Eye Candy | A Blog by Kath (Kathy) Harney

Posted on March 8, 2013 by kath

GREETING’S YA’LL ,

I am feeling more and more like myself and can only attibute it to getting diagnosed early and having had the Shingles shot… but check with your DR as some people are not recommended to have the shot. Ok enough health but it kinda leads into my show and tell of the get well cards I received but FIRST, no not a word from our sponsors as I have no sponsors well my hubby but he has no message. See told you I am feeling better…FIRST I WANT TO SHARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE CASUAL alphabets and YES you can do this even if you never have had any experience with Calligraphy.

WE call IT THICK & THIN’S and we owe it all to KATHERINE MALMSTEN. I also received a copy of NICHOL RAUCH’S version and hers is probably closer to Katherine’s than mine. Remember I told you that I have a hard time following any recipe EXACTLY well I have the same problem with the more casual alphabet scripts…. that said when I writing FORMAL CALLIGRAPHY (historical scripts) I DO MY BEST TO MAKE MY LETTERS LOOK LIKE THE HISTORICAL VERSION..With this script though I added a few more thick’s so here are some of Nichol’s tips… and then my exemplar. Also the tool that I used is a PARALLEL PEN which are available at both PAPER & INK ARTS or JOHN NEAL BOOKSELLER. NOTE: there appear to be new sizes as well as a diagonal cut nib… you want the flat chisel nib (original ) for this script. I do have all the sizes but you might want to only get the 3.8 mm and the 6 mm…the Wizard book will also help you with all the things this amazing pen can do you can write with anything, ink , paint , gouache etc. and it makes lovely thick and thin lines and tipping it up on the edge gives you that thin monoline effect. ( SEE PARALLEL PEN POST)

KATH'S EXEMPLAR THICK & THINS

NICHOL’S TIPS

OK so hope you will enjoy Katherine’s alphabet as much as Nichol and I do.

EYE CANDY… my get well cards

SHARON'S PHOTO HEART CARD

I know I shared another of Sharon’s card where she uses the photo and then makes a second copy of the photo and only cuts out a key element and using foam dots/tape adhere’s to first photo so that it looks so real you feel like you might get poked if you touched it… lol… Thanks Sharon you made my day.

JANIS BLEVINS’S HANG IN THERE CARD

JANIS'S HANG IN THERE CARD

First Janis Blevins made the frog so that he was hanging on the cord and when I took it out of the clear acetate envelope it swung on the cord….toooo clever… and I love frogs so he was the perfect guy for a HANG IN THERE….I have terrific friends.

LINDA O’NEILL AND SANDEE FREEMAN’S CARD..

Linda and Sandee's card

This was a delightful little booklet that was stitched together and had this wonderful origami wreath on the front as well as an asian stamp in the center. I know Linda’s calligraphy group has a lot of card exchanges and I am assuming that since the back of the card said SANDEE FREEMAN she actually made the card BUT LINDA O’NEILL wrote the get well note that was on the signature inside the card. I hope I am giving correct information here but in any case I LOVE ALL THINGS ORIGAMI…so thanks Girls I loved the card. IN fact I loved it so much I figured out how to make the little origami folds so that I could make it too.

Just in case you also want to try one… here are the folds

Sandee's origami

I am guessing but assume that Sandee’s squares were about 1 1/2 ” or 2″ …the ones I used were 3″ but no matter what size square you use the folds are the same…however you would need the smaller squares to make a card that is approximately 5″ square. REMEMBER IF YOU MAIL A SQUARE YOU MUST USE ADDITIONAL POSTAGE.

Since this is mainly a calligraphic post …I have to share a web site called Tumblr which has a calligraphic section and there are new postings to it all the time so check out some eye candy….http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/calligraphy

Ok team… hope you will enjoy this script and I’ll post a blog on the Parallel pen next.

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…wireheaded cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on February 16, 2013 by kath

GREETINGS AGAIN…I want to apologize for the long delay in posting and to tell you that there may still be gaps … it seems that even though I had the shot … I have according to Dr a mild ( doesn’t feel so mild) case of the SHINGLES… I can tell you that for a week or so before I had sore muscles at least that’s what it felt like then suddenly I had a horrid rash …needless to say its both sore, itchy and hard to sit or even lay without making it worse so I am not able to spend much time at the computer. I had put most of this together right before I went to Dr.

ALSO one more time…. if you want to suscribe you must click the home button on left then on right is place to suscribe with personal e mail address… not business…also NO I AM NOT ON TWITTER NOR FACE BOOK and dont’ intend to be… this is it my friends.

SCS ZOETROPE

it spins...SCS

Just wanted to share the SCS ZOETROPE card…no I have no idea what the heck a ZOETROPE is but assume from the card that it is simply a spinning wheel. I thought it was cute and I have tons of that string…sooooo , however, I didn’t have that spinner thing she used in the center but I am fairly certain that you can make the same thing just cutting out a circle from foam core board the difference is that it won’t already have sticky on the back and to make sure it sticks tight especially if you are giving to a child or child like adult who will play with it over and over…LOL… you would want to use the red really sticky tape and maybe cut a circle of it also so that it covers most of the piece of foam core in fact you will need two one for each side other than those changes jump in and make one …You could write on the inside … SPIN, DANCE , TWIRL…its your day!!… Ok now on to the THIS AND THAT…

EYE CANDY

This little piece of art arrived in my mail box recently from my friend/teacher Brigitte Heffernan…She is a master at Pointed Pen lettering styles and the feathers at the left of my name are also hand drawn…I am such a lucky girl!! Thanks Brigitte.

Brigitte's envelope

As if I am not lucky enough, some days I just soar!! I also received this lovely little envy and the enclosed valentine from my friend Bonnie Noehr and she is also a master at pointed pen lettering and making tiny cards…just feast your eyes on this envelope then the tiny card that was enclosed.

Bonnie Noehr

: Bonnie’s valentine

The message reads” We can do no grand things only small things with great love”… hence the small card… definately a treasure

Bonnie's card closed

As if all of that wasn’t enough yesterday I got this incredible e-mail from a friend. She was referring to the e-card I sent her and she just cracked me up with praise and so I just wanted to share with you my favorite THANK YOU so far. I did mail her a snail mail real card today one with a wobble in it…lol…She and I are two of a kind and remember ITS THE CRACKED ONES THAT LET IN THE LIGHT! Thanks Joanne <3.

GOOD MORNING!
Thank you so much for the birthday card I got in the mail! Here it is a couple days later and I realized that, while when I received it, I beamed in glory and the heavens opened up, and the angels sang, sometimes YOU may not get that vibe because of, oh I don’t know, satellite interference or something, so I thought I had better let you know that I beamed and my heart filled up!

JO FORSYTH’S VALENTINE

JO MADE THIS ONE USING HEARTS CUT FROM ASSORTED PAPERS AND INTERLOCKING THEM

JANIS BLEVIN’S VALENTINE

Janis Blevin's valentine

Janis used an embossing template for the background then also she die cut assorted hearts and layered them each one using foam tape… It was great…I have to also tell you that she taught this card to class of 35 men and women… I am so impressed. You can’t tell from this photo but it is that card that forms an easel and will stand when open. Way to go Janis.

