My January to June holder

Still a little shell-shocked by Julia’s announcement that WOYWW might not carry on, but I get it (UKS went for about 20 years!) and while I did offer to perhaps keep it up, I do wonder if it has run it’s course. There will be chat about it at the crop, I’m sure, and we will see what we see.

I am halfway thru year two of daily journaling. and have settled on using a book to make the holders for each 1/2 yearly collection, with a no-sew binding. I find that if I pay attention to width, an old Harry Potter book works well. I printed a couple copies of my scanned papers to cover it – I am trying to use my own art for this as much as possible.

If you recall, the cover art was the one that I tried to print again and got a very weird colour with replacement ink carts. You can see a clear difference between the left and right above, although they are closer than the two below- Yikes!

I am making good use of my bookbinding kit. I do find the corner doodad so helpful.

After adding the ledger paper print inside, I decided strengthening the spine wasn’t a bad idea so I had to sneak in a bit of extra mat board

I decided to use some grid printed tape for covering the spine, two strips each side then one that wraps around to the inside as well

Now I need to let it all dry and decide on the strings to create the method for holding the monthly booklets in the collection book. I often struggle to decide between black and brown when the project could go either way…

By the time you read the scheduled post for tomorrow, it’s possible we will be on the road heading to the WOYWW crop. Hard to believe it has been 15 years. It’ll be great to see everyone in real life!

WOYWW 780

Happy WOYWW! It’s swap week YAY!

I have about 12 ATCs ready to go, one for my swap partner, and a bunch to swap at the crop. I think I asked a few people to swap with me, but of course I didn’t keep very good track of that. Yikes! If I did say Let’s swap! in a comment, please remind me, cause I’m a doofus. I seem to recall two Angela’s, BJ and Helen, but who knows? The good news is I have supplies and can make more. Yippee skippy.

Not super exciting today but pretty tidy. I have gone thru my (highly organized) letter stickers and picked out a few that I thought would go with the art I selected to make the June and July daily journal booklets.

It was so easy to find exactly what I wanted, and thus use up a few more letters. My side desk has the ones for 2024 so far, and the gutted Harry Potter book I will use to make the Jan-June storage binder.

Off to the side is something most Brits will find very odd indeed.

Yep. It drove me crazy when we moved here. If I wanted a pack for the kitchen, one for the bathroom, one for my purse and some for the car, or needed to buy Calpol for the kids, Lem-Sip for The Hubster and Nurofen for me I would have to either buy them at multiple stores or on multiple trips. I get why they do it but it still was an annoyance.

Other than that, it’s just my little Pop-Star

She makes it hard to do much when she has decided she really really needs to be with me. Not sure if that looks is her usual one of disdain or it’s just she is falling asleep…

Looking forward tot he crop and will hope to see you there. It’s a long drive for us, but well worth it.

Happy WOYWW and Happy Anniversary too!

Another AJ page – happier with this one

The good news is the glue is holding the oiled papers quite well, and I am happy with that. One to another page. No oiled paper here.

I say it over and over, I really find the Transitions journal by far the easiest one to work in. While doing the other page, I noticed that there was an envelope clipped to the inside back cover. In it was the last of a group of tags I made and of of my favourites.

I had an idea of how I wanted to use it, but cue about 10 minutes of going thru the journal, page after page, testing the tag on so many that I thought might work, where I felt it very much did NOT. I eventually settled on the one you can see a bit of above.

This page presented challenges, because of the rough and bumpy nature of it. Once I stuck it down with Art Glitter Glue (so strong, so fast to grab!) I had to weigh it down for a bit. I swear I use my stamp blocks more for this than actual stamping lately!

I was careful to make sure the text strip was not stuck to the background, as I wanted the circle part to swing free. And so it does!

While I am still not totally happy with the page from yesterday, I am happy the glue (stick) holds and the page has not slipped into a pile of unstuck pieces, even with the coconut oil coating. That is a result.

Anniversary WOYWW this week, the ATC swap, and the crop on the weekend. So exciting!

AJ page with oiled papers

OK, so I think the papers are basically dry – they don’t feel greasy and have a kind of crinkly feel to them. I am cautiously optimistic that the glue will hold but I’m watching it to see! Working in my Health Journal, the pouch one.

A fellow artist sent me a link to some free collage items. I grabbed them – I’ll always try a new source with a freebie and see if I like working with them before I buy anything nowadays. It has to really grab me in a big way for me to buy yet more stuff. These were full sheet items so I printed 4-to-a-page to get it to the right size.

