create.share.love

book report: February 2015

It's been a while since I shared my last book report. But now I'm back again. In the past few weeks I read some really great books and I'm happy to share them today.

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby: The story covers the life of a young woman who wants to become a comedian. It's more about what happens behind the scenes of a comedy show, when the lights are turned out. I loved reading it and there were several times when I thought that the book talked about a real life person. (I even googled it to see, if that woman might exist). Although the title reads "funny girl", the book itself isn't about a funny story. There weren't many times I had to laugh because of the story. But I really liked how you can loose yourself in following the whole life of the main character.

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion: This is the sequel of The Rosie Project I read last year. It's a fun story, and I had to laugh out loud several times but I liked the first one a little bit better. If you enjoyed the Rosie Project, I highly recommend reading it. You don't want to miss their new apartment (where it always smells like beer), Don's new office (in a bathroom) and how they handle it expecting their first baby (not that well).

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg: I loved that book! I always have mixed feelings about cookbooks without photos. But this one is so much more than a cookbook without photos. With every recipe comes a story. A story that makes you want to try out every recipe (except the ones with bananas in it - because seriously, who likes bananas?). You learn so much about how it was, growing up like Molly in a household where the kitchen plays such an important part. I read the book from one end to the other, but you can easily just open the book and read one short story and close it again. This is definitely what I'll be doing when I'm going to try out some recipes from the book. Molly has a great blog called orangette. The voice of her blog posts is exactly like the book is. And I like it. 

My favorite quote from the book: "Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been and who we want to be."

Currently on my nightstand: Mr. Penumbras 24 Hour Bookstore and Eleanor & Parc.

What are you reading at the moment?

27 handmade items | screen printing

I mentioned on Instagram that this project will be my favorite one if it'll work. Yes, it worked! And it's such a cool project. I didn't use any fancy supplies. I made my frame from scratch and used acrylic color and a credit card. You don't get the same results as professional screen printer get, but you will hold a piece of cool art in your hand that's definitely worth the time creating them. And it's a lot of fun.

There was a question on Instagram about what a screen print is. A very good question. When you google it, you get this answer which says it perfectly:

"force ink on to (a surface) through a prepared screen of fine material so as to create a picture or pattern"

I broke down the whole process in three parts (all in the same blog post). 

Part one covers how you make your frame, in part two I talk about stencils and part three is about the actual screen printing.

PART ONE: MAKE YOUR FRAME

I'm sure there are pre-made frames to buy but I didn't found one so I made my own.

What you need:

• wooden strip. I bought a 2m strip and let it cut at the hardware store into 40cm pieces.
• staple gun
• glue
• ruler
• pencil
• 4 screws
• drill (not pictured) and two drill bits (a smaller one and one in the size of your screws)
• screwdriver
• a fine mesh material. I bought the one that is used for curtains. You just have to make sure it's nylon and the holes are very small. Get the one with smallest holes you find.

Step one: Lay down your wood and screws like pictured above.

Step two: Mark the edges with numbers. We are going to make two different holes. A bigger hole on the right wood and a smaller hole on the left wood to make it easier to put that screw into the wood.

Step three: Take your ruler and pencil to mark the middle of the strip. Then use your bigger drill bit to drill four holes at the points you just marked.

optional: If you have that kind of drill bit that is pictured above use it. This way you have an even surface after you tighten the screw.

Step four: Take your smaller drill bit and drill the four holes at the inside of the wood (see step two). To find the right spot where to make your smaller holes, use a awl to go through the bigger hole and make a mark where the small hole has to be.

Step five: Add glue and then tighten your four screws.

If you don't want to make your own frame you could also use the wooden frame of a canvas. Just remove the canvas.

Step six: Take your mesh (which is a little bit bigger than the actual frame) and your staple gun. I also used some scrap pieces of cardboard under the parts where I added the staples. Stretch the mesh over your frame and staple it down. Make sure it's very tight. Then cut back the excess mesh and add glue all the way around.

And our frame is done.

 

PART TWO: MAKE YOUR STENCIL

I made stencils out of paper and out of thin plastic. The paper stencil didn't work very well. The image wasn't clear and there were also paint spots. I highly recommend using thin plastic. The one I used was a little bit thicker than normal page protectors. Plastic stencils can be used over and over again.

There are three different ways to make your stencil. (1) Use your silhouette (what I did), (2) use your Big Shot and (3) use a cutter to cut the template by hand.

The easiest way is to use your silhouette. This way you can create almost every stencil you want. With your Big Shot you can create some great stencils as well. When you don't have both of these you can also cut your stencil by hand. To create a pattern like the one on the left you can just cut it free handed. To cut a text, I recommend printing the text onto paper, adhere the plastic to the paper and trace the words with a pen. Then cut out the words with your cutter.

 

PART THREE: MAKE YOUR PRINTS

What you need:

• a towel and paper to cover the towel
• your frame
• an old credit card
• acrylic color
• painters tape or duct tape
• your stencils (in all the photos you see the paper stencils. They don't work very good, but you can see them better on the photos)
• paper, magazine pages or anything else where you want to add your print

Prepare your working surface: Lay down the towel and on top of it a few sheets of paper to protect the towel. If you don't care about paint on the towel, you can leave out the paper.

Step one: Attach your stencil to the front of your frame with painters tape. When you use words, make sure you attach them the right way which means that the words have to be back-to-front.

Step two: Turn your frame and lay it down. Now cover the area around the stencil with painters tape. When you use words you should now be able to read them correctly. (like here)

Step three: Add the paper where you want to add the print onto your prepared working surface (towel and paper)

Step four: On top comes the frame.

