Tags for my Chinese New Year tip-in and an UPDATE

I couldn't believe when I went to read my blog comments this morning that Blogger cut the lines of my tip-in tutorial into shreds. I have gone in and placed hard breaks so you can read the entire thing. My sincere apologies.

Wasn't yesterday exciting? And wasn't Marlynn the luckiest? She couldn't believe it. She also thought it was rigged, but I swear it was NOT.

Needless to say, I had NO time for art. I spent the entire day at my computer, conversing with winners and those who chose me to win. What a totally awesome day. I hope you had a wonderful day, too.


I just now got these two tags scanned. They are in my Chinese New Year tip-in. Since this is the Year of the Tiger, I tried to make at least one into a Tiger. If you enlarge the photo, you can barely read at the bottom of the left one: "Turned into art" and the date, "14.2.2010" Now you know why I don't journal! You can't read my writing.

I used the candy box that Dana gifted me with last week, along with some joss paper Chinese calendars.


The other side is covered with more joss paper (right tag) that is gold and glittery. It simply does NOT scan properly, nor does the sticker I got from a card I was sent. The Tiger images were from the internet. I printed them out in black ink to test them, then realized I had the wrong size. After printing in color, I realized they didn't fit with my layout. That waste-not-want-not mentality took over and I used them on the tags, instead.

For those of you who are wondering what a tip-in is, here is the skinny:

A tip-in is a page you make out of any medium
(pages from a book, cardstock, fabric, cork,
etc.) that is then added to a book of your
choice. It is usually 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" so you
can get two out of one piece of cardstock.
You can add embellishments, fibers, ephemera,
charms, or anything your heART desires to a
tip-in page.

A couple of things to remember when making a
tip-in are that the gutter side of the tip-in
will be to the LEFT of the front of your
tip-in and will be to the RIGHT of the back
of your tip-in. You should leave about 1/2"
or so blank along the LENGTH of the page
(gutter side), which will be the area you
(and others) will use to attach the page to
the book.

If that only confused you further, let me be
a bit more specific.  Take a piece of CS and
place it in front of you. Put an imaginary
(or real) line down the length of the left
side about 1/2" in from the left edge. Now
turn the CS over and do the same, this time
making the line along the right side. If you
did it correctly, the line will run the length
of the same edge. You do NOT decorate in
that area, since that's where you tip your
page into a book.

Check out Sunday's post to see the area 
I left undecorated on each side.


It might be helpful to know HOW to tip a page
into a book. Maybe that will also help you
envision a tip-in better.

Here's how I tip pages into a book:

There is some debate over how to tip a page
into a book. "To tip in" is an old phrase in
book binding, and means to run a thin bead of
glue along the gutter side of a page. It is
then inserted into the spine of the book,
where it becomes a new page.

When pages are altered, they become heavier,
due to the addition of embellishments. A thin
bead of glue isn't strong enough in this
case, so the page must be reinforced in some way.

What you need:

Exacto type knife
Small cutting mat
Steel ruler with cork bottom
Red-liner double sided tape tape

Place cutting mat next to gutter under 2
consecutive pages. Place ruler about 1/4
to ½ inch away from the gutter side of the
page. Cut pages with knife held firmly
against ruler, creating little tabs.
Place a strip of red-liner tape on both
inner sides of the tabs.  Remove protective
strip one side at a time. Insert your tip-in
page, one side at a time, and smooth flat.

Tip-ins are usually traded or exchanged. It's a way
to get art from someone else into your book, without
the expense or worry associated with a RR. Or, you
can make tip-ins for your own AB if you want to
try a difficult technique that you are afraid you'll
mess up or that is just not possible when the page i
s in the book (such as machine sewing).

When you are in a swap, the THEME of the swap is what
you design your pages around.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know!

I have NO idea how I found today's blog.  Blog hopping is
a good thing if you have time.  I figured several of my
readers, such as Marilyn Rock and Diane might have seen
this blog, but others might be new to it.  It is by Janie
Husband and her blog is named Janie's Candy Mtn Art.
Hope you enjoy her faces and calligraphy as  much as
I did.