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

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A failed tutorial

 

Today I'm going to share an experiment that didn't work.

As always, here are the materials I will be using in this project (from left):

 

White bed sheet

Ferns

Scotch tape (clear tape)

Scruffy brush 2 inch 

Titan buff fluid acrylic paint (Golden brand)

Scissors

Bucket with water

Plastic bag covering plastic coated sign

I used the scissors to cut enough of the bed sheet in order to tear strips to size.

After tearing the bed sheet, I placed the torn sheets in the water.

I allowed the fabric to become completely saturated.

I laid the saturated fabric on the plastic board and photographed it before I straightened it and removed the air pockets.

I laid the ferns on the wet fabric, then held them in place using bits of the tape.

I used the last of my Titan Buff paint on and around the ferns.  By the time I added the last of the paint, it was too thin to make a good sun print.

 

Lesson learned: Make sure to have enough full strength paint to cover the fabric if you want a good sun print.

 

Thanks for joining Bleubeard and me today.  Bleubeard decided to stay in the cool office while I toiled in the sun and heat.  Check back tomorrow to see how I attempted to fix the problem.

 

Cling Wrap Backgrounds

 

I suspect everyone who has made their own backgrounds has already made these cling wrap backgrounds, but I never had.   I even have an unexpected recycling element.  What I got were some of the most beautiful backgrounds, although they did curl a bit when dry.  This post was originally published in September, 2009.

Supplies from lower left clockwise:
Substrate (I used 12 X 12 heavy white cardstock)
Craft sheet and/or plastic to protect your work surface
Plastic cups (shown with paint in one, water in the other)
Cling wrap
Cheap acrylic paint
Mica powders (optional)
Foam brush
Not shown: rubber gloves and paper towels

Create a wash by mixing 1/2 water and 1/2 acrylic paint. Don't use expensive paints, since you are watering them down, anyway. This is one time when cheap is better. At this point, you can add mica powders. I used a metallic paint on this sheet, so didn't need the mica powder. Work quickly and make sure there is lots of wash on the page.

Cut a piece of cling wrap about 1 1/2 times the length of your substrate. Since mine was square, I ended up using two lengths to cover each sheet. Crumple the cling wrap.

Lay the cling wrap on the wet paper. 

If you haven't crumpled it enough, you can still push and twist the cling wrap at this point. Set aside to dry.  Walk away until you are sure the page is dry.

You can also press the cling wrap with your hands to assure good coverage.

Set aside to dry. Yes, I mentioned that before, but you must leave the cling wrap on the paper until the paint is completely dry. If you don't the top layer of your paper will peel away with the cling wrap (don't ask how I know this).

 

   One of my two favorite pieces happened by accident. This background was made using pink paint and water only. I reused some of the cling wrap and thought I had used the clean side, only to find out that the copper paint from the previous background had transferred to the page. What a gorgeous accident I created.  If only you could see the true beauty of it.

 

  My other favorite background used green, blue, and copper colored acrylics. The colors sort of bled together in the process and created this stunning piece.

 

  Here are all the pieces I created using this technique. I could have made more, but I ran out of room to dry them. It's a small craft room and I had no place to put them outside to dry. The scanned images above are the top and middle pages in the left column of this photo. The middle and lower pages in the right column are the ones I demoed above.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I created these backgrounds and recycled the cling wrap in the process.  This is Day 9 of 22 and I recycled a tutorial and cling wrap.  Thank you for your visit.  I am most grateful.

 

A repurposed and recycled post

 

Today I'm sharing two posts I published in the past.  I'm sure some of you have seen these backgrounds before.  This is a very long post, and for that I apologize.  Tomorrow I will be back with a new background technique using recycled materials and coffee.  Please enjoy these backgrounds, even if you are not a coffee drinker.

For all of these techniques, I will be using 90 lb watercolor paper.  You can see the specifics here.

