paper endeavors...and a mystery revealed

Hey Everybody!

I'm at it again...or still...or whatever. There's been some creativity happening at my house!

Enjoy!

Rhett and Scarlett

ATC

12 Feb 2011

Collage- background is corregated cardboard from a toy truck package that was already black! White kitty is plain white watercolor paper, red kitty is velvet ribbon. I like how white kitty shows through red kitty. That was an unexpected surprise. Google eyes, silver wire and heart cutouts. Sharpie provided the lines.

Whitey

ATC

12 Feb 2011

Keep in mind that these two ATCs and whole bunch of stuff I can't even show you has already been created today and it is only 8:25 am whilst I type this post!

Collage- again we used the toy truck packaging, white watercolor paper, sharpies, wire, google eyes and our heart punch with the velvet ribbon. That one whisker went wonky after I sat it aside to dry. Must of bumped it or something!

The mystery is revealed.

A while back I was working on a secret project and I could not talk about it. I think I did mention I was working on a secret project though. But if not....well, I was working on this secret project I couldn't talk about cause there were a bunch of other people involved in this secret project as well and we were hoping to surprise one person. Boy! Did we surprise her!

The project was a baby quilt for our expectant yapper, BB. I am not a sewer at all. SEW-ER, not sewer either! lol....Anyway, I can't make proper quilt blocks, never learned how to do that, but everyone else who worked on it did. Most of those ladies have been quilting for years!

My painted kitty still fit in nicely I think. Wish I had a picture of the finished quilt to show you all....will have to see about acquiring one. This is my contribution to Sesame's new wall decor!

It's a picture I found in the book I Am A Little Cat painted in acrylics on a piece of muslin.

BB loved the quilt and it already hangs on the nursery wall. Sesame is due any day now!

Book Pendant #2

10 Feb 2011

Same as the last one. Board game covers, silver and copper metal foil tape, manilla drawing paper pages. This one isn't quite as fat as the first one and didn't need a button closure. The bale is copper wire hand twisted.

I'll be making more of these little guys! They're great for using up little scraps. There are always left-overs when cutting a page block for a book. Most of those left overs are too big to throw away but not near big enough for a big book. I didn't have to really cut the page block for the book pendants. I only had to cut the long lengths into 3 inch lengths and fold them in half for the signatures. I have used up most of the manilla paper scraps from previous books made.

I broke my crop-a-dile again. I was pitchin' a fit about it a few posts back. It didn't like that game board this last go round when it broke. JB Weld isn't as tough as I thought it should be. I'm telling you though, that is one cheaply made tool for the price! It should have been made from tempered steel and it would NEVER break! But that's neither here nor there cause ain't a thing you nor I can do about it.

Girl Book

12 Feb 2011

I started this book on the 11th. Cut the covers, folded the writing paper and put a layer of brown kraft paper on the corregated cardboard cover. I got busy with the collage on the front cover first thing when I got up last night. I do not excell at creating people. I know this. I like to give it a shot every now and then though. And Girl is the result of that shot! She made up of four differnt colors of paper. She is the same four shades of color that the paper inside the covers is. Unlined writing tablet paper in pink, white, orange and lavendar. All shapes with the exception of the hearts are freehand cut with scissors. I used markers for her features and details. The book is 5 signatures, 5 folios for a total of 100 writing surfaces/pages in the book. It's sewn in the coptic stitch with pink embroidery thread. I had to put the whole shebang under the press (two giant books) in the hallway so it would not tay wonky-like. I am pleased with the outcome overall. It's a nicely sewn book if nothing else! Though Girl looks content with her lot in life, yes?

And looky there! The book the kitty came from is what Girl is sitting on.

