1. Know what the hostess has in mind.

When you see a project posted, take a moment to read the instructions. Whether the host is hyper-organized or more laid back, she’s probably laid out what she thinks is important to know about her project. The first thing you can do for her as your swap hostess is take the time to read what she’s written.

2. Know your own schedule and commitments.

Now, read the instructions again, with your calendar or day planner in front of you. Do you really have time in your busy life to consider adding this project to your schedule? Do the dates of the project allow you enough time to work? Are you expecting guests before the due date? Are you throwing a party, getting married, expecting a baby, or starting a new job between now and then? Are you already signed up for two swaps due in the same week as this one? Only you can figure out whether life will allow you to be a good participant in this project. Be a grown-up, and check your schedule.

3. Know how to say no.

On any given day, there are a bazillion really interesting art projects looking for participants. Nobody can do them all. Even if a project sounds really interesting, and you would just love to do it, the best thing you can do sometimes is say no. If you’ve already signed up for other projects, if life is looking particularly hectic, if you have little ones and it’s cold and flu season, or if there’s any doubt at all that you can make this project work in your schedule, it’s time to say no. If the project sounds exciting, but the swap host or the participants are not folks with whom you’ve had good experiences in the past, say no. If you read the swap instructions, and that little voice inside you says this might not be a good idea, just say no! Having the discipline to say no is one of the most valuable traits of a successful art swapper.

4. Know the costs in dollars and time.

Any art project has two basic costs: a financial one, and in time spent. If you’re asked to make one piece of artwork and send it by first class mail a month from now, both costs may seem minimal, and easily absorbed into your schedule and budget. If you’re asked to make 10 original pieces, that takes more time, and 10 times the supplies. If you’re asked to make one piece of artwork, and then send 100 color copies of it, you may have to take out a second mortgage to get it done. Think before you sign up: can you afford the time it will take to make the requested artwork, and do you have the dollars to make it?

Postage costs get many swappers in over their heads. While you’re considering the cost of making the work requested, you should also know how much it’s going to cost to get it where it needs to go by the due date. If you’re asked to mail by a specific method, find out how much it costs to mail something from here to there by that method. All the major carriers have calculators on their sites that will estimate this for you. Use them.

Also watch for return postage costs. If a swap hostess asks you to include a stamped, self-addressed return envelope to her, or to send postage equivalent to what it cost you to mail to her, you’re effectively doubling your mailing costs. Can you afford this? Will you have time to assemble the requested return packaging or fees before you mail? Will you have time to go to the post office, stand in line, and get the paperwork done before the due date? Factor all this into your costs, both in dollars and time. It does you no good to get the artwork done if you can’t afford to mail it out, or can’t get to the post office in time.

5. Know how to operate a calendar.

Seriously—a calendar is not a piece of artwork hanging on the wall, it’s a planning tool . If a project is due by a certain date, that’s not a suggestion. It’s a commitment. Write it on your calendar, and meet your commitment. If you can’t do this, don’t sign up for art projects. Don’t assume that thirty other people will be happy to wait for your items to arrive because you had a hangnail, and couldn’t get to the post office. Don’t leave making things or mailing things until the last possible moment. Look at your calendar, see the deadline date approaching, and do something about it!

6. Know your own skill level and limitations.

This is a tough one. Many people use swaps as a motivator to try something new, which is great if it works for you. However, if you’re timid about trying new things, not sure how to make something without step-by-step instructions, or are hampered by limited supplies or resources, perhaps you shouldn’t swap something you’ve never tried before. So, if you’re signing up to swap soldered microscope slide pendants, and you’ve never soldered, don’t own a soldering iron, have never seen someone solder, don’t have step-by-step instructions on soldering, and are timid about using tools—well, maybe it’s best to try making one before you sign up, rather than sign up for something that you may not be able to deliver.

My approach to this is try making one, and if sign ups for the swap are still open when you’ve achieved a finished piece that doesn’t look half bad, it was meant to be—sign up with confidence. If not, keep practicing so you’re ready for the next time a swap like this one is posted.

