A little bit of creativity ...

I've only been back at work 2 weeks after having a lovely 2 weeks holiday and have started feeling really run down, so haven't done too much creating.  But when the weekend comes, look out ... I'm suddenly on fire and all motivated ... funny how that happens.  So here's a couple of things I've been up to lately:

I've finished the cover of the altered board book I worked on with a group of girls in Brisbane in 2009.  The theme for this altered book was "Imagine" and I wanted a simple, but rustic cover for my book.  The only thing I'm going to do now is add tags with the techniques used on each spread and the book will be finished.

I've also started our next altered book project with the same group and this year I've chosen to document the year of my birth - 1969.  The book I'm altering is a Dutch and English dictionary that I especially went searching for, due to my ancestry being Dutch.  I'm so excited with this project and the research is so much fun.  Here's my first layout and it's on the song that was top of the charts the day I was born.

Here's my latest ATC for the face-to-face swap held on the third Sunday of every month in Helensvale.  I'm on a mission to use up my collection of napkins as they're taking over my craft area, so this set of ATCs used up 4 of them in the background and I really like how it turned out:

I got together with Pam yesterday and got a little arting and crafting done and finally started this piece for the Paper Arts Yahoo Group Spooky Book Page lottery.  They're holding this lottery because one of each page was held back from the swap for another participant who did not send their pages in.  So far there are only 2 or 3 players, so I think I'm in with a chance.  There were a few rules to follow, the page had to be 5 x 7 and the other criteria was you must use itkupilli images (http://itkupillishop.blogspot.com/).  The skull with the candle on the top of my tree was made by Kelley Smith at this blog http://lifeandartwithglammafabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-skull-with-candle.html ... and I thought it was perfect to be at the top of my Spooky Christmas Tree.  There's a bit of lace and crushed velvet ribbon all sewn on with Pam's sewing machine and Pam hand cut out my tree in about 1 minute, much better than what I could do.  The "blood" is red dimensional paint and all the skulls are tied on with red DMC thread.

On the home front, Beau has found a new friend ... I thought it was a lovely dog from the neighbouring property until we were advised it's our Neighbour's pet dingo!!!  You can imagine that we're not encouraging this dog to hang around the house ... not with 2 young children around ... although he does seem good-natured!!

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."
~Josh Billings~

It's so very hot ...

My three year old niece, Alexis, started today off saying "Di, are you all sweaty?" "Yes boo, I'm all sweaty."  "I'm all sweaty too, and when you're all sweaty, you really need to go in the pool!" ... it's so funny, she will try anything to manipulate the grown-ups to get in the pool.  At 8am it was already 28 degrees celsius (approximately 83 degrees fahrenheit).

I haven't yet gone into the pool, but the chances are good as it's just after midday and at least 30 degrees (86 fahrenheit) ... my niece has already been in 3 times with the other grown-ups in the household ... I'm the last one to go in.

Here's my new favourite book ... Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton.  This may not be the book for you if you're an advanced mixed media artist, however, I am just loving it as it shows me step-by-step how to do each technique with a corresponding picture ... for those visual learners (like me).  The techniques in this book are for beginner to intermediate and beyond ... I totally recommend it if you're new to altering a book.

"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!"

~John Muir, 1838-1914, Scottish-born Environmentalist and Naturalist~

More Altered Board Book Pages

Here's a couple more board book pages from a book I'm altering with a group of girls in Brisbane.  At the beginning of the year we agreed to use 12 techniques and I've now done them all.

I'd already scanned a picture of this layout using tea bags and the cuttlebug a little while ago ...

and it now looks like this ...

Here's beeswax and fabric ... every time I open to this double page the smell of beeswax wafts nicely up my nose.

Here's my latest double page with texture paste and transparency.  I'm not quite sure that it's finished yet, I may do some stamping around the words to blend the edges of the transparency in, but am still undecided so the pages will stay like this until I meet with the girls tomorrow.

Enjoy and keep smiling.

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
~Nelson Mandela, South African Statesman and Nobel Prize Winner~

KYPADI Altered Book Group

Along with two friends (Kyla and Pam), we decided to get together at least once a month to learn how to alter a book.  Pam and Kyla both chose the theme of "nature" and I'd just bought a Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tale book from our local Op Shop for $2 so decided to alter that.  I just loved what Kyla and Pam were doing with nature, so decided to change my theme of "fairy tales" to "The Nature of Fairy Tales", so I can also incorporate nature into my book too, whilst also relating to the particular fairy tale that appears on the spread.

Here are the pictures of what I've done so far ... there have already been some great learning experiences as well:

So here's the cover of my book as it stands ... it won't look like this at the end.