I told you all there was a bunch more done that I can't even show you. I have a chunky page in the making and have been busy gluing saved papers from the junkpaper drawer together to make big enough papers to be able to fold them in half to make them the size of a regular sheet of copy paper...8.5 x 11 inches. I made 25 sheets big enough to do that, then I cut them down to size so I can make a journal out of them. A hard cover journal with pages made from security envelopes, letters typed on one side of the paper, cool things that have come in the mail that lend themselves to being repurposed. I'm sure the auction company never dreamed their flyers would end up in an altered book! So nice of them to send those lovely pages my way! I'm especially fond of the security envelopes scattered over the pages....so many varieties of those! And again, so nice of those to arrive unbidden in the mailbox on a regular basis! I can't show it to you all today though cause I haven't taken any pictures of it yet.  I'll share in the next post! :)

That's all from me for now. There will be more art made today cause there is a Collage-a-thon going on over at AFA...the links up there in the corner.

Be good to one another. It matters.

Peace

831

I've been busy

Yes. I have been busy.

A chunky page in the making. The backside of it is just covered in gold paper...not sure where it's headed right now. The bookmark on top of the chunky is cut from a greeting card. I gold leafed the backside but did nothing to the front. I think it needs a gold cord.

This little book is the same size as an ATC...the pages are a quarter inch shorter all around. This one looks good, but the page block didn't glue down like it should have. It'll work, but I've made better books. The covers are an old checker board, unadorned, with red duck tape holding the spine together.

I don't think I showed you all these from December. Not all of them at once anyway.

Three Japanese stab books. Chipboard covers, manilla drawing paper pages, sewn with embroidery thread. I collaged the chipboard covers with magazine pages and glitter. 4x4 inches

Book Pendant

This little book is 1.5 x 2 x 3/4 inches. It's made out of a game board, manilla paper, kraft paper, a brass button, gold string braided into a cord, silver foil tape and copper foil tape. There's a bit of kite string holding the pages together into signatures of three pages each. 15 signatures. It's a FAT LITTLE book!

I have a couple of dotee dolls in the making that I'll show you all next time!

Be good to one another. Throw some smiles around! Get some hugs!

Peace, friends!

831

a zine is born

I was surfing youtube earlier this evening in search of tutorials for making little pendant books. I missed out on the swap, but there's no rule says I can't make one. The seed has been planted but nothing has come to fruition on that front just yet. Leaves have sprouted on that plant though. There's a tiny book block drying under the ceramic tiles on the shelf in the hallway. Cover is made. End papers ready. Just waiting till tomorrow to put it all together. I want that page block good and dry! I sewed it together while talking to T on the phone earlier in the evening.
I came across this tutorial to make an instant book. One sheet of paper, a book with space on eight pages. I have done five sheets of paper since I got out of bed at 2 this afternoon. It is now almost 4 am the next day.
Here is the proto type for the zine. My first attempt. I started the zine round about 10pm or so.



I just grabbed a sheet of book text out the box on the shelf beside my desk and folded it as the video said. My book is a bit smaller than an ATC for this page, but bigger than the next ones. This page of text came from the book Our Game, that I have altered extensively. This was the last one in that box so I needed some other text pages.
 
I really am green with envy of all the love in the air in February. 8 February is a day I no longer celebrate, but remember every year with a bit of sadness. Love drifted to another realm leaving me on my own to fend. Love is everywhere and I do feel a great deal of it in my life, but that special love of Valentine's fame, that love escapes me. So I envy you all the intimacy of love. I am as green as a toad!
 
I could have used copy paper, junk mail, brown paper bag, any ol' kind of paper my heart desired. I wanted text because there is something quite pleasing to my muse to color over words. I've no clue what the heck this story on the following pages is about. I didn't read the text.
 
There's another swap over at AFA that deals with zines. I believe that is where I found the link to the video actually. I haven't joined that swap. Probably won't because my zine doesn't adhere to the rules in that swap. But I love the idea of a zine!
 
