Ipad Case Design, Continued

Here's my completed Ipad case. I used three layers of glued-together coroplast for the frame. I thought the coroplast looked ugly so I wrapped the pieces in vinyl. I used coroplast inserts for the cover and twill tape for the edging. Finally I glued the frame to the inside cover. I have a few new ideas for the next one. I might add a velcro closure to this one.The loop in the spine is for my homemade Ipad stylus.

I realized I had covered up the speakers and other ports when I got a Skype call and we couldn't hear anything. So I'm going to try a design where I keep the various ports exposed.

Ipad case design

Since we got an Ipad at the beginning of summer, it is growing indispensable. I have drawing, cartooning, and svg software on it. I can read articles while lying on my side thanks to the aspect lock, and I listen to bedtime stories from various content suppliers.

I've been looking at Ipad cases that seem to start at $45 and go up from there. I've been waiting for our city's municipal election to score some used coroplast. Thanks to the Wayne Stewart campaign for their generous donation.

The design I'm pursuing has a few layers of coroplast built up to make a snug-fitting frame. Here's my work-in-progress. I'm using Vynabond to built up the layers.

I'm also planning to offer my Ipad cases with a stylus if I can get metal pencil extenders at a reasonable price.

Cutout map

I made a Cutout map of downtown Calgary using TouchDraw on the Ipad. Plus a lot more steps as well. The reason for many blocks not getting cut out was that I was experimenting with the pressure on the Cricut Expressions during the cutting session. It seemed to need maximum pressure on this particular piece of vinyl. The challenge was with the high pressure the piece was looking like it was going to shift off of the cutting mat.

Cutout/cutwork maps seem to be a trend, here's one in paper of Madrid. Mine has nowhere near the accuracy of Karen O'Leary's work however; I just wanted to see how it would look. Also the underlying map I was using did not have a lot of detail. The advantage of making an svg file is that I can make many copies. Each one will be unique due to the underlying colors of the vinyl.

Hanging chads in billboard vinyl

Sometimes the cuts are incomplete, even with multiple passes. One way to lift the easy ones off is with duct tape. The rest are snipped with scissors.

October snow on sunflower

We had an early dump of snow. It caused the sunflower to topple, so I brought it in and put it in my adhesive-vinyl-decorated vase.

1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse

I submitted some pictures for this book quite some time ago, and forgot all about it. I don't usually Google myself, but I did this time. When I saw the title near the list of results for my name it made me wonder at the association. I did a search on the book on Amazon and found my name in the index! Now I've got the book on hold to find out which item it was that is featured.

What a nice surprise!

Update: it's the "Eye" wallet, third row, middle. The photo doesn't show the wallet to its best advantage. I sold it at a craft show a while back.

Emerald Green, The Path To It.

A potential client wants an emerald green wallet. I just put a tab for custom work on my blogs. At present it's just for wallets, but I want to put custom notebooks next. I showed the client a picture from Blick art materials to see which sort of emerald green she liked, then I got a hex color definition for emerald green that was close. Then, I converted that hex number to RGB and from that RGB I was able to find close paint fan matches.

That sounded like a very circuitous path I took, but I needed an emerald green that was printed on paper to compare to what I was mixing. I'm using samples of System Three's WR-LPU paint to create the color. I might have gotten in the ballpark. I told the client I'm not going to charge for the paint on a wallet, because I'm not sure how it's going to perform long-term on the wear points of a wallet. I have no doubt it will adhere and not peel off with pre-sanding, but I'm just not sure of it's long-term wearability. Don't get me wrong, though. I suspect it will be fabulous, I just don't have the data yet. For custom colours for things like wallets I'm planning to either give clients some touchup paint as well as paint a few coats.