Mid-Century Madness

Everybody is complaining about the weather. In Houston we aren't getting the snow that everyone else is, but it is downright gloomy. So gloomy, in fact, that this weekend Captain America said, "Hey, you wanna go to the antique mall?"

I know, right?!?

After checking his forehead to make sure he didn't have a fever or anything, I said, "Heck yeah!" Our antique mall is 85,000 square feet of goodness and it would be possible to spend several days happily perusing the aisles, but I knew I only had about an hour before Captain America woke from his hallucination that he liked antiques and made me leave.

I actually ended up getting a whole 90 minutes to play, because it turns out our antique mall has great hot dogs, so that kept him busy for an extra few. By that time I had picked out these beauties. Aren't they spectacular!

The best part of the deal was that the blue decanter was on half price and we didn't even know it until the gal rung it up on the cash register. Score! 

And so, we walked toward the front door--Captain America with his arms full of a box of glass and me with a face full of smile. But wait! What was that in the front window?? 

Oh. My. Goodness. How did I miss that on the way in? It's orange. It's mid-century. It screams "Stephanie!" AND it was the same price as half of the blue decanter, which basically meant it was free, right? (Someone check my math. Wait...don't.)

So we got them all home and look how fabulous they look together. They make the shelf pop!

Heck, they make the whole wall pop!

Speaking of popping. The other day I was in Barnes and Noble and found this book. Check out the pop of color on the cover. I had to have it! It also was screaming, "Stephanie!" (Did I say Captain America hallucinates? Well, maybe it's me. Don't judge.) 

The book is meant to be used as a coloring book for adults. Apparently that's a thing now--and it could totally become my thing, because check out the cool shapes inside. 

I became so inspired that I grabbed some book pages and my paint pens and got this. 

And then I took my markers...wait I don't think I ever told you. Guess what Captain America got me for Christmas. THIS!! Isn't he fabulous??

So I took those and my white paint pen and made this.

And when you add a frame and a little glass, these guys take me to my happy place.

The Fun of the Hunt

Eggstravaganza is over for another year. And you know what that means. Time to go spend the profits!

You know fate is looking out for you when you walk into an estate sale and the first thing you run across is this book.

I heard angel choirs as I dug deeper and found this treasury...

...all of which will now be part of my estate sale one day. I can't wait to dig into all of them!

While at Eggstravaganza I had the opportunity to see many beautiful displays. It makes me want to up my game the next time I ply my wares. That's why I was really excited to find this old trellis.

It has a beautiful patina...

...and is decorated with scrolled hearts.

The seller even threw in one free S-hook. :)

Which does a dang good job of holding a pretty Easter wreath at eye level.

Know what I'm saying?

Dream Big!

Quick! Name three big things. Here's my list...

1. Daniel Boone (all those of a certain age are now humming a theme song)
2. #1 Son's mastiff, Boss





3. Moby Dick--both the whale and the book. How do I know this? Well, recently one of my Etsy clients asked me to create a book for her and she wanted it folded from a classic, so I headed to Half-Priced Books to see what I could find. They had GIANT copies of Moby Dick right at the checkout, so I grabbed one and lugged it to my car. 

Here's the final product.

It even looks cool with its dust jacket still on.

So how big was this puppy? (Or is that guppy?)

Here is the same word folded in an RDCB. Holy cow! Holding that many pages up while folding really gave my hands a workout.

But bonus! Look what I found on the clearance table while I was at Half-Priced Books. More fun stuff to make!

In the Beginning

The most common question I get asked when someone sees one of my folded books is, "How did you learn to do that?"

The first folded book projects I did came from The Repurposed Library, the book I bought in Palm Springs.

It was a very simple design with a single point fold on each page, similar to those old Reader's Digest Christmas trees we all used make back in the day, but with a book cover. I just used a book I bought at the Dollar Store. Here it is reimagined and sitting in my mother's house.

What I liked about this project was that I got to cover the plain endpapers with scrapbook paper. I learned that I love scrapbook paper, even though I don't scrapbook.

And by love I mean hoard.

Anyway, I started searching on the Internet for more folded book projects. That's when I ran across the work of Isaac Salazar.

The dude is amazing and his Etsy store says,

Unfortunately he is no longer accepting custom orders as he is completely booked (no pun intended) thru the end of 2013. Thank you all for your continued support!

Holy schmoley!

I started printing out his pictures and blowing them up to see if I could figure out how he did it. No luck.

I kept searching, and that's when I discovered Heather Eddy at Rhymes With Magic. She has a GREAT website, free patterns, and very inexpensive tutorials on how to fold books on her Etsy store. In fact, she published a new one just last week.