The first technique we were all to attempt is Beeswax. My first spread is the fairy tale Wild Swans. Throughout the book there are drawn pictures and printed pictures, which I plan to use as much as possible. On this spread I covered the pages lightly with gesso, then sprayed with Olive & Old Leather Glimmer Mists. I didn't realise this, but the glimmer mists react with gesso and gave the pages this cool marble effect that I really like. I hand coloured the picture with watercolour pencils, and glued it back into the book, then stamped around the edges. I added leaves from our property (also stamped so they'd tie in with the background) and sewing thread randomly placed around the pages before covering it all with beeswax.

Technique number two is "Found Words", where we were to use the words that appear in the book but have them say something different.  No fairy tale being depicted this time as I wanted my design to tie in with the the words ... "Radiant and beautiful, she is delicate tender and kind.  Remember speak into the heart of the fairy and like a dream, the hope of the sunset came, though it must be fresh, they found for their sakes."  The words probably don't mean that much, but I thought they were somewhat poetic relating to a fairy and a sunset.  So my spread starts with a painted background, Tim Holtz stamps in orange and yellow.  Gold, Patina, Lime Green & Spanish Copper rub 'n' buff rubbed around the edges.  A fairy I created with leaves as wings, a stick as a staff and bits of paper-bark added around.

There were a number of learning experiences with this technique ... originally I'd blanked out the words with masking fluid and when I tried to remove it, the words and pages ripped out as well (see image below).  Luckily, I'd photocopied the page to practice which words I was going to use, so ended up adding the photocopied page back into the book ... probably a bit of a cheat, but I wanted to stick with what I'd come up with.

So after realising that masking fluid might work great on watercolour paper, it doesn't work so great on old text paper, so I started cutting out the sticky bit of "post-it notes" to fit over the words.  Another learning experience from Pam is to have a copy of your words, 'cause when you've painted over your little post-it notes, they're really hard to find and lift up ... but they did work a treat.

Technique number 3 that we're all going to have a go at is "Masking Tape".  I saw an article in Somerset Studio (Volume 12, Issue 2) where the artist Donna Bauermiller used Masking Tape in her art journals and we all loved how it turned out, so that's what we're to do next ... but because I'm having so much fun, I decided to try another technique that I read about in "Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton called Stippling.  The fairy tale is the Ugly Duckling, so I left the words and a drawn picture to show through.  I started with a stippling or stencilling brush in Ranger Antique Linen Distress Ink, then used Adirondack Ginger, the next layer is a light coverage of Adirondack Espresso.  I ripped a piece of paper and then placed this around the edges and stippled Espresso ink to create the border.  I cut out one of the Ugly Duckling printed pictues and stuck them on top of the drawn picture and stuck the Ugly Duckling image in with foam tape so he stood out a little.  I added words from the actual fairy tale and on the left a few feathers adhered with more words.

This is what I've done so far, so when I've got more to show, I'll post again.

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
~Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1878-1969, American Clergyman~

Imagine ... Altered Book & ATCs

I joined an altered book group this year so that I can have a different creative outlet from ATCs. The group gets together every 2 months, so in the week leading up to our get-together I'm working frantically to have something done for show and tell. As it turned out, we didn't end up getting together this weekend, but I'm happy to say I did at least finish my pages ready for our next catch up in a couple of months time.

At the beginning of the year, a list was compiled of 12 techniques to be used by the end of the year. So far I've used 8 of the techniques and here are the pictures as a recap.

First layout in my altered book ... techniques serviette and crackle medium.

Layout number 2 ... techniques peeled paper and alcohol inks. Words added since last posted "Imagine ... boundless creativity and freedom."


Third layout ... I haven't posted this one before because it wasn't finished ... and it still isn't. Techniques used Tea Bags and Cuttlebug. Not quite sure how I want to finish it, but I think I want the shadows of some trees outlining the edges and then I'll add my "Imagine ... " quote.


Layout number 4 ... background using the credit card technique. I started with Making Memories Emerald green glaze that I applied with the credit card. I then added Golden's Blue fluid acrylic. I spritzed the page with water, counted to 20 then scraped the water off with a credit card ... hence the light blotches all over the paper (for the full tutorial on this techique visit 2cre8art blog. I then sprayed over the top with Gold Webbing Spray.


Layout number 4 finished ... final technique used Pop Up. The borders are made of scalloped metal that I cut out and then ran through the Cuttlebug for some texture. The corners are German Scrap. I added patina & gold rub 'n' buff over all the edges to finish off.


Altered Book Side View.

I also received some more ATCs this week ... 3 of which I won through the PaperArts Yahoo Group WTA lottery and the other was a belated birthday gift from the gorgeous Barb Thomas ... I'd been admiring this ATC on her blog and now I'm the lucky recipient of it.

