I do not know how over six months have gone by without posting to my blog.  I think that is an all time record.  Of course I haven't updated my website either.  The good news is that I have new original art work!  Some of which is in my Etsy store.

A new Scrap-zine, issue #6 called "BLOOM".

And if you can believe it we are almost done with issue #7 which is themed around "monarchs".  Butterflies, crowns and such.....I'm excited.

Check out Bloom in my Etsy store.

YEAH!!!

It has been way too long since I posted.  I've been busy and now with Halloween a week away it will be full holiday press after that.

Christine and I finished our special edition of {S}crap-zine.  It is chock full of wonderful surprises and some really in-depth projects this time.  It is a bit more expensive then our normal zines but I think you'll understand why when you see everything that is in.

Get yours HERE

{S}crap Zine is a collaborative art, scrapbook, mixed media zine from Amy Steinberg (www.amysteinberg.com) and Christina Olsen (www.scraplovers.com)

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Here we are, the beginning of September and a beautiful new zine. It has been a year since we started making our little zine, three months since the eco issue and we continue to love assembling each and every one. Over the summer we took some time to focus on a special one year anniversary edition encompassing our very favorite things. We've been culling our private collections, visiting our favorite stores and assembling this chunky, chunky, chunky zine. Matter of fact this zine is SO chunky it doesn't stay closed and instead insists on popping open and laying splayed out. We assembled lots of stuff but didn't realize exactly how much until we started assembling the pieces together in a re-purposed hard bound book. (Empty it after you've finished the projects, take out the goodies and you have a wonderful book skeleton to embellish.)

This zine includes five projects, near and dear to our hearts. We've included supplies you need to try some of the techniques, done some of the work to get you started on a project and great instructions. Really, this zine has something for the artist, sewer, crafter, bookbinder and paper person.

So, what is really included? Check it out.

* Over 20 pages of special papers including Italian, Japanese, Indian, vintage and new. We tied them lightly with a pretty ribbon in the center of the book so no creases and ready to use in your art.

* Encaustic instructions with a cake of damar resin wax and wooden block (Is encaustic right for you?)

* A pocket full of vintage papers, handmade papers and images for a collage project and challenge

* 11" x 8 1/2" sewn canvas for collage project

* Bookbinding instructions, chipboard - ready to embellish and add your own signatures

* Creating a canvas box instructions and layout

* Bauble bag (nut bag) chock full of stuff. Vintage buttons, jewelry findings, funny little baubles, milk tops plus other stuff...

* Collagraph printmaking and chipboard to make your first plate

* Ribbon card with three Midori satin, silk and wide samples. About a yard each.

* A hardback book structure for re-use

* A few other surprise goodies

We hope you love it as much as we do. The journey we took getting this zine put together was wonderful and we hope yours is too.

Amy & Christina

Over the last couple of months I've been reading a lot of zines.  I've become acquainted with the "perzine" and continue my quest to read every art zine I can lay my hands on.  I've amassed quite a collection and was thinking today I should share some of my favorites.  AND, if I get really industrious maybe I'll write a review or two.  I'm not so sure about the review part though.  I mean seriously?  Who am I to review a zine? 

Anyway.....my favorite writer of a perzine to date is definitely Michele Roldan-Shaw.  She writes a tasty little morsel of goodness called "Mezcolanza".  Before reading her zines I didn't realize there was a zine genre called a perzine so while I had experimented in buying a few non art related zines I'd only found a couple that I really enjoyed. 

So, Michele writes Mezcolanza and while I haven't read all of them yet I have purchased every issue she had available on Etsy.  I've blown my book budget!  Seriously though reading Mezcolanza has been better then buying anything at the book store and the price is better!  For years I've lamented how much I hate buying a book that seems like it will be good only to get 20 pages in and feel like I am dying a cold slow death.  I just can't read most the stuff on the best sellers list.  Irritating, usually not well written and sometimes the minutia will cause me to dry heave.  O.k., maybe that is a bit dramatic but only because I love to read and just haven't found anything since Harry Potter.  Yes, I like Harry Potter books... well written, imaginative and interesting.

Back to Mezcolanza.  My favorite issue so far is definitely the Mezcolanza Number Eight (The Great Fish Taco Escape).  Not only did I laugh out loud while reading it in public I also was so engrossed I didn't put it down for two days while I hauled it around in my purse reading in snippets.  After finally finishing I spent the next 2 or 3 nights dreaming about people and places in the zine.  I'm not giving away anything here because you'll have to buy it yourself.  Lets just say Michele is a really good writer and The Great Fish Taco Escape is funny and interesting.  At least I think so.  

