Woven Fat Book

I don't remember when I made my first book, back in the mid 1980's I believe.  I just love to make books, any kind of book. 

Even better is having a best friend who also makes books.  Gaye Medbury constantly comes up with new and interesting ideas for books.  I am proud to send out a Book Alert that her new class, Woven Fat Book, is starting today, March 14, 2015, at Creative Workshops.

This is the Woven Fat Book, a fun little book that anyone can make.

Isn't that cute?  The pages are index cards, so that tells you it's a smallish book. 

And one of the things that amazes me is that Gaye has now started playing around with her sample book, making little quickie art pages. These pages are not part of the class, but it just shows you how much fun you can have with a 3 x 5 index card as a book page!  

Now this would be where I would give a disclaimer, that I'm not affiliated, don't get a kickback, yada, yada, yada...  Well, I don't get a kickback, but I am affiliated since Gaye is a friend.  But I do hope you will take her class because it's a fun, easy project at a great price. 

Click below to link to the class info and introductory video:

Woven Fat Book

Creative Workshops

Starts March 14, 2015

Birds on the Brain

I have been putting some finishing touches on my agenda book with the bird on the cover, adding little birdie things here and there.  It's fun rummaging around to see what I have to add.

The second picture is some vintage bird stickers that I drew boxes around. I used regular thin paper in this book, and now I am adding watercolor pencil, which is making the pages all crinkly - just the way I like it! The third picture uses an image from one of Gaye's collage sheets, which just happened to have a bird also!

Cheap Art

What can be cheaper than making a book out of cardboard?

I was inspired by instructions by Michelle Ward on how to make this cardboard book (See here).  I also have a slight obsession with cardboard, and it was right up my alley.  My book is smaller than her sample.  Most of my boxes on hand were shallow Amazon boxes, so my book is 4 x 6 inches (hers is 5 x 10).  I was thrilled to see I had a box from Cheap Joe's - what a great cover that would make!!  (And if anyone wants to make a book called Joe's Stuff, I might be able to help you out with the cardboard!)

These are the pages, all of which are in progress and will have more stenciling, stamping, or whatever strikes my fancy. 

I didn't realize at first that the Cheap Joe's warning symbols are actually art-related.  But the ink is all smeary in the printing, and they are very hard to read.

 

Now we are going to have a quiz - were you paying attention?  Did you by chance notice where there might be a little hidden message in this book?  Look closely for a little arrow sticking out.

 

Just think of the hiding places in those corrugated openings where you might hide little rolled up pices of paper with messages!.

Fun Factor for this book:  10+!!

Another Postal Book

What do you do when your postmaster retires?  Especially if she is a friend more than a postmaster, one who "gets" the crazy stuff you send and receive through the mail....

You make another postal book and wrap it like a package.

I am happy for her, but it's hard to break in a new postmaster....

Being Busy

I've been busy.  For weeks.  I have several big and small sheets of paper spread out everywhere.  I have been playing off and on with stencils and sprays.  I've lost track of which sprays I used when.  I only know the ones in the last week have been Colorwash sprays.  Before that, it was mostly watered down stamp pad reinkers in spray bottles. 

At some point though, all that work-in-progress starts to look like a lot of clutter, so I grabbed all the big sheets and started tearing them down.  I'm eventually going to end up with a 5 x 5 inch book of some kind.  I still have some papers that are drying and need to be painted on the reverse sides.  But for now, here's what I've been up to.

Before:

After: 

My problem with playing with stencils and sprays is that I don't know when to stop.  While one paper is drying, I think that I might as well spray a couple more while I'm standing there!  Then when all those dry, I have to spray the backs.  And then I start some more fronts while the backs are drying.  And on and on.

Once I had a fair number of papers going, I decided to give them all a "wash" made of Fluid Acrylics (a few drops of Transparent Red Oxide and one or two drops of Raw Umber) mixed with water.  Believe it or not, all of the papers here were brushed with that same wash.  They all turned out different because most of the sprays were not waterproof and ran when the wash was brushed over them.  It made for some very interesting colors. 

So I have quite a few pages now.  Loving the yummy colors.

I also have a few extra papers (graph paper and kraft paper) where I either blotted the wet stencils or sprayed lightly on as I went along.

Someone stop me!

Come Fly With Me

Meanwhile, back in the postal book... (surely you didn't think I had abandoned it?)....

In all my rummaging around in my old stuff, I found some old philatelic publications I had saved.  They used newsprint type paper, and one was an oversized publication.  I remembered immediately why I saved it, in spite of the fact that it was too big to store anywhere.  When I had mailed in a subscription renewal one year, I had used a Huck Finn postage stamp, then drew a long fishing line coming from his fishing pole, and stamped the image of a fish at the end.  They evidently did not get many decorated envelopes (plain as it was), and they published it.

