Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

 Materials to have on hand…

• Carrageenan:  Usually a white powder made from seaweed Irish moss.  It’s a powdered gelatin that when mixed with water creates the size. 
• Alum:  Another white powder that is mixed with water, but this powder is a binder that helps the color stick to the paper.
• Paper:  Almost any type of paper can be used.  Experiment.
• Color:  Usually watercolor or oil paints.  Some people also use re-inkers. 
• Rakes and Combs:  Tools used to patterns in the color.  Combs usually have teeth closely spaced while a rake may have one point or widely spaced teeth or nails.  You can also use feathers, wood skewers and paint brushes.

Step by Step

1. Water and carrageen are mixed (read packaging, this step takes several hours and it is often recommended to allow to settle overnight).  This mixture is also referred to as size.
2. An alum solution (alum and water) is needed.  This solution is sponged onto the paper and paper must dry completely.  Alum is what bonds the color to the paper.  Make sure your paper is smaller than the tray you will use in Step 3.
3. Pour the size into a shallow tray.  Make sure the tray or container you select gives you room to work.
4. Drop several colors of paint (color) onto the size.  The paint should float on the surface of the size.  Using a skew, comb, or rake, you can create patterns by running the tool through the colors. 
5. When happy with the pattern, gently lay the alum treated paper onto the surface of the size.  The paper will absorb the paint.  Gently lift off paper.  Only one sheet of paper can be done at a time. 
6. Rinse paper in water and hang to dry.
7. Wipe off any excess color from size with untreated sheet of paper or paper towel.  Repeat Steps 1-6 for additional marbling.  At some point the size will no longer give you clean crisp marbling and should be disposed of properly.

Tips

• Use a color wheel to help select colors to use when marbling
• Experiment with different tools/rakes to create new patterns of color.
• Use marbled papers for card making, altered books, book making, and gift-wraps.
• Once dry, store marbled papers (with tissue paper between the sheets) flat and out of direct sunlight.
• Preserve the Carragheen for up to 30 days by placing it in a seal-able container and adding 1/4 teaspoon of chlorine bleach.
• Explore some of the faux marbling techniques in books and on the Internet.

• Don’t put off organizing your photos. Nothing is as overwhelming to a scrapbooker than seeing stacks of photos (looks like a mountain with a few foothills) or boxes of photos that have no rhyme or reason or organization in our work area. We tend to avoid the stacks in fear of being hit in the head by flying photos. Let’s face it; you can’t scrapbook with a concussion.

• Schedule time to organize your photos. No going to promise that some day you are going to step back from your work area and realize that every single photo you have is not only organized, but safely at home in a finished scrapbook, but you can get control of the situation by spending time organizing your existing photos. This helps make it so much easier to keep up with your new photos.

• One way to organize your photos is to file photos by date or timeline. Start with your most current photos and work back in time. You can place the photos in envelopes, file folders, or other photo oriented organizers and storage systems. Acid free envelopes and file folders are available in most photo shops and craft stores.

• Why is date or organizing by using a timeline so important? Because that’s the way we tend to look at things. We love to compare our fashion sense from our childhood or our teens to our more current savvy sense of style. We love to visually see how our children went from taking their first steps to how they looked while marching off to college or living on their own. It seemed to happen overnight, but our photos tell us it really did take 18 or 22 years.

• Another way to organize is by event or subject. Place all your Christmas, family reunion, vacation, etc. photos together in separate file folders. You can organize your photos by individual person- child, grandfather or even family pet. Even if you organize in this fashion you should still be aware and document dates!

• Don’t forget your digital photos! Download and create a well titled file for the images every time you use your digital camera. Place a word document into each file with a brief review of who, what, where, when, why, and how to refresh your memory.

• Come up with your own system, one that works just for you. You might combine timeline with subject or event.   You may want to color code, alphabetize, or separate by family branch.  The key is to be able to find the photos you are looking for quickly so you can get on to scrapbooking. Whatever you choose to do, taking the time to organize your photos will save you time, and, most importantly, prevent you from losing or misplacing valuable photos.

• A highly fibered paper in which you can see thick and thin raw fibers running through the paper giving it a sweet textured look and feel. Mulberry is derived from kozo fibers and is somewhat absorbent depending on the quality of the pulp.

• Mulberry paper is considered elegant, classy, and upscale while being earthy and full of texture.

• White or light colored Mulberry can be watercolored. Place the paper on an absorbent surface and brush strokes of watercolor paint over the surface. For extra fun, sprinkle a little salt over the wet paint for a starburst effect. Allow the paint to dry and brush salt off. You can also “watercolor” with your markers.

• Mulberry paper is often used as an accent or part of a layered effect in collage, scrapbooking, rubberstamping and other paper arts. It is also a beautiful and unique paper for bookbinding.