NICHOL RAUCH’S CARD/ENVY

Nichol Rauch's valentine

Nichol is my friend who has also been my teacher and she is very good at eraser carving and then hand on her envelope is a hand carved stamp… I won’t ‘say she never uses commerical stamps but mostly she carves her own.. I always love getting her mail. I am such a lucky girl…

PAMELA O’NEALS VALENTINE

PAMY'S VALENTINE

This card was made by my BFF PAMELA O’NEAL.. and she was so worried about sending it but I just love it…she embossed using a template of lady bugs and then only colored in a few of the hearts and then used a small brad of a ladybug for the main focal point… FANTASTIC..

KATH’S GRACEFUL ENVELOPE ENTRY FOR 2013

KATH'S GRACEFUL ENVY 2013

I wrote the large letters in bone using a Parallel pen and the smaller letters with charcoal pencil based on an alphabet I got from FLO WILKINS…the quote is by Tenneyson and I just realized from this photo that I was going to write that with a small ink pen and I forgot…hopefully they won’t judge that part…we’ll see

THEN THIS IS ONE I DIDN’T SEND…

kh graceful 13 wobble not sent

I didn’t send this mostly because that heart globe was on a wobble and I finally convinced myself it would never make it…then too my dear friend Marn called my attention to the fact that rules had changed and no commerical stamps were allowed and probably not the wobble spring either…so good thing I redid it…

Ok my favorite stamp store IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS..sent me an e-mail for some upcoming classes and this was one of the ideas they displayed. I am not sure how its done but it looks like it might be watercolor paper sewn together and only lightly stuffed with filling. BUT ( maybe at this point I should share with you the fact that I can almost NEVER FOLLOW A RECIPE OR A PATTERN exactly as it shown.) I think you can use HEAVY WEIGHT watercolor paper or cardstock and stamp them up as hanging valentines…or you could layer some of those hearts from the nestibilities dies in the previous post. You don’t have to make them valentines they could just as easily be a birthday card or get well pillow..I just thought they were very clever. Just a thought …let me know if you try it.

kay class val SCS ZOETROPE CARD + this and that

IMPRESS RUBBER STAMPS valentines

Well that’s it for now… don’t give up on me but it may still be a while before I am back to my old self.

THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY… wireheaded cyber toad…aka kath

Posted on January 4, 2013 by kath

GREETINGS TO THE FAITHFUL…

I say FAITHFUL cause my posts have been quite irregular and yet some of you still are finding them… Now I wanted this first post to be about sharing some of the lovely hand made cards I received from friends near and far…so here goes..

SHARON CLYMER

This card was just sooooo impressive… its by SHARON CLYMER, who started as a student of mine years ago and became a very good friend. She is a very talented watercolor artist, calligrapher and as well as a great photographer and she used her photography to make this clever card…she printed the mini picture of the catus bloom on regular paper then reprinted it on photo paper and cut out only the piece of leaf and bloom and using foam tape stuck it on top lining it up with the mini photo this giving great dimension to an already great photo. Her lettering at the left is EAGLEFEATHER one of the monoline scipts that I posted here earlier and one that she took from me several years ago and it looks fantastic on the card… the photo corners are real also. GREAT JOB Sharon.

JANIS BLEVINS

This one is from my e-mail friend JANIS BLEVINS…she had a cardmaking party with some of her co-workers and showed them a simple yet elegant card with embossed background of snowflakes and a simple snowman that was cut out and colored and adhered to the front of the card…just goes to show it doesn’t have to be complicated to be impressive… Thanks for sharing Janis.

PATTI MCURDY AND CAROLE CROSE

PATTI is my cousin and I love the whimsey in this card and she too used the embossing templates to make a background of Christmas trees…looks fantastic. CAROLE CROSE made a simple layer of green on the off-white but look closely at the lovely little corners she punched on green layer… its a terrific punch by Marvey called of all things SOUTHWEST not sure why but it is one of my favorite corner punches, and I loved her little snowman with the paper chain.

EDITH CASWELL AND PAMELA O’NEAL

The top card is from EDITH CASWELL calligraphy and cardmaking friend…. Edith’s card is maybe a little labor intensive but also simple and yet very impressive… three layers of Christmas papers….. and remember things don’t have to be perfectly straight…I love the fact that the are askew…and then on top I think she folded wrapping paper over a small rectangle of cardboard to look like a package… she did have to pay extra for postage as that created a bump but what a great WOW when I opened it… Thanks Edith.

The next one is by PAMELA O’NEAL, my long time craft friend and BFF for 40 years but I am only now getting her pushed and dragged into the card making…lol… this was also simple but very impressive… she used the snowmen embossing template on the front of each card and then only colored the nose and buttons…. these templates are great because the embossing is always so crisp and deep and those little bits of color really made it POP! This was her invitation to annual Christmas Party… GREAT JOB…BFF

CYNTHIA THOMAS AND CHRIS SABO

TOP CARD is by CYNTHIA THOMAS…another cardmaking friend who used a great alphabet background then a small typewriter stamp and I am not sure if she made the poinsetta or if it was a commerical embellishment either way it really sets the card off. The card is basically done with black stamp pad on a light cream paper layered with a very small boarder on the gold card stock… again seems simple but its very impressive and again that small POP of color just makes it leap off the paper at you. Oh she is also no where near as lazy as myself and she not only stamped the images in black she then used heat embossing to raise the letters slightly and make they show up even more and two small gold brads I love it…Thanks so much for sharing CYNTHIA…

The second card is by a great calligraphy buddy CHRIS SABO, who always fills my mail box with dynamic and impressive cards. This little beauty is from a pattern by SCS called a SIDE SPRING CARD. It has a unique fold that creates a lovely little diamond shape on the front of the card. Chris then layered small squares on the front and also on the side with stamped images and words and again on the inside with her greeting. Chrissy likes unique folds as much as I do and always delights me with her designs. I thought I had posted this fold before but I couldn’t find it so I have given you the link again to SCS in blue for this delightful little card. Thanks for sharing CHRIS..

AUNTIE’S CARD

This little Treasure was from my Auntie. It was done using a die cut several times with each of the colors of paper shown then you assemble it on the card using the different layers. I was immediately charmed by it and went in search of the die which was by QUIKKUTZ and I was not able to find it in my usual resource (AMAZON) and due to the stress of the season did not look any further . I think it may be a discontinued die. But it was just lovely and looked so cute.

MARNIE NOONAN AND ALBIN HENNING painter 1938 portrait of SANTA

This is from a long time Calligraphy /Card friend MARNIE NOONAN…Marnie as you can see has a wonderful calligraphy and I look forward to her cards every year…The fancy letters and the large A are called VERSALS for my non-calligraphic readers and then do note her tiny monoline calligraphy at the bottom of the card. The Front of her card is also really special.. Marnie says that it is a Santa portrait painted by her grandfather ALBIN HENNING Christmas 1938! I was so delighted to see this and as always I feel extra special to receive Marnie’s cards… Thanks for sharing MARNIE.

NICHOL RAUCH

This card is from a terrific teacher and friend NICHOL RAUCH. Nichol’s signature is the fact that almost all the cards she makes are done with HAND CARVED IMAGES. That’s right she has carved them herself from Erasers and unless she has changed these were probably carved using STAEDLER MARS ERASERS. They are white sorta plastic and while they work just fine as erasers…we have spent years beseeching the Staedler Mars folks to make larger blocks as we wanted to carve larger images….a few years ago they realized ( at least this is what all of us eraser carvers believe) that there was no way people were making as many mistakes as they were selling erasers so they responded and you can now buy a block that is about 4 inches sq and 1/2 in thick to carve on and they actually mark them CARVING BLOCKS. I don’t know what size Nichol used and she could have carved the deer on one block and the antlers on another the birdie is probably from a scrap, likewise the scarf then the tiny letters spelling PEACE are also carved…She is our queen of carving and we all love all her lovely cards. NICHOL, I can’t thank you enough for making me part of your holiday sharing… Also note her lovely monoline lettering on the address below the card. I hope to share some monolines with you in the coming year.

