Faux Polaroids

 I had some prints made of Bill and me and he didn't like most of them, so I cut one up and rearranged it into a faux Polaroid. I added it to my " family album" journal.

 And I wanted to make a birthday card for my nephew. I'm on a little bit of a faux Polaroid roll...

 

A Little Late

 I finally used all of my tea bag fodder to create the March Fodder School accordion book. I struggled a bit because I didn't bother to watch the lessons...I probably should have. But...

I have been struggling a bit to keep working with the current state of things.  I think this turned out fairly well. (I also made a cool video instead of this photo collage but, as usual, it failed to upload properly.) 

And, I also made an Irish soda bread...first time ever. It looks really bumpy but tasted wonderful! 

Another Book

 I may have skipped the February Fodder School classes because I wasn't in the mood to draw doll faces but I wasn't completely idle. I really enjoyed Liz Constable's January lessons so I made another book...cover and pages are all made from upcycling one of my mother's old high school year books.

 

 I filled it with my faux Polaroids. I had a great video to post but the computer is not cooperating with Blogger tonight.

I also decided to do The 100 Day Project...made my decision today, the start date, to make 100 faux postage stamps. here's 1/100...

One More Book

I know we're moving on to February lessons but I'm still hanging back and making one more book. This time, I'm using one of my mother's old yearbooks. Cover is done and I'm working on mastersheets for the pages. 

Folios into a Book...January Project Done!

I measured and calculated to tear my mastersheets into foglios with no scrap and still get a decent size for a book.

I planned on making two books, and I was a bit limited by the size of the boards I was using for covers. Two books with what I had for pages felt a little sparse. I wished I'd made a couple more mastersheets.

In the end, I crammed them into one really chunky book full of delicious fodder that, apparently,  I'm to tear into to actually use.

Monstersheets and Some Cooking

I've created two mastersheets that are about 36" by 24"...monstersheets. I even experimented with gesso transfers. I think I'm ready to tear these into pages.

And, I tried a new recipe...sticky sesame cauliflower. It looks delicious but was a bit too tangy. I'll have to make some adjustments.  

More Books

I made a few more mastersheets and then made more books. Now, I'm stuck, waiting to have a backyard burn so I can "age" some tins.

And I started gluing fodder scraps to my Kindle cover. This feels like a perpetual work in progress. 

Mastersheets and a Book

I combined pieces of my eco-dyed papers into several master sheets...

 

And then I cut them into pages for a book to fit in a tin.

I had a video but Blogger isn't cooperating right now so here are a few photos...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voila!

I finished my July Fodder School project with a few days to spare. And I'm actually quite pleased with it...

My book...

 

Here is my final assembled piece, destined to be a work in progress in perpetuity.

And now, it's August. Instead of watching the August lessons and getting started on the August fodder, I'm fooling around making these little pouches out of toilet paper rolls. A friend of mine posted a photo of some on my Facebook page. Now, if I had saved more rolls, I would still be making them.

 

I also spent some time last week at the Friendship Park Community Center helping  Mary Gaynier and her crew with some big puppet heads. 

Finished Portfolio

I intended to take this slowly, step by step, but once I got started, I couldn't stop. So, after a lot of foul language and a bent sewing machine needle, here is my portfolio!

 

Now, I'm having SO MUCH FUN filling the pockets with bits and pieces...this may become a perpetual work in progress.

And, The 100 Day Project is winding down: Day 95/100. 

 

Inspired by Marisol

I attended the exhibition Marisol: A Retrospective at the Toledo Museum of Art last week and it was incredible. I was inspired and got out my embellished scraps and my box of heads to do a quick journal page which I think is a great jumping off point for some new collages.

And the idea makes a good, and quick, birthday card design.

 

 

Of course, I've also been keeping up with The 100 Day Project. I'm up to Day 40/100.

 

More Remodeled Junk Mail

 I painted and then made some adjustments to a couple more pieces of junk mail to create two more folios. 

 I used the travelers notebook kind of binding to add little books to each.

 

Because I've reached a certain age, my mailbox is full of all kinds of Medicare Advantage junk mail,  just when I have a use for it...finally, another aspect of aging I can embrace. 

 And lest I forget, I tried a new to me recipe...twice baked spaghetti squash. I did add grated Parmesan and a small handful of my sun dried cherry tomatoes into the squash filling. It was delicious and I've already got another spaghetti squash rolling around on the counter getting in Bill's way.

 

November Fodder School

 This month in Fodder School 3, Tiffany Sharpe is showing us how she uses junk mail. I took my favorite piece of junk mail and turned it into a travel journal for my upcoming trip to NYC. I included a traveler's notebook and I decided this was a great place to save the LovePop card I received on my birthday this year.

 

Rough Month

 Since my last post, I had cataract surgeries on both eyes and between those surgeries, my dad fell, and then passed away from the head injury he sustained in the fall. He has been suffering with Parkinson's disease and things were becoming very difficult for him. In between appointments and hospital, and then hospice visits,  I used my making to calm and distract myself. I made another book and I played with Di Venter's watercolor tips.

I also used some of my precious Liz Constable clusters to make thank you cards. Now, I'm going to get my grubby iron back out and start scorching some more fodder.

Learning Coptic Binding

Fodder School 3 has begun! It's been a busy couple of weeks! Di Venter has us painting fabric for book cloth and she's teaching us coptic stitched binding. By the fourth book, I was able to stitch the binding without following along with the lesson...although I think I messed up on one stitch.

My first two...The small one was first, to practice. I used my test fabrics for the cover. I loved Di's French bulldog cover so much that I decided to do a cat cover, with our Sadie Marmalady.

 

For the third book, I used one of my favorite gelliplate prints for the covers. This is a great way to use the gelliplate prints that I like too much to cut up into small pieces for collage. I used some colorful illustrations I saved from an issue of the New Yorker for the endpapers Still thinking of adding something to this cover.

And today, I bound my third cat book. I included some envelopes that I painted on both sides, again, for The 100 Day Project 2022. I love binding envelopes into books to create pockets.

 

I have used up most of my papers from The100 Day Project 2022. Papers were painted on both sides, theory being I would have an endless supply of painted pages to bind into books. The supply is not as endless as I'd hoped. Maybe I should do that same project in 2024 to replenish my pile.

Some Upcycling and a Blizzard Book

I discovered a hole in the heel of my favorite Statue of Liberty socks, the socks I bought at the Bryant Park Holiday Market in NYC a few years ago. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. So I cut them into FINGERLESS GLOVES!

 

 

After that, I was really glad that I hadn't 

 tossed my Beetlejuice the Musical 

souvenir socks!                                                                                 

                                                                         

 

And because I don't want to forget how to do it, I folded some map paper and made a blizzard book.