nothing to report and a book within a book

Last night, after my injection I went home and fell asleep. So no new art. So I thought I would share something I made last summer and the directions for it.

Its a book inside a book. I started off making a mini book. here is the link to a website that explains it really well.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/makingbooks/minibook/index.htm

I did this mini book in a class I took for free (free is a very good price.) In the class the instructor had the most awesome clip art so the entire mini book is clip art and rub on lettering.

I painted the two page spread with Golden's heavy body acrylic paint in payne's grey. I just did it haphazardly to give it a lot of texture. The lettering is from a text sheet of paper and using my sizzlit machine. I am not sure of the font. I adhered the mini book in the spine of the book.

Now I have a page that has pages to turn on it.

This mini book can actual be a big book too just use larger paper with the same dimensions. Lynne Perrella does this times and it is awesome.

Cover art

I am on a roll folks. I am continuing to create art on a regular basis. I am doing so much that I decided to only post things that get finished.

Last night I finished a cover to one of my books. I usually do the covers near the end of a book because other wise I am smashing the embellishments and when I am working on the inside the art on the cover makes it hard to get a good impression and such.

The technique that I did on this cover is a faux leather technique. I love it because it uses recycled grocery sacks. Perfect for an earth day project.

Ingredients

1. Brown Grocery Sacks torn into random pieces
2. soft gel medium
3. glue brush (a paint brush dedicated to glue)
4. Substrate in this case my book cover

Steps

1. Glue the pieces of grocery sack down on the substrate.
2. Cover with gel medium. Let dry

Easy peasy huh and it makes a great background. I have a page I will show later when it is finished that I did the same thing. I used an old nylon paint brush I got at an estate sale and as I was spreading the glue bits of the bristles were coming off so my book has these interesting black spots that I had not planned for at all.

Next I stamped the white swirls using white gesso. Let that dry. Then stenciled using sequence waste the purple and yellow dots.

To the spine I add some ribbon flowers along the spine. These are different then the technique I talked about the other day. I will show you how to make these later when I do some step by step pictures. These particular flowers I made last year for Artfest as trades and forgot to trade them.

Final step was to stamp something on the front. Coming up with titles for my altered books is very random. What ever word pops in my head I use. In this case, April the month it was worked on and it fit perfectly.

Circus page

This page has been worked on different times in the last year or so. It really has gone in spurts. The spread was gessoed first, as are most of my pages. Then the circus tissue paper from the dollar store was added. I thought it was really to bright for anything I would do so I dry brushed titanium buff over it to push it to the background and fade it out. So then it set for a while.

Then one day I was messing around with creating ribbon flowers and realized the orange polka dotted ribbon went well on this page but I did not have any focal image so the page sat with possible embellishments but no focal image.

In September, my friend go married and we made her wedding programs with orange vellum. Well the orange vellum that was not perfect became mine. As I thought about it I thought it went really well with this page.

I stamped the face, buildings and quote (all from Zettilogy) and placed them on the page. I added the ribbon flowers and like the page but it did not seem finished.

On Monday, I had a box of trim out next to me and the braided trim was right on top the perfect color and the perfect size to finish off the page.

I am not sure where I learned to do the ribbon flowers, but I know I was influenced by Sister Diane who taught me how to make flower embellishments out of buttons and trim so I am going to give her credit.

Directions for the ribbon flowers.

Ingredients:

1. Ribbon about 6 inches but really this depends on how full you want your flower. The ribbon has to be wide enough that you can run a stitch along it. I used 1 inch wide ribbon.
2. Scissors
3. Thread any color
4. Needle
5. Button
6. Embroidery thread or fake flower stamens.
7. Fabric glue or heavy duty industrial glue like E-6000

Steps:

1. Cut ribbon to desired length. Run a running stitch along the edge. This edge will be hidden by the button so don't worry about thread color. Cut off thread. Leave at least 3 inches of thread at both ends of the ribbon.

2. Gently pull the thread so the ribbon bunches up. Tie the to ends together tightly.

3. Thread embroidery thread through button and tie off like flower stamens or use fake stamens. Glue button on top.

This ribbon make great hair embellishments as well.

I know another each ribbon flower that I will share later.

Another completed page

Over the weekend I did not create any art. Saturday, I did the MS Walk and when I got home I decided to just chill and rest. My reward for being a good citizen. Then Sunday I worked at Petsmart and when I got home did a small bit of organizing supplies so that was my creative endeavor for the day.

On Monday, I was back at it. I worked on several backgrounds. Which I will put in later posts, but if you must see them right now there are in my facebook album.