SALLY PENLEY AND BARB BOLTON

The top card is from a terrific Calligrapher SALLY PENLEY and I love how she mingled the letters together….Sally just had a project to make folks aware of bullying called OUT OF THE SILENCE..( it’s on Facebook but I think you can see it even if you are not a FACEBOOK MEMBER) if you click on this blue link you can see about 50 calligraphers who posted pieces to push against hate and discrimination. Check it out for some incredible eye candy and some very thoughtful quotes about tolerance and concern for those who are being harassed or bullied. THANKS SO MUCH SALLY for all you do for my card as well as an incredible project.

The second card is from BARB BOLTON who only recently started card making due to spending time with her sister STEPHANIE GOGGLEYE who is my WA BFF and main card making buddy… and she was using DAWN’S TRIPLE LAYER method which I posted a few weeks back…it came out great and I love that little package which adds great dimension to the card. Then the card just below is by her sister STEPHANIE GOGGLEYE… again using that triple layer method of card making this time with fir tree and pinecones. SIMPLE yet fantastic effect.

STEPHANIE GOGGLEYE

STUART FEIL

This is from my dear friend STUART FEIL….Stuart drew the mountain and the foothills in with a silver pen. The little snowmen are commerical embellishments along with the snowflakes. But on this BLACK CARD, who thinks to use black at Christmas, they are soooo dimensional… from a distance I could look over at this card and it was like I was looking INTO it…and the little tab at the bottom folds up so that this card can stand on it own…then its too small to show but inside he drew a small bed on the bottom of the card with just the head of a snowman in the bed… so CREATIVE… again I am lucky to be on his mailing list…..but hey that’s what the FRIDAY NIGHT GANG is all about. Thanks STUART….I love it.

VAL WEBB CALENDAR JAN 2013

LAST but not least ..I signed up for a monthly calendar page done in calligraphy and with artwork by VAL WEBB.. this is the January page…isn’t it beautiful.

Well hope this gives you lots of ideas for your card making and that you enjoyed seeing just some of the lovely creations that I received.

I should also tell you that I am going to limit my blogs to just one idea at a time ( because even I find it hard to go back to the blogs and find things I have posted.) I am also not going to hold myself to posting every Friday. I am going to post whenever I have the time to put a post together …..so what does that mean for you ? Well if you are signed up to my blog you will receive an e-mail every time I post, if you are not signed up then you will just have to go check to see if there is anything new.

Look foward to hearing from you with questions or requests for how something is done. Oh PS… save your commerical cards that you liked …I am going to shortly post an idea for making little boxes out of them and then hanging them as decoration on your tree next year or just a decoration around the house or for gift boxes.

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY.… the wire headed cyber toad….aka Kath

Posted on October 19, 2012 by kath

Well BOO-YALL IT’S FALL…..

The first one is our Sumac tree (well, bush right now) in the back yard and the second one is our Flame Bush also in back yard then the last one is Maple tree in the front driveway.

MORE ABOUT BLEACH

In the blog of Sept 28th 2012 on BLEACH.. I mentioned that I don’t like to use my stamps in bleach as it will eventually harden them and there is nothing you can do to stop it … it won’t happen immediately but it will happen…so I suggested this technique of stamping first and then using a brush to pull the color out of the paper…this is great technique and works wonderful with fall leaves and SCS has a really good video of how to bleach out images... I couldn’t find it when I posted the Bleach Blog… but here it is…for those of you interested.

TRIFOLD CARDS

Yes, I know maybe you are hating this but it’s more Halloween cards. Well at least the samples I am showing are going to be Halloween. But you know that nothing has to be what I show…it can be different… for example you could use a heart shaped punch and insert a heart and then you would have a HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY…HAPPY ANNIVERSARY… CONGRATS ON YOUR NEW LITTLE LOVE (BABY) . You just have to think outside the box… repurpose is the name of the game. In addition it could be a round punch such as I used and you can make it a balloon by drawing a tail or adding string to make the tail, then it could be a Happy Birthday… and it can be various sizes for example one of mine is smaller and one is larger and I used them all as if they were Moons… oh yes, I did do one as if it was a clock and made that one a birthday… anything goes…

DIRECTIONS

Ok, first image shows you where to score and the second one shows you how to fold in the left edge and punch only half of your image out but this will give you full image when open.

Last image show you how to see where you put tape/glue on the inside flap and then adhere your punch out image right up against the curve.

Cut cardstock 51/2″ x 11″ (or if you are in a paper saving mode use 4 1/4 x 11 but then make your punch smaller I think)

using SCOR-PAL…score on the 11 ” side at 3 3/4″ AND again at 7 1/2″

Then fold the left side in at the 3 3/4″ mark and then use your punch to make hole doing it only 1/2 way into the fold so that when you open it there is whole at the space..

Then to glue the circle into that hole fold the right side in at the 7 1/2″ score line and then fold the 3 3/4″ score mark over the top of it and just glue 1/2 your circle and stick into the half circle hole… so when card is folded the whole circle shows but 1/2 of it is sticking out of the card…

This is the inside and the outside of Kim’s (owner of STAMPIN IN THE RAIN stamp store in the Bothell Country Village). I got this card from her several years ago and I loved it. She was using some duplex paper (double sided printing) that she was selling and as you can tell she tore the left hand edge very close so that when it was closed you got that white edge along the card…

HINT

When you are tearing duplex paper its a good idea to check first and see if it gives you a white edge, some papers don’t have a white core…Also check to see whether you need to tear UP OR DOWN… only one way will show the white on the chosen side the other way will also show white but it would have been inside the card not maybe what you wanted…so tear a small scrap first to make sure you are tearing the correct way..

This is my version with a witch hat brad… and inside it says NICE HAT… plus Happy Halloween… both the Hat brad and the idea for words came from IMPRESS rubber stamps. (they have the most incredible selection of brads…they just got some new ones that are small about 1/2″ haunted houses…yeah I got them…lol) I figured one could even use the little houses to celebrate someone’s move by suggesting that ‘they only thought their house looked like a haunted house it will get better when the boxes are gone’…lol.. BYW the extra hole in the circle is due to miscalculation of where I wanted the brad to go…duh.. You might also note that I had about 1/4 inch along the edge of the top fold so that I could have a border if I wanted rather than tear it as this paper does not have a white core.

This is my version of the same card but I used a punch out of small clock so that I could write TIME TO CELEBRATE and ‘they are playing your song’ inside.. along with a Happy Birthday stamp. Again I left an edge so that I can make a trim using the birthday candle border punch from EK Success.

This one used the moon with a raven stamp wearing a witch hat… then I also used the Marvey Tree punch and Martha Stewart fench punch on the front .. Inside I plan to write QUOTE THE RAVEN ….NEVERMORE…and add a Happy Halloween also…

I think you can see from these images that it looks like your moon is on the outside of the card but the surprise ( and you know how I love the unusual) is that when you open it turns out the image is actually on the inside.

