flip this

Tonight I went with a bunch of friends to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Cedar Rapids Theater. I had seen the musical previously in NYC with my family and thoroughly enjoyed it, so when Gloria and I saw an ad for it playing in Cedar Rapids, we decided that we had to go. We invited a smattering of people, with 8 of us going in total. And you know what? It was great! We bought the tickets the night of so they were half price ($12 instead of $25), I sat next to my friend Keith who laughed riotously at at the right parts and explained the regional jokes to me ("Columbus Circle is this dinky little town where lots of immigrants live."). When the musical ended we all wished that it wasn't the last weekend so that we could tell other people to come see it, too: the theater was sadly about half full. They had posters and things for other shows that will be there in the future, and I think I want to try and make this thing a tradition. Or something...

After the show we went out to eat at the Dublin City Pub (which was literally one of 2 places open after 5 pm. On a Friday night. Do they not know that after 5 is when people eat dinner? Come on, people. Get it together!) The food was delicious and despite the fact that we were all IDed before we were allowed in, it was a great atmosphere. The music didn't get too loud until about the end, but we were also sitting right by the juke box so maybe it was our own fault? Our waitress was even nice and helpful despite the fact that none of us ordered drinks so her tip margins went way down. What a sport!

All in all it was a great night! Great people, great entertainment, great food, perfect night. I love my friends. Also, Iowa.

Now, back to business...

Staying with the theme of birthday cards, I made this card for my friend Sarah whose birthday actually proceeded Jared's. (Don't worry, she did get the card on time.) Fun fact: Sarah has a twin brother Matt who was the ward clerk in my freshman ward. Small world.

The front. I bought the little cage stamp at Stuff Etc. This was the first project that I used it on.

Here you can see that the cover paper is made from scrap paper, again from Puragory. I love it. The book is a flip book, so this is the first page. Can you guess what it's going to spell...?

Happy birthday! (The complete message read: Happy Birthday Sarah!!!)

Then I wrote a little personal note on the back page.

This was my first real flip book. I would call it a success!

Tomorrow: envelope and letter all in one.

august isn't the only one who can do card tricks

Here are some things that I need to start doing:

• going into work on some kind of regular schedule: this coming and going when I please is nice and flexible but also stressful for me to make sure I get enough hours every week
• drink more water
• eat all my meals: somehow dinner keeps slipping past, uneaten... also sometimes breakfast
• sleeping in my bed instead of on the couches in my living room like a hobo
• changing my clothes every day instead of sleeping in them and wearing them again the next day (ok, so I only did that once, but it really should not have happened: I am not homeless, I shouldn't smell like I am.)
• morning scripture study: I think it'll be better than my sometimes-at-night "schedule" I've got going on right now
• making books because I like to, not because I'm being forced to by The Man

In other news, I made this little baby for my friend Jared's birthday at the beginning of the month. I was inspired by this kid August in our branch who does all kinds of crazy card tricks (he's also the one who hypnotized those girls last weekend: a man of many skills). This card is a flag book, just like the one yesterday, but larger. Also, for a birthday. So, you know, different in every way.

The front...

The crazy, punny inside!

Tomorrow: Flippity floppity birthday goodness.

projects #18, 19, 20: pop-up cards

I've never been a big fan of pop-up cards: I've always thought that they were a little cheesy. However, since taking my class with Esther I've been inspired to look through my copy of Magic Books and Paper Toys. In it Esther has some cute, simple pop-up card ideas, and I decided to try some with the kids I babysit. This served me well when I went into the city for my internship the first day. An Indian book artist and her family were in town and Esther had them come up to the studio so they could share their work with each other. She had two boys, 7 and 14, and they were very polite but clearly bored during the meeting. After a little hesitation on my part, I decided to make some little crafts with them to distract them so the adults could talk, and we ended up making some of these cards, too! The youngest boy came up with some really fun pop out shapes of his own design: he clearly takes after his mother.

Since Mother's Day was coming up (this was about a month ago that I started doing these)  I started with the idea of a heart popping out of the middle. Because it popped out so far you could see inside the card a lot, so to compensate I decorated the inside with multicolored polka dots. The little girls I showed this card to were big fans.

This was another fun card. When you open and close it the bird's mouth also opens and closes. I drew a little nest underneath him to support his tiny body that is supporting his giant head.

Travis, a little boy I babysat once with his brother and sister, made me this version of the bird card. I love how he wrote "cheep cheep" inside the mouth instead of in a word bubble. I also love the little bird feet poking out the bottom!

This card was just a simple pop-out triangle. I'd seen these done where the triangle stands on one point and the opening opens to the sky, making a cup or vase shape, so I wanted to try it the opposite way and see what I came up with. Thus the umbrella card was born. I colored the inside of the card on this one as well so that it looked like the inside of the umbrella. I also drew the handle as if it continued inside as well. Kinda cute, but I'm not really sure whey you would give someone this card. Maybe if you knew an old man who snored a lot? ("It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...")

Here's that same shape facing the opposite way. Of course I had to make it a carrot.

Here's another that's taller and thinner. I drew some little flowers, cut them out, then glued them on to make this card. It's pretty, but it doesn't open flat. Oops.

So, lesson learned, sometimes it pays to revisit an old idea: you can usually find a way to make it better than you thought.

project #16: map cards

I recently purchased an amazing traffic report stamp set on Etsy from seller WhitesHaven. I am in love with them! ("The Forbes Accident Report shows all the details plainly.") And, continuing with the map theme from yesterday, I stamped them on some cards I made out of pages from a tiny atlas Matt found at the dump for me. Yes. Fact.

I am a big fan of using natural features of found paper in the final product. I once made a journal for my dad using paper from a spiral bound sketchbook and instead of ripping the pages out and cutting off the rough edges, I unwound the plastic spiral and used the holes left over as a decorative feature. Keeping in that vein, I unhooked these pages from their plastic binding so that the rectangular holes left behind could be a decorative border along one edge.

On each card I picked a fairly long road and stamped the cars along it, making it look like maybe they are driving on that road on a journey full of adventure! There is a lovely arrow that points the way of their travel to parts unknown. I stamped both the front and back of the cards so that you can decide which side you want to be the front.

I also lined each card with graph paper (the maps were just too dark and dense to allow for writing on them directly) so you can decide if you want your card to open up and down, or side to side. Graph paper is one of my favorite types of lined paper and it never ceases to amaze me.

I made ten of these lovely little cards, but I've got plenty of pages left to make more. Now all I need to do is figure out what to do about envelopes...