Ideas for Handmade Paper

I started today off by finally finishing my crayon heart valentine's!  Yay, now I'm ready for tuesday, and I won't have to worry about it after work tomorrow!  

Now I want to get back to talking about handmade paper.  Today I want to focus on some idea's of simple things you can do with your paper.  

This first set of papers is a mix bunch.  The upper left paper isn't handmade, I included it because the paper below it is handmade and the effect used on it is a direct result of the paper above it.  I used a sheet of glass, rolled out blue ink, and laid four lace doilies down, and then the store bought paper.  I pressed the items together, and then peeled them apart.  I then reused the glass sheet without doing anything to it on a piece of handmade paper.  The same technique was used on the paper on the upper right corner with yellow paint.  In printmaking the second pull is called the ghost image.  The orange white paper was a happy accident!  In the past I used paper couching sheets to dry my paper, and when one of my sheets had reached the end of it's life it dried it's self to this lovely orange paper I had made.  I enjoy the color and texture of this paper, so I didn't reclaim it for other papermaking ventures.  Here is a close up of the four sheets:

The next four are examples of different way's of using small lace doilies.  The sheet in the upper left is the first pass of the glassed used in the previous group of papers' yellow sheet.  The lower two sheets I used string and yarn in the pulp mix.  The paper on the bottom right I used a mixture of different paint to fill in the doily and make it pop off the sheet a bit more.  

Here is a close up of the doily paper with blue string:

Here is a close up of the handmade paper with yarn and the doily I painted in:

On this set of handmade papers I used a large lace tablecloth to press the sheets against while they were drying.  I also used yarn in the pulp mix for these papers.  

This is a close up of my favorite paper:

That's all on papermaking for today!  I also started working on my DIY for Valentine's Day.  I hate to spend money on Valentine's Day, cause I think it's a made up holiday for the card and chocolate companies.  Plus I think it's a lot more heartfelt, if non of my gifts are store bought.  My gift is going to be 52 different date ideas.  I have a fun way to put it all together, but I'll talk about that tomorrow!  Happy DIYing!      -chris

March Calendar

Here are some images for February.  I glued the heart I cut out yesterday down, and I wrote out 'February' in red yarn.  I first wrote 'February' in pencil, and then went over it with glue as I glued the red yarn to it.  

Today's main focus was March.  I decided I wanted to have a mamma elephant holding a bunch of balloons that spelled out 'March', and a baby elephant following behind.  I started with the elephants.  I drew them on two separate sheets of paper in a solid green color.  Then I cut them both out.  I figured out the best position for the elephants on the scrapbook page, and glued them down.  I left the trunk for the mom elephant loose though.  

Then I cut out a bunch of balloons, definitely more than I needed.  I used a couple different patterned sheets of paper, and some solid sheets too.  I then would position a balloon, and cut a piece of string, so it would run from under the balloon to the mamma elephant's trunk.  Once everything was in place I would glue the balloon over top the string, and then tuck the other end of the string through the mamma elephant's trunk.  

Once I was satisfied with the number of balloons I took 5 solid colored balloons, and on each one wrote 'm', 'a', 'r', 'c', 'h'.  Then I glued them down like the other balloons, and making them spell out 'March'. 

Of course I ended with gluing down the squares for all of the days, like I did for the previous two months.  

This month is definitely the best so far!  Hope ya'll enjoyed!  Happy DIYing!