Another Altered Book Page before I go...

I'm leaving tomorrow for Stowe, Vermont, for two weeks. My mom lives there still (I grew up there) and is turning 90 on Friday. She is having a big party for all her friends and I will be there to help. 

Then the next week all my kids, their spouses, grand boys and my husband will arrive. We will be having a family celebration on the 23rd along with one of her two surviving, older sisters, a few nieces, two of my brother's kids and their significant others, and my two brothers. It will be quite the family reunion and a grand celebration of this very important milestone!

So I finished this altered book page today, though I should be packing! I won't be doing any art for the next few weeks so had to get my time in now.  This page has a cutout with a suspended corrugated cardboard heart. (I followed this video of LorriMarie Jenkins.)

The heart is cut from a piece of corrugated cardboard with added rusty book pages and Distress Ink.  The microscope slide on the front is one I've had for a long time and might have been received in a swap. I attached it with wire. On the back there is a vintage image cut from a scrapbook paper.

The background is collaged papers with texture paste through a stencil and watercolors.

Front of page with microscope slide attached with wire

Back of page 

I love the effect of the suspended heart. Now I will need to create something very interesting on the pages before and after this one as they will peek through!

I'll be back in a few weeks...

Time Flies

How is it possible that it's been almost two weeks since my last post? 

I finally recuperated from my back going out and am now back to normal. You don't realize how much you need your back until it's not functioning!

My youngest daughter from Chicago has come in two weekends this month (we hadn't seen her since late last summer) for friends' weddings and a baby shower, so that has been fun to catch up with her in person.

As for art, I have done a few art journaling spreads and one more altered book spread.

This page was one where I deposited leftover paint and texture paste through stencils. I added the focal point of the window from a magazine and then covered the background with black gesso to tame the colors.  I then sanded over the texture and used gelato to bring some of the color back. This was a simple and quick page since the background was already started. This is in my small Dylusions art journal (I have several going at once.)

This spread was inspired by a similar page created by Shari Carroll for the Simon Says Stamp blog. She used Jane Davenport napkins, acrylic paints, stamped and embossed butterflies on vellum and some word "tiles" from Tim Holtz. Since I had all the supplies and loved the colors, I CASEd the spread in a spiral-bound journal.

And here's one more spread in my newest altered book. The background started with collaged scrapbook paper scraps and old book pages, covered with gesso and then juicy watercolors with alcohol dripped all over. The houses are assembled from scrapbook papers with doors and windows cut out and vintage images added behind the cutouts. I love how this came out.