Skiff Made of Paper . . .

Don't ask me why (even I don't know why I decide to do some of these projects), but the last few weekends I have made paper-cut dioramas inside book boxes. I was inspired by an ad in a Martha Stewart magazine, and I guess I was bored. Unlike most bored people, who make a sandwich or pick their nose or something, I decided to grab the card stock and an exacto knife. Go figure.

The first was dome imside a book box I didn't use for my Audiobook project, and it turned out pretty well. I intend to cover the outside with paint and paper at some point.

The second I did yesterday, and had a bit of a rockier time of it, because:

a) I used a plain paper mache book box, which I will never do again.

b) I am out of hot glue sticks, something I thought was an actual impossibility.

The book box is woefully uneven on the inside, something you can't really detect until you start trying to attach pieces or perfectly square paper into it that end up going wonky. And, the absense of glue means I used masking tape, which looks sloppy. Not my best effort, but a learning experience.

All in all, I think I may keep going with this idea, doing more clasic books like the one above. I love the stark simplicity of the white paper with the complex cut layers showing through each other, and I have mental ideas for Moby Dick, Watership Down, Lord of the Rings, and several faery tales. I may end up having a busy holiday weekend;) If they turn out well, I may start listing them in the shop, just for funsies . . .

Pretty Packaging (part 1) . . .

Sorry for the picture-heavy post today, but this has been a long-time in coming;) I promised to post on the packaging for my audiobook, but I wanted to wait until a few people had the thing in their hands, so I didn't completely spoil the surprise for everyone!

Yeah, I went overboard on the details, but it was fun;)

                                  

I started with a paper mache book box; you've probably seen their decorated cousins in stores, usually covered in generic designs with the Eiffel Tower or botanical prints. I found the blanks at my local craft store. The interior was just large enough for my 12-CD case with a little room for padding.

The inside cover then got old Union Pacific broadsides or schedules decopaged in. Each one had a slightly different page with quaint notices about train etiquette or what a ticket to Boise costs. Since a large part of the first section of the book deals with the protagonist on a train, I thought this was appropriate.

Then, the box side got a layer of batting glued in. Oh, hot glue gun, you're the best.

A layer of brown dupioni silk comes next, also glued along the edges so it fit snuggly to the bottom and was smooth and didn't shift around.The sides were tucked in and glued down then, and that was the cushioning for the CD case.

My "bookmark". Since the case fit pretty snug once its in there, I had to add something to lever it up out of the cushioning.

Here's the blank case sitting inside . . .

The most work went into this little folder. It doesn't look like much right now; just a kraft paper 4-fold petal envelope that I cut out from my own template and glued inside the cover. I added two brass brads to attach black string to, so I could band it closed. You'll see what's inside in a moment.

The finished CD case. that's the cover of the actual book, just reproduced for the outside of the case. The back has the listing of which chapter is on which disk.

Here's what you get when you open up the envelope inide the cover. I drew portraits of the main characters, scanned each one, used illustrator to turn them into vector images and then put them on a parchment backing. I then formatted them into this accordion insert. Technically, it's two pages that are glued down to look like one long insert.

On the other side, I included a feature that readers get in the actual book: the map of Outcast. I figured it might be useful once someone is listening to refer to the map and figure out where characters are.

I don't really have progress pics for the outside of the box yet; I was in a hurry when I was doing the last boxes, so I'll try to take pics when I make this batch and I'll post them then.

Stay tuned!

Extra-Credit . . .

via here

I did quite a bit of work on the packaging for my Outcast audiobook this weekend. There are going to be a lot of personalized touches in the packaging, artwork I did myself, handmade bits that tie into the story, and just all-around neat little details. If this were being distributed by a publishing house, it would get a glossy box and plastic shrink-wrap and they'd call it a day. I'm actually pretty glad I get to do this myself, though unfortunately I don't get to make any money off of the results;)

Let's hope the recipients like how it turns out . . .

Favorite Site Tuesdays: Simple Card

This week's feature is Simple Card, a very cool site that lets you design and print postcards and notecards and removes all the guesswork. Not everybody is ready with their Photoshop and Illustrator fired up, willing to spend hours designing and making cards for every occasion, and Simple Card has you covered: you can upload your pic or use one of theirs, enter your text inside, and they'll print everything up and even send it for you! Voila! Wasn't that easy?

I love their modern, cool designs too. You can use any text you want, so this could be a sweet thank you note, or a really nice card from your business.

Elegant, unfussy, and above all, easy, Simple Card is a really nice alternative to those cheap printing sites that crank your stuff out and don't give you any design help. Check out Simple Card the next time you need cards, invites, or notices (I'm getting moving notices from them for January!)

What about you, dear readers? What would you use Simple Card to create?

The Sketchbook Project . . .

Thank you, Christina at Down and Out Chic for introducing me to this (if you don't already read her blog, you should!)

I know this blog tends to focus mostly on the headpieces and costumes I make, and it's easy for me to forget that before I worked with a sewing machine, I was at home with pencil and paper. It's been more than a year since I painted or drew anything; not so much because I didn't feel inspired, but I suppose just from plain, old-fashioned laziness. I look at the three blank canvases laying around my house, or the blank sketchpads, and I just sigh and shuffle them somewhere else. In my mind I see landscapes of vibrant colors or muted watercolors of purple and grey, but they stay there, in my head. But, any gift should be used, and I have let this stay dormant too long.