Ok, hopefully I have both explained and shown with photos how to achieve this card but just in case you can write an ask me either in the comments at bottom or at krhblogger@gmail.com

Last but not least a few photos that my roomie and table mate, CAROL CROSE, took at CAMP HUSTON, of our wonderful weekend.

The top one is Jan’s table and then my table…this bottom one is the picture of me setting up my work area and yes…that cart beside me has 7 drawers and yep it was full and all my stuff to make cards…

My Halloween nails… spider web on my ring finger nail…. love it…

EYE CANDY ..

I saw this on FB and it really made me smile… so give it a look its not what you think...How Women in France loose weight.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words… well I don’t have a thousand words on this blog (oops, just checked and I do have 1100 + words who would guess) and I don’t have any video but hopefully the pictures are enough.

Let me see those cards…. AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…aka kath the wireheaded cyber toad.

Posted on September 21, 2012 by kath

Greetings Y’all

What is Zentangle?

ZENTANGLE Is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is a fascinating new art form that is fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being. Zentangle is enjoyed by a wide range of skills and ages and is used in many fields of interest.

I posted this blog, mostly about ZENTANGLES because I love the look of them and I love the usually BLACK AND WHITE contrast. I should also tell you that I am not good at them as I see them as a form of doodling and frankly I am not much of a doodler. I do struggle with what to fill the spaces with and I have several books that give me patterns to try and I do practice that pattern before I actually try filling a space with it. I also usually use a very fine permanent black pen to do the drawing. I love the the 0.38 G-2 pen by Pilot…it also comes in an 05 and 07 each larger. If you are doing a large image or using lots of black then you might even want to consider the super fine Sharpie that doesn’t bleed. All of these are available at Staples, and probably most other office supply stores as well as at Wal-mart and probably Target. Another good hint is to draw your spaces in pencil then go back and trace them in ink. You can also practice your drawing in pencil so that you know you have your doodle down before you begin.

The images below are my only copies of 3 letter zentangles which I did in a class , sorry the photo is so poor I had to take a picture of the photo off my computer as I could not get it to print so bummer but at least you can see I have tried it.

MANDALA.. This is the defination of Mandala from Wikipedia…

HINDU MANDALA

Maṇḍala (मण्डल) is a Sanskrit word meaning “circle.” In the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the shape of a T.^[1]^[2] Mandalas often exhibit radial balance.^[3]

These mandalas, concentric diagrams, have spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhismand Hinduism.^[4]^[5] The term is of Hindu origin and appears in the Rig Veda as the name of the sections of the work, but is also used in other Indian religions, particularly Buddhism. In the Tibetan branch of Vajrayana Buddhism, mandalas have been developed into sandpainting. They are also a key part of anuttarayoga tantra meditation practices.

In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid tomeditation and trance induction. According to the psychologist David Fontana, its symbolic nature can help one “to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises.”^[6] The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as “a representation of the unconscious self,”^{[citation needed]} and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towardswholeness in personality.^[7]

In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the universe from the human perspective.^{[citation needed]}

HOW TO DRAW A MANDALA WITH ZENTANGLES

The Mandala Drawing Process:

Art is more than a collection of crafted things; it is more than the process of creating those things. Art is the chance to encounter dimensions of our inner being and to discover deep, rewarding patterns of meaning. To be artistic/creative is a powerful vehicle for personal and collective transformation. By the word transformation, I mean, the process by which one is able to change the quality of life from its current condition to a deeper understanding about oneself.

Watch the Youtube video above and see how to do this …by the way Youtube now has ADS…so just click on the skip ad to see the video and there is no sound with this video but it is very well shown how to begin and how to fill in this type of drawing.

REGGIE EZELL’S WEBSITE

The images below were taken from Reggie Ezzell’s web site which has many images on it that he posts every week from students in his classes.

In case you have no idea who Reggie Ezell is, he is a very well known calligrapher who travels around the country and teaches classes. The pieces below are both from students in his classes and I have copied also what they had to say about their pieces.

ELISSA BARR

This one is more like a zentangle

This work (ABOVE) was done by Elissa Barr this year in Boston In “26 Seeds: a Year to Grow”, Session three Drawn and Pressurized Romans. In her own words:While I was practicing my drawn Romans I had done a number of them on
tracing paper and they were loosely piled up on my table. I became
intrigued by the way the letters were overlapping. So since this was
all a “jumble” on my desk, I started playing with the word “jumble”,
creating more and more overlaps of the letters. First I was using
tracing paper, then I put them on transparencies and later I scanned
them into Photoshop Elements so that I would be able to print out my
designs with out having to retouch out lines from the transparency
pieces. I printed lots of variations on 8 1/2 x 11 Arches Text Wove
and then chose several to play with. In the first image I painted in
everywhere a letter did not overlap another letter. In the second
image I used shades of gray and red gouache to paint in the letters.I liked this approach because I drew the letters, created the designs
all by hand and then used the computer to facilitate getting the look
I wanted on the paper. Photoshop also allowed me to tweak the image
size so that the images fit nicely on the 8 1/2 by 11 paper. My
printer is a Canon Image class 480 laser copier.

KAREN LOCKHART’S STAMPS

KAREN LOCKHART in addition to being a stamp designer is also a terrific teacher, especially in the use of colored pencils but in a recent class with her I also saw that she is using some tiny images of zentangle art to enhance her designs beyond the colored pencil. See below

KAREN LOCKHART IMAGES WITH ZENTANGLE DESIGNS

To help us get into the idea of tiny zentangle art she provided us with this sheet to practice our design ideas before we applied them to her stamp images.

This was a great idea and I suggest that you use it also to see what designs you come up with and also as a way of saving your ideas for future use as well.

I am not sure at all where the following zentangle ideas came from as someone gave me this sheet and I have no name on it.

As you can see some of these are very complicated and some are quite simple since I am not a good doodler, I start with the simple ideas first.

If you are interested in books that will give you even more information here is the site at AMAZON that has as many books on zentangles as you may want.

The thing with Zentangles is that most of them are done in a small size …ie most of the ones I have seen are done at the ATC(ARTIST TRADING CARD) size which is approximately the size of a playing card. I think its about 2 x 3 inches. I also like the idea of not doing a perfect square or a perfect rectangle. Both of these below are sorta curved so that you have a more interesting look to your design…at least that is my idea I hate straight lines …I like the curves that sorta make the design dance.

I am pretty sure that I got these off the website for the Sooner Scribes ( Oklahoma). As you can see they both have a curved side and the first one has little lines all around it so it kinda looks like a rug to me with fringe.

In any case I continue to try to make zentangles, and I do find it relaxing. I especially like the idea from Karen Lockhart of using them in a very small space on some of her stamp images because they really make the image look more dimensional. I hope you will give it a try and as always I’d love to put your work on my blog if you send it to me digitally or write me if you want to send it snail mail. I love getting snail mail…a friend says my indian name is “SHE WHO WAITS BY THE MAILBOX.” LOL..

one more amazing zentangle but sorry I don’t know who did it and don’t know how I got it..

sun zentangle

Well I hope you find this helpful and AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…WHCT..aka Kath Harney

Posted on September 14, 2012 by kath

GREETIN’S YA’LL… yes that there is my southern accent… just a little spice for your Friday mornings. This week I am going to show you two different types of containers for Halloween and adding candy or a treat of some kind. The first one is from DAWN and the second one is just received from SPLITCOAST STAMPERS or SCS.

