PROJECT 9: Candle Making

For those of you who were certain I had abandoned my blog...doubt me no more...I was just taking a holiday break!

Actually, the craft of candle making could not have come at a better time. I needed gifts and these seemed like the perfect solution. Thus, I am just now publishing my post on candle making, as I waited to post so that the recipients would be surprised. I am happy to report that they were both surprised and pleased.

First of all, candle making is two things: 1.)messy and 2.) expensive! I had thought I would go to a craft store, find some beautiful natural beeswax and colorant and make inexpensive yet organic gifts. Unfortunately I was wrong. Natural beeswax was just out of my price range. For enough wax to maybe make one candle, it was $18 at Michaels! Now I understand why one small beeswax candle can run almost $20 at a boutique. So alas, instead of beeswax I bought a block of parafain wax and melted down one of my old plain white candles. (This worked fine but the candles did not have that natural, organic feel I was hoping for).

I covered my kitchen counter with newspaper and used an old pot to melt the wax down. You cannot put wax directly on a burner so I had another pot beneath it with boiling water. This worked great except that I ended up ruining the good bottom pot. Somehow bits of wax were sneaking their way from the top pot to the bottom pot and once wax melts in a pot its pretty much impossible to remove. So my poor pot was a casualty of this endeavor. (Not to mention a knife I needed to use to cut the wax before I melted it.)

I had planned on getting molds but again, those were too expensive. Instead I poured the wax into containers. I made four tea cup candles from tea cups I had that we never used and I used jars for the others. I also finally used those old candle holders I had laying around that I had burnt up the wax for a long time ago.

I chose not to use scents as the candles were gifts and I did not feel comftorable choosing a scent I didnt know would sit well with the person. (I think I am scarred from once getting my sister a vanilla scented present and having her nearly throw up from the smell). I did not use color for the tea cup candles as I thought white went well with the cup. I did use color with the jarred candles though, mixing colorant to make the exact color I was looking for.

The process was fun and rewarding as I was very pleased with the outcome. I do have to say however that if felt a little silly to melt wax only to pour it into a container and have it harden again.

So while the candles did not turn out as fancy or organic as I had hoped, I think they made perfect gifts. I followed Ms. Stewart's suggestion and wrapped match boxes in a pretty paper I had and that was just perfect for the finishing touch. I know the recipients are enjoying them too. In fact just today one of them called me to tell me that the candle had become her favorite because of how big the flame is...which could be good or bad I suppose...just be careful!

PROJECT 8: Calligraphy

Calligraphy: The art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or a brush.


Since I was just a little girl I remember my mother doing calligraphy. The patience she had with each stroke of the pen was something I could never imagine myself having. The perfection with which she executed each letter was something I knew I could never achieve. This penchant for perfection is something that I have always adored and admired in my mother's art. Calligraphy, with the bends of the lines, the thickness of the stroke and the height of the letters, is an art form that can truly express the beauty of perfection. I lack the patience for such perfection and that is why I was truly grateful that my mother could help me with this project. She was visiting from Wisconsin last weekend and we worked on this project together. I felt so fortunate that she could be there to steady my hand and point out where I needed thicker lines or a different nib. A mother's expertise is an invaluable resource in a daughter's life.





I wanted to make gift tags for the gifts I will be giving out this holiday season so we bought gift tags at hobby lobby along with a snowflake stamp, a calligraphy pen complete with a set of nibs and ink. Once home I started practicing each lower case letter in Ms. Stewart's book. We quickly realized that my mother's calligraphy was different from the one I was practicing. My mom never does up strokes in her calligraphy, only down strokes. We tried to do it this way but it was apparent that Ms. Stewart's calligraphy required up strokes in order to complete many of the letters. My mother, who has taken numerous calligraphy classes told me that she had always been instructed that upstrokes were forbidden. However, we adapted and the letters turned out beautifully even with the upstrokes.

The part that was most difficult for me was switching between the thick and thin parts of the lines. Those subtle changes are really what makes calligraphy so stunning. I practiced over and over again but I think ultimately it came down to the nib I was using, I think it was letting out too much ink.



Eventually, after a lot of practicing and pointers from my mother I was ready to start making gift tags. I tried a couple with the snowflake stamp and did not like the look of them so I switched to another more regal looking stamp I had. I think calligraphy demands drama so the stamp I ended up using was perfect.




We also made a gift tag for my cousin's new baby Gus. I think it turned out so precious with the little bird stamp.



Thank you mom for contributing so much to this project and to me. Love you.

Project 7: Botanical Printing: Botanical Rubbing

Well unfortunately most of the pictures I took for this entry were mysteriously missing from my camera when I went to upload them onto the computer so I apologize but this picture is all I have for the Botanical Rubbing craft. At Ms. Stewart's suggestion I made wrapping paper by doing leaf rubbings on tissue paper. It reminded me of my childhood as I did these rubbings with my mother and in art class. The wrapping paper turned out well but since it was tissue paper it was see through so when I went to wrap this gift I threw a darker blue tissue paper underneath. Its unfortunate that you will not be able to clearly see what the wrapping paper looks like because the other pictures are missing. (Although mom, and sister will be able to see it up close and in person as it is on its way to the birthday boy!)

