Bon Appetit : Digital Collage

Quick and dirty digital collage for the Collage Circus group on Flickr.  The size is smallish, as the images were for online resolutions.

Click and visit my photostream

Collage Circus posts a collage sheet for the group on a weekly basis, and everyone can submit a digital or analog version of what they choose to do with the elements.  Digital collage for me, is a good playtime, just a low-key visual push-up.  Experienced designers will probably find my Pshop skills really poor, but I'm really a rank amateur at this part of things.

 I loved the perversity of the crowned pig right next to the ham loaf recipe in this case.

Credits:

Pig in crown - kellyKautz
Mushrooms - art-e-ology
Background - magpiearts
Hamloaf recipe - sassyarts
Background - magpiearts
Wild roses- t42goller

Rosewood font
Open Source brushes and Custom shapes

Shabby Chic Hedgehog ACEO cards

So, in the interest of getting over my stamping weirdness, I entered a Shabby Chic challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show

Some fast fun - these shabby chic hedgehog cards are digitally collaged (vintage nature illustration and papers from The Graphics Fairy) , hand embellished with inks and with a vintage millinery flower.

I'm leaving them blank mostly - but I added an example of how they can be made more awesome.

and yes, these are available at the paperyum shop.

Supply Side Fridays: The Epson R2000

I'll have a more unboxing-like feature on my printer at a later point.

Let's look at this quickly in overview.

I had some scratch, dedicated purely to a new printer. I knew I was going to get an Epson.  I went back and forth over which one, the 3800 or the 2000?

I realized that the 3800, while it is the better machine in terms of specs, is really just MORE machine than I need. My work - is generally small. If someone needs a large print, that's where I can enlist one of the outsourcing houses - I will probably never want to get into >22 inches for reproduction on an Etsy scale.

The footprint of my printer is pretty massive, and it has to live in my bedroom.  I can't imagine inviting the EVEN BIGGER 3800 in to stay.  The 2000 is a rollicking beast that vibrates like a washing machine, is picky about paper loading somerset velvet till you want to shout, and makes simply GORGEOUS archival prints that make you forget the pain immediately.

A printer is a tool, a medium, like any other, with a learning curve. I'm just getting started. However, one thing that also sold me on the 2000, is that a full set of ink can be obtained on Amazon for 30 some-odd-dollars.  That's the real Epson pigment inks - less than a refill on my crappy old HP all-in-one.  Wow!

One area of concern, is that the feeding process is kind of like hitting your head on the wall over and over. The art papers have to be fed through the back and the printer rarely wants to grab hold and play nice on the first try. I've heard that the feed issues are better in the 3800, but I'm fairly confident that this is NEVER a fun smooth process until you've lived with the machine a while.

As for inks? Man, they're beautiful.  And the detail that shows with a simple 600 dpi file is amazing. I think this machine is an incredible acquisition for any semi-pro or small scale pro and I am really glad I have it.  There is so much that an artist can do with this tool.  I'm going to be playing with the scrapbooking paper (acid free 2 side print capable) as a way to use my own works in mashups and collages and re-scaled formats, then reprinting them as ATC's and other works.

Here's to the beginning of a beautiful relationship.  The damage isn't too bad with the Epson rebate, either, keep an eye peeled for those.