Super Deco

This is a deco book I made for a swap on swap-bot.  It's a WTA (winner take all) swap, where one of the participants is randomly drawn to win all of the decos after they have been passed around and completed.  Unfortunately I was not the lucky swapper, so I will not be getting this deco back.  This has to be my favorite deco that I've made so far.  A deco is a small book or folded sheet of paper created by a person who decorates the cover and leaves the subsequent pages blank.  The deco is usually themed and is passed around from person to person for decoration and signing until eventually it's sent back to the originator when all the pages are full.  For this deco, I used a collage sheet from onecrabapple and the ransom letters are from LaSoffittaDiSte.  The raised dots are UV resin which cures within seconds underneath a UV LED light.  I made the base of my book with 3 plain white envelopes tucked into one another.  I'll be receiving a deco book from my swap partner to work on and then I'll pass it on to someone else in a future swap.  I'll post pictures in a future entry. 

deviantART Doesn't Care About Fat Shaming UPDATED

The other day, I was browsing the deviantART forums, which is really never a good idea because it always results in me getting royally pissed off. I ran across a thread titled "Fat Grotesque Pigs." I was appalled at the hate that was spewing from the OP (original poster). It was as if they thought overweight people were barely human. What bothered me even more was that people were jumping in and supporting the OP's hateful rhetoric. The OP was a huge bully to those who disagreed with them. I was truly shocked that in the year 2020 people are still behaving like Neanderthals. I was too angry to comment on the thread, but did report the thread to dA's Help Desk on 3/2/2020. I checked back on 3/4/2020 and the thread was still going strong. I filed another complaint the same day. Today is 3/7/2020, and no one has replied to the tickets I submitted with the Help Desk and the thread is still up. It hasn't been updated in 2 days, but why is it even still open?


 By allowing this thread to remain open and grow, dA is essentially promoting fat shaming and bullying. They have been made aware of the problem at least twice by me and have refused to do anything about it. They are allowing a group of people to be subjected to discrimination by members of their site. In the meantime, moderators have shut down a couple of threads: one because someone was bashing dA and another because someone said something about strangling someone with a mandolin string. I believe the fat shaming thread is far more dangerous than the latter mentioned thread as it could have serious ramifications on one's self esteem which could possibly lead to psychiatric issues or self harm. I stated this in my tickets to the Help Desk, but dA obviously doesn't care. This both infuriates and saddens me. I guess I've done all I can do at this point. I'll let Karma sort out the rest.

Addendum: 3/16/2020
I finally got a canned response from dA today.  The email was informing me of general guidelines on how to handle someone bullying you online.  Totally had nothing to do with my complaint since I wasn't involved in the thread.  I replied as follows:

My point, which may have not been clear because I was angry at the time, was that the thread is degrading and dehumanizing to a section of the human population.  If they were calling a specific race, gender, or sex disgusting, you would have stopped it.  You are essentially promoting fat shaming by leaving this up.  It shows that dA doesn't care when people bully fat people just because they weigh more than someone else.  FTR I wasn't involved in the thread discussion, so most of your email to me didn't apply to me.  I just saw the thread post and found it offensive.  It demoralizes a whole section of the Earth's population and you guys, frankly, look like jerks because you're allowing it to happen on your forum.  That was my point.  

Inside the Book

Here are a few pages in the altered composition book that I've been working on. First, some "King of the Hill" pop art. I used Distress Inks for the background and the stamps were hand carved by my friend, Met.

The next two pages are drawings of food that I've incorporated with song lyrics.

And finally, I found this rubber stamp in the cheap bin at JoAnn yesterday which fits with the theme of this project very well. It cost a whopping $1.19. I'm stamping it on sticker paper, cutting out the images, and sticking them to the bottom right corner of every blank page that I'm leaving for my partner to journal.

I've got a lot more pages to decorate, so I'm sure I'll be sharing more in the future. Have a beautiful weekend!

Altered Composition Book Project

I'm currently participating in a swap on swap-bot where we take an 80 page composition book, cover the front and back covers, decorate every 3rd page, and leave the rest of the pages blank for our partners to use to journal in. I'm having a great time working on this project. My front cover looks like this:

I got the taxi scrapbook paper at Joann and the collage images from the wonderful Sandy at onecrabapple on Etsy. Whenever I alter a plain notebook, I love sprucing up the sides of the pages with washi tape. This notebook had 80 pages and I was bound and determined for each page to have a different pattern of washi. I actually have enough washi where I was able to do this. This is how it turned out:

Yesterday I found some space themed stencils at Target for $1.78 on clearance. I decided to use a couple of them for my first decorated page in the altered comp book. I used Distress Ink and regular metallic stamping ink. I love the way it turned out.

I've got to decorate 25 pages in all. I'll probably add some drawings, collages, and pockets. What would you like to see?

New Geeky Printable Stickers and Spray Paint

I just listed some new geeky printable stickers in my printable planner sticker Etsy shop, Little Happy Day. They are html themed and they come in school break, vacation, and trip. Here is an example:

My friend, Jen, suggested that I make a plush spray paint can, so I did. I made it into an ornament and it is currently listed for sale in my kiddomerriweather Etsy shop.

What plushie would you like to see me make next and list in my kiddomerriweather Etsy shop? Keep in mind it can't violate any copyrights or trademarks. Please comment below. I'd love to hear from you.