UCA Compendium

You might remember (or not), that my camera died on the day of my big zentangle workshop, so I haven't been able to document my activities. I finally got the most fabulous camera on the planet....a Canon PowerShot S95, but with my amateur abilities, you won't notice how great it is. But, I can blog....yea.
   Every November, the calligraphers have a family and friends event, with activities for all. This year, we made cards, notebook holders, carved stamps, wove keychains or friendship bracelets, and origami folded wreaths. Here is a photo gallery of some of the things we made.


This is what you might need to carve stamps, which is one of my new favorite activites. If you want a tutorial, my good blogging friends, Lori Vliegen, or Martha Lever, both have info and great examples. Yes, you can carve a plastic eraser.

Here are a few of my attempts. They're really fun.

It's hard to get a size reference, but they're small....about and inch and a half square. It took me a minute or two of practice to get the little incidentals carved out, as you can see on the heart card.

This leaf stamp was a hit. Can be done alone or multiples.


I think I'll carve various flowers and leaf/stem combos, after seeing this.


Here is the notebook folder, made with a 5 x 8" legal pad and a 12 x 12" scrapbook paper.

 It has two large gold paper clips with ribbons to mark pages in the notebook.

Take a 12 x 12 scrapbook page, find the paper grain direction, cut 1.5" off of the cross grain side (bottom).  Place the page with the front side down against the table, fold the left edge over 1.5".  Fold the bottom edge up 2.5"   ( If you are using a paper with a definite up and down pattern, like I did with bugs on it, you only need to be aware of the paper direction on the front, so your notebook holder doesn't look upside down.)   The tricky part is cutting a mitered bottom edge.

To find out where to cut, fold the left edge over, mark it on the bottom edge, then cut diagonally from the bottom edge up to the fold, and straight out to the side.    When the side is folded in, and the bottom is up, the corner is mitered.   Use double stick tape to hold the left edge down and the miter in place.     Put double stick tape on the back (cardboard side of the paper pad), and stick it down on the right edge of the paper, and centered top to bottom.   Score the paper along the left edge of the notebook to fold up.  Then score again 1/4 inch away, to close over the top.  Decorate the front with brads, punches, stamps, ribbons, and use the 1.5 inch strip you cut away to cover the ugly edge of the note pad, cut to size, of course.

I'll show you the form of the keychain/friendship bracelet, although it isn't finished. It's just like the boondoggle we used to do as kids. When this is finished, I'll show you exactly how to do it. Easy, easy.

Stay tuned. Have some crafty fun. xoxo