From Michele's description; "56-page zine, B&W with full color foldout cover.
This is the adventure-travel Mezcolanza that started them all. The author sets out for Veracruz, Mexico on a spontaneous hair-brained quest to beat the winter blues by eating fish tacos. Topics include shamans, ticks, ghost tales, tarantula-infested beach huts, horseback riding through the jungle in search of waterfalls, excruciatingly hot chilies, el carnaval, the excesses of Mexican appetite and a very attentive guardian angel. Well-concealed cash accepted."
 
No, Michele did not pay me to write this nor did anyone else.  I'm just enthralled with my little perzine find and reveling in reading.  

Now, go buy your own copy..... I highly recommend any of her zines.  

So it seems that it has been awhile since I have been here to my blog.  I haven't gone away I am just focused on other things and what I've learned about blogs is they can suck the life out of you.

I have been working on a new zine called "ecoette" and it will be available in my etsy store in a day or two.  Just a few tweaks I want to work out.

Here are some pics of the cover and the first page.   This first issue is all about the ocean!  Yeah!  Check my etsy store to read more about it and see more pics.

www.amysteinberg.etsy.com

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. the canvas project 3 Hello! We are pleased to announce the opening of sign-ups for The Canvas Project 3. This time we are sending three 4x4in canvases and a list of 3 user submitted words for you to visually represent. Experimentation and thinking outside of the box is the name of the game. The final outcome is to document the project in two ways, including an exhibition at our Brooklyn, NY space and in a book. We are so excited to do this project again with everyone. It seems like everyone really pushes the limits of their creativity for The Canvas Project, and we can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Click here to check it out and sign up! Sincerely, Shane and Steven Other projects you can participate in The Sketchbook Project Monthlies: April Sign up by April 30th! The Sketchbook Project Monthlies are similar to the big Sketchbook Projects but without all the pressure. Each month there is a theme voted on by the community and then you will have two months to work on your book. Sign up here. The Sorry Project Say your sorry with art! We all have a lot of emotional baggage that we are looking to get rid of. This is your chance! Create small works of art (doodles, notes, or letters) that help you move on. Sign up here. Collecting Objects: Yesterday Art with non-traditional materials We want you to go out, collect objects and the create art work using only found, non-traditional materials. Sign up here. Around the community Mail Me Something Book Preorder your Mail Me Something Book! posted by: shane Sketchbook of the month club A Sketchbook at your door every month! posted by: shane Get inspired! Check out other Art House community members art work to get inspired for your own art work! posted by: Steven 10 x Coffee I save the cups from my morning coffee and turn them into people. posted by: jopole You are receiving this email because you signed up for our mailing list via our website or have participated in one of our projects in the past. Unsubscribe amy@amysteinberg.com from this list. Our mailing address is: Art House Co-op 201 Richards St #16 Brooklyn, NY 11231 Our telephone: 404-939-7667 Copyright (C) 2007 Art House Co-op All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend

After months of avoiding my blog(s) I thought I should probably write something to tell people that I have not abandoned it.  Instead I am taking a breather of sorts.  Too much technology makes some of us grumpy and overwhelmed.  That would be me.

You can see my occassional post to Twitter under @amysteinberg .  Occassionally I'll post something that might be interesting here.  Maybe not.

The short of this post is to say that I am still here and will continue with this blog .... someday.  Hopefully sooner rather then later.

If you are interested in what I am doing I'd suggest checking out the following video.

I joined the Art House Co-op, Sketchbook Library a couple of months ago and was given the word "space".  I've been stumped. 

There is space between us.
There is space in space.
There is space around things.
There is space in that hole in my heart.
There is space between here and there.
There is infinite space.
There is space in constellations.
There is space between teeth.
There is an unlimited expanse of space.
There is conceptual space.
There is empty space.
There is full space.

I got my blank sketchbook and there it sat, empty.

Until today.  I took it apart, painted my own pages and will now fill them.  Original work.  New work.  Can't wait.  Stay tuned I'll post here when it is done and it is going to have to be done in the next couple of days because its due by the 4th of January.

It is with glee and happiness that I announce my new ART ZINE.  I've been wanting to do an art zine since the first time I saw Teesha Moores zine in a PaperSource about 3 years ago.  Now that I am working on a collaborative zine with my friend Christina called {S}crap I was just all that much more inspired to come up with a zine using my original art and a few words. 

