The Rant About OLD Things.

You know what really grinds my gears? When you go to a flea market to pick up some old books for crafting and the people around you (who don't know you and have never met you before) cry out with: 

"But it's an OLD book - those are worth so much money!". 

Steam comes out of my ears every time I hear this. You know what? They aren't. If it's a well known author or book - like Anne of Green Gables - I'm not going to cut it up. But if it's a dusty old Canadian History book from 1914 - that doesn't make it worth $15.00. It's going to sit in the flea market until someone wants it - I wanted to give it new life. New meaning. "Oh, how could you possibly cut up this book?! It's an OLD book - you should only cut up NEW ones."

Rrrargh!

The conversation (which was essentially just this random old lady complaining about my purposes, who neither ran the store nor knew me) went on with her saying "WELL! I watch Antiques Roadshow and these types of books people always bring some pages and they end up telling the person it would only be worth money if they had the whole book.".

(It looked nothing like these beauties)

People think their shit doesn't stink. Just because something is OLD - does NOT mean it's worth a lot of money. I hate that people think this. And I'm sorry - but I don't give a rats arse if you watch Antiques Roadshow. You see those people in the background who never make it front and center on TV? Yeah - that's because everyone is now under the impression that they've got this AMAZING gem of an old candy dish or Oprah Winfrey's left nostril hair. The lady then proceeded to check carefully all over the book (starting in the back) because "It could be a first edition!!"

I once bought an 11th edition (1911) Anne of Avonlea book at the local thrift shop for a quarter - I sold it on ebay for over a hundred bucks. I know the value of things. I can tell when something has the possibility of being worth big bucks, or if something is better being re purposed. Why is this so hard for everyone else to grasp?

(This one is NOT the one I found - it is a first edition and worth 22,000.00)

I have a sneaky feeling that the people on the other side of my argument are the same people who watch TV shows like the afore mentions Antiques Roadshow - or Pawnstars, Auction Hunters, Antique Hunters....and anything else of that ilk. People seem to skip over the parts of these shows where things aren't worth anything - or are perhaps fake and jump whole-heartedly into the belief that the stuff in their basement is a magical beacon of money, just waiting to be found.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me. Another example: I was at a garage sale some years back and some stamps caught my eye. I like to use stamps in paper crafting (I'm talking about the lick and stick sort - not the ink pad sort). This fellow had a bucket full of stamps, still on the papers from the letters they had been torn from. I think he wanted like $50 for them. I asked him why so much - the response I got was something akin to: "Well they're stamps - I heard someone found a stamp once worth a couple hundred bucks once. So I think $50 is pretty fair."

He knew nothing about stamps, not their worth nor history - nor which type to look out for - and yet he assumed the ones he had must have a gem of some sort - some mismarked, misprinted treasure that he was going to let ME discover.

I did not end up with the book - or the stamps.  I'm sure the book will sit, collecting dust for months...or years....in the back room of a dingy flea market. Why? Because it's a book written in 1914 about history in Canada.

As crafters, we have the ingenuity and gumption to find beauty and use in things that most other people cannot. Don't belittle us for it. And if you're going to argue with people who want to repurpose something - at least know what you're talking about. You work at an antique book shop? Well then - please, let me learn from you. A degree, however, in watching a couple episodes of a TV show - does not make you an expert.

End rant.

Graphic 45 2014 Design Team Audition

This year has begun with perhaps a little more magic than last year. Because of this (and some nudging from a good friend), I've decided to try out for Graphic 45's 2014 Design Team. I've been uber busy getting ready for this - fingers all stuck together, with paint covered hands that has been more fun than it probably should have been. The following are some projects I've created that I believe show off my creativity and imagination.


1. Spell in a Box 

I re-purposed an earring box into a small box with which the contents can be used to cast the tiniest of spells. 

Spell Box on Craftster

2. Fairy on a Bicycle Shrine Box

I found a wee bicycle that needed a rider.

Fae Bicycle Shrine on Craftster

3. Steampunk Framed Art Piece

Steampunk paper bits and bobs paired together for a small art piece.

4. Love Spell Shrine

Handmade miniature books and handmade polymer clay skulls top off this purple and black shrine. The bottom is covered with Woodland Scenic lavender flowers.

