Category Archives: Paper Crafts

Shadowboxes and Paintings

March 28, 2026 Sylvia Leave a comment

My shadow box swaps of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are nearly done. I still need to make labels. I’m thinking of using cuts pieces from aluminum cans to make embossed title tags which will be attached to the top faces of the frames.

These were just a wacky idea I had for using leftover papers from two cardstock bundles. I’ve already done tunnels books using these papers. I sold the Wizard of Oz tunnel book at my last sale as well as a smaller Alice tunnel book. I still have the larger Alice tunnel book.

I’m 2 days behind already with my new painting project. This week has been more busy than usual with two different mechanics to deal with a car problem, a doctor appointment, a lab appointment, and temporarily not being able to use my main arm due to straining my rotator cuff while prepping fresh veggies for the week.

The shoulder is less painful now. But I haven’t been as careful of that shoulder as I should be. I most likely should have had the surgery when I was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff. Instead, I settled for 4 years of on and off physical therapy on the university’s dime because my boss wouldn’t believe me when I told her I couldn’t do certain motions during the move to our new space. I can be petty.

I hadn’t had too much trouble with that shoulder until recently. I’ve lifted more than I should trying to get my craft room back in order. I moved the guest bed back to its corner in an attempt to encourage the boomerang child out of the house.

He still can’t find a job. My thought is that in spite of a population of a quarter million residents, we still live in a place that’s more like a series of small towns where people in my son’s field know him as unreliable. I don’t think he’s worked more than a year at any of his jobs. There could also be the matter of his alcoholic past. The only reason he’s not drinking is he has no income except for selling plasma. That barely supports his smoking habit.

There’s not a lot I can do to help him, except maybe to trade him for my oldest grandson who’s not doing that well either. He lives in a town with two gas stations and a Walmart. Not much opportunity there. There used to be three grocery stores and some small shops, but nobody has any money, so no jobs. What a great time to be alive! /s

Painting & Drawing, Watercolor painting

I finished my 100 paintings before my end date.

February 16, 2026 Sylvia Leave a comment

Some are better than others mostly due to my physical and mental states changing during the year. Sometimes I was unable to paint what I had envisioned. Or my hands could not coordinate with my eyes, so what I painted didn’t look like the image I was using as a reference. I actually painted more than a hundred but some were torn up and tossed. Others were used to test colors.

Some of the earlier paintings are based on images from an old daily calendar that had around 300 images of artworks by various artists. A few were based on local photos like the hydrant and the pizza oven above.

There are a lot of cat paintings because I’m the cat lady of the family. Some plants, lots of wonky houses make up the rest. I started adding people toward the end. Maybe for the next paintings, I could do more people.

I haven’t decided what my next project will be. I was thinking larger paintings – maybe one a month. Or mixed media collages. I’ve given myself a week to figure it out. I may schedule a show at the makerspace for September. I do have a lot of watercolors and mixed media pieces I could display.

Bookbinding, My own damned opinion., Painting & Drawing

I’m a bit behind in my paintings

May 24, 2025 Sylvia Leave a comment

Partly because I was setting up my studio, and partially because I’ve been in a lot if pain lately. Probably because of setting up my studio and too much lifting. I keep forgetting I’m old.

I made a book to hold the second group of paintings.

This one has 26 pockets to bring the total to 50

There are cats for the most part.

I’m currently 2 scheduled paintings behind. I’ll catch up. I’ve also been clearing out fabric scraps at the Makerspace. I’ve emptied one bin and have the bin equivalent in unusable scraps in a trash bag to take for recycling. I still have two bins to sort.

I’ve been winding the lengths I’m keeping on pieces of mat board and standing the wound fabric upright in the bins. It’s much easier to see and touch the fabric. I didn’t bother to measure the lengths. For right now, I just want to get usable fabric organized. You wouldn’t believe how many tiny scraps were in the bins. Why was someone saving a 2” by 2” scrap of felt?

There were all kinds of tiny scraps. I suppose they could have been stitched into a “crazy quilt” but I doubt it would be worth the effort. If one of our sewists wants to take the bag and stitch the scraps together, I’m all for it. I have my own bag of scraps waiting for me to sew. I don’t need to add to my hoard.

I hate to give stuff to Goodwill. One of the local agencies gives vouchers to women to get clothing there. But the pricing for the donated items has gotten outrageous. Or so I’ve heard. I don’t shop there. I’m going to check with one of the local Hospice organizations that operates a resale shop. If they will take my clothing, I’ll give the extras to them.

My next project needs to be weeding out my closet and dresser. I probably have enough extra clothes to dress an entire homeless women’s shelter. My youngest granddaughter took half of my sweaters. She would have taken them all, but she doesn’t wear v-necks.

I almost never wear anything but tee shirts, flannel shirts, and an assortment of leggings, knit pants, and sweat pants. If the clothing exchange still existed, I would take my stuff there. When I retired, I gave them 7 bags of my work clothes so women who needed nice clothing for work could make use of them.

Tomorrow, I’ll take pictures of the studio.

