Well Versed In 1 John

You know what? I'm still in Europe (just like I was the last time a post was published) but I've written this in advance so you can get your Hilary fix even when I'm far away.

And it's another one of my church/calligraphy projects! Yay! About a month ago I had the privilege of doing three repetitive calligraphy projects in a row. It's fine. There's nothing like having a Red Sox game to keep me and my nibs company (especially when their offense is so impressive and deep). Lest I digress into my favorite topic of all, I'll get back to the point. One project was for money (no pictures taken because I forgot), one was because church ladies asked and the final was a gift. I already showed you the project that I was asked to do (the rose tags) and this is the project I did as a gift.

I loved the way it turned out. And so did the 30 women for whom the verse cards were made. A few Christmases ago, I sent out cards with glittered Holy Cards of St. Nicholas on the front. Perhaps you recall. Well, the company that I bought that cardstock from was having a buy one get one free sale so in addition to the red paper that I bought for those Christmas cards, I got a stack of pale green paper that had a shimmery look to it. It's nice and thick, too. I always figured I'd think of a purpose for it, but two years of looking at it and I'm no closer to having a use for it than I was when I got it for free. I thought it would be the perfect cardstock to use for these Bible verse cards. So I cut the folding cards into two flat cards each (which, by the way, means I only made a dent into the huge stack of green cardstock I've still got) so that I had 30 flat cards. Then I took some thick vellum paper and cut it to fit using my mini paper cutter. I cut 30 little snippets of ribbon, each sized to hang off the edges a bit of the cardstock. Next, because I like to make things difficult, I jumped into my mom's hand-me-down button collection and found 30 buttons that I thought would match the ribbon and paper colors (trying to keep a Spring pallet in mind). And then, I used my favorite craft tool ever, my drimmel with its diamond-edge drill bit, to cut the "button" part off of these buttons so they'd glue on flat.

And to the sounds (and sights thanks to MLB online) of Red Sox baseball -- an afternoon game I believe -- I wrote the same verse 30 times in a row. Without stopping. As the scripting went along (and the innings breezed past), I noticed that a few styles of scripting seemed to emerge. I tried to capture some of them here. The top picture features a script that is airy than the next picture, which seems dense. And some versions were more cursive than others. As a note, the first "r" of this verse comes in the 20th word, which is odd. I thought I'd throw that out there because I always antagonize over the letter "r" and I was pleasantly surprised to get so many words without having to write that one.

Of course, I can't mention the letter "r" without thinking of my mom's favorite riddle: Railroad crossing, watch out for cars, can you spell that without any r's?

Rose tags, And you'll see this verse a lot

Some lovely ladies at my church asked me to do a calligraphy project for them, so I scripted 36 copies of the same verse (1 John 1:7) on white tags using super-thick charcoaly India ink. What's fun about writing the same sentence 36 times is that I played around with the treatment. As the project went on, the "J" of Jesus got more and more exaggerated because I found that no matter how big I made it, it looked good. Some are in print and others are in cursive. I like to think that as these tags are given away to women who participate in the church retreat weekend, that the Spirit guides the right font to the right person.

No One But Us And The Indians

I did the Charlotte Collins Thanksgiving Classic invites this year. And above you see the results. Oh and my mom is the RSVP contact. Hi Mom! That was actually lots of fun, writing that up for everyone in the you-wouldn't-believe-it extended family. I think I'm the only spawn of my generation to know who everybody on that list is and how they are related. And as much fun as I had with the invite its self, I was really having a blast with the envelopes. And then I had lots of fun making jpegs of all the envelopes, as you can see. This is a bit ridiculous, I realize, but I liked some of them and wanted to show them off.

Not wanting to reveal these peoples' names and addresses, I tried not to show full envelopes. Well, all except Mary, but she already moved out of that place and now lives in Spain. So if you were trying to track her down or if she is secretly not a part of the family but has indeed been a part of the FBI witness protection program since five or six days after her birth (which is about the time when I first met her), well, you are too late in finding her on Nueces in Austin. So about the above, I'm a big fan of the new "A" and below is the old "A" but it is paired with the new "M."

I don't know why I liked this one so much, but I thought it turned out pleasantly so here it is for you to admire.

The new "A" and "M" on my nana's name.

Fairy Tale, Part One

Yep, that's my boss dressed as the Pied Piper, with rats on strings attached to his belt loops. He clutches a South American flute of some variety, which of course is a trademark of the Pied Piper, as you can hardly call yourself a "piper" if you don't come complete with a pipe. And though his costume is daring for the workplace and shows quite a bit of creativity... that's not the point of this post my friends and devoted readers. Instead, I draw you attention to the "scene setting" (yes Katie, those are some useless quotes) scrolls of paper that are hanging on the front door, above, and bottom door, below.

