This Ain't High Art, Buddy

Someone accused me of having a "high art" phase at the moment. To this person I say, "High art?? Really? That's what you consider a wallet made out of a Trader Joe's brownie baking mix bag?"

Here is the original packaging.

A little clear packing tape to make the surface waterproof, some sky blue Duck brand duct tape, and-- voila!--a wallet is born.

I've been trolling around my home for more Shade the Changing Man inspiration. Newspaper bin, magazine rack, the linen closet, the kitchen pantry--no place is sacred. I feel like there are so many interesting graphics out there, which really helps me since I can't draw very well.

A few months ago, I bought some pillowcases that were marked down to the "so cheap you have to buy it even though you don't need or want it" price at my local Home Goods store. And they had been sitting in my linen closet ever since. I imagined them giving me dirty looks every time I went in there to grab a clean towel. So guess what I did?

I used one of the pillowcases as the lining for this wallet. For the outside material I used black 3M duct tape.

So while it may not really be a high art phase I'm going through, I'm certainly experiencing a crafty phase. Maybe it's the crazy weather here in New York that keeps me indoors and somewhat chained to my work table, but I am churning out a lot of "stuff."

Speaking of crazy weather, today the kids stayed home from school AGAIN. I am considering home-schooling them at this point. Just kidding. That would require me to actually know math and the English language rather than simply possess opinions on these subjects.

This is the fourth snow day that the kids' school has used this calendar year. In addition to school closings, there have been two delayed openings and one early dismissal. I am sure that I am not the only mother who is feeling like her kids have suddenly regressed to the nursery school years. Back when my daughter and son were newly toilet-trained humanoids, I kept the peace in our house with oatmeal raisin cookies. And after my daughter harumphed at me for forcing her to practice the clarinet and my son rolled his eyes at me for not helping him figure out how to fix his video game, I made oatmeal raisin cookies. Because I didn't want to reach for that beer before lunchtime.

I loaded my cookies with my ultimate guilty pleasure: dark chocolate. And I made sure there was plenty to go around.

Yes, dark chocolate. It is quite possibly the answer to all my problems. So bring it on, Mother Nature!

Keeping Busy

The week after Thanksgiving has been a busy one for me, Dave, and the kids. Between getting everyone back in the swing of things and planning the Christmas holiday, I can't seem to catch my breath.

But the weekend promised to be a slow and quiet one. So what did I do to relax?


I baked blueberry muffins of the gi-normous variety:

...made a pot of beef stew:

...crafted a few books from Starbucks cup holders:

...and finally started to make wallets out of the vast half gallon carton collection in my work room:

So much for relaxing! But at least my inventory is growing. I'm getting that itch to sell stuff on Etsy again.

I'm making some pop ups from beautiful photos a friend took of Coney Island (as in Brooklyn, yo). If I can get his blessing to post the pics of his appropriated images, I'll share them with you in my next post.

Until then...

Day Eighty Seven: Play

My son had a friend over this afternoon, and we were presented with the opportunity to play with our food.



Marshmellows? Check.
Pretzel sticks? Check.
Grapes to raise the good nutrition quotient? Check.
Mango lemonade to wash it all down? Check.
Three kids that wanted to make something with their snack foods? Check, check, and check.

While they made buildings and other "structures," I also played, but not with food. I made a tiger print on a brown bag:

The black stripes are acrylic paint on brown paper bags.

Now I'm presented with the question "now what?" As in "now what the heck do I make with this thing?" Of course, a brown bag tote is my first instinct. But I'd like to think that I was more than a one trick pony, though. Oh, decisions, decisions.

As for my little cork map project, I've discovered that my sewing machine Kenmore is more than capable of sewing on cork tile. This makes my fingers very, very happy. The last time I made a cork map, I embroidered everything by hand. Let's just say my iron thimble got a lot of use.

Let's hear it for Kenmore! Yay!

Slowly coming together. You'll see...

I love being around kids and being influenced by their sense of play. It reminds me that whatever I do should always be fun and never a chore.

Day Eighty: Last Minute Birthday Craft

Part of my stash.