7. Know when and how to ask questions.

Everyone has questions at some point in a project. A good swap host will anticipate those questions, and have answers for them. Many hosts write their project descriptions to include those answers, so your first stop when you have questions is the original place you saw it posted. Read through it to be sure your question isn’t covered.

Next, check to see if there’s a project FAQ, or if there’s a project discussion thread. Read through those to see if your question has already been asked and answered. If your question is more general, like how to achieve a certain technique or where to find supplies, try using Google to track down answers.

If all else fails, contact your swap host privately via email. Let her know that you’ve checked the various resources the project offers, and have not found an answer. Be brief, and get to the point—because if there are 30 participants, and each one sends her a three paragraph long email she has to wade through to find a question, she’s probably tired of reading by now.

Be nice. Remember, your swap host is not your servant. Even in small, quiet projects, there’s a lot of juggling going on behind the scenes. Be patient.

8. Know that it’s not all about you.

Signing up for someone else’s project means accepting that things aren’t going to be done your way. By signing up, you’ve agreed to follow the host’s instructions, deadlines, and changes to all of the above within reason. You’ve agreed to become one of a group of participants, with the host as a leader. Every leader has a different style—some will ask for input from the group for every detail of the project, while others will make the decisions on their own. Making demands, or adding your two cents about how a project is run, or forging off on your own and doing whatever you like is not appropriate. This activity is about the group, and what’s best for it as a whole, not what’s best for you.

For example, if a host does not require participants to acknowledge the receipt of swap items after returns are mailed out, it’s not up to you to demand that the people who received your items acknowledge them. Conversely, if the swap rules state that you should post when something from another artist arrives, you should not decide to ignore them. These decisions are not up to you to make. They’ve been made by the host.

Since you read the project description twice, you know what’s expected. If anything in the project description didn’t sit well with you, or wasn’t clear, well, why the heck did you sign up for it?

9. Know that not everyone is like you.

Not everyone makes art the way you do—thank goodness! Our creative lives would be boring if everyone made things the same way. Learn to appreciate the differences in skill levels, materials and techniques.

Not everyone is as responsible as you are. There will be people who drop out, disappear, and receive without giving anything back. All you can do is keep a list of people who have not lived up to your expectations, and avoid participating in projects with them again. As a swap host, I keep a list of people who have not lived up to my expecations as participants. Periodically, I get messages from other swap hosts, and we share information. Some places were I swap regularly have ratings systems that identify participants with poor habits. Eventually, people who have poor swap habits will find themselves left out in the cold.

Not every swap is a good fit for you. If you find a swap host or group is too restrictive, or too laid back for your taste, or if the pace or the energy of a project doesn’t work for you, don’t continue to sign up for swaps in the same place. Finish your commitments, and keep looking. Eventually, you’ll find a few like-minded people, and fall into a happy, healthy situation. Sometimes, it takes a few tries to find a good fit. Don’t get discouraged.

10. Know that it’s not about getting stuff.

If you think that joining an art project is all about people sending you stuff, you’ve missed the boat. Most collaborative projects are best approached as opportunities to make art, stretch your own skills, and do something new. Sign up, meet your responsibilities, send whatever you’re supposed to send, and move on. If things fall apart, and you don’t receive the expected return from a project, it’s not the end of the world.

And if you’re someone who does think it’s all about getting stuff, and you receive without sending—well, I wouldn’t want to be you when that energy comes back around and bites you…

So, which of these items do you think I’ll use? And what do you think I’ll do with them? Leave your thoughts in the comments below…

OK, I’ll admit it—this was sort of a setup. I’m good, but even I couldn’t make something significant from this pile of stuff. Stacy’s package provided inspiration for a previous article, so these items were sort of the leftovers, which I posted as a group intentionally so I could talk a little bit about the process of getting inspired by objects.

While these items as a group didn’t prompt me to create one big piece, they did give me several good nudges over the last couple of weeks. Here’s how:

I don’t eat any candy sweetened with sugar or aspartame, which means I don’t buy this product. I’ve always wanted to play with one of the tins, but it’s a drag to buy candy just to throw it away and save the container—not that I don’t do it regularly. I’ve never purchased one of these tins because I wasn’t sure if I could take it apart and discard the plastic portion. You all know how I feel about plastic, right? Bleh.

