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Shoebox: Painted Fish Note Card, Recycled Card Boxes

From "Carol Duvall Show"
episode CDS-1419F

By Carol Duvall

There was a most interesting as well as pretty note card in the Shoebox today that had been sent in some time ago by a gentleman from Bonita Springs, Fla., who gave his name as David X. In fact, the interest started with the envelope, which was decorated with randomly placed tiny blue dots. I assumed they were printed on the envelope...especially when I saw the dots repeated on the note card. Not the case. David had made them with a felt tipped marker. What David wrote about, however, was not the dots but the technique he used for making the multicolored fish that decorated the card along with the dots. David wrote that he thought it was an old technique, but it was new to him. It was new to us as well. It was also fascinating and fun.

Materials:

tracing paper
fine-line permanent ink pen
colored alcohol-based pens
rubbing alcohol
fine-line brush

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

Steps:

1. Draw your pattern or subject with fine line pen. Color in with dots and lines (not solidly) using alcohol based pens (figure A).

2. With the fine line brush drop drops of the rubbing alcohol onto the colored surface (figure B). You can spread the colors and actually paint with them, but leave some to develop as they will. Some will make their own outline.

3. When you have some interesting results, cut out the design and attach to a card (figure C).

The fun part of this is the experimenting (figure D). Practice with dots only, as well as simple outlines that you color in. Use a lot of color, a little color, a big blob of the rubbing alcohol, a little alcohol, brush or don’t brush, etc. Give it a try. You might discover a hidden artist in you!

Our next contribution was a letter from Donna Pence, who wrote in to tell us about something that her father, Richard Smith of Titusville, Fla., does. Perhaps you remember the segment we did in the past when we made tiny boxes by folding a Christmas Card that had been cut into a square? We featured the same folding when a guest viewer demonstrated the great variety of boxes that she made using this technique. Well, Mr. Smith makes up bunches of these little boxes using greeting cards, as we did in the beginning, and uses them to leave his tips in for waitresses. What a nice idea. And I am quite certain that he is a big hit with the waitresses as well.