Paint card notepads

Onward to Craft Countdown #4. I’ve been enamored of this idea since I found the tutorial for it on Whimsy Love a long time ago. The idea is to make little matchbook-like notepads out of paint color cards. My paint cards were all boring colors I’d actually considered using for decor, so I used different heavy paper instead: two cards from the Pilates Body Kit (not ones with exercises on them) and one former notebook cover. You need some things:

materials

The paper trimmer isn’t essential, but it would not have been possible for me to do this as one of my ten-by-midnight crafts without it. The sturdy stapler is definitely a must. I trimmed the notebook cover to remove a strip of black material that had formed the spine, and the opposite side to eliminate the rounded corners so it would be symmetric. To fold the covers, I scored the paper with a mechanical pencil – with the lead out on the bottom (3/4″) fold, and with the lead retracted to fold the top down. As recommended, I used 20 sheets of paper per notepad, cut 1/4″ smaller than the covers in each direction, and centered. That was about right – too much more and stapling would have been very difficult.

I didn’t worry much about getting my staples symmetric, but I definitely felt two would be necessary for notepads this size. Since the one notepad had a large stretch of plain blue, I applied some additional decoration.

front view back view

looking inside

Sculpture report

I had my first sculpture class Monday night. The description said we would spend the first class making little idea sculptures, and the remaining three working on one larger sculpture. So far, that is accurate! I spent my time making five small pieces, and I still have no idea what I will start work on next week.

The first piece was a sort of mask, which I essentially made just as a doodle. The teacher had suggested, if we did not have an idea in mind, that we just lump clay together and mold it with no particular goal, and that similarly to how clouds will resolve themselves into shapes when one looks at them long enough, we might start to see little figures to draw out. Our “inner gargoyle,” he said. This is not my inner gargoyle, but I like it.

carnival mask

Second I started working on one of the few ideas I’d had prior to class: a winged toad with a satisfied grin. It did not turn out as planned. It turned out better than planned.

toad dragon toad dragon

I was starting to run dry of ideas, and the next thing I made started out as a tall ghostly creature with arms. I briefly thought about making a Hattifattener, but ended up with a horse-like dragon.

horse dragon

The teacher was speaking to a woman next to me about her sculpture and mentioned something about owls. I was inspired to make an owl, odd as he might be.

goofy owl

Here is another view of the four pieces so far.

the story so far

Finally, there was about an hour left in class, and I had a big lump of clay and no more ideas. I started pushing it around, and after going through a Mahna Mahna backup singer type piece, I produced this:

whatever this is I'm really not sure

Incidentally, the only real gargoyle I made is the last piece – technically, a gargoyle is a waterspout, eliminating runoff damage to masonry by shooting water away from the building. If it’s not a waterspout, but it’s on the building, it’s a grotesque.

Ulu knife sheath

I’ve shown my Ulu knife on here before. It’s fun but it is hard to store. For Christmas I asked for an Ulu knife sheath, but my mother decided to spend her Christmas budget on other things, so I got this:

ulu sheath kit

My father was still amusedly shaking his head at the whole thing, but he was conscripted to help. Mother included a tracing of an Ulu knife in the kit, so I cut that out, traced it onto the leather, and added a seam allowance to the curved edges. Dad cut the pieces out for me with a utility knife and lent me his leather punch. I used one of the purse straps to make a strap for holding the blade in.

The purse instructions said to use saddle stitch for most everything, which is just double running stitch (Holbein) simultaneously with both ends of the same thread. I followed those instructions and then sewed the strap on afterward. To make the open edge (necessary to get the knife in and out) look the same I did a double running stitch on each side individually.

leather punch sewn up

At this point I had to pause until I got home to my actual knife. I wanted the strap to hold it in snugly, so I didn’t want to guess on positioning the closure. Retroactively (by an hour or two) it became Craft Countdown #1. I determined where to cut the strap and epoxied black velcro to each side.

with velcro

It fits really well. Now I can stash it in a drawer!

how it fits all sealed away