Step five: Apply enough acrylic paint to your screen. Make sure to use enough.

Step six and seven: Take your credit card and drag the paint across the image. Use a little bit of pressure, but not to much. Go over your stencil multiple times to cover the whole area.

Step eight: clean your screen. It's very important to clean your screen right after you used it. Because you use a nylon screen it's dry within seconds for another round of screen prints.

And you're done!

These are the results I got when I used the paper stencil. Like I said, these aren't clear and there are paint spots.

I got the best results with paper with a smooth surface. The white paper has a bit of a structured surface and you can see how the paint is flowing away a little bit. The magazine paper worked well as well because it has a smooth surface but the paper is very thin.

In the year I'm 27 I want to create 27 handmade items I've never done before. I want to experience new material and try new techniques. You can follow my progress here and read more about how this project came together here.

 

what's inside my knitting case

While I am working on a knitting project I like to keep some supplies close by for easy access. Because I like to see what other people carry in their knitting case I decided to share my supplies.

ZIPPERED POUCH to hold all my supplies. I made my pouch last year with fabric from this remnants package from Umbrella Prints. It has a bottom so it stands on its own.

GAUGE RULER: So important to measure my needles. I use a plastic one I bought at our local yarn shop.

SCISSORS: It was always so frustrating when I didn't have them by my side when I needed them. So I bought an extra one and put them in my knitting case.

CROCHET HOOK: This one gets used to pick up stitches I dropped.

AN EXTRA NEEDLE: When I use a cable stitch I need an extra needle. You can buy cable needles, but a simple needle makes the work as good as the real one.

A PEN: To write down notes (and counting rows) while working on my knitting project.

MEASURING TAPE: Especially when you knit something to wear you have to measure the size of the piece you are knitting. So a measuring tape is a must.

COLORED YARN: I use leftover colored yarn to mark my stitches. Simple and cheap.

SAFETY PINS: I sometimes use safety pins to mark my stitches.

TAPESTRY NEEDLE: To weave in the ends of my knitting project

SOME EXTRA NEEDLES: I use interchangeable circular needles for almost everything I knit. Once a week I go to a knitting class and you never know, which project you are going to start next and what needles you need. So I keep my extra sizes in my pouch.

And that's it. What are your essentials in your knitting case? Do you use a knitting case? If you shared your knitting case somewhere online, link to it in the comments.

how I use my wacom tablet (and a free printable)

I got my wacom tablet over a year ago and I just love it. It makes adding words to my photos so easy. I have used it for many different projects in the past year and can't imagine not having it on hand anymore.

It takes a little bit practice at the beginning because it is different than writing with a pen. For practice, I simply opened a blank canvas in Photoshop Elements (I recently upgraded to PSE 13 and I love it) and started to write word after word. After a while you get used to it.

WHERE I USE MY WACOM TABLET:

• I use it to add my handwriting onto photos for my Project Life spreads or similar projects where I print out photos like here in my week in the life album.
• I use it to add my handwriting onto photos for my blog. I especially like the combination of typed and handwritten words. Take a look here and here.
• I use it to add my handwriting to a card I want to print like our Christmas card or these reflections pages for my one little word album.
• I sometimes use it to create simple filler cards for my Project Life (more about this below)
• And I had the honor to create the handwritten words for Jen's blog

I always use the "pencil tool" in PSE and set the size to 50px. I open a big canvas (A4 or Letter Size) and write my word(s).

Just make sure, that you don't write directly onto the background. Add a new layer first. This way you can select and resize the words you just wrote. If you write on the background you don't have that option.

After writing the words I open a new canvas in the size I want it to have (3x4 inches for example). Then I drag and drop the words into the smaller canvas and resize them. Of course, you could write directly onto the smaller canvas but in my experience it's easier to write with a bigger tip of your pencil. Just use, what works best for you.

One of the things you can do with your tablet is creating simple filler cards for your Project Life. Of course, you could make them also without a tablet, but I like that I can print them as often as I want and that I can make adjustments while creating them (like adding or removing something)

For the card on the bottom right I just duplicated my words over and over to fill the whole card (I'm sure there is a faster and easier way to do this).

And because you are awesome I am offering these four 3x4 cards as a free printable.
(I don't plan to start selling Project Life cards, this project is just for fun)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CARDS
Please note, these cards are for personal use only.

27 handmade items | painted mug

After I saw this cool project on Pinterest I knew, I wanted to paint my own mug some day.You can paint anything onto bowls or mugs; words, quotes, stripes, dots, simply any pattern you can think of. The possibilities are endless. You can keep it simple (like I did) or you can paint the whole surface.

Last week I went to the thrift store and found those two plain white mugs for $1.Then I bought a porcelain pen for $8. 

I bought this marker, but there are many different ones out there. I recommend getting one that has a very fine tip.

My pattern is very simple (just stripes) and I didn't measure anything. Once you added the color to your mug, you can't remove it anymore. So you have to make sure you don't accidentally add color to a place you don't want to have it.

After I painted my mugs I had to let them dry for 4 hours and then they went into the oven for 30 minutes at 160° C. Now they are dishwasher safe. (which I tested, and it works)

On the bottom of my mugs I stamped CREATE SHARE LOVE (I designed that stamp and ordered it through simonstamp.com) and added the year.

In the year I'm 27 I want to create 27 handmade items I've never done before. I want to experience new material and try new techniques. You can follow my progress here and read more about how this project came together here.