DAWN’S DOUBLE TREAT BAG

This was just so cute and so quick that I had to share it and also because it is the perfect size for sharing a Ghirardelli Chocolate. And just for a laugh I had to go look up how to spell this 3 times…. and I didn’t eat one any time… lol..

I have a HINT for you when you watch Dawn’s video she is using the STAMPIN UP score board with the diagonal insert. I don’t have that and probably neither do you.. I do have SCOR-PAL and I have thought of buying the diagonal insert cause I think it would fit but I haven’t don’t it yet so here is how I used the SCOR-PAL…Lay your 6×6 on the SP in a diamond shape not a square, with one of the points at 4 1/4 and the opposite point will also be on the 4 1/4 line so you can score it straight down for that diagonal line.

Next rotate your diamond (square) one point and score on the right at 5 3/4 then I turned the card over and lined up the diamond with the left edge of SP and scored a second time at 5 3/4.

If you don’t have a scoring board then you can do this but just scoring diagonal then measure in from the point on the left 2 3/4 inches and then from the right point 2 3/4 inches.

I didn’t have this lined up perfectly when I took photo but you can see how it would work.

SCS’s FLAT BACK TREAT BOX

This one is also very cute and gives you lots of room to decorate and you can fill it with Hersey Nuggets or Hersey Kisses, or some other little treat for a friend and while this one is decorated for Halloween it could be just for a birthday or some random gift box.

SCS…did use the scor-pal to create this one and the box is approximately 1 inch square but if you wanted to stick small candybars in it you could just make the score marks about 1 1/2 inches and you would need to make your paper about 10 inches long in order to have the same amount of space on the top for decorating or you could loose an inch from the top. I think two of the small size that they sell for Halloween would also fit in this box.

In case you haven’t guessed it yet Halloween is my favorite Holiday and I do make lots of different Halloween cards… I probably have more Halloween stamps than Birthday but then again it might be close.

EYE CANDY

I also have some new eye candy to share. This first piece is another of RACHEL YALLOP’S and she titled it DENSE WRITING and it was written with a pointed pen. I thought it was just lovely and I love the texture it creates .

This Next one is by my friend BONNIE NOEHR and was her submission to TRICIA SMOUT’S A-I-R ( for artist in residence) request for envelopes from around the world. Way to go Bonnie, I love the lettering (Bonnie is a terrific calligrapher) and the flower is incredible. I am just guessing but assume she printed the flower on the paper and then made an envelope and addressed it. I’ll check with her and maybe let you know more details later.

This last one is done by ANN ERICKSON and is an ILLUMINATED PIECE she posted on Cyber Scribes. It’s just lovely isn’t it. She had on Cyber Scribes that she did custom work.

Just in case you don’t know Illumination is usually made up of drawn letters with designs or even images within them and are the types of letters you often found in medieval works. The designs around the work love look like Gold…not sure if gold leaf or gold ink, either way its simply beautiful. Monks often had the first letter as an illuminated letter on the page or at the beginning of a piece.

PENS, PENS, PENS

We have talked about a lot of different pens here and some of my favorites are FOUNTAIN PENS.

From left to right the first one is mini Sheaffer then a Pelican (now Koh-i-noor), Larger Sheaffer with a larger tip..Mont Blanc (also Koh-i-noor)… a Cross…and a unknown enameled pen. I love them all and I also have a collection of ruling pens but that’s for another time. They come in all kinds of styles and shapes. From Modern expensive to inexpensive and even old antique fountain pens. The older ones are harder to find and more expensive than when I first started collecting them about 10-15 yrs ago. Then it seemed that folks often didn’t know that these pens had any value especially if they were still working and the nibs were intact. Now they are generally more but occasionally you will see them and very reasonable prices. This is a photo of some of mine and my favorite was the Parker 51… You can see that unlike other nibs it has the plastic right down to the very tip…don’t know why but I find this very appealing. Actually I find it sexy but can one find pens sexy???? I can.

They are fairly expensive now a days and this one does have a piece of cap missing but it holds ink without leaking and it writes very well. I also have a couple that are new and have a broader nib so that they can actually write a modified Italic

…these came from WARD DUNHAM and I am not sure if he is still selling them or not.

My newest one is from PAPER AND INK ARTS...and its a NOODLER’S FLEX PEN the reason for this is the nib while pointed is also slightly flexible and allows you to write a pointed pen or modified copperplate and they can be filled with your own ink colors.*

Noodler’s makes a variety of ink colors that hard to pass up and they are also available at Paper and Ink Arts.

* a few HINTs about fountains pens…if you are only going to use it at your desk and for a short time then not again for while don’t bother filling it just dip it like a dip pen. Also NEVER FILL A FOUNTAIN PEN WITH INDIA INK there is an abrasive in it that will over time destroy your pen nib. If you must use it then dip it and be sure to clean it really well after you are done using it. But frankly I would not use it even in a dip …instead use a regular dip nib and clean it also as soon as you are done. If you have it in your purse and are going on plane I’d either empty it which means you have to carry ink with you also a problem or don’t fill it full and put it in a ziplock baggie just in case it leaks. Even a new pen might leak so be warned… all of that said FOUNTAIN pens are my favorite tool for writing.

As you can see they come in a variety of colors and I just love it. I got the Yellow /Black one they call the Bee.

Now after showing you all these pens I want to link you to website to show you HOW TO WRITE WITH A FOUNTAIN PEN. If you go to this link you will see he has several short videos on how to write using Fountain Pens. You know you need one….lol…

All this talk about pens a quick story, (those who know me know that rarely happens) In 1984 I was on a trip with my husband and another couple and I had taken some rubber-stamps …small ones … plus a fountain pen and ink with me in a small fishing tackle box I got at Wal-Mart. We were staying at the lodge at Lake Yellowstone and there was a huge room with glass windows looking out at the lake. The carpet had just been redone and was lovely shade of green and the room had several small writing desks out of wicker with chairs. I came in and was immediately charmed and went to desk next to the window with my tool box..I did not pay attention to the fact that there were a few men in the room but not many I had the place mostly to myself. I sat down pulled out my postcards purchased earlier that day and suddenly there was a nice man at my elbow….I looked up and smiled, he smiled and with an accent said ..” mind showin me your flies?”…I am sure I looked puzzled and he elaborated with …” can I see in your tackle box ?” At this point I smiled and slowly opened my tackle box all the while keeping my eyes on his face….NOW HE HAD THE PUZZLED look…what is all that stuff he said… I proceeded to show him and to show him some of my cards…” well I be” he replied and I thought he was walking away when he called several of the other men over to see. I think my ears burned the next day as I am certain that I was a topic of conversation while they were out fishing on the lake. Its a great memory…. hope you enjoyed sharing it with me.

Well that just about does it from here… so don’t just sit here go Make Something…

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…..WHCT…aka kath harney

Posted on August 24, 2012 by kath

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS

OK I AM SO SORRY TO SAY THAT PART OF THIS MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN PUBLISHED BEFORE IT WAS READY… I WISH I COULD TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED BUT I DON’T REALLY KNOW…. HOPEFULLY IT WASN’T OUT THERE TOO LONG BUT THE BAD NEWS….IT WAS HALF FINISHED AND I HAD TO DELETE IT TO GET IT OFF …maybe not but that’s what I did…so starting again…

This is DAWN’S CARD made using punches and then filling in the punched out area with ribbon… but you will see that I had a few other ideas as well… As you can see she used multiple colors types of ribbon and on the second they were all the same. The real secret to this style of card is that unlike IRIS FOLDING you are not building around a center although you could do this IRIS STYLE but I have some friends who would kill me if I EVEN SAID the word Iris…also her great idea is that you lightly trace your space to fill and then using double stick tape just fill that space with tape and then lay down your ribbon or if you want strips of paper etc. In addition you will see from her video that she did the punch out on a different sheet of paper and then applied the tape and ribbon to the front of the card and then put the overlay on top of that.

