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!!

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...