Quote tip-in

I have a passion for words. Quotes especially. I find myself making more and more quote tip-ins. I guess that means I'll need to put together another book one day. 

We've been watching the Hatfields & McCoys mini series. 

I think that's what brought out the photo.  It's actually from an old Reminisce magazine. My folks used to get that one...I've saved some of them since they have such fun stuff inside.

Thanks to Elizabeth for the awesome handmade paper behind the photo. She makes the best handmade paper I've ever seen!

 

Tag Tuesday on Thursday

When I saw the Tag Tuesday Challenge theme of butterflies this week I was amazed. The night before I'd just created a tag...a shape I rarely use...with a butterfly as the focal image. It was kismet.

Be sure to check out the other participant tags over at Kard Krazy.

Hammered Copper Bowl?

NOPE.

My handmade paper bowl after some fixing.

Mixed results for papermaking

The sheets of paper that the boy helped with turned out great. My experiments were less successful.

The mildly successful bowl was made by draping wet sheets of torn paper on the outside of an up turned bowl.

The other bowl was a big fat failure. Live and learn, right?!

Paper making

I had an unlikely helper today while making paper.

The last time I made paper, neither kid would come near it.

I'm trying out making a couple of paper bowls using two different methods.

The first I squeezed most of the pulp out then pushed it into the inside of a glass bowl.

The second way was to make a sheet of paper but tear it and mold it over an up turned bowl. I'd think this way should yield a thinner bowl.

Everything is drying on the driveway in the 90+ degree heat. Too bad the humidity is up high as well.

Fusion papers

I got my workout and shower in, so then it was playtime!

I haven't made fusion paper for ages mainly because I don't have enough time to make it and have it dry somewhere before little "helping hands" get to it. It's very breezy today and with the strong sun, I figured they should dry pretty quickly outside.

Learned something new

Our family attended the Minnesota Renaissance Festival yesterday. I went to a paper making, print making and bookbinding demo. It was very informative as to the history behind paper and books. They were making all the paper at the festival at the mill where this giant hammer type thing pounded cotton clothing until it was back to fibers. They used wool felt as the couching sheets. They also had a basket that you could donate an article of clothing to go be made into paper. I really want to try this process with cotton but am not sure how I'm going to pound my cotton into oblivion.

The printmaking was cool for the history but didn't learn anything I
could use.

The Bookbinder showed us a 200+ yr old book from Spain and explained that the pages were made from 100% cotton. The pages were still quite white and in excellent shape. I tried to volunteer to be the apprentice bookbinder but the guy picked a cute young girl that wasn't even volunteering...figures. She got to keep the blank journal that she made.

Handmade paper book and more

I decided to make my papers into a small book that will likely hold pictures of my kids or maybe those funny things they say or both.

I've also started a new altered board book. This one is featuring postage stamp people. These are so much fun to do. I have an odd sense of humor.

I made paper

I had intended this to be a fun project for the kids and I to do together. They liked ripping up the junk mail but as soon as I started blending the bits into pulp they both got grossed out. They wouldn't hardly come near the dish pan that held the pulp. So it ended up being entirely my project while they played.

When the paper was nearly dry when I decided I didn't really care for the color of them. I sprayed them with a little more water then got out some walnut ink...still not satisfied I got out my kids watercolor paints and made squiggles, dots, splatters and lines all over them.

I still don't know if I'm excited about the end result mainly because I had an idea of what I was going to use them for but the wild colors won't really go with the vintage appearance of the box I painted.

I'll likely make some more paper with different colors that will match the painted box better and use these for something entirely different.