Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo Pet Sketches - Part One

Oooof, I do confess that I am behind on blogging! I took an intense art history class at the Alberta College of Art + Design (now known as Alberta University of the Arts) which kept me busy from January 4th to April 12th. Then right after that it was full speed ahead to the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. For four days and a few days afterwards, I drew 21 pet sketches. Thanks to everyone who visited me again, said hello and ordered a drawing of their pet. I was really happy with them all. Here are three below that were done after the show and I had a little big more time to work on them. Stay tuned for another post with the rest of them. Click on the picture to see the larger version on Flickr.

Going to the dogs...and cats

It's hard to believe it's been a couple of weeks since I had a blast tabling at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. I have blogged about the show before - there's something for everyone there, even Grandma! Each year the show gets bigger and bigger and this year there were a lot of changes. The one that impacted me the most was that the entire Artist Alley would be housed in the Big Four Building, far away from the main action at the BMO Centre. This turned out to be a great move, as the foot traffic was amazing. I'll write more about the show because I'm still kind of sore and tired from standing, sitting and lugging the show suitcase around, but here's a sample of some of the on-demand pet sketches that I did. They were so popular that I have to snail mail out the ones I couldn't finish. If you want to see more, check out my Instagram (calzephyr77).

It's funny - I have been tsk tsking myself over not making any ACEOs or ATCs lately...but this more than makes up for it!

A post shared by Christine 🦄 (@calzephyr77) on May 5, 2018 at 8:22am PDT

Fajita the chihuahua! Just PM me if you would like your own pet sketch. . . . #calgaryartist #calgarylife #calgaryexpo #yycartist #etsycalgary #etsyab #etsyseller #dog #dogs #pet #pets #artisttradingcard #drawing #calgaryexpo2018 #drawing #etsyab #etsyalbertateam #etsyshop #chihuahua #chihuahuas #dogart #instaart #dogstagram #purpleponyart A post shared by Christine 🦄 (@calzephyr77) on Apr 30, 2018 at 2:10pm PDT

Just finished up Daisy the cat :D . . . #cat #cats #calgaryexpo #yycartist #yycevents #calgaryexpo2018 #pet #pets #animal #artisttradingcard #drawing #etsycalgary #etsyalbertateam #etsycanada #smallbiz #etsyab #etsyseller #etsyshop #shoplocalyyc #handmadeyyc #albertaartist #imadethis #artistalley A post shared by Christine 🦄 (@calzephyr77) on Apr 27, 2018 at 2:14pm PDT

It's not too late to get a sketch of your pet if you missed me at the Calgary Expo! PM me and let's chat. . . . #calgaryartist #calgarylife #yycevents #calgaryexpo #calgaryexpo2018 #artistalley #shoplocalyyc #handmadeyyc #albertaartist #imadethis #pet #pets #etsycalgary #etsyalbertateam #etsycanada #smallbiz #etsyab #etsyseller #etsyshop #artforsale #ccee #ccee2018 #calgarycomicexpo A post shared by Christine 🦄 (@calzephyr77) on Apr 29, 2018 at 5:35pm PDT

My Fun New Custom Sizzix Die!

Today I have a very exciting blog post. It's the story of how I ordered my own die from Ellison, probably better known to crafters as Sizzix, makers of the Big Shot die cutting machine. Some of you know I used to make a lot of artists trading cards. But I always got hung up on being precise about the measurements and cutting all the cards from different materials. Thought was killing action! So, I thought, I'll just find a die and crank out tons of cards.

Well, it turns out that it's very hard to find a die with the right dimensions. If it exists, my Google-fu is severely broken. I could find rectangle dies for sure, but none were the same dimensions as an artist trading card. The closest I came up with was 2.25 x 3.25". The size of rectangles seemed pretty arbitrary. So I just happened to be on the Sizzix website and saw a Thanksgiving sale on custom dies. I sent off an email and found out that they only made custom block style and not wafer thin dies. Not a problem though! I put the order through, approved a proof and a few weeks later, my die arrived through FedEx.

I couldn't wait to try it out and got a piece of scrap paper. It cut a perfect crisp Artist Trading Card. Look at all the cards I cut from old brochures, paper scraps and maps. It made dozens of dies in minutes.

It's true that I have a digital die cutter, but it uses sticky mats, and delicate materials like thin paper and fabric wouldn't work very well. I really enjoyed the friendly and prompt service from the Ellison rep, and yes, they ship to Canada. It was wrapped in a bubble mailer inside another bubble mailer. I promised the rep that my next order would be far more exciting than a plain rectangle.
Probably something with a horse or a bird, you know me!

Now I just have to get into action and make some completed ATCs and ACEOs :-) Stay tuned!

Gift Art, Part Two!

Hello dear readers! I hope to start catching up on blogging again. September was a whirl of papermaking, being three people at once at work, and then somehow October turned into a new getting a new job and more. Crazy times!

As I mentioned in my last gift art post, if you get to know me long enough, chances are that you will get a piece of art from me! Here is a piece that I made for Pam of Always Artistic. It's a folded ACEO of her sun conure, Jessie James. I wanted to make Pam a gift for being such a great friend. I just couldn't seem to fit all of Jessie in until I thought "outside the box". It was folded and fastened with a yellow strip of paper. Thanks Pam for all you do for ACEO fans by organizing swaps and resources.

