Scenes from Baveno, Italy

We had such a wonderful time in Baveno. Everything was gorgeous - everywhere you looked. Just beautiful!

What I Am Reading Right Now

One of my lifelong habits is to read when I go to bed. Naturally, I can't just read one book at a time. I get too bored. I have several on my night stand and I just pick up the one that calls loudest to me at the time. So here is the short list:

A Case for Faith by Lee Strobel for the second time. This time I am reading it slowly and trying to soak in all that he has to say. Fascinating book.

 Next is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. My first time ever through this book, believe it or not.

 Next is my Bible study. Soaking this one in, as well.

 And just for fun, The Art of Racing in the Rain bu Garth Stein. This one comes highly recommended to me by a good friend.

So there you have it - my current reading list.

The World's Best Coffee

I had what, in my opinion, is the world's best coffee while Ron & I were in Baveno, Italy at a little coffee shop called Coffee Time. The Americano was the smoothest, richest coffee I've ever had. It was truly one of my most favorite experiences. Yes, I am a coffee addict.

Italian Coffee = the best!

We also had wonderful coffee in the hotel, and while the view was fabulous, the coffee was not as good as Coffee Time.

Coffee at breakfast in Hotel Dino

 

 

Altