Something new...

[fajrdrako]

maboroshimaki thought I needed a hobby. She's into crafts. She makes quilted things and designer doll clothes and lovely works of art. Me, I buy fabric and never use it. Plan art and never paint it. Gave up on knitting decades ago and I've had an afghan in the making since 1976. Rubber stamps, I go for. Origami: yes. So got a good idea.

"You should make a scrapbook," she said.

You know how sometimes someone says something, and it just clicks? I was about to scoff, and found myself intrigued. Yes, I could make a scrapbook. I could make a fannish srapbook. I could use my LOTR clippings and my PotC clippings and suff I've collected re Smallville. I went out and bought a real scrapbook from Lewiscraft. (I did toy with the idea of using an actual book and making it a book-art project; maybe in future.) During the past week or so I have been going through my fannish pictures and other pictures I wanted to enhance the pages I was designing in my head - iconic symbols that I associate with the characters I'm working on: sunflowers for Clark, a laptop for Lex - that sort of thing. I made a sort of rule for myself: it's cheating to make it a digital art project, by just finding things online and printing them. Cheating and, with the cost of ink and photographic paper, expensive. I'm trying to do it with magazines I have or can get at a reasonable price, and ingenuity.

I still need a good picture of a katana, white tulips, and a back pack like the one Clark carries.

Tonight I started my first three pages. The first is a page on Clark Kent, with the words last son of Krypton in Kryptonian script at the bottom of the page. The second is a page on Lex Luthor. The third - which is actually page four in my book - is Chloe Sullivan. Page three is reserved for Lionel Luthor, if I can find any art.

Comments

[dolimir-k.livejournal.com]

Katanas:
http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~na_ga/purezenntojpeg/katana.jpg
http://www.midgaardgames.com/pages/accessories/weapons/katana.jpg
http://www.sirbubba.com/dev/oldschool/katana.jpg
http://ninja.wcc2.net/images/screen/katana.jpg


White Tulips:
It's small: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=pamcurtis.com/studio-d/white%2520tulips.gif&imgrefurl=http://pamcurtis.com/doina_cociuba.htm&h=540&w=420&sz=138&tbnid=cJ0lpZOA0oMJ:&tbnh=129&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522white%2Btulips%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8
http://host80.ipowerweb.com/~camerons/store/images/home/tulips.jpg
http://www.faceplantcreative.com/JPEGS/photography/white-tulips.jpg
http://southworthjamesr.tripod.com/new%20paintings/whitetulips.jpg

Re:

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Nice pictures!

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Page three is reserved for Lionel Luthor, if I can find any art.

Of what? Thumbscrews? ;)

I've been scrap-booking for years, since the mid-80s! I do "yearbooks", one book devoted to all the occurrences in a year, and tend to devote a few pages of each year book to whatever fandom I'm in at the time rather than make an entire book for a fandom (which sounds rather daunting.) Favs include the Lucien LaCroix page, with artistically smeared drops of red paint for blood; the Due South page (images of old-fashioned compasses aren't as hard to find as you think), and a Blake's 7 double-spread way back in the 80's, with lots of neat-o holographic images of kitchsy spacestations, stars, and spaceships. I think for Smallville, I'm gonna go with a nice background of... corn!

Re:

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thumbscrews? ;)

Maybe! I'm not sure yet what objects to attribute to Lionel - maybe I should find a picture of the jewellry he gave Martha, or his helicopter? Dark glasses... hmm.

I've been scrap-booking for years, since the mid-80s!

Cool! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Do you do it a page at a time, or in bits and pieces through the year?

I'm not doing an entire book on Smallville just four or five pages - for favourite characters and maybe a show overview. (I haven't decided about the overview yet.) I love the idea of smeared blood for LaCroix.

There's no corn yet on any of my Smallville pages - my background for the Clark page is the barn, my background for Lex is a starscape and a window. I do however have sunflowers on Clark's page.

I'm not sure what to do next. A Batman page, maybe? Or Firefly? I'm still thinking about Smallville ideas, so maybe that part isn't done yet.

Re:

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Well, one piece of advice would be that if you are serious at all with the scrapbooking, always use archival-quality or "museum" quality scrapbooks, pens, glue, photocorners, etc. You can find them at photoshops, serious art shops, in the Exposures catalog, or at their site, exposuresonline.com. I look at the early books I did and I'm afraid the glue is brittle and the paper is browning at the edges already! Since then I've spent a king's ransom to the Exposures people for gorgeous archival books, and found it worth every penny.

I tend to jump around the pages of my books at whim rather than starting at the beginning and working my way through: chronological order is for people who colored inside the lines as children! But I like to make the inside cover (which acts as an introduction) and inside back cover the most visually striking parts of each book, it's like beginning & ending with a bang. I like to assign a theme for each year book, too: the year I got married and moved out of state was "Changes in Time and Space", another year I found I had collected a lot of interesting printed ephemera to act as backgrounds and accents, so I called that book "Letter Perfect." I don't like white pages showing through the photographs or assorted ephemera I arrange on a page, so I tend to lay down a piece of interesting wrapping paper, a magazine ad, or pieces of ephemera as complementary-colored backgrounds to the things I lay on top.

Have fun!