Armed with the tin from Stacy, and a pair of pliers, I finally got my answer. Yes, the plastic piece does pop out quite easily. Now I know firsthand, and can add this to the things I buy at the dollar store. The girls in my local group will be thrilled—they’re usually the recipients of the candy that’s been shucked from its container.

A lovely, round, metal container that’s shiny inside, and colored outside. What could be better? I have visions of little mermaid scenes already.

Let’s move on to the coasters. I’ve seen plenty of things made with these—book covers, tags, chunky book pages. I’ve tried using them myself, and found them a pitiful surface for most techniques. They’re coasters. They’re designed to suck up liquids. That means paint sinks into them and dries too quickly, glue stick doesn’t really keep things stuck to them, and they’re just generally miserable to beat into shape. Why torture myself turning these into something?

Instead, I’ll punch holes in these, and hang them on the wall with the rest of my templates—because they are great sizes and shapes for small projects. I can grab one of these and trace around it for perfect round pages, or squares with rounded corners.

Now, I know one or two of you put these two items together right way. So did I. The Rolodex cards fit perfectly into the little brown sacks. So, yes, I could have made something here—maybe a small book? Hmm, that sounds familiar….

…because I’ve already done a cute little paper bag book with cards in it. I posted it over in Decos and Small Books, in How-To Instructions, as an accordian spine book. It’s slightly larger, but still, it’s the same idea.

The second thing I thought is that I’ve been wanting to do some altered Rolodex cards. I’ve seen people swapping them—in fact, I posted some altered Rolos as Flickr Fun in the GMS blog recently. Here are some that have been posted recently:

Now, I totally love this idea, because people are always asking me what I do with altered art pieces. Altered Rolodex cards come with their answer inscribed on them—they’re really functional address cards for a Rolodex. They have a use, besides just being fun and pretty. How could I not want to swap these?

My first three Rolos, ready to swap. And there’s quite a long, ongoing swap of these running at ATCsForAll.com when I have the time to post them. Yay!

Perhaps I’ll do some nude Rolos in a plain brown wrapper—although I won’t be using the cards Stacy sent, since everyone seems to be swapping the larger, 3×5 cards. That also means I’ll have to make my own little bags from brown paper.

One last thing: the screen wire. This was sort of an obscure prompt—I’ve had a little shrine in the back of my head for over a year now. Just a tiny chair in a box, with no way out, called A Room of My Own. I have the chair, I have an assortment of boxes from which to choose, and I do have some screen for the front. This piece reminded me to drag all that back down onto my work table and do something about it. At some point, I’ll have a little shrine that looks something like this.

There you have it. An armload of inspiration for a variety of things, all from a pile of unrelated objects. Thanks, Stacy!

There were a couple of restrictions on this challenge. Participants weren’t allowed to use supplies like glitter, beads or fabrics they already had on hand, but we were allowed to use any tools and glues we owned. We were allowed to spend no more than $5 on items to augment the supplies sent to us, and were required to use at least three items from our packets. Other than that, it was open season!

So, here’s what was in my packet:

A piece of teal felt.
A few strands of raffia.
Silk flowers and leaves.
A handful of rubber bands.
A red and a pink balloon.
A lavender tulle circle
A little plastic baggie with a few beads, rhinestones, sequins, and a couple of sequin pins inside.

Any thoughts on how you’d use these to dress a doll?

I had to hunt down a Barbie, and pickings were sort of slim. I found this doll, whose hair was a nice match to the teal felt. However, she came with big plastic wings that were permanently attached. My first step was to perform a wing-ectomy, which left a small hole in her back. Hmm, something I’ll have to cover later…

Starting at the top, I wrapped the doll’s hair with one of the rubber bands, and tucked the silk flowers into her new up-do. The ends were a little scruffy, so I gave her a quick trim.

The teal felt reminded me of something—the linings of my TXU Energy bill envelopes. I get two of these in the mail every month, and I love the pattern of the tiny logos on the white background. I decided to do a dress that was half envelope, and half felt. I cut the envelopes up, and created half a bodice and skirt by folding, wrapping and taping directly to the doll’s body.