ATC by Roslyn McGechan.

ATC by Debbie O'Callaghan

ATC by Christine Treleaven

Gorgeous mermaid by Barb Thomas ... what a wonderful gift and surprise.

I also made a gift for a friend overseas a week ago ... will post a picture once she's received it.

"Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river."
~Source: H. Jackson Brown, Jr, Life's Little Instruction Book~

A little bit of this and a little bit of that ...

Since the retreat I have managed to do a little creating ... Last Saturday, our Altered Book group got together at Karla's place to show off what we have completed so far. I managed to do a double page applying what I learned in Bernie's workshop at the retreat and have also used another 2 techniques from the original list of 12 that we are to showcase ... so now I only have 8 more to go. I used "peeled paper" and "alcohol inks" and am not quite finished with the layout as I need to add some words and remembering that this altered book has the theme "Imagine", the words going onto this spread are (Imagine) "... boundless creativity and freedom" ... it's also one of the reasons I wanted to use Bernie's dimensional collage technique because the string represents what binds us and stops us from thinking we can create beautiful art as well as living a life doing what we want to do.

The other creative thing I completed this week is one ATC design for 2 different swaps ... the first swap is through Addicted to Scrap and the theme is "Blue Awning" where we had to use this range of papers created by K&Company and the other swap is through the PaperArts Yahoo Group with the theme "Marie Antoinette" ... so I combined both themes onto one ATC as I was just running out of time and nearly didn't make the PaperArts swap as I was late sending them in ... but the lovely Barb was very understanding and said it was ok so off they went today Express Post to Wagga Wagga. I absolutely love pictures of Marie Antoinette, she's such a classic and can't wait to see what returns I get.

I just have to add, that it really is such a small world ... one of the ladies in my altered book group is Evelyn and she was telling me about Jen Crossley's workshop that she did in Ballarat recently and showed us the gorgeous altered book that they made and I mentioned that I'd heard Jen was coming to Brisbane to do some more workshops in May because I'd met her at the Creative Soul Retreat ... and lo 'n' behold ... Jen's workshop is being held at Evelyn's place ... isn't that just hilarious! Well I thought it was anyway ... until next time.

"Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves."
~Dr. Rollo May~

Altered Book Group

I joined an Altered Book group this year with 5 other ladies as I wanted to expand my artist skills from just scrapbooking and creating ATCs. The Group gets together once every 2 months and the first meet was on 17th January, but as I was up on the Sunshine Coast with my husband and mother-in-law was unable to get to the first meet.

The Guidelines for the Altered Book are that it has a single theme "IMAGINE", which we can interpret however we wish, and we are to have used all of the listed techniques by the end of the project / year. The 12 techniques everyone came up with are: ** Transparency ** Beeswax ** Pop-Up ** Alcohol Inks ** Tea Bags ** Textured Cuttlebug ** Fabric ** Texture Paste ** Serviette ** Peeled Paper ** Crackle ** Credit Card Technique.

I have to admit, I've been feeling a little nervous about the whole thing and didn't really know where to start as this is my very first Altered Book, but as I am one to follow through on commitments I make to others, I decided to "just do it" today and see where it leads me.

So here is my first double page spread ... I decided to use a "Serviette" as the background and have painted the images with "Crackle" medium, which seemed like the easiest techniques to start with ... so that means I'm 2 techniques down and only have 10 to go!!! The background is sprayed with Bronze and Golden Terracotta Glimmer Mists and then Spanish Copper Rub 'n' Buff was added around the edges. The words were printed on my computer and also sprayed with the same Glimmer Mists so that they would tie in. I drew around the edge of everything with Stampin' Up's Ruby Red Marker to add some definition.

I added a tab on the edge of the page (first time I used this punch from Stampin' Up), which will contain a little tag with the techniques used on that particlar page, so that I can remember in the future. I may add some embellishments to the layout and will have a think about this over the next few days ... maybe some gems ... mmmm, maybe it doesn't need anything else ... mmmm, not sure yet.

I was thinking that the book's cover page will have the words "IMAGINE ..." on it and then every layout I do will lead into a quote or statement. So the first one is "Imagine ... that a true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection!" ... a quote by Michelangelo who's painted hands from the Sistine Chapel happen to appear in the centre of my layout.

My only hope is that (a) the pages don't stick together and (b) that the crackle paint doesn't flake off due to the book being handled or the pages rubbing together ... I did consider using a sealer over the whole thing, but thought I may lose all the shimmer from the glimmer mists so may have to wait until I get together with the group before I progress.

If any of you have any tips that you have learned through doing an altered board book ... feel free to leave me a comment and share ... I'm open to all suggestions.

"One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself."
~Leonardo da Vinci~