I did finish two pages. I started this spread about two years ago when I was experimenting with some light blue paint I got at an Estate sale bag sale....I have not idea what kind of paint it is and the texture is very smooth and shiny. The flower is a napkin from the same sale. Yes I just pulled it out of the bag and put it on the page. I thought the paint was too shiny so I brushed over it with gesso. I do like how the gesso really blends the napkin into the background, but this page never spoke to me so there it set for two years.



Then last night, I was thumbing through my incomplete books, and this page was there in a book that is almost done so I wanted to finish it. I had my alphabet stickers out and these alphabets jumped out at me. There were white to begin. Boring. So I thought I would paint them carmine with some iridescent medium mixed in to match the page. Another sticker I had said be yourself so I thought I would use the quote and then added love yourself because it just flowed.

A page I did not like turned into something that is not half bad if you ask me. It is more shiny in this picture then it is in real life.

Napkins and tissue paper are two of my all time favorite art material. When ever I find either at garage sales, estate sales or on deep discounts I buy them. They are usually pretty or interesting and you get tons. I pass them out to my friends because I usually have too many. They are really easy to use. They don't add any bulk to a book. Just peal them down to one ply and apply them to the page using matte medium or gel medium to blend them into the page. Try them sometime.

I really feel an accomplishment when I finish a book and this one is getting close.

Day two of the new me

Ok day 2 of my new art everyday commitment. I did not want to do any more background because right now I have at least 5 altered books with lots of backgrounds but no finished pages. So I set the goal of focusing more on adding embellishments and focal images to the page this time. I am still working with limited resources since I have not started to organize my art room.

If you remember this background was from Wednesday. I stamped the image from Artistic Outpost on tissue paper and adhered it to the page. I am still brain storming how to complete the page but I am sure it will be soon.

This page was kind of meditative to do. It started months ago as play session with iridescent medium and an ink page. I stamped the flowers in the iridescent medium and then run an ink pad over it to get the resist. It was so long ago I don't even remember the name of the ink pad or the company that makes it. Well last night, I decided I wanted to try out the inksentials white pen from Ranger. I have heard so many people rave about it I wanted to try it out. Also I have been intrigued by the zentangle crazy that it inspired me. I just doodled and drew lines between the flowers, filling up the space. This page is so interesting to me I may just add a simple quote and call it good. Any ideas of a good quote for it?

Here is another page I have had for a long long time that has been unfinished. The background is another one I learned from Claudine Hellmuth but I also have seen it before I believe it is an old painting technique.

Ingredients

• Book page
• Acrylic paints at least two contrasting colors
• Plastic wrap
• Paint brush
• Water

Steps

1. Paint page in a solid color. In this case red. Let dry.
2. With watered down acrylic paint in a contrasting color paint over the painted page. Before the second coat dry lay plastic wrap over the page and smoosh it around creating wrinkles and such. Let dry without removing the plastic wrap.
3. When completely draw remove the wrap.

After I did this technique I dry brushed white paint over it to give it some depth. I added the felt embellishment which I got at an after Christmas clearance sale. And there the page sat until Thursday night.

I found the image in an old calendar I had but it was huge and I had to cut it down. The expression on the persons face was so jubilant, the quote came easy. The quote is spelled out in vinyl letter I got at an estate sale.

I love the page and was very happy to have finished a page. I have not finished an altered book page in months.

So I am going to keep on trucking and creating.

I started

I did it....I went home and I did art for over an hour on Wednesday. It felt great. I did not think it was going to have because I worked over 90 minutes so I was sure I would be exhausted and not have the creativity to do anything. But I was bound and determine to work towards one of my goals.

I grabbed supplies that I had handy which was all the stuff from Artfest since I have not unpacked my art bag. I worked on several backgrounds.

This was the first one. I had already adhered the circle tissue paper months ago. I colored it with one of my favorite supplies portfolio water soluble oil pastels. I love them, they are vibrant, creamy and cheap. Only complaint...they only come in 24 colors. Once I applied the oil pastels I used a wet paper towel to blend them. The water caused the tissue paper to peal and shred giving it a totally cool distressed look I had not even planned on.

This one I used the oil pastel again. At Art fest I had covered this page with gesso and then textured it with fondant cutters and tissue paper. On Wednesday, I then colored over the gesso with the portfolios and blended it with water. This time the colors came out very subtle. but you can really see the texture, even in the picture but in real life it is much more interesting.

You guessed it portfolios again. I told you I liked them a lot and they were handy. The background here is a collage of dictionary pages that I distressed with a Claudine Hellmuth technique with masking tape. I might share the technique with you later but really her two books are great and technique packed so I strongly suggest you buy them.

I color and blended the portfolios. The dog image is from an old calendar from the dollar store. I am not sure how I will finish the page out but maybe something about dancing cheek to cheek.

