Round Toit

One of my friends retired recently.

So, I made her a card. Sort of. The "envelope" is a coffee filter that was painted with watercolors.

The card is an ATC. Instead of being rectangular, it's round with a 2 1/2 inch diameter, and it's called an Artist Trading Coin. This one is called a Round Toit.  Now that she's retired she'll have all the time she needs to get all those things she put off doing until she got around to it. Well, now she has one. She's fond of her dogs so I included a paw sticker and charm

The back of the ATC painted with watercolors using the plastic wrap technique

What would you do if you ever got a Round Toit?

Another Card

 

for a colleague who just got a promotion. It's not quite finished, but this one made me laugh. Can you find the mistake?

To Himself

I saw this meme and thought it would make a fun anniversary card.

Paperclip Banner

 

I stumbled upon a simple way to use up your scraps and to make a cute interactive feature for journals or cards.

Use bits of paper, fed through a paperclip and glued or taped in the back. Cut the banner bottom into swallow tails, scallops, etc., or leave the bottom straight. Add collage elements or writing. Cute, isn't it?

Thinking of You Card and Envelope

 

Playing with the Kawaii kitties, I made a "Thinking of You" card for my cousin. Thanks to Jean at Pushing the Envelopes for showcasing so many stealworthy designs and ideas.

Two Envelope Booklet

At the end of September I was watching a live video on Facebook by Lindsay Waltman-Ostram, Creator of Cuteness. She made a booklet using two envelopes. The envelopes had pockets which could be filled with all sorts of things.

The booklet was perfect because I needed to send a thank you card to a friend for sending me an awesome gift.

I had two coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper so I made my own envelopes. You can use any size envelopes as long as the envelopes you choose are the same size.

Lindsay made a paper button and thread enclosure which I liked, and I added the black cat charm since my friend was also owned by a black cat.

The envelopes form two pockets. I added some art papers on one side and a thank you card on the other

Tags and some chipboard and a small envelope on top with a couple of black cat cutouts.

I also tacked on a square of waxed paper to hold some washi tape and

some fun buttons. The bread tabs are a handy tool. I use them on the ends of tape, They also make a quick and dirty bone folder and scoring tool. The cocktail forks are great for mixing up glues and paint.

All in all I was pleased with how it turned out. If you'd like to try your hand at making this structure, you can watch Easy 2 Envelope Flip Book on YouTube.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Attending a surprise party at the dojo to celebrate Masters Beef and Rnee earning their 8th degree black belt.

2. Organized the hanging rack shelves in the supply closet

3. After an appointment, lunch at Friday's

4. Ordered 12 x12 sleeves to corral all the paper

5. Another appointments and out to dinner.

How was your week?

A Greeting Card for the Eldest

Saturday was National Card Making Day so I decided to make a card for the Eldest and to practice script, layout and design for the Modern Storybook Script class I am taking

The Eldest has moved to a new apartment that is closer to her place of work. I made a 5 in. x 7 in. card base from a sheet of scrapbook paper. The written portion of the card was done on Canson Mixed Media paper. The lettering was done with a Fudenosuke Brush Pen. Materials used for the illustration: Micron Pigma Pen, Tombow Brush Markers, Gelly Roll pen, and a button.

Just in case the button makes the envelope thicker than the minimum requirement, I added a second Love stamp.

The envelope was made with the same scrapbook paper, with the colored side to the inside of the envelope. The envelope was made using the We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

Get Well Card

A simple greeting card. Layered cardstock in shades of purple the recipients favorite color. Dandelion puffs painted with Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors.

Informal cursive script written with a Nikko G nib and Moon Palace Sumi ink

Bookmaking with 8 to 10 Year Olds

I wished I could have taken the kids to visit the Prints Department to see some of the Medieval manuscript pages and a book on swordsmanship, but the group was too large. There wasn't enough time to make arrangements with the curator of the department. 

Instead, I did an online search to see if there were any paintings of books and I found

Still Life with Books by John Frederick Peto (1854 - 1907)

currently on view in the American Gallery. So that's where we began our visit.

I stood with my back to the painting.

"Hey! I was told there would be books for us to see."

Everyone pointed behind me.

"What? They're just paintings!"

There was a chorus of "No! It's a painting of books!"

I gave a brief spiel about this artist painting a trick of the eye. Using light and shadow, he makes us think that the books are very real and we can pull them out of the painting. We would be going to the studio to make some real book structures.

This age group was boisterous and over-flowing with pent up energy. There was so much noise that even though I felt like I was screaming, I wasn't heard. A situation I'm not used to teaching adults. 

There were 2 aids for this class and that should have been a hint to me. One of the aids began to loudly chant, "ONE, TWO, THREE! Eyes on me."

"ONE, TWO, THREE! Eyes on you." and the class instantly quieted down to listen to instructions.

