Hungarian Map Fold Book

So the bookmaking group I am on (pretty darn nearly the only thing that ever drives me to log in to Facebook) had a challenge for a Turkish Map Fold book.  You may recall I reposted quite an old PDF of instructions that had disappeared from the net. I’ve always like this fold, and had a bit of a play with it.  The book was cute enough, but I had to make another one so I could improve the construction.  As this is going to be VERY photo intense I’ll just show you the bare bones – a three-folds pamphlet with a flap.

The Turkish map folds are stuck two together and then stuck between each section. I’ll do another post about the construction but today I want to explain the HUNGARIAN map fold, a variation on this one, and my circular variation on that.

There is a great post here with the basic fold. That is for a square piece.  And don’t be fooled by the video that may pop up – it’s for the Turkish fold, not the Hungarian one. Although to be fair it is only one additional diagonal that differentiates the two, and by sticking the units so one piece is flat, mine really ends up being more Turkish than Hungarian LOL! But orienting the text is easier with the additional diagonal, I think.

Let me show you the finished  book first.  

I would say e.e. cummings is my favourite poet and this one of my favourite poems. This is what the it looks like opened.

but without the inserts. Unlike the Turkish one from yesterday, this one has only ONE insert between each section. The inserts are heavier weight than the graph paper so two would have made the book VERY thick.

I’ll be showing you folding specifically for the placement of the text as well as folding a “diagonal” on a circle the only thing you need to know that the original linked page doesn’t cover.

1. I printed the text across the middle of pink graph paper.  

Fold the circle in half bottom to top, across the text.  Use the lines of text to make sure the fold is straight across

2. Open and fold, again with the text on the outside, in half side to side.  

Flip it over.  It should look like this:

3. Fold the diagonals by matching the fold lines.  This is the only tricky fold.

4. Fold the second diagonal by matching the top and bottom fold lines of the first diagonal

5. Collapse the piece.  It should want to collapse, if you’ve done the folds right.

Note the orientation of the text.  You want the flat area to be the text area. Once collapsed it will look like this:

6. Mark each unit at the same point – can you see the tiny dots?

then fold in the side to meet the point.

7. This sounds tricky but it isn’t.  REVERSE the folds so those triangle on the top switch to being INSIDE the unit.  Open them

and push on that middle fold to push it inward

Re-crease the folds.  It will change from the left image to the right one.

And THAT is the circular Hungarian Map Fold. These inserts are just smaller units than the cardstock ones and the fit inside perfectly.  I didn’t go to any extraordinary lengths to get the units in exact proportion, I just made sure the marking and fold-in sides were similar, and that was good enough for them to nest nicely. I did stick them only in the very centre, which I think would help accommodate slight variations

and yet they collapse fine.

 

I experimented with a number of circle sizes and they all seem to nest nicely.

It would make a nice card too, just one fold.

I think it’s just a pretty little book.  I also think the flat areas that hold the text could easily hold photos and you could add journaling or other text to the smaller folded areas by the print/cut/stick method, or hand write it if yo prefer the circles open up relatively flat.  Well, dang.  Now I have to make  a photo one too.  Argh.  Maybe I’ll photo that for a step-by step for the construction…

{sigh}

And I can do the straight Turkish fold on a circle and see if it really is the same (minus the extra diagonal) and if it matters.

Jeez.  I am so out of practice for these tutorial sorts of posts.  I’ll try to be more concise for the next one,  just need to get my groove back.

And finish those last few ATCs before Wednesday!

 

 

 

The perils of organization

Whenever I strive to get organized I always go thru a period of disorientation.  Where IS that thing I use 12 times a week, that I could find with my eyes shut cause it lived in THAT spot for years? Until I moved it when  cleaned…

OK, so I can’t say that the stamping gear thing was ever anything more than a bit of a novelty.  I did a few posts about figuring out a way to use wood mounted stamps in or around the gears, made a couple of cards for my card-stash, then boxed it up, and put it…somewhere.

When it came time to make a card, one I could see in my head even before I started looking for the supplies, could I find the darn thing?  I could not.  What I DID find was the set of looms I bought for DD at Christmas.  As I looked at them I thought Hummmm…..

This isn’t written in the form of a tutorial, since I doubt too many people out there still have MagnaStamp stamp mounts LOL!  but the general concept of adding a popsicle stick to the mount and the between-the-pegs spaces to place the stamps holds true.