Three by Me for Under the Sea

I was unstoppable this morning and made three new ACEOs for the ACEO Challenge! They are also for sale on Etsy, from $5-10 plus shipping. They can also be made as prints upon request.

The ACEO Challenge

This is my first time entering the ACEO Challenge! Usually I always miss these deadlines, but I squeaked in with a wintry caribou. Voting starts December 10th; please check out all the lovely ACEOs and vote for your favourite! The caribou is snipped from semi-gloss heavyweight paper and glued to a card that has been painted with watercolours and acrylic.

An ACEO from Angelself

Lucky blog contest winner Kathryn posted a cute photo of the magnet she won and I remembered that I had promised to blog about an ACEO I bought from her this past spring. It seems like forever ago, but I would not want to break a promise :-)





This was the fastest Etsy transaction ever made after I read about it on the ACETSY Yahoo!Group. Not only do I love it because it's purple, but the adorable girl and bird reminded me of myself and my dear budgie Moxie who passed away two years ago. As someone who is also owned by parrots, Kathryn really gets birds! Thank you Kathryn for creating this ACEO!

Artist Trading Cards, Yay!

I know most of you are here for the ACEOs and ATCs, so I hope you enjoy this. I made it out to the artist trading card night at the John Snow House, which is the resource centre for Calgary's The New Gallery. It's the former residence of a Calgary artist, John Snow, and a cozy little space to meet and greet other ATC enthusiasts.

I really enjoyed myself. I have traded with most of the other people before and loved catching up. There were also three young ladies there and it was so delightful to trade with them. ATCs are great for young people! And even grown-ups like me. I have to admit I feel very shy testing the artistic waters around town and these nights make it easier for me to get out there by having something in common.

I have two ACEOs left from that night...and these are the ones I brought home:

This is one is my favourite, I have to admit!

How Do I Love Thee...

Here's another way :-) I feel silly this morning! February has been crazy and now it's officially mid-month. Here's my February contest for this ACEO. You don't have to guess anything this time, just leave a comment to enter and I'll draw a name at 6pm MTN on February 28 :-)

The ACEO was cut from red paper in the tradition of scherenschnitte. When I was at the farmer's market last time, I found a pair of brand new schnipstering scissors and this is my first time cutting with them. They are sure sharp and a pleasure to use!

Behind and Ahead :-)

I haven't been around much lately and homework is the usual reason. I hope everyone had a good weekend and that the week is off to a good start. I worked from home today because we had a foot of snow!

I'm almost finished up the first assignment for my Wednesday night class. I just have to check the DPI on the images and burn them to a CD. For this assignment, we had to write a proper cover letter, compile an artist's resume, build a slide list aaannnnd take 20 properly lit and adjusted photos of recent work. The quality of the work didn't matter, just the quality of the documentation. Whew! I'm hoping I did it all right as there were a lot of i's to dot and t's to cross.

My laundry area was transformed into a little photography studio with black foamcore boards, lights and my tripod. I took last Friday off to get this all done, but I was retaking photos up until yesterday. I changed my mind constantly about the photos I wanted to use and kept trying different things. Part of the problem was taking a few photos, then running upstairs to pop them into the computer to make sure the lighting was OK. Then of course, when actual laundry was being done, I had to dismantle everything and put it off to the side. At least it forced me to take some pictures of my Fibre 2D projects that I'm sure you're still waiting for! It also gave me a good excuse to take some pictures of ACEOs. Here's one that I did last year:

It's a Purple Pony!

I need a little sign that says "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" because then it would remind me to do more productive things when our wacky weather is behaving nicely! For instance, I should have taken a photo of this ACEO outdoors on Saturday when I had the chance.

I drew it a few weeks ago at an artist trading card get together graciously hosted by Studio Todorovic at Art Central. Originally it was going to be one horse, but I didn't have an eraser, so I thought I would just go ahead and make it two horses in tandem. I used Copic markers for whole card. This line of markers is just wonderful to use, unlike Prismacolors. The nibs are replaceable and they have no odour.

The original card is for sale on Etsy - I do believe it's the first new thing I have listed in a long time!

Workin' on it!

I seem to be stuck in one those weird cycles...for instance, recently I was at the library, then came home to find an email saying that my book had come in...so back to the library...then my printer ran out of cyan...so back to the Staples I went!

I noticed that I can seem to post comments on some Blogger blogs, but not others. It's rather annoying. I can't even reply to comments on my blog :-( It doesn't matter if I'm using Internet Explorer or Firefox, I can't see the comment text box. So Marlene and Carole, I have been reading your posts :-) And thanks for your kind wishes on my acceptance at ACAD :-) I'm still tickled.

Anyhow, now that my printer is all topped up, I'm working on getting the lovebird prizes out. If you haven't heard from me yet, you will soon :-) The cards look super nice - I retook the photos of the originals when we had some rare sun the other day, so I had to update all my templates. My work is never done :-)