There were 3 book structures that were planned. An accordion fold book which they breezed through and a circle book.

They were fascinated with the circle book which when finished could be fanned out. The children would given eight 4 inch circles. Two were cut from watercolor paper to be used as covers to give stability to the book. A hole punch used to punch holes in the circle, pages arranged, and held together with a paper fastener or brad.

Though there was a bit of chaos in the room, most of the children spent time and thought as to what to fill their book.

Some drew pictures

some did a combination of collage and text

Some had very detailed stories

Half of the kids were focused and interested in what they were doing. Half were not. A consult with the aid who had more experience teaching this age group, it was decided to skip the third book, a pamphlet stitched book made with envelopes as pages. Large sheets of drawing paper were passed out for the last 45 min. to half hour of class for a free draw. Crayons, colored pencils, markers were brought out. No paints for this group!

An accordion book

One little guy made some origami airplanes for the cover of his book with directions on how to make paper airplanes

Lots of creativity and talent in this group

One quiet, shy little girl (I wish I had a room full of her 😜) celebrated Earth Day, the day the class was held.

All in all a good class though this age group is composed of Energy Vampires. They just suck the life force from you. 😸 After class, other instructors had told me this age group could be difficult to handle. The Little were enthusiastic, but cooperative. The Tweens and Teens focused, but this middle group was hopping off the walls. I was grateful for the aids that brought order to the room and Five Guys for dinner when I got home so I didn't have to cook.

Whatcha Doin?

 

I was asked to teach a book making class at the Worcester Art Museum for 8 - 10 year olds next Friday. After picking up the paper to be used for covers and pages at WAM, Vincent is helping me cut the paper. We'll be using the cutting machine to cut out circles for a circle book.

Whatcha doin?

Art Bytes: Faux Calligraphy Valentine Zoom Workshop

 

Saturday, January 30, 2021

1 PM - 2 PM ET: Check your time zone here

$20  payment via PayPal at https://cjkennedyink.com/in-the-studioclasses.html

Have questions? Email Me

From the comfort of your own home, schedule some Me time out of your busy schedule. Using materials you probably have around the house, reduce your stress with art.

In this hour-long workshop learn how to turn your handwriting or printing into faux calligraphy using an ordinary marker, pen, or pencil. We’ll work together to write out a sentiment. You can ask questions and have them answered in real time. Then put your new skill to use to make a sweet card to send to your favorite Valentine. 

You’ll be able to use your faux calligraphy to make your own greeting cards, add sentiments to scrapbooks, or use in journaling.

Easy and fun. Teens welcome. A materials list will be sent when you sign up.

The Prayer of St. Francis - Paint Swatches

With the prayer lettered (I think I forgot to mention we used Moon Palace sumi ink), it was time to paint the poppies red.

We used this 24 set of Gansai watercolors. These are traditional Japanese watercolors. The colors are more opaque than typical watercolors used in the West.

 I was introduced to the White Gansai pan paint by Valerie Weismueller. The white was used in white work (dots and doodles) on illuminated initials. The white didn't fade into the darker colors of the letters.

We were going to use the paints right out of the pan. No color mixing! I liked that because I'm not really good at mixing colors. We painted samples of the colors to be used on the Moulin du Roy paper so we could see how the paint and paper would react and how the colors would look.

The poppy design was outlined with a .01 Sakura Pigma pen, and then we were ready to paint.

I'm writing this post a few days ahead of time and scheduled to post on 11. November. Veteran's Day or Armistice Day. The red poppy, the remembrance poppy was inspired by John McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields. I'm struck by the serendipity of the remembrance poppy and the poppies used in the St. Francis prayer.

The Prayer of St Francis

Monday morning, after Mass and having our hands blessed, we began the preparation to letter the Prayer of St. Francis. Kathy Milici, the instructor, had done a layout that we would follow.  We traced the versals (the large capital letters) and the poppy design. We also ruled the paper, Canson Moulin du Roy, following her guidelines.

Kathy chose an upright, bouncy, Italic variation for this prayer. I knew the prayer as a hymn, so the bouncy letters reminded me of musical notes, and the uneven lines reminded me of the melody. The lettering was to be done with a size C-4 Speedball nib. As I am a Southpaw, I wasn't sure how many lefthanded nibs would be available so I brought my own. I don't use the Speedball nibs beyond teaching with the C-1. I use a Brause nib and worked out the size to be close to the Brause 1.5 mm.

We spent all day Monday practicing Kathy's Italic variation on layout bond paper. In the afternoon, we lettered on a scrap of the Moulin du Roy to get a feel for writing on the good paper

On Tuesday, we lettered the entire text on our good paper. I honestly didn't think I would be able to letter the entire piece. I'm a hooker (and proud of it 😉) That is I approach the writing line from above instead of below. As a Southpaw, I also write directly over my writing line where a right handed person writes away from the writing line. For me, this means if I am not slow and careful, I will put my paw in wet ink and smear it. So my routine is to write 4 or 5 letters, maybe a word or two and then I have to sit and give the ink a couple of minutes to dry.

