Happy Mail

I'm always tickled around St. Patrick's Day to receive St. Paddy's Day cards. I'm amused to be honorary Irish 

Deb from Learning 2 Just Breathe sent me a delightful card. I loved how she used the Year of the Snake stamp on the envelope. I know things are bigger in Texas, but I have never seen a cancellation mark that large.

Her note included some fun stamps and washi tape. She also pointed out that her littlest granddaughter had applied the shamrock stickers on the front. Didn't she do a great job?

Good friend, Nan, never forgets me on St. Patrick's Day. She sent an adorably twee card. Find Your Luck and Share It. Now, she never forgets to send a card, but she forgot the stamp and the post office delivered it without stamping postage due in red letters all over it. The envelope didn't even get a cancellation mark

though the front and back have a faint orange bar code. Maybe the card was delivered by Leprechauns.

Ways to Reuse A Bread Tag or Clip

 

The plastic clip or tab that prevents bread and other baked goods from going stale quickly can be a handy, little tool.

Use it to hold the end of a roll of tape.

Use as a scoring tool

Use as a makeshift bone folder to give your paper a nice crease.

Keep bits of string or ribbon from getting tangled.

Make marks on paste paper, gesso, or texture paste.

Can you think of any other uses?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Himself and I went to see Captain Marvel. Everyone was at the opening of Avenger's Endgame so there were very few people in the theater. And just like Divers and Sundry told me, I really loved the cat in the movie. After the movie we went out to dinner.

2. I started the morning glory seeds from the Reggie morning glories from last year.

3. Misplaced my journal, but after a hunt found it with some help. Still looking for an Altoid tin of sewing needles.

4. Had fun experimenting with making paste paper with laundry starch

5. Found another 42 in my blog Labels widget. Went out to dinner with a friend and attended a meeting.

How was your week?

Gratitude Journal

Later in the month, I'll be teaching a gratitude journal workshop. Following the directions for Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal (If you follow the link there's a part 2 to the video so be on the lookout for it), I made a sample journal. Participants will be given the materials to make their own journal.

Moore's instructions were to use one sheet, 22 in. x 30 in., Fabriano Artistico, 140 lb hot-press, watercolor paper.  WAM, where I work, didn't have this paper available. I just needed a sheet of paper 30 inches wide or long or however it was measured, preferably a watercolor paper that would be soft enough to bend, but not crack when folded. I was given a 22 in. x 30 in. 250 gsm (140 lb), sheet of Rives BFK print making paper.  It worked like a dream.

The book measures 8 1/2 in. x 10 in. (Maybe I folded something incorrectly because Moore's journal measures 8 in. x 10 in. It's sewn with a simple 3 hole pamphlet stitch. I used some crochet thread I had hanging around. Before sewing the pages together, I paste-papered the cover. The Rives BFK held up well to the paste and acrylic paint. I also found a tiny, hourglass charm to use as a dangle. I sewed from the outside to the inside so I would end up with a tail on the outside to tie the charm to.

Some of the pages have flaps which if you don't like you can tear off. I'm not sure how Moore arrived at 16 pages as not counting the covers, I ended up with 18 pages to write and decorate. 20 if you count the covers. No matter, plenty of pages to keep a monthly journal. I'm using this journal for my April Friday Five Good Things that happen during the week.

I divided each page in half and used a number stencil to number the days. I used another stencil to draw the dingbats between each day.

The Rives BFK is delicous to work on. It takes colored pencil, watercolors, Tombow markers well. I've had a bit of an issue using a Sharpie pen as it smears slightly if you erase pencil lines. Oh, well. Wabi Sabi

From classes and workshops I've taught, I'm always amazed by the number of people who say things like I can't draw, I can't do that. So I printed out a coloring book image of a robin, colored it with colored pencils, and pasted it on the page. I used a photograph I printed out on the previous page. Just to show people they don't need to draw. Photos, clipart, stickers, rubber stamps, stencils, collage will all work.

This shows the robin page flap opened up as a 3 page (6 day spread).

If you enjoy making your own journals, this is a very easy book to make. Besides Fabriano Artistico and  BFK Rives, you could also use Arches Text Wove though you would have to fiddle with the measurements as the paper does not come in a 20 in. x 30 in. sheet.

T Stands for Paste Paper

Nan and I went to the Masscribes "Not in My House You Don't Event" where we made paste paper. My workstation set up with a piece of plexiglass, handout, mark making tools, travel mug of tea and a bottle of Stevia drops

The workshop was held at the Sportsmans Club in Norwood. Bystanders were decked out in their Christmoose finery.

The workshop was taught by Nancy Galligan. Her demonstration ready to show different techniques: bruising the paper before pasting, making marks with different tools, under coloring with pastels, pencils, etc. The paper used was Arches Text Wove.

If you don't know what paste paper is, it's basically finger painting for grown ups. A paste is made from flour or cornstarch. There are a ton of recipes for cooked or cold paste. The paste we used was made from Elmer's (formerly Ross') Art Paste.  Acrylic paint is mixed into the paste for color. The workshop was 3 hours long, and it went by took quickly. I realized after the workshop, I didn't take any process pictures

Marks made in the paste with a chopstick

Mat board scraps laid underneath the paper for texture. 

Paste can be applied to many papers even unwaxed butcher paper that's been crumpled. Watercolor papers react best with paste paper.

