Book Trees Tutorial

We've been making a few new holiday decorations to replace the ones we lost, and these are my new favorite—trees made from old books. Here's how to do it:

Start with a paperback book and tear off the cover as well as any paper on the binding. You can make your tree as tall or short as you want, but be sure to keep the bottom of it flat, by not cutting the bottom edge of the book. This way, your tree will stand up and be sturdy. Draw your tree with a marker.

With a craft knife, begin cutting away the pages along the marker line.

You don't need to bear down too hard, just cut away a few at a time, until you have gone through the thickness of the book.

You can color the edges of the tree or leave them white. If you want to add some color, hold the book closed tightly with your hand, and press an ink pad onto the book. Crayon or marker would work just as well. (Do not use paint, as the pages will stick together once the paint is dry)

Now, the fun part—fan all the pages out. This may take a few minutes, and you might have to work on a few places where the pages want to hold together. Use a paper clip to fasten the front and back pages together. (note: There is a chance the binding will crack (as you can see in the photo below, tree in the foreground). If it does, just handle the tree gingerly. Isn't likely to break off all the way)

These are so easy to make, why stop at trees? Snowmen, Santas, and so many other shapes could be made...

Colorful Necklaces & Some News

Sometimes, when I look at my body of work, I am painfully aware of the lack of color. This perplexes me, because my world revolves around color. My home is painted and decorated in a rainbow of shades, my shoes span the spectrum, and I gravitate towards pretty much anything that is a beautiful hue. My current color of choice is this one:

Somewhere between the time I started making jewelry and now, my pieces have taken on a very, uh, metallic feel. I know that's a bit obvious, but I am feeling the need for a departure (if only temporary) from my usual industrial-meets-organic"colored" jewelry. All those grays and browns of winter and early spring have gotten the best of me, so I'm introducing a little color into my line just in time for summer.

I'm on the hunt, prowling the web for gorgeous stones to frame in silver and oh, is it fun. Wouldn't this make an amazing piece?

In other news, the summer edition of the online magazine Rhythm of the Home was just published. This one is bursting with interesting articles, cool crafts, and all things summer. I contributed a tutorial—check it out here.

(Colorful necklaces now listed in the shop)

Soil: The Tutorial

Last month, when I posted the raised garden bed tutorial, I promised a follow-up tutorial on making soil. It's a bit delayed, I know, but it is definitely not too late (especially for those of us in northern parts).

If you are going through the trouble of building your own raised bed, you're going to want to fill it will the best stuff you can. Hauling a few bags of garden soil from the hardware store can get expensive and is not necessary. I promise you there are many ways to source materials that will form the best growing matter for your plants. Read on!

I have to apologize in advance, as photos of soil, in various stages of decomposition, are not exactly what one might consider eye candy...

Step One: Turn the top soil over. You want to flip under whatever is currently growing in the designated spot, so that it is completely buried. A pitchfork works well for this.

Step 2: Add any and all organic matter you have into the bed. Composted manure, straw or hay, sphagnum moss, regular ol' dirt, and partially composted clippings and leaves are all great to throw in the mix. Use a metal landscaping rake or hoe to evenly distribute and combine it all.

The best thing I had was the top layer of dirt from the chicken run. This was completely composted pine shavings, food scraps, straw, and chicken manure, and it equaled black gold.

If you happen to have some chickens hanging around, make them earn their keep. They will scratch and dig (and poop!) in that heavenly pile, working it into a rich mixture.

Step 3: Wait. And flip, mix, and stir the soon-to-be-soil once a week. By planting time, it will be a bed full of organic, nutrient-rich, free (!) earth.

Here are a few suggestions for obtaining free organic material to help fill your bed:
•Find a horse stable. Many of them offer manure for free, so long as you do the shoveling
•Ask a neighbor if you can dig out some of their compost. (I have neighbors who compost their yard waste but aren't gardeners, so they have little use for all that good stuff.)
•Check Craigslist or Freecycle to see if anyone is offering compost or manure
•Check to see if your town/municipality has a central dumping site for yard waste, and see if they offer compost to the public
•Dig out the chicken coop/sheep pen
•Use this as an opportunity to knock down any raised or uneven portions of your yard, add that to the bed

Raised Garden Bed Tutorial

Now that our yard has absorbed all that water, we can get on with the business of spring (!) gardening.

Remember back when I said we always order too many seeds? Well, this year is no exception, so a new raised bed was in order. Here's how to make our version:

Start with a couple lengths of 3/4" x 7 1/2" wood (2"x 6" boards are standard, but this wood was less expensive, so we went with it), and cut them to the dimensions you want the bed to be (we made ours 5' x 8'). Cut small blocks of wood (from a 2"x 3" board) to match the height of the raised bed, and screw or nail one into each inside corner, making the frame. This will secure the boards together and make for strong corner connections. (Be sure to use only galvanized nails or screws, as anything else will rust.)

Next, screw or nail the boards together where they overlap on the outside.

Before you move on to the next step, you should make sure the spot where you plan to put the bed is level. Use a shovel and/or rake to even the surface out. If the site is not level, water will pool in low spots, and the frame may warp.

