Iron Craft Week 5

This week on Iron Craft, we were tasked with designing and making a Valentine's card. I was happy to say that this was an easy challenge for me especially since I make cards every day. I decided to return to my roots and paint some new backgrounds and make some quote cards.

To make the backgrounds, I take a single sheet of watercolor paper and paint, stipple, scrape, paste, cover, manipulate and layer it. Then, I cut the paper into individual pieces that I use to make the card. Each card is an original card since it can't be re-created because the single sheet of watercolor paper can never be duplicated. The background for the top card above was made with a watercolor wash, mulberry paper and gel medium. The bottom card was made with a watercolor wash, alcohol ink splashes, mulberry paper, and gel medium.

The top card above was made with a watercolor wash, re-inker splashes, and salt placed on the wet watercolor. Gel Medium was not used so that a matte finish could result.

The image on the bottom card was made with permanent ink and a rubber stamp. I then used colored pencils and Gamsol to tint the image. The image just makes me smile. I will be making these cards to give away for the Meals on Wheels card program.

Iron Craft--Week Four

This week on Iron Craft, we were supposed to make our own coffee cozy. I don't drink coffee or tea but have randomly stopped by the overpriced coffee store that appears on every other Manhattan street corner in order to get some hot chocolate.

Of course, I knew that I wanted to do something out of paper. So I stopped by the overpriced coffee store that appears on every other Manhattan street corner and acquired (stole) a couple of cardboard cozies to use as templates. I really started to admire the engineering involved with making the cozy because you have to take into consideration the many angles, slopes and tabs.

I have been toying with the idea of trying to use more of my scraps on a project. I decided to do a paper weave with some of my scraps. I used a palette of yellow and red and used two different sizes of strips--1/8th" and 1/2". I was trying for a tartan look and should have used more colors rather than more patterns. All in all, I am pleased with the way that it turned out.

BTW, the cup shown above was thrown away by a co-worker and is acting as a model before rejoining the trash can.

Projects-in-Progress

There are several projects that I continually work on--some with and some without a closure date. I have been commissioned by Penguin books to create 10 cutouts that will be used to illustrate a children's story of my choosing. The collection of stories will be illustrated by 10 different artists using 10 different media. My medium will be silhouette cutouts. I have until the end of next week to decide which fairy tale that I will choose. I am leaning towards Jack and the Beanstalk. After viewing this silhouette movie by Lotte Reiniger, I also am intrigued by doing Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs.

I am also working on designing a special Broadway box for Billie Joe Armstrong when he leaves the cast of American Idiot. I hope to cover the box in green leather and feature a logo from the show.

Another project that is in its design stages is a pentagon box with lid. I want to work out the angles and master the logistics of covering the box.

Finally, I need to finish my Iron Craft project this week. This week we are supposed to make a cozy/belly band for a cup of coffee. Of course, mine will be made out of paper but figuring it out will take a little bit more time.

Iron Craft Week Three

I was so excited when I saw the title for this week's challenge on Iron Craft--Just bunt. I was thinking baseball and you know how fanatical I am about baseball. My world came to a crushing halt when I read the description--bunting and garland.

I have to say--I am not a big bunting fan. When I think of bunting, I think 4th of July and those red, white and blue streamers and swags, etc. When I think of garland, I automatically think about Christmas and stringing popcorn and/or cranberries and then the ants that get attracted to such live edible decorations (at least in Texas where I grew up).

I was actually going to skip this week due to a lack of imagination and a backlog of custom orders. Then, I got a shout-out and then boasted that Thing1, Thing2 and I were going to represent the male crafters of the world--I felt a little pressure to come up with something.

I decided to revisit the tradition of 1000 cranes. In Japanese culture, it is good luck to receive 1000 folded origami cranes. Usually, 40 cranes are tied on a single string and you give out 25 strings. Most people add a few extra cranes just in case someone miscounted. A newer tradition is for families to give new parents 100 cranes to hang over a baby's crib. In this tradition, 9 strings of 11 cranes are suspended from a larger crane.

(Here you can see the detail of three of the different strings of cranes. Glass beads are used to keep the cranes from sliding down the string. Traditionally, three separate types of beads are used on a 100 crane project--pewter, brass, and pearl. Each signify a traditional wish for the child).

Here are my cranes hanging around my bulletin board.

I apologize for the spooky lighting for these pictures. It looks like an Alfred Hitchcock movie but I couldn't get a good picture without the shadows.