Re:

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

if you are serious at all with the scrapbooking, always use archival-quality or "museum" quality scrapbooks, pens, glue, photocorners, etc.

This is my intent. What kind of glue do you recommend? Not that we will necessarily have the same brands that you have in the States (probably not!) but so far I have been dependent on the recommendation of the salesclerk in the craft shop - and I have little faith in her.

Thanks for the tip about Exposures.

I like your notion of themes. So far my theme is favourite fandoms - and heck, to be honest, though I have ambitions to do more, so far it's all Smallville. (Just have to find those pictures of thumscrews.....)

So far I've been lucky with my pictures and layouts - but haven't found a good photo or backdrop for Lionel. Articles on Smallville, at least the ones I've found, tend not to focus on him. Even the calendars. If I wanted pictures of Lana, it'd be a cinch. So it goes.

Re:

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

This is my intent. What kind of glue do you recommend? Not that we will necessarily have the same brands that you have in the States (probably not!) but so far I have been dependent on the recommendation of the salesclerk in the craft shop - and I have little faith in her.


I think you might stand a better chance of finding better quality glues and photocorners at a good photo shop (the kind of shop that caters to serious photographers who develop their own film) rather than at your typical craft shop. You can use any glue that has any of these words on it: museum quality, PH neutral, non-acidic, archival quality. I like a white glue that dries clear (it looks like your typical Elmer's or milk-based glue, the sort of glue used by small children to glue macaroni to paper plates) called "Neutral pH Adhesive" by Lineco Inc., but be warned you can't remove what you've glued down once you've glued it. You can also use a clear glue that comes in a tube for re-sticking and repositioning things, I've seen that in the Exposures catalog, but I think I've also seen it for sale at a good photo shop. I like best to use photo corners, because you can move a photo or postcard around, it gives you more choices later on. You can get them in a lot of colors or see-thru, which I think works best for most collages. I also like to use pH neutral double-sided stick squares that come on a peel-off roll (just thought of those! they're brilliant!); again, you can get them from Exposures or a good photo shop. So: use the glue for the background (less of a chance you're gonna want to move that around), the corners or double-sided sticking squares to mount the photos and ephemera on top.

Oh! Lionel could also have a background of pictures of money! Greenbacks! Gold coins or bars! Or find an old finance or money-oriented magazine like Forbes and use the cover or one of the adverts inside as a background. Check out places that sell wrapping paper, some of the most amusing backgrounds have come from cheap wrapping paper I bought in a dollar store. I actually got a roll of "money" wrapping paper from a dollar store that I must now look for. I have a collectible trading card of that WB Lionel/Lex shot that might look great mounted on money wrapping paper!

Re:

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

kind of shop that caters to serious photographers who develop their own film

I'll try to find such a thing. Maybe ask one of my friends who are photographers for advice. Your tip about the photo-corners sounds particularly good.

I have a collectible trading card of that WB Lionel/Lex shot that might look great mounted on money wrapping paper!

What a wonderful idea! I tend to think of Lionel as a power-monger, but of course, money is the key. (Not just thumbscrews!) Thank you! I'll browse a few dollar stores and see what they have(which is fun anyway).

Re:

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

ARGH! I just wrote this LOOOONG response for you, posted it to LJ "successfully", and yet it didn't show up. Usually I copy my reponse in case this happens, but I never seem to remember to do it those times LJ screws me over. Well, maybe it will show up later?

Here's the quick version of my response:

1) Trust good photo shops, the ones that cater to photographers who develop their own film, for neutral pH items like photo corners, pens, glue, etc., rather than a craft shop. Look for words like "Neutral pH", "museum quality", "archival" to tip you off to the good stuff.

2) My fav glue is a white glue that dries clear (like Elmer's glue, or any milk-based craft glue) called Neutral pH adhesive by Lineco, Inc. That's a permanent glue. A less permanent, but still archival glue, so you can pull up and reposition stuff, is a clear gel glue in a tube that Exposures sells. Also, double-glue-sided squares are great, too; they come on a paper roll that you peel the squares off of and Exposures sells them. I tend to white-glue the backgrounds and use corners or squares to lay the pictures and ephemera on top.

3) For Lionel, you could also find an old financial-oriented magazine like Forbes and use the cover or one of the ads inside as his background. Or pictures of money, put together in a collage.

4) Wrapping paper makes a great background, even cheapo wrap you get at a dollar store. Dollar stores have cheap wrapping papers that are fun.

Re:

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I just wrote this LOOOONG response for you, posted it to LJ "successfully", and yet it didn't show up.

I think it did, eventually - that is, I got two messages from you. LJ was acting funny yesterday.

Usually I copy my reponse in case this happens, but I never seem to remember to do it those times LJ screws me over.

I have that problem with webmail. Usually I remember to save my replies. The odd time I don't - it's guaranteed to disappear!

The idea of gluing the backgrounds and positioning things on top with photo-corners is excellent. I'll try that. And I plan to explore a few dollar stores at lunchtime for Lionel fodder. Maybe I can do my Lionel page tonight - that would be fun!

I'm tempted to also do a "general Smallville" page but I'm still working on thematic composition in my head. I think perhaps the theme should be 'secrets' - ?