• You can easily ink any Mulberry sheet. You can give it overall color by using the inkpad directly to the paper or by using a rubberstamp to ink patterns onto the paper. You can sponge and brayer ink onto the paper also.

• Use the wispy, fuzzy nature of this paper to enhance a design. Use your imagination to create a fluffy beard for Santa, delicate butterfly wing, wispy center of a flower, or splashy wave of water.

• Mulberry is perfect for framing, matting, layering and background construction. Mix it up with other types of papers. Mulberry can soften a design and add a touch of sophistication.

• You can print on your mulberry paper using a printer. Run a test using regular or copier paper mode. If you paper is not standard size (8 ½ x 11), then temporarily adhere it to a sheet of copier paper. Works best on light colored mulberry.

• If you like making your own handmade papers, add a scrap or two of mulberry paper to the pulp. Rip or cut mulberry scrap into small pieces before adding to the blender so the mulberry fibers don’t wrap around your blades. You’ll get texture and bold fiber in your handmade paper.

• Usually lightweight, flexible, and pliable, but some brands do come thicker or contains enough sizing to make that sheet stiff.  You can manipulate this type of paper in almost every way including cutting, rolling, layering, shaping, die cutting, dying, inking, chalking, sewing and gluing.  However, due to the thick fibers, mulberry isn’t the best choice for folding projects like origami.

 Term applies to art sent through the post rather than displayed or sold through conventional commercial channels, encompassing a variety of media including postcards, books, images made on photocopying machines or with rubber stamps, postage stamps designed by artists, concrete poetry and other art forms generally considered marginal.

The Dictionary of Art

• Mail art is also called correspondence art.  Faux postage is also referred to as a Postoid or Cinderella

• Basically, mail art is art that is or has been sent through the postal system.  It’s a global movement.

• Postcards and envelopes are decorated with rubberstamps, pen drawings, watercolors, paint, glitter, inks, and other art materials and then mailed.

• Some mail art has the “correspondence” on the envelope or outside rather than having a letter or message on the inside of the envelope.  Faux postage is often used as mail art.

• Mail art can be a single stamped image or an intricate scene.  Most mail art has a bit of humor interwoven into the scene. 

• Calligraphy is a beautiful and eye-catching way to enhance any correspondence art.  Calligraphy tipped markers are one of the easiest ways to add this technique to your work.

• Faux postage can be done with rubberstamps, drawings, photocopying, and computer software.  It looks like a postage stamp, but has no value and can’t be used to mail your correspondence art!

• To create realistic faux postage, blank sheets are available that are perforated just like real postage stamps.  You can also use a spiked seaming tool or a sewing machine with no thread in the needle.

• Rubberstamps are available that stamp a blank postage stamp image and you can use art materials to create faux postage within the blank.  Rubber stamps are also available with elements like numbers.

• For examples of mail art or faux postage, just use these terms as key words in any search engine.

• Almost anything can be mailed from soda bottles to shaped boxes, but always check with the post office before mailing a unique item.  Be aware that extra postage is often charged for oversized or odd sized items.  The extra postage is because the item will have to be hand cancelled rather than run through the machines.

• Listing & Lists.  Lists are easy!  Make them fun or serious.  Make them silly or sentimental.  Lists can bring so much to the page.  Try some of these:  12 Reasons I Love You, Top Ten Birthday Wishes, or 7 Ways to Bath The Dog.  Make lists of the words you use to describe your mom, dad, sister, brother, wife, husband, kids, or even yourself!  Record your list of favorite songs, books, colors, flowers, heirlooms or vacations.  List all the guests at a party or gifts received at a shower.

• Hiding The Journaling.  File folder-like embellishments that flip open, pockets, envelops, and flaps that lift up or open are a great way to hide journaling if you don’t like your handwriting.  It’s also is a way to have more space within a page.   It’s like a secret message waiting to be found.

• ABC’s or Define The Word. Write out the alphabet and write a phrase of word for each.  For school layout, A for apple, B for books, C for new clothes, etc.  Or write out SCHOOL vertically and write out S for Study, C for Class, H for Homework, etc.

• Invite Style.  If there is a page where you want to report the facts but do not have much additional journaling to contribute, try this easy idea: Write out the information like you would a party or celebration invitation. Simply state:  Who, What, When, and Where

• Recipe Your Thoughts.  Everyone enjoys a good recipe so why not journal your photos using this easy to understand style.  Recipe for a Grand Wedding.  Take two happy lovebirds and combine with a beautiful dress and tuxedo.  Add family, friends, gifts, music, and good wishes.  Stir in some toasts and shift in some good food.  Store in the caring embrace of community and enjoy for the rest of your life.

