way to start was to just do it. I made what is called your original – it has to be something either photocopied or drawn with a carbon pen/pencil. The carbon is what makes the whole screen print process work, so you can’t use a inkjet or laser copied item, it must be a photocopier that uses toner.

Seeing I can’t draw very well, I created a digital image and photocopied it. Here is my “original” and yes, that is a Dalek from Doctor Who! What can I say, I craft geek!

Then you take your Gocco machine and you have to assemble all the parts – flash bulbs, batteries, and a mesh screen that will become your master screen. This is what the image burns onto. Here is a photo of the Gocco machine. Sorry I only got 1 angle and it doesn’t show you the screens, or flash bulb housing unit.

I was doing great up to this point. I assembled it all, put my original down, screen in place and tried it – no flash. Guess I should have checked the batteries. Turns out ones that came with it were no good. I replaced the batteries and tried again. Success! I saw the flash and could see the screen had burned an image onto it.

Now came more mistakes – I got too excited at this point and stopped reading directions – so learn from my mistakes and if you’re just starting a Gocco project – go slow.

Your original will stick to what is now your master screen. What I incorrectly did was immediately peel off the original. Then in my excitement and haste I grabbed a tube of ink and started applying it to the master screen. Well, there are 2 kinds of ink. One for cloth and one for paper. I wanted to print on paper but grabbed the cloth ink instead. It was too late once I figured out I had the wrong ink. My master was covered with it so I gave it a try anyway. Here is a print on canvas, not too bad:

Then I tried it on paper. My next mistake was to quickly put a piece of cardstock under it and press down – well, the image came out but I hadn’t thought about which direction the card would fold – so now I have a dyslexic Dalek card that opens backwards! Exterminate it!

That’s it. That was my 1st try at printing Gocco! Hopefully I’ll learn from each attempt and be printing out beautifully geeky images in no time.

Oh yes – 1 little tidbit that was a great hint I found in the Gocco group on Flickr .
My machine didn’t come with any of the official Risso cleaning solution and I did end up with ink all over the place – guess what cleans it up great? Vegetable oil! Yup, good old fashioned greasy vegetable oil. Not only can you cook with it but you can clean ink with it too!