I enjoyed the botanicals but I am very ready to move on (appropriate as we move into fall).

PROJECT 6: Botanical Printing

At first I could not decide what I wanted to create using the botanical printing method. I thought maybe I could make a set of sheets but then I remembered that we have a king size bed and sheets are expensive and I did not want to risk making an ugly set of expensive sheets. The bed in the guest room is a full but already has enough sheets sets as it is. While flipping through the suggested pieces Ms. Stewart has in her book I came across the canvas bag. Perfect! I have reusable grocery bags but they have lately started to smell like mold and I have been meaning to replace them. (I haven't because I could not reconcile getting rid of reusable bags if the entire point was to save waste). The canvas bags I purchased are not as big as the grocery bags I am currently using so I am not sure if they will do the trick for grocery shopping but I think they will make fantastic farmer's market bags, or just "running to target to pick up a few things" kind of bags.

To decide what botanicals I wanted to use I simply went into my front yard and snipped the most interesting branches from my plants. The red, yellow and orange bag is made from a branch from my rose bush. The green bag is made from a branch of my peonies and the purple bag is a branch snipped from my sage bush. I then took the branches in and pressed them for a day in a phone book. The next day they were perfectly flat and ready to use. Ms. Stewart's method of painting the branch then rubbing the brayer over it to transfer the image worked perfectly I must say. The activity was fun and simple and something one could do with a child and in an afternoon. I am looking forward to using my bags and have to say I am very pleased with the way they turned out.

The only complaint I have about this project is the cost. Fabric paint is expensive ($5 a bottle) and unless you plan on using it again, it is hard to spend that kind of money to get the different colors you want. I only used a tiny portion of the bottles and now have what seems like a life time supply of fabric paint that I will probably not use up.

PROJECT 6: Botanical Printing

PROJECT 5: Botanical Pressing

I have to say the delicacy and beauty of pressing flowers is really quite enchanting. I felt like I was capturing the flowers at its most colorful moment and in essence, keeping it alive forever. I remember as a child my mother loved to press flowers and while I thought it was nice I never really quite appreciated it. Now I can see why she loved to do it. Making art out of these pressed flowers is absolutely lovely.

To press the flowers I put them between pages of a telephone book and piled more books on top of the phone book. This worked fabulously. I only pressed the flowers for three or four days, shorter than is usually recommended but my mother told me that this would be all right and that if you want the flowers to have a lot of color you should press them for a shorter period of time.

The flowers I made the cards out of are cosmos from my neighbor's yard. My four year old niece was visiting and my neighbor's daughter handed her a bouquet of cosmos over the fence. It was really quite sweet. We enjoyed them in a vase for awhile and when I saw they were starting to wilt I pressed them.

Unfortunately Ms. Stewart does not tell readers that spray adhesive can be tricky and can leave visible stains. I opted for the spray adhesive for the cards thinking since the flowers were delicate it would be a good way to adhere them to the paper without having to over handle them. I followed the spray's instructions, spraying outside and keeping about 8 to ten inches away from the paper. Even with that the spray adhesive left small dots all over the card stock. I foolishly kept using it on the other cards because I thought it would go away. It hasn't and so while the flowers are beautiful the cards are basically unusable. The spray adhesive also left a tacky feeling all over the card stock. After taking the pictures below I snipped off the ends of the stems so they were even with the ends of the card stock. I would warn everyone against using spray adhesive for this project.

I also decided to make coasters out of some other flowers I gathered from my flower garden. In the book Ms. Stewart uses glass coasters but since I had some old tile in my shed I decided to be resourceful and just use those. I spoke with my mother and she told me just to mix some Elmer's glue with water and paint it over the flowers and coasters with a paint brush. This worked great.

So for this particular project I think I just should have asked my mother for help instead of relying on the instructions of Ms. Stewart. I learned that lesson the hard way with the spray adhesive.

PROJECT 5: Botanical Pressing

PROJECT 5: Botanical Pressing

PROJECT 4: Block Printing

It pleases me that I am finally updating my blog as I know it has been awhile since my last post. I have many reasons for my delay. The first is that block printing material is hard to find. First I stopped at my trusty neighborhood Hobby Lobby but they did not have the material I needed. Then I went to Boulder's finest hardware store/art store and while they did have a few block printing items they did not have exactly what I needed. I was finally forced to order the materials off line from Dick Blick but then of course needed to wait for them to arrive. Then when everything finally arrived I was too busy with work and then I had some lovely out of town visitors that I devoted all of my attention to.

The funny thing about this all? Block printing is the project I have most been looking forward to. It has always been a dream of mine to have my own stationary line. I walk into a stationary store and am overwhelmed. I love the feel and smell of all the different paper. I spent hours picking out my wedding invitations and still pull them out sometimes to remember just how lovely they are. I have made many cards before using different techniques but never block printing so naturally I was excited to try it out.

