Ah, tissue paper. It’s the wrapping tissue I’m talking about, that thin, translucent paper used for packing, wrapping, or protecting delicate articles. In Sweden it’s called silk paper (silkespapper). I don’t have a huge collection of it, but the plastic folder I have containing tissue papers is a little treasure among other papers in my stash. The reasons I love it so much are mainly:

* It’s transparent therefor perfect for layering in collage
* I like the feel and sound if it: it’s so thin that it rustles when you touch it.
* It’s extremely cheap if you’re collecting it at birthday parties and Christmas gift un-wrapping of gifts!

Plain tissue paper with a brownish tint (I think this one was found in a shoe box once), and some polka dots that I’ve actually bought at a craft store (not free but still I had to have it, I adore polka dots!).

Last month I made Paper Cloth using fabric and tissue paper that eventually ended up as really cool layered looking Postcards. If you want to make paper cloth check out my tutorial for inspiration! It’s messy but fun. And now I’ve got another reason to enjoy tissue paper - I’m paining it to make pretty background papers! First a layer of gesso, then some paint. Amazingly fun to do!

Look:

The crusade to paint on tissue paper has been a revelation. How can painting on something so fragile be so fun? I have no idea so don’t ask me. Its just fun. Fun fun fun! Just try it for yourself and see if you like it.

When the paper is wet its difficult to handle, but once it has dried it becomes stronger and more fabric-like. I bet it would be fun to sew into this material. I’m going to try that next. I’m also experimenting with the transparent gesso (!) I bought for Suzi’s class. Cool stuff. There are always many more experiments to try. I hope I will never sit down and say: what to try next? Horror!

Anyway, whats next? I once bought some big letter stamps and almost never used them. I tend to forget my stamps. Today I took them out and stamped some letters on the painted tissue paper because Michelle Ward suggested it. Her favorite way to used painted tissue is to cut out stamped letters from it. I thought that sounded like a fun idea.

Tadaa! With black acrylic paint I stamped these letters. You were supposed to “have a plan” for your page but I seldom do. I forgot what my plan was anyway when in the flow. I love getting into the flow process of creating a colorful journal page. The result looks like this:

Tissue paper experimenting, first page. More detail photos below.

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I participated in an annual zine swap set up by Alma Stoller called I ♥ zines last year. I got a whole package of zines and yesterday I talked a bit about the zines that has a clear Mail Art Theme. The Art subject is a bit more loose but evident in the rest of the zines I recieved. Let’s have a closer look at some of their ideas today!

Zines about Art

Art offers a great theme for any zine you make, and you can include just about anything inside. You could just pick any subject that you are currently in to, and make a zine about it, for instance your favorite artist, or a specific period in history, or art material, or mixed media or art blogs, or art museums or… Making a zine is an art form in itself if you ask me!

The zine “Shape” is a handmade zine “considering images, ideas, art, negative space, positive impact and creative living” made by Deborah that I’ve bought a zine from before, called Personal symbols. The cover is made out of a huge color chip and a cool Japanese stab binding. A zine can really be any size and made out of anything. It’s only your imagination that sets the boundaries.

Art Journals: the zine is a very oblong sized zine with made by Kara, who kindly sewed in her moo-card to the first page! Most of the pages are hand written art journal looking pages that are color copied and made into a zine. One spread is about carving your own stamps, another has links to youtube videos about journaling. The last page is a photo of Kara’s shelf filled with notebooks and journals – just yummy. And in the last pocket there were a lot of goodies like rub-on letters and the cutest paper doily I’ve ever seen!

Manual Dexterity Zine is a small sized well designed zine by Lelainia in Canada. It’s got a little bit of this and that, an article about her creative space, music suggestions for creative times and some full color copies of cute art she made. I really like the size and feel of this little zine! You can have a view of this zine at her flickr photostream and in her blog the Tattered Edge.

Purs*able zine (meaning a small zine able to fit in your purse!) is made by Sally (See photos above). The fall 2009 issue 3 is all about gesso paint! The cover is heavily painted (a mix of gesso and acrylic blue paint I think) and then decorated with homemade walnut ink that was splattered all over everything and on every page in the zine ( recipe included inside). All the information is taped in and almost each little printed paper can be lifted to reveal more text flaps on each page. Reading it is like doing a puzzle. I like that this zine rustles when you touch it, and that the back pocket is filled with notes with creative holiday ideas and other artful ideas. Adorable stuff, I promise.