This post is late! But it still counts in the whole "100 Days of Norma" since I haven't gone to bed yet. In my head, it's still day 80.



My girl's birthday party is technically later today, and I've been trying to make something out of the 14 pillow cases that I bought. My original idea was to make throw pillows that the girls could decorate with fabric pens. But I went to three different stores and each place was sold out of poly-fil. In fact, after calling several stores, I realized that I could not find poly-fil within a 15 mile radius of my house. Darn! So the throw pillow idea went out the window.

I tried to make a bag--or several different bags--and realized that I'm not used to sewing cloth. So then I tried to add duct tape, which worked. But then I ran out of the color I was using. Rats!

And then I had an epiphany: brown bags. Why not make something out of brown bags? After all, it is my latest obsession.

This is what I did so far:

Sewed some bags together...

Made wallets (yes, I waxed the paper)....

And handles...

Cut out flower petals...

I painted a few sheets of brown paper, too: red, white, and yellow. I'll cut out 6 inch squares so the girls can cut out shapes and decorate their wallets. Then they would glue the handle and a Velcro tab. I'll take some pictures of the finished wallets during the party and post them later on today.

In the meantime, I'm going to make cupcakes. And clean the playroom. And set up a nail painting station. And the karaoke machine. And...

Ugh! The things I do for my girl...

Day Seventy Eight: Making Stuff

Today was a crafty day.



For starters, I painted a brown paper bag with white acrylic paint. It took a few coats on both sides of the paper to get the effect I wanted, but I wasn't in any rush. When the paint dried, I cut out the flower petals with my trusty craft knife. It left a really pretty pattern, but I don't know if I can use it.

I assembled the petals on a piece of brown paper that I was saving for something I couldn't quite figure out at the time. I had the foresight to sew some lines across the paper, but wasn't inspired to make anything with it. But with the petals on top, it started to take shape. I sewed the petals into a flower--I'm not sure, but I'd like to think this was a chrysanthemum.

Found an old rayon scarf to use as a lining on the backside.

And guess what I made?

A little beeswax on the outside and I'm ready to show off my latest creation.

So who's going to Maker Faire in NYC this weekend? If you are, then maybe you'll see me sportin' my new brown bag tote...

Day Seventy Three: Something Other Than

The beginnings of a paper flower.

I like to paint brown grocery bags. Anyone with me on this?

Anyone? Anyone?
When acrylic paints are added to brown paper, the material takes on a rubbery quality. Cutting it with a craft knife feels like vinyl because the edges have a little give to it. I find this very satisfying--yeah, I know that I'm a strange bird.

And if you really must know, I also like to paint on cork tile. Take a look at the title art on top of this blog and you'll see the continental U.S. painted and cut out of cork tile. Here's the full map:

Can you spot the mistake? Hint: I got a little carried away with the paint.

When I was in my twenties, I had an apartment that had really ugly plaster walls. One day I decided to paint them, but I couldn't decide on a color. So I kept painting them over and over again until I realized that the act of painting was euphoric. I painted almost every day, and not because I fancy myself an artist. I mixed leftover or sample paints on the walls (oh, please don't ask me where I got my paints) because I was more interested in the colors. Sometimes the combinations were inspiring. Other times they were muddy and indistinct. But most of the time, they were in a state of flux with vivid swirls going in and out of each other.

I still paint, but back then it was my apartment walls and now it's brown grocery bags. My husband is a little more than grateful for the change in substrate. I dare not touch the walls of my house, which need to contain the moods and whims of two impressionable children. My daughter Masana has already picked up the graffiti artist's need to "tag" things, like her bookshelf or the doorway. So if she caught me painting on my walls, I could only imagine what that would lead to.

My little graffiti artist. I think her graffiti name will be "MaeTag."

So I paint brown grocery bags. And cut them into shapes. And sometimes sew them together. And transform the plain and everyday into something other than.

Cherry blossoms.

Daisies.

Hibiscus.

Sheldrake Spring Festival--Choose Your Hairstyle!

