A few art projects

I've been catching up on some art projects for swaps this past week.

First, I am participating in a round-robin altered book swap. Each person has chosen or made a book of their choice and decided on a color scheme. Then we are rotating the books through the group so that everyone creates a spread in each book.

This month I received a tiny little book with blue and rust as the chosen colors.

This is the spread I created, each page measuring approximately 3" x 4." I found a very old piece I had done as an encaustic wax sample years ago (the image of the little boy) and built my spread around that. The background is several layers of Stormy Blue and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The metal gears and the chipboard clock die cut were covered in Prima's Rust Paste kit (three colors dabbed on randomly until it looked nice and rusty).  These elements were layered over a partial doily and a strip of script paper. Lastly I added some typed words and a metal Tim Holtz word band altered with distress paint.

The book owner had asked us to write a bit about our inspiration or how the page came together so I taped the right page into a pocket with the following page. I added a distressed tag inside with my explanation. I hope she likes it!

I was hostess for another quarterly swap where we are revisiting old techniques.  This quarter the technique is "Cracked Glass" (aka Shattered Glass) and the substrate needed to be either an ATC or a 4"x4" art piece.  For this technique, several layers of embossing ink and UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) are placed over a stamped image. Then it is put in the freezer to completely cool for about 15 minutes. After removing, it is gently bent in several places to make it crack.

I stamped the butterfly image over a previously distressed paper of turquoise and brown inks. Once it was cracked, I added it to a background of Vintage Photo Distress ink layered with a doily and the "FLY" 3-dimensional alpha stickers.

"True Colors" Round Robin - White/creams, Aqua and Green

I've finished the third book in my small group's "True Colors" round robin. Each of us chose a color scheme and we are mailing the books around so everyone gets to work in each book.

The color scheme for this book is whites, creams, aqua and green. The book was handmade with 7" x 9" watercolor paper signatures. Each participant is to do a double spread, plus the front of the signature as a sign-in and the back of the signature. That equals four pages!  The good thing is that this was designed so each signature could be removed from the book to work on.

These are my pages. I will be mailing them out to the next on the 

list by the deadline, Aug. 1.

My double-page spread

"Front" page sign-in

"Back" page

There are many layers on these pages: collaged papers; TH tissue tape; stamping; texture paste,  crackle paste and Distress ink through stencils; Distress stains and spray ink; layered papers, doily and images; lace and cheesecloth; buttons, crocheted flowers and butterflies; clear sequins.  The photo is me when I was three years old.

I hope she likes it! I'm looking forward to my next book!

"True Colors" Round Robin

I am participating in an altered book round robin where we exchange our books and everyone in the group works on all the books. We have color themes, but no other rules.
I posted previously on this here.

The latest book I received is a large, shaped, masonite book. The owner chose whites, creams and denim as her colors.

This is the spread I created.

I used crackle paint on the backgrounds and then layered old pattern instruction sheets, denim, ticking fabric and several laces.  

Left page

On this page I added several vintage images, a piece of vintage measuring tape, lots of creamy and white buttons, a few black snaps and a flower made with circles of denim.

Right page

The focal point of this page is a vintage photo of two Victorian women in white "tea dresses."  I made the ruffle with sewing pattern tissue, added more buttons, a silver scissors charm and another denim flower.

This has been sent off to the next person in line and I anticipate my next book after the
middle of the month.

My blog will be quiet for the next ten days. I am off to Vermont with my daughter, Kelly and her two little boys, to visit my mother. See you later!

"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!