For all of these techniques, I have included these specific products.  I will add others as needed, but all will take these. From back to front:

Used pie tin

Instant coffee that got damp, then dried in one mass in my basement studio

Parchment paper (or any product that will keep excess water off your table)

Watercolor papers cut to 6 X 9 inches (15,24 X 22,9 cm)

For this first technique, we are going to do a bit of blowing.  I have included a spoon and a straw. 

 

 For the first technique, I withdrew blobs of coffee from the jar using the spoon.

Using the straw, I blew into it over the various blobs of coffee.

I had to remember to keep rotating the paper so the blobs were distributed.  Some of the coffee blobs overlapped each other.  I tried to wipe up the excess coffee using a paper (kitchen) towel (which I didn't think to show).

The next technique is quite simple.  I accidentally got some excess coffee on the paper when I was transferring the coffee to the pie tin, but didn't feel that would hurt anything.

 I pressed the bottom of the take-out cup to the coffee in the pie tin and stamped circles on the watercolor paper.

I swiped the next watercolor paper on the parchment paper to remove excess coffee.  I wanted the effect.  I have added another "stamp" from my stash of things with which to stamp. 

I was really very happy with the marks this made.

I couldn't have been more pleased.

Then I turned the "stamp" over and stamped the other side at a 90 degree angle.

This made me very happy, too.

 

I look forward to seeing this one after it's dry.

These three are finally dry.  I see a great deal of potential for great backgrounds.

 

Now let's play with a little resist.  I'm using sea salt, but I might throw in a bit of rock salt, too.

I have to add coffee to the watercolor paper first, though.

After adding the sea salt, I applied more coffee so it would saturate the salt.

While the other paper was drying, I decided to play with my food.

Rice absorbed the coffee nicely.

Once the rice was dry, and it had been removed from the paper,

this became my favorite design.  Personally, I'd like to make about a dozen of these.

What was possibly more interesting was when I turned the watercolor paper over.  The pattern on the back was note-worthy, too. 

Who knew rice could be so interesting from an art standpoint.

Finally, it was time to remove the sea salt from the watercolor paper.

 

This pattern was interesting, but what I was most pleased with

was how the coffee sparkled when I moved it back and forth in my hand.  Sadly, the camera doesn't pick up that sparkle.  

For this technique, I started by saturating a sheet of watercolor paper with coffee.  The shiny item in the background is cling wrap.

I've laid the cling wrap in place,

then scrunched the cling wrap to create patterns.

Unlike in the past, I allowed the coffee to completely dry under the cling wrap before I removed it.

It was at that time, I decided to update everyone with what I had created to date.

It was now time for my next technique,

but first, I had to saturate the watercolor paper with coffee.

It was then time to add the coffee crystals to the wet paper, much like I added the salt and rice in the previous post.  This time, the crystals dissolved into patterns.

For my next technique

I first soaked wax linen thread in coffee for a few days to soak up the coffee.

When I added more coffee, I kept moving the string.  Very frustrating.

It turned out better than I expected, but still left a few open spots in the grid.

For my final technique, I grabbed the Dawn I keep close at hand to wash my hands about a thousand times a day,

and a whisk.

Although I used the whisk to create froth, I fear I didn't use enough Dawn.

The froth wasn't as frothy as I had hoped.

As it dried, the froth didn't act as I envisioned it should.

Only one spot looked as I had envisioned the experiment.

This is how it looked when it was dry.

These are all the experiments

I created for both tutorials.

If you have a technique for making coffee backgrounds that I haven't thought of, please let me know and I will try it.

Ruminations:

1. A few of these backgrounds turned out better in my head than on paper.

2. I used a paper/kitchen towel to wipe up excess coffee, but when I did, I often disturbed the pattern.  I'm sure there is a magic amount of coffee that should be used with this paper, but I haven't found it yet.

3. I need an area where I can dry my papers.  I had to wait while some dried because I didn't have enough space on my table and counter to dry all of these at once.

4.  By far and away, my favorite was the watercolor paper and rice.

This is Day 19 of 22 and I recycled two posts on creating backgrounds using coffee.   Thanks to all for your continued interest in this month's project.