Quick and easy page. This is a fancy napkin I found on clearance. I glued it down with matte medium. I think it has a real arabesque feel and will keep my eye out for some sort of image.


This last technique was purely play. The page was covered in white gesso months ago. So squirted out acrylic paint blogs in white, yellow and two shades of green. I then used a barbecue brush (the silicone kind I bought at the dollar store.) to spread the color around.

Here is a close up of the awesome groove and textures that it created. Don't have any idea of how I will finish the page but I am sure it will be awesome......hahahah

I am proud of myself for even starting. This goal is the easiest for me to start but why not start with the easiest to be a motivation.

Carousel

Marie

seashells.jpg

the sea makes no promise and breaks none

venice.jpg

Royal We

I have two ways of working....fast where I finish quickly and then some pages take months (or dare I say years) to finish....this one was month to finish. The page was gessoed white and then swirls were stamped randomly using blue Lumieres paint (sorry not sure what company made the swirl). Then the page sat....for months

Til last week, I wanted to experiment with the lyra gel crayons I have. These are water soluble so i wanted o see how they would do as a wash over an image. They worked great. The princess image is from Lost Coast Designs and the lettering comes from Purple Onion Designs. I over sprayed with glitter spray because everything I worked on that day got sprayed. I still think it needs little bling on the bottom of the page, I imagine that will come soon.

My girl Patches

Here is an altered book spread I did of my John Wetzel Terrier. I painted a black and white picture of her using watercolors....the background is black gesso and metallic markers swirled around. The lettering is an soda can that I ran thru a die cut machine. Way to recycle huh? Quick and easy page

corgilicious

This page is made up of several techniques - cheesecloth background, plastic wrap background and the Andy Warhol inspired painting. This is a recent picture of my Pembroke welsh corgi Roux D. He is very corgilicious.

Ingredients

• Two page spread
• Gesso
• Paint brushes
• Water
• Acrylic paint in several colors (I used purple, green, blue)
• Plastic wrap
• Cheesecloth
• Liquid glue (I used soft gel medium in gloss)
• Black and white laser print
• Glazing medium or fluid acrylics
• Embellishments (I used rubber stamps, stazon ink, circle tags, purple twill and colored label stickers)

Steps

1. Paint a two page spread with white gesso. Let dry. If you do not want white as your background paint over the gesso with the color of choice. Let dry. I liked the contrast of the white so I did not do this extra color
2. Apply a watery layer of purple paint. Before it dries lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the wet paint. Smoosh it around. Pull up the plastic and let it dry with all the swirls created by the plastic wrap.
3. Dye white cheesecloth color of choice using an acrylic paint wash. Let dry. In this case, I actually found purple cheesecloth on clearance.
4. Cover the background with liquid glue of choice. I used soft gel medium. Cover the pages with the cheesecloth. Make sure to create wrinkles and bumps for interest. Let dry.
5. Using acrylic paint, stamp design over the cheese cloth. (I used Technique Tuesday circle stamps in blue and purple paint. Make sure to wash off acrylic paint ASAP when using rubber stamps).
6. Find a picture you like. Print out in laser black and white. I took an ink jet picture I liked and color copied it in black and white at Kinkos/Fed Ex (or whatever it is called now).
7. Using glazing medium, mixed it and acrylic paint together. About 10 drops of the medium to 1 drop paint. You can use fluid acrylics as well or watered down acrylics, but the watered down acrylics may cause the picture to wrinkle.
8. Paint your picture as you wish. Let dry. I used Andy Warhol as inspiration. Glue on to page spread. Again I used gel medium.
9. Embellish as you wish. I used round tags and colored labels with stamped letters using Rubberstamp Ave Stamps to spell out corgilicious. I used staz on black ink.

Siren Song

Here is a page from one of my altered books. The background was gel paint then I embellshed the piece with vintage velvet wallpaper, vinyl letters, cardboard, sheet music and a chinese scallop shell that I found when I was a kid.

Obey the corgi

The background for this page is masking tape placed randomly and then liquid watercolor brushed over it. Then I stamped the words obey the corgi in white stazon ink and then using the eraser end of a pencil and white acrylic paint for the dots.

Ode to Eartha Kitt

This altered book page is one I made with Eartha Kitt in mind. I was sad to hear she had died. She was an admirable woman. She was one of the great sex kittens of our time. She played Catwoman on the old Batman TV show. She was well know for singing the song Santa baby.

I did not purchase anything specifically for this page, I just had it all all ready. The background page is one I did several months back. It is masking tape and an acrylic paint wash. I accidently got black paint on the edges and so I used white gesso to cover the edges, which in the end worked great to give it a snowy like finish.

