Applying for Giant Squid

I had been putting off trying for becoming a Giant Squid (a person with 50 or more Squidoo lenses) for a year at least. I thought I was going to get there with the last "class" at the end of December but I just couldn't make myself push through it. I think I had about 25 lenses to do. I was down to nine by May and wasn't sure I could get there until I found JustBon's Blue Ribbon Squids team to join. Something about hearing that disco classic "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" every time I stopped by the team lens to add my latest to the list kept me going. And I thought I was all done with disco.

But getting the last 50 lenses wasn't enough as it turned out. (Fifty-one, actually. As usual, I can't count. At the last minute I thought I had 50, no 49, no 50...so I ended up with 51.) I had to "hand in" a lensography as part of my application. I had one but it was just a list of lenses. so with two weeks to go I decided to draw illustrations for it and make it a bit more interesting visually. And then find a way to tie it all together. It was a bit like designing a niche in the flower building at the local county fair. Anyway, it's all done and I think it turned out pretty well: An Intuitive Lensography. Now let's all cross our fingers and hope that I really get to enter the hallowed halls of Giant Squidom.

Steampunk Fashion

I decided to do a lens to get a better handle on what "Steampunk" was, a term that I kept running across in art, Second Life, and elsewhere. Much to my surprise I found that it is a cultural phenomenon, philosophy and even lifestyle that makes my life make sense. Although I probably won't ever dress in full 'Punk drag, I will look for ways to incorporate elements of it into my wardrobe.

For more see

Steampunk Fashion 101

Decorating Cookies

Decorating cookies isn't just for Christmas anymore.

Image courtesy of Smitten on Flickr.

Take a look at what you can do with luster dust and fondant:

Image courtesy of sewmuchfun on Flickr

Molded and embossed fondant:

Image courtesy of Toni... on Flickr

Painting cookies with food coloring and brushes:

Image courtesy of neviepiecakes on Flickr.

For more info and the supplies to try it yourself see

Decorating Cookies on Squidoo

Doodling as Art

Is a doodle art?

Image courtesy of Rob Court on Flickr.

I think so.

Image courtesy of valentinadesign on Flickr.

Doodle Art on Squidoo

Lavender Lemon Sugar Cookies

I found this photo of beautiful lavender lemon sugar cookies on Flickr,

which in turn led me to the When Harry Met Salad Blog. The entire entry is as lovely and well presented as a magazine article. I am featuring it on my Sugar Cookie Recipes Squidoo lens to celebrate spring.

Drawing a Rose Using Flickr and Photoshop

How do you go from this

to this


using Flickr and Photoshop?

Go to my How to Draw a Rose
Squidoo lens to find out.

White rose photo by kostas.v on Flickr.
Drawing by me.

Image Transfer - A Cool Art Technique

I first fell in love with the look of image transfer while reading about it in Somerset Studio magazine. The technique itself, though - despite reading numerous how-to articles in the magazine - escaped me. In the beginning people were using toxic substances such as acetone to dissolve the toner on copies. Or, to get a colored image they were using Polaroid pictures and expensive equipment. So although I admired the look I didn't use it.

A couple of years ago an artist friend of mine asked me just what an image transfer was. Googling to find the right information was so frustrating that I decided to create a lens as a sort of bibliography. Since then the lens has grown quite a bit and includes many different methods for image transfer as well as my own "faux" image transfer technique that I developed.

Check it out for yourself by clicking on this link: Image Transfer on Squidoo.

Image courtesy of "T" Altered Art on Flickr.