Ornament #2

For this week's ornament we were asked to make a star ornament out of toothpicks. Of course, I had to make a paper variation.

I cut two stars out of black paper. I kept the interior star for a later project. I wanted a cut out in the middle so that the colored lights from the tree could shine through.  The middle piece is a patterned vellum paper that is shaped as a border for the star. Instead of being a border, it becomes the middle piece of the ornament.

The possibilities are endless with this ornament. The paper could be a different color, The vellum could be a different color or a different pattern. This could be used as a gift tag or an added bonus to a present--a gift and an ornament.

To show the full effect, I had to break out my holiday lights. Here is a rough idea what the star would look like on a tree.

Iron Craft Challenge 13

This week, we were asked to create something using two of the three colors associated with the 4th of July--Red, White, and Blue. This has been a crazy week for me because we have a new show coming into the theater which means that I have been working nights again. Also, it is my turn to host the annual 4th of July orphan's party. An orphan's party is a party for those people who want to celebrate a holiday but can't travel home and for people who want to celebrate but have no place to go. With so many friends that are actors, these party's are quite common since actors have to travel so much for work.

This year, I decided to create a guest book for people to sign in and to leave comments. I wanted to surprise my friends and guests so I made a book for this use. Everyone has to sign in and answer the following question "What does the 4th of July mean to you." Each response will be accompanied by a small Polaroid picture.  I decided to use this challenge as a catalyst for my book.

The structure is a classic take on the bookbinding structure called a Dos-a-Dos. There is one cover than joins to separate booklets.  The pages are sewn using a classic pamphlet stitch (this book was designed with a 5 hole stitch). I used white 140 lb card stock for the covers and Canford text weight paper for the pages (one sheet of paper yielded 8 sheets of 7 in by 10 in pages which when folded in half equals 32 pages which are 5 in wide by 7 in tall). Therefore, the entire Dos-a-Dos have 64 pages to be filled.


Here is the top view of the Dos-a-Dos

I had to postpone posting the blog entry and the posting to Flickr because I didn't want my friends to cheat and know about the guest book. If they had know, they would arrive with some pre-arranged answer to the question.


Here are the red pages. White thread was

used to continue the theme.

Here are the blue pages.