Birthday 2016 Card haul

The Pulley Consternation...

IF that title sounds like an episode of The Big Bang Theory hold on. In my last post I told you that my craft space is in the unfinished part of our basement. My stencils hang from a rod suspended on chains. This mostly worked; but to save my shoulders and neck I have to stand on a step stool to sort through them. I wanted them up and out the way when not in use and thus the short chain. I got a smart idea that maybe I could use something to raise and lower the rod and thus begins the saga of the pulley consternation.

This involves physics.

This involves engineering.

Someone should have warned me, I skipped physics took all the biology type science classes instead in high school. I wanted to be a doctor. I felt like I needed the help of Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, Lenard Hoffstadter and Howard Walowitz. I’m like a dog with a bone on this one. I went to Lowes so often that the staff knew my name. I availed myself, at least twice, of the Same-day-shipping from Amazon. But after much frustration and 4 attempts and throwing too much money at it, I have something that works!

Eureka!

I started with a bike lifter (epic fail)
and while it worked I soon found out that I was not strong enough for this simple set up and that my stencils were so heavy they bent the bar and everything slid to one side or the other. And if I ever did use this thing it would not be often enough.
Enter a block and tackle pulley setup.
This has a 7:1 weight ratio (the physics part) so weak little me is now able to use this with little effort. 7:1 means I pull with one 7th of the force required to lift the actual weight.  I conquered 

the bending of the steel rod with a spruce pine furring 2x2x8 strip and some lag screw eye hooks.

What I used that worked
2 block and tackle pulley setups
6 foot ¼ inch diameter steel rod
2 ¼ inch axel caps
4 or more lag screw eye hooks
2 wire cable clamps (secures rod so that it will not slid out of the lag eyes)
2 block and tackle pulley setups
1 spruce pine furring 2x2x8 strip (cut to 6 feet and sanded smooth)
6 larger screw eye hooks (large enough for the block and tackle hook to pass through)
A wall cleat to tie the ropes off with.
Drill
Screw Driver (makes quick work of the screw eyes)
A husband with the patience of Job (NBA playoffs every night)

Oh did I say I made 2 of these yikes! One (shown above) for small stencils and the other for 12 inch stencils.

As always I leave you
In HIs Hands,

Hey I Shoot Youtube Videos Too

I like to share on mulitple social media platforms; one of them is youtube but if you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know this already! I had been filming from my desk in the office part of the space but I’m working on bigger substrates now so I need to move into the larger space.

 

My studio/office/craft space is in the unfinished part of my basement. This is to my benefit. While I would love one of those Martha Stewart too pretty to create in spaces being in the basement allows me to nail or spill paint all I want. That being said I created a camera rig out of pvc pipe and connectors attached to the rafters.

 

There is one part that slides so I can move the camera horizontally. I have a 360 flexible gooseneck cell phone clamp that is 31 inches long do I can move the camera vertically. Also a flexible monkey desktop tripod hanging on that. My lights are from the hardware store and have daylight bulbs. I need one more.

 

I’ve been away from video making and blogging. But I am returning!

 

In the Hands of the Creator,

QP

I BOUGHT IT: HOMEMADE SPRAYS

I bought some egg dyes from http://www.ukrainiangiftshop.com/Complete-Set-of-17-Dyes/productinfo/DYESET/

I created a video showing how I use these and doing a comparison to Dylusions.

Egg Dye Color Swatches

Egg Dye Colors Compared to Dylusions 

The Dylusions  are more vibrant but more expensive. The egg dyes are around 10 cents per ounce compared to Dylusions at $1.50 per ounce ($9.99 at Hobby Lobby for 2 bottles, applied 40% off coupon).

Dylusions Swatches raw and over Liquitex Gesso 

In His Hands,

watercolor crayons compared

I caught a deal on some watercolor crayons by lyra and wanted to compare them.

In His Hands,

#‎pawgustart‬ When Pigs Fly

Palenttini Collection

From my Stampaway haul I have colored up a Palenttini Face It Stamp two ways. A lighter Skinned version and a Dark and Lovely version! The stamp is sold by Technique Junkies.

I used Primacolor and the Lyra Skin Tone set of colored pencils and some Gamsol.

for the whites of their eyes I used  a mix of colored pencil and Signo Uniball gel pen. Tip: put the gel pen down first. To add some more strands of hair I used Faber Castel Pitt pens.

to make the eyes pop I went over the stamping with .03 Acurit Professional Technical Pen.

 

And then following a Splitcoaststampers Tutorial for double matting layers I created two cards. I used my Misti and some Tim Holtz Runway stamps to decorated one of the layers.

The paper is from PaperTreyInk. The ink MFT Hybrid. Here is a peek at the inside just waiting for my sentiments.

    

I had to jump right in and make some things before I put these stamps away!

 

In the Hands of the Creator,

 

QP