Mostly me, Painting & Drawing

Where did I leave off on the paintings?

April 15, 2025 Sylvia Leave a comment

They’re not all good. Painting such tiny paintings is tough. But I hope that by the time I paint 100 of them, I will have improved. I’m scheduling my life now. I have so many unfinished projects and so many unused craft supplies that I could open a second-hand craft store in my garage.

I’m running out of time. I probably only have ten or twenty years left, or an hour after I leave the house. I don’t want to leave a giant pile of craft supplies that will be tossed away. I don’t want to die and leave the neighbors talking about the craft supply hoarder. Recognition of the problem is the first step even as I sit here trying to decide if I really want to spend money on some more paint markers.

There’s a void I’ve filled with stuff like that. I think it goes back to the nomadic life of a military dependent and oldest of way too many siblings. Everything I had had to be shared. I had nothing for myself. Dolls, games, art supplies, books, and even clothing. The only thing I have left from my childhood is my original birth certificate. I don’t even have my baby pictures any more. That’s the only thing that is not my parents’ fault.

My daughter took my pictures and albums to make a scrapbook of my life. She didn’t get to create it though. Her house caught fire from an electrical fault and everything was lost, including my baby book and photos. A few charred fragments were found outside afterwards, but everything else was gone.

You may ask “doesn’t your family have some of those photos?” Well, no. The Crazy Lady ( mother, dearest) burned everything in the fireplace during her mental collapse. Paintings I did in college which were in stored in the attic — broken, torn apart, and burned. Actual furniture from the living room — burned in the fireplace. Clothing, books, whatever — shredded and burned.

Her fragmented mind created fantasies — people were breaking into the house and taking things or leaving things, the children living at home had been replaced, but sometimes they came back. My father tried to get her help and take the kids, but no. This was the olden days where mothers got to keep the kids in the divorce. He almost got them, but her sister spirited them away to California where her other siblings and her mother had settled.

Why am I telling you this? Probably because I’m just as crazy, but in a different way. No one is out to get me. People aren’t talking about me or looking at me funny. Well, no more than they would any other white-haired older woman dressed in tee shirts and leggings, wearing a ball cap. Comfort first, looks second. At least I comb my hair.

I think I’ll go get those markers.

Newest of the series. So far, I have 17 out of 100.

Crafting, My own damned opinion., Painting & Drawing, Watercolor painting

A bit behind.

April 10, 2025 Sylvia Leave a comment

As usual.

I’ve been offered a small press for block printing for my area of the maker-space. I’ve been asked on tours if we have such a press. A member offered me a small one. I have a few people interested and I have money to purchase it.

I had been thinking about re-purposing my heat press into a printing press for my own use. I would merely use the pressure plate without applying heat. If the small press gets even moderate use, I will invest in a larger one for the area. When I give tours, I am occasionally asked if we have a printing press. It would be nice to say yes.

I finished a few more paintings. One of my maker-space friends and I sat painting and talking while I was waiting for members to show up for needed help. My office hours aren’t too busy, but I find that having the regular hours helps those who are interested in the craft area.

I included the (butt) pear painting under the improved painting.

I didn’t leave until almost 2 in the morning. I didn’t have to get up early since I don’t dog sit anymore. My taxes are finally done and sent. Whoopee! I did forget to file my sakes tax return so I got a bill for $600+. I’ll get it sorted. I didn’t do any sales last year which is why I forgot. I usually complete the form when I’m setting up my tax folder for tax season,

Here’s an interesting article I found online which contains clues about why our delightful congresspersons, the Muskrat, and Fearless Felon can’t conceive of the needs of normal people. It’s not primarily because of the wealth they’ve accrued, but because the power they gain from that wealth affects their brain and lessens their empathy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/

I guess I should be glad I’m not wealthy. I would hate to become someone who cannot empathize with people.

My own damned opinion., Painting & Drawing

I got caught up with my painting

March 27, 2025 Sylvia Leave a comment

Latest small paintings – numbers 8 through 10

Hopefully, by the time I finish number 100, my painting skills will have improved. Working small is a lot harder than I thought. That pear looks like a butt and the strawberries look slightly moldy. As I get better, I’ll probably redo these early ones.

I’m using a limited palette – 12 colors . I still have trouble mixing colors in such tiny quantities. That should improve over time as well. If I didn’t have to be so concerned about money, I’d sign up for a watercolor class that’s being offered this spring for $125.

I’ve taken classes from this instructor before back in the olden days, pre-Covid, but with the uncertainty about what’s happening with Social Security payments, I can’t take the chance that the checks won’t be delayed or otherwise messed up.

And I don’t believe all the ads and videos that talk about Social Security stimulus checks and payment increases going around social media. Until the money is in my bank, it doesn’t exist. Not when government services are being trashed right and left by someone who shouldn’t be anywhere near our government agencies.

I saw a TikTok of some nut-job billionaire saying that if his mom doesn’t get her check, she won’t call SSA because only fraudsters would call about missing checks. Obviously, he has no clue. I can tell you if I had billionaire son, I would call him first and then spend as much time as I had to, on hold with the Social Security office.

