Coffee Dyeing Paper

It was a warm day yesterday, really warm, but there was a bit of breeze in the morning. The perfect day for coffee dyeing paper outside on the front porch, I thought. So, I got all my supplies out, the clothes drying rack, a TV table, a bin with coffee in it and some security envelope papers to start with.

Well, it did not go quite as expected. The breeze, while pleasant, also blew the papers off of the clothes dyeing rack as they dried. They were scattered all over the porch and some even ended up in the grass in the front yard.

Anyway, I did manage to get them all coffee dyed and dry enough to put in the book presses to flatten them. Twenty-four hours later, see some samples of them below. I will use them for collages and embellishments in future journals.

I was hoping to do some full sheets of copy paper for journal pages to, but that will have to wait for another day.

Looking for Paper Ephemera

I am searching for vintage paper ephemera. I am having little to no luck finding any. Sure, there are a lot of sellers who sell ‘vintage’ receipts, letters, postcards, tickets, etc. that they have found and scanned to sell but printing off digitals does not feel 'authentic'.

Where do these junk journal makers find all this great stuff? Old hand written letters, postcards, tickets and vintage books are the kinds of things I'm looking for. I don't know of any antique shops in my area that might sell this. More importantly, I'm not sure how much is a reasonable price to pay for this kind of ephemera.

I wonder if estate sales might carry some of these things. I never thought of that before. The thrift stores will likely have vintage books but not the other items I'm looking for.

If anyone out there has this type of old paper ephemera that you are willing to part with, keep me in mind.

A Poem for My Son

I’m finding all sorts of goodies while sorting through old boxes of stuff. I came across a copy of a poem that I wrote for my oldest son many years ago now. He was in grade school, maybe 10 or 11 years old. He came home one day bemoaning the fact that he had to write a poem as his homework that evening.

He complained that there was no way he could write a poem. I assured him that he could if he tried. He looked me square in the eye and asked me if I could do it. I had to admit that I could and proceeded to start writing something down. I hate being backed into a corner like that by a child. Here is that poem…it started out slow but I picked up momentum by the end.

We both got a good chuckle out of it, and then he went to his room and started writing. I wish I still had a copy of the poem he wrote. It was about our cat, Jack. This cat had personality and was quite the character. His mother was a black and white long haired cat. His father was clearly a Siamese cat. And as you can see, he was quite mischievous.

The poem about Jack, as I remember, was equally as amusing as mine, and he received high praise from his teacher the next day. He also took a copy of the poem I wrote to school without me knowing. The teacher called me later that day so we could share a laugh together about it. Nice memory.

Random Craft Stuff

I found a video from ten years ago that explained how to do the string art scalloped circles so all the string does not meet in the middle. It is quite simple actually. The video was posted by a YouTube content creator who was quite popular with my craft friends at the time. It is likely where the person who sent me those ATCs nine years ago learned how to do it. This one was done last night with crochet cotton.

While sorting through old boxes, I found knitting pattern for a Barbie doll dress that I was clearly trying to adapt from an existing pattern. I am going to test is out this week. It should not take long to make. Once I confirm the accuracy of the pattern, I will type it up and save it. Page two is completely hand written right now.

Another video I watched the other day showed how to use nail polish to make marbled buttons from plain uninteresting ones. You add a couple of drops of three different colours to water, swirl them around with a toothpick, then dip in the button. I want to try this. You never know what you will get, they will all be unique. The will look similar to this stone that was created using the same basic technique.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of big plans for crafting in the near future. I will share as things are completed.

String Art

I was looking through some old ATC trades recently and came across these ones I received in 2016. Wow, was it that long ago? It must be as that is the date on the back of them. I was fascinated with the string art on them. I did try my hand at it when I first received them using a small scalloped circle punch I had but never pursued it after that.

A friend recently reminded me about the string art and suggested I try it again as I was looking for something new and different to do. So, I went searching on Amazon for some scalloped circle dies and found a set from a company I never heard of before. I ordered them. They were not overly expensive and I figured if they did not work, I was not losing much.

Turns out, they work fabulously! I cut a few out of card stock to experiment on. I actually glued two scalloped circles together to make them sturdier. I tried a couple of test pieces. For the yellow one, I used red sewing thread. On the black one, I used a fine yellow yarn. The middle is a bit dimensional on that one but workable. I'm going to try using crochet cotton and embroidery thread also. Metallic thread or yarn might be fun too.

I have to figure out how to wrap the thread or string so all the intersections are not in the middle. That will be my next step. I will share the results when I am done.