Accordion Book part 2

So today I’ll show you how I made the tabbed pages and the pop ups. These are actually easy and fun to create.

The previous post showed how to build the basic accordion book. Today I’ll share how I made the pocket pages and the pop-up ones.

Remember that my pages are 4x6”. To create pockets I cut a piece of decorative paper 4x2 ½”. On both short edges and one long edge I made a ¼” fold. I trimmed the corners so it would lay right. Putting glue on the folded edges, I glued the pocket to the page.  You can decorate the front of the pocket before you glue it on, or after. If the decoration has to wrap in behind the pocket then it must be glued on before attaching it to the page.

For the pop-up cards I started by watching some You-Tube videos. I knew the basics, but wanted to learn about the more intricate style of pop-ups. There are some great instructive videos and you can learn a lot on You-Tube.

So I needed something to use as pop-ups and since the theme is nature, I decided to sit down (Sunday afternoon) with my paints, markers and colored pencils and create some flowers and trees. I really wanted to create at least one evergreen as a pop-up. (I like Christmas).

The first one was just for a butterfly. Typically the popup is made from a piece of cardstock the same size as your card. I just cut out a small rectangle and made the piece to hold the butterfly that I had stamped a while back.

Gluing is a little bit of a trick because you want the part that pops out left without glue.

For the tree, I cut it like the instructions I found. The cardstock was 4x6”. From the photo you can see I left one spot on each side of the tree uncut. I glued the piece to the pages, matching the folds. Then I painted the tree and added some teal tissue paper. The white is cake papers cut to look like snow covered mountains. You don’t usually glue anything behind the pop up, but I don’t always follow the rules in crafting.

Even though I haven’t finished this book, I like how it’s going.

I am considering making pop up Christmas cards this year to send to my family and friends.

I hope that everyone tries something new that will push you beyond your comfort zone. Pop ups are a challenge, but well worth the effort.

Til next time. J

Terri

Stop by my Etsy shop for new arrivals www.etsy.com/shop/1krazyrtist

Accordion Book Part 1

This week I have been struggling with what type of project to develop. I have been through a stack of magazines, sorted through my past projects, and just sat and doodled. I was intrigued by the accordion books idea.

I put up two posts from last year that showed a previous project. This book will be a little bit different.  Plus I am going to make this two posts. This first one is about building the book itself. On Wednesday I will post how I created some of the decorative pages. My design includes a couple of pop-up pages and some pockets.

I started with two sheet of 12x12 cardstock. I cut each one in half so I have a six inch tall book. A half inch on one end was folded on one sheet to create a way to glue the sheets together. Then the sheets were folded to create the 6x4” pages, starting from the middle where they are glued together. You can make your book as many pages as you want by adding more sheets to the end. Once you fold one page, you can use it as the guide for folding all the others. When you get to the end of the page strip, your page won’t be the full size. Just add another strip and keep folding till you get it the size/length you want. Then cut the last page with an extra ½” for gluing it to the cover. I only used three of my 4x12” strips for the pages. I saved the last one because I had plans for it later in the project.

I used Yes! Glue for this project. (Yes! Glue is specially designed for scrapbooking and paper projects. It is 100% acid free and perfect for archival projects. Water based for easy clean up)

While the glue dried on the pages, I cut two pieces of chip board 6 x4”for the cover. They are the same size as the pages, but once they are covered they will be slightly larger. Decorative paper was chosen from my stash for the covers and glued on. The inside of the covers will be done later, after the pages are done. Chipboard is hard to cut, but with determination, and a craft knife, I got the pieces done. You could use cereal box cardboard instead and just glue two pieces together for better stability and stiffness.

 

I decided my theme would be nature. I love trees and being outside. I have some fun rubber stamps and can put some fun pages together.

The paper for the cover is shiny and so looks cool.  It covered the chipboard nicely.

I attached the page sheet to the front and back cover pieces at this point so the inside cover paper would go over it and hold the book together. Then I glued on the inside cover papers. I let all this dry thoroughly before going on to decorate the pages.

I glued the page sheet to the cover pieces so it would open from both sides. Then I would have two books in one. I could do each side differently, or make them follow the same theme. In this case they will relate to each other.

Once you have reached this step it’s up to you how you decorate the pages. Photos, yarn, fabrics, glitter glue, art, or whatever you choose can go into the book. I cut some decorative papers and glued them on the pages as backgrounds. These will inspire what goes onto each page. I just have to remember that these backgrounds might be completely covered when I’m done. So I can’t get too attached to making them too perfect and pretty which will keep me from adding stuff.