Good thing too, because there was a kind of line on the first one I cut but I really didn’t discover that till I was ready to stick it all down. Doh!

This is weird. I had printed a scanned piece to make something, and then found I needed a second copy. I had bought some replacement ink for my printer and when I printed…look at the difference!

eeek! But the drab one kinda worked for this page. And it was the right size to cover a two page spread.

I fiddled about with a few placement ideas and then when I settled on one, that was when I noticed (and you will not be able to see it) that fine line that ran thru the face. I cut another of the four, and that one was fine, but I also edited it with my scissors, removing the things at the side of her head – and in fact if you look at the final page you can see I edited even a bit more before I stuck her down!

Now here’s the thing. I finished the page

and then thought, well, I should bring a bit more of me to it, so I added some marks. And I really maybe liked it better before I did that. I really wanted to bring in the blue and add a bit of shading round the figure but now feeling fairly ambivalent about the whole thing.

{sigh}

Poppy did get the all clear. She is back to eating her dry food as well now and her gums are healed so all good. Can’t say she is mad keen on the Plaque-Off treatment but if it means no more teeth getting pulled well I bet she would gobble it down with gusto!

Ironed oiled papers

Limited success. First a bit of a close up of the effect on some of the papers:

Book paper

Book paper

Interesting that on the cookbook paper you see the text from both sides of the page.

Printed ledger paper

Deli paper

The deli paper is a bit of a waste, really, as deli paper is pretty sheer to begin with. My favourite is a very old piece which is spray-inked thru a stencil. I held a piece of book paper behind it so you can see how slightly sheer it is. Pretty sure this was using a water-reactive ink, like Dylusions of something like it.

So I don’t think you can see that even after ironing the papers are still a bit greasy feeling.

My questions is, why is this any different than the wax treatment? I’m not sure it is. That never really feels “dry” to me either. I mean sure, some of them look kinda cool, but I think they need more time. Before I totally write the process off I guess I should try to use them somehow. Then decide.

This will publish before Poppy goes to the vet for her final check – and hopefully the all clear – but I will update next WOYWW, for all the cat people. Have a lovely weekend!

Coconut oil papers

As I expected. I had an array of paper treated with the oil and hung them up to dry. Lots of the USA folk in The Nest seem to live in warm climates, and there was a lot of Oh I just set them on the window ledge and they dried in no time! or left them out in the sun or whatever warm sunny spot. Yeah. Not round here.

and

Sorry for the blur. Anyway, there is quite a selection there:

• underpapers
• book papers
• plain lined paper
• deli paper
• paper with marks
• scanned and printed papers

I am quite interested to see how they turn out. Most of them get a nice translucency, or at least where there is no acrylic paint. I did have a go with a magazine page paper but the glossy surface did not absorb any oil. Perhaps newspaper might be an interesting experiment? Or maybe the ink will just smear….

So the real issue is that they are nowhere near dry, not even close. I have a thought tho’ and it might work.

I think I might try to iron them then check them after leaving them in the sun for a bit. If the sun comes out. But I do like the sheer and translucent aspect, even if I am still quite unsure what I would do with them. So much collage is all the classes in things like Fodder School and The Nest. I am not really a collage artist (although if it works in my art journal, that works for me) so why do I keep signing up for these things??

WOYWW 779 – my desk smells wonderful!

Happy WOYWW everyone! My desk doesn’t look like much today

The reason my desk smells yummy is off to the back, warming up in the sink!

I am doing a project from The Roben’s Nest. The option was resin-like papers using either beeswax (got none of that!) or coconut oil (got … 84 fl oz. of THAT!) so you can guess what I am playing with. I am intrigued. And slightly skeptical. Will the paper be usable? For what? Will I be able to stick it? Hummmm. What is there on my desk is a selection of papers that might work. We shall see…

Poppy is recovering nicely, she will be seen by the vet for her final follow-up on Friday, and I am hoping it will be all clear. I did try to start feeding her something called Plaque Off, to help keep the tooth problem from reoccurring (the dry crunchy food and so-called Dental Treats did NOT work at all) and she is not impressed. Now she gets neither her anti-inflammatory nor her antibiotic, she is not getting her creamy treats (that they hide in) every day. She still loves the board from the desk to window, especially when the window is open a crack to let in a breeze. Two fingers only, lest she try to get out and climb down the wisteria LOL!

Between slathering oil on the papers and massaging it in, I will be round yours to see what you’re up to! If those papers dry, I’ll share them tomorrow…I am not hopeful. No knitting this week, blood test and a few other things happening, so I might make it round to all on the day!

