Weekend of Art

I had a really productive weekend of art. I am almost finished a set of 23 western 3"x5" collages that will be swapped at the western retreat I'm attending later this month. I also made a soldered collage charm for a friend (well, I still have to solder it, but the collage work is done). I'll be posting these items in the next day or two.

I received the last altered book for the swap for my online group. This book is for Carol and her theme is "games." I finished two spreads today.

The first is "Fun and games - take time to play." For the background on this spread I swiped Rocket Red Brilliance ink straight from the inkpad directly on the pages. I triangle folded a center page so that it would form a pocket on the left page of the spread. I glued on two little plastic checker pieces so this pocket can be closed. I glued four star-shaped playing cards under the triangle. I made a diagonal cut across the next page and folded it in half toward the center of the book, forming a vertical pocket which holds a picture of a game board and directions for Triominoes. The right page has a tag attached which folds out for the word "play."

Since I am the last of four people to work in this book, I was at a loss as to what to do for the next spread, as it seemed that all the "games" had been used. Then I started thinking of ballgames and I came up with this baseball spread. The background was painted with a watery wash of green acrylic paint. On the left page I used a baseball printed paper and attached a copy of the song sheet cover for the song "Take me out to the ballgame." I sewed this on with red embroidery floss to mimic the stitching on the balls. The right page has two different baseball-themed papers with the lyrics of the song attached. The various words which are scattered mostly on the left page were cut from another patterned paper. I "tipped in" the Cracker Jack packaging and "prizes."

Still one more spread to do before the July 15th deadline!