With the edge of the mount bumped up against the loom, you can get pretty nicely spaced stamping – ignore the oddball one, as you can see I used the same paper to test out a variety of placements.

and inside too

Now, I can’t recall exactly how much the stamping gear thing cost me, but I know my local Tiger has the knitting looms for about £3.  No, it isn’t perfect.  You are never going to get the sort of precision you will get with the official product, so if you care about that sort of thing, buy the real deal. But if you want to get a reasonably well placed curve or circle of images, a knitting loom works well enough to create something like this:

 

Gosh it’s been a long time since I played with paper and ink.  It was fun…note to self: DO MORE.

{wink}

Red tree ornaments to print

As long-time readers may recall from past years, I usually design some sort of small tree ornament to print for DD to add to the Christmas cards she hands out.  I’ve done green ones and a turquoise and a green version with words before.  This year I used the red and white cross stitch style pattern to make them. 

The single page PDF has 10 trees.  You can punch a hole, add an eyelet and something to hang it by and get 10 little ornaments.

If you prefer, you can use three of them scored down the middle and stuck back to back to back for a more 3D version.  When I do that one I often just snip off the very pointy tops – it makes punching the hole easier and the top is hidden by the hanger.

Obviously the flat ones work better for a card topper, although the 3D ones can be pressed flat to fit in an envelope.  You can see both the Christmas colours and the turquoise word version here, and the green version here .

Notecard gift set

DH is of to Japan tomorrow, to work for a week.  He’ll be staying with and working with a customer who is a friend as well.  The customer and his wife have visited us a few times, and they always bring a lovely little paper gift for me, often origami paper.  DH asked me to make a card for him to give them, but I thought I could do better.  It took me a while to work out the specifics, but I think I have it nailed down. It’s a little notecard holder with a set of cards and envelopes made using one of her past paper gifts.

I made a quick card, with three Happi Coat folded shapes on the front. I kept it simple so as not to detract from the heavily patterned origami paper, but it still needs something, just not sure what.

This little project only required a sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock and a sheet of A4 ( I think US letter sized card is OK but I didn’t test it.)  Of course you need some additional paper and card for the decoration, and a second sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock would allow you to double up and make the holder much thicker and sturdier. I only had a single sheet of the colour I wanted to use so I made do.

1. Cut the 12 x 12 cardstock to 8 x 11.  Score it at 5 and 6 inches

My envelopes are  6 1/4 by 4 1/2 inches and the cards are just under 6 x just over 4 inches. The set includes four cards with envelopes and the embellishments are thick.  There is a formula.  For making these pockets to fit any size envelope and card set, measure the envelope.

• Envelope Pocket = width of the envelope + 1 3/4 inches
• Cards Pocket = width of the envelope + 2 inches

Height of both is the same and flexible but about 2 inches shorter than the HEIGHT of the envelope is a good place to start.

• Holder = 2 x the width of the envelope plus 2  inches (although this could be a little bigger, I think in needs at LEAST 2 inches added)

Of course for very wide cards you would need to join two pieces to make the holder.

2. Cut the A4 cardstock into ONE 6 3/4 x 5 inch piece (for the cards) and ONE 6 1/4 x 4 3/4 inch piece (for the envelopes)

• Score the ENVELOPE pocket on three sides at 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch.

• Score the CARDS pocket on three sides at 1/2 inch and 1 inch

3.  Cut away the two corners where the score lines overlap. Do this on both pieces.

4.  Crease the score lines back to create the box shape.  Add double sides adhesive just to the three outer flaps.

Decorate the front of the pockets.  It’s easier to do it now than wait till it is stuck in the holder – or at least it was for the decoration I did.

Now might be a good time to decorate the cover and add a ribbon to tie it closed.

5.  Peel the backing off the tape on the pocket flaps.  Fold in the sides, then fold up the bottom, sticking the bottom flap to the two sides. This just ensures the shape  is right and makes sticking it to the holder easier.

6. Stick the pockets inside the holder.  Be careful to place them evenly.  To make sure they are well stuck, use a pencil or your bone folder to press down from inside the pocket.

Slip the cards and envelopes in, tie it up, and yo are done. You could add a book of stamps if you wanted to!

