Craft project featuring my grand boys

The past week we've been celebrating birthdays! The 17th was my oldest daughter's boyfriend's day and hers was the 20th; my birthday was the 19th; my son-in-law's was the 21st and my husband's was the 23rd! We spent last weekend in Chicago to celebrate with our youngest daughter and got to meet her boyfriend. This coming weekend we will be in Albuquerque to babysit and will also visit my husband's last remaining aunt who turned 93 yesterday.

Before I left, I finished this project which has been awhile in the making. I saw something similar on Pinterest and decided to recreate it. The plaque is actually an old cabinet front which I got at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore for $1. I painted it with several coats of white and used my Silhouette and contact paper to make a stencil for the words. Then I stenciled with black paint.

I originally thought I would use the unfinished $1 picture frames from Michael's for the frames, but they were too big for the board since I needed four. I finally found an unfinished collage frame which I disassembled (that was not as easy as I had hoped) and used four of the frames. I drilled holes in the board and all four frames and threaded with black satin ribbon. 

The longest part of the project was getting photos from my daughters for the frames!

It hangs on my red wall in my kitchen where it really stands out. Love it and my boys!

Paper Dolls altered book page

The background of this page is texture paste through a Tim Holtz stencil with spray inks applied once it was dry. I also added Vintage Photo Distress ink to tone it down.

The "paper dolls" are created on a heavy card stock base and accordion-folded. I used scrapbook papers for the dresses, embellished with lace and buttons and cut out various heads. The kraft-colored doily and painted legs are on the background. At the top of the page I added a definition of "play" layered on some gauze from the inside of an old book's spine

This shows the dolls pulled out. I had fun dressing and accessorizing them!

"Twiggy" art journal page

I played a bit in my art journal once I was home from my retreat. I had done this background awhile ago and, while searching through collage materials for something to add, I found this model's image which reminds me of Twiggy. Anyone remember her?

I used the head and then made a dress from a piece of patterned paper. The arms and hands are from a clothing catalog; the bee and flower from magazines. I outlined everything with a black Stabilo pencil (a favorite tool) and called it done!

Returned from retreat

I got home from my artsy retreat on Tuesday and have been catching up since then. We did some fun projects and I finished a lot of odds and ends.

We made a Peerless Watercolors travel booklet, attaching small squares of the watercolor to page protectors and labeling and swatching each on a grid inside. This is a very portable way to travel with watercolors - all you need is your booklet, something to color and a water brush. (If you've not heard of Peerless, check them out here: https://www.peerlesscolor.com)

We also played with a technique to make "eco-dyed papers." We layered leaves and bits of herbs and flowers on regular printer paper and placed between two tiles. We tied this all together with twine and boiled it for 1 1/2 hours in a pot of water with a tablespoon of alum added.  The results were interesting - some leaves printed better than others and the colors were sometimes surprising. Not sure yet what I will do with these, but it was a fun experiment.

I made two altered trading coins for an upcoming Halloween swap in August and some tiny envelope/pockets for sending the coins.

pocket - 3" square closed

I also finished several cards for a swap and for upcoming family birthdays and two little "collages on a stick" for another swap.

This was for a card swap using one of three given sketches

Simple card using a transfer I'd done years ago!

I also created 26 "pockets" using just old 12x12 papers and scraps of paper, ribbon, lace, flowers and washi tape. (I saw this tutorial on Laurie Richardson Haley's You Tube channel and thought it was genius for using up scraps!) A plus is that these are sized to fit in a regular A2 envelope. They will be great for sending little RAKs, tags, altered coins, gift cards etc.

And one of my friends was making 4x6" Halloween art for a swap and gave me one. She does awesome "creepy" work.

All in all, it was a very productive few days and the best part was spending it with friends!

The "eyes" have it - altered book page

Here's another altered book page. I'm having fun getting back into art-making after a very busy summer of travel.  This page was inspired by a similar page I saw online -- I had the perfect eye image to use.

I glued down the image and then spread texture paste around it and over the entire page with a palette knife.  After that dried, I added several blue and neutral-toned paper scraps and then stamped a few different pattern stamps with waterproof black ink to add texture. I stamped the zigzag "stitches" on the borders of a very old book page and added those to the piece.  Lastly, I sprinkled blue spray ink randomly and spritzed with water to get it to run and drip. I also splattered it in a few places.

I love how this turned out! Wish I could remember who did the similar piece in order to give credit...

As you read this, I will be on my way to Waco, TX, to spend a long weekend with three others at our friend's house making artsy-craftsy messes and having some quality girlfriend time! Hope to work on some unfinished projects while I'm gone and have more to share next week.

Frida Altered Book Spread

I returned from Vermont several days ago and had some much-needed art time on my table, creating this double-page spread.

The background is randomly collaged bits of paper scraps covered with Dylusions spray inks. Since they are highly pigmented and water-soluble, even when dry, I sprayed both pages with a clear coat before proceeding. (Unfortunately all I had on hand was gloss, so after finishing the page, I went over all with matte mod lodge to mattify it.)

I used a printout of a Frida painting, flowers and lizard from a magazine, word strips from a book page, flourish stamps and dots with a white paint marker.

It felt so good to get messy!