You'll need four stakes to anchor the frame into place and strengthen it . "A" took a 2"x 3" board and cut off four pieces at an angle, approx. 16" long each. These are simple and cheap stakes that could be used for many outdoor purposes (we use them to secure our swing set to the ground, too).

Placing the straight side of the stake up against the outside of the bed, use a mallet to pound the stakes in.
You want the height of the stake to be even with the top of the bed, so be careful not to pound it in too far. Place one stake at each corner of the frame. Next, nail or screw the stakes to the boards. This will secure the bed to the ground. The frame for your raised garden bed is now done!

Before you can start planting, you'll need to fill that bed with lots of good stuff. I'll be posting a tutorial on making good soil for your raised beds soon.

Block Printing Tutorial, Part II

The exciting part of block print making is...the printing! You've painstakingly cut away your design and now you're ready to see what your design actually looks like.

Start by covering your work surface with newspapers or plastic, for easy clean up. Put a little dollop of ink on a glass palate (a glass baking/casserole/pie dish works fine, too)— I recommend using water-based printing ink, as it is completely washable and non-toxic. Be careful here, and start with less ink than you think you'd need—a little goes a long way. Roll the brayer through the ink in different directions. Try to spread a thin, even layer of ink on the glass. Next, using steady pressure, roll the brayer over your linoleum, first back and forth, then side to side. Be sure to cover right to the edges and corners of your design.

Next move the linoleum to a clean work surface, ink side up, and place the paper over it. Take an extra moment to line the paper up square with your print before you lay it down.

Gently rub the paper with your hand or, if you have an extra, clean brayer, use that (I bet a rolling pin would be great for this job). Keep your hand flat when rubbing, so you don't press down into the cuts of the design and end up printing something you didn't want (ink can sometimes get into the depressions).

Carefully lift the paper off, pulling from one side. You can take a peek at the print before you lift it off completely, and see if there are any areas that could use a little more rubbing.

The amount of ink you use makes a significant difference in the quality of the print (as shown above), so experiment until you get the look you want.

Now that you have your first print, you can see if there is anything you want to change—raised areas to remove, shapes to refine, design elements or details to add.

Yay, a print! Make as many as you want. Create a custom set of cards as a gift, make tiny prints and use them like stamps. Explore multi-color printing, or try embellishing your black-ink prints with colored pencil. Make limited-edition prints and give them to friends (tell 'em they'll be worth money someday when you are a famous block-print artist).

Useful info I forgot to include in my Block Printing Part I post: Because the linoleum is hard and can be difficult to cut away, heating it up will make it more pliable, and much easier to remove. Toss it in the microwave for 10 seconds, blow a hot hair dryer on it for a minute, or place it in the sun for a while before you start.

Block Printing Tutorial: Part I

I decided to put together a block printing how-to, after getting lots of comments and emails from people expressing interest. It's a cinch to get into, as it requires only a bit of equipment to begin with. Block printing is a fascinating technique that presents new artistic opportunities to explore. Getting to the final product is a unique process that moves from sculptural to two-dimensional.

You'll need a linoleum cutting tool and some cutting tips, a few pieces of linoleum, a brayer, and some block printing ink. I found a great starter kit, which includes everything you need, here.

Draw your image directly onto the piece of linoleum. Start removing the material, little by little, always pulling away from the item you are carving, and towards your body. Keep the fingers of the other hand clear of the path of the cutter, as it can slip. Rotate the linoleum as necessary to make this easier.

The linoleum can sometimes be tricky to remove, but the way the tool is held is important and the process will go much smoother if you do it right. Hold the cutter so that the ball of the handle rests in your palm, and use your pointer finger to help guide and control the tool. Hold the tool at only a slight angle and pull gently. If you have the correct angle, you will feel the cutter doing the work and you won't have to pull so hard. It will take some time to get a feel for this. Keep a gentle grip on the cutter. It's easy to find yourself holding the cutter too tight which will result in deep cuts and a sore, tired hand.

A word about words: keep in mind that any words you include need to be carved in mirror image (see previous images), lest you end up with this.

Continue to remove the material, using a variation of cutting tips as needed to get the desired image. Explore texture and negative space, as well as composition and design, and have fun!

Linoleum pieces can also be purchased mounted on wood, and I find that the mounted pieces are a little easier for the kids to use—it's more for them to hold onto as they carve. Alternatively, you can mount a piece of linoleum onto wood yourself with some contact cement.

That's the cutting/carving portion of block printing in a nutshell. My next post will describe the inking and printing process.

Love Pickles

I do love pickles. But I am talking about Pickles, the Etsy shop and blog. Heidi and Anna are the Norwegian craftsters who run Pickles. They describe themselves as "knee deep into craft" and, based on all they have to offer, I would say that's a pretty accurate description.

Their online shop features organic hand printed cotton items for baby and knitting patterns like the one for this adorable "Oh, Handsome" sweater (pictured above).

The blog, a "knitting, crochet, cupcake and craft blog" is chock-full of free patterns and craft project tutorials. Check out the instructions for the the Puff Daddy Knitted Stool and the Whirl-It Lampshade—my favorites.

Pickles has a new venture as well—they'll be selling their favorite yarns in a new online shop opening soon. It promises yarn that's "soft and pretty, but not pricey." That sounds good to me. I'll let you know as soon as it opens.