Gentle Thoughts

Welcome to the many new subscribers! I hope you enjoy byhand. Please feel free to join the Yahoo Groups byhandartists - the more, the merrier. I hope you feel at home and join in our challenges and swaps.

I just want you to know that I haven't completely lost my marbles and know that it is not Christmas, but also know I better start thinking about it! For more information and thoughts on this months Gentle Thoughts, see Stolen Moments!

Welcome!
to Paper Pleasures
of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
where you can now purchase an excellent selection of
Gentle Thoughts Rubber Stamps.
Drop in and say hello to Georgia - what a fabulous location!

New!

• Changes to the byhand Products pages:
  To make loading these pages easier, each of the pages has been divided into a number of smaller pages. You may have to look for paper items that were formerly on the OCS page, but have moved to the Paper Joys section. Hope that helps!
• Quietfire Nib Equivalency Chart in the byhand products Calligraphy section
• The Mitchell Nib Primer, also in the
  Calligraphy Section, is now available with purchases.

Please consider helping support the byhand newsletter if you're shopping for items for your creative library. Quietfire Design is now an Amazon.ca associate. Thank You!

Here is what's in this months newsletter:

Please drop into my other website: It changes every month!

http://nourishment.usana.com

While you nourish your creative spririt by reading this newsletter, don't forget your creative body needs nourishment inside and out!

Books to Inspire

Collage for the Soul: Expressing Hopes and Dreams throught Art
by Holly Harrison and Paula Grasdal

I have bought a number of books on collage and I'm often disappointed in them. But I like this one! Perhaps because it includes some of my favourite artists within the pages or because it has a lot of 3D assemblage-type collage. Whatever it is, it's a keeper! There are lots of directions included (haven't tried to follow them, so can't comment on the details) so it's not just eye candy. Each artist has provided Creativity Tips in the section that features their artwork which makes for interesting reading!
Bye for now, I'm off to indulge in my new book!

Site Siting

You've seen the artwork of byhandartist Anne Atkinson many times in this newsletter. Anne loves to try anything, so the Altered Book Project was right up her alley.

This is her "Blues" page!
Her theme was All that Jazz and she did a fabulous job on her book. I'd have a hard time picking a favourite page, but I think it's her interpretation of the metal spread from the Altered Book Project. Anne made a staff and trebel clef out of wire. Great idea!

You can now see many of the pages of her altered book on her webpages:

http://www.saltwater.ca/anne/

Anne submitted this altered book to the Saanich Fall Fair and won first prize with it! (Do they really have an altered book category???)
Congratulations Anne!

To unsubscribe: send me an email saying 'unsubscribe'. I'll live.... (sniff)
To change your email address: send me an email with both your new and old address. Thanks!

With Season's Preparations just around the corner, I've brought in some new charms to add to your cards and artwork!

Check out the Metalworks Charms page for more information and ordering!

Holiday Collage Challenge

With the holidays just around the corner, I thought I'd get you thinking about designing your cards or other artwork sooner rather than later (perhaps that's a refreshing change for you!). So here is the challenge.

This collage was created with the new Mini-Alters, stencils, the open-star charm and a sprig of holly from my tiny holly tree - poor thing, it finally has berries and I nicked them in the name of ART!

Assemble 3 or 4 elements to create a collage with a decidedly holiday bent. The seasonal holiday is one of your choosing: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa...
It can be 3D or flat. (you could colour copy your creation and glue those on the front of a card, et voila, your Christmas card is designed!) Put out all your toys and rubber stamps and see what you can come up with! Here are some samples of what I had in mind, but it's up to your creative inclinations! Create without Limits!

Here are the rules....

• Send in a collage and your name will be entered in the draw!
• If your collage includes Quietfire byhand products in it, your name will be entered twice for each collage! (please note the product)
• If your collage uses a Gentle Thoughts rubber stamp, your name will be entered three times for each collage you submit!

Send your artwork to Quietfire Design, Box 1231 Port Alberni, BC V9Y 7M1 Canada

Entry Deadline: postmarked November 15, 2004

Oh, I suppose you might want to know what the prize is....
A $20 shopping spree in the byhand Products Pages!

Make sure you sign your artwork and add your email address to each submission!
If you wish your submission returned please include a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage - US artists, please don't attach the stamps, just include them. Thanks!

Favourite things

In the mailbag!

I received the tiniest little thank you accordion book from Moyra Peralta whose book "Nearly Invisible" I featured in a previous issue of byhand. I just had to show it to you! Thank you so much Moyra!

The cover is no larger than a Canadian or American Penny! And when you open it up, it looks like this! Don't you just love it?

Decorated Journal Series

Last month I offered the Three Faces Kit and now, I have more of those fabulous handmade papers presented in a journal project to share with you.



The Natural Women kit comes with 3 - 8 1/2 x 11" sheets of richly coloured and textured handmade paper in natural tones and fibres, plus template, lettered words and the instructions for creating this spread. You will also need some brads from your stock to complete the project as shown - I used copper. These projects were designed to fit in the Watercolour Journal.

The Coil Pocket Book!

New to the byhand family of products - The Coil Pocket Book!

This little book is made from library pockets and fitted with tags. They're perfect for decos. There are 5 pockets in each book. The two photos below are of a deco I made for the byhand Numbers Deco round robin. Each pocket may be decorated as well as the tag.  Lots of opportunity for embellishment! This is a great gift plain, but a really great gift when you decorate it for someone special!
For more details, go to:  Paper Joys

Send me your "Favourite Things" suggestions and you might see it here!

Suzanne's Schedule 2004 and 2005

Fall 2004

2005

Stolen Moments - Winged Things

We loved looking at winged things; birds, butterflies, angels. Perhaps we could take a miss on the bug population... This months Gentle Thoughts was another idea I had for using cotton twill. I took an old photo of my oldest child, scanned it and converted it into a black and white image. I spritzed the background with Eucalyptus Walnut Ink from Tsukineko, then added the the wings and the photo. Nothing is stuck down. I photographed the whole thing and gave it an oval vignette. I lettered the joyeux noel separately and added it digitally.

What a great Christmas card this would have made for his first Christmas! Wish I'd thought of it then!

I thought it might be fun to toy with using different "things" for wings. There are lots of rubber stamp wings available. Christina Lazar-Schuller often uses botanicals for wings.

What can you think of? Your brilliant idea would be perfect for the Holiday Collage Challenge!

Here are some other ideas!

If there is any information you would like to see in this newsletter, let me know. Each month I will email you to let you know the new issue is published. If you know someone who would like to receive notice of byhand, just have them email me and I will put them on the list. Bye for now and thanks for visiting!

suzanne@quietfiredesign.com
(250) 723-0321 Quietfire Design

The original title lettering of byhand was done with a Mitchell's Roundhand Nib, size 0, and Higgins Eternal Ink. Quietfire Design Rubber stamps were used to create the other designs.