Love Spell Shrine on Craftster

5. Lady Pennybottoms Book of Spells

This tag album featuring Graphic 45 Steampunk Spells bits and bobs is packed full of fussy-cut bits of fun.

Lady Pennybottoms Spell Book on Craftster (many more pictures)

6. Hand bound "Goblins Grimoire" book

Stitched and glued, painted and doodled - this tiny little thing is made to be held by Goblin hands only.

Goblins Grimoire on Craftster

7. Typography Shadow Box

Using Graphic 45's Typography collection as well as a plethora of found objects, this shadow box now proudly sits on a shelf in our den.

8. Tiny Dollhouse Spellbook

This project won the Best of Craftster 2013 award. I've got a full tutorial posted on my blog and on Craftster on how to make one.

Craftster Tutorial

Blog Post

Painted Boxes

I've participated in several swaps on Craftster, and I just dug up some pictures of two different boxes I painted for swap partners and thought I would share.

PHOENIX IN FLAMES BOX

SERENITY/FIREFLY BOX

I've also painted various other boxes, not for swaps. They're various characters I enjoy from Movies/Comics.

GIR - INVADER ZIM

LENORE (COMIC)

 BENDER - FUTURAMA

CHESHIRE CAT - ALICE IN WONDERLAND

The Wizards Desk

 WIZARDS DESK

A broken and thrifted dollhouse desk into a desk suitable for a wizard!

I bought some dollhouse furniture from the local flea market for $5 and this desk was among the "loot". It needed a lot of work before it looked like above.

The desk was missing two drawers, so I cut and carved two drawers out of basswood to fit that are not designed to open, unlike the top drawers of the desk. 

The goblin in the background is "Cucumber" an antique goblin dude I keep my sugar in.

The drawers are glued on with a very fast setting wood cement that I now love. The handles are finishing nails cut down.

I did several coats of white paint on the desk so that everything was nice and even.

I started with a dark, almost black, brown and began to dry brush lighter and lighter shades of brown on top.

I love the colour but it just isn't popping and giving me the aged look I want...

So I end up inking in the crevices and am way happier with how it's turned out. (I used "Game Ink")

This is my first attempt at an "openable" book. I chose a spell book because I'm going to be working on a sort of "wizards office". The edges of the paper on the book are gilded with gold paint. The knot and writing are just painted freehand. 

 This is my first attempt at an "openable" book. I chose a spell book because I'm going to be working on a sort of "wizards office". The edges of the paper on the book are gilded with gold paint. The knot and writing are just painted freehand. 

Also, I love this cage and might not even paint it because it already looks old and aged.


Just wanted to share - I love how it turned out, though the lighting doesn't give it justice, especially the inking. The inking looks much better in person.

Miniature Magical Tome Tutorial

MINIATURE MAGICAL TOME

A Pictorial How-to

I've been working on making some books for a roombox scene and thought maybe I should actually post a little something about the process I'm using in case anyone else wants to try it out. Above is the finished product, a book I made just for this tutorial - larger than my other books for photography's sake as I don't know where my macro lenses are.

WHAT YOU NEED
-----------------
A magazine that is glued - not stapled and the thickness you want.
A ruler
An Xacto knife
Tacky Glue
A clothespin or something to hold the book shut
Paint (various shades of brown and black and gold)
Material of some sort (I used a black kitchen clothe that had nice texture)
Cosmetic sponge
Paint brushes
A candle
A lighter
Incense 
A crafters cutting board
Cardstock in any colour
Toothpick or something to spread glue
Gamer ink
Wood glue/cement

Grab your magazine, ruler (I recommend a metal one), Xacto knife and cutting board. Instead of making "signatures" and doing proper bookbinding, we're cheating. We're using the magazines already glued binding for the inside of our spell book. This does mean, however, that the pages won't be blank inside. If you need blank inside pages and still want to cheat - get yourself a notepad. The kind you rip the pages off and is glued at the top. 

Using your Xacto knife (and ruler for straight edge), start scoring the pages of the magazine at the size you want your largest book to be. Remember that these are the inside pages and the cover will be a little larger. It will take a while if you're using a smaller knife like the one I have pictured - if you have a blade that has a large flat base, it will go by much quicker. I was dumb and didn't take a picture of that one, though.

