Origami - What I Learned on the Internet Today

I have a habit of being easily distracted.  Especially when I'm procrastinating!

Today's adventure began when I needed to look up a grammar question which took me to Quora [as easily a time-sink as YouTube] which took me to this:

Can Origami be used for something else?

which led to The Modern Science of Origami.

Too cool!

Red Bear's Teacher-Daughter might be inspired by this, I'm feeling tickles on the edges of my comprehension, in the olden days of complete brain function I could have had some fun with this.

AAJ One - Challenge Index

Altered Art Journal Number One

This is the story of our first foray into altering an old book and using it as an art journal. We've done weekly Skype Craft sessions for a few years now and this first AAJ was started just before Red Bear moved away.  We did the first challenge together, she moved and then in the background of our weekly Skype Crafts was our monthly AAJ challenge.

Ugly Paper Competition - The Story

AAJ1-01 Challenge: Coffee Filter Flowers, Backyard.

AAJ1-02 Challenge: A Postcard

AAJ1-03 Challenge: A Quilt Design

AAJ1-04 Challenge: Dried Leaves and Angled Pockets

AAJ1-05 Challenge: An Ugly Paper Competition

AAJ1-06 Challenge: Fredward, Glitter, Ribbon.

AAJ1-07 Challenge: Blue Paint, "January"

AAJ1-08 Challenge: Purple, Felt, Hearts.

AAJ1-09 Challenge: Red, Ric Rac, A Bead Dangle, Stitching.

AAJ1-10 & 11 Challenge: Orange, Yellow, A Window, Fabric, A Border.

AAJ1-12 Challenge: Green, Gratitude Grid

AAJ1 The Covers

Zoo's AAJ1 on Flickr

Zoo's Flickr Albums

AAJ1 Back & Front Covers

We did this WRONG.

Learn from our mistakes.

This is what you are supposed to do and what we've done with every altered book journal since.

1. Decide if you want to have a hollowed out storage space at the back of your book, or even if you want to leave that option open.

2. Flip through the book.  Every 10 pages, remove 2 or 3 pages.
Yes, this could take a long time.

If you're leaving the back third to half of the book as is to make a hollowed spot, just do the page removal process on the first half of the book.

3. Do it again until the book looks very thin and "gap-py".

4. If you're doing the hollowed out storage section, do that first.  With the wear and tear of crafting in the first half of the book, you'll have a good idea how sturdy your "box" section is.

Or, ya know, don't.  I can tell you that I was very uncomfortable digging out the back of my book with all my finished pages in it.

Because we did it wrong, by the time we had 12 Challenge pages done, the book was already getting too thick.

oops - guess we should have pulled some pages out

One of us had the idea to hollow out the back half and use it to store all the cards and things we'd mailed to each other over the year.

I don't remember if we glued the pages before the hollowing or not.  I think we did not.  I just marked an outline of where I wanted the sides of the box to be, grabbed my craft knife and started digging.  This was my least favourite part of the whole book.

I do know that I glued and double-sided taped several pages together to be the "lid" of the box.

The covers

Front Covers
Left = Zoo
Right = Red Bear

I had an old calendar that had these beautiful floral photos printed on black backgrounds.  I chose two pink and Red Bear, of course, chose two red calendar pages to hide the original cover of the books.

I had a mask/stencil that I put on my front cover with the idea of spraying it, changed my mind, pulled off the stencil and was left with what you see.  I stressed for a long time trying to figure out a way to fix it until I just decided to let it be.  Lesson Learned.

Left = Zoo
Right = Red Bear

Under my back calendar cover, I glued a length of bias tape to use as a closure method when the journal was finished.
You can see that after a year of playing, the bias tape began ripping up the photo from the bottom. [left pink cover, bottom left quarter]

All of the edges of both of our books are worn.  Partly because it was glossy photo paper and partly because these books spent a year bopping around our craft rooms.  Getting crafted in, getting stuff piled on top of them, in my case for sure, tossed onto the floor to make room, having wax and parchment paper wrapped around them as protection from paint or other crafting processes. Red Bear's book also travelled across the country at least twice.

There is no way that just looking at a finished book will exact anywhere near the amount of wear and tear these books went through.

Do the covers last.

AAJ1 Challenge 12 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

June 2013 Challenge
Must include:

• green
• grid
• what we're grateful for

Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

This challenge, Green Gratitude Grid, completes six challenges based on the colour wheel and is our last challenge of AAJ#1.

Obviously at the time we were photographing both our albums together I hadn't finished my page.  Here is a picture of my finished page.

