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Showing posts from March, 2014

Greenwork

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I've never done one with my name before. So I did...

Clara Maffei's Folded Books

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I've been following Clara Maffei's work for some time now. I've always loved her quirky designs and the lovely embellishments on her folded books. She was kind enough to allow me permission to share this picture and her blog . Take a peek! I never get tired of seeing how other people transform books into art.

Heart Loop-de-loop

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Just finished folded heart book. Pattern below! Click on the picture to make it bigger and print it out. From there, make your pattern in three parts: beginning/left half of heart, repeated middle loops, right half of heart/end. I was able to fit five repetitions of the loop with a regular Reader's Digest Condensed book with about 20 pages left over...

Rock Stars Turned Librarians and Other Strange Truths

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Yesterday afternoon, Brian came into the bedroom where I was sitting on the bed, reading. He said, "Will you come watch something with me that I think you will find uplifting and inspiring?" Now, I've seen Brian's taste in movies and it rarely matches my own. I hesitated and asked, "What is it?" The look on my face plainly told him I didn't believe *I* would find it uplifting or inspiring. He looked pained and said, "I want you to learn to trust me." So, for the sake of the marriage I put on my "I'm doing this for the sake of my marriage" face and went out to the living room. Brian had gotten me a glass of ice water and some snacks so I would be comfortable. Darn, but that was kind. What if I hated the movie? How would I be able to sit through and hour and a half of schlock? He had the movie queued up and hit play. I watched the whole thing without blinking once, it felt like. It was amazing. A story about a ha

Surprise in the Mail!

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On a whim, I entered a contest on Goodreads to win a book AND I WON! I'm a winner! This came in the mail this week. It's written by Ann Martin of All Things Paper - a wonderful site for paper crafts and news. I'm going to see which of the 20 projects listed in the book I can try in the coming days and post for your viewing pleasure... Candle holders? Wind toys? Paper flowers? There's a ton of ideas to choose from and I don't have nearly enough time...

Dum de Dum de Dum

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On the way home from work yesterday I pulled over so I could take this amazing picture. It's like a supernova (or the Death Star blowing up). Okay, this whole Lent thing has made me moody and introspective. Therefore, no art. I was overly optimistic when I said I'd post about the new book I'd folded last week. In other news, I'm on Instagram now. My 16-year old son was given a Galaxy Player last year for Christmas. It's a tablet that looks like a phone. Unfortunately, he kept making poor choices on the Internet and it was taken away within a few weeks. I've been holding on to it in my dresser drawer, hoping he would learn that we, his parents, mean business when we say certain things are not allowed in our house. Unfortunately, he used up his last chance and I've spent the better part of a week trying to clean up the garbage on the device. I've learned more than I want to know about my son's taste in women. Oh my. So, I'm putting it to a

This Mormon Is Doing Lent

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This is a more overtly religious post than I've done before but that's okay. When I was five or six, I went over to a friend's house to play. There was a Bible on her table and we played a game where we would open it up, put our finger down and memorize the scripture that we touched. It's kind of a weird game for a kid to play and I really have no idea why we thought that was fun. That day, my finger fell on this scripture: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (KJV) I don't think that was a coincidence that my finger fell in just that spot. That scripture has stayed with me for all these years and I believe it is a reminder to not be afraid to be, well... me. Therefore, today you are gettin' spirituality cos that makes up part o' me. Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of working with several wonderful women, many of whom happen to

Repeating Linked Hearts Variation (and a sneak peek)

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I had a couple of other linked hearts variations in the hopper and wanted to show one I finished today. It's a point fold heart and I love how it turned out. Of course, I always forget that point folds take up twice as many pages so I don't get to make as many repeats as I want. Still, the four in a row are lovely and turned out as well as I could have hoped. Here is the pattern I used to make my book. Click on the picture to print it out full-sized. Use the directions from this post ! The problem of not having as many pages as I'd like for a design has been on my mind for a while. I've come up with a possible solution and did a prototype today at church (while I LISTENED VERY WELL). Here's a sneak peek...

Tiny Folded Book (in progress)

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Several months ago, I took a bunch of books to Office Depot and asked them to cut the books into smaller pieces. I've worked with the little pieces off and on over time, but nothing has worked really well. I decided on Thursday that I was going to dive in again. I stayed up and designed a tiny heart pattern. I made up the template and started marking my little book. Here's the first bit folded. It's another linked repeating pattern . Tiny! One of the problems I've encountered with these tiny books is the lack of clean edges - it really makes a difference trying to mark a pattern when there is text in the way. I've got some ideas in the works to overcome that problem. I'll see how quickly I can bring them to fruition so you can see!