Tag : Second on the 2nd

36 posts

201906/02

A second look: 2014 Art Calendar

Just yesterday I was thinking about buying a planner to help me keep a better handle on my blog and personal/family commitments. The family uses a shared digital calendar but I feel the need for something personal as well especially for the blog and art stuff. All of a sudden I remembered the art calendar challenge. It honestly feels like more than 5 years ago but there it is…2014.

Take a look…

1/1/2015

December complete!
This challenge hosted by Kate has been a good one for me. I was able to stay on track and have ended up with a great keepsake from 2014.

From the start, I had the idea in my head of what I wanted the end product to look like.

After taking this photo I decided that perhaps gluing the pages together would give it more visual appeal.

And I was right… In addition, it provided stability to the binding.

I’m in love with how this looks. I don’t want to come off as patting myself on the back but I have to admit that I’m so happy that my vision of this project actually came to fruition.

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I might just be making myself a planner after all. We’ll see if I get inspired enough, quickly enough. HA!

Thanks for stopping by for Second on the 2nd.

Art | Blog | Creativity

2014 calendar challenge, art calendar, bookbinding, challenge, Second on the 2nd

8 Comments

halleday

201904/02

T on the 2nd edition

Ok this is one of those crazy days that happens…we have a crossover post.

Honestly its likely a good thing because I have so many things to talk about but have nothing prepared and I’m already late to the party. How does that happen?

Anyway…Mini-me made it back from Costa Rica on Thursday evening…we left for Duluth the next morning. Busy weekend then back to school on Monday. WHEW!! What a crazy few days.

I’ll share more about all that in another post but I thought I’d at least share a bit about the coffee Mini-me brought home the Doka Coffee Plantation.

I borrowed this photo from Twitter of the group tossing the raw beans in the air.

This is one that we’ve opened and tried. It’s very good. It seems to me that the caffeine content might be a bit higher than what we usually drink. We haven’t tried the other kind she brought back yet.

Now on to Second on the 2nd….

I have been attempting to join more challenges lately. Before I rejoined the workforce I participated in challenges regularly and it really kept my creativity flowing. Here’s a post from on of those fun challenges I did way back when.

Take a look….

7/15/2013

This is the last week of Summer of Color! I can hardly believe it.

This is the color combo I’ve been voting for each week. The strange thing is now that I got it…I had trouble making it work. The photo color is a bit off for the green but my “Photoshop fu” is off this morning.

I painted the background with sage then distressed it a bit. After adding the sepia elements, I used some white rub-ons for visual interest. The bride and groom are my maternal grandparents circa 1929.

Incidentally, this is my 1000th post! WHOA! That’s a lot of blogging. Thanks to everyone who continues to read. I love it when you leave comments to let me know that you’ve been here.

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Thanks for stopping by my twofer post today!

What are you doing today?

Art | Blog | Creativity

art journal, challenge, coffee, Second on the 2nd, T Tuesday

7 Comments

halleday

201902/02

A second look: pondering art journal

Today for Second on the 2nd I’d like to share an art journal page from 2015. I decided to re-share this page as the journaling I wrote I still think about to this day. Alternate time lines, time travel, all that mind twisting sci-fi sort of business. It really intrigues me.

Take a look…

10/29/2015

I started this page at craft club next door. I wasn’t feeling like making cards this time. I prepped the pages with tape down the spine and a thin coat of gesso at home so I’d be ready to play. I brought my gelatos, some pens and baby wipes for my fingers. The baby wipes work really well for both clean up and to get a little moisture on your fingers so the gelato moves more freely.

The next evening I sat watching TV with the unfinished page on my lap. Something came up about pondering and questioning…or perhaps something else triggered that in my mind. I just started free writing my thoughts. I have always been intrigued with the idea of time travel and parallel universe theories. What if there were an alternate timeline some how…some way?

If you could take a peek at your life in that time line the branched from a choice you made…would you look? Or would you be afraid to look?

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Thanks for stopping by for Second on the 2nd.

