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Showing posts from February, 2012

Folk Hearts on Books!

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Here is what I've done! These are folk hearts - longer rather than rounded - and they are sooooo easy to do!  I will be making these patterns available in my Etsy shop later this week. I have tons more heart patterns in my sketch book which are just bursting inside of my head. I am so grateful to Maria J for her help with solving the pattern problem! She is my hero today... :)

Hard-Hearted Hearts

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I have burned out my brain trying to create heart patterns for folded books. My hope has been to make a 7" heart for wedding decorations, but I haven't figured out how to make it simple enough for people to make their own. The way I'm doing it now requires eyeballing the marks and folds because you need too many marks too close together to put on a fore edge. Curses. And my prototypes keep having only one perfect side of the heart- NOT BOTH. It's more of a broken heart right now. :( But I found these great eye-shadows at Rite Aid for $4.99 which are the same colors as my watercolors. I look like I have a skyscape on my eyelids. :) Watercolors in a box, ready to work on...

Future Library Programming with String Art

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Yesterday my supervisor asked me to do a teen program this summer. I offered to do string art. I showed her my blog (eeps!) and was given permission to look for stuff we had at the library on hand to make up a prototype. I found four boxes of thumbtacks from fifty years ago down in the basement. I found craft thread in the children's workroom (friendship bracelet activity?) and I'd brought a book from home to play with during breaks. I decided to string three different layers and this is the result... She liked it!

Heartstrings - a Love Day Book Tutorial!

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Remember how I talked about string art the other day? Well, that first one I've been working on has been taking FOREVER!!!! I'm still not done putting all the nails in it and my fingers hurt. Soooo... I decided to try another tack. Literally. To make a string art heart you will need: 1 book 1 screwpunch (if you like) pencil to draw design enough tacks (GET IT? A different tack ? Hi-LAR-ious) to space evenly in 1" intervals around your design I used 35, I think. Mine were also upholstery tacks because I had a few left and I'm *really* tired of all these bits and pieces of stuff around my house. Ugh. Metallic crochet thread (or any darn thread you choose) To begin... Draw a heart (lightly) on the best cover of your book. This particular book was red (appropriate for V-day), but was icky on the front. I used the back. I'll say it's symbolic if anyone notices... I then used my fancy dancy screwpunch to make little holes on the cover through the buckram.

A Girl, A Hammer and a Screwpunch

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I was pulling requested books at the main library the other day when I came across a book of string art. Remember that horrific 70s craft? Well, this book actually had some beautiful examples of string art. I have been mulling it over in my mind about how to do it with books. Why not use books as the foundation for the nails and string instead of wood? Duh, paper is made of WOOD! Anyway, here is my second attempt at working on this project. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be making folded book hearts, but I'm just not in the mood for that. (I think I do best when it's not the right holiday for something.) Here's how it looks so far... I only have time to work on it a bit each day...

Be Still My Heart - Pattern!

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Hello friends! It's February and time for l♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ve ! Have a heart. As always, I'm still futzing with the patterns, trying to make them easier to construct and read, so this month's pattern looks a tiny bit different with the added circles at the ends of the lines. You'll love it. Remember, hearts, love? If you don't have it already, you may want my basic tutorial to make it easier to fold your books or read the patterns. Click on the below picture to make it big and print it out for yourself... I have had several people asking about wedding-related patterns and I will see how quickly I can do stuff like that and list it in my shop.