This is no April Fool's post

 

As I explained yesterday, "Failed to Publish" is still here.  I have a slew of comments in queue ready to be published.  I check at least three times every day in hopes my comments will be published.  Thank you for understanding.  You have NO idea how stressful this has become.  

I was surprised at how well received this post was when I first shared it back in 2017.  As you can tell from the title, I named it:

 This is no April Fool's post.

Today begins my first post leading up to bEARTHday, April 22.  And it's no April Fool's post either.

I've been hanging my sheets, towels, blankets and clothes on my clothes line every day because it was 80 F (~ 27 C) or higher for several days.  The winds were often over 40 to 50 mph, though, and once when I went out to get an afghan and a towel, they were twisted all over the line and one of the clothespins had come apart.

I tell you this because, not to be confused with a clothes peg of single wooden construction,

it doesn't matter if your clothespins are plastic, old, or new (as shown above left to right)

they all have the same construction.  And when they come apart, like they often do when the wind batters them, we often throw them away.  Now I have saved the wooden parts in the past, thinking I would use them for doll legs or picket fences in an assembly,

but I never thought to save this metal spring before.  Now I'm sure many of you with lots of grip could reassemble one of these clothespins, but as is often the case, one wooden side may be missing.  As I looked at this spring, I thought it looked a bit like an elaborate jump ring for a bead.

So I took it to the basement to see if I could find a bead that it might fit in.  I picked three.  My favorite was the one on the far right, but it was too wide for the metal spring.  Although I tried to spread the "jump ring," my fingers weren't strong enough and the angle was wrong when I tried to assemble it.  I will need to play around with the angle once I get my needle nose pliers, all of which are, for some strange reason, now on the main floor of my home.

I had absolutely no trouble getting the round polymer clay bead to fit in the jump ring spring.

Here it is ready for someone to wear.

Today was Day 1 of 22, where instead of sending this metal spring to the recycle bin, I turned it into a necklace.    I'm sure there will be more to come as my clothespins often come apart now that I'm hanging my laundry on the clothesline.

Thanks for visiting.  I am glad you joined me for this first day of April (no fooling).

Actually, this is Day 20 of 22 and I recycled a post from April 1, 2017.  If you aren't crazy about the metallic tech look, I suggest stringing the spring with a colorful ribbon.

 

Angel

 

As you can read, "Failed to Publish" is still here.  I have a slew of comments in queue ready to be published.  I try three times every day in hopes my comments will be published.  Thank you for understanding. 

 I began this project in my craft room where I cut a heart out of corrugated cardboard, stripped the top layer, and painted it white.

Then I began pounding irises.  I was having one of those days when my art was as scattered as my thoughts!

I decided I had "sacrificed" enough old iris blooms

and was ready to move on.
 
I used a tiny piece of one of my "overdyed" flower pounded fabrics in this assemblage.  The heart was most assuredly floral in nature.

The crocheted floral piece was made by my grandmother and it was one of three crocheted squares I had removed from an old pillowcase years ago.  It looks like I got some of the iris "juice" on the square, too.

My grandmother was a genuine angel, so I will dedicate this heart to her.

I included some cheese cloth

that I dyed using green tea.

I used green coated copper wire to match the green in the crocheted leaves.  My mind is still racing with all kinds of ways to make and decorate these hearts, because I see this as a series that I want to pursue sometime in May.

This is Day 20 of 22 leading up to bEARTHday and I recycled corrugated cardboard and pounded some dead iris blooms to create a heart assemblage dedicated to my Grandmother who, along with my Grandfather, raised me from birth.

Thanks for visiting because your support of my projects means the world to me.  

 

Today I shared a post from April, 20, 2016.  This is actually Day 19 of 22 leading up to bEARTHday.  And I'm STILL grateful for your visit. 

  

Laminate Chips

 

Those of you who have been here since late Wednesday, recognize I haven't left you a comment.  PLEASE don't blame me.  It's a Blogger problem.  I even reinstalled Firefox, but that doesn't seem to help this time.  I am so sorry.  I hopee to soon be able to publish the comments that are waiting on Blogger to treat me with respect.

This post is from April, 2016, but the magnets were made one year for Christmas and again in September, 2008. 

Laminate Chips 

I have a vast array of laminate chips that are commonly used in counter top home improvement projects.  There are several brands, but the most famous are Formica, Pionite, and WilsonArt.  You used to be able to get them at big box home improvement stores in the US, or you can order a few online.

Here are a few I turned into magnets for Christmas one year

and a few more I made in September, 2008.  I'd say I've learned a lot about composition since then. 

Aren't we all glad I got rid of this horrible camera?  I displayed these on my refrigerator. 

Today is Day 18 of 22 and I shared a post about laminate chip assemblage I made over a couple of years. 

 

Using Sharpies to make bakers twine

 

"Failed to Publish" is back.  One minute I could leave comments, the next I couldn't.  It started late Wednesday and Blogger continues to reject my comments.  My sincere apologies.

I have to admit that up until this post, everything I've created in the past has been something someone else did before me.  Even the assemblages are not new concepts.  Only the materials are different.  Today, however, I can truthfully say, I am sure this is my own creation.  This is actually a Second Thursday Tutorial and I posted it on April 14, 2016.  Here it is in its entirety.

