Where Do I Get My Art Supplies???

I have my living room packed full of art supplies which actually leaves my family no room to live. I know it's not fair, but I think we need a bigger house or maybe I'd better come up with a better storage system.

Some of my supplies come from Dollar stores which are amazing and have the most extensive collection of products for Scrapbooking and Altered Art. There are also 2 very cool antique malls here in Edmonton that have great supplies of ephemera and odds and ends.

These are stores I go into quite often:

Treasured Memories - 5218 - 86 Street

http://www.treasuredmemories.typepad.com/

They have an incredible amount of products, it's well set-up and I manage to always spend too much money there. They have lots of chipboard shapes and most of Tim Holtz stuff and an amazing amount of papers with a great sales bin section.

Scrap-A-Lot - 9218 - 51 Avenue

http://www.scrap-a-lot.ca/storeinfo.html

They have some things Treasured Memories don't and there are lots of embellishments to find.

Western Education Activities - 12006 - 111 Avenue

http://www.westerneducational.com/

This store has the largest supplies of rubber stamps and inks in the city. It's awesome. Take lots of money with you.

A good place to get cheap antique books you don't feel guilty about ripping pages out of is The Bookseller at 9562 - 82 Avenue. They have a section in the beginning of the shop where every book is 50 cents and I have bought modern coffee table picture books that were once $45-75.00 all the way to an 1890 almanac with perfect yellowed aged paper. And for 50 cents!

I get my paints (acrylics) at Michaels Crafts.

My framing is done at Colours Art & Framing, 10104 149 St & 10660-105 St in Edmonton. http://www.artistsupplies.com/Index.htm

It is done by the lovely Linda who is the quickest framer and knows her stuff. (She's THE BEST!!!) She is great for picking the right frame for your art piece if you're not sure yourself. I also buy all my canvases there.

As for my online purchases, I have two places where I get really cool stuff at:

Art Chix Studios

http://www.artchixstudio.com/

Silver Crow Creations

http://www.silvercrowcreations.com/

Lastly, I have a huge collection of clip art disks and Dover clip art books with thousands of Victorian pics and other interesting themes. Some were purchased through:

Amazon Books

http://www.amazon.com/

and

Chapters Books

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/

Gothic Collage Art

I was very fortunate today to meet Ben Coxworth from CHUM TV. He interviewed me for an ACCESS network show about everything Goth. I was the artwork part of it. I was able to show off my art and answer some very good questions from Ben. He had a Goth band and London Influence Fashion Emporium store to interview also. It sounds like it will be a fun show, especially if you are into the Goth scene.

The show is tentatively airing on May 14th at 6:00 pm and 11:00 pm, GMT on ACCESS which is channel 9 in Edmonton. There will also be the same episode airing on the 15th at 12:00 pm.

If you are interested in any of my pieces, please contact me through this site. They are waiting for a good home!

Time to Drag Out the Art!

Eeeeeewwwww, so bad I am. I can't believe I haven't written anything since last year. Shame on me. I am still unemployed, a couple more dear friends have passed on, and I am still plucking out my art works, one by one.

Probably plucking isn't a good word. Creating, then. I am going to show you some of my art which is mixed media collage with acrylics, paper, found objects, antique ephemera, pencil crayon, inks, and god knows what other stuff. I do want to get around to selling them, I just don't know how to do complicated HTML stff and create a merchandising web site.

My husband is very supportive of my art which is a positive thing. I don't know what my son thinks because he is a pipefitter who likes playing video games that kill people and listening to death metal. He is a one-answer person who keeps most of his thoughts to himself. That's OK, that's who he is. I know he thinks I should have psychiatric help when it comes to the gruesome doll babies I created. My step-daughters seem pretty accepting of everything, but they are far more open-minded.

I think I will show you my gruesome doll babies along with my artwork. (only 2 of them, there are more)