Have a happy crafty one…

YAY! Worked. Three for Two.

I was looking at the little stencil binders I showed yesterday and I realized that the binder structure was the same as the (annoying) two ring binders that are more common here in the UK than the USA style 3-ring binders. I hate to say it, but two rings, for A4 paper, is just not enough to hold the paper in the binder straight and secure. I have a bunch of those, ones I bought before I decided they were useless, or got for Darling Daughter to use, cause she doesn’t care.

I grabbed one. You can see the sleeves fit it perfectly. You can get a two-ring binder like this from The Works for £1. I marked out the dimensions I needed – and that meant having the top edge taller, to fit those outsized stencils – and grabbed some scissors.

The binder cut perfectly and the tall stencils fit great. It might be hard to see but the top edge of the binder is higher than the bigger stencils.

I used my corner chomper to round the corners and added a bit of elastic I had to hand. I think I have some of the little metal tipped elastics, like for badges, but they are maybe a bit long, and this thicker elastic was right on my shelf.

So the best bit is, all my small stencils are in that one binder, and the remaining sleeves, divided between the other two binders, will still fill them nicely. Like I said, Three for Two!

I also found you can get packs of the sleeves on their own from Amazon, for about £10, if that is of interest.

Now I need to sort out what I am going to do with the other two binders. I have ideas…

Finally! Small stencils organized.

So I was searching on Amazon for small page protectors, actually for a different use, and this popped up.

It is the perfect size for 6×6 inch stencils. I had mine arranged in the old 12 x 12 inch page protectors with 4 inch dividers, but I found it kinda a bother. It was just too big and unwieldy for me.

I got two of the Amazon ones and got to work as soon as they arrived. I love how each sleeve has two pockets, and the thin papers that come with them slip in easily to keep your eyes from getting confused, seeing both stencils thru the clear sleeve.

One of them took all my stencils with ease and I had maybe 20 sleeves leftover.

My only issue was the handcut stencils I have that were larger, more like 8 inches tall – they stick out the top. As I was pondering on that I had an idea. I am going to give it a go and see if it works. If it does, I am going to be pretty happy. If not, well, I’ll just keep it to myself LOL!

Edited to add: Funnily enough, after scheduling this on Friday for a Monday post, I saw a YouTube video where someone in the USA used if not this exact item, a pretty similar one. I had a look on Temu (as ya do) and of course they also have them, but interestingly, each of the items in the set I got comes as a separate item from there.

Screenshot

So I have the 50 sleeves triggered in the photo, at £6.79. The cover is £3.99, and the “backing papers” are £2.79. The little divider tabs my set came with are not included nor able to be ordered. That’s £13.57 and who knows how long it will take to arrive? Plus shipping from Temu, unless it’s a free shipping day. BUT the Amazon price for a set of two covers with 100 sleeves plus divider tabs and 100 backing papers works out at £12.29 per set. I’m just sayin’….

Final card, for now…

I think! I have a stash of female birthday cards and that was my goal. But also trying to use stuff up, and in that vein, I looked again and my tub of washi on the side desk. I pulled these out

I mentioned that Heidi Swapp tape, the not-washi stuff that is more like cardstock in texture. Not so much used UP but reduced, at least, what I have left.

Then I went to my stash of sentiments and that didn’t go well either! I have a ton of stuff cut and ready but birthday ones, on white and not cream, are pretty thin on the ground!

Not crazy about either but I am determined, so I die cut that plain one with the stitched edge die again, and popped it up, then grabbed the bit of plastic with those few gems – dark pink this time – and figured I might as well use them all.

I rather like the finished card – it’s a simple design and yeah, the darker pink is not a perfect match for the tape colours but I think that is fine for a stash card!

So what is on the horizon? I have a few things that need doing, like making my June daily journal, and maybe a few more ATCs, not sure. 12 seems a lot, but I know what happens once the trading begins. Might be best to have a handful more, just in case. I also am thinking getting back to the art journals, now my card stash is bit healthier, might be good. Not an every day thing, but a few a week might be good. Also exploring a few ideas seen in random YouTube videos, maybe not exactly like the vids, but certainly inspired by. Then of course the crop is coming, and we have to travel quite a distance to get Darling Daughter fitted for new ice skates (at a place that specializes in fitting disabled skaters) and so much more on the horizon.

Shouldn’t life be slowing down by now? Sure not happening for us! How about you?