Anniversary Slips Past Unnoticed

Ooops! October was my anniversary with art cards. I meant to do something, but with all the election nonsense, and things going on here, it completely slipped my mind. I meant at the very least to post something in the forums; I suppose I still can...

This is the very first ATC I made, using layers of paper cut with decorative-edged scissors, a silver opaque ink pad, and glitter paint. It was actually a series of 6, and three of them went into my first swap. I called it "La Lune et la Mer." 

I've gotten quite a bit of pleasure from making and trading art cards. It's really fun to receive art from all over the world. Haven't tried it? Check it out at: ATCsForAll.com! We're a fun bunch of people!

Paper (Art!) Dolls

These are my Ode to Universal Monster paper dolls (art dolls!) winging their was to a Hallowe'en ATC swap. Making them is tremendously entertaining, even if the pieces get on the small-and-fiddly side.
But my paper doll pride and joy is this one:
She was made for a friend of mine who is a dancer, for her birthday. She has 15 points of articulation including positionable hair.

Another set done for a swap is these guys:

Made with homemade paper and found images, they are simplistic and strange. I love 'em!

Toner Transfer Results

There was pretty extensive plaquing in the translucent clay. I would have preferred a clearer result, but it's not unattractive. I was quite pleased with how well the transferring worked. The holes are to accommodate the transparencies I overlaid these with, attaching with brads, to finish the ATCs.

Clearly, I need to work on my faux stone technique. I added a little pumpkin pie spice to the terra cotta colored clay, and black pepper to the greens, just for a bit of speckling. I was really pleased with the way that looked, but I overmixed my colors (again!) and didn't get much banding.

Practice makes perfect!

Toner Transfer on PC

To make some unique ATCs, I wanted to try a suggestion given to me by a lady at Stamp Thyme: toner transfer onto polymer clay. She said it was foolproof. I was skeptical (heavy-handed) but wanted to try it. With photocopies in hand, I conditioned some clay, burnished the images onto the clay, spritzed with water and rubbed off the soaked paper. And I'll be darned, it worked!

I have no idea how long they will need to bake... I'll have to play that by ear. Once they're done, I'll scan 'em and post 'em.

Transparency Swap

I signed up for a transparency (think overhead projectors) swap ages ago, had an idea to use my kaleidoscoped photos, and just this morning got around to doing it. I like the results:

I used one background for all 4, as you can see. I backed the flowers with metallic silver cardstock, attaching them with brads to the background. Stems and leaves are drawn on with Sharpie marker. I used inkjet transparencies to print everything on. 

I'll feel a little better about life, once I get them in the mail. I have one other outstanding swap I need to do before I think about taking on more. I've been feeling so blah lately that I don't want to overdo my commitments, but I really want to find a Halloween swap...

Still More Fun

Front and back views (before the haircut) of another needle-felted ATC, this one embellished with Patons Cha-Cha yarn. This is "My Funny Valentine" because that's the song playing in my head. This is just ridiculously entertaining...

More Fun with Felt

So far (knock wood), I have only jabbed myself the one time. Here's a needle felted ATC I'm calling "Pearls". I was amazed how much fuzz was on the back before I gave it a haircut. (The snipped pieces will go into the center of another bead, so nothing gets waisted.)

It's rather a mindless activity - well, except for concentrating on not skewering your fingers - and kinda relaxing. I will definitely be doing more of this. Who knew (other than the spinners) now much fun wool roving could be??

Thanks where deserved

Here's the very first ATC I made from handmade paper "blanks" I created. It's very simple, with a silk flower, rhinestone and some metallic pen stating "Thanks." 

The lady at Hobby Lobby who was so helpful with ideas asked me to send one finished piece to the store so she could see. I did one better: I had to be out that way Thursday anyway, for my belly dance class, so I popped in to give it to her in person. She was pleased and surprised I'd take the time, and even more surprised when what I brought wasn't merely a small piece of handmade paper, but an actual ATC made just for her. 

It took very little extra effort on my part to hand deliver, little effort to make what amounts to a Thank You card. She went above and beyond when she helped me, and that kind of care and attention should be rewarded and encouraged. The retail environment doesn't really foster that sort of behavior. I worked in retail for years, and often thought the job would be perfect if not for the customers. But since I have been on both sides of the cash register, I know exactly how hard a job it can be, how annoying the customers often are, and the effort it takes to be polite and friendly, even when you really want to work in peace. It's really a shame that the location where she works is out of my way by quite a lot, or I'd patronize that store over the one that's more convenient for me.

