ATC Stand

I've been looking for a way to display the ATCs I've made. I like to be able to look at the ATCs in the orientation they were made, i.e. portrait or landscape without turning a book around or tilting my head. The baseball card display pages just hold too many to get a get a good look. MHO A photo album won't close flat because of embellishments.

I was flipping through the pages of a perpetual calendar and thought this could work for displaying ATCs. I could keep the latest on top or select one that matches my mood for the day. I took the calendar apart. It consisted of matte board that had been cut and taped into a triangle. A pair of binder rings. The calendar pages were 4 x 6" sheets with holes punched at the top and secured by the rings.

I bought 2" binder rings at Staples. Found a matte board scrap in the scrap box that was nearly the same size as the calendar stand. Instead of cutting the matte into sections and securing with tape as the calendar stand, I just scored the matte board and folded. The bottom was secured with good ol' duct tape from the underside so it won't be seen. Anal much?

At Michael's I found 4" x 6" photo albums for $1. I ripped the album pages out, punched holes in them for the rings and Eureka! I'm insufferably pleased with myself.

How do you display your ATCs?

Conventional/Unconventional Women

The theme for one of this month's ATC exchanges is Conventional/Unconventional Women. I found the quote: Well behaved women rarely make history attributed to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. The quote was written in walnut ink on Diploma Parchment. I tried a new nib, Nikko G which I really liked. It was a tad sharp picking up paper fibers, but even gives my heavy hand a fine hairline. A picture of a suffrager holding a Votes for Women sign was printed in reverse and then transfered to the card using an iron. I loved playing with this technique.

Wednesday Weigh-In

With the flooded basement and the holidays behind me, it's time to get back on the wagon. Instead of looking at the big picture of how much weight I still have left to lose, this time around I'll focus on a short term goal. My first goal will be to drop 5 pounds. I hope I can manage to drop one pound per week.

What Font Are You?

A fun quiz that came through the calligraphers list: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/quiz.html

What font are you?

Image Transfer

One of this month's ATC exchange themes was just begging for an image transfer. I'd read about the technique in a book, Altered Imagery. Could I find the book? That's right, in the cheap seats. No, because Ceej doesn't always put her toys away where they belong. I've hunted but the gremlins ran off with the book.

I've done image transfer using packing tape, but didn't want that glossy effect. What to do? Search online. And lo and behold an EBSQ artist website with a wonderful education link with all kinds of techniques including image transfers.

Most image transfer processes I have read about involve using matte medium, acetone, or nasty carcinogens like xylene. Just a little too messy for me and in the case of using xylene, too toxic.

On the website was a technique using heat from an ordinary iron used to press clothing. I printed out a test image using the color laser printer. Dug out my iron, dusted it off because it doesn't get much use. Set the heat indicator to cotton, no steam. Placed my image color side down in my art journal and using circular motions with the iron, ironed the back of the image. I didn't keep track of how long I kept the iron on the paper. Maybe as long as it takes to sing the alphabet song. I carefully peeled back a corner of the image. OMG, it worked! I ironed the image a little more to get a deeper color. Peeled the paper off and ta-da!

Now to get busy creating the actual ATC.

Seven

I love widgets, small desktop programs that keep information at your fingertips. Vista has a handy sidebar that keeps widgets neatly in alignment or you can remove them and move them all over the desktop like the moon phase. Seven widgets on my desktop:

1. Moon phase. Because it's cool especially against a night time wallpaper like the current picture of Neuschwanstein. It's helpful to know when there's a full mooon to adequately prepare for the crazies that crawl out of the woodwork. Another nifty feature of this widget, is you can select your area from a list around the world so you can see what the moon will look like in your night sky. I have the moon phase set to Munich as that was the closet city to correspond to Neuschwanstein.

2. A To Do List. Nice not to have bits of paper floating around and satisfying to check off and delete tasks.

3. Date/Time/Countdown with military time. Just to be different

4. Weatherbug so I can worry about the weather

5. Mail Checker. So I instantly know when email hits the mailbox. Mainly for the no school alerts I signed up for with the local tv station.

6. My Agenda for the day so I know where I'm going and what I'm doing, plus where everyone else is going or doing. We're all color coded.

7. A calendar just practical so I don't have to constantly call up Outlook

What's the background picture on your desktop? Do you have any widgets?

Happy New Year

A new year, a new look for The Heap. Here's to a happy, healthy, and creative 2009.

Wrapping paper and tissue paper collage, stickers, Ziller Winter White on mat board. I forget what size Brause nib I used as this piece was done several years ago.