"the Shuttlecock!" the Book

Since starting my love affair with making books, people have been very generous in sharing work and ideas with me. One of the poems sent to me for possible book-usage was from a kid I grew up with in Southern Spain. We were the children of civilian employees for the military presence there; I'm so very lucky to be in touch with many of those I grew up with (say what you might about FaceBook, it's been great for me!)

He shared several wonderful poems with me, but the one that just screamed book was "the Shuttlecock!", a memoir of sorts. It captures in words what I've never really been able to express:

the Shuttlecock!
by Chris Wallace

Childhood dreams could never come true.
I’ve already lived in a castle, gilded by runes.
I’ve already sailed the straights that separate
the Moors from the Iberian side of the shore.
I’ve been under the floors where Anne Frank cried.
I’ve stood on Golgotha’s ground where Jesus’ body died.
I’ve touched the iron curtain of hate
dripping with blood from the rusty gate.
I bought a Coke outside a 5000 year old ruin.
I climbed to the top of the world’s largest dune.
I drove through Catalonia to get to Pompeii.
I was lost in Barcelona for two and one half days.
The green fields of Ireland felt so home to me,
almost more than any other place I’ve seen.
And there are too many places left to mention.
So many experiences from Pisa to the London Dungeon;
But they all seem too far away,
the remains of some forgotten day.
I don’t want to forget that time and place
that now only floats in inner space.
Maybe, one day I can take you there
and we can create something new out of thinning air.

I played with several ideas for this book, but I just couldn't get past making it an actual shuttlecock. Finding the image was more difficult than I had anticipated; I ended importing a photo into SCAL and deleting the elements I didn't want cut. The pages are a series of strips; I edged everything with Antique Linen distress ink. My favorite part is how it closes completely flat, yet opens out completely.

Author's note: "The uncapitalized "the" and capitalized "S" is intentional. It's an homage to open source programming variable naming conventions." Love that!

“Vere novo”

The other day, a friend from high school posted a poem, “Vere novo”/"The Genesis of Butterflies" by Victor Hugo, in the original French and was kind enough to post the English translation for me and my American Mouth. Hmm, I thought, maybe this is a sign to make a mini-book.

Later that evening, I found that I had won a prize of $12 worth of digis from Just Some Lines through the CDAC 5000 Members Blogger Contest (WOW, thank you!), and the first image I saw was her Butterfly on Flower Paper Cutwork design (PCW).

O don't you love it when a project just comes together‽

I've always wanted to make a book that reads in one language when held one way and in another language when held the other. I wouldn't want to do this with a long book, but eight one-sided pages were easy enough to lay out InDesign. And, of course, it had to be a piano-hinge book.

Virtual Rainbows

Another week, another Tiddly Inks challenge! I'm so hooked. This week the theme is Color Me, meaning to use as much color as possible. I've been crushin' on Roy G. Biv for years, so I kinda surprised myself with the relatively soft color palette I ended up using.

I was intrigued by the mostly-pink-and-purple Rainbow Forest digis that Tiddly Inks offered as a freebie through their Group on PaperCraft Planet, so I used that as a starting point. I'd purchased the Gamer digi from Tiddly Inks a bit ago, and the idea of the the "forest" being the game was too good to pass up... My husband really liked the effect, so I'm glad that I listened to my instincts and made this a wheel card. I created a circle with the forest digi in Adobe InDesign.

I used the Distressing technique for the sentiment pieces, wheel background, and the "hill" that the gamer is on. By distressing, I mean rubbing ink onto the paper with a handy wipe. WOW, that came out better than I had anticipated. In fact, the "hill" matches the printed background way better than I ever thought it could; I had planned on more contrast, but it's so pretty I couldn't not use it!

For a final touch, I sewed on a straight-stitch border in blue and orange; my machine's tension's off, so I used the the bobbin thread peeking through to my advantage.

