Doodlebug

Today I took a class on how to doodle.

Yes, you read that right. The local independent scrapbook store offered the class; the fee included pens, a book on doodling, and the author of the book, Maelynn Cheung, taught the class.

I wanted to take the class because it's cheaper to use pen and paper to create embellishments for scrapbook pages than buying many, many rub-ons and other manufactured embellishments!

Cheung was entertaining as well as a fountain of knowledge about pens and techniques. She alternated between discussing examples from her book, Doodling For Papercrafters, and showing actual page layouts that were passed around the group. She also acknowledged the cheapness factor that doodling offers.

Some notes from the class (when we weren't doodling around):

--M.C. recommends Sakura Pigma graphic pens, of which there is a variety of sizes
--She also recommends Sakura Gelly Roll and Souffle pens
--Permapaque (Permopaque?) pens can be used on metal, glass, transparency, and other non-porous surfaces; they can be found in the graphic design section of craft stores
--on p. 8 of the book, French curve templates are mentioned, which can help the doodle-challenged with drawing flourishes; other tools (not mentioned in the book) are Crafter's Workshop templates (can be found at Dick Blick stores or online); and another tool that is like a flexible ruler, wire covered in plastic, which can be bent to create odd shapes and used as a guide for journaling (I don't know the name of it, and I couldn't find it online because I don't know the right keywords to search)
--Pigment vs. Dye: Pigment takes longer to dry, sits on "top" of the paper, the molecules are larger than those of dye so it lasts longer; dye dries faster, actually changes the color of the paper fibers, and doesn't last as long
--Pens should NOT be stored upright in a pretty container! They should be stored flat, horizontally, except for paint pens, which should be stored tip-down
--Gel pens frequently "stop working" and seem to dry out even though there is enough ink left inside; DON'T shake the pens - this creates air bubbles and makes the problem worse
--To keep gel pens working, use the pens on a regular basis, even if it's a few scribbles on scrap paper
--To try to unclog gel pens, write in circles on a rubber surface, like the bottom of a shoe or on a pink eraser; also try dipping the tip in nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol - just be careful to make sure all of the solution is gone before you use the pen again on archival projects
--The best white pen is the Uniball Signo, which is only manufactured in Japan; there are some similar American pens, but if they don't have Japanese writing on the pen, it's not the real thing; best to buy it online since it's hard to find
--White ink isn't actually ink; it's white chalk - hence the wide results you get with different brands of white pens
--You can catalog your pens by creating several 2x2 squares of black and white textured and smooth papers, then write in the pen on different squares to show what they look like and label them; hole-punch the squares and put them together on a ring
--If you prefer to trace, you can use a light table or a sunny window
--Don't be ashamed to use a pencil to make guide marks; erase and rewrite as many times as needed
--If using a pencil, don't try to trace the pencil marks exactly with a pen; the result will look stuttered and won't be smooth; use the pencil marks as merely a guide
--Erasers are important - pink ones tend to leave smear marks; use white erasers [I personally like the Pentel Clic Erasers because they're shaped like a pen, instead of a block and is a dollar or two at Walmart]
--It's ok to use watercolor pens over pigment pens; the pigment won't bleed or blend

Most of these notes are NOT in the book; I didn't include in detail here what Cheung covered from the book.

We did practice doodling throughout the class, of course, using some practice pages in the book as inspiration. Here are my doodles. Note: Except for the vines, these are pretty much copied from the book, as close as you can get without tracing. (I did a lot of "eyeballing.") This is not my own creativity!

Doodling for Papercrafters is an excellent resource for ideas and easy, practical techniques. It's a tool every papercrafter - and scrapbooker - should own.