Back at home, I thought I'd take some process photos. The plexiglass is spritzed with water to hold the paper and the paper is dampened with a wet sponge

A blob of paste is plopped on the paper and smeared with the damp sponge across the sheet.

Most paste paper techniques have the paste portioned into small cups and applied to the paper. Nancy streamlined the process by dropping a wormlet of paint on the acrylic board and picking the color up with a sponge to apply to the paper. An even quicker method is to just drop dots of color directly onto the paper. 

Some of my classmates had commented that there was a lot of wasting of paint as you applied and it got wiped off. You might not want to use your professional grade acrylics. I just used some inexpensive craft paints. For even more vibrant results you can use pigment from Twinrocker.

I didn't rinse out my sponge from a previous sheet of paper so left some blue coloring in the paste. Since I was working with blue and purple paint, it didn't matter to me. If you want clear colors, be sure to rinse your sponge in between.

My cork didn't leave very good marks, but the chopstick did.

You can get some shimmer to your paste by adding some Sparkle Powder from Twinrocker

or some Pearl Ex Mica Powder. I like the sheen the powders give to the paper when dry.

Paste papers left to dry on a plastic sheet on the floor. I had draped a couple of sheets over a clothes drying rack. The paper dried  with ripples, but this can easily be ironed out from the backside or with a pressing cloth if the back is also pasted.

Paste paper can be used as decorative paper for book covers, decorative book end paper, wrapping paper, and it can be used as a substrate for other artwork.

A lot of people seem to make a Holy Grail out of paste paper. It's really quite simple and a lot quicker with the Elmer's Art Paste. It's also very forgiving. If you don't like what you did, let it dry and paste over with a different color. Be aware that pasting over is a bit like using glazes, you may see some of the previous color and marks come through.

The Elmer's recipe makes a gallon of paste. Nancy said left over paste will last 2 to 3 months and does not need to be refrigerated the way left over flour paste needs.

Have you made paste paper?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Had a visit and lunch out with Teague

2. Had a great time with Nan at the Masscribes workshops: Making paste paper and Book Binding a coptic stitch book.

3. Life in a small town. The annual Santa parade sponsored by the town fire department came by the house. It always sounds like some sort of disaster in town.

4. Still decorating. Put up new curtains in the living room

5. Got the Eldest's gifts wrapped, packed, and taken to the post office

How was your week?

Mini Planner

The Young One needed a way to keep track of her hours at work. Scribbling on a scrap of paper wasn't working as dates and times didn't always jive with calendar dates. Like me, The Young One doesn't like carrying a lot of things around, especially a purse.

Having nothing better to do early one morning, I tried to come up with a solution that would be large enough to write her hours down, but small enough to fit in the pocket of her phone case/wallet.

I started with an oak tag. It would be sturdy enough and two oak tags taped together would be wide enough to hold calendar pages and would form a booklet when folded. A scrap of red paste paper I had made was cut and glued to the outside of the oak tags. The calendar needed to be functional, but it didn't have to be dull.  Red is The Young One's favorite color. Calendar pages were reduced to 50% of their size and photocopied.

The calendar pages were held together with tiny brads and glued to the oak tag with glue dots. Using the oak tag holes as a guide, holes were punched into the red paste paper.  Red crochet thread was cut to hold a pencil in place. No excuses about not being able to write down hours.

Wed Letter Day

Back to that minimalist thing. "D" was cut from a scrap of purple paste paper I made.

Looks like an elephant got stuck in an orange. What do you see?

Red Letter Day

This is what I did with one of the sheets of paste paper I made the other day. It's a card for Lambie in her favorite color. I'm pretty sure Lambie doesn't read my blog. If you are reading, Lambie, it's your own &%&%#^ fault for picking today to come take a peek and spoiling your surprise!

I love making books and cards that can be done from one sheet of paper. Found the idea for this book at Making Books with Children

The card opens up like a plus sign with lots of space to write on the flaps inside and out.

Paste paper, Ziller's Glossy Black, Nikko G nib, stickers

Paste Paper

Yesterday, I thought I would start a project I've been composting for some time now. The first part of the project began with paste paper.

For those that don't know what paste paper is, simply put it is decorating paper with a mixture of flour paste and some sort of pigment. Or finger painting for grown ups. Paste paper usually begins with cooking the flour and water paste in the same way you would make gravy. Stirring, stirring and straining until you have no lumps. Many people have their favorite paste recipe: cake flour, rice flour and all sorts of other flours.

I've used cake flour with good success, but I'm a graduate of the Jane Jetson School of Culinary Arts. Punch a few buttons on a microwave. Ding! Dinner. So when I came across Elmer's Art Paste (formerly Ross' Art Paste), I had to give it a try.

Directions were blissfully simple. Mix the powder in a gallon of cold water and stir for 2 minutes. Wait 15 minutes and stir again. Then store the mixture in an air tight container. Btw, the ingredient in the paste is methyl cellulose. Very non-toxic. It's used as a thickener in stuff like ice cream.

I had fun making a few sheets of paper for my project. I was working in reds for my project. And then did a few more sheets to use up the paste and to have decorative paper around just in case. And then was taken by surprise.

The piece pictured is pink! So not my color, but I created it so it must be me. I like the pattern and the overall effect.

Has that ever happened to you? You created something outside your comfort zone or box?

Paste paper: Arches Text Wove, Elmer's Art Paste, Gel Medium, Liquitex Crimson and Cadmium Red Deep, Twinrocker Gold Sparkle and Pearlescent Sparkle powders.