The other half of the dress was made from the felt, which I just wrapped, glued, and then cut to the correct length. To show off the patterned underskirt, I folded back the front and back of the felt skirt, and decorated by scalloping and punching holes along the edges.

Barbie still looked a little bare, so I added a small jacket made from a strip of felt and a strip of envelope. I wrapped each side to create sleeves. This covered up the small hole in her back, too.

Here’s the finished doll. I added a belt made from one of the balloons and another rubber band, decorated with rhinestones and the tulle circle. I also added earrings made from some of the goodies in the little plastic bag.

I had a lot of fun with this challenge. It was a great excuse to play with a doll for a day!

Edited on 2/24 to add:

Although this challenge is set up as a competition, I’m not particularly interested in that part. In fact, I’m against art competitions in general—for me, the challenge is making something, not winning some sort of art popularity contest.

Edited on 2/26 to add:

Wow, who knew this would elicit so many fun comments? Thanks for all the interesting feedback.

To those who want me to make them outfits: dream on! I spent ten years as a professional costume designer for stage. I’ve made all the people clothes I’m going to make in this lifetime. Besides, dolls don’t mind when the only way to keep a dress on is to pin it into their backs

This just in: local art friend Livia also entered photos of her doll, which was chosen as one of the finalists. Yay, Livia!

]]> http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/star-telegram-barbie/feed/ 0 http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/100pages/about-100-pages/ http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/100pages/about-100-pages/#comments Sun, 18 Feb 2007 01:44:49 +0000 Lisa Vollrath http://gomakesomething.com/?p=244 “…just today, I was thinking of how amazing it is that if a hundred members created a journal page with the same images that chances are a hundred totally different pages would be created as the images filtered through our individuality…” —Linda, AlteredBooks group member

What happens when you give a group of artists the same image and ask them to create with it? That’s the premise behind 100 Pages. Artists are asked to begin with the same base image, and use it somewhere, somehow in their work.

How It Works

Download the image in your choice of format. There is no sign-up involved in this project. Just download the image and start creating. The only rule is that you must use the base image or its elements somewhere in your work.

100 Pages image as a high-res .jpg – This should open in any graphics software. I don’t suggest printing it from your browser, as the size of the image may not be accurate.

100 Pages image as a .pdf file – This file requires Adobe Reader to open.

When you are finished with your piece, upload a photo or scan of it to your blog or photo album, and leave a comment below with the link. I’ll capture the image and add it to the gallery, credited to you by the name you leave in your comment. By submitting a piece to this project, you are giving permission for a copy of it to be posted in the 100 Pages gallery on this site.

A Little History

100 Pages started in 2002. The original 24 pages were mailed in, scanned, and then bound together to create a book for the ISABA library. Those images remained on display at LisaVollrath.com for about a year. The project was then shelved until it was revived here at GMS in 2007.

Hmm—what will I make from these?

Well, some of you said jewelry, and that’s the first thing I always think of when I see a domino. I decided to turn the smaller dominos into decoupaged pendants, and use up some of the leftover faux postage images in my scrap pile.

I placed a domino over the faux postage images, and traced the shape, then cut them out. They required a tiny bit of trimming to fit onto the face of the domino without hanging over the curved edges. I didn’t worry too much about being precise about this, since the edges of each image will be covered with paint eventually.

I scuffed up the front, back and sides of each domino with some fine sandpaper, then painted the whole thing with acrylics that roughly matched an element in each image. I didn’t paint too much on the front of the dominos, since they’ll be covered with images—just enough to color the rounded edges.

When the paint was completely dry, I applied the images to the fronts of the dominos using a bit of matte medium. A light coat of medium on the domino, then the image, then another light coat over the top and edges. I set the dominos on a piece of plastic wrap to dry, so they wouldn’t stick to my work surface.

To blend the front and sides together, I sponged a bit of metallic paint onto each domino.

To give the dominos a way to hang, I glued a flat-sided bead to the top of each one with a bit of E6000.

