Monthly Archives: July 2023

About me, Crafting

When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes…

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…and lungs, and hair, and the air filter in the furnace because your using the fan to help circulate air from the window AC. I left the fan on when I went away for three weeks. When I came back the filter was seriously clogged from the wildfire smoke. I changed the filer and three weeks later changed it again. It was not as bad as the first but still worse than when I run the furnace for a month.

It was funny because the filter is rated to up to 90 days. It’s only been 18 days since I changed the filter and its about due to be changed. But you know, climate change isn’t really a thing. Yeah, and my sarcasm knob is turned up as high as it goes and that’s not high enough. I’m just as at fault as everyone else.

I have two ceiling fans going on the main floor and a window fan in the half-story blowing hot air out. The furnace fan pulls cool air from the window AC when it’s on and circulates it from the air returns along with air it pulls in from outside through the ground floor.

I drive too much. I would drive less but not every bus will get me where I need to go even with walking some distance. I do try to consolidate trips and confine them to one area at a time. The city revised the bus system so there are now fewer routes that just circle the city and some of the places I could go by bus within an hours time take almost twice as long because there’s no longer a direct bus.

Well, back to business. There will be more crafting news coming. The problems I’ve been having are just about resolved. I should have more time now. There is still a lot of smoke in the air. Breathing is rough. Eventually, the fires will burn out and the air will clear, until next time.

Crafting, Paper Crafts

Faux Leather for journal covers

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Only two members showed up for my faux leather session. We were turning paper grocery bags into a leather textured material for journal covers.

There are a number of videos on YouTube and several blog posts about the process. The technique we used consisted of opening a bag’s seam, smoothing it somewhat flat, and trimming it into a rectangle. Then it was sprayed either with plain water or a mixture of water and a softening agent such as glycerin, hair conditioner, or hand lotion. We used hair conditioner mixed one part conditioner to two parts water in a spray bottle.

After spraying the paper, we crumpled it and squeezed it in several different directions to form wrinkles of varying sizes. We smoothed our papers, sprayed the paper with more of the conditioner mixture, and crumpled the paper again. We smoothed and sprayed and crumpled until we were satisfied with the texture.

Our next step was to smooth the paper, and dab diluted acrylic paint in various shades of brown onto the surface with cosmetic sponges and brushes. We used a heat gun to damp dry the paper and apply more paint. Once we were satisfied with how our sheets looked, we used a heat gun to dry the base.

Once the surface was dry, a couple of coats of Mod Podge were applied to give a shine like finished leather to the paper, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next coat.

The faux leather is somewhat fragile and should be lined with something like muslin or even paper. The lining should be glued on with a glue such as Beacon 3-in-1 or Aleene’s Fabric Fusion if using fabric or Aleene’s Tacky Glue if using paper as a lining. I also advise sewing the faux leather and lining together around the edges after trimming the piece to the size you want.

The faux leather can be used as a binding for a journal. It can be cut into shapes for embellishments. And with care, can be used for earrings if a stronger sealant is used on both sides. It won’t be something to be used for items that get a lot of handling or wear, but you can experiment and find out what works.

A sheet of Faux Leather from a grocery bag.
A journal covered in Faux Leather.
Stuff

Smoke gets in your eyes…

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…lungs, furnace filters, air conditioner filters, car engines, and other things. The Canadian wildfires are wreaking havoc everywhere. In my case, the smoke is triggering asthma attacks. I’m a coughing asthmatic, not a wheezer. I don’t have regular attacks because I’m generally as active as a slug. But all the smoke in the air caused me breathing problems.

So I cough. And then my chest hurts, but not bad enough to go to the doctor. Right now all the windows except one are shut. That one has a fan to send the hot air upstairs out. I’ve been running the furnace fan to help circulate air. It does pull air from outside so I’ve had to change the filter sooner than normal. I was gone for a couple of weeks and when I checked the filter, it was a serious mess, almost completely clogged.

The filter is changed now and we’ve had a little rain. The air quality alerts have been cancelled. However, with the fires still raging, air quality may go down again. Eventually, the fires will die down, but the cycle will repeat.