Zoo's finished Green Grid Page

AAJ1 Challenge 10 & 11 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

April and May 2013 Challenge
Must include:

• There shall be a window between the two pages. 
• April is orange with fabric.
• May is yellow with a border.

APRIL
Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

Red Bear had picked up some natural ephemera on one of her walks.  She used one of them to paint the meandering word tracks on her left orange page and around the window on her right orange page.

I just figured out that her bird is sandwiched between two layers of translucent-something and is in fact suspended inside her window.  How have I not known that all these years?

I decided to have fabric and borders on both pages. Used my Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle and Scalloped Oval dies. The fabric elements are the scalloped ovals under each flower page and the text frames on the window pages.

The same fabric was used for both months. April fabric was coloured with acrylic paint and fabric medium for the orange pages. This also stiffened the fabric so it went through the die cutter easily.

My April Butterflies: I wet the butterfly body and molded it around a reed. I held it in place with a binder clip while drying to give the body a cylindrical shape and to pinch in the wings against the base of the body.

The body was coloured with black and cold grey PITT pens and highlighted with GAC.
Gluing my die cut tissue paper window frames was an exercise in patience.

MAY
Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

This was when Red Bear fell in love with spreading chalk around a Versa-mark/clear stamp inked image and rubbing the chalk into the ink and spreading it over the page.  She pretty much uses this technique every chance she gets now!  I think she learned this in her card class or maybe from a YouTube video.

My May Butterflies: Once glued to the page I used a Sakura Gelly Roll Black Glaze pen to define the butterfly bodies and when that was dry, covered it with GAC. [Inkadinkado Glossy Accents - Clear]

The text frame is 100% cotton fabric, pre-washed, with a fusible backing attached then die-cut with a Spellbinders rectangle die.

Gluing tissue paper frames on Flickr, orange, yellow.

AAJ1 Challenge 9 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

March 2013 Challenge
Must include:

• Red Ric Rac
• stitching
• a bead dangle

Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

In my notes for this page I have listed "new skills learned":
how a crimp bead works
how to build a dangle on a headpin
how to clip and form a loop with a head pin.

Doing research for the phrase "In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb", I learned I had it backwards all these years.

AAJ1 Challenge 8 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

February 2013 Challenge
Must include:

• red,
• purple,
• felt,
• hearts

Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

What can I say, the painted felt hearts on my page look worse in real life than in the photo.  My die cut words look much cuter though!

AAJ1 Challenge 7 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

January 2013 Challenge
Must include:
- Blue paint

Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

We were learning how to use and experimenting with gel mediums. Kidlet and Red Bear noticed that I had 3 different tubes of acrylic blue paint. We each picked a blue and played with matte, iridescent and glaze mediums in our practice books. The challenge then became "do a January page with your blue".

Mine doesn't look very blue you say?  

More like a black blob?  

Well, yes.  Yes, it does. 

See the evolution of my S.A.D. page on my Flickr album here.

I think this was one of the first times my propensity for planning became glaringly evident.  I recall eye rolls from my daughter and perhaps an exasperated "oh just slap some paint down!' Underneath the black blob, there are a lot of different elements that you can see on Flickr.

"Since my Dad died, and after doing two complete dark seasons in the High Arctic, January has always been a hard month for me emotionally. January is cold and dark.  The only good thing about January is that it ends.  There is a light at the end of the "winter tunnel", when it is over, the worst of winter is behind us."

My theme became Seasonal Affective Disorder. Cold, dark with lots of snow and stars.

My S.A.D. Flickr album

AAJ1 Challenge 6 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

December 2012 Challenge
Must include:

• Fredward the Bear [a stamp and die set]
• cream and #69 paper
• ribbon

Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

Before Red Bear moved away, we took the pad of paper we used for the Ugly Paper Competitions and divvied them up into three portions. On the back of each piece, we numbered them so we could refer to them accurately over long distances.

You can tell my "snow glitter" was old and yellowed. No problem, I just dubbed him a "Churchill Bear". Google it, you'll see polar bears are mostly yellowed in real life.

Image © SteveBloom.com

The snow under, around and on top of my Fredward is "most of a bottle of Stickles 'Frosted Lace'", according to my notes.

AAJ1 Challenge 5 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

November 2012 Challenge
Must include:

• a solid coloured background paper in the purple family
• 3 Ugly Papers see the bottom book for the biggest samples of each paper

My notes say: "Kidlet picked the mottled paper, Red Bear chose the purple flowers and I picked the orange drops on the yellow background.  If I recall correctly, we each chose a piece of Ugly Paper independently of the others and I think we were all a little aghast when we saw the three selections together.