I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I tapped around the edges with a little bit of glitter glue, then set the dominos aside to dry overnight.

To protect the surfaces of my finished pieces, I sealed them with a little Diamond Glaze. Any clear sealer will do.

Well, so much for the small dominos. Now, what should I do with the big squares?

I love working big, and when I was presented with big dominos, I seized the opportunity to make some big, showy jewelry. These were done with rubber stamps and Sharpies, which give a bright, colorful glow to the surface of the dominos. Think of Sharpies as conveniently packaged alcohol inks—they give the same transparent color as inks in liquid or pad form, and as a plus, they have a nice pointy tip for detail work.

First, I lightly scuffed the surface of the dominos with a little fine sandpaper. They don’t really need a good sanding—in fact, sanding them too much takes the shine off.

Next, I did a little drilling. I wanted to loop some cording throug the top of one piece, so a hole straight through from back to front was required. The easiest way to do this is to line the drill bit up with one of the holes in the domino, and let it be the guide for the bit.

I also wanted to suspend one piece from its sides, so I drilled two tiny holes with a fine drill bit, to hold small screw eyes.

I planned the placement of the stamped images by lining them up on the dominos. This is sort of a do or die kind of thing—once the ink is on the dom, it’s a hassle to get it off again. A little planning is definitely worthwhile.

I work backwards when stamping dominos, placing the stamp on its back, and patting it with ink, then placing the dom onto the inked surface. There’s less sliding that way, and I have one last chance to make sure that the image is going exactly where I want it on the front side.

I stamped the dominos with Staz-On ink, which is solvent based. I don’t usually enjoy working with this ink, but I’ve found that it tends to drag into the color much less than other inks. Just for fun, I heat set it, then set the stamped pieces aside overnight to be sure the ink was completely dry.

Coloring the images is fairly straighforward. The ink slides right onto the domino, and can be moved around easily when wet. I can also be thinned with plain old rubbing alcohol, and moved around with a brush. I created some mottled backgrounds by coloring the dominos, then dotting a little alcohol on them with a cotton swab. This is a quick way to do a polished stone technique.

As I colored, if any black ink seemed to get dragged into my field, I’d just scribble onto a piece of white paper to clean the tip of the Sharpie.

When the colored dominos were completely dry, I applied a light coat of Diamond Glaze to seal them.

I haven’t used the bamboo pieces Mary sent yet. Perhaps those will appear in a future project…

Let’s see—a bingo card, some old pharmacy labels, a Rummikub tile, a washer, a button, a clever little paper box with a flip top, and two heavy metal plates wrapped with fibers (hey Kelly, what the heck are these, anyway?).

What would you make from these? One item? Two? Three? Which pieces go together, and which should be set aside for some other project?

A Woman of Numbers

This bag of stuff took a little sorting before the picture became clear. The first items I grouped together were these: the bingo card, the Rummikub tile, and the old pharmacy labels. The piece those items inspired really wouldn’t lend itself to my usual how-to article with step by step photos, because it’s mostly gluing once the pieces are chosen. Instead, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about the development of a piece, and how I used these items as a jumping-off point.

I pulled these items into their own pile because they seemed to be related. Numbers. Science. Games. Someone who is all about numbers, both at work and play. I also liked that the items were all very straight and square. Straight lines indicate order—perhaps this is a piece about someone who is very orderly and precise? Slowly I began to walk around my workroom and assemble other items in keeping with this theme. Dominoes. A ruler. Paper printed with charts and tables. A numerical printer’s block.

When developing an assemblage, I like to tell some sort of story. Very early on, I decided this piece would be called A Woman of Numbers. I chose a very serious vintage photo of a woman from the turn of the century. Perhaps she was a doctor, or a scientist. Perhaps an accountant. Perhaps a gambler. I continued to add items to the plain wood box I chose as a container. This is what I ended up with:

The story of this woman is intentionally unclear. I’ve collected items that might have been from her life. Notice how almost all of them are square and regantular, and how they’re presented to the viewer straight on, rather than at angles? This is to visually reinforce the idea of order and regularity. There’s nothing left to chance here—whoever this woman was, she was very precise.