Art | Blog | Creativity

art journal, gelatos, Second on the 2nd

6 Comments

halleday

201901/02

A second look: Vintage book journal prep

Welcome to the first edition of Second on the 2nd of 2019. It’s fun to look back and re-share posts from the past. Since my focus lately has been journals I thought I’d re-post a tutorial I wrote about one of the ways I prep a vintage book for altering. The altering after this point is completely up to you.

Take a look…

2/8/2015

Since I was starting a new journal I thought I’d share with you my process for prepping the book. First find yourself an old book that appeals to you. For me it was the size of this book. Not too small or too big… Just call me Goldilocks. journal prep5

Look inside to see what kind of binding you have.

This inside cover gave me a really good indication that I had a sewn binding but I had to make sure.

Yep…sewn binding. Perfect! Now we’re ready for the thinning of pages without leaving chunks of torn pages along the inner spine. Removing pages reduces bulk since the altering of a book whether journal style or a themed altered book adds lots of bulk!

I find the center of each signature (as seen in the above photo) and remove the page from each side.Like this. I go back and carefully pick out all of the torn fragments. It will appear as if nothing has changed until you look at the page numbers. You’ll have a definite gap which would make reading the story a real challenge at this point.

I remove at least one page from each signature, sometimes more. You can always go back and remove more. journal prep7

Here you can see the gaps along the spine and how the book is more narrow going toward the outer edge. This is exactly what you want.

You have a nice stack of pages for your altering pleasure when you are done.

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So here’s an after photo of the completed Gypsy journal.

Thanks for stopping by for Second on the 2nd.

Art | Blog | Creativity

Gypsy journal, Second on the 2nd, tutorial

6 Comments

halleday

201810/01

T Tuesday: posts collide edition

Last week the cold won…it got me…although I didn’t miss any work. Wished I had but I made it there each and every day. Wasn’t good for much else though. I never made it around to any T Tuesday posts. Sorry about that. I’ll do better this week.

Today I’m doing a twofer with my posts. One because they fall on the same day and two because I’m ill-prepared to post anything else. How’s that for brutal honesty. Besides…I really like the graphic I created for the twofer post way back when…

Take a look….

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Two posts are colliding this week as T stands for Tuesday and Second on the 2nd fall on the same day.

Thankfully Elizabeth gave a little heads up at the end of her post that reminded me before I finished writing up my post. Time to switch gears.

We’ll start with the fun packages in my mailbox from two fellow T stands for Tuesday bloggers. So fun to get mail…friend mail, not so much on the bills or junk mail. A little while back I had commented on Krisha’s blog about the winery she had visited. She was so kind to offer me some extra wine labels they picked up as collage fodder. I was so delighted to see an envelope in my PO Box the other day. Look at the great craft fodder and lovely card. Really love that card!

This package helped inspire this journal page.

Thank you Krisha!

I also received a box of goodies along with a 3rd anniversary ATC for T stands for Tuesday from Patty @ Magpie’s Nest.

She knows my love of bottle caps.

So many fun bottle caps and a bunch I’ve never seen. Too fun. Patty also included some bits of collage fodder as well. Can you see the beautiful ATC that precipitated the package in the first place?

Isn’t she lovely?!? So many tiny details. I keep noticing more and more little things that I didn’t see the first time around. Thank you Patty!

And now for the Second on the 2nd portion of today’s post.

Three years ago I took a quick photo of a hostess gift I was bringing to our annual Independence Day gathering. Little did I know this post would eventually become the most visited post on my blog. (More on the at the end.)

Take a look…

July 5, 2013

We spent Independence Day, as we have the past several years, at a friend’s house along the parade route in town. It’s always a great time.

I wanted to do a little something extra for our hostess who puts so much time and effort into making sure everyone has a good time. She’s a big fan of Rum and Coke. It ended up being a centerpiece on the buffet table.

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I’ve seen over the years that the re-pins of this image on Pinterest have multiplying but it wasn’t until an update in their software did I notice that all of the re-pins now count up on the original. Check out this screen shot I took last night.

Amazing! When I look at my blog analytics it definitely shows that people are visiting from that pin as well. Not 24,000 pages loads but a significant amount especially given the fact that this is a 3 year old post.