A couple of weeks ago Chris had a art day at her house and about 15 ladies showed up and we all got to be artsy and crafty together.  I pulled out some papers I'd been making and just started to doodle with my water color pencils.  From those 16 pages came my zine called "I am tired of pretty".   Such a long story.

Last spring I'd submitted a piece of my work to an online gallery and was refused.  I was mad.  My art just doesn't seem to fit so much of the cute and/or clean art you find in places like Etsy.  So I decided to make a blog called I am tired of pretty.  I did and I posted like 3 times.  It was suppose to be a place to rant about the inequity of not being published or something like that.  The graphic on the top of the blog is from an original journal (zine) made in the 1940's.  I added the text but I love the graphic and it is soooo opposite of all that cute pretty stuff. 

Anyway, now I have an art zine and I decided to call it I am tired of pretty and it is about me.  Mostly it is pictures of my art but there are a few words, here and there. You can buy one in my Etsy store!

I am on the zine hook now so look for more to come.  The new issue of  {S}crap is available in my Etsy store so pop over and grab one of those too!

I stayed up late last night and updated my website too - http://www.amysteinberg.com - a few new pieces and other stuff.

xoxo

I swore I would write everyday when I moved over to this blog.  A month later and I've only posted once.  Not for a lack of thought but more about not knowing which one or two things to write about on any given day. 

I've also been flumoxed by how to re-design this blog.  I want it to reflect my art and where I am right now in the world.  I want to show my collaborative work from {S}crap Zine, my very own new art zine about flowers and a bunch of other stuff I'd like to share.   So in the short term I am going to share the new {S}crap Zine.  Then on another day I'll share other things.

{S}crap Zine

To our surprise and great delight the first issue of the {S}crap Zine was hugely successful and sold out in one week.  We honestly didn't have any idea how the zine would be received and were really just doing something we both found fun and rewarding, regardless if it sold.  (Don't tell our husbands!)  What we have learned so far is that sometimes when you love doing something it can be rewarding in more than one way.

With that said we are excited to say the next zine is in the works and will be shipping November 30, 2009.  Volume 2 of {S}crap Zine is all about numbers and is limited to 38 copies.

Counting numbers, sewing numbers, cutting numbers, using numbers as design elements, ways numbers are used in our daily life and numbers as a source of inspiration.  Why numbers?  Because the new year will be upon us and with a new year comes more wonderful numbers including calendars and dates and oh, just so many things!  We also decided on a cool wintery color palette and have added more projects, more bits &  pieces, more recipes, more, more, more and more!

Here is a list of contents (not complete as we are still adding/changing things.):

Journal page - Using numbers and design elements in your journal
Coffee journal - inspiration for your daily cup of coffee or tea.  Taking 5 minutes during your morning ritual to document your life or whatever inspires you
Collage sheet - vintage and antique calendar elements
Vintage bingo game - reproduction of vintage bingo instructions, cards and game piece with with project using air dry clay to make bingo markers
2010 Calendar - Three months included, access to download additional 9 months
Vintage music sheets + a little about the music & math
Stencil - You'll get easy peasy instructions on how to make pretty stencils plus one stencil ready to cut (How can the number 5 be used as the basis of design to create a flower stencil?)
Acetate #10 envelope
One "almost" house size number to use in your art. Whatever "your" art is.
One sheet of woven raffia'ish type paper/fabric with assorted embellishments (buttons, ribbon, etc.)
Instructions on making a fabric flower project
Instructions for using 2 part epoxy resin to make a cool & fun piece of numbered jewelry (with bezel?)
+ bits &  pieces - An assortment of treasures to inspire and be used
One cover with interesting technique on using modeling paste & corrugated cardboard with instructions
One cover of corrugated cardboard and a stenciled number (probably a surprise too)
Three sheets of card stock with a project to make a book signature and bind yourself
One recipe
Some tape
Some more ribbon
Three staples
At least one spelling error, maybe two if we are lucky
One geometry word find

How cool is all that?  More projects, more stuff!

We are pre-selling a few copies to get things kick started.  We are also hoping this will give everyone a jump on adding the {S}crap Zine to their list of holiday purchases for artsy crafty friends or yourself.  And as crazy as this sounds we are already thinking about a February issue.  But, that is a surprise and we aren't ready to talk about that yet. 

You can purchase your numbered copy in Amy's Etsy store now and your {S}crap Zine will ship on November 30th.  AND, if you would like the Zine delivered directly to a friend as a holiday gift just mention in the comments section during checkout and I'll contact you for a mailing address.

Enjoy the creative journey because it is really the journey that counts.