Here are the cards – they are pretty simple but I think she will like them:

The envelopes just have the same Koi carp stamped on the flap.

I have WOYWW to thank for the idea.  I’ll have to go back and check so I can say who it was, but one of the desks I visited mentioned note card sets, and it got me thinking along those lines.  Isn’t WOYWW just the best for inspiration?

to add:  it was Queenartopia who mentioned the notecard set!

BIG CARD pages added…but not quite done.

Sorry email followers.  I don’t mean to SPAM you, but as I am testing things about post formats it will send you new ones.  Just ignore them.  I promise it won’t be too many more.

After a few days of no power issues, of COURSE, just as I was allowing myself to relax, the circuit blew last night after dinner.  “Magic Hour” indeed. Annoying, but more so when I brought back my Mac in that my internet connection was rubbish, and it just kept dropping thru the morning.  No support till Monday, and DH is pretty convinced they only need to reset the dslam at the exchange (which they have done before) to solve the problem for NOW.  But if the power keeps blowing, the exchange is going to keep thinking the connection is unstable and keep dropping the sped lower and lower every time.  Right now I am on DDs connection, the old Talk Talk one rather than my Spitfire one son everything is SLOWER.

New theme again – The fonts in the side bar of TwentyEleven bugged me.  This one is called Yoko, and I like it a bit better, except I thought it had a 2-column option. It does for the menu pages at the top, but thew body is 3 column only. Bah!

I am working on the BIG CARD pages.  I am loving the Gallery option for showing the images in a mosaic, but I wish it were possible to make the images a link, or add a link when they display, so if you want to read the full post you can.  I have to check and see if there is some way to make the caption a link.  Until then, I will have to add all the clicks as text.  But this is what you see on the pages for each suit.  I had forgotten some of the techniques I used, but I am sure I will revisit them soon.   I love how some of these look, if I do say so myself!

Stamping gear – homemade paddle

Sorry in advance for the excessive number of photos.

You know how I always say I make the mistakes so you don’t have to? Well I also experiment A LOT and spend the time doing so so you don’t have to. This is one of those experiments that I hope you will find interesting.

The first thing I will say is if you live in the USA and have access to 50% off coupons, this is probably not for you.  The price of the extra paddle for the Stamping Gear set in likely to cost you under $10.  But here in the UK there is no store that offers that kind of coupon, and basically the cost for us is $ = £ so where retail might be $15, here it is more like $23 (+ nearly $5 for shipping & handling, or as we call it, postage & packing.) The stamping gear deluxe set is over $75. Feel our pain….

I was thinking that I would have liked to have an extra paddle – just thinking it would be handy if I were doing an alternating pattern, to have the stamps on a paddle each.  I thought I would just cut one out of matboard, as it’s thick and sturdy.  Then I was looking at the packaging (and OMG!  Getting into that thing without totally destroying it was a challenge) and notice there were two paddles printed on the cardboard – and guess what? they are not scaled back at all.  Laying the paddle over them, they fit exactly.

 

Granted, there is only the little nubbin on one side but that wasn’t a huge issue.

I was recalling The Frugal Crafter’s homemade gear (she IS a Crafty MacGyver!) and the popsicle stick thing made me think.  I had just grabbed a handful of coffee stirrers from Mickey D’s to toss in my quilt bag (handy for marking out short lines and lighter/smaller than a ruler) and I thought I wonder…? Yep, the fit the nubbin PERFECTLY. Just added a line of red tape…

 

…and stuck it on.

 

I wanted the round bit as that helps it snug right up in the notches of the gear.  I needed a handle, and in looking at the packaging, I felt the bump over the paddle would work.

It did, and it all fit perfectly into the wheel. Inside and out.

The problem was that the plastic handle was not strong enough to exert the right amount of force.  Solved THAT by filling the empty handle bit with Play Doh, cause I had some hanging about.

I needed an extra bit of mat board in the middle  to allow me to use other clear stamps without the deep cushion.  It worked well.

Now, if you look at that paddle you can see I did a couple of things to it – first, I stuck a bit of the packaging (the big circle that covered the wheel) to the bottom, and marked  lines on it to help me line up the stamp.  That plastic allowed me to stick the clear stamp to it with ease.  Note that the stamp is longer than the paddle, but look at the cool medallion you get by inking it just up to the edge of the paddle…

 

and how cute is this for a card topper? The image is just over 4″ across

 

So that got me thinking – what about bigger stamps?

