Cynthia Shaffer

Leather Journal : : Tutorial

It was a crafty kind of day at our house a few days ago. My son Corry, home from college, is loving the quiet of the house with just a few friends near by and the warmth pups! He was looking for something to make ... hummm.

I reminded him of all the hides of leather we recently acquired ... Ok, truth be told ... we went dumpster diving ... So worth it ... we scored 6 huge hides of leather ... and if you can belive it, we didn't take it all. There were several hides I left behind simply because I didn't care for the color. What was I thinking?

Anyways ... Corry loves to draw and paint and doodle, being the art major that he is and so he set out to learn how to make leather journals.

He was out in the man cave for hours ... reading and watching videos, trying to figure out what he wanted to make ... then, these happened!

After several hours, he mastered it! Of course I wanted a journal too and so for this tutorial, Corry made me a journal while I shot the photos and typed away ... Hope we didn't miss any steps! 

Here's what you do:

• Cut papers down to 6 x 9 inches

• Using a straight edge, tear about 1/4 inch off the short ends. Place the cork side of the ruler on the paper ... this makes for a varied and scrappy edge.

• Fold paper in half

• Gather all the folded pieces of paper to make several signatures. The thickness of the paper of the paper will determine how many pieces of paper are in each signature ... (A signature is a section in a journal ... if a signature is made with the thin paper, I will have 10 pieces of paper, folded in half to give me a 20 pages in that signature.) 
• For this journal we are mixing the papers within each signature so there will be a few thick pages made from watercolor paper and then a few pages made from marker paper. 
• There will be 7 signatures in this journal.

• Open to the center of one signature and mark the points where the pages are going to be stitched into the leather. For this journal we marked 1/4 from the top edge and the bottom edge, then make four marks roughly every 1 3/4 inch. This will give you 3 sections in the center of the signature. For the technique we are using to stitch this journal, you have to have an odd number of sections to sew in the center of the signtures.

• Using a leather needle and a hammer, poke hole where the pencil marks are.

•  Use this top piece of paper as a template to poke the holes in the remaining signatures. The paper clips help to keep all the paper lined up.

•  Cut a piece of leather that measures 14 x 6 1/2 inches.

• Place one signature 4 1/2 inches from the left edge and using a white pencil make a small dot where the holes are on the signature, and then 6 more 1/8 inch apart.

• Using the leather needle and hammer punch holes at every white mark.

• Cut a length of leather cord that measures 2 times the height of the signature x the number of signatures you have, plus an extra 12 inches.

• Place one signature onto the leather and follow the above chart to stitch the journal together. Start by going into the paper side of G4 and then on through the leather, tying a simple knot that can be untied ... leave a 4 inch tail. Then come back up through the leather and the paper at G3. Then back down through G2 and up through G1, then back down through G2 and then up through G3 and then down through G4 paper only and then through the F4 leather ... Continue up through F3 (This is the start of a new signature) leather and paper and continue in this manner until all the signature have been stitched into the leather. Your last stitch you will be going into A4 paper and leather and then back up through G3, leather only and then out G2 leather only and then in at A1 leather only and then across the top of the signatures and through the paper only from the back to the inside fold of G1.
• The below photo shows you what this stitching looks like from the outside.

•  This last stitch will bring you back to the first signature you started stitching. Untie the first knott and then tie the 2 end together. Trim the ends of the cord.

• The next step is to create some sort of closure ... here you can see that the inside flap is exactly the same width as the pages ... I may trim it by about 1/4 inch or so.

• And then the front flap doesn't goes all the way to the edge ... Not sure how I'm going to close this journal or embellish it. This is the fun part, according to Corry, so stay tuned for another post on how I finish it off.

 

Carving Rubber Stamps : : A Duet With Jen Osborn

I've been carving rubber stamps lately, something that I thought I would NEVER do ... but I have to tell you, it is SOOOO much fun. 

Yesterday I woke up to a text message from Jen Osborn, we are friends on facebook and from time to time we chat back and forth ... I love her art. There weren't any words in the message, just a photo of her 2 latest paintings. 