I was inspired and excited then to discover The Sketchbook Project. Art House Co-op in conjunction with the Brooklyn Library will be collecting moleskine sketchbooks from now until January of 2011, and for $25 they will send you a blank book with just one instruction: fill it up. There are a list of themes to choose from, or else you can let them randomly choose one for you, and the themes are brilliantly open: "In Flight", "The view from up here", "Capture the Flag", "Dirigibles and Submersibles", "it will be fun, I swear". There are 24 themes and each one is inspiring and evocative in some way. Which did I choose? "Nighttime Stories" of course. I can already see the pictures forming in my head and cannot wait to get started; a blank sketchbook is like a box without a label, full of the possibility of being.

Some previous sketchbooks

What's even cooler is that the sketchbooks will go on tour in March of 2011, and after that will be available to be checked out from the Brooklyn Library. Each book comes with a barcode label so that you can track your book and even see how many times it gets checked out! The tour is heading to cities like San Francisco, Atlanta, Portland, Austin, and even Chicago (my book will be there even if I'm not!). As the site says, it's like a concert tour, but for sketchbooks;) I'm breaking out my pencils and pens and paints right now . . .

Check out the Sketchbook Project and sign up; I'd love to see some of the things my readers do, and i'll try to post some scans of my entries as well.

Save the Dates!

I can finally post about this! Yay!!! I had to wait until the first people started to say they had received them, so as not to ruin the surprise;)

Back in May, I did a Save the Date photoshoot with my sister and her fiance. They wanted a funny shoot that encapsulated their personalities: vintage and goofy;) I even put one of my headpieces in A's hair, and he borrowed a friend's '80's style fluffy meringue of a wedding dress. it was a wretchedly hot day for them to be wearing polyester layers, but they got into the spirit and we had a great time. Then the real work began: I had to put together the postcards in PS4. It took me quite a while to get everything just so; there were hundreds of frames to go through and weed out the three best, then they needed to be filtered and edited and all the text had to be laid out. All told, it was a nearly month-long project from shoot to mailbox, but I'm very happy with the results.

What do you think of my sister's Save the Dates, dear readers?

Favorite Site Tuesdays: Studio KMO

Rome, Hand-cut Map

This week's featured site is Studio KMO by Karen M. O'Leary, and I am in awe of her incredibly beautiful work. Put simply, she takes regular, rather boring paper maps of cities and she turns them into spiderwebs of cutwork, revealing the artistry in the everyday.

Paris Mapcut

We almost never get to see the cities we live in like this; maybe in a plane, perhaps on television, but these delicate latticework cuts show the complex beauty in our streets and parks and rivers, something we come to take for granted.

Chicago Hand-cut Map

After the fire in 1871, Chicago was completely redesigned, and there is no better way to look at the orderly gridwork that became the Second City. I love that it almost resembles a circuit board.

London Print

Karen also does incredibly lovely line drawings of cities, filling the negative space with black ink lines as though a giant hand laid a paper down over the entire place and made a rubbing.

Check out Studio KMO; her work is truly amazing. I'm thinking of commissioning a Chicago mapcut before I leave, as a reminder of where I came from, and where I will always come back to.

Favorite Site Tuesdays: Gilded Bee

Turquoise/Espresso Vintage-style Butterflies

This week's featured site is so adorable! I love pretty packaging; I totally believe that they way a gift or a purchase is packaged can effect the way you feel about what's inside, so I always try to wrap everything prettily, and the Gilded Bee definitely feeds this obsession;) They offer all kinds of cute little paper flowers, tags in different shapes, sizes and colors, twine and cords, paper butterflies, and the like. Wouldn't you love to get a little box adorned with tiny blue butterflies and tied with quaint blue and white cord? I would!

Raspberry Ruffled Crepe Trim/Garland

How adorable would this be wrapped around a brown box, or around the top of a blue hatbox? Divine!

Peppermint Satin Rose w/Deep Red Velvet Leaves

I really, really like the dark leaves on this one. Forget packaging, this might belong in a hairclip;)

Purple/Chestnut Lace Tags

I like all the little hang tags listed in the shop, but these are some of my favorites, offered in multiple colors.

Green Mini Envelopes

Can I just say, I'm crazy about these tiny envelopes? Imagine tucking them into someone's pocket, with a little love note, to be discovered one morning.

Check out the Gilded Bee, and get packaging pretty;)

Favorite Site Tuesdays: Over the Top Studios!

White Rabbit Happy Birthday - Childrens Gift Box

I cannot even tell you how much I love the items in this week's featured shop. Amada Lebel of Over the Top Studios does things with paper I have always wanted to do; she is whimsical and fun and I love the vintage-y 1920's-'30's vibe in her pieces. If I were getting married, one of these pieces would go on my cake.

My Love Wedding Topper - WT007

So cute! Perfect for the current vintage-chic trend in weddings . . .

Garden Nymph Christmas Crown

Christmas? I'd wear this any old time;)

Circus Wedding Topper

Oh my gosh; I can just see the topsy-turvy harlequin-patterned cake this would go on. Fabulous.

Check out her Etsy shop and her website; you'll fall in love with Over the Top Studios too!