 

To keep the book together I punched holes in the cover and ran some decorative hemp cords through so I could tie it together when not reading it. Since the chipboard is so thick and hard to put a hole through, I used the Dremel tool to drill a hole in the edge of one side. The cords wrap around and tie to hold the book together. This allows me to add lots of things to the pages and the tie holds it no matter how thick it gets.

I am working on the pages and will post the final results on Wednesday. I hope you try something new this week

Til next time. J

Terri

Stop by my Etsy shop for new arrivals www.etsy.com/shop/1krazyrtist

Accordion Book for Mini Box

Here is the mini box with the accordion book

Originally posted 06/25/12

Remember the mini box? The mini box that was decorated. While suggesting things to use it for I mentioned a book. Well, that really intrigued me so I sat down on Tuesday and started working on it. I finished it on Wednesday morning.

     

I wanted to make a mini book that would fit into the mini box.

   

A piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper was used to create an accordion style book. The paper was similar to the one I had cut words from for the outside of the box. Just a darker background color with the same sayings on it.

I measured the inside of the box and cut two strips of paper 12 inches long by 4 inches wide. After putting fold marks into the paper every 2 ¾ inches, I pressed the folds. Each piece had a half inch tab at the end. I used one to glue it to the other long piece, so that I had a 23 inch long piece of paper. The other tab was folded under and created a nice edge.

I needed a theme for the book so I decided to use the bird from the top and the sayings from the paper. (All the memories we make and keep throughout our lives are what makes the hard times worth enduring and the good times so endearing. So many of our priceless memories are worth preserving so that they can be enjoyed in the present and future generations may reflect on their ancestral past and their hopes and dreams for the future.)  The underlined words are the ones I had cut out and used on the outside.

I liked the bird and the words, so I looked through my stash of papers, artwork and images and found some great things to work from.

I started by cutting background pieces to cover each page. I wanted things that made me think of the bird, music and flowers. Somehow a garden was a nice image and a bird in the garden made sense, somehow. (Now you know why I call this blog 1 Krazy Rtist). My mind does not always make perfect sense when it comes to pulling out supplies for a project. Eventually it all works out because I only use part of what I gather up.

Anyway, I laid out all the goodies and began laying them on each background to see what looked best where. I had not glued anything down yet.

Once I liked some of the images I began to glue them down. I used Alene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue. I have had it for a while and it was really thick, I had to use a toothpick to get it out and spread it.

As I worked I picked up more decorative images and continued to glue things down. The accordion book began to look more and more like it made sense. Well, sort of.

I decided it needed more three dimensional parts so I dug into my doll making supplies and got out some mini buttons and some bows. They looked good on the background. I used a couple of butterflies and flowers that I had gotten in a scrapbooking set from a yard sale. They were layered and looked nice against all the flat pieces.

I found some nice stickers in one of my envelopes of scrapbooking supplies and they added more brightness.

I was really beginning to like this. I cut out more of the words from the paper and glued them onto the pages, as well. They carried the theme from the box into the book. I also used some of the same mini music pages as background on one of the book pages.

I got the mini music pages by scanning pages from an old piano music booklet into my computer. Then using Photoshop I reduced the images in both size and pixels. I wanted them to be easy to move into PowerPoint. I like to put multiple images onto a PowerPoint page so I can print out a lot, rather than just one small picture. I can also vary the size so they can be really small or nice and large to accommodate whatever page size I am working on at the time.

   

So, my finished book looked cool, but I thought it needed to be tied, just like the box. So I took one of the flower stickers and used it to hold a couple of strings (like on the box) to the back of the book. They wrap around and tie on the front of the book. They also make it easier to pull the book out of the little box (it’s a tight fit).

This is really an easy project and only took me a few hours to finish it. Accordion books and other types of mini books are great projects for children, or the developmentally disabled.

I hope you enjoyed this krazy little project.

Have you ever made a little accordion book? How did it come out? I would love to hear about your crafting projects.

Terri

MIni Box

This post is from 2012. I am doing an accordion book for the Monday post and thought I would post this one and the follow-up one as examples.  I am going to be creative on the new one. But in the meantime, enjoy this mini box and the post on last year’s accordion book that goes into this box.

Originally posted 06/11/12

What do you do with small boxes you receive in the mail? Decorate them.

I received this tiny box recently with a paint sample in it. Specifically a mini can of spray acrylic paint from Liquitex. I put the box aside and eventually made my way back to it to alter it.

I started by gluing any loose sides so they wouldn’t move while I decorated it.

    

Then I covered it with a striped brown scrapbook paper. The inside was lined with a lighter, different paper.

