Sunday, May 24, 2015

Found some really nice paper at one of the scrapbook stores in Surfside Beach SC. This card is one I made with the paper I purchased. The ribbon is hand dyed. It looks brown here, but is rose and tan.


More altered book pages. This time from a book I worked in for a member of the online art group to which I belong.
The theme of this book is "A Ladies Diary"  This was the name of a wonderful scrapbook paper line put out by Graphic 45. The colours and art style were dictated by the look of this paper. 
Here are the pages I made for the book. I have to say that I had a wonderful time with them.


There is a story theme that goes with this book. The lady who is writing the diary is trying to get over her lost love, who went off to college and then on world travels, not knowing how she felt. She is trying to get over him by immersing herself in work as a fashion designer. She has been quite successful but is not happy with the millinery available to complement her designs. So she has now begun to design her own and has found a skilled milliner who is willing to make her hats. 
Now the book goes on to another member of the group who will continue the story with a new chapter which she will write. When everyone has worked in the book, we will hear the end of the story
What fun!!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

One of the art exchanges this year in my online group, An Affair With Art, is a round robin altered book project.
Altered books, for those not familiar, are used books that are otherwise going to be tossed, which are turned into art works. I just finished the second  of the books I will receive and now have it ready to pass on to the next person who will work in it

Here are the pages in the first two books in the series. The first one belongs to my friend Roxanna King, who used to live in my area. She has since moved half way across the country. So, it was a particular joy to work in her book.. She chose as her theme, "An Artist's ABC" The guidelines are as follows
Choose two 2-letter combinations.
Use the alphabet cards provided as an element on each page
Your work must include a colour that starts with the letter, a flower and an animal that starts with the letter and the definition of a word that starts with the letter
I chose one easy combination the letters O-P, and one challenging combination, W-X.


One of the reasons I chose the letter O is because  the wild flower, Oconee Bells, are among the rarest in existance and they are native to this region where I live and where Roxie lived for many years. You can see the picture at the top right of the O page

The second book belongs to a lady who also  lives half way across the country' Dawn's theme is Mixed Media. this  allows the work to be as realistic or as abstract as you like. You just have to use a variety of materials and media to create your work.
For the first layout, I covered the pages with two coats of white Gesso. Then I spritzed these pages with Ranger Distress Spray Stain, Broken China. The bird images on the left side page were adhered with Golden's light body art paste. The quote was stamped and brushed with Perfect Pearls, Perfect Bronze. the border was stenciled and brushed with the Perfect Pearls
For the second set of pages were done using Gelli Plate prints made with craft acrylic paints.
when those were dry the were pasted into the book. Then I adhered a selection of paper flowers. On the left page the stems were drawn and on the right page, the stems were made with some narrow silk ribbon


I hope you like these. Please post a comment