Heather taught me how to smock books...

(see what a difference scrapbook paper makes!) and twist books...

...and arch books.

And in the end she even taught me how to fold words, like my name.

Obviously she did not teach me how to count because I got as far as S-T-E-P-H and ran out of pages. You will learn that running out of pages is a recurring theme in my work.

Regardless, check out those endpapers! The butterflies are foil and in real life they shine! I think I will go back upstairs now and smell my scrapbook paper. Did I mention...yes, I did.

Anyway, the moral of the story is if you want to get started folding books, start with Heather's tutorials.

~~~~
In today's Books I Read news: There is nothing better than getting a notice like the one I got today from LibraryThing.com.

Congratulations. You've been selected to receive an Early Reviewers copy of Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee by Thomas J. Craughwell from the August 2012 batch.

 

From Amazon:

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves, 19-year-old James Hemings. The founding Father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose” – to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom.

Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in U.S. history. As James apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so the might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative nonfiction book tells the fascinating story behind their remarkable adventure – and includes 12 of their original recipes!

Over 1000 people requested it; only 30 copies available; and I got one of them.

Another book! A free book! We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.

When Fate Pops In

The other day I realized that I have a problem.

OK, another problem. (Did I mention I'm a hoarder?)

I make many of my projects from Readers Digest Condensed Books (RDCB). (Oh yeah, I did mention that I'm a hoarder.) That's because RDCBs have a lot of pages, are easy to find, and have stellar covers!

Case in point, here's Volume 90 from 1972.

Open up an RDCB, however, and it is filled with kitschy pictures like this 

 

 (Harold Goldfluss? Really?) or this

(Fifty Shade of Grey meets The Patriot!)

So these pictures are great fun to look at, but whenever I start a project I have to tear them out or they ruin the look of the folded book. And now I have this...



...a stack of kitschy pictures. A stack big enough to be its own RDCB. I've been trying to figure out what to do with them. And then...serendipity.

A couple of weeks ago we were vacationing in Mendocino, CA (go there!) when I happened upon the Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle's Children's Books (bookstore + vacation = happy, happy, joy, joy!). That's when I found this:

The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volume 3: V-Folds: How to Make Pop-Ups Step-by-Step, Of course! Pop-ups + kitschy pictures = more fun with books! So here's my first endeavor, a greeting card. The outside:



and the inside:

So OK, it's a fairly simple pop-up and it doesn't actually fit in any envelope, but I had great fun making it. I'm definitely sticking with this.

Those of you with kids (or who were once kids themselves) should really check out the Pocket Paper Engineer series. Lots of fun for all ages with tear out projects on every page. I own all three books now. (Did I mention I'm a...yes, yes, I did mention that.) 

 

Oh wait, I just found one of my favorite pictures. Caption anyone?



It's time Michael's admitted it's an enabler

Oh, and I bought another book today while at Michael's. This one is for my reading pile, not my cutting pile.

Don't judge me.

True Confessions

I have always loved books. That's why it came as a bit of a surprise even to me that I like cutting them up, too.

I became aware of this inclination earlier this year while on vacation in Palm Springs. Captain America, my husband, decided to go play golf--again--and as I had had my share of golf courses on this particular vacation, I went shopping instead.

I was only a block away from our hotel when I wandered into a small, indie bookstore. I was just inside the door when I saw this:

Of course the first thing that caught my eye was that thing hanging under the title. What was that? It looked like a book, but it wasn't a book, but it was. I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. I knew right then that whatever it was, I wanted to make one of those.

That turned out to be only one of many fabulous projects in The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti. I quickly bought the book and spent the rest of the afternoon poring through it. I couldn't wait to get home and start cutting up books.

Or could I? Could I really cut up a book? I love books. And by love I mean hoard. I have books stashed in cupboards, on shelves, in cabinets. I even have a library in my bathroom.

Really.

I love/hoard books so much I bought a barcode scanner and cataloged my library so I could put my books in Dewey Decimal order.

Really.

I knew there was no way I was going to be able to cut up my library. So I sucked it up...and went shopping.

Now I have my real books and the books to be sacrificed to the taxidermy gods. I started out by putting these new books on the shelf in my craft room.

And that overflowed to the furniture up there.

And then into boxes.

And now I have a library in my attic.

Oh, and also in the trunk of my car.

So now I am on a mission to cut up as many of these books as I can--the ones in the craft room, and the boxes, and the attic, and my trunk, not the ones in my bathroom--before Captain America takes a trip upstairs and goes a little mental. I'll show you some of the stuff I make with them as I go, and while I'm at it, I'll try to review the books from the other pile (the ones I'm reading). Now, where are my scissors?