Altered Book Round Robin

Just finished the first page of three for Kris' book in our round robin. Her book is small - only about 5 1/2 by 7 1/2 so not sure why I procrastinated so long. I guess I just work better under pressure!

I used a new technique (to me - thanks Jeri) that I also used on one of my row houses. I first painted both pages with gesso and stamped into it while still wet with an uninked leaf stamp. After letting this dry completely I swiped several green, blue and yellow Distress Inks over the pages and then dabbed with a paper towel until I liked it. I spritzed with water and let it dry.

(Note: since the gesso seals the page, if you wipe the page after wetting, it will all just come off. The trick is to let it dry.) The water droplets leave little white spots which gives a nice texture to the background. The inks also settle into the depressions left by the leaf stamp which gives some definition to these areas. I then adhered some bits of torn music pages and cutout images from the Internet. Finally, the spread still needed something so I stamped the "sing" and attached it behind a copper name plate.