"Round Robin" Altered Book Swap

A few artsy friends and I are participating in a "round robin" altered book swap. We each created our own book with a specific color scheme, a sign-in page for everyone to sign, and a two-page spread. Then we are sending each book around for everyone to create a spread.

I don't think I posted photos of my book yet. My theme is "Hot Pink and Orange." Should make for an interesting book!

This is my cover. I made "fabric paper" - covered a piece of muslin with gel medium and layered paper scraps, tissue paper, paints, stamping etc. - then glued Tim Holtz tissue wrap on the reverse side for the inside covers. I folded it in half and stitched around the edges, adding two rows of pom pom trim. I stitched in watercolor paper pages and added beads to the threads.

On the left is my sign-in page - glassine envelopes with dyed tags and trims.

The right page has my instructions.

And this is my spread. I used lots of spray inks and stencils for the background, then texture paste for the feather stencil. I added dyed lace trim on the top edge. Frida is a computer printout. I added part of a napkin for her dress with Liquid Pearls for the neckline trim. The flowers are all cut from magazines and added to her hair. The earrings are two long silver beads I found in my stash that were perfect for this!

Here is the first book's cover I have worked in. This person's colors are "olive and red." This was hard to do without it looking like Christmas!

This is the spread I created. I was working on another project about gypsies so had this image on my desk. Since it had some green and red in it, I decided to use it as my focal point and go with the gypsy theme.  

The background reinvented itself several times. First I transferred some book text with gel medium but it looked muddy when I added paint, so I covered that up. The paint is a combination of Distress Paint and Lumiere. I mixed gold paint, gold Perfect Pearls and texture paste for the brocade stencil and added some script stamping in red Archival ink.  I collaged on scraps of paper, upholstery fabric, a tea-dyed fabric doily and a heat-stamped piece of red velvet.  Finally, I added some text and the upholstery trims.

For the sign-in page, she wanted us to do art on 1/2 of a watercolor page. I used my new Distress Oxide Ink in Peeled Paint with a touch of Fossilized Amber. It took many layers of going back and forth with adding ink, drying and spritzing with water until I liked the texture. (The color is more olive than this photo shows.) I stamped the leaves with paint, stamped my name with an awesome calligraphy alpha stamp set from Concord & Ninth, and then added some tiny sequins and the doodled border.

This one is off in the mail to the next recipient and I am anxiously awaiting the next book to work in!

I'm off to Austin again for the weekend. Our littlest grandson, Mitchell, turns two and we will be celebrating his birthday with a party on Saturday. See you next week!