Beads from a couple of old earrings were used as feet. The beads are plastic and have one flat side. I used my Dremel to get all the glue off the flat surface and glued them on the bottom with E-6000 glue.

E-6000 glue is a wonderful, industrial grade, glue that can stand extreme temperatures and holds really well.

    

Then I had a great time putting a few items on the box as decorations. I used rick-rack from a bag I got at a yard sale, words cut from a piece of scrapbooking paper, tissue paper, and a bird charm photo from a jewelry catalog.

The box needed a way to close it so I used a star hole punch and punched three stars into the flap.  Then I took five different fiber cords and threaded them through the center hole. I tied a knot at that hole and wrapped the cords around the box and tied them.

The box isn’t meant to be truly secure. It is pretty much meant to be decorative. Of course, it could be used as a wish box, or prayer box.

I like it and have put it on my book shelf so I can look at it every once in a while. It will provide inspiration for future projects. Maybe it will become a gift one day.

Don’t throw away those little boxes. They can become cute little decorative pieces for you table or shelf. They can be made into prayer boxes, gift boxes, or even hold a handmade book. Hmmm, that may be my next project.

“Think outside the box” when you are looking for a project. Use your artwork, scraps, fabrics, charms, and decorative papers to create a fun piece of art.

It’s all art. Even if it fits the category of crafts, you are still making art.

Be messy, get dirty (painted, glued, glittered, etc.) and have a good time. Don’t stress about the outcome. If it doesn’t look good to you, cover it up, paint it, glue something more over it. Keep layering and painting til you get to the place where the project tells you it is done.

Terri

Denim Tote Bag

I have been sewing like crazy all week. My sewing machine had to have the clutch fixed and now, after over a year, I can sew again. I have made two tote bags, a hippie handbag and two mini purses. So today I’ll show how I made one of the tote bags.

I had some leftover stretch denim pieces that were just right for this tote. I cut two pieces 14x17” for the body of the bag. I cut a piece 5x14 for the bottom, two pieces 5x17 for the sides, and two pieces 4x20 for handles.

I got the idea for this style tote from one of my Cloth, Paper, Scissors back issues.

On the handles, I folded in the ends, then folded the pieces in half, then folded them again. This put the edges in the center. Then I stitched all the way around very close to the edge. This adds an accent and secures the fabric. The handles were put on last.

On three sides of the other pieces, I folded the edges ½” and then zigzag stitched them down. I left the top edge open (on the body this was a 14” edge, on the sides it was a five inch side. On the bottom, I stitched around all four edges.

Then I pinned the bottom to the large body pieces, with wrong sides together. I stitched them together, close to the edge. The zigzag stitching from earlier gave the edges a fun decorative design.

I added the sides the same way. This technique gives a finished edge that sticks out instead of an inside seam. On stiffer fabric the bag would stand up on its own with these seams.

I decided I wanted to put a different fabric around the top (partly

because folding these seams was more difficult than I expected). So I cut a piece of fabric 5x33”. I folded it like the handles, and pinned it in place. The important trick here is to  make sure the edge inside is in the same place as the outside. Then when you sew the trim on near the edge, the stitching catches both sides at the same time.

The handles were pinned into place, making sure the ends were all the same distance from the end of the bag. The placement is a personal preference. The farther apart they are, the shorter your handle is. But too close to the middle makes the bag sag and look funny.

 

Last year I probably made ten bags, I use them for shopping. I have gotten good at remembering to take them every time I leave the house. The number of plastic bags in my cabinet has been greatly reduced.

I will probably keep making the bags, and eventually put some in my Etsy shop. My favorite fabric for the bags is button down shirts. They make very interesting bags.

Til next time. J

Terri

Stop by my Etsy shop for new arrivals www.etsy.com/shop/1krazyrtist

Art Dolls

I haven’t done much this week on crafts so today I am showing some photos of some of the large art dolls I’ve made over the past few years.

First up is the Medicine Man doll I made in 2005 when I lived in New Mexico. He stands about 14” tall. His face and hands are sculpted polymer clay. His body is wire with a lot of polyester batting and muslin wrapped and stitched. The clothes are made of suede and his cape is a rabbit fur. He has a medicine bag hanging from his shoulder that holds crystals and other special pieces.

Next is the Mermaid doll I also made while in New Mexico. She is 29” tall and all cloth. I designed the pattern after making some smaller dolls using patterns from a book. The tail has shells and sequins hand stitched on. My favorite part is her hair, it's a green yarn that really looks like seaweed. This doll was sold at a doll show in Albuquerque in 2006.

