An Art A Day 30-day Challenge: Stamped Memo Pads

OH. MY. GOD. It's been ages since I've put up anything here. I tried to make another art blog 'cause I made this blog supposedly to help out polymer clay-ers to find cheap replacements, but now I'm expanding to other arts. I tried to start another blog, but then I got lazy, then I got busy. I'm graduating college! Finally, finally, finally. So yeah, that got me busy, but now I wanna go back to what's really important--arts and crafts. And so, to kick start my life as a bum er, as a college graduate, I've decided to go on a thirty day art challenge. I've missed doing art so much.

Recently, I've been into rubber stamps--and by into, I mean driving myself bankrupt. I saw a sale online, got the stamps, and went absolutely crazy with it, and now I'm hooked. Unfortunately for me, my parents have cut off my allowance now that I'm supposed to be getting a job, so I can't afford to buy a new stamp set every three days. I've done a few with the new stamps I've bought:

I found that fountain pen--in mint condition! I remember it from my days of playing with my mother's office stuff--so I can attest that that pen is viiiiintage. <3

I really like these circus-themed note cards I made. I mean--it's the circus! It's one of my frustrations--I really, really, really, really, really badly want to run away and join the circus. I mean, I'm pretty flexible--but not yet that flexible. But I'm not losing hope that I'd be able to join it one day.

DOILIES. Lace or knite doilies--meeeeeh. I mean, they have their charm, but I've grown up with my grandmother's lace table runner doilies and I'm kinda turned off by them-- although I'm not saying I won't like them soon enough, never say never--anyway, paper and stamp doilies--FTW. I'm in love! It's just so beautifully intricate. 

Okay, bad photo, bad printing--I was just figuring out how to use them stamps here. But I kinda like the look of this--reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera. Hehehe.

Anyway, back to cheapness--what this blog is all about. I can't afford rubber stamps right now, so aside from begging my friends and relatives to pick me up some rubber stamps--any rubber stamps, I googled stuff up and came up with some tutorials on how to make your own rubber stamps by carving them out of erasers! Nifty, eh? Cheap--heck, I just scavenged around our house for some. A little cutting here and there, some inking, and I got these: Fiesta-themed memo pads!

I can't tell you how much I love the effects--kind of a water color-y children's book effect. These are the stuff I used:

-A kid's colorful inking stamp pad-- got it for like 42 pesos. I didn't like the stamps--cheesy animals, but the inking pad was too colorful to pass up on.

-A random pencil that still had a good eraser tip. Cut a triangle shape into it. Voila--my stamp.

-a colorful memo pad. It's about three inches thick and was only 33 pesos--with seven colors! Not exactly ROYGBIV, but I loved the turquoises, oranges and pinks.

Oh the things I could do with all these colors! And it's just the perfect size--I don't have to lug around huge folders to make sure the paper doesn't get folded too much.

I added a little piggy here--I love pigs, and it does suit the whole fiesta thing. Now it sort of reminds me of the Festival of Fools in The Hunchback of Notredame.

Anyway, that's it for the first day of the art challenge. Personally, I don't think I'll use this memo pad at work just yet--I mean, I wouldn't want anyone thinking of me as the crazy crafty lady at work. Perhaps when I cannot hide my weirdness from people any longer. Oh wait. That ship has long sailed already.

Total Cost: 75 pesos, or roughly two dollars. Not bad. :)

Little Discoveries...

Alright, on your way to being a cheapskate, you're bound to make a few mistakes--clay that won't bake, things that are hideous allergy inducing, or maybe even a strange life form in the stuff that you mix. It's bound to happen. Although, you're also bound to find something ingenious as well. Surprised? You shouldn't be. It's called: inventing. Sure, they're probably accidents, but hey, whatever works.

Well, here are a few things I've accidentally invented:

1. Flexible Clay:
                    Remember when I told you that I've never over used cooking oil to condition my clay? Well, I accidentally did recently, and since I'm a cheapskate who doesn't want to waste any bit of clay, I went ahead and baked it. When it came out, I thought I had epically failed. The clay came out soft, even though it was starting to smell a little burnt (by the way, I use a toaster. Ovens are just expensive.). I left them some of them to cool, others, I chucked into water (this is a technique called tempering. Only, in tempering, the water should be ice cold. But since I'm not only cheap but lazy too, I grabbed some tap water and dunked them in.) After a while, I checked on them both, dried the wet ones, and discovered that the clay pieces had become flexible!

Now since this is what I do:

It's really important for some of my pieces to be a bit flexible--specially that Eiffel tower. Here's another picture so you can see how important it is for that Eiffel tower to remain flexible:

See that? Oh, by the way, this is a ring--anyway, in the hands of a klutz like me, that Eiffel tower would break if I didn't take care. I try my best to take care, I really do, but sometimes I can't. And since I sell these things, I can't possibly blame the customer if these things break. And so the flexi-clay (as I now call it--heeheehee) is such a big thing for me. By the way, for those who have started using cooking oil to soften her clay as I suggested in this clay softener replacement post, don't worry--even if the clay is flexible, it remains strong and really baked. I wore this ring today for a whole day of commuting, buying stuff, and other such things, and it came back home in one piece.

Word of Caution: I STILL DO NOT SUGGEST PUTTING TOO MUCH OIL. TRY NOT TO USE TOO MUCH.