Iron Craft Week Two--Part Two

Since I didn't have any fabric to make a door snake, I decided to use Tyvek as my fabric. Tyvek is a synthetic material that envelopes are made of (think of those FedEx envelopes that you can't tear). I use Tyvek for my large scale silhouette pieces since it is black on one side and white on the other. It acts like fabric and is waterproof (which for some reason this is important when being a door snake). Since I didn't have a sewing machine available at the moment, I simply hand stitched the Tyvek.

The bigger problem was that I didn't have any materials to fill it with. Not wanting to lug around a big bag of cat litter or aquarium gravel, I started walking around my kitchen to try and find something to use. I looked at the recycling center in my kitchen when the light bulb went off. Rather than close off the Tyvek tube, I would leave one end open and sew in a piece of elastic so that it would shut (just like the waist band of swimming trunks or sweat pants). I could then fill the tube with those plastic shopping bags from the supermarket. This way, the materials would be waterproof and I would save the bags from entering the landfill for life.

So here is the final project:

I decorated the outside of the door snake with hand cut letters (I needed to practice my scalpel skills). I thought of the first five positive verbs to use as a motivation when looking at the door snake. BTW, it is much easier to glue the letters when the snake is flat. Also, it is much easier to turn out the Tvyek if you scrunch/wrinkle the material before trying to turn it out. The material becomes much more pliable when crinkled. I was able to stuff 25 plastic shopping bags into the door snake.

The final item in place in front of the door.

Iron Craft Week Two

This week's challenge for Iron Craft was to make a "draft dodger" or "door snake." Having been raised in Texas and having lived in Tampa, I had never heard of such a thing. Even when I went to school in Indiana, I never came across such an item.


For the uninitiated, a door snake is something that is placed in front of a window or door that blocks the cold air from entering (or the cold air from the air conditioning from escaping). I had a roommate in college that would do the same thing with his sweatpants. In our case, it was a signal for me that I would probably be sleeping in the dormitory lounge or with a friend for the evening.


After doing some research, it appears that this would be an easy project for most people. You simply take a piece of fabric 4 " tall by the size of the opening you want to cover (my door is 31" wide), and add 1.5 inches for seam allowances and turn downs. This would make my piece of fabric 4" by 32.5". Fold in half on the long side, with right sides together and sew on the three open sides leaving a seam allowance of .5" to 1". Turn out the tube through the opening so the right side of the fabric is showing. You leave a small gap in order to pour in your filling material (usually beans, rice, cat litter, etc.). Once filled, you hand stitch the opening shut, decorate the outside as you please and Voila--you have a door snake.

The only problem for me--I didn't have a piece of fabric long enough to make the project, and I didn't have anything to fill the inside with. After mentioning my New Year's Resolution, I was bound and determined to make a draft dodger out of materials I already had.

Tune in tomorrow for my solution.

Iron Craft Week One

Here is my entry for the first week of the Iron Craft Challenge. As mentioned yesterday, the theme is Lighting the Winter Gloom.

Here is my card for the Fourth Day of Christmas--Four Calling Birds. The card is made from chocolate brown card stock (80 lb) that is cut into a tri-fold card. The first two panels (the left and center panels) have matching ovals cut from them. The artwork is then place on the center panel and the first panel is then glued shut and enveloping the artwork.

The artwork is from a Dover Stained Glass Coloring Book. It is reduced in size and printed on vellum. It is hand tinted using colored pencils and blended using a blending stick.

The below image shows the card with a candle resting behind the artwork.

The image below shows the card with the candle and the lights out.


Can you image what the winter gloom will look like with all Twelve Days finished. No more winter gloom here.

Iron Craft #1

This week's entry in the Iron Craft Challenge is called Lighting the Winter Gloom. My design for this project will be one of my stained glass cards. When the card is upright and a tea light is placed behind the card opening, it looks like stained glass. The subject of the card will be one of the 12 Days of Christmas.

We are supposed to post our images on the Flickr account starting on Wednesday.

Welcome to 2011

While I know that I haven't been blogging much since September, I have been busy with the holiday season and travel. I was also trying to recover from the latest in a string of burglaries where both of my new cameras were stolen. Santa said that I was a good boy this year so he brought me another camera for Christmas.

After reading one of the blogs that I frequent, I found this crafting challenge. A theme is announced each week and you post your response to the challenge on their Flickr account. Fifty-two projects for 2011. I figured that this could be a catalyst to keep me blogging each week. For at least one entry, I can share with you my design for the weekly challenge.

I hope that you and yours are well in this new year and hope that the holidays weren't too stressful. Here's wishing you a prosperous and crafting New Year.