I cut out the article and put it in my postal book. I also cut out the title from the cover page - which to most will look like I'm just documenting the publication. Only I know where the little cat-tooth holes are. Since it used to reside on the bottom shelf of the bookcase and since it stuck way out from the other books, the cat I used to have (known as The-Cat-Who-Chews-Paper) was always chomping on stuff like that. So it has its own personal memory for me.

I also came across an article I had saved from another publication. This article mentioned small airlines that were around in the 1920s to carry mail to obscure places in Canada and Alaska. It showed a postal cancel for Patricia Airways. Hey, that's my name! Back when the article came out, there was no Google. Yes, youngsters, there was a time when there was no Google. Hard to believe it has not always been around. So, off I went on a search, and I found some postage to print out and a rate card. Perfect for my book!

And, a few more pages in progress...

Time Warp

I think I was abducted by aliens yesterday.  I lost several hours of my day that I can't account for.  Either that, or I sat down for a simple organizing task and the next thing I knew, I had lost track of time.  I blame the postal books I've been working on.  They have me digging deep, deep into the archives of unused items for stuff to use.  So when I came across this baggie of old postage stamps, it seemed like a good idea to clean and sort them.  I don't remember where they came from.  Either I found them at a yard sale, or Gaye did and gave them to me.

How so much debris got into that bag is beyond me. But after pulling out a few stamps to use and having to clean them off, I decided to clean the bag full and sort them by colors. It was a yucky job, but I knew it would be worth it.

(FYI, the time I spent was indeed worth it, but I only got through about three-fourths of the bag before I felt like I had turned into the stamp zombie. So I'm still not finished.)

I have managed to add some more things to the pages of one book in the last week. Stamps, postcards, old envelopes, photos, anything that might be postal related. For now, they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason. But I have high hopes that it will somehow all pull together over time.
 

Postal Alert No. 2

So much for tackling that weekend to-do list.  I'm pretty sure I did nothing but work on this book cover for almost a full day yesterday.  But so worth it!  The insides will have to wait for now.  I can't stop picking up these two books and looking at them.  The part on the front with my name is a layering of multiple window envelopes, each with different wording to tell me how important the recipient of the mail is!  Turned out pretty nice.

By the way, the triple chain stitch on the book above, as well as the sewn-on-tapes on the other postal book in my previous post are both taught in Mary Ann Moss's Full Tilt Boogie class.  If you have considered taking this class, she has lowered the price through the end of this month.  Very inspiring and highly recommended if you love making books with abandon.  See more here. 

(Disclaimer:  No, I do not get a kick-back and I am not affiliated, just a satisfied student.  I like the fact that the videos and class info are up indefinitely, so no rush to finish everything in a set amount of time.) 

Boogie on.....

Mail Call

I'm still playing with security envelopes when I get a chance.  Had a really fun day when friend Chris came down from Indianapolis to Gaye's house and Gaye showed us the book she was working on.  Chris and I made one like hers, using cardboard envelopes as covers and security envelopes for pages.  In the photo, ours are the two standing in the back, and Gaye's book is in the front, showing the inside. 

 Below is Gaye's cover (slightly different than ours).  I love what she has done with her book so far.

I'm also still working on my book that I started a couple of weeks ago.  Mine uses cardboard from a priority mailing box for the cover and security envelope pages.  I finally sewed it last night, using the sewn-on-tapes method. 

I can't wait to tackle the insides of both books.  But it is incredibly time-consuming, even though it looks like all you do is just gather some envelopes and add some stuff!  I have stuff spread out everywhere, trying to figure out what to add where.  I can't wait to show these to my postmaster, as she is the one who gave me several of the legitimate postal stickers back when I was teaching mail art classes.

Tea Time

Is it a box of tea?

Or is it a book?

I have long been a fan of Gwen Diehn's books and bought her new book Real Life Journals a few weeks ago.  I just discovered her blog, and there is the tutorial for this book. 

Hers is called the Butter Box Book because she used a butter box.  See her blog here (click on Tutorials on the right to see instructions).  If you have lots of time, also click on the Images and Exhibits - lots of cool books, and most have a link to that particular artist's other works.  I could be there forever!

I searched my kitchen for a small box to use for my cover and found this tea box.  I used mostly brown kraft paper for pages (I seem to get a lot of it used as packing paper these days).  My flaps were not like hers on the butter box, so I ended up making end papers with thicker craft paper on the insides of the covers.  I just love this little book.  Very cool.