Using Sharpies to make bakers twine

It's the second Thursday in April, and time for a post dedicated to a tutorial.   It's also Day 14 of 22 days of recycling, repurposing, or rethinking a project.

My supplies are:

Sharpies, because I already had them
Index cards I found while going through a drawer in my office
Embroidery thread that was given to me

I knew I would never use the thread under normal circumstances, so instead of letting it go to waste in my craft room, I decided to put it to good use.  Since I had already purchased and paid for the Sharpies several years ago, I thought it was time I put them to good use again.  After all, craft supplies that "go bad" are a waste of money, and that always makes me sad.

The first thing I did was cut two slits at opposite ends of the index cards. I then wound the thread around the cards.  This took forever, but it was worth it.

I took one Sharpie and drew lines along the length of the wrapped thread, as shown above.  I turned the card over and repeated the process.

The next color I used was red.

I did the same with orange, drawing vertical lines on both sides of the card.

Next came green, but I don't think you need to be reminded again.  After all, it's very tedious, yet boring work.  I found that if I held onto the thread as I was drawing a line, I got a better line.  If I didn't, the line seemed to meander off course.

Although I had a few colors I didn't use, I was out of index cards and didn't want to cut old file folders and wrap more thread.  I had already spent nearly five hours doing this.  Like I said, tedious and boring.

After I finished the lines, I was mortified to think the ink had bled through to the back.   Upon closer inspection, I realized

I was looking at ink from the opposite side.  Although it had bled through the index card, it didn't affect the thread on the opposite side of the card.  The good news was, the Sharpies penetrated both sides of the thread, so no matter which way the twine was twisted, the color would still be the same.  

Now this tutorial has gone live you will find it on my Tutorials page under Making bakers twine using Sharpies.

For Day 14 of 22, I repurposed some embroidery thread I will never use for its intended purpose, and turned it into bakers twine, a product I have found to be either inexpensive and inferior in quality, or rather expensive but made with quality twine.

Thank you for your visit and if you decide to make some bakers twine from my tutorial, please let me know and I will feature it and you on my blog

.

Free shrink plastic

 

Some of you may have a much larger craft budget than I have.  But even if I had unlimited disposable income, I would still recycle shrink plastic.

Shrink plastic is expensive when you buy it in sheets, but FREE when you grab it from your recycle bin.

Supplies from back:
Large circle punch
Stamp ink, color and type of your choice (preferably solvent or Staz-on)
Plastic from your recycle bin
Stamp of your choice
Heat tool (not shown)

Not all plastic is the same.   For it to be shrink plastic, it must be #6 plastic.  Look for this label embedded in the plastic.  Much of the plastic you get will probably be #1 or #2.  Be sure yours shows the #6.  Mine came from a bakery product I bought nearly a year ago.  Whenever I get food items from a store, I check the number and save all #6 plastic.

Here's what I did.  I placed the plastic in a large circle punch and punched.  Granted, I had to stand on the punch because I have no strength for something that large.

Now that the circle is punched, I grabbed my heat gun and turned it on.   I used a chop stick to hold onto the plastic, because, just like all shrink plastic, it will curl up onto itself and tries to blow away, too.  However, just like all shrink plastic, eventually it flattens out.

That thin piece of plastic has now shrunk 

to one quarter (1/4) its original size.

It's now time to ink your stamp.

After stamping the first one, I realized I needed to use permanent (solvent or Staz-on) ink instead of slow drying pigment ink.  Regardless, you now have a shrink plastic embellishment you can use in your art.  You'll find the ones I made in the Kings and Queens Altered Book I'm making.

Today is Day 3 16 of 22 leading up to bEARTHday and I brought back a post from 2015 when I recycled #6 plastic and turned it into shrink plastic art.  I also kept plastic out of the landfill where it takes millennia to disintegrate. 
   

 

Recycled wood art

 

This post is from April, 2015 and is entitled:

Recycled wood art

 Today I'm doing a bit of recycling in my basement.

In my basement studio, I got out my dedicated beeswax crock pot, plugged it in, then waited.   While I waited, I did a load of laundry and hung it on the line.  Yes, it takes that long for this crock pot to melt the beeswax.

I'm not sure why I have no step-out photos of this, because I had a ton of time.  Instead, I concentrated on this project and forgot to take photos.  The piece of wood on the left began with a few leaves I had pressed from the previous year.  I adhered the leaves and flowers using the beeswax.  I then adhered some of my gifted glittery tissue paper also applying it using beeswax.

The wood on the right was left over from when I attempted to repair a strip of wood outside my back patio.  I had already painted it, and it was screaming for me to not throw it away.  Instead, I adhered three leaves that I had pressed the previous autumn.  I used beeswax in lieu of glue.

I was hoping for a better view of this one,

and a better view of the two together.

Even though I adore my camera, there is only so much I can do

in the poor lighting I must contend with in the basement studio.  Although these are probably not finished pieces, they are started and that was all the time I could spend on this project today.  

Thanks as usual for joining me on this journey.  Your comments mean the world to me.

 

Today is Day 15 (tax day in the USA) of 22 in which I brought back a post where I altered two pieces of scrap wood using beeswax to adhere pressed leaves and flowers.