Tea cup card with teabag

I made another tea cup! 

This time I did remember to document the whole process, I believe :D 

I began by taking pictures of the embossing, 

I was quite thrilled by the water discovery so I took pictures to show how it happens.

I used a paint brush to "paint" the shape with the water, the first one to the left has already broken through the water, I used a tool to outline it and pushed it gently. The second one did soak in the water but is just there without further prodding. The third one is just a fat drop of water that has not yet been absorbed by the paper.

I found out that adding some regular white glue or PVC helps to strengthen the paper, and I'm hoping it makes good filling material as well so the embossed area isn't too fragile.

The next step was to keep on outlining and gently rubbing the design from the back or inside. I do this placing it over 3 napkins, just regular paper napkins, otherwise the embossing can't "grow".

I have no idea what the tool I use is called, I found it in my mother's stuff too many years ago and never heard it's name or where she got it from. If anyone knows I'd really love to find out so I can get others and replace this one since one end comes off, although I'm not complaining since the inside part of the metal tip comes in handy sometimes! :)

And here I turned the paper around so this is the front or right side of it and went all around the design with the small ball tip of my tool so it would become defined. I removed the napkins from underneath so it was on a flat and hard surface, a glass would be ideal, I just used my cutting mat. 

So, after I was done I lined the embossed part with pink bond paper and cut the back of the cup shape and glued them all, leaving a big pocket inside the cup. For the embossed part of the cup I used thick paper, in México we call it "papel marquilla" and I'm not sure what its English name is or what its components are, but I remember getting blocks of that paper through my entire schooling years for art lessons, and I loved it back then as much as I do now!. Specially because it came in a rather large size and it's great for water colors, gouaché, ink and coloring pencils.

And it was time for my favourite part! The little teabag tag. Can you tell how tiny it is from the picture? In my country we use the metric system, so I'm not too familiar with inches yet!.

The white paper on the left is the actual tag and it's made of coated paper, as well as the "tea bag". The little square to the right is -well, at that point was going to be- a little paper cut out silhouette, I cut through 2 papers at once so I could have them on both sides of the tag.

I felt so happy cutting paper that I made a flower for the front of the tea cup

Time for some music! 

I was very happy that Alice asked me about Philippe Jaroussky yesterday on her comment, actually she asked about counter tenors. I love this video! 

OK, back to the card. I needed to attach the string to the teabag so that it would stay put if it got pulled out from it, I was wondering how to do that and I remembered seeing this hand at Elsita Mora's blog that I liked very much so I decided to make one to hold the string in place.

Click on the picture to go to the original post where this image comes from.

So I made a tiny hand similar to the one on the picture

But that didn't go too well as the fingers in the middle became distorted so I started a bigger one

I traced a design on it using the same tool I use for embossing, come to think of it I call it a burin sometimes, and began cutting. 

At one point I had to use my thread counter to see some of the details on it.

Then I realized it needed some backing so I could actually glue the tag's string to it, so I added some.

And here is the teabag finished. I made some tea with the tip of a paintbrush and paint :) It actually has a 3rd fold not visible on this picture, so it's a triptych. Everything else on it is blank so a note can be written on it.

And here at last is the finished tea cup with its teabag inside it 

Do you like it? :)

Miniature Bookshelf with Mexican Virgins

These past few days I've been working on a commission for Lyn, my online comadre. 

It will be a gift for her mother on Mother's day and I sure hope she likes it!  She likes purple and is a devoted Catholic of Mexican ascendancy.


This miniature bookshelf is made with my very own personal concoction of cold porcelain and papier mâché.
It has a Rosary made with seed-beads that you can see on this picture ->

 


I love how my dough turned out this time! I tend to experiment with ingredients and the way to prepare it almost every time I make it. I'm certainly trying this way again!  

I molded the legs out of clay and then covered them with tiny bits of hand-shredded paper,

 I glued them on with "engrudo", which would be the equivalent of barbotine, if this was real ceramic's clay, as in mud, I guess.

I'm really glad I remembered to take pictures while I was making it.


Surprisingly they seem to be less than I thought I had.

Here the bookshelf is almost completely assembled.

I had made a few figures with my dough and was trying to figure out how many I might need for all 3 shelves, and how I would paint them. 

I really love how translucent and 
flexible my dough came out this time, I could roll it paper thin and then ball it up again without it showing!

<-Look at how it captured the light on that Virgin's cape!








Here I had most base colors layed out, except for the purple background on the second shelf, that's a piece of China or tissue paper I placed there to give me an idea of how it would look that way. 

I know the Virgin's picture to the right isn't sharp, but I loved how the evening sun hit it! 




I also crocheted a tiny doily with some -regular- cotton thread to place on a shelf.





I don't know the name of this blue virgin, I have seen her image at many different places down here, including my elementary school, which was catholic.


And I also knew I should add some violets since a lot of people favor them in México, and them being purple, I suspect my friend's mom may have at least one! :D





 And all of a sudden it was done!

 
 I placed a match to add some perspective.


The tray it's on is painted like some local clay ceramic pottery I've seen in my State (Morelos) quite often. I was surprised to see how realistic those pieces feel! I also added a flower vase on the bottom shelf to match it.

I made some tiny books and a purple flower paper cut-out in a frame, some "veladoras" which are short and fat candles that are lit for the Virgins and Saints. And there's a tall and thin candle as well on the top shelf, for the blue Virgin.





And for the lower shelf I made some dolls that remind me of Virgins, but aren't. 
The ones on the middle shelf are, my mom had one similar to the one wearing a crown and the one with a blue veil splashed with stars is a must.

There's a tiny round plate with a heart, because it's for mother's day :)