Making Books From Collected ATCs

Where does the time go?!

It is almost December, and I have so many different posts swirling around in my head. It's clearly time to sit down and share a project I've had in mind to tell you about for a couple of months now!

Remember this gem of a book? It gave me ideas for my booklace projects, and other bookbinding inspiration.

When author and bookbinder Erin Zamrzla suggested a Little League Score Book, I thought, "Well, I sure don't have any baseball trading cards to make that." But then it occurred to me that Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) I have received from my creative friends would make perfect book covers for this project.

There is artwork from Karen Ann Young, Steph Dodson (where did you go, Steph? I can't find you online!), Ronica Jones, and Rhonda H represented in these books.

The ATCs provide the front and back covers, while card stock is used to create the spine. A fairly simple ledger binder (i.e., pamphlet stitch) is used to sew the text weight paper together inside. 

I really like the fact that I've found a way to use the art that has been shared with me, rather than just tucking it away to look at when I think to pull out the ATCs I have stored away.  These notebooks are an ideal way to enjoy the art during everyday moments of life.

There is also one ATC that was created as a demonstration piece at the Invoke Arts table at a rubber stamp show I attended many years ago, as well.

I absolutely love how these little books turned out, and the 3-1/2 inch by 2-1/2 inch size makes a reasonable size for ideas, notes, and jottings.

For more bookbinding inspiration, please visit my Book and Journal Making board on Pinterest; there are enough ideas there to keep me busy for the rest of my days!

Makery @ Middletown: Paper-Making

Handmade papers from a local library workshop

I have discovered yet another reason to love my local library!

The Middletown Free Library offers a full roster of Makery events, bringing the arts and crafting to our local community through free adult programming.  Recently I attended a workshop with my mother where we made our own paper.  I had tried this years ago, with all the "right" supplies, and wasn't particularly pleased with my results.  Here we used some interesting "around the house" sorts of supplies, and I really like the papers I created!

The workshop was held in the cinder-block basement of the library, with a well-tarped floor to capture our wet mess-making.  Each table held two or three large tubs (like you might use to store decorations or out-of-season clothing) filled with water.  Alongside each tub, we were provided with a framed screen, loose screen, a towel, and a sponge.

Here I am, ready for some paper-making!

For our first step, we chose paper scraps to throw into the blender with water to create our paper pulp. (We burned out one blender motor right away, and were left with a single machine to share!)

Then we dumped the blender carafe of pulp into our plastic tub of water.  The next step is to dunk our framed screen under the water, drawing pulp up onto it as we bring it back above the surface.

Pulp on the screen with petal and tea leaf embellishments

At this point, we could add "goodies" from the table up front: petals, grass, tea leaves, glitter.  By pressing these add-ons gently into the pulp, they became part of the handmade paper.

Table of inspiration and embellishments

We then put a screen over our paper creation and gently pressed the sponge onto the screen, causing excess water to fall out the bottom and back into the tub. Sometimes, when there was very little water left, I continued to press the sponge onto the screen on top of a towel to soak up the last drops.

Using a sponge to push out as much water from the pulp as possible

When we had as much water as possible pressed out of the paper, we turned the framed screen over onto an unframed piece of screen and "encouraged" the paper off of it.

Some paper required more "encouraging" than others to get it to come off the screen!

This unframed screen was then set aside onto newspaper to allow our handmade paper to dry.

My handmade papers drying on the floor of our workroom

It took a very long time for my papers to dry; they sat out on my kitchen island continuing the drying process once I got home, and I wouldn't say they were fully dry until I woke up the next morning.

And what a stack of interesting handmade papers I had to show for my efforts!

A new stash of handmade art-making materials!

I haven't done anything with them yet, but I foresee using them in my art journal, as gift tags, and as parts of upcoming collage projects.

I love that the materials we used in the Middletown workshop were all easily accessible for someone at home--no big investment in supplies other than some screening from the hardware store.

More paper-makers at play 

My mom. Those water tubs didn't stay clean for long once we started playing with the pulp!

When the weather turns warm again and we can spend lots of time outdoors, I might even tackle this project with my kids!

In Memoriam

Stella Kaskey (1997-2016)

I lost my long-time feline companion, Stella, on Tuesday afternoon. She has been by my side since I was 24-years-old and she was just 3-months.  My first husband and I found her at the SPCA after she had spent her earliest days on what I like to call "the mean streets of Kensington" in Philadelphia.

She was a fighter from the beginning, making sure I did not change my mind about adopting her.  I told this story on Facebook already: I had spent some time playing with her, and decided that she was the kitten we would take home with us.  But when they put her back in the cage so we could fill out the paperwork for her, I had a moment's hesitation when I saw an adorable little tuxedo cat two cages up.  He was all black with a little white marking right where a bow tie would be.  I mean, adorable!!  But Stella was watching me the whole time, and she clawed her way up the front of the cage and looked at me with these meaning-filled eyes, and I could hear her just as surely as if she spoke out loud: "Don't you dare change your mind, lady! I am coming home with YOU!"

It was tough to find a name for Stella.  The "finalists" were Zelda and Stella--Zelda for F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, and Stella for--no, not A Streetcar Named Desire!--Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella.  (My college English professors would be proud!)  I think it was a year until I felt like the name Stella was the proper fit.  Now, of course, I couldn't imagine any other name.

I had just accepted a job to teach at Haverford High School when we first brought Stella home, but summer vacation wasn't yet over, so I spent the first day with her just sitting on my lap to get to know me.  We literally sat on the sofa for hours, she just getting a feel for me and looking around at the apartment, her new home.  We really bonded that day, and it was a bond that lasted us for the nineteen years that followed.  I told her, "You have to live until I'm at least 40 years old.  That's a requirement!" And she met her obligation, and then some.  She lived an extra three years beyond.

You can see that we had a tendency to order each other around!

Stella has lived with me in four different apartments and two houses.  She's been on road trips and in airplanes many times in her younger days.  She has been by my side through a separation and divorce, a remarriage, and some highly questionable boyfriends in between.  She has comforted me through countless sad days and sicknesses. She was there for me during the absolute anguish of two miscarriages and the amazing joy of two births.  She was always a notoriously crabby cat, but she fully accepted and loved my husband, and let my daughters mess with her in ways that no one else on earth was allowed to.

Last night, to try to make me feel better, my husband said, "She was a sweetie." I looked at him and laughed, saying, "Did you even KNOW Stella?"  I've been calling her a crabby old lady for years; she would have given Grumpy Cat a run for his money.  I can't tell you how many times I've said to people who come into our home, "Um, you might not want to pat her; she's not all that friendly," while thinking what an understatement that was.  An unwelcome pat brought growls and a severe paw padding, and she even spit at the veterinarian once.  How embarrassing!

But I loved her spirit.  Somehow I needed her to love and accept me, even when everyone else in the world seemed to annoy her.  And then when my husband Michael came along, and I saw how much she accepted him, I knew he was The One.  We both agree that she was instrumental in making (allowing?) our marriage to happen!

Every morning and throughout the day, I find myself looking over at "her spot" on the sofa.  She didn't move around too much in these final months, so I still expect to find her there.

There's a little Stella-shaped hole in my heart.

Rest in peace, little girl.