One more thing to notice—a technique called visual leading. Basically, you take the viewer by the hand, and lead them across the piece by ordering the visual elements in a way that leads the eye down a specific path. In this piece, the trail goes from the very large BINGO in the top left, down the stairsteps created by the postage stamps, the playing card, the printers block to the red soda cap (or across the ruler, depending on how your mind works). I’ve intentionally left the woman’s photo out of this trail, so that she is discovered only after viewing the other items.

Although placement of items in assemblage pieces often seems random, there’s usually a method to the artist’s madness—look for the story, and for the trail. Sometimes, they’ve been place there intentionally. Sometimes, they just appear on their own.

Day of the Dead Pendant Box

My next group of items was the cute little box with a flip-top lid, and the big silver washer. These were just asking to be hung from a cord around my neck—but first, they needed a little spiffing up.

I decided to do a little magazine collage as a background. I found blocks of bright colors: orange, yellow, lime, fuschia and aqua. I cut the pieces into narrow strips.

The strips were applied to the box with a little matte medium.

I applied a stamp from my Day of the Dead faux postage sheet to the front of the box, and set it aside to dry.

When the box was completely dry, I gave it a coat of Diamond Glaze to seal it.

While the glaze was drying, I tore three strips of fabric in colors matching my collage strips, and braided them together.

I looped the ends of the braid through the center of the washer, and wrapped them with black decorative thread.

When the box was dry, I applied a little glue to the sides of the box, and pushed the braid into it, centering the washer below the box.

I wrapped the box with a bit of black thread, and a little silver wire threaded with a few beads. This was both decorative, and a way to make sure the braid stays attached to the box while it’s being worn.

I tore a few more strips of fabric, added some fibers, and looped the whole mess through the washer to create a tassel, wrapping below the washer with a bit of black thread.

A few beads on the tassel strands, and my pendant is finished.

]]> http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/kelly-parker-unrelated/feed/ 0 http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/kimberly-moore-serendipity/ http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/kimberly-moore-serendipity/#comments Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:58:22 +0000 Lisa Vollrath http://gomakesomething.com/?p=245 Here’s what Kimberly sent me—lots of small pieces:

The bag contained small pieces of papers and fabrics, none larger than a quarter sheet. Also, some fibers, a few small images, and some tiny heart-shaped charms.

So, what would you make from this bag of stuff? How would you sort it into related pieces? What items are missing to complete the project you envision?

I immediately sorted the pile of scraps into three color-themed groups: white and gold, pink and black, and orange and yellow. Very often, color is what speaks to me first, and is what I use to organize when presented with lots of pieces. Once sorted, I saw three different sheets of background papers, each needing a slightly different approach.

Now, you’ve all read my article on making serendipity squares, right? I’m going to use a some variations of this technique to create full sheets of paper for later use.

Just Plain Glue

The first sheet is going to use the white and gold pieces. I augmented this pile with a piece or two from my own scrap bin, which is usually overflowing with bits from previous projects.

The pieces were all sort of square and straight. I started tearing to give some irregular edges. I also removed some layers of the thicker scraps, like the business card. I was able to just peel the printed layer off, and toss the remainder of the card. No sense adding bulk we don’t need.

Next, some gluing. I used a sheet of lightweight cover stock as a background for this, in white. Very often, I’ll choose a background paper that’s sort of color coordinated with my pieces, or that will add to the composition somehow.

I glued pieces to the background randomly with a glue stick. Sometimes they overlapped a bit. I wasn’t too worried about covering every bit of the background paper.

Now, a little stamping. I used a couple of script stamps, some brown ink, and gold embossing powder. I sort of aimed for the bare white spots of background showing through, but not too carefully.

When the embossing powder was cool, I decided the white of the background paper was still a little stark, so I toned it down with a little chalk ink, rubbing it on the paper randomly.

There was one white paper that was sort of whispy and holey—I left that to glue on last. Very often, alternating gluing and stamping works best with this technique, to give the paper a more interesting lost and found effect.

