The joys of cardboard
Dec. 19th, 2021 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillilahI may have mentioned that I found some cool YouTube videos on making things with cardboard. They were so inspiring, that I decided to do this at home. Here are the two things that I have made so far, with instructions.
Inspirational videos:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEknDo3au7U
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7u57j3kFP4
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQf_EqaSAfY
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0CafxQnWZI
First: the cell phone stand. I wanted to have a stand that would hold up my phone, so that I could see it, while still charging it. It has done what I wanted it to, and I am very pleased.
I used this design, but changed it so that the phone was held a little closer to vertical and so that the cord was entirely enclosed in the base. I put a back on it for stability.
What I learned:
* cut a piece for the bottom that is square and tape it into place, so that the whole thing is something like square while it dries, even though I wasn't planning on keeping that bottom piece.
* mark exactly where the phone bed is supposed to go. Otherwise, it won't be even. I tried using toothpicks to hold the phone bed in place while the glue dried, but that didn't go so well.
* I used two pieces for the sides and a single piece for the front, back, phone bed, and little shelf that supports the phone.
* For the phone support shelf, I glued it in as one piece with the middle section mostly cut but not removed. That helped it go in more evenly.
* When I made the texture paste from cornstarch, glue, and paint, it cracked, presumably because I used too much cornstarch. Much less cornstarch helped, but still wasn't great. I'll try it with talc or baking soda next time.
* Rocks have cracks, so the cracks actually work.
* Paint looks different in sunlight vs. artificial light.
* Just keep going. If you think you have put on enough paint, you probably need more.
* Flicking paint at things makes it look much more realistic than brushing.
* Used this video for a reference on how to paint moss. It was great.
* The USB cable required a lot of tending in the back to keep it from getting out of its nook and interfering with how the holder sits on the table. I fixed this by taking a hair tie (a very small one), sewing it into a loop, and gluing it (with hot glue) just above the USB cable nook. Since then, it hasn't caused any trouble.
Second: sock tube. For things like compression socks, handkerchiefs, and underwear, I just want a dispenser. I don't need to examine each handkerchief for its suitability (I have also put the ones that are unsuitable for snot into a different tube, so that I can blot my fingers on those after testing my blood). I previously used plastic tubes, but the paint flaked off, and the handkerchiefs smelled like plastic. So, I finally realized that I can use paper shipping tubes.
The tubes I got were too long, so I just measure the right length, drew a line, and used a scalpel to slowly cut the tubes. It worked fine. However, the ends weren't always smooth, so I used the technique from the videos and glued little strips of paper all around the ends of the tubes. I then painted them with acrylic primer/gesso and let them dry. For the space scene, I looked up "night sky color palette" online and used those colors and a regular flat, rectangular brush to paint the background (with some metallic pink and metallic blue paint, in addition to prussian blue, magenta, and whatever other blues I had in my bag of paints. I had to mix in water to get everything to blend. Over top of that, I used a dry, round, flat-bottomed brush (like for a stencil) to dab a mixture of prussian blue, white, and silver (with various amounts of each) over the whole thing. I used this to decrease the visibility of brush strokes and generally make all the transitions more smooth. After that dried for a while, I flicked watered down silver and then watered down white at it to make the starfield. I painted over top with a glossy acrylic varnish.
What I learned:
* The glossy acrylic varnish is pretty sticky. The matte one I used on the phone holder wasn't anywhere nearly as sticky, so I plan on painting the whole thing again with the matte varnish.
* I used the back of the paintbrush that I was using to apply glue to smooth down the paper. I think this helped with the wrinkles where I glued paper over the edges of the ends (although there are still some).
So far, I'm having a great time with these projects. I don't feel too bad if I screw them up either, since it is just cardboard.
Inspirational videos:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEknDo3au7U
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7u57j3kFP4
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQf_EqaSAfY
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0CafxQnWZI
First: the cell phone stand. I wanted to have a stand that would hold up my phone, so that I could see it, while still charging it. It has done what I wanted it to, and I am very pleased.
I used this design, but changed it so that the phone was held a little closer to vertical and so that the cord was entirely enclosed in the base. I put a back on it for stability.
What I learned:
* cut a piece for the bottom that is square and tape it into place, so that the whole thing is something like square while it dries, even though I wasn't planning on keeping that bottom piece.
* mark exactly where the phone bed is supposed to go. Otherwise, it won't be even. I tried using toothpicks to hold the phone bed in place while the glue dried, but that didn't go so well.
* I used two pieces for the sides and a single piece for the front, back, phone bed, and little shelf that supports the phone.
* For the phone support shelf, I glued it in as one piece with the middle section mostly cut but not removed. That helped it go in more evenly.
* When I made the texture paste from cornstarch, glue, and paint, it cracked, presumably because I used too much cornstarch. Much less cornstarch helped, but still wasn't great. I'll try it with talc or baking soda next time.
* Rocks have cracks, so the cracks actually work.
* Paint looks different in sunlight vs. artificial light.
* Just keep going. If you think you have put on enough paint, you probably need more.
* Flicking paint at things makes it look much more realistic than brushing.
* Used this video for a reference on how to paint moss. It was great.
* The USB cable required a lot of tending in the back to keep it from getting out of its nook and interfering with how the holder sits on the table. I fixed this by taking a hair tie (a very small one), sewing it into a loop, and gluing it (with hot glue) just above the USB cable nook. Since then, it hasn't caused any trouble.
Second: sock tube. For things like compression socks, handkerchiefs, and underwear, I just want a dispenser. I don't need to examine each handkerchief for its suitability (I have also put the ones that are unsuitable for snot into a different tube, so that I can blot my fingers on those after testing my blood). I previously used plastic tubes, but the paint flaked off, and the handkerchiefs smelled like plastic. So, I finally realized that I can use paper shipping tubes.
The tubes I got were too long, so I just measure the right length, drew a line, and used a scalpel to slowly cut the tubes. It worked fine. However, the ends weren't always smooth, so I used the technique from the videos and glued little strips of paper all around the ends of the tubes. I then painted them with acrylic primer/gesso and let them dry. For the space scene, I looked up "night sky color palette" online and used those colors and a regular flat, rectangular brush to paint the background (with some metallic pink and metallic blue paint, in addition to prussian blue, magenta, and whatever other blues I had in my bag of paints. I had to mix in water to get everything to blend. Over top of that, I used a dry, round, flat-bottomed brush (like for a stencil) to dab a mixture of prussian blue, white, and silver (with various amounts of each) over the whole thing. I used this to decrease the visibility of brush strokes and generally make all the transitions more smooth. After that dried for a while, I flicked watered down silver and then watered down white at it to make the starfield. I painted over top with a glossy acrylic varnish.
What I learned:
* The glossy acrylic varnish is pretty sticky. The matte one I used on the phone holder wasn't anywhere nearly as sticky, so I plan on painting the whole thing again with the matte varnish.
* I used the back of the paintbrush that I was using to apply glue to smooth down the paper. I think this helped with the wrinkles where I glued paper over the edges of the ends (although there are still some).
So far, I'm having a great time with these projects. I don't feel too bad if I screw them up either, since it is just cardboard.
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Date: 2022-01-01 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-02 04:12 pm (UTC)