Why the LOVE 'ZINE? Why not? Everybody needs a little love. We all know of it. I must admit that not all of these designs are my ideas. I troll google images for inspiration. The color pallet is my own. I started off sticking to a few colors for the first page then it progressed to a whole pile of markers by the last one. That last page has a color on it that none of the other pages has.

I trolled quoteland.com for love quotes that seemed appropriate.

Each is a little zine in its own right, but all go together to form a whole as well.

I still have 2 sheets folded for two more issues for volume 1.

We ventured into tatoo art somehow and these emerged. I love the little heart with wings!

I was wrong. There are two colors on this last page that are not on any of the other pages. For the first person who can tell me correctly which two colors those are, I will send you your own zine based on anything you want. Just leave me a comment with a way to get ahold of you in case you have guessed correctly.

These pages make impressive scans but this is what your little book will look like when it is folded.

You don't even need a pair of scissors to make this instant book!

I am going to sew all issues of volume 1 together into a little book. I've got a digital file of each page and can make copies of it so the original will end up on my own bookshelf with the rest of the little books I collect.

I'll be back soon with pictures of the little book in the making. It will have a jump ring so it can be worn as a necklace if one would so choose. I'm still working on what kind of closure it will have. It needs one though.

You all be good to one another. Spread some love around this month....do it on a grander scale than normal! Peace, friends!

831

books, clay and atcs

Hello People!

I'm clipping right along with the herd on the 365 Project. I am so thankful it includes all kinds of art this year!!!

I'm now done playing with paper and string for a bit. I need to find some more string to finish sewing together the laptop bag. I'm thinking some candlewicking thread I have will do the job, just need to drag it all out from the corner in the cutting room and get busy on it. Perhaps there will be a finished laptop bag the next time I make a post....

For now the cutting, folding, linking and sewing of magazine pages has come to a stand still. It remains in the corner atop the basket of glue in the cutting room. The candlewicking yarn sits on the chair beside me awaiting the needle's company.

This is the Blue Bird of Happiness graph paper journal I made in exchange for some book cloth. The covers are made from some sort of fiber board that I believe was once the back of  photo frames. I covered it with torn text from a book I destroyed when I culled the shelves back before Thanksgiving. The bird is done in acrylics atop the book pages. The inside and out of the back cover has layer of blue acrylic as well. It had graph paper and kid's writing paper for its 100 or so pages. It is, if memory serves me correctly, 8 x 5.5 inches. I sent it off to Canada this afternoon. Sewn together with orange embroidery thread in the coptic stitch.

I've been on book making spree. Owl book is made from the cover of a children's reading textbook from 1949. I painted them a shiny green with acrylics and assembled the owl out of construction paper before putting on details with a sharpie. I'ts sealed with Modge Podge. It has about 70 plain copy paper pages. Sewn together in the coptic stitch with orange embroidery thread.

I sewed the page block in this book a few weeks ago. I've no idea what that stitch is called...it produces a nice little book binding though. There are 10 signatures of manilla paper....100 pages. It's sewn with regular sewing thread and glued together and taped and and...it makes a great little book! It is the cover of this one that was giving me so much trouble. There were three attempts to make the cover before this one came about. It ended up being an old checker board covered in blue construction paper. It begs to be embellished.

I dragged out the polymer clay to finish a chunky page (which we have no picture of! I sent it on its journey this afternoon....dang!). I needed a charm for the danglies and it's always better to make a few things with polymer clay than to drag it all out and make only one thing.

They all started out as a lump of plain white sculpey. I left them in the oven a tad too long is why they are the color some of them are. I sent the hearts and the skull off with a package this afternoon. The smallest coffee cup went out with the chunky page we haven't a picture of. The other coffee mug will end up as a chunky charm somewhere down the line.

I needed to draw.

Norman

ATC

markers on cardstock

Dinner

ATC

markers on cardstock

Strawberry

ATC

markers on cardstock

Doctor Blue

ATC

markers on cardstock

That's all for today. Be good to one another!

Peace

831