And so begins the crafts for the office Halloween party. And no, you don't need to tell me that my office is a bit like The Office. I already know. I work there after all and I'm pretty high up on the Party Planning Committee. And I stayed up half the night making this and a few other assorted crafts that you are soon to see on this blog for our one-day-long celebration of Halloween. Thank goodness we came in second place (it was a tie for second but who really is counting) for our decorations. We tied with the IT department who turned their computer fixing area into, of all things, a dead cowboy train station, a theme which I believe is a little too out there. They just wanted an excuse to be half ghost half train robbers. And we transformed our lovely 15th floor office into a Fairy Tale Wonderland of sorts, complete with a whole host of delightful fairy tale characters.

I thought that these signs would make a good visual impact on our visitors, setting the tone for the theme. I used one of my favorite types of handwriting--that is my Tim-Burton's-Nightmare-Before-Christmas kind of handwriting so that the font would come off as slightly eery, fairly cheerful, youthful and full of whimsy. Michaels sold a 16' roll of paper, which I used as a table runner down the length of my dining table for a week or two before I had to make the craft and I'll be using again in another creative venture that you'll be reading about in a few days, well, if you want to. Each scroll piece is 8' long and features a few rolls on top and bottom of the writing, to give the storybook look. I sketched out the words in pencil (my least favorite writing utensil) before I wrote the words out with a Marks A Lot marker (or three).

I know that this post has made you anxious to see some more about my office Halloween festivities...

Day Off Correspondence

To add to the recent collection of calligraphy posts, here's what I did this morning for some letters I needed to send. I tell you what, I've gotten pretty good at the standard, "Dallas, Texas 752.." because I use it so frequently! And I decided to really roll out the personalized pink stationery that I bought from vistaprint.com (which is cheap yet high quality... I can't say enough good stuff about using them though I'd advise going for the "linen" paper option so that the paper feels really high quality).

Thanks to several practice sessions, I've really gotten comfortable using the colored ink. At first I had a really hard time switching from black to blue or red or gold (the three colors I own besides black) because I felt like you could see differences in color as the amount of ink left in the quill started to dwindle. And that's true -- you can see the color difference, but I've gotten better at knowing when to refill the quill, which is, like, constantly. If I were to write a sentence with my quill with colored ink, it would look like this,

"Geez, d(refill)o you thin(refill)k that t(refill)he So(refill)x have (refill) what it(refill) takes t(refill) to make (refill) it to the (refill) Series (refill) this ye(refill)ar?"

Clearly, it's not an efficient way to write a lengthy amount, but it's all right for addresses... if you are in a patient mood. Luckily for my lady friends to whom the envelopes are addressed, I was in a patient mood this morning.

But now I'm not, I only have so many hours to shop on my day off! Goodness gracious folks, I hope this post will sustain you through the weekend and my trip to NYC.

Calligraphy doodling

I had a couple of minutes of free time on Tuesday to do some calligraphy practice. I tell you what, September for a rabid baseball fan can be so busy. Especially when you insist on going a full weekend of games. More on that later if I can get my act together...

I'm trying to get a little better with this new nib I purchased. I need to spend some time working on my form instead of just free styling all the time. I know that Miss Susan likes to see my every calligraphy creation so I hope this keeps my DJ Jazzy happy for a few minutes.

This weekend finds me flying to New York to catch the 7th to last game ever at Yankee Stadium on Monday between the Yanks and the Chicago White Sox (wrong colored Sox for this fan's taste, but you can't get everything you want). It's overwhelming enough to know I'll be attending the wake of the cathedral of baseball, especially in a down year for the Bronx Bombers. But alas, I've wandered away from the strict confines of my craft blog to boast about my good baseball fortune. The reason I bring this up is that it seems that I won't be getting a chance to do too much crafting over the weekend. I'll see if I can get something done...

Toodles!