Standing back from the sheet so far, it looked a little disconnected—like a bunch of pieces glued down rather than one whole sheet of interesting paper. To help blend a bit more, I spattered a bit of white acrylic over the whole sheet. This gave it more visual interest, and helped break up any areas that were still solid.

One last addition to blend it all together: random dots of gold glitter glue. Glitter glue gets a bad rap as an art material because so many people use it badly. I like it to add just a bit of sparkle her and there.

The finished result:

Gel Medium and Paint

The next pile was pink and black, and had some ribbon in it. Glue stick won’t really do the trick here, so I decided to use some gel medium.

For this paper, I used a heavier background: watercolor paper. This was both mostly an adjustment for the wet media. Paint needs more support than glue.

The first layer of papers was from my own pile of scraps: some Chinese newspaper, and pink construction paper. I just randomly applied it into a layer of gel medium.

I didn’t have a lot of pink scraps around, so I went ahead and used a bit of paint to tone the background down. I’m a no frills sort of painter: I just squirt a bit onto the paper, and move it around with a big brush.

All that solid pink sort of made my teeth hurt, so I stamped some fern leaves over itwith black ink. I set the ink with a heat gun to keep it from smearing.

Next, I applied some scraps with gel medium. I also cut up the gingham ribbon and applied it to the paper. This takes a bit more gel medium and a little more drying time than paper.

The paler pink scraps really stood out, so I added some pale pink paint splatters to help blend them with the brighter pink background and scraps.

The finished result:

Fusible Webbing and Some Sewing

OK, one more pile: lots of fun prints in orange, yellow, and just a bit of purple. This pile had both paper and fabric in it, and a bunch of fibers and ribbons. This looked very ethnic and freeform to me, so I decided a little freeform sewing was in order.

One of my favorite ways of dealing with scraps of fabric is to use fusible webbing to hold it in place while I work with it. I used some scraps of Steam a Seam for this project: it has a bit of temporary adhesive to keep things in place while you’re working, and then can be ironed down for permanent placement.

First, I lined up all my bits and pieces on the Steam a Seam, and trimmed around them.

Next, I fused the adhesive to the papers and fabrics. I know this stuff is designed for quilting, but paper likes it just as well as fabric.

Once the Steam a Seam is fused to the pieces, the backing paper can be removed. It now has just a tiny bit of temporary adhesive to hold it in place while I’m playing with placement.

I cut papers and fabrics into random pieces, and arranged them on a sheet of bright yellow paper.

When I was happy with the placement, I anchored everything down with an iron. I could have stopped right there—the paper is perfectly usable once everything is fused down, and no further gluing is required. Simple, eh?

Now, I’ve been sewing since I was big enough to see over the top of a machine table, but my machine doesn’t get much of a workout anymore. Freeform sewing on the occasional sheet of paper is about as far as I get. I whipped the cover off the machine, and it was already threaded up with some bright yellow rayon thread, so I set it for a wide zig-zag stitch, and sewed a few random lines. Then I stitched down all the bits and pieces of fibers and ribbons. Then, just for laughs, I stitched some jute twine onto the paper.

This paper was already pretty colorful, but I couldn’t resist adding a bit more. I dotted the page with purple, green and gold glitter glue.

Here’s the finished result:

The slides can be removed from the magazine. So, board box, metal magazine, metal slides.

First, I removed all but three of the metal slides. I know some of you were hoping I’d do something that included every single slide, but straight off, I knew that wasn’t for me. The slide holders are so tight in the magazine that it made them hard to pull out, and even harder to put back in gracefully. It’s been my experience that most people, when presented with an item that doesn’t move easily, will opt not to move it, fearing that they’ll break the piece—and these slides were giving me that kind of vibe. I decided early on that I’d use just a handful of them, and figure out something that made it easy to slide them out a bit, but not require them to come out all the way. These extras are set aside for another project, which I’ll post down the road.

I worked from the outside in on this project, because the inside required a little more thought. I decided the whole box was going to be some sort of pirate themed extravaganza, so the exterior of the box became a treasure map. I simply coated the exterior of the box with gel medium, and wrapped it with a page from a large atlas, then trimmed along the edges.