I had told Kathy I am not able to keep up with right handed classmates. And that's okay. If I wasn't able to finish lettering the piece, I could always work on it at home. I really wanted to learn Kathy's technique for painting poppies.

Kathy was very laid back and encouraging with all of us. And as it turned out, I finished lettering my piece in the same time frame as the other students.

Paper Storage

Space in a dollhouse is at a premium. Years ago when I first started out in an area under the basement stairs, I had no space for large ( 24 in x 36 in) sheets of paper. Himself was swamped with teaching days and nights and couldn't help me with a project I had in mind. His brother was between jobs and agreed to help me out.

I wanted a box that would hang on the wall and open up like a secretary desk. He said it could easily be done and he had most of the materials that he needed and could get the rest. So he made a wall secretary. He added two wood straps (one of them is an old yardstick) to hold the paper in place. I hadn't thought of that.

The unit folds up and is closed with hooks and eyes on either side.  He had thought about adding a hook and eye at the top, but correctly figured I might not be able to reach it even though I am tall for a Hobbit. The unit folds up and out of the way, and the depth of the box is approximately 3 inches deep. He even added a sheet of cork so the front can be used as a bulletin board. 

Bringing the paper storage up to the new studio/office was another project that never seemed to get done. I asked the handyman who cut the shelves for the bookcase and is painting the house if he could hang the storage unit for me. He did, and I'm happy dancing.

T Stands for No

No eating or drinking while working on diplomas and awards.

The diplomas have been lettered. Just waiting for the final list for diplomas with distinction.

While waiting, I lettered the bookplate awards (about 3 dozen). Not my favorite task because the paper is awful to work on. Crack and peel sticker labels. Inks just feather and bleed if the paper isn't treated with a spray fixative (done on Friday as the day was nice and I could open all the windows in the sun room) Also, the bookplates are only 3 in. (7.62 cm)  and some of these kids have 4 first names to fit in a tiny space.

On my desk, finished bookplates drying in the Slinky, Jr. rack, a drop bottle of gum arabic (to rubdown the 1/2 mm Brause nib. Gum arabic acts as a cleaner and also allows the ink to flow better through the nib), and Moon Palace sumi ink in the tiny cap (just enough ink to use for one session)

For my no drink reference, a shot glass of filtered water to give the nib a swish when I get up to leave my desk so the ink doesn't dry in the nib. My pen is resting on the Ink pen rest I made. A bookplate waits on the template I made on graph paper so I don't have to rule lines for each bookplate.

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.

My Little Corner

Last week's project was getting the computer, scanner/printer, and document scanner into the room. This week is about curbing the paper clutter.

When the document scanner (NeatDesk) was downstairs, I'd put paper into piles that needed scanning, and then shredding. I try to have all my files as electronic files. What happened was piles of paper spawned all over the house either waiting to be electronically filed or shredded. With both the document scanner and the paper shredder in the same room, I'm finding I'm keeping on top of the paper clutter. (So far!)

The tambour next to the paper shredder will corral art papers.

Some work I do involves lettering names on certificates and addressing envelopes. I had flat file space downstairs to place certificates to dry, though I had to keep an eye out that Ink wouldn't decided to lay on the paper, a favorite pasttime of his.

There isn't a lot of space in this room so I needed some sort of paper drying rack. I found one that would hang on the inside of the closet door, but then thinking about it, I realized it would be neat and not practical. I'd have to constantly get up and down after lettering to bring the sheet to the drying rack. Not very efficient.

I found this Rue Panel Ladder which I thought would suit my needs. It can be used 3 different ways. It can stand on a table as I have it, hung on a wall, or stretched on a table or the floor.

After the larger certificates are lettered, I can just slide the paper into the rack to dry.

For envelopes and small items, I used a Slinky stretched between 2 cup hooks on my writing desk downstairs. I thought I would rig up some sort of wooden thing, but then found a couple of large bulldog clips. The clips are attached to the outside edge of the plastic tool tray that came with the drafting table. A towel keeps the metal Slinky from scratching the glass top. For even smaller items, I swap out Slinky for a Slinky Jr.. pictured in the middle of the desk.

One reason I got the glass top drafting table was with a light source underneath it could double as a light box. Handy when doing repetitive lettering like certificates or envelopes. I had bought some LED strip lights which I thought were going to work out, but last week for some odd reason, they shorted out.

Back to the Big Orange Box Store and I found these battery operated LED puck lights. No cords to deal with and cheap. 3 for $10.97 plus tax. I bought a second set if three lights aren't enough to be able to see through certificates or envelopes.