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.

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.

Here is a simple technique that uses supplies I will bet you already have.

Ingredients
image from magazine or catalogue (I love to use images from J. Jill and I get them free in the mail.)

scissors/ xacto knife

paint (I used black and blue mixed on the paint brush.)

decorative paper (I used an old dictionary page)

foam paint brush

ingredients for rest of the page

double spread of an altered book

black gesso

paint brush

gel medium

vellum

black permanent ink

letter stamps (from purple onion)

photo corners

Steps

1. Cut image out. I turn the image over to see how the image would turn out to see how the image would look.

2. Lay image down on decorative paper. Start at middle of an image paint out, to create halo around image.

3. Pull up image. Let dry.

4. Add to a page lay out.

Soul man

Here is a quick and easy embellishment trick with stuff I am sure you have in your stash.

Ingredients
Masking tape
Non stick sheet or wax paper
Stamps The yard stick is from Ma Vinci, The clock is from Non Sequitur and I do not know what company made the stencil letter stamps.
acrylic paint (I used black)

1. Place strips of masking tape side by side on a non stick sheet.
2. Stamp images using black acrylic paint.
3. Let dry.
4. Peel off the tape and place on page. The word "soul" was printed on tape that was over lapping so I peeled it off as one big "sticker."

The rest of the page

The background was purple acrylic paint brushed on a page. Once dry super sparkle lumieres paint was sponged over it. Then images of yard sticks, clocks and rulers were stamped using lumiere hi lite blue and black.

The main image was stamped on a recycled tag using black permanent ink. The image is from After Midnight Stamps

Altered Book Swirl Page

This page I have been working on a few months. Yesterday, I decided to finally finish it up. There are three separate techniques here - the swirl main image, watercolor resist background and dry brush technique for the circles the letters are printed on.


Ingredients

• Two page spread - for this technique to work you need two page spread
• White candle - taper works best
• Watercolors - I used Dr Martin liquid watercolors
• Watercolor paint brush
• Water
• Two sided cardstock - both sides must be decorated.
• Circle Cutter
• Scissors
• Pop dots double stick
• Additional cardstock
• Stamps and ink - I used Bird by stampers anonymous, Flowers from Judikins, Letter unknown. Ink is my favorite Archival Ink by Ranger.
• Glue Stick
• Children's writing tablet
• Acrylic paint - I used orange
• Gesso
• Paintbrushes
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Circle Punch - 1 inch

Watercolor resist - I was just experiment candle was as a resist. I think the same effect could be achieved with a crayon.

1. Using white taper candle draw a design on the page. I did just swirls and wrote the word "spring" several times.
2. Using a paint brush wash clear water over the candle drawing.
3. With watercolor paint brush, wash watercolor paint over the page.
4. Let dry.

Swirl pop up - Just like the pop up books of my childhood.

1. Using a ruler decide what size you want your swirl to be. I decided a 4 inch circle would be best.
2. Cut out circle with circle cutter.
3. Using scissors, cut circle in a swirl
4. Place a pop dot at the center point. Attach it to one page.
5. Place a pop dot at outside end of the swirl. Close book and then open it. This make sure the end lines up nicely. Use more pop dots to line up the swirl as you wish.
6. Stamp bird and flower images. Cut out. Using glue stick, attach the to swirl. I put some backwards so that no matter what side you are looking at you can see birds and flowers.

Dry brush technique - This is a quick technique that uses up the left over paint from other projects.

1. Brush acrylic paint over children's writing paper. Use a light hand. Let dry.
2. Brush gesso over the paper. Again use light hand and they let dry.
3. Using a circle punch, punch out circles from the paper.
4. Stamp letters on each circle.
5. Cut pieces of scrapbook paper into 1.25 inch squares
6. Attach squares to page with glue stick.
7. Attach letter circles to the squares.

Flower altered book page

Here is a simple altered book spread.

Ingredients

• Altered book
• Gesso and paint brush
• Two colors of acrylic paint - I used pink and green
• Paint brushes
• Clean water
• Scrap pages of a book
• Technique Tuesday stamps
• Ink
• Adhesive - I used Uhu glue stick.
• Scissors

Steps

1. Gesso two page spread. Let dry
2. Paint pink acrylic paint over the top 2/3rd of the gessoed pages. Let dry.
3. Apply a water wash over the bottom 1/3rd of the pages. Paint over with green paint. Let dry.
4. On scrap book pages stamp the flower petals and circles. I used Technique Tuesday stamps and ancient page ink.
5. Using clear water on a paint brush, draw a line you would like to tear around the petals and the circles.
6. Glue petals and circles on the page. Cut off any pieces that do not fit on the page.
   

Here is the same idea but placed on a greeting card. The only difference is the background square which is just a children's writing tablet with gesso and then acrylic paints in the same color pink and green. All was glued on a white greeting card.


Here is a close up of the same card.

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.

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.

Three Dimensional Image for altered books

This is a technique that I learned when I first started rubber stamping. I thought it would be a great one in December, since for Christians this is the times of many many cards, but you can really used any image. You just need multiple images.

Ingredients
At least 3 copies of the same image (I used some holiday cards I found at an Estate Sale
Altered book spread with a background (I used the acrylic paint and alcohol background)
Xacto knife and cutting mat
Ruler (I like using a clear one)
Dimensional adhesive or window insulation
Adhesive (I used double sided tape)

Recipe
1. Look at image and identifying the foreground, background and the center ground.
2. Cut out the foreground of one image using the Xacto knife and cutting mat.
3. Turn image over and place dimensional adhesive on the back. Set aside.
4. With another copy of the image cut up the middle ground. Set aside.
5. Repeat placing dimensional adhesive on the back of the images.
6. Attach foreground to the middle ground image, lining up the images as close as possible.
7. Attach middle ground image to the background image lining it up as closely as possible to the background.
8. Attach the completed 3 D image to the page
9. Complete the embellishment of the page.