The ends of the box were snipped to the corners, then the two side pieces tucked inward, and the last flap glued in place upward. Nice and neat.

I toned the whole box, inside and out, with a little brown glaze. I have a bottle of Golden glaze for this, but a bit of glazing medium and some cheap brown acrylic will do the same thing. I applied in a circular motion with a foam sponge—lots of control, and no brush strokes.

I glued three wooden game piece blocks to the bottom of the box, to give it a little weight, and an obvious base. I toned the wood with the same brown glaze. It ended up looking very much like a shipping pallet when finished.

OK, on to the slide magazine. I removed the front ID strip, acetate, and support board and set them aside to use later.

I dripped alcohol inks over all the metal surfaces, and patted them down with a little alcohol extender on felt. Sort of a modified polished stone technique, in caramel and brown to look sort of rusty.

The slide holders also got a coat of alcohol inks on both sides. Pretty much everything that was silver previously is now sort of a mottled rust color.

I cut 2×2 pieces of plexiglass, and slid them into the slide holders. These will be clear shelves inside the chest, which will make the most of the light that comes through the front and back of the piece.

I printed a vintage pirate girl image, and trimmed it down to fit the front opening, using the old ID strip as a guide. Over the image, I stamped a little text.

The image was put back into the front of the magazine, with a cardboard support strip tucked behind, and the original sheet of acetate over the top. The acetate was just a little bit yellowed, which worked nicely to tone down the very vivid colors of the print.

I decided to wrap the front with some fibers, and add some keys, but I really didn’t want to interfere with what I had planned for the interior. My solution was to poke a hole in one side of the magazine with an awl, and run my fibers through the hole. They’re barely noticable inside the box this way.

I was very easy to fill this box with goodies, because each shelf slides out. The bottom shelf got some rolled up papers and maps, the middle one has three glass bottles filled with various strange substances, and the top shelf got a shell supporting a gaudy rhinestone brooch I pulled off a shirt a bought last year.

The exterior seemed to need just a little more attention. I cast a skull using a sugar skull mold and some air dry clay, painted it up and wrapped a piece of cloth around it as a head scarf. The skull, an old coin, and some old chicken bones were arranged on the top of the box.

The finished treasure chest:

]]> http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/carolyn-brady-chest/feed/ 0 http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/lazzelle-parker-atcs/ http://gomakesomething.com/challenges/52bags/lazzelle-parker-atcs/#comments Sun, 07 May 2006 04:20:26 +0000 Lisa Vollrath http://gomakesomething.com/?p=242 Middle school art teacher Lazzelle Parker sent me a little box of goodies, including these wonderful pieces of painted paper. I used a few of these in my previous article, but I had quite a few of them left. I just had to find out about them, and think of something fun to make from them.

In emailing with Lazelle, I learned the origin of these pieces. She told me that at clean-up time, her students love to fold their cardstock paint palettes, which often have quite a bit of paint left on them, and put them on the drying rack with their paintings. Without knowing it, her students are making a form of monoprint, and creating some incredible background papers. (More about monoprinting can be found in the how-to section of the site.)

The first thing that came to mind when I saw these papers was artist trading cards. Each piece was just large enough to cut two cards, with very little waste.

I just squared off each piece with my paper trimmer, and cut two 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inch cards from each one. There was a little bit of waste, which allowed me to sort of trim off whichever edge was least interesting.

These ATCs look pretty great all by themselves, don’t they? The colors are really wonderful. My goal is just to do a little accenting, without covering up too much of the backgrounds.

I did some really minimal rubber stamping with black dye ink, and stamps from Ink & the Dog and Stamp Camp. I planned my stamping to cover any flaws, like paint that had flaked off, or islands of white paper without any color on them.

A few buttons and some glue, and I have a really wonderful set of ATCs.

I’ve been looking at my own waste paint differently since these cards arrived. Now, I’m smooshing a piece of cardstock into the extra paint at the end of every painting session. I’m also keeping an extra piece of cardstock next to me to clean off my brushes. Next time I want to do a quick set of ATCs, I’ll be that much farther ahead.

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