Nerd Alert: I've started collecting stamps

If you are lucky enough to have received personal correspondence from me in the last few months, then there's nothing new about this post. But alas, I don't think that my regular readers correspond with those folks I've written to recently, so I'm showing off my new style.
I can't even remember when I read about doing this (or where, but I'm thinking it was in Domino a year ago or so), but as soon as I saw this concept for the first time, I decided I had to become one of these kinds of people--the kind of correspondent who artfully arranges a collection of stamps to letters instead of just slapping one Liberty sticker on the envelope.
And you know what? Stamp collecting is actually a little fun. I haven't crossed a total geek line -- all of my stamps are those that can be purchased online from the US Postal Service. I am not out there on eBay scoping for some long lost collector's edition something or other.
I love that two of my stamps show pitchers--a lovely silver one and a porcelain one, too. It's all so delightfully domestic, well, all except for the mountain goat, but he's a cute little character so I don't mind.
I'm a little nervous that my postman is going to freak out on me at some point though I'm quite sure that all these post office tasks are handled by robots nowadays anyway.
Another reason why you should consider doing this besides the obvious--quick addition keeps the brain alive and active--it's pretty cheap. A whole stack of two-cent stamps costs less than a dollar. If you are interested in doing this, address your envelopes AFTER you've put the stamps on. Otherwise, the envelope may look crowded and less like a miniature work of design art. As long as the point of writing a letter to someone is to be exceptionally thoughtful (hey, if you wanted to be a slacker, you could just email or call in your thank yous), the envelope might as well be an outward sign of your courtesy, right?

New Nib

Roundhand Special

Save the Date Scribbles

So I volunteered to make some save-the-date cards for the Dallas Theta Young Alumnae (yes, my sorority, which I'm still linked-heart-to-heart with). So above are a couple of the samples I submitted as options for the gal who's actually making the cards. Not bad. I need to practice a bit more of my scripting before next week's calligraphy course starts up again.

Let me know what you think.

Don't Scowl at SCAW

Presenting Susan's craft...

I've literally been blogging for months about Susan (aka Dj Jazzy) and her visit to Dallas. Well, over the weekend, she came, we ate and shopped like champs, and now she's gone again (So sad!). And if we didn't have time to craft together, I at least had time to whip up a Dallas-visit souvenir for Susan.

She was quite smitten with my calligraphy skills and wanted me to make something for her using my bottle of ink and old-school quill. So, I wrote out her monogram (about 1 bellion times, to quote the Adelphia girl) and made a frame for it. We decided it's about the preppiest thing ever, which is fitting because Susan is in love with all things preppy!

The frame was a super cheap Ikea purchase covered in fabric (watch how you do those inside corners! That part can be really tricky) and then covered in a couple of thick layers of modge podge (low gloss, I believe it's called the "matte finish"). And, I lied when I said Susan didn't craft--she assembled the finished pieces. We were both pretty pleased with how it turned out. She has promised to put the frame above her kitchen sink (an upgrade from the original planned location of above the commode... Thanks Susan). Perhaps she'll even send in a picture when it's installed??

Pink, Red, Ribbon, Chocolate!

Happy Valentines Day. Yeah, it's a fairly bogus holiday, but any excuse to make crafts for others is good enough for me. I thought I'd post some additional pictures of these little paper bowls with chocolate and ribbon I made for four special ladies at my office. In th e bottom picture, you can see that I incorporated my newly acquired calligraphy skills to write my Valentines. So fun! And I have so much liquid starch left over from this paper mache experience, I'm sure to be showing off more paper mache projects in the future. So, uh, get ready readers!

And now, as pitchers & catchers report to Spring Training today, my thoughts turn to baseball... At long last, winter is over and the best season is here... So look forward to some baseball crafts coming soon! (I've got my tribute to Big Papi all planned out already. Too bad I'm the only person in Dallas who will appreciate it...)

Scripting Class

Disclaimer: The top writing of my name was done by my teacher. The second one is my version, so no need to compliment my teacher's perfect rendition. She's so amazing!

I'm a little obsessed with calligraphy right now. Perhaps it's because I'm taking all these classes or because my mother keeps complimenting my work, but I'm pretty sure I dig this fancy printing business. As the disclaimer says, the top version is my teacher's and the bottom is my attempt at "scripting" my name as it were. And I've only had one class!

Every once in a while, some person in my family will go up to the farmhouse and unearth a box of really old letters mailed to my relatives more than a century ago. I recall one such letter that was found last fall sent by a long-lost lady in my family to her brother, my great, great grandfather. The writer was in college for her first semester and was quite homesick for her brother and the rest of the family. This was the 1880s and she lived in Mississippi, where this branch of the family had lived and thrived before the War between the States, as they certainly would have called it. And my great, great grandfather had already departed for Texas to find his fortune where there was fortune to be found (the Reconstruction Era wasn't kind to the Magnolia State). Anyhow, I mention this letter because her handwriting was similar to the type of handwriting I am now learning. And back then, that was commonplace! Today people pay money to folks who can use a quill with flair.

I got a bit silly with my writing there in the last one. I was trying to show off my skills... And you can definitely ask, What skills? It's pretty rough for now. But *I'm hoping* practice makes perfect!