The idea of laying down the layer of tape and then putting the ribbon, paper, photo on was just great and it inspired me to try a few other things. These first couple of images are done using ribbon and punches that I had and instead of doing the punch out on a separate sheet of paper I did it the card and then put ribbon piece of paper behind it so it was on the inside of the card.

For this balloon one I actually used a piece of scrap paper and punched a template so that I could get the balloons on the card where I wanted them…In addition I had to use an ANYWHERE punch by Martha Stewart that was simply a circle but it worked just fine. I also stamped on some of the ribbon and I used 3 different types/colors of ribbon.

On this one I used some open weave multi color ribbon . It has lots of texture but I am not sure I would use that ribbon again…maybe if I had a basket punch…. which I don’t at the moment…lol….I also used strips of the brown card stock on the front and I used a tiny butterfly punch to make the tails on the kite…but you could use any tiny punch you have….I thought I had a dogbone one which would have been great but can’t find it so think its in Fl. I just drew the kite string with pen but afterward thought oh I could have used a small piece of twine.

Then I thought of this STAMPIN UP punch that I have that’s rather weird but I have loved it and I actually punched it twice so that it kinda looks like a window… I had a photo of the minions and I just love them…( there are from movie DESPICABLE ME…And if you haven’t seen it you should it just too cute ) and the inside of the card might say CAUSE EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE MINIONS ON THIER BIRTHDAY. The photo was adhered to the inside front of the card.

This one I did punch a scallop circle on another sheet of card stock and then adhered the photo of fish to it then the whole thing to the front of the card…I still plan to add a ribbon between the words and the image but didn’t quite get there just yet. And because I have a lot of pre-cut and folded cardstock I used them on each of these cards. I belong to a paper club that has new cards no envelopes in a different color each month. I don’t have to buy them each month but I usually do just because I like the colors.

This one also I used that funky punch and then used a photo of a beach sunset that my daughter had sent to me. Again I really got into these photo style and went a little crazy as I was choosing photos I ‘d go looking for one and end up pick two or three others…lol

This last one …and don’t all yell Yeah at once…lol.. I again used the scallop circle and then a photo of a daisy with a lady bug on it… I was going to use this one for a friend who just had knee surgery and wish her a rapid recovery…

Just in case you are wondering my pen of choice lately is the BLACK GLAZE SAKURA pen from my GLAZE set of pens. I like it because it does make letters that are slightly raised and its very black and very shiny. Two things I like in an ink…lol

MORE NATURE PHOTOS

I showed you my little nuthatch last week and yesterday I got a sorta good photo of him actually drinking from the fountain…I can tell you it ain’t easy he is the fastest bird I have ever seen except for the Hummers.

We have also been having a pair and a baby Pileated Woodpecker coming to our suet feeders and the Mom has been feeding the baby and he is a BIG baby but now lately he has been coming by himself but sometimes there are three of them there and they are so striking and such BIG BIRDS …USUSALLY about 17-19 inches tall. I am not able to get good photos of my own of them as their feeder is under an arbor and its just too dark for them to show up… but I did find a few photos on the internet so I am sharing them just so you can see them…

I think I got most of these from an Audubon web site…and they even had a video and all the call of the bird… They are incredible and if you ever hear them pecking..it sounds like a hammer banging a tree… very loud…

EYE CANDY GRACEFUL ENVELOPE WINNERS 2012

This is just one of the winning and honorable mention envelopes that you can see from this site.GRACEFUL ENVELOPE CONTESTClick the blue line and then scroll down for this year’s winners the previous years are also available for you to look at so go feast your eyes on some really incredible mail… and try not to drool..lol

Well that’s it from the great Pacific Northwest and I am happy to say that we are back to our normal temperatures. No more heat wave at least for a while.. lol… again AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY….WHCT….aka kath

Posted on August 17, 2012 by kath

CALLIGRAPHIC EYE CANDY by RACHEL YALLOP

Ok we have been all about London for past two weeks and then I saw RACHEL YALLOP’S CALLIGRAPHY on FB and thought you gotta look at this… She is also from the UK and I was just delighted with her website and the lovely eye candy… so Click her name above and you can see it too. Or if you want you can see most of it on FB in the Cyberscribes news feed. This is just one of her pieces titled Nautilus and you can see why…it was hard to just pick one to show you but hope this inspires you to go to website and take a look….as Carol Du Bosch would say its worth the price of admission or in this case worth your time.

MEANDERING /MAZE/ ACCORDION MINI BOOKS

Well I am posting these card/mini book idea because I have always loved them and because not all my readers are calligraphers and some of them JUST MAY actually write letters …lol that uses actual postage…any way this first one is terrific for taking your computer and writing a note, a poem an invitation etc. It works best if you work with even numbers for size i.e. 8×8 …..6×6….10×10….and I am fairly certain that you can then set the margins on your computer so that you don’t go over that size..

Now you have your size determined if you are doing it on computer do your writing before scoring and folding and cutting… also if you are simply writing on the paper or stamping or drawing etc..do everything and make sure its dry before you start SCORING AND THEN CUTTING. First you want to score every two inches…then rotate paper and repeat so that you now have multiple boxes on the page if you know ahead that you are going to stamp only small images or write small words then you could go ahead and score paper before you stamp/write so that you got each image or word inside the 2″ square box.. this is the pattern for the meandering book on the left.

The above images are from and Old DANIEL SMITH ART CATALOG and were written and drawn and photograhped by Marylee Bytheriver at least that’s the name on the article and it was published in the DS catalog in 1998….

Once you have cut be careful and don’t cut all the way thru or you’ll have several mini books…lol… this is where I suggest that you do a test first using a piece of scrap text weight paper. DECIDE if you want an all over design or if you want to treat each square as if it’s a page. When you are finished you will probably want to make a front and back cover for this so you would use a piece of mat board, cardboard, heavy card stock and then you might want to cover it…( * how to on that further down ) I would cut it approx 1/2 inch larger than the two inch squares but you could cut it as much a 3/4 inch larger than the square so either 2 1/2 ” sq or 2 3/4 ” sq… if its decorated paper you don’t even need to cover it , but if you have used cardboard you may want to cut a sq for each cover that is at least 1/2 ” bigger than the COVER …i.e. 3″ square .*Center the cardboard on the covering and adhere it with either glue or glue stick…double stick tape doesn’t work as well here… then so that you have nice even folds at the corners…cut off each corner leaving about 1/8 to 1/4 ” from the cardboard corner… Below is a sample …the white is the cover and the Blue is the cardboard …I only showed cutting two of the corners so that you could see what I mean by leaving a little i.e. don’t cut all the way up against the point of the cardboard. Once you have done all 4 corners apply glue or glue stick and fold them in towards the center and because you have trimmed the corners they will miter together just like corner on a frame. Now you have your covers and you can glue them one to each end of your folded booklet again centering the folded squares on the cover do one at a time and then second one will be easier to make sure it lines up with the front one.