I liked the demos I had seen with text and word stamps, and I have a ton of them, so I looked for one to try. Found this one:

Too big.  So I thought that I would make an extended “paddle” using the same basic idea as the one from the packaging. I cut a couple of bits of matboard

 

and marked the grid lines

stuck on the coffee stirrers (one extending into the nubbin to give it more strength, but the rest just on the body of the paddle:

For the handle I tried my old MagnaStamp paddles and a bit of magnetic sheet, but it kept coming loose as I was stamping.

 

You can see it fits just fine in any case

I had a small wood block hanging about so I tried that, hot glued to the back:

Worked fine, but a longer one would be better as with some stamps I didn’t get a total image, depending on how I pressed.  Once I knew how to do it, it was fine.  But you have to remember with every press.

I had a go with that stamp, and made this card from the results.

So that’s two different ways to make an extra paddle that only cost you a bit of time.   And I can now use my clear stamps easily too.  I have barely used the stamps that come with the set (heck, I know THEY work – I’m more interested in seeing what the OTHER stuff I have can produce!) but am having too much fun.  And now I have to stop cause DD is off on a school trip, DH is doing a chili cook-off this weekend, and I have a list as long as my arm to get them both sorted out … isn’t that always the way? But I’ll just add this bit of play for you as a parting shot – I would def. say try all your stamps.  I think the effect you will get with the most unlikely stamps may surprise you! This one is a card greeting, very floral with lots of super-fine scratchy text.  It worked better that I could have hoped!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Card kit binder and a frugal tip

Well, I have not totally sorted thru my pile o’ scraps, but I have reduced it by at least 75%.  I sorted the scraps into card kits in my binder, and the binder is full to bursting.  I removed all the full sheets to file, tossed out any unusable debris, separated out any random embellishment packs (although embellishments I tried to find homes for in the kits) and am very happy with the progress:

Now a funny tip for you.  I get Craft Stamper magazine.  I love it, and love the little freebie stamps that come as a cover mount (only in the UK, sorry international subscribers!) For a year I have been saving the printed acetate that comes over the stamp.  Can I find the stupid box they are in? No. But I have been planning this for a while, and I was able to find a few that were still on the covers of older mags.

I thought to myself that as I am not keeping the stamps on these little squares, and they are too cute to just toss in the bin, I thought they would work as little embellishments. Now, not all of them will work for this idea. For example, the little banner stamp probably doesn’t. But you might have an idea for it, s maybe it would…

This one is the one I decided to play with first:

Now you do need to be a little careful when you are peeling it off, lest you crease the acetate.  I did a little, but I hope I have disguised it well enough in the final card.

The fact it is acetate presents its own set of problems – the attachment has to be something you don’t mind seeing (like an eyelet or a brad) or the image should be central on the piece so you can tuck it under something to hide how you have secured it, or if you like the Diamond Glaze as glue trick, that works too.

On the other hand, I like being able to take advantage of the fact it is acetate.  As you can see here,  I tucked the flower under the acetate, but over the circle so it peeps thru (disguising the slight crease) and showing off the clear nature of it.

Again, my cards are never going to win any prizes, but they do make something from nothing and add to my stash of cards for last-minute sending.

If you are like me and you peel off your clear stamps to house them in some organizational method that doesn’t require the index sheet, you could do the same with those.  Copics would colour them in nicely and it might be fun to experiment with.

Now, I have a date with the Hoover as my floor is SO littered with paper debris I can’t stand it.  That may be the extent of my crafty play today.

Last BIG CARD – Ace of Clubs

I did manage to follow thru with my final BIG CARD, my year-long project using approx. A4 size cards from a deck I got at Tiger.  I’ve not found a 2nd deck there, and had used one or two of them for other projects before I began so I do have a handful that are missing.  Not a big deal for me, as the goal of the project was to use them to try various techniques.  I had the idea to scan them and send them to one of those places that turn your art into a real, normal sized deck of cards but in the end, unless I manage to find another one, that won’t happen.  Still, the process was an interesting one.  Some of the techniques were ones I came up with, some were ones I read or saw someplace and some began with one idea and I expanded on it.  It’s been so much fun and such a learning experience.  I feel I have really tested my supplies and discovered a lot along the way.