The picture was one I purchased about a month ago at Loose Ends in Salem. I loved the vampy naughtiness of the image. I have had hte velvet holly embellishments for several years, just waiting for the right moment. The dried baby roses I bought the same time as the image. The special delivery stickers were an estate sale find.

I stamped the letter with pink acrylic paint. Used an old dymo label maker that has this really cool italic font......I wish they made different fonts fo the new ones.

This page was not a summary of her life but a dedication to her spirit and the impact it had on me. I love you, Ms Kitt

Catching up with Altered book techniques

Not only did I neglect my blog the last few month I neglected my duties on the Yahoo Altered book technique person. So I have promised to post a technique a week until I catch up.

Here are two techniques with something I bet everyone has in their stash. The background one I learned years ago in girl scouts then was reintroduced to by Claudine Hellmuth at Art and Soul 2006. The 2nd one was something I learned from Scraptastic!: 50 Messy, Sparkly, Touch-Feely, Snazzy Ways to Jazz Up Your Scrapbook Pages by Ashley Calder. I have yet to try it but I thought I would present it since it uses the same thing as the background technique.

Masking Tape Background

Ingredients
Page
Gel Medium
Masking tape (any size, though I like to have a variety of sizes)
Paint brushes
Water
Paint very liquid paint works best like fluid acrylics or watercolors

Steps

1. Seal your page with gel medium. Let dry.
2. Apply masking tape to your page. You can do it randomly or in some sort of pattern.
3. Paint liquidy paint over the tape. It will be darker around the edge of the tape.
4. Let dry.

Embellished Masking Tape

Ingredients
Page
Non stick craft sheet or wax paper
Paint brushes and paint of your choice
Stamps and inks
Markers

Steps

1. Lay out non stick craft sheet. Lay out masking tape close together, not overlapping but so close it looks like a solid page.
2. Decorate as you wish. You can paint them; you can draw or doodle on them with markers, stamp on them or a combination of any of these techniques.
3. Let dry.
4. Carefully peel tape off non stick sheet. Apply to page as you wish. You can apply them randomly or keep the pattern you created.

Altered Book Technique for Earth Day In Mind

This altered book technique is in honor of April 20th being earth day. This is a fun project using a old used dryer sheet.

I started doing this technique because John uses dryer sheets and when he is done they seem to float all over the house. I hate dryer sheets and don't use them because they seem to get everywhere.

Dryer Sheet Haze

Photo of entire lay out

Ingredients

Book to alter

Glitter the finer the better

Neutral Card stock

Xyron, double stick sheet or spray adhesive

Used Dryer Sheet (Cheap ones work great)

Sealer or Fixative

Close up of dryer sheet haze technique

Steps

Step 1. Stamp image on neutral cardstock.

Step 2. Color image or parts of image if desired.

Step 3. Run image upside down through Xyron machine to make the front side sticky.

Close up of dryer sheet haze technique at a different angel

Step 4. Peel backing from image and apply used dryer sheet over exposed adhesive.
Step 5. Trim dryer sheet.
Step 6. Pour glitter over top of image and rub into dryer sheet. Really rub it in. The longer the better because the dryer sheet holds the glitter in place.

Close up of dryer sheet haze technique at yet another angel

Step 7. Tap off excess glitter.

Step 8. Spray with sealer or fixative.

Step 9. With image face up, run though Xyron adhere to book.

Close up of the opposite page using a layered paint technique.

Wow it is Friday

Do you think that is the most common title for a blog? For me it is not that I am excited about having the traditional two days off....though I am....but I was off work for 3 days with a nasty flu. Since being diagnosed with MS I have noticed that when ever some yucky germ is going around the office I get it and I get it worse than anyone else. This week it was the flu everyone has had, but for twice as long.

I was home sick for 3 days. The first day getting out of bed even to walk the dogs was not fun. By Tuesday I was up and moving just not very fast or far. I did make it into the art room. I finished finish up my examples for the altered book technique for next month. I will post the pictures once I post the technique on the yahoo altered book group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alteredbooks/?yguid=59621766. I worked on some other trades and just played around. I did do some organizing too, but really the more I organize the worse it looks. I need my mom to help......Mom please. So needless to say, this does not feel like Friday.

If you want a sneak peak of the altered book technique come to DIY Lounge at Collage http://diylounge.com/classlist.php?id=90 next Friday 3/28/2008 for a hands on instruction.

This weekend is Easter. Happy Easter to all the Christians. I will be going to the church of craft on Sunday with my sister and John. http://www.multcolib.org/events/diycrafts.html I have been collect neck ties....but boy are most of them really ugly and not girly. I hope I can vamp them up. I will have pics of the finished product.

After that we are meeting my grandparents, aunt and uncle for dinner.

Of course, I will be going to estate sales. I will update you on the most fabulous find of last week. I am so excited.