Top Book:
Left page = Kidlet, Right Page = Zoo
Bottom Book: Red Bear

Apparently, this was an impromptu Ugly Paper Competition/Skype Craft.  The text on my page reads:

Nov. 4, 2012, Tentative Plans + a little Serendipity and it all comes together.
I advanced my alarm clock setting by an hour, but forgot it was "fall back" time change. When I caught Kidlet's phone message I was still in time, so she came to visit.
Kidlet showed me again how to Skype and how to leave a message.
We don't know why Red Bear turned her Skype on in the middle of the afternoon but we were able to have our first Skyped Ugly Paper Competition. Oh, and our first foray into the world of die-cutting and embossing.

AAJ1 Challenge 4 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

October 2012 Challenge
Must include:

• Angle Pockets
• Tags with Dried Leaves
• 12 x 12 bordered paper - Ugly Paper #63

Top Book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

We had to make four angled pockets with a sheet of 12 x 12 paper, include a tag with dried leaves in each pocket.

What has become a fall theme is using up some of my vast collection of dried leaves.  Why do I have so many dried leaves you ask? -shrug- I dunno, ... reasons I guess.  It's one of my "things".

Red Bear has an altered art How-To book, when she reads this she can edit in the title as I don't seem to have it marked down here.

I seem to have had some issues looking at the bottom right corner of my book, the top one. 
We've both subsequently added to the original challenge.  Red Bear added tassles and I added more tags.

AAJ1 Challenge 3 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

September 2012 Challenge
Must include:

• A quilt design on cream, deckle edge watercolour paper card
• The opposite page has a chalked border

Note: these were originally part of an Ugly Paper Competition.

Top book = Zoo, Bottom book = Red Bear

Text by Zoo
I found this design in one of my craft magazines but no one else was inspired by it.  It took forever to figure out the dimensions because the card base was a different size from the magazine. 
This would have never been finished because Red Bear and Kidlet were ready to leave and I'd barely started glueing the pieces on.  Red Bear insisted that they stay until it was done.  This was one of the first big lessons in "how to use double-sided glue tabs". After they left, I played with my zig-zag stitching stamps.

Fast Forward to January 2013.  Red Bear is visiting and we are bringing our Journals up to date.  As we were pondering what to do for a few of the months, my eyes wandered up to the "Ugly Paper Competition Display" in my craft room.
I jokingly suggested, "let's cheat" [use some previously constructed works of art].  Red Bear whipped up a matching quilt design card and also included a beautiful interior.
Note: my challenge is still in card form and the inside of the card has a chalk border. It looks like Red Bear split her card and pasted the inside of the card on her left page and the top of the card on her right page.

AAJ1 Challenge 2 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

August 2012 Challenge
Must include:
- a postcard

Top = Zoo, Bottom = Red Bear

  Text by Zoo
"... in a land far, far away lives my friend who used to come craft with me.  Now, we Skype Craft!  Thank God for the internet and Canada Post.
What didn't work: Even though the paint feels dry, that doesn't mean it is dry.  Wet pages stick and rip when the book is closed.

Text by Red Bear
Wah Wah Wah! I miss my crafting buddies. Wah!

AAJ1 Challenge 1 - Altered Art Journal Challenge

July 2012 Challenge

Must include:

• at least one coffee filter flower
• a backyard scene, real or imaginary
• Ugly Paper #100

Text:
by Zoo - none
by Red Bear
After grad and the ordeal of moving, saying goodbye to family and friends, the July crafting challenge needed a coffee filter flower and a backyard scene.

Ugly Paper Competition - The Story.

Ugly Paper Contest - September 2016

The Challenge: Red Bear and I were each to make two cards.  One to mail to each other, and one to mail to Kidlet. We were allowed to choose our own base paper.

These are the papers we chose.

Papers

These are the results.

Zoo's Cards

Red Bear's on the Left; Zoo's on the right

Backstory
A long time ago, in another life, circa 2011, the Ugly Paper Contest was born.  Kidlet had purchased a big pad of truly ugly paper.  Red Bear and I were teasing her about it and wanted to know what on earth would she ever use such ugly paper for.  The Ugly Paper contest of course!

Of Course! How silly of us.

The first time, all three of us crafters made our attempts and The Farmer aka Himself aka Hubby, chose the winner. Quite often that is how the contests progressed and I still don't know if he ever knew who did what.  Kidlet and Red Bear most often won, I don't think I ever did.

He did have a farm to run however and wasn't always available.  One of us would choose the paper, make the "rules", and be the final judge.  Kidlet often chose the Worst colour combinations and came up with challenging rules.  Like the time "must use at least one alpha stamp but it must be part of the design, not part of a word".