Next, you're going to decide how tall you want your book pages to be and start scoring those pages out. The pages can get everywhere!

Then you've got your completed detached inside binding pages. Much quicker than making signatures and binding them and doing it by hand.

What I do next is take the "book" and line it up on some card stock. This card stock will be the base for the cover of the book. Leave a little on the top, bottom and each edge.

Then, using the magazine as a guide I mark the spine - it is VERY important to leave space in the spine on either side when marking the book so that it has space to bend, you're not just marking the magazine tight against the spine here - just leave a teeny bit of space. Then finish on the other side.

Take the ruler, using your lines as a guide and bend along the lines of the spine to create your cover.

It will look something like this...

What I do next is sort of roll the spine in my fingers to make it take a more rounded shape, like it's been sitting on the shelf for a bit.

Here I've cut out a bit of the dishcloth I want to use and have painted one side (the more textured side) a dark brown. The paint is from Dollarama...nothing special going on there.

Using Tacky Glue and a toothpick, I spread glue on each cover of the card stock but not the spine.

Place the cardstock on the non-painted side of the dishcloth and patiently wait for it to dry. I put some weight on it while I waited as I was afraid it might curl - you may want to do the same. 

Once dry, I cut the dishcloth like so - make sure you cut the spots at the spine - I found it helps with the overall look.

This was a choice I made - and something you may not have on hand - I used wood glue/cement for attaching the dishcloth inner bits to the inside of the cardstock. It dries very quickly and once dry, that stuff is solid. 

After it was glued, it looked like this - yours will probably look neater - hehe

I used the Tacky Glue to glue the magazine into the cover - next time I would probably only use the cement as it dries quicker and stays solid.

Now is when your art skills start to come in. I used about 3 different shades of brown paint (including the base brown) and a cosmetic sponge (shown) to get the paint on. You can go to the dollar store and get a pack of 24 for a buck - no big expense there. What I do when doing an "aged" look is start with the darkest colour and start dry brushing the lighter ones on. So dark brown, lighter brown, tan, etc.

Something I've also done is taken some black paint and a flat paint brush and dry brushed in, on both sides a black line where the spine would start on both sides, sort of accentuating it.

The next part is time consuming, smelly and can sometimes hurt. However - it looks amazing when you're done.

Grab your candle, lighter and incense. Light the candle and the incense. (Please excuse my paint covered fingers) Grabbing small bits of pages as shown with your lit ember incense (use a scent you like because you're going to smell it a lot!), roll and burn the edges of the paper. You're going to have to repeatedly re-light your incense, which is where the candle comes in. Just relight with the candle (rather than the lighter each time). It will take a while. Be careful. I burned myself a couple of times. The things we go through for the love of craft!

 Don't let the picture fool you, it's actually a giant clothespin I bought in the craft section of Dollar Tree specifically for this purpose. Once you've burned all the edges of the book paper, your book is NOT going to want to close. Some of you may want and like this look - some of you may not. If you don't, not to fret, simply pin the book. I left mine for an hour or so and it was fine, but I left it overnight anyway just to be sure.

You can see here how the pages look once the book is closed.

For the most part, the rest is up to you guys and your own artistic and craftistic expertise! I used so many layers of paint on this, just going over and over with that cosmetic sponge it was crazy pants. Lining the edges with black, then tan, then black again. I also used something called "Gamer Ink" which you can get in hobby stores (I don't know that craft stores carry it, but I could be wrong). It's black and you mix it with water. It really adds to the aged look of the cover of the book.

For the symbol, I just used the alchemical symbol for "steel" and painted it with my teeny tiny (like pin-head tiny) brush in Game Color's "Polished Gold" - again, from a hobby store, not a craft store. I went around the edges of the symbol with some gamer ink and some dry brushed black paint as well. 

And just because I haven't included one so far, here's a picture of the back - nothing special, just wanted to show it as well. 

So have fun with it! Use some different colours! I totally want to try a red and a blue one!

If you've got any questions or if I've left anything out of the tutorial, let me know and I'll be sure to fix/answer. Hope this was useful....never done much in the way of books before, so go easy on me (please! lol)