I had the idea to shave crayons onto black cardstock and melt them with the iron.  I’ve done this in the past, on a layout for SI (actually, it was three things with crayons, but the layout was my favourite one) shown here:

The lacy edging was, if I recall, designed from a dingbat and cut on my old CraftRobo.

I thought the crayon would be more vibrant on black, but the colour is actually quite sheer and the effect not as bold as I wanted. I based that on another layout from the article, where I drew a swirl with a template, coloured it in with crayon, then buffed the waxy crayon to a shine.  As you can see from the small layout (the only photo I have of it on hand) the colour is bright and bold on the black.  I hoped it would be so by shaving and melting.
Nope.

I just shaved the tips with a craft knife.  Poor misused crayons!

I think for the original I laid a bit of acetate over the crayon, melting it onto the cardstock, then rotating the acetate and melting the crayon still on it onto the cardstock as well.

For this I used a bit of freezer paper. It was interesting, I liked it, but not over the moon with it.

But checkout the freezer paper! Jiminy!  I liked that A LOT.  Some off things happened.  First, the plasticy coating on the freezer paper melted away, leaving it more like paper and less …plastic. Next, some places the crayon lifted away, down to the white paper, so further melting left some bright patches. It’s very layered and with real depth.

So, faced with two choices, which would you choose?

The more I look at the black one, the more I like it for its subtle warmth, but in the end….

I did smudge on some Black Soot DI, which actually worked better than I thought with the sheen off the freezer paper.  I wonder how it might work on canvas?  I bet it would be very cool.

So, I still want to wrap up my BIG CARDS and review what were some of my fave techniques, and go back to make sure I’ve tagged them all so if you click BIG CARDS you can see them all, but that will have to wait for another day.

If you have followed this over the last year, I hope you had fun with it and got some ideas for how to push your art supplies to the limit.  I think I did well in sharing the disasters, or where something went wrong, but don’t I always say I mess up so you don’t have to?

BIG CARDS – 2 of Clubs

The penultimate BIG CARD.

I had an idea for the Distress Stains, so gave it a go. First I tamped on some of the white DS over the black card.  All over.  Alone, if give it an almost starry-night-sky look. I used this funny little brush – no idea where I got it, but the brush part is a bit like a scrubber – actually, it is very like the scrubbing square from the Indigo Blu foiling kit.

My thought was that once the DS dried then colours of stain over the top would not colour the black card, but WOULD colour the white stain. It is very subtle in the photo, more vibrant IRL.

I did the Tumbled Glass first then Worn Lipstick over that.

I also daubbed the white stain thru some sequin waste and let it dry.

Re-positioning the waste to match, I coloured the white dots with Distress INK, Peacock Feather and Picked Raspberry.

I added the words by printing two copies – the main box I coloured with the Peacock Feather then did the other on with Picked Raspberry. I cut them out and layered them.

I think this could make a nifty card or ATC background.  Worth playing around with a bit more, as the dried Distress Stain really grabs the colour, as you can see best in the close up of the dots.

Just the Ace left to do.  I already did the Doodled one for the Spades so I really need to think on that – and plan what weekly project I need to begin for 2013!

BIG CARDS – 3 of Clubs (pan pastels over embossing)

Phew.  Two to go.

I did say I would get back to Pan Pastels and so I did.  I had played, as you may have seen in a recent post, with Pan Pastels over black cardstock.  I wasn’t happy with the dusty side effects, even when the pastels showed up really well on stamping with Versamark, for example.

I quickly realized I just needed to reverse the process.  Easy peasy.  I stamped on the black cardstock and heat embossed with black

I masked off the center strip and rubbed the pastels over the entire exposed surface. The pastels do not cling at all to the shiny embossing so it still really pops.

The dividing lines are simply the plain background cardstock – I used a magenta and dark violet.

You can see off to the side another colourway I played with.  I like it a lot, and the indistinct areas of colour work well, I think.

For the letters I stamped on the black card and painted inside the letter outline with Twinkling H2Os.

You can see I tried using just the pastels, but they DID dull the shine of the glitter embossing powder more than they did the plain black.

DONE! Very monochromatic (or nearly) but quite striking.  I think you can see from the angled shot, there at the top, that the embossing is still glossy.  The pastel colours are still deep and rich, but not so bright as they would be over white.  I think it is another to play with some more.