TA DAH you now have a mini MEANDERING OR MAZE BOOK… This one came from my dear Friend MARLENE MAJESKI and it was written as a thank you note.

Folded closed it a cute little 2 1/2″ square booklet that came with band around it to hold it closed but you can use ribbon or string also and she did use card stock for the inside and its not hard to fold if you score and crease as you go…but you can use text weight paper or even light weight card stock if you are running it thru your printer be sure you do check to make sure it will in fact go thru your printer. HINT.. if some papers seem not to want to run try removing all other paper from printer and inserting just the one that you want to print on that usually does the trick. Don’t know why but sometimes you have to be wicked with your printer… lol..

This is the booklet closed. Marlene used marbled paper to cover and then used the pieces she cut out for the mitered corners as decoration on the cover besides.

SINGLE SHEET ACCORDION BOOKLET

Ok this one is even easier…. my sample was done using simple text weight paper and as always I suggest you make up one as your sample and keep it in sheet protector so that you can easily re-create it.

I used an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and you will need to fold it in half first lengthwise then unfold and fold it in half the other way….

Again unfold and lay the paper in front of with the 11 ” running horizontal. Then fold each end into the center and crease it.. then unfold the piece and using an xacto or your paper cutter cut the slit down the center thru the two middle sections.

Then pick it up and fold in half lengthwise and push gently to fold it into a small booklet. That’s it…Now to decorate each of the pages you might find it easiest to unfold and decorate one side lengthwise THEN AND THIS IS IMPORTANT…YOU NEED TO ROTATE THE PAPER 180 DEGREES SO THAT WHEN YOU DECORATE THE OTHER SIDE IT WILL BE RIGHT SIDE UP SEE IMAGE BELOW.

This view shows you the view sorta from the top and the fact that it is folded. I first played with this format taking a class from INGA DUBAY of Oregon… I fell in love with it and I have no idea how many times I have used it….I am afraid that if I tell you I have even used it like a letter and using the computer printed on one half of the paper in the little boxes then printed the other half after reversing the paper… I know this might make most of you scratch your eyes out… so stick with writing yourself or stamping images and words. Its fun and interesting to those receiving it. If you want you can even make a cover for it using heavier card stock and cut your card 7″ x 4 3/4 ” Score in the center of the 7″ length ie 3 1/2″ and then depending on whether or not you stamped on the first page you can either adhere both front and back to card stock or you can simple adhere the back to the card stock. You can also make this out of medium or lightweight cardstock and tie it with a ribbon to close or make a belt of a narrow piece of card stock and slip it around the folded booklet. Ok…see that was easy peasy right.

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

A lot of my friends are not always on the best terms with their computer. My friend CAROL CROSE send me a bunch of computer cartoons that cracked me up so if you occasionally want to throw your computer in the river…here are some smiles.

Now that’s a button that I know I can use …and I love my APPLE.

These folks obviously have a PC…lol

This one is for all of you who have ever tried to help your parents or non-digital friends get their computers up and running…

I have a friend who would love this one…

Last one and just cause its so graphic…

Lastly I want to share some back yard photos with you … I love birds and we have been having NUTHATCHES lately . If you have never seen them they are just too cute…first they generally eat from your feeders upside down cause that’s just what they do on tree trunks…and they are fast and gutsy… this one landed on the water fountain on our deck which is a little hard to see in this photo but its a dragon fly and the water comes up thru the center and runs off the wings…well he landed on the tail of the dragonfly and proceeded to drink then bathe in the running water on the wings… and he was only about 5 feet from where we were sitting… and my Hubby took this great photo of him.

My Husband also took this great photo of the squirrel which jumped from bamboo onto the deck railing post right BEHIND MY HUBBY’S HEAD..THESE guys at our house are spoiled rotten…they come up on the deck often just to let us know they are are out of corncobs or out of peanuts…

This photo came from FB and it s shot taken in Wyoming of the Perseid’s meteor shower from last week…we did not have a view like this from Washington but we probably have too much ambient light. It was taken by DAVID KINGHAM over the SNOWY RANGE in Wyoming. Great Photo

Well that’s all for this week…hope are enjoying your summer and GO OUT THERE AND MAKE SOMETHING…

As always thanks for stoppin by….WHCT…aka kath harney

Posted on August 3, 2012 by kath

GREETINGS OLD FRIENDS AND NEW,

Well back on February 27th I posted a blog titled GRACEFUL ENVELOPE and I shared some envelopes that I had entered in that contest. It’s an annual contest and I have entered almost every year since about 97 or 98…I had a winner in 99 and then I have since had two honorable mentions . This is a rather bad photo of the envelope I entered this year.

It’s a bad photo because It was done with colored pencils and charcoal pens ( white) on Brown Kraft paper and that doesn’t photo copy well….the theme this year anything beginning with the letter D.. hence my daisy postage which was purchased from zazzle.com a company which makes legal postage using photos. I know you can send them your photo and have your own postage made so like a photo of new baby , wedding pictures or engagement picture etc, and they have a huge collection of all kinds of images so I fell in love with this Daisy and thought I can match it on my envelope. Well l don’t draw all that well and my daisy doesn’t really do the postage justice but this was my entry and the deadline was April 30th.

And this is the very nice letter you receive if you don’t win or get honorable mention. Mine arrived Saturday. I was disappointed but must tell you that I love entering just for the challenge of coming up with a design and executing it. I have given the link to the web GRACEFUL ENVELOPE web site before but here it is again. You can look at all the previous winners and honorable mentions and on or after August 8th this years winners will be posted and I must tell you that I can hardly wait to see them. So if you are looking for eye candy do check them out. As I mentioned, I don’t enter this every year thinking I”ll win I enter for the challenge of dealing with a small space and finding a way to make the postage work with the design.

EMBOSSING AND PUNCHING WITH METAL

I don’t know if you know it or not but the standard craft stores all carry a variety of thicknesses of both copper and while they call it silver that is really a designation of the color not the metal..in any case the lighter weights work very well for punching and embossing. The lighter weight works better than the really heavy for both the punching an the embossing. I have had no trouble punching the copper I have but I did find that I could not actually use the die cut /cuttlebug to CUT with it does emboss just fine. You need to know that unlike paper which actually stretches its fibers when embossed and once embossed can not really be un embossed, metal can’t really be made totally smooth again but embossing can be pressed out so if you send it thru the mail you will want to use bubble wrap or some type of foam to protect the image. You also need to know that when you are choosing a punch to use you don’t want something that is too detailed..a simple image works best..stars, hearts, flowers, that said I had not trouble punching out the moose… I used it on a card saying I moose you very much.

Well you can see its hard to show the color change but you can see that you will get both a very nice positive and negative image out of the copper. Ok think that covers the punching stuff lets move on to the embossing.

Ok the piece on the top left is embossed in a bamboo pattern. Then you can also see the moose and the butterfly both of them have a nice positive and a nice negative image. Then the next thing I hope you can see is that due to heating the copper you can also see a change in the color. This is why I love the copper because it can be altered in color by heating it with a cigar lighter or a cigarette lighter. The cigar lighter is hotter flame and works more quickly to make a variegated effect on the copper but the cigarette lighter will work just takes a little longer. In either case I strongly recommend you use tweezers to hold the copper so that you can get the effect with out burning the crud out of yourself. And then when you are finished don’t lay it down on anything that can melt or burn as the copper will be very HOT and it can catch paper on fire ( but I am not admitting that I did that) and it will melt plastic …not admitting to doing that either…lol.