The first thing I realized is that I absolutely love the process. Cutting the thin strips of rubber off the block is very satisfying. I also realized that it is very difficult to pick a design that will transfer well to block printing. Because detail is something that does not lend itself to block printing it may not be clear that something will not work out once ink is applied and it is transferred to card stock. For instance, I tried making a buddha design in one of the blocks but it did not transfer well so I tossed that idea. The turtle and flower set below were fun to make but I was not extremely pleased with the outcome. My favorite is the lotus flower set below. I think the simplicity of the flower without any writing makes these cards sophisticated but the color makes them fun at the same time.

This is definitely an art that I will continue to practice and hopefully one day will master so that I can add block printing sets to my stationary line!

Tip: If you are a beginner don't use linoleum blocks, they are very hard to cut, My mom told me this and she is an art teacher so I followed her advice and used rubber blocks instead. They were very easy to cut from and I didn't have any trouble.

Block Printing

Block Printing

Beading: BUGS

My niece Cheeks modeling the beaded bugs.

Beading: BUGS

Behold the bugs...

These little buggers were a lot of fun to make, more so than the flowers because they didn't seem so tedious and the outcome was so cute! It felt a lot like when I crochet, a lot of loops turning into something really cute and you cant wait to see the end product so you just keep working.

I could only use the colored copper wire I was so excited about with black seed beads that I had bought previously for a different project because the colored beads I had bought for this project were too small for the wire to fit through a second time.

I made the bugs into bobby pins for my nieces to wear who are both three. I added some super glue onto the bobby pins in addition to wrapping the extra wire around the pins to secure them but the glue didn't really want to hold so that was a little frustrating.

I think the end product is really cute and really fun. I am excited to see the pins on my nieces (one of which has the cutest little red curly cues so the bugs should look pretty sweet hiding in those curls.) It is always cathartic to make gifts for them as they both live so far away and I only get to see them a few times a year. Making things for them always brings me closer to them in my mind and spirit.

Other ideas for these bugs would be to put them on a beaded wire necklace for a little girl or a bracelet of some kind.

Good project Ms. Stewart, I enjoyed it.

Chapter B - Beading, Project 1: Flowers

Things I learned with this project:

1. Seed Beads are expensive and I never should have gotten rid of the millions I had just because they fell out of their separate containers and got all mixed together.

2. Being a crafter means getting excited over such things as an assortment of different colored copper wire

3. That K-Marts still exist and that the one in Broomfield smells like fumes people huff out of aerosol cans and still has the design and neon lights it had in 1984

4. Working with thin, 30 gauge wire is just as frustrating or more than working with string. Kinks and knots occur frequently and are hard to get out because the wire is stubborn (so its a mystery on why the kinks get there in the first place)

5. That I don't know what I was thinking when I was obsessed with beading on a loom in high school.

6. That I remember that working with seed beads was just the kind of tedious project my brain needs to get me to stop obsessing.

7. That the lamp my sister made me with the shade made entirely of seed beads is a masterpiece in patience and talent. (Honestly I already knew that - I have fallen asleep by its light many nights thinking "oh my god, how did she do that it must have taken her forever and about seven hundred fits of frustrated rage at those tiny little beads").

8. That I can become just as upset at my seed beads as my husband becomes at our sod when little round spots of it turns brown, reminding myself to cut him a little slack

9. Flower tape is not actually tape, it is barely sticky at all.

10. Beaded flowers are beautiful.

Side Note: I made the small camellia flower and instead of adhering it to velvet ribbon for a wedding corsage as Martha suggests, I sewed it to a string of leather so that it was a bracelet that could be worn everyday. See below for pictures.

Pictures of Beaded Flower

Chapter B - PROJECT 3: Beading - Flowers

PROJECT 2: Memory Boxes, Continued

Dear Martha:

I regret to inform you that your instructions for the Memory Boxes (specifically, shadow boxes) were unclear...

These instructions involve cutting balsa wood to make a false backing for a deep picture frame to give yourself room to create 3-D images inside of the frame. I did not realize the point of the balsa wood until I finished the background, realizing something needed to hold up the glass if it was not to be the back of the frame. I was lucky enough to have gotten a frame that already had inserts to hold up the glass because the frame itself came with border inserts. I started off by cutting the balsa wood and then ended up feeling totally confused as to what to do with it. So I skipped ahead to making the background and only then realized what it was for. I ended up just using the inserts the frame came with as they seemed just as good or better than the balsa wood.

I would recommend you all try to find a frame that does not involve the cutting of balsa wood. You will cut down on expense because you would not need paper tape. You will also cut down on the tedious extra work of removing clips and such as Martha instructs. (By the way, when clips are fastened with bolt like strength and have no places to insert a screwdriver, that task is impossible).

I chose my trip to France as the subject of the shadow box because Paris is just the right amount of whimsical.

I made my decroative paper background by using pink paint and a sponge. The cloud is a cotton ball and to give the Eiffel Tower just enough "umph" I mounted it on balsa wood.

This project took me a little less then two hours and cost me about $25 but that was thanks to the half price sale Hobby Lobby was having on most of the items I bought.

So let me say thank you to Martha for this project as it was just the distraction I needed on a night when nothing and no one else could do that for me.