These 10 hairstyles are for the stick puppets I'll be making at the Sheldrake Spring Festival this Sunday,
May 2nd. And if you really must ask what materials I used, then I'll 'fess up: brown bags and cereal boxes. (What else?) Thanks to all my friends who lovingly donated their recyclables for this craft.

Hope to see you there!

For more information on the Sheldrake Spring Festival, click here .

Eiffel Tower Embroidery Pattern

Last year, when Dave and I were planning our tenth wedding anniversary, we each made a list of places we would like to travel. Sure, there were his adventure destinations (Galapagos Islands, Tanzania) and my lazy destinations (anything with a beach), but we both miraculously agreed on an epicurean destination: Paris.

I made this blank book for our trip, a combination of an old cereal box, brown grocery bag, tissue paper, leftover red Canson paper, and a few sheets of 90 lb vellum finish sketch paper. Oh, and a skein of black embroidery floss for the Eiffel Tower on the front cover.

The hardcover case is a basic one-piece case using the cereal box cardboard as boards. I actually glued the cardboard together to make it 2-ply. Then I crumpled up the brown paper to give the surface a more tactile quality and added tissue paper between the boards for a padded feel.

For the book block, I cut down the white sheets of paper and folded them to make 3 signatures of 16 pages per signature. Then I cut down the red Canson paper for the endsheets (4 pages per endsheet). I sewed them together using a herringbone stitch and glued a few strips of tissue paper to the spine.

I can’t draw very well. (Ok, I can draw buildings and flowers, but don’t ask me to do a portrait of you any time soon.) To ensure that my Eiffel Tower would be symmetrical, I only sketched half of it and folded the paper vertically in half. Then I made my embroidery pattern by poking holes with my pin tool while the paper was still folded.

There, wasn’t that easy?!

It actually is. I learned basic bookmaking at the Center of Book Arts in New York City, and if I can do this ANYONE can. 

On Holiday: A Travel Memento Book

Here’s a handy scrapbook for all those paper mementos we tend to collect from our various vacations. Ticket stubs, maps, pamphlets, napkins, and the occasional photo are items that fit nicely inside this soft cover book.

Of course, it all starts with a brown paper bag. Well, considering my vast collection of brown paper bags, it was either that or a cereal box, my other “go to” material. (Yes, I use a cereal box later on; I am really cheap about buying stuff.)

Materials

1 Brown paper bag with handles

Front and back panels of a cereal box

Maps, tickets, pamphlets, and other mementos from a recent vacation

Glue

1 Velcro tab

Tools

Pair of Scissors

Bone Folder

Brush

1. Cut the bag from the side, all the way to the bottom. Try to undo the rest of the bag from glued seams at the bottom. Lay bag flat on your worktable so the printed side (if there is a printed side) faces up.

2. Flip the bag over. Glue down the cereal boxes, one panel on each side, so the top edges are flush with the bag. 

3. Fold the bottom of the bag over so that the bottom edges are flush to the top. Make sure the bottom crease is tight by running a bone folder over it. Add glue in between the layers of brown paper bag and run a bone folder over the top layer to remove any air pockets.

4. Following the natural fold of the bag, re-fold middle vertical fold. Align the metal ruler to the left side of the vertical fold. Create a vertical score line by running the tip of the bone folder against the left edge of the metal ruler. Repeat on the right side of the vertical fold so that you have a scored line on the right. Remove the ruler and fold the bag along the two newly scored vertical lines. This creates an accordion in what will become the spine of the book cover.

5. Following the natural folds of the bag, re-fold the left and right outermost sides in to form flaps. Along the left vertical fold, align the metal ruler to the left side. Create a vertical score line by running the tip of the bone folder against the left edge of the metal ruler. This flap will be the book closure. Trim off excess bag so that the vertical edge is straight and smooth. 

6. At the outer right edge of the right flap, trim off excess bag so that the vertical edge is straight and smooth. 

7. You are now ready to add all your travel mementos. Glue tickets and pamphlets to the inside. Attach the maps to the accordion spine by punching holes with a hole puncher and using ribbon to tie each one down. Glue maps and other foldable items to the right flap. As you can see from my example, I’ve included a section plain white paper (100 lb. acid free) in the middle to add photographs later on.