I use a MEGA POCKET TORCH..that I got several years ago when I saw a demo of both stamping , embossing and cutting the copper as well as heating it…they had these great little torches for sale very cheap about 6 bucks and no I am not a fire bug just really liked the look and fell of this ..my “go to” AMAZON is out of stock so I have linked you to the only place I did find it . If however, that turns out to be out of stock also I did find a regular torch lighter that is refillable and makes a torch flame so that it will heat faster and give more color more quickly at AMAZON. Actually I found so many at AMAZON that I linked you to the page with all of them… some are cheap some are pricey. I have none of them to recommend as I have not used any of them but as long as they have a hot torch flame they should work just fine. I would recommend that you purchase one that is refillable so that you an continue to use it. Mine was laying around for over 3 years unused in all that time and it still had a little bit of fuel in it still so I went out got a new can of butane fuel and added more fuel and well you can see the results. As I said do be careful with this…if you get one of the torches and you have small children around most of these do not appear to have childproof anything… so don’t leave them laying around! Keep them out of reach.

Now getting the Copper.... well 5mil is good a good thickness and it will punch and cut with scissors as well as emboss. Here is a site that sells it in various sizes but you might want to try at Michael’s and/or JoAnn’s just to see if they have some old packages as it might be cheaper we all know that copper has gotten much more expensive.

Ok so while the Copper is fun to play with you can also cut up aluminum cans like cokes or 7 up cans or whatever color you might want them to be to work with your design. Need a red star.. just using tin snipes cut the top and bottom off a coke can and VIOLA you have red tin to punch stars out of…

So this is a tiny star but you can see that you can punch with it and while you could use a bigger piece and emboss with it I have to say that to do that you would probably want to put it on silver side not the side with all the writing.

Now one last photo … remember I told you I took my BFF calligraphy buddy to the one day event at the CALLIGRAPHY CONFERENCE NORTHWEST 2012…well be both have met a lot of Calligraphers from Oregon and we were lucky enough to run into two that are both very fond of …EDIE ROBERTS and PENNY WHITE…. what a treat neither of us had seen them in years and we had a great if short visit… then Edie graced my mailbox with this delight photo of myself, Penny and Marn… what a treat … THANKS EDIE…

actually think that what looks like Penny’s red hat is actually something hanging from the ceiling in the room…lol…. YOU can see by our smiles we were loving it…

Ok that’s it for this week… AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY …the wire headed cybertoad…aka kath

PS… just got this from Michaels… all the punches EXCEPT Martha Stewart are on sale 40% off… check this out that I bought a jack o lantern like the butterfly and its very cool so think butterfly would be great too …haven’t seen it before…

Posted on July 27, 2012 by kath

WELCOME to your Friday Morning Giggles….

Yeah …this is really true for me…. and this next one…well if it doesn’t leave you rollin’ on the floor laughing …your funny bone is broken…pun intended…lol

ok…. now that the laughter is subsiding…lets get on with the card making. I needed to get you laughing cause while DAWN’S TUNNEL CARD is not difficult and I think you will like it, I am a little afraid that the pattern, photos and directions I send you for mine might just make you throw a shoe at your computer. Its really not that hard but we’ll get to it shortly..First

DAWN’S TUNNEL CARD

OK..its basically just a double card with a reverse fold that pops out and a cut out so you can see in and then the sentiment /or image ( your choice) goes in the center of outside card. Now she is going to show you in the video how she did this but I have my own version of this in which I cut the outside card 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2 ” and scored it in the center but rather than all the extra pieces she cut for her inside version… I simply used another sheet of card stock and cut it 5″ x 8″ so it is just slightly smaller than the outside piece. The inside piece needs to be scored at 2″ 4″ and 6″…then you fold it in the W form and then you use the punch or die cut you want to cut out the piece in the center in my sample below I used an EK SUCCESS punch which is a cross between a flower and a larger wavy circle. ( I have found this at both JoAnn’s and Michaels but this is a link to AMAZON cause I know its there.) Then I put two rows of adhesive tape on the back of first fold and on the back of the last fold on the inside piece then I lay the outside card open all the way, layer the inside card onto the outside card by lining up the center folds..and adhered the left side of the card. Laying the inside fold flat I traced a pencil line in the center around the punched out shape so I would know where to put my piece on the inside. I stamped my inside punch out with birthday message and then taped the back of it and placed it inside the pencil lines and pressed it down… then I gently folded the outside fold so to get a crease on the piece I just adhered. Basically this is exactly what DAWN did in her video…once that is stuck on then stick the right hand side of the inside card down by stretching it all the way to the right and pressing it down. Now fold the total card down and you can decorate the outside of the card. I used an additional layer and die cut of large postage stamp with birthday image stamped on it and a cancellation mark stamp from Seattle. You could also add a canceled postage stamp just for fun… Ok I just basically elimated the extra cut outs on the inside of DAWN’s card … to me this is easier but you have her directions so do what works best for you..

KATH’S TUNNEL CARD

OK this is the part that looks hard but its really not… just takes a little time and prep work but you can do the prep work ahead of time and it will go much faster, I used stamps that I have for Birthday and cut them out and colored them etc… You don’t have to cut them out exactly as they are you can just punch out circles , squares or ovals etc. Another really easy shortcut is that you can use the scrap book stickers or ready made embellishments. One of the best sets I find are by K&C COMPANY STICKERS..lots of birthday images…

OK remember if this one freaks you out ….just breathe and skip over it or if you need more help or something isn’t clear… write to krhblogger@gmail.com AND be sure to give me your e-mail address and I help you with whatever you need.

Now I want to also tell you that that File in the MIddle card…well I tried using a piece of 5 1/2″ x 12… and I scored it at 3″, 6″ and 9″ and then fold it in a the same way as before and you end up with using only one piece of paper. The finished card is then 3″ x 6″ and it will fit in to the envelopes you can get at any office supply store that are 3 5/8″ x 6 1/2″ think your check size.. they are mostly only in white but they are quite inexpensive and this is a fun size to make cards for a difference…if you were not doing the fold in the middle you would cut the card stock 7 ” x 6 and then score it at 3 1/2 on the 7 inch side. This is great for a change of pace and then it works well with long tall flower rubber stamps or a tall tree die cut..etc. Anyway just another option.

Ok one more little bit of humor… I recently went shopping with a friend and during the shopping she wanted to know if I had hot glue gun she could borrow and I couldn’t remember if I had one here in WA …I thought I did so I called my hubby who was at home and gave him three different places in my studio to look for it and he did but couldn’t find it so I said never mind thanks for helping and he said ” NO WORRIES I’LL CALL YOU IF I FIND IT ” now those are words you don’t want to hear cause this means he is going to keep looking any place he wants…not good… sure enough about 15 minutes later he sends me the following text message ”I have a blog title for you: “The day I sent my husband into my studio to hunt for something and he decided I had WAY too much stuff. “ Thats why you don’t send your husband hunting for stuff in your studio..lol.. He is however, very supportive of my habit and encourages me and usually proof reads this blog each week before I send it out.

Ok this last one is not a joke but it is how we should see ourselves.

That’s all for this week. AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY..the wire headed cyber toad…aka …kath

PS… you have to see this… guy drawing with SALT ..kinda like those sand ads on TV.. SaltJoker

A Blog by Kath (Kathy) Harney

Kath (Kathy) Harney's Blog

Category Archives: Eye Candy