Doily and examples of gesso mixed and layered with paint.

Fig Zine (art in the everyday) is a extremely cute one by Michelle. Just like my zine this one is done with a computer for the design; with page numbers, list of content, articles and images both in b/w and colours. It includes cute bird art, haiku poems and an article about finding art in everyday life. It’s just adorable!

Paper Rat Zine is very one of a kind unique zine made by Carol of Swallowcliffs Art Studio. Carol is a true paper pack rat for sure and her zine is like a sampler of that. It includes cool paper experiments, a stamp and her own paper made from plant fibers, a small notebook to take out, an extremely cool apple in Iris fold, a autumn card, cut out kirigami, original collage, two sets of paper dolls to play with, a tape transfer, a paste paper recipe, a yoyo in fabric and lots more examples of what you can do with paper! My favorite is the flower fold envelope included, I’m going to make copies and use in my Art Journals and notebooks for sure. My mom, who also have been enjoying my zines, has already made a flower envelope and used it in her own inspiration book!

Odd ball Charm is Alma Stoller’s own zine, and as always it’s filled with inspiration, I’ve written about her Odd ball Charm zine in a post back in 2008 where you’ll find some early zine thoughts from me. You can buy this zine and other back issues in Alma’s Etsy shop! I don’t know how she does it, but even though the projects are small craft projects that I might have passed if they were tutorials online, I just want to indulge in the little things she presents in her zine. Make that odd fabric bird or the embroidered portrait experiment. Since reading Alisa Burks interview with Alma I’m also really thinking about doing at least one embroidery of a glossy magazine, inspired by Alma’s Glossy Project. It is just so cool, and mmm, embroidered!

Zine Resources:

If you’re interested I think you should check out some of these links. You’ll find tutorials, more ideas and lots of yummy zine inspiration!
* Zine basics article by Aisling D’Art
* I ♥ zines - The Big Zine Swap Blog
* How to make a zine - article and tutorial by Alma Stoller
* Alma’s Squidoo Zine Information with some more links
* Zines for sale at Etsy (warning: it’s easy to buy from etsy, and a zine cover makes you so curious that it might take lots of will power not to buy at least a few of them so don’t click if you’re short on money right now… You are warned!)
* Zinesters - people who make zines has a flickr group too, I joined it long before I made a zine of my own just to check out what cool stuff people make and share there.

Or just google “how to make a zine” and you’ll find lots of diverse links and inspiration.

One of the rules in this zine swap that you should include something “a little extra” inside your zine for the recipient to play with. When taking everything out from the 10 zines, this is my haul. Wow, there are lots of yummy stuff right?!

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A tyvek envelope containing 10 handmade zines jam packed with goodies, articles and creative inspiration!

Going through my pile of zines, again and again.

I participated in an annual zine swap set up by Alma Stoller called I ♥ zines last year. I got a whole package of zines in the beginning of February this year (quite late but totally okay with me). All of them are just super cool, creative and wild. I had such fun reading through them, taking out the little gifts and finding inspiration. I couldn’t just file them away in my drawer so I thought I’d share some photos and thoughts about each one with you guys.

I got all of these in the zine swap. I’m a smart girl for signing up.

Maybe you’ll be inspired to make a zine on your own or together with a few friends, or maybe buy a few zines on etsy? There are so many yummy issues to pick from. Or why not make a wove to sign up for the swap next autumn. Now is the time to start planning your zine, writing articles, collecting images and ideas, dreaming it up.

There were two themes in my pile, non of them craft related. The first theme is Mail Art (sending letters, postcards, writing messages etc), and the other one is Art Making (creativity, art journals, mixed media, gesso). We’ll start with the mail inspired zines today!

Later posts will be about:

* Art Zines I got in the swap
* The zine I made
* How I made my zine

Mail Art Zines

The zine 50 ways has a extremely cool yarn tassel (that I’m going to nick for one of my notebooks) and it is made by Pam. The theme is 50 ways to alter a postcard, and it’s made out of altered postcards spiral bound into a unique zine, with many creative suggestions on how to recycle postcards you’ve gotten, collected or saved. It’s fun to make them your own, maybe more whimsical by using stickers, sewing, cutting, adding a quote clipped from a magazine, modify a face etc etc. Love all the ideas in this one!