So fun don't you think? 

I got inspired ... and I loved her barn, tree and of course her signature skeleton head ... I decided to carve some rubber using her images as inspiration.

I know, I know ... the barn is falling over ... oh well, it happens.

So simple and yet soooo Jen!

 

Of course I couldn't well enoguh alone ... out came the Glimmer Mists.

 

So sweet don't you think? Love this one ... I couldn't stop stamping ........! 

Here's what you do:

Find a simple image that you like and simply sketch it out onto an eraser or this pink rubber. Next, using the smallest carving blade, outline the image and then cut out the details.

For larger shapes just use a scissor or a craft knife and cut out around the image, then carve out the interior details.

Thanks Jen for the inspiration! 

Happy carving.

 

Art Quilt Calendar :: Duet

OMG ... Check out my calendar for the New Year; a duet with Danita! 

I bought this adorable calendar a few weeks ago on Danita's etsy shop, and I love the calendar just the way it is, stacked and resting on the mini baby block ...

 

But the truth is, I kept flipping through all the months to see all the different paintings and it was constantly getting out of order. At one point, I even thought I lost September and turned my studio upside down looking for it!

Since taking Danita's on-line class, I can not stop making fabric paper. For this duet I think I made just the perfect background for her calendar. With the months now stitched to this art quilt, I can  see all of Danita's little paintings every day of every month and I couldn't be happier.

Here are some close up shots of what I did.

After making the fabric paper, I painted some small circles in a few different colors, then added some free motion stitching, oh, and a free motion flower.

Next, came the layers of backing. First there's a layer of cream felt that I painted with gesso and then a panel of burlap.  As you probably know, burlap unravels way too easily, and so I brushed the edges with a little white glue. And then I stitched on a few little strips of painted felt.

To hang the quilt I added a few burlap loops and an old painted yardstick.

Want to learn more about making fabric paper and Danita's art quilts? There's still time to take her on-line class. Trust me, you will not go away from that class wanting. Danita put so much of herself in this class - it's so full of new info and ideas that I'm sure you will want to incorporate it all into your own collages, journals and art quilts.

Happy New Calendar!

 

Duet : : Love Love Love

I love, love, love participating in duets...especially with great art. 

From time to time, Jenny will give me a handmade card with hand written phrases like, "Thanks for the friendship and thanks for having a great palate," or "Thanks for taking care of us at the beach." Here is one of her cards:

 

What a great piece of art ... just the perfect piece to take and do a duet with.

Here's what I did. For the quilt, I cut out a square in roughly the proportions of the card, then cut out all the parts and pieces. I layered most of the pieces with batting and for the words, I used rubber stamps and StazOn ink, then smudged it with my finger.

I also did some hand stitching by using a large running stitch, and added a few buttons, followed by a bit of free motion stipling. 

 

And here's how I made the musical clef. 

1. Cut out the heart shape from tan linen.

2. Draw the treble cleft lines and notes with a wash-away fabric marker.

3. Stitch on the lines with a sewing machine.

4. Hand embroider the ends of the notes.

NOTE: I also used this technique to create the larger band at the left side of the quilt, to create a longer length of the musical clef.

I loved that this particular duet challenged me to find solutions for recreating the musical clef using both machine and hand stitching. I think that's when new discoveries are made...when we use what we know to find new paths as we hit notes that we've never hit before in the process of creating.

Duet With Dylan

I love the idea of doing a duet with art.

Here is a painting that was done by my son's GF, Dylan. For this duet I took a photo of the entire canvas, then took several close-up shots. I Played with the photos in photoshop, dropped in some words...

printed them out on cardstock, did a little free motion stitching around the words and images and finally adhered them to blank white cards.

 

Oh...I did add a little strip of gessoed sheet music to one of the cards and even printed one on vellum, than attached it with a little wonky stitching.

The best part about this project...these cards where a birthday gift for Dylan's mother and grandmother and they loved them. 

The worst part about this project...they both loved them so much that they don't want to use them!