Week Two Calligraphy

So, here I am again. Posting pictures of what can only be described as idealized first grade handwriting. I mean, really, this stuff doesn't look too advanced. You might be surprised though at how hard it can be to use an ink quill and make these letters! Above is the "gothic" lowercase letters, a through k. On the last line I determined I had the skills to write one of my favorite names, that of my cat, dear "jack" McCoy. To be honest, I was pretty surprised at how difficult an "h" is for me, since it's my letter. "e" and "f" are cool though. I guess I can tell someone to "eff" off with beautiful, simple handwriting. And, naturally that's why I took the course in the first place.

Here's a much more crowded page of scripting. And the crowded figures make it look more interesting, but they don't help me determine my skill level at the letters. The (page designer's term here) white space of the top image allows me to more quickly determine my skill level than this more crowded page above, but I still thought my blog's most frequent reader would want to know that as soon as I could, I wrote "dj jazzy" and I think it looks pretty good.

And the capital letters. For the first time in my class, I was so annoyed by one of the letters that I actually crossed it out! I found the capital "P" to be so difficult I couldn't stop myself from just striking through one of my flops. I hit a stride there in the center with letters like "I, K, L" so I guess I can now write "ILL" and "KILL" beautifully. So my range is growing, eh? eh?

And on another note, I have lost the cord that connects my camera to my computer. Thus, no new pictures. Everything I've got has to come from my office's scanner. Sorry that this leaves you poor readers with nothing new to peruse. I am searching all over for the cord. And then you will really be in for some treats!!

Calligraphy Class, Part One

That's it. My first shot at calligraphy. There's room for improvement, I'll give you that, but I'm really excited about the whole thing. The class was tons of fun and the instructor--what a hoot! I thoroughly enjoyed my first calligraphy class and am excited to learn more as the weeks go by.
As you can see, last night we learned some of the basic strokes of calligraphy as well as the most basic way of printing numerals. I think that the "4" is particularly enjoyable. You can tell that I really had some initial problems with the "5" -- what a doosey! But I picked it up after a bit. My best number (as in the one that looks the most like the model) is a "7" though there's not much to that number in the first place.
Up at the top are the basic strokes, which were really fun. I could spend all day working on those, of course, they aren't too pretty. After you work on them for a while, you start to notice that what may initially look straight, is actually not straight at all, but slanted or crooked. And all the "c" and backwards "c" shapes are my attempts at semi-circles. Wow. That's hard to do, and I'm serious. Getting a perfect semi-circle is near impossible for me, but obviously, these things take lots and lots of practice.
I'll keep y'all updated on my progress...

I Did Try To Be Patient...

I've been trying for the past couple of weeks to be really patient about my upcoming calligraphy classes, but I can't take it anymore.

I am so excited! I've always liked to print. When there's a sign that needs to be printed, I always volunteer (my office's Halloween tombstones come to mind here, pictured below in not-so-high quality). The dawn of the cheap personal computer printer means that most people type everything. As I gripe about how much is typed versus how much is handwritten, I'm typing! But I love to print things by hand. I love to think about each letter, how the letters should fit together, how the letters should look when all joined up as one word, how each word should look when placed near other words to form a sentence, which words should be biggest and boldest for emphasis, which should be small but clear to lay the groundwork for the most important words.

Untrained artists spend their lives developing a unique perspective when they approach their art. Formal classes don't detract from the skills of an untrained artist, they allow the artist to grow and develop a new perspective. I owe a lot of my crafting and home improvement know-how to the design courses I took in college and after college at the University of Maine at Augusta. These courses taught me to approach creative situations with various perspectives, instead of just my own.

And now, I'm getting ready to do this with my printing skills as well. The calligraphy course promises to teach the basics of roman and italic fonts (with serifs, I'm sure, to use some old copy editing jargon). I'm not exactly sure why I want to study calligraphy so badly. I will be honest and say, I've never dreamed of a career of addressing people's wedding invitations. And I think it will be very difficult for me to stay within the strict confines of the various fonts, to stay as close to the pattern as possible. I've always been one who prefers to color outside of the lines, and I'm hoping that, given the basic font types from my calligraphy class, I will be able to develop my own unique way of printing, with a classic backbone but with my creative influences woven into the print. Perhaps my unique font will be marketable, perhaps not. The important thing to me is that I'm trying to enhance one of my favorite skills. And isn't January the perfect month to try to grow?

I've decided to post a writing sample at the top of each of my calligraphy entries. Hopefully you'll see marked progress. And the class doesn't start until January 28. Everyone needs lessons in patience . . .