Steampunk Time Twistin' Journal

Steampunk Time Twistin' Journal
By Darla Pruitt


Supply List:
Black Composition Books
Scrap Paper
Various Pigment Ink Pads (miniature ones like Cat's Eyes from Colorbox work best)
Glue Sticks
Laser Copied Images
Embellishments (keys, gears, watch parts, brads, shipping tags, etc.)
Clear Contact Paper or Self-Laminating Film
Dye Ink Pads in dark colors (I would pick just one or two)
Double sided tape (I used the kind with a red backing)
Glue Dots (for heavy embellishments)
Scrapbook paper

Optional:
Rubber Stamps
Baby Wipes (great for cleaning messy hands)
Exotic paper (available from art supply stores)
Stickers

Where To Buy Supplies:
Local Craft, Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Stores
eBay
etsy (www.etsy.com)
Better yet, have patrons donate items.

Photos from the test class are here.

Step A: Cover Me
There are several ways to cover the journal. If you don't have the time or resources to do the technique described below, you can always use scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, cardstock, or anything else you can devise to cover the front of the book. In the sample, I used the Magenta (named after the Canadian rubber stamp company, not the color) style pigment ink color layering technique.

Supplies: Scrap paper, pigment ink pads (miniature ones work the best), dye ink pads.

1. Pick three colors of pigment ink pads. Starting with the lightest color first, gently pounce the ink pad on the paper. You can also twist the pads and use other movements across the paper to make patterns. Don't feel the need to completely cover the paper with one color. You will notice that pigment ink doesn't dry quickly so you can blend as you go along.

2. Repeat this process two more times and make sure to save the darkest color for last.

3. If you would like to rubber stamp on top of your paper, do so now with dye ink. Dye ink is fast drying so it won't smear like pigment ink. This will insure that your image is crisp and won't blend into the background.

4. Once you are finished with your background, crumple your paper up into a tight ball. Smooth it out and then crumple it again. Do this until your paper feels soft like fabric. One or two times usually does the trick.

5. You will notice that your paper is not completely flat and has what I like to call valleys and mountains. Take a dye ink pad (I used a Distress pad in vintage colors) and run it across the surface. The ink will stick to the mountains, not the valleys creating an aged effect. See the video here.

6. In the video, I mention paper tearing. Experiment on scratch paper tearing the paper toward you and away from you. Both directions will produce a different deckle edge effect. On the sample, I rubbed the edge facing the black binding with a dye in pad for an aged look.

7. Covering the book: Use a glue stick to cover the front with a thin layer of glue. Position your paper on the front of the notebook. Fold in any excess paper and glue it to the inside of the cover. If you want to cover the inside cover, you can create endpapers with the same technique or use cardstock.

Step B: Transfer Time
Supplies:
Contact paper or self-laminating film
Color laser copies
Bone folder
Bowl of cold water

Video here.

1. Cut out your image. Also cut your contact paper so it is a little bit larger than your image.

2. Peel the backing off the contact paper.

3. Place your image face down on the contact paper.

4. Rub the back of the image gently with a bone folder a few times. Do the same thing for the front.

5. Drop the whole thing in a bowl of cold water. Give it a minute and start to rub the back of the image. The paper will start to curl up and fall off. DON'T PANIC! This is supposed to happen. It's also a long and tedious process. Watch it here. When you have finally rolled off the paper, you image will be transferred to the contact paper and is ready to mount.

6. To mount the transfer to another piece of paper (in the sample, I mounted it to a tag), just use a clear double sided tape. In some cases, the transfer might still have enough stickiness left to adhere it to the paper. If not, just put a few pieces of tape under the image and stick it to your desired surface.

Step C: Embellish It!
Now, it's time to get creative. Here are some handy hints for embellishing:

When it comes to layering papers, I always recommend layering with a solid, pattern and a solid or vice versa. Two pattern papers on top of each other tends to create visual dissonance.


Always lay out your project before you glue everything down.

To glue heavy embellishments like the key, use Glue Dots (aka snot dots). Don't peel the dots off their backing paper, use your embellishment to pull the dots off the backing paper. This keeps the dots from sticking to your fingers.

Blast from the Past: YALSA 2007, Seattle

Here's a copy of my article for the HCPL Stellar Times about YALSA Midwinter:

What do you get when you mix a room full of 100 Teen Librarians with a karaoke website and the theme from “Fame”? If you log on to YouTube.com and run a search for YALSA, you will discover the end result. In the meantime, I can regale you with tales of my personal experience attending this event called “Building Teen Communities Online” at the ALA Midwinter Conference in Seattle.

Our first speaker of the day was Audra Caplan from Harford County Public Library who presented a Library Director’s point of view towards teen programs. Ms. Caplan addressed the issue of parents and staff who don’t understand the importance of technology and gaming in the library and showed practical ways to overcome those barriers. Her advice was to never blindside your director with programming, but instead present a well-thought out proposal covering such issues as money, time, bandwidth, infrastructure, potential problems, and intended and unintended consequences of the program. Even though I am lucky enough to have a Branch Manager who embraces technology, I came away with some wonderful ideas about how to write an excellent project proposal.

And then, there was Linda Braun. If you have never taken a class or seminar from her, you are missing out on one of the most entertaining and informative sessions you will ever experience. Linda lives on the cutting edge of technology and her unabashed geekdom rivals even my own. She was the speaker who had us all singing “Fame” and recorded it on www.singshot.com, a karaoke social networking site. During the course of her lecture, she introduced us to an array of social networking sites and some novel uses for them. For example, have you ever thought about using text messaging to send out information about upcoming programs or even a one sentence book talk? Teens today consider social networking as much a part of their lives as the telephone was to previous generations. We need to use these technologies to reach teens and let them know we are here for them.

After an inspiring lunch lecture by Patrick Jones about generational differences (sound familiar?), we learned about www.myowncafe.org, a teen message board developed by the Southeastern Massachusetts Library System. This wonderful site serves as a safe meeting place for teens in that library system where they can discuss anime, books, movies, and more. Registration with a library card is required so the patron’s age can be verified. Even though teen librarians keep an eye on the site, the actual moderation is left up to special teen moderators who protect their space with a vengeance. A year after its inception, they have 10,000 posts by 248 members. I love this idea and would like us to be able to do something similar someday.

Next up was a panel discussion on “Creating Community Through Gaming.” Yu-Gi-Oh is seeing a revival and the makers of the game would like to get libraries involved in the action as would the makers of Dungeons and Dragons. Games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and Karaoke Revolution are still the hot games for video game nights, but virtual worlds such as Second Life are also making their way into libraries.

After dinner, I headed off to the Game Night where I sampled new versions of DDR and Guitar Hero, plus had a close encounter with a Nintendo Wii (someday, you will be mine!).

In the end, it was an exciting and inspiring day filled with new ideas, wonderful speakers, and karaoke. You can’t forget the karaoke.