• 1, 2, 3, Step by Step. Take a look at your photos and see if there is a progression happening in the photographs. Write the steps of this process.  This is fun for baking a cake or cupcakes for a school or church party.  How about the step by steps of decorating the Christmas tree or building a snowman?  Dress your child for an adventure or show the before and after of prom night.

• Calendar.  Scrapbooks often record long term events in our lives like pregnancy, engagement to wedding, 4 seasons of a garden, building a home, planning a 50^th Wedding Anniversary, or other major milestone.  Use a calendar to record moments, memories, and other day-to-day activities you want to remember.  You can also draw in a calendar or generate a calendar on a computer.  This style keeps journaling brief, but can pack in a ton of facts.

• Postcard.  Draw out a rectangle and put in a few lines.  Write out the journaling as if you were sending it as a postcard to a friend.  Be brief, concise, but get a happy message across.  Don’t forget the postmark so you’ll remember the date and place!

 Materials to have on hand…

•  Square of white felt and applicator like Velcro square on bottle cork
•  Alcohol inks (2-3 colors)
• Glossy cardstock, domino, tile, metal tin, or other non-porous surface
• Krylon Leafing pen*
• You may wish to protect your hands
• You MUST protect and cover your work area.

*PLEASE NOTE: You must use a leafing pen; metallic paint pens DO NOT work for this technique.

Step by Step

1. Read all instructions first and understand each step.  You need to work quickly and smoothly since leaf pen and alcohol inks will dry quickly.
2. Prime leafing pen if new or shake leafing pen if it has already been primed.
3. Put a small amount of ink directly on the felt.  You don’t need a ton of ink, just enough to cover your surface.  Remember you will be using 2-3 colors of ink.  Apply all colors of ink to felt.  Try to avoid overlapping the inks, but do not worry if inks do overlap, this just means the colors will mix on the felt.
4. Take the leafing pen, and make random dots of ink on the glossy cardstock or whatever surface you are using.  The smaller the surface the less dots are needed.  You don’t want to over-do the metallic ink.  For a domino, you need 1-2 dots of ink, for a piece of glossy cardstock (8 ½ x 11) you’ll need 8-10 dots of ink.
5. Immediately after applying the leafing ink, dab the felt (with the ink) onto the gold dots.  Continue and dab the ink randomly around the surface.  Do not RUB, dab!  You need to get the ink onto the surface quickly before either the ink or the gold leafing dries.  The idea is to get the gold leafing to move in the ink and feather creating the polished stone look.  The gold leafing should not be covering the ink in a consistent layer, but should make veins throughout the paper.
6. Once everything is dry, polish with tissue paper to bring out the colors.
7. Faux Polished Stone makes a great background for rubberstamping or a colorful paper for matting a photo.

• Use your computer for creating titles, captions and journaling. Experiment with fonts and enjoy the variety of fonts available. You can enlarge fonts to just about any size on your computer so have some fun with it.

• Think a bigger photograph would be better for your scrapbook page design? Or maybe you need to make a photo smaller. Photo-editing software makes it easy to resize photos quickly. You can even create your own contact sheets or print out wallet size photos for a small scrapbook.

• Crop a photo without cutting it on your computer by simply using a digital cropping tool found in photo-editing software programs.

• Remove bothersome red-eye and pet-eye. Scan the photos or download digital images and use photo-editing software to remove red-eye. Pet eye is the grayish color in the animal’s eye caused by flash reflection.

• If you copy and store your scrapbook pages, photographs, documents, and memorabilia on digital media like a compact disk, they have an estimated shelf life of 100 years. Like most computer technology, this is likely to be upgraded and extended within the next five to 10 years. For comparison, knowing that a video’s lifespan is ten years should further motivate you to begin using digital technology in your scrapbooking.

• At first, most scrapbookers worry about the safety of entrusting their scrapbook pages to the computer. As interest in digital scrapbooking increases, the computer industry is going out of its way to dispel these worries. Acid-free computer paper is available and don’t forget that all those great acid-free scrapbooking papers can be used in printers.

• By using specialty papers in your printer, like silk, twill, poplin or denim fabric (with paper backing so it flows smoothly through the printer), oil canvas (textured just like painting canvas), bright white, glossy, and matte, you can expand the range of looks for photos, frames, and borders.

• Once comfortable using your computer to add digital elements to your traditional pages, you can create totally digital scrapbook pages that you can e-mail off to family and friends and you can create an entire digital scrapbook that can be mailed to family and friends on a disk or CD.

• You can create a “slide show” of your scrapbook pages or of your favorite photos. You can include all your traditional scrapbook elements like captions and journaling. You can insert clip art like a map of your local region or the country your family originates from.