Some of the finished results

Here's a few of the cards I've made. These are from last night, and have (clockwise from top left) glitter, paper shred, a postage stamp, and bits of yarn added.
The edges are quite irregular, and I'm still refining the process. This morning I added green paper to the leftover blue (not a lot of that left), and have made some green paper. The blue batch made 18 cards - so probably around 8 cups of blue pulp is what I made. Way more than I'd intended. I blame impetuous enthusiasm. I made about half as much of the green, with a bit less water. I'm still working out exactly how I will trim them down to the 2.5" x 3.5" format to which an ATC must conform. Do I wet the edge and carefully tear off the excess, or trim with scissors (ruining the irregular edge)? I may try both, and see what I think looks and works best. As I get more experienced with this process, I hope the need for trimming is reduced.

IT WORKED!!!

My experiment was a success! After discussing the possibilities with an employee at Hobby Lobby, I came to this solution.

Using a glass jar, some recycled paper and a bit of blue dryer lint, I tore the paper into fairly small pieces and added the lint and hot water. While it soaked, I did steps 1-3 below. The dark blob on the left side of the jar is the lint.

Step 1: Cut a sheet of perforated plastic canvas into rectangles 2.5"x3.5", and attaching two pieces of wire to the short sides of one, leaving the second rectangle alone.

Step 2: Using the LID half of a plastic box designed for trading cards, this made my "deckle" and the plastic canvas pieces became the screens.

Step 3: Removing the screen from the box, I added a small amount of water and white glue, then replaced the handled screen. Please note: the picture shows the water in the bottom of the box, not the lid. This was an error; with the handles, the screen doesn't fit flat like it does in the lid.

I used an immersion blender (stick blender) to blend the paper and lint. I ran into a bit of a snag, because the dryer lint also had dog hair and Wendy hair, which clogged the blades of the blender. Once I cleaned it out, it worked fine.

Step 4: Using a measuring scoop, I dropped around a 1/3 cup of my paper pulp into the box on top of the handled screen. I added the pulp gradually, because I didn't know how much it would need, so the scoop in the picture isn't full.

Step 5: The box on the left shows the top screen pressed in place. The box on the right shows the pulp swimming on top of the handled screen.

Step 6: Carefully lifting out the screens, I squeezed out the extra water over the box, and set the screen to the side while I did that with the other box.

Step 7: I put the two screens with their pulpy filling onto a washcloth folded in half, then folded then pressed the free end of the cloth firmly onto the screens.
Step 8: After blotting the worst of the water out of the screen sandwich, I peeled the top screen off s-l-o-w-l-y, starting with one corner. Then I pressed the handled screen pulp-side-down onto a dry paper towel on newspaper to blot again.

Step 9: I then carefully peeled the handled screen off of the much-dryer pulp (below) and set it on glossy newspaper ads to dry a bit.

Step 10: On the left, you see what I ended up with after Step 9. The one on the right is what the paper looks like mostly dry, after I had a go with the hairdryer.
I'm so excited that this worked! Of course, I got way carried away with the blue paper, and now have much pulp to process. Eh! Live and learn!

Handmade Paper ATCs... Maybe

My brain is burning. I have all this multicolored dryer lint, and recalled reading about making paper with it. So I thought, sure, save the lint, make the screen, recycle the junk mail - free paper! I have a roll of screen that I bought to replace a damaged window screen. It's in the garage... somewhere. Then I read that the aluminum screen is better for this (more rigid), and what I have is fiberglass. But what I really wanted to do was to make ATC-sized pieces of handmade paper, rather than cut apart a larger sheet, so I thought I could make a really small frame. As I said, burning brain.

I went to Michael's to price the Arnold Grummer kits and deckles. More than I want to spend on an experiment. So I went to Hobby Lobby to look. They don't carry the supplies for paper making, but the employee I asked was really helpful, made several great suggestions, and when I told her what I really wanted to do (the ATC-sized papers), she suggested I use screening and one of the plastic boxes used for trading cards. I thought maybe I could use plastic canvas as a press, so she led me to needleworking, and said she thought those holes would be too big - I agreed. But then I spied something we both thought would be perfect: perforated plastic canvas. It's just like perforated paper that's used in place of Aida cloth, but this is thin flexible plastic with very small holes in it. Mary then thought I could put some string in the holes on the edges, so I could lift out the plastic, rather than dumping it (and making a mess with the water). Between us, we had some bloody brilliant ideas for this! 

On the way home, I thought I wanted to try using an immersion blender rather than my freestanding one. Since I want to do small batches, this seems ideal. (Plus it means I don't have to sacrifice a blender for a craft project that may not pan out.) I'll post pictures of the process and whether it works with a finished piece as soon as I have one.