The Stationary & Envelopes Zine with a Note Conversation is a joint effort made by Lisa and Shalene. It is made out of textbook pages and envelopes where you will find little notes and envelope ideas etc., it does not have much magazine content (articles etc) but looking through it is like having a sample of an artists sketchbook, including dangling flaps, sewn in paper leafs, a small watercolour painting, photocopied doodles to use as stationary, chunky glitter and handwritten messages! Amazing little work of art. You can tell a lot of work went into each copy!

The zine called “Greetings”, also spiral bound, is made by Emily. It’s about the history of greeting cards, how we can use them and how to make our own personal cards. Included inside were buttons and little packages of lace to use on your own projects. Neat idea for a zine! Emily did not include a blog url or a e-mail address in her zine, and I think it’s quite sad that I can’t let her know that I got her zine and enjoyed it.

Lesson to learn here: always include your email address when you send something out! Please. In the DIY Postcard Swap I arranged there were many people who did not include any contact information on their cards. It actually makes some recipients sad that they can’t thank the card maker personally. Other recipients might not take the time to write a note to say thank you, but I think it’s best to always include the information just in case…

Some of the “extras” (stuff to play with) found inside each zine.

More zines tomorrow!

Only cat lovers know the luxury of fur-coated, musical hot water bottles that never go cold.
/Susanne Millen

I have the privilege to share bed with this one beautiful cat lady. As a crafty blogger I feel it is my duty to share her with you all, hoping you know the joys of having an animal in your life, or that you one day will. I can’t remember who said it but it’s true that once there is a cat in the room there is no need for any additional interior design. Since it was a while since you saw new photos of miss Smilla I thought I’d share these today, where she is resting on my bed. Quite shabby chic if you ask me…

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You are an artist, if you want to be one.

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Dear, dear diary, I want to tell my secrets
Cuz you’re the only one that I know who’ll keep them
Dear, dear diary, I want to tell my secrets
I know you’ll keep them, and this is what I’ve done […]

I’ve been down every road you could go
I made some bad choices as you know
Seems I’ve got this whole world cradled in my hands
But its just like me not to understand…
/Pink

Scanned collage pages from my own Dear Diary where I write Morning Pages and Stupid Repeating Thoughts all the time. And glue stuff in. :-)

Pink and yellow goes great together, it just says spring to me.

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Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.
/Jonathan Swift

Wow, I’ve created my first vision board, or dreamboard, that’s what Jamie Ridler calls them. I’ve been thinking about doing one for quite a while now but not sure why… What do I need one for? Now finally I just did one, as I’m slowly going through a big pile of magazines, cleaning out ephemera and sorting papers. I put on some good music, went through magazines and cut out some images that spoke to me. Is this my dream? My vision of the future? My hope of a better life? Yes, and no.

When you look at it, what do thoughts do you get? What do I dream of? Have you ever tried creating a dreamboard like this? Was it like an affirmation, a visual aid or a dream that became clearer? I’m not sure about mine yet.

When I made it I got a bit worried, maybe it was the mood that night… I was afraid I would forget something, leave something out - like this was a spell that would come true, a prophecy that would happen and I could not leave anything out! Like if I didn’t glue in this or that I would never have those things… A stupid and strange feeling. Maybe a fear of visualizing ones dreams.

Now that I look at it I think that most of the things there I already have! My cat, my self, my yoga for example. So my dream might be to refine and have more of the things I see in this visionboard collage? And to get to a place where I can grow. Now when I look at it, as I’ve hung it over the desk, I see a couple of different things that makes me think about longing…

Dreamboard thinking…

• I long for big windows and more light, and greenery
• I long for writing - and to own a typewriter
• I long for spring and flowers on the table
• I long to live like a grown-up and still include time for play
• My body longs for more yoga and lovely stretching
• I long for new clothes, pretty skirts and polka dot sweaters
• I long for white walls and room to hang my own art
• I long to create more wall-hanging art
• I long for a in-flow of money
• I long for reading and giving gifts
• I’m drawn to a simple country style
• I want to give myself permission to use my favorite tools (words, paint brush, sewing machine, pens, paper) to find my own style and develop as a human being through creativity
• I long for music in my life
• I long to have more alone time and space around me

My collage is quite big so I’ve also included some close-up photos if you want a closer look!?

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