2. The Perfect Chocolate Sheen:
               
               Alright, so when I first started using polymer, I mistakenly thought any kind of varnish would work. I bought a huge can of Boysen Varnish, and to make the long story short, it made some of my pieces sticky. SOME. I shall repeat: ONLY SOME. I'll put up a post for Boysen Varnish somewhere later, but just to let you guys know, I'm still using it for some of my pieces which I really want some sort of a plastic-sheen on. Like this one:

See? All shiny and pretty. Anyway, if you ever come across my shop, you'll see that I love making food miniatures. The sweeter, the better. Candies, breads, donuts, pastries, and of course--chocolate. As I scoured the internet for more inspirations in making my sweets, I realized something. REAL CHOCOLATE IS NOT THAT SHINY.

Why, this is borderline dull! I think the only times chocolate is suuuuuper shiny is when 1.) It's dressed by food stylists to make them seem yummier on ads, so we'd buy them, or 2) when it's in semi-liquid or liquid form, like this:

So a little add-on for my previous post for the varnishes/sealants, using Future Floor Polish a.k.a Pledge Wipe n' Shine here in the Philippines gives you a more matte, more realistic finish for your chocolate pieces.

Damn, now I gotta ruin my diet and find some edible chocolate to munch on. >.>

Clay Softener Replacement.

You know, I've reason to believe that the local art shop I frequent hates me. I am really cheap--and cheapskates are not good for business. One of the things we always argue about is that I insist on digging my fingernails into their precious, unsold clay, to see if it's soft enough. Admit it, those who work with clay--it's so annoying and hard to work with hard clay! For me, it almost makes me not want to do anything with the clay. They told me I could buy clay softener if I wanted to. I was like, hell no. I want fresh clay, I want soft clay, I do not want old stocks, and screw you if you try to sell me this garbage. So I checked around the almighty internet and voila~ it did not disappoint me. Say it with me, loves:


YOU CAN USE ANY TYPE OF COOKING OIL TO SOFTEN YOUR CLAY.


I tried it, and it works. Some questions I've had about it:

Q:  Doesn't it ruin the clay?
A: I've read somewhere that if you use too oil, it will ruin the clay. What I do is that I dip my finger in the oil, wipe it off on the clay, then knead it and see how it works. If I need more, I just add more. So far, none of my works have been ruined by it.

Q: Do all kinds of oil work?
A: I don't know--I don't have access to all kind of clay. It works with all kinds of cooking oils though, I promise you. I don't know about baby oil or mineral oil. Frankly, I'm a little scared to use mineral oil 'cause I think it's a little weird. Let me know how it works if you use it.

Q: Won't it discolor the clay?
A: It won't. I've also used it with the sparkly kinds of clay and they maintain their sparkle, even though the uncooked clay may look a little dulled at first. Keep kneading, and it'll be fine.

Miser Mondays.

One of the first things an artists learns in crafting is what type of glue best works with you. That rhymed. Anyway, my journey to find my glue-soul mate has thankfully been a short one. My first romance was with this guy:

All I can say is--may he fall down on his head hard. The glue barely kept my stuff together! I work with polymer and metal, so if this is what you work with too, this glue is not for you.

My next one seemed promising. The salesman told me that it was so strong that it came with a free glue release agent 'cause if it came in contact with  my skin, I'd have to peel off my skin. I told the salesman that if the glue didn't keep my jewelry pieces together, I would use the glue to stick his face to a wall. I went home hopeful, so I stuck two metal pieces together, and went to bed. The next day, one good yank was all it needed for me to realize that 3rd Generation Turbo Glue was not the One. ALTHOUGH. I will not completely discount this. I still used it, and it works very well with polymer to metal crafts. The salesman lied though--one night, I had half of this glue spill over my legs. It hurt like crap, but after immediately rinsing it with cold water, I was able to peel it off easily. It did ruin my clothes though. My denim shorts were fine, but my jersey top was history. A shame--it had a matching mint colored blazer. I'd buy this again, but the price is rather hefty, or at least it is for me. I think I'll put it in the "worth it" category, as it'll last you a long time, as long as you don't decide to use it for a mini leg wax like I accidentally did.

Then came my short-lived fling with the famous E6000. A lot of crafters use it, and it says INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH ON TOP. Unfortunately, I only got to glue one piece of jewelry, before I lost it in my work area. I used it to glue metal to metal, and it popped right off, sadly. Quite hard to get a hold of here in the Philippines, as it comes only in craft stores and not at hardware shops. But at 50-60p, it's cheap, and I believe, effective on clay to clay materials.









I found the One by accident. After running out of Turbo glue, I found myself in dire need of glue. There was a storm that day, and I couldn't get too far to buy the glue. Thankfully, there was a hardware store nearby. I decided to bite the bullet and find some heavy duty stuff there. When I got there, the people were a little confused. This was a heavy-duty hardware, not the ones with prim salesmen, but the ones where construction workers liked to hang out. So they had never heard of my Turbo Glue with free glue antidote. What they had was something else:

Now before I discovered this glue, I had a project that badly needed some strong-ass glue. I tried everything, even that cynoacrylate thing--did I spell it right? But nothing worked. I had some resin on hand for resin jewelry, and I thought--why not? So I used it, and it worked like a charm. Nothing I did separated the two pieces. They were like Romeo and Juliet after I used the glue. So when I went into that hardware store and they showed me this glue--a RESIN ADHESIVE, I went crazy. I bought it, used it, and it did not fail me. Now I use it for all my jewelries. It dries clear in five minutes (okay, wrong picture, get the PLUS FIVE ONE if you really need it quickly), and for projects for which I need more than five minutes, I use the one in the picture. And it's only 45 pesos. Note to those with sensitive skin though--USE GLOVES. I'm allergic to resin, and since I still want to work with it, I have to use gloves. Resin allergy is not pretty, and takes a long time to go away even with a dermatologist-medicated medicine.