Category Archives: Work in progress

Sealing a small package

Posted on in All, Art, DIY, Packaging Design, Rubberstamps, Stationery, Work in progress.

No matter if it’s a small or a big package – sealing them with wax is so much fun! In this video I packed up a notecard set in a semi-transparent paperbag, decorated it with a piece of an old bookpage, some rubber stamps and a red/white twine and sealed it with a black wax seal were I put a small flake of roségolden metal on.

Because of the roségolden metal flake some of the details of the seal get a little bit lost but I don’t think it derogates it.

Love,

-Franziska-

Small illustration

Posted on in All, Art, Graphic Design, Illustrations, Rubberstamps, Stationery, Work in progress.

I made a timelapse video of a small tassel illustration. Unfortunately the end of the video is missing because I was so concentrated on drawing that my smartphone slipped out of my hand. But I think you get a small glance at how my illustration work looks like.

Later I scanned the illustration in high-resolution and made a stamp out of it.

Love,

-Franziska-

DIY: Journal with small stitching

Posted on in Bookbinding, DIY, Rubberstamps, Stationery, Work in progress.

bookbinding, kleinstichtige heftung

In this DIY tutorial I will show you how you can make your own journal with small stitching. It is similar to the exercise book binding.

You will need:

  • cardstock for the cover
  • paper for the journal, 15 sheets
  • scissors
  • two needles
  • a piece of cardstock
  • pen
  • ruler
  • awl
  • bone folder
  • thread
  • beeswax
  • a small weight
  • cutter
  • self-healing mat
  1. Make one section out of the 15 sheets and fold it in half by hand. Fold the cardstock in half with the help of the bone folder.
  2. The piece of cardstock should have the same height as the cover. With pen and ruler mark the positions where you want the holes to be.
  3. Put the cardstock with the marks into the middle of the section and with the awl make your holes. Repeat with the cover.
  4. The thread must be three times the height of the cover. Wax the thread with some beeswax and put a needle on every end of the thread.
  5. Put the cover around the section, lining up the holes. With the section openend up in the middle, put the small weight on one side so your journal won’t slip while you’re working. (The foldback clip is just for making it easier to photograph the tutorial.)
  6. Put one of the needles through the first hole. The thread should have an equal length on both sides.
  7. Put the second needle through the second hole.
  8. Pull all the thread from the inside of the journal through the second hole. Both needles should be on the outside now.
  9. Put the first needle through the second hole from the outside to the inside and make sure the thread is tight. Pay attention to not pierce the thread that is already laying in the whole with yur needle. Otherwise you won’t be able to tighten your thread when needed.
  10. The whole binding is made this way. One needle goes from the inside to the outside and the other through the same hole from the outside to the inside and then pull the thread tight. Repeat ’til only two holes are left.
  11. When you have two holes left you will only need the needle on the outside for the rest of the binding. If you want to you could finish the binding with the same method but I like to change it here because the knot and both ends of the thread won’t be that near to the edge of the finished journal.
  12. With the needle from the outside you have to go through the second to last hole to the inside and from there through the last hole out again.
  13. From the outside go through the second to last hole again. Now you won’t need the needles any more so you can put them away.
  14. Pull the thread tight and make a square knot.
  15. With the scissors cut the ends of the thread, leaving half of an inch to secure it won’t come undone. Here you can see why I don’t like to make the knot at the last hole: the ends of the thread would stick out of the bottom of the journal.
  16. Optional: You can cut the three open edges of your journal with cutter and a metal ruler if you want to. I also rounded the edges of my journal.
  17. Optional as well: I decorated my cover with different elements. With a sheet of this notepad, some pieces of old books, rubber stamps, an old stamp, some bakers-twine and sealing wax.

Have fun making your own journals!

 

Love

-Ema-

Weekly pattern

Posted on in All, Art, Freebies, Illustrations, Pattern, Stationery, Work in progress.

markmakingbluetones

I made a seamless vectorbased pattern out of my blue brushstroke pattern from last week. With the vectorization I reduced the colors to six colors only. So there are six shades of blue in the pattern. On the one hand I liked the effect the reduction has but on the other hand I had to reduce the colors because with to many colors the number of anchorpoints can really go out of control if you don’t do that. You don’t always have to use just six colors. It really depends on your pattern and of course the performance of your computer.

I made a new arrangment with the strokes. This a little bit uncontrolled than it was in the original. And because there are never enough free patterns out there I made four versions for you to download. The blue and rose pattern are landscape format and the green and grey are portrait format. They are all made for a A3 print. Bind some books with them, wrap gifts or make other cool stuff with it!

Of course you can print the pattern in any size you want. Just choose your favorite format in the printer dialogue. If you resize the pattern with your paper format the printer will make the pattern smaller so it fits on your format. If you want the pattern to have the original size, you have to check or uncheck the box for that option in your printer dialogue.

Please resepct that every pattern is just for personal use only. Have fun and you’re welcome to share your creations by making a comment, write a message on facebook or link me at instagram.

 

Love,

-Ema-

Weekly pattern

Posted on in Art, Graphic Design, Pattern, Wallpaper, Work in progress.

This week my marks got wider. I used the same color for every strokes anyway every is different. Once darker the next one is lighter, with dark borders or stripes.

Due to the curved paper the strokes look like a small croft.Another army of watercolor-strokes. These are smaller but they would be perfect for a watercolor seamless pattern. I will do that alter this week.Fountain pen curls made it also into my sketchbook. The whole page is just one stroke. Beginning at the top left and curling it’s way from side to side to the bottom of the page. It just got disconnected when the ink wasn’t flowing fast enough.When you are making marks like these it’s easy to get lost in the motion of your arm and hand and just sit there and watch it happen.My last experiment for making marks was a little wet paperball I soaked with watercolor and rolled it over my sketchbook page. Maybe this one could be a interesting seamless pattern, too.

 

Love,

-Ema-

Weekly pattern

Posted on in Art, Graphic Design, Pattern, Work in progress.

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I combined the marks from last week with some colors, other strokes and marks and areas of color.

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Various directions, frequency and length of the strokes. And tiny triangles of ink coming through the paper.20161012_165540kThe strokes get wider. Due to ink and paintbrush. While the slim strokes of the rapidograph seem to be a unity, the brush-strokes look like single ones. Every one on his own.20161012_165546kAnd the decreasing amount of ink brings in some variety with gaps, stripes and marks in every mark.20161012_165555k20161012_165630kAnother experiment made with a plastic lid and some ink. The way I put on the ink on the lid was directly printed to the paper and is clearly visible.20161012_165623kThe ink was drying out really fast so I couldn’t print the whole lid in every try.20161012_165640kA small collection of plastic lid prints.20161012_165947kSome pages of my sketchbook were filled with simple marks.20161012_170023k20161012_165931k20161012_165957kSomehow the oval was my favorite. That’s the reason you can find it on multiple pages in the sketchbook. In different styles. There are patterns where the oval is made in just one drive and patterns with ovals where I layed multiple ovals over the first.

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At least I made a bigger version of the oval pattern on a 50 x 70 cm watercolor-paper.20161012_171142kEvery one looking a little bit different than the next one.20161012_171153kNot a single one is perfect.

 

Love,

-Ema-