The wealthy have no clue. The phones would be constantly ringing with pissed off old folks wanting to know where their damned money is. The rich are just selfish and greedy. The only reason some of them give generously to causes is because their accountants do some shifty accounting so they don’t pay an equal share of their income in taxes.

Okay rant over.

In other news, the sibs are planning a reunion this summer and have some crazy idea that they need to figure how to get me out there since I “don’t drive.” I’m not certain why they think I don’t drive, but I’m not going to tell them differently. I don’t need to be around people who were brainwashed by my mother to believe I’m incompetent, lazy, and difficult. It took a long time to shed all the toxicity from growing up. I don’t need to be reminded of it by them.

My own damned opinion., Painting & Drawing, Watercolor painting

My second painting

March 1, 2025 Sylvia Leave a comment

I’ve done my second painting of the 100 Painting project. This one is based on a photo from the road trip I took with two of my sisters in 2023. It’s a view of the Devil’s Tower. It’t not a great painting. I need tinier brushes. And a steadier hand.

I’d like to make another trip out there to take more time to walk around. Since I wasn’t in charge of the trip, I didn’t get a chance to hike around it. I really wanted to see where the aliens landed – that’s a joke folks. The area around the other side of the rock isn’t large enough for the facility they showed in the movie.

It’s not that I don’t believe there’s life out there. There has to be. However, once we start exploring the galaxy in ships, I think we’ll only find remnants of life if we find habitable planets. Just as any species who travels here will probably find our dead cities and dry oceans.

A galactic federation sounds like something to strive for, but humans can’t seem to get over their petty differences and there’s no real reason to believe any other civilization would either. It would be nice to learn there are others, but I don’t think humanity, or at least the corner of where I live, would not be able to accept that other beings exist. Some – far too many – believe the earth is flat, that vaccines don’t work, that the ugly bits of history don’t need to be taught, that our government is the best, and the rest of the world doesn’t have anything like what we have.

In some respects, we’re right. Many parts of the world don’t have citizens who work for wages, who can’t afford food or housing. Most other countries’ citizens don’t go bankrupt when they need life-saving surgery or a ride in an ambulance. Other countries don’t have to worry about their children getting shot during their school day unless it’s a war zone.

It is my belief that out beyond the Oort cloud, there are beacons warning other civilizations not to stop to visit Earth because it’s too deadly an environment for civilized folks. And for all they know, the crazy might be contagious. Periodically, a science vessel may stop by to collect data and to update and upgrade the warning beacons invisibility shielding.

Crafting, Paper Crafts

Paper making

July 12, 2024 Sylvia Leave a comment

I’m teaching a class in basic paper-making on July 20th at the maker space, it’ll be making pulp with the contents of my shredder. I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve done classes like this before.

Once I did a demo for another organization using flowers and herbs embedded in the pulp itself. That was very successful. Papermaking is easy to do, particularly if you have a paper shredder. Turning the shreds into pulp is a great way to prevent identity theft.

Run your shreds through a blender, scoop the pulp up with a specialty frame and press out the excess water with a few weighted objects. Once it dries, random letters may appear, but there’s no way to piece together anything with usable information. I’ve seen tv shows and movies where they painstakingly piece together shredded documents, but the reality is, it would take an incredible number of hours to gain useful information.

I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s unlikely for regular people to have their shredded documents pieced back together when there are easier ways of recovering data from computers and phones. But movies and television featuring criminals and spies would be less exciting to watch.

So – now that I’ve wandered off track — I have two sessions planned for paper-making, about a month apart. I have a brand new press to try. I’ve been using a wooden press I acquired many years ago. It’s just two pieces of wood with carriage bolts on the corners that get screwed down. The wet pulp is not particularly good for the bare wood. I also have two bamboo cutting boards that I stack bricks on to use as a press. The bamboo is less prone to the water damage, but still not ideal.

I almost had a 12-ton hydraulic press, but I couldn’t figure out where I would store it at the maker space. It would have been free, but by the time I figured a place for it, it had been sold. It might have been overkill for making paper. It certainly would have flattened it.

So far no one has signed up for the classes. Monday, I’m taking samples and items made from handmade papers to show what can be done. I hope that helps. Otherwise, the classes will be cancelled.

Crafting, Paper Crafts

Faux Leather for journal covers

July 18, 2023 Sylvia Leave a comment

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.

Craft Fairs, Paper Crafts

The sale went great.

June 3, 2023 Sylvia Leave a comment

I did well with sales. Some of the vendors had large objects so they undoubtably made more money from a single sale than I did with my many little ones, but I was pleased with the results. I finally found the right venue for selling one of a kind books.

I feel I had enough products to give people choices of styles and sizes and a good variety of book types from sketchbooks, to journals, to zines with different types of binding methods and pages. No one bought the faux leather journal, but that’s okay. There were questions about it and several people expressed an interest in my book making classes.

All in all, I feel I had a successful and profitable sale.

Sillytoes Crafts