Because I'm still not very good at shading, I wanted to fill up the T-shirt with some sort of logo...and the Human Rights Campaign logo seemed especially appropriate. What a cool kid, right‽


Tiddly Inks Challenge #40: Color Me

Digi stamps & backgrounds: Rainbow Forest and Gamer by Tiddly Inks

Supplies: HP printer & ink, Core'dinations, X-Press Copic and Hammermill cardstocks, MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, deckle scissors and finger knife, emery board, Versamark and ColorBox inks, CelebrateIt! ribbon, sentiment stamps by gstudio, sewing machine & thread, handy wipes, Michaels brad (hidden), Marvy circle punch
Copic markers:
furniture: BV08, V17, V06
shirt: B23, B05, B39, 0, FY1
jeans: B23, B05, B32, E47
skin: E35, E33, E11
hair: G21, G07, G02
dog: C-1, C-5, C-7, E50, 0

1 Tag, 3 Techniques

I've been really intrigued by all the stamping techniques out there, so I was especially excited to try the current challenge at Stampin' Dymonz Creative Space, which calls for you to use three techniques on a single tag: Resist, Brayer, and Masking.

Masking, I can do (with much thanks to adhesive masking paper). Resisting, which involves clear embossing powder, is a new favorite of mine that I'm still struggling to master. But I don't own a brayer, and until recently I thought it was fairly unnecessary. But now I really, really want one! I didn't want to miss out on this challenge just because I didn't own one of the necessary tools, so I made my own brayer-type thingy by wrapping papertowels onto a toy plastic rolling pin I happened to have. It's a poor substitute for the real thing, but it did give me a chance to experience the technique.

Inspiration:
Stampin' Dymonz Creative Space challenge: Tag using Resist, Brayer, and Masking Techniques

Supplies: Heart Tag cut file by PaperFacesDesigns, SCAL & Cricut, Core'dinations and Hammermill cardstocks, MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, Inkadinkado spray ink, emery board, Versamark and ColorBox inks, stash eyelet, Elmer's gel pens, Copic Ciao markers, CelebrateIt! ribbon, Stampendous clear embossing powder, Marvy heat tool, stamps by gstudio, Cherry Blossom Branch stamp from Inkadinkado Asian by Design set, stamps from K&Co. Amy Butler Lotus Floral set, pop-dot, Inkadinkado masking paper

Bees and Blossoms

Mom sent me this cute Bee Girl image she picked up at one of Jennifer Dove's classes at Crop Girls in Arizona. I used it to practice with my brand-new Florescent Yellow Copic marker, and was so taken with the result that I decided to build a card around it.

Happily, I had my eyes on the Signs of Spring challenge at Cute Card Thursday. I just knew that I wanted to use this cherry blossom photograph paper for the background, even though I wasn't sure how well it would work. I love this paper, but never find quite the right place for it...except this time, me thinks.

I decided to make a Sliding Pop-Out card, because it makes layering really easy. I stamped some flowers in lightest pink onto vellum, and them stamped a brighter pink onto the back to make the lighter stamp pop. I used the same stamp for the brown border on the sliding-out message portion.

One of my favorite parts of this image is that she's made to sit on something; the artist's example showed using a ribbon, which I love, but I decided to make a little cherry blossom branch for her. I'm loving stamping multiple colors on one stamp!

Thanks for the inspiration, I had tons of fun with this challenge!

Inspiration:
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 154: Signs of Spring

Sliding Pop-Out Card Tutorial: Kim Score for Splitcoaststampers

Supplies: Stamp from Magnolia series, Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and DCWV cardstocks, SCAL & Cricut, Recollections vellum, stash scrapbooking paper, MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, Inkadinkado spray ink, emery board, Versamark and ColorBox inks, stash eyelet, Elmer's gel pens, Offray ribbon, sentiment stamp by gstudio, flower stamps from Inkadinkado Asian by Design set
Copic markers:
skin: E50, E51, YR00, E02, RV21
hair: Y02, FY1, E50
dress: Y02, FY1
turtle: G07, YG41, G02