For today I’m going to try and stay cool while running an errand or two. I really need to do some baking and canning but…ugh…not in this heat!

What are you doing today?

Blog

Second on the 2nd, T Tuesday

12 Comments

halleday

201807/02

A second look : ATC book tutorial

Today’s second look is one of the very first tutorials I had ever written. I had Mini-me, who was 6 at the time, take photos of me during the creation process. She did a really nice job! She still has an eye for photography.

Take a look….

FYI….this was published on Blogger March 2009. My formatting was definitely different way back then.

As requested by a few members of ABC I’ve taken pictures along the process of making my latest ATC book. I’ll do my best to explain the steps. Please click on the pictures for a better view of any step.

These are the supplies you’ll need as well as some string or fiber and a large eye needle for the binding process as you’ll see later.

After being properly scolded by Elizabeth, here is the supply list:

book large enough to fit your ATC’s
x-acto knife or other cutting blade
gesso
pencil
ruler
cardstock
cutting system such as guillotine or fiskars rotary cutter
white glue or gel medium
paint
paint brush
tissue paper or dress pattern(optional)
rubber stamps(optional)
ink pads(optional)
Japanese screw punch or awl
thread or fibers for binding
large needle
decorative beads(optional)
something to protect your work surface

The first step is to remove the text block from the cover. To do this you carefully cut along the spine on each side of the text block being careful not to cut through the cover. I used a glued in binding book so I had to use a bit of muscle to separate the glued in block after cutting. I reinforced the spine with a strip of cereal box cardboard adhered with gel medium although I’m sure white glue would work as well.

Next I coated both sides of the cover with gesso and set aside to dry.

In the meantime I measured the text block to determine the size of the cardstock that I’d be cutting.

For my book, I cut 16 pieces to 3.75″ x 10″. This will eventually yield 4 signatures but now I’m getting ahead of myself.

My next step is purely personal preference. I randomly stamped both side of my pages for visual interest.

After folding in half, I used a bone folder (forgot that in the supply photo as well) to make a nice sharp fold.

Completed pages ready to be gathered into signatures.

I used 4 pages for each of the 4 signatures…boy, that was a lot of fours!

At this point the gesso on the cover had dried and I was ready to make them pretty. I love using dress patterns for texture. As an added bonus it acts as a reinforcement. I simple spread out white glue and pat the pattern tissue gently down then set aside to dry.

After it dried, I painted the inside.

Used the same technique on the outside with scraps of pattern tissue.

And again painted and set aside to dry.

While the cover was drying, I prepped the signatures for binding. I made a template from scrap cardstock as my guide for hole punching.

I used a Japanese screw punch for my holes. You could also use an awl. You just don’t want the holes too big. I’m using the smallest bit my screw punch came with. BTW-the hole gets plugged when cutting through multiple layers. I keep a needle near by to dig out the tiny little circles plugging the punch.
I used my guide to make the holes in the book binding as well.

And punched 4 sets of 3 holes in the binding.
I started with an 18 in fiber on a large needle in the center hole from the inside of the signature leaving yourself a 4 inch tail.

Go through the outside of the book cover, slip in a bead then go back through the top hole in the cover and signature.
Next go back through the center hole to the outside, slip on a bead and then go back through the remaining hole of the set.
It should then look like this. Take the needle and go under the complete flat loop then tie the loose ends tightly in a knot. You’ve just completed your first signature. Go back and do it 3 more times.

The way I do the pamphlet stitch binding isn’t exactly that way the tutorials out there would have you do it but it’s the way I do. I’d encourage you to do a search and check out the other techniques if mine seems unclear. There are video tutorials out there as well.

Completed book outside..in poor light.

Completed book inside.

A few end notes…

I made sure my book was large enough to accommodate ATC’s in portrait and landscape orientation.
Be sure to leave at least 1/8 space between the 2 sections of pages so they actually turn.
Keep in mind that you’ll the book will become twice it’s size or more once the ATC’s are loaded. I use photos corners to mount my ATC’s.

Blog | Creativity | Tutorials

ATC, bookbinding, Second on the 2nd, tutorial

5 Comments

halleday

201801/02