Blog

I recently had a memory flash of my High School art teacher. I remembered that she used to have what are called “source books.” A source book is a thin book that is filled with nothing but artistic clipart that can be copied and used in arts and crafts . . . usually royalty-free.

In school, I never thought much about them, because they usually had to be copied and enlarged using an inaccessible copy machine. Getting an image enlarged to the right size can be tricky. Plus, where on earth do you find these types of books? Nowadays, the images can be easily scanned at high resolution right from my computer.

Of course, many source books now come with the images on CD-ROM. I doubt that I will ever use the CD-ROMs, because I’d rather be original. But, the books alone are invaluable reference materials that can inspire.

I did a search for these lost treasures on Amazon.com (tons of products), and found a publisher that creates some very nice source books. What shocked me was how many are available, each with their own theme. To begin my collection, I bought Treasury of Victorian Designs and Emblems and Banners, Ribbons, and Scrolls, both by Dover Publications.

Inspired, I am already thinking of re-designing this website. Maybe. I’m thinking of an early Americana design.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links—as an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying products.

The site updates archive is getting a complete software makeover (bye-bye, Blogger, hello WordPress) as part of the latest phase of site updates as you can see. It will be a day or two before it looks like its old self again, but it will be back to semi-normal as soon as possible.

Well, my hardback book came in today, and it’s really nice. I was expecting it to somewhat look like it was printed on a laser printer, but it does not. The pictures are clear and colorful, and the dust jacket is glossier than I expected (glossy is good).

I’ve taken on a brand-new public project. In fact, it’s world-wide. I’ve never organized anything like this before, so I hope it goes well. First, it has to get off of the ground. So far, there are only four Web sites participating. But, there’s plenty of time between now and October.

Doorless Chambers is a free online trick-or-treating event by the Disney fan community, for the Disney fan community. Guests will travel from site to site, each offering a downloadable treat.

I’m crossing my fingers.