Altered Book Cover finished

Last week there were workmen all over my house, tearing up tile and carpet and laying wood flooring. So I holed up in my art room and got the covers to my altered book finished!

I used a paper bag and Mod Podged two layers together. Then I cut pieces to fit in my Cuttlebug. While they were still damp (but not dripping Mod Podge!) I embossed them with different folders. Then I misted them with spray inks - the ones that turned out best were the shimmery sprays. I ran my permanent black ink pad over the embossed areas to highlight the patterns. Then I used black Stabilo pencil around the edges of each piece.

It needed a focal point and I found this glittery microscope slide that I received in a swap years ago. It worked perfectly! 

DONE!!

Altered Trading Coins Received

These are the two altered trading coins I received in April.

The first is a darling 3D shaker coin with lots of glitter and mica.

And this one is from Cindy - I love the layered die cuts and the sparkle on the butterfly.

April Altered Trading Coins

The theme for the April Altered Trading Coins swap is "butterflies."

These were the two coins I made.

Alcohol ink background with script stamp, collage images,
"fly" stamped on tissue paper, gold Krylon pen edging

Another alcohol ink background, collaged image and title, tiny
metal clock hand for butterfly body, silver Krylon pen edging

I can't wait to see what I receive!

Last week

This is what's currently happening in my life. We are in the midst of a full master bathroom remodel along with tearing out tile and carpet throughout the entire downstairs to replace with wood flooring.

Last week they started with the bathroom.

BEFORE:

AFTER first day:

Before tub was removed

This Monday they started tiling the shower. Can't wait to see it.

Oh, and other news - our fridge and freezer went out on Sunday night. And the bad news is we need a new one. The other was 12 years old and the tech said nowadays you can only expect 6-7 years for a fridge! As they say "they don't make them like they used to!" So, along with everything else, I'm shopping for a fridge!

Last two spreads in my altered book

These are the last pages in my current altered book.

This spread has many layers of collaged paper, paint and stencils. The scallop at the top is a scrap of a gelli print. The images are from Stampington and a fashion magazine. I like this color scheme.

I had one page left and I didn't like all the colors I had thrown on this, mostly Dylusions spray inks. It was very bright! I used a stencil with texture paste and knew that the spray ink would bleed through the paste. Then I covered everything with black gesso and, when dry, sanded over the textured design.   so a bit of the colors would show through.

The layers are made up of an old measuring tape, a border punch scrap, a piece of the torn spine of an old book that I had gutted, a brown doily and one of Tim Holtz's paper dolls (I love these and am working through my package).  After such a disastrous, colorful beginning, it turned out to have a nice vintagey touch.

Now I need to work on the cover...

"Carry On" Altered Book Page

Here's one more page in my current altered book. The image on the left is actually Tim Holtz tissue wrap decoupaged to the painted and stenciled background.  The focal point is a mix of images from a magazine - head, arms, and water bottle for a body - and three postage stamps across her waist. Quick and easy!

Handmade book for Altered Trading Coins

It's been a crazy few weeks! I spent three days last week at the VA hospital with my husband who had his 6th heart ablation. This was by far the longest one - it took seven hours plus a few hours in recovery. I am happy to say though that this one looks like it may have taken care of the arrhythmia finally. Time will tell...

We are also getting ready for some remodeling. We will be gutting the master bath and putting in a new shower, vanities, countertops, sinks and fixtures, along with new wood flooring. We are also changing all the flooring on the first floor to wood, changing out the countertop and flooring in the upstairs bath, doing wood flooring in the office upstairs and carpeting up the stairs and in the loft. Needless to say, everything has to be emptied out of the furniture, closets etc so I have been packing up for weeks. It's been a good time to sort through some things, too, and purge!

In March I participated in a swap to make little books for displaying the altered trading coins we are swapping this year. We all followed specific instructions for this, making a 3" square book with 24 clear pocket pages.  This is the one I made for my partner using some handmade, embossed paper. The closure is simply a pretty brad with silk ribbon.

Inside showing the clear pages attached to an accordion binding.

This is the one I received. It is covered in gorgeous mulberry-type paper with gold details and tied with a beaded cord laced through eyelets. It is so pretty!

Our remodeling project starts on Monday the 8th so I'm not sure how often I will be able to create projects or share here. The house will be a dusty wreck for awhile, but I will do my best!