Next is the Party Doll. She is about 14” tall and has a wooden dowel as the support inside. Thus she is called a ‘stump doll’.  I created her for a doll challenge but moved during the time I would have had to mail her. I didn’t submit her to the challenge. Her hair is black yarn that has been stitched to the head and then the strands separated to give her a wild look. The hat has pheasant feathers attached.

Next up is Santa Claus. He was also made in New Mexico. His head, hands and boots are sculpted

polymer clay. The body is wire wrapped with batting and muslin strips. His clothes are attached to his body, but the jacket and hat do come off.  His arms and legs can be posed so he can sit in a chair, or stand.

The last two dolls were created for the Gypsy Doll Challenge that displays at the Houston Quilt Show. Both were sent to Houston and participated in the show.

First is the 2007 Gypsy of the Sea Doll “Pontemedusa” who sits on her steed “Vannie”. A wooden dowel runs up through the doll and seahorse. The doll’s head, hands and boots are sculpted polymer clay. The bodies are cloth. I wasn’t able to find a pattern for a seahorse so I had to design my own. I spent hours on the internet looking at photos and sketching. She is about 15” tall. The name of the seahorse was taken from the name of the breed of horses the Gypsy’s use to pull their horses, Vanners.

Last is Nikola. She was created for the challenge called The Journey of the Gypsy in 2008. She is about 29” tall. Her body has wire and wooden dowels as support. She is a space gypsy, traveling across the universe, spreading the music of her ancestors. A wooden chest was painted to look like her traveling trunk. She also has a book that shows the best places to visit in the Milky Way Galaxy. She stands on a wooden plaque that has been covered with polymer clay designed to look like a space station deck.

I haven’t made any large dolls in the last couple years. They take up to 200 hours to make and are very labor intensive. They are also a joy to create. They actually seem to tell you what they do and don’t want to wear. Despite the fun in making them, they cannot be sold for anything close to what they might be worth. The time and materials can be from $200 to $1,000. Finding a buyer for that is difficult.

If you want to learn how to make art dolls, I recommend a couple of wonderful books by Patti Medaris Culea:  Creative Cloth Doll Making and Creative Cloth Doll Faces. These books have great patterns and give step by step directions in making some really fun dolls. The photos of Patti’s dolls show you what is possible to create.

Til next time. J

Terri

Stop by my Etsy shop for new arrivals www.etsy.com/shop/1krazyrtist

Mini Sketch Books

Let’s get started. I am going to try to keep this blog a little shorter, but still have the descriptive photos.

Years and years ago I got this really cool little sketch book that looked like a matchbook. So I decided last week to make one. My project ended up with six total. They are easy to make and don’t really take much time.

The paper for the cover measures 2”wide x 6” long. I folded one end up at about 5/8”. The other end has folds at 2 ½” and 2 ¾”. This allows the space for the paper.

Using two or three 8 1/2x 11 sheets of printer paper, I cut pieces that measure 1 ¾” x 2 ¼”.  You can only insert as many as your stapler will handle. I had to get my heavy duty stapler for the job. (I have one that is extra long, designed for stapling books).

At this point I glued on a decoration. You can paint on the book, sketch on the cover, or just glue some fun images on it.  On a couple of the books I just used some fun scrapbooking paper and didn’t have to do any decorating.

This is a great mini sketch book to put in you pocket or purse. They would also make great stocking stuffers or extra decoration to attach to a gift. Just put the name of the person on the cover of the book and attach it to the gift box.

 

It’s not just for artists to use for sketching. These little books would be great as note books. You can make them any size you want. Just create a template the size you need and use it to cut out your cover. Then cut paper to fit. Remember to keep it thin enough for your stapler to handle. But you could also glue the pages, or stitch them and glue them in. Check out YouTube for bookbinding how-to videos.

 I love these and think I will make some for my family for Christmas. By choosing the right themes I can personalize them for each one. Nascar for my son, shoes for my daughter, and well I’ll have to think about what to do for all my granddaughters. And then there is everyone else, family, and friends.

Til next time. J

Terri

Check out the 1KrazyRtist Etsy shop for art, jewelry, and other fun gift items. New products every week.

Restarting the kraziness

For everyone who has been following this blog, thank you. I have been mulling over what to do with it. I enjoy the creativity but feel this blog has not been greatly successful. But I hate giving up.

I am restarting the blog next week with a new and fun project, which I haven't figured out yet.

At right is a photo of one of the mini polymer clay boxes I have been making the past couple weeks. This one and a few others are for sale on my Etsy site (website address at end of post).

I want to change the format of the blog and may include photos of stuff I love from the web that I find inspiring.

Please check back next week for the next post from this krazy artist.

Thank you for stopping by.

Terri :)