secretterrabite

I am planning to do a lot less swaps from now on. In January 2010 I am starting teacher training (gulp) which will take 2 years and in February I will begin a 3 month fiction writing course, so will have hardly any free time at all and need to spend what I have with my little girl. I've had so much fun on here trying new crafts and have made some good friends in the UK and across the pond. I will of course, finish all of the swaps I am in and will hopefully have time to do a couple of extra ones in the school holidays.

I am a mixed media, photographing, book-making, printmaking, book-filling artist and writer.

I was a freelance journalist in London for 11 years. I finished a Graphic Design degree in England in the Summer of 2009.

I like to play with "toy" camera's. I love the weird effects and colours created by hand, not photoshop. I am a total techno-phobe.

I have made 7 printed books through Blurb including one about my workbooks and my portfolio which contains a variety of different art/graphics/handmade books.

I love to receive anything I can stick in my workbooks: stickers, ticket stubs (even if you found them on the ground), pens of any kind, especially bright colours. YELLOW is the most gorgeous colour in the world and looks fab with black. I did a graphics degree so love lettering and alphabet stamps. My current art craze is making my own stencils and carving stamps. I am a selotape addict, coloured masking tape, deco tape... any kind of tape will love to live in my workbooks.

I would love speedball carving blocks and film for Polaroid 600 and Ozone film which I can't get here.

I love zines, especially personal ones and art zines. I have just made my first art zine about filling journals. I printed 25 copies and gave them all away. I hope to do a personal zine at some stage when I have the time.

I am always on the hunt for inspiration, I like reading about artists and exhibitions, wherever they are. I'm into anything japanesey, french or with foreign language lettering.

If you are in Australia, I love Frankie magazine, which Borders have now stopped stocking over here.

I sometimes work to themes, my current favourites are seaside and urban decay and my big obsession is towers. I love making stencils of all the tiny windows. Any tower photo's or magazine cut outs would be treasure as this is turning into my next big project. Where I live it's flat, houses have a downstairs and upstairs, so images like the NYC skyline blow me away. I would love pictures of blocks of flats from your town, they are story inspiration. I love to imagine who lives behind the windows.

The only thing I really don't like getting in swaps, is itsy bitsy pieces of scrapbooking paper, and stuff in pastel colours. (I have bad memories of a peach ra-ra skirt in the 80's.) I don't do whimsy.

I'm allergic to nuts, I can't use standard toiletries or make-up because of skin allergies. And anything scented is wasted on me as I have no sense of smell.

When I'm not being Mrs Maker, I am a single Mum to a four year old little girl who loves anything to do with Barbie or Tinkerbell. She dances and dresses up like a Princess or a ballerina every day after big school. She is as creative as her Mum and has her own journal which she fills with collage, stamping and stickers. She hates vegetables and would live on crisps, chocolate and jelly sweets if I would let her.