Left: Red Bear
Center: Kidlet
Right: Zoo

Sometimes the background or base paper was part of the challenge, sometimes we could choose whatever we liked, or from within a colour family.  Sometimes the rules would change part-way through the challenge.

The best part was always seeing how different the results were from the same starting point. We also got to learn about each other.  Red Bear gravitates towards heart shapes and the colour red.  Zoo likes circles and either green and pink or green and peach. Kidlet was never pinned down except for the yellow/purple colour combo.

These are always a lot of fun, inspire creativity, and really take the pressure off.  We're starting with "ugly" so it's not our fault if the result is ugly!

Before Red Bear moved across the country, we took the ugly paper pad, divided it into approximately three equal piles, wrote identifying numbers on the back, and each of the three of us had our own stash in a 9 x 12 envelope.  Also included were some embellishments, stickers, "add-ons". That is how years later we can still have Ugly Paper Contests with the same papers.

Zoo

p.s. As I write this post, it is exactly two years later, Red Bear is airborne on her way here to visit.  Recently some WoW Friends, purring and Bearminimum, asked to see some of my artwork.  I was sad to realize that I have been a very bad craft blogger.  This is the beginning of an attempt to make up for that.  Thanks, Guys! You two are wonderful friends of Kidlet, babysitting Mom.

20 EASY WAYS TO TRANSFER IMAGES TO DIFFERENT SURFACES

3:10 - Simple Screen Print to T-Shirt.  Does this really work?

Princess & Pip

It's that time of year already.  Princess with her new man.
Zoo

Thinking about colour

I'm reading this pre-school teacher's blog posts about art.

I found this thought-provoking:

. . . while committees of preschoolers almost always agree to rainbow, committees of adults tasked with choosing colors almost always settle on some version of beige.

 I have never had a class of 3-5 year olds who have not chosen rainbow when faced with a decision over which color to paint something that belongs to all of us. It comes up at least once a year. ... adults in similar circumstances, tend toward beige.

 ... on a deeper level, when one looks at it as philosophy or metaphor, there is no contest: the adults bicker their way to the least offensive solution, while their kids always opt, joyfully and proudly in most cases, for the most inclusive ...

Using Non-traditional items to make cards and mixed media

 Good morning. Happy 2018!!

Today I wanted to talk about using random things from around the house to make cards and in mixed media pieces. I am not quite as bad as my Grandmother was for not throwing anything away. Her house was full of colour coded styrofoam egg carton stacks, boxes of old nylons fabric tiny pieces, etc. I do like to use and reuse anything and everything I can think of a repurpose for and so this post will be about some of the things I have done.

Firstly, I don't have a subscription to any magazines but the odd one comes in the mail or is given to me. The following is what I did with a Vesey Seed catalogue. I bought a new bird die to share with Zoo and before I mailed it out to her to use I did up almost the entire seed catalogue with them. As it was a very thin paper it was printed on I glued each page onto printer paper before cutting out the bird. They turned out so sweet!

Secondly... In recent years some of the companies that send out junk mail have incorpoated cute little animals and things to catch your eye and make you remember their brand. Instead of throwing them into the recycle bin I have used some of them. [My favourite one I cannot find a picture of. I am hoping Zoo will add a picture of it when she sees this. It is of a cute little red monster with lime green teeth and I made some cute kids cards out of him. He came in two sizes and was too adorable for words.]  Here are some of the ones I do have pictures of...

This next one is from packs of cards I bought on clearance from Michael's. Each card pack had 6 cards and envelopes and cost 25 cents... yes cents!!! Scrouge me could not pass that up. Each set had a pair of shoes and a monogram letter. I have made mixed media journals for each of my daughters and I did a 'Soul Mates' page for one of them. It turned out great! I layered the buckle or bow again to give it some depth. 

 

More magazines...

I love stamps and keep ones from mail I receive and have also bought some cute ones specifically for use in my crafting. 

I saved the label of a friend's favourite wine and made it into a birthday card for him. A reminder to me of what wine to buy him and also a cute card to give him on his next birthday.

These last ones are from a couple of colouring books that the nieces and nephews finished off. I couldn't part with the covers so made cards from some of the bits cut out of them . They are bright and cheerful and the kids will love them (and remember colouring the pages from inside the book??)

Well, I hope you all have an awesome 2018 and have a blast crafting away all year. I am off to visit Zo soon and if I remember I will find the picture I sent her of my little red monster card and I will add it in here. Being frugal in your crafting doesn't mean that things have to look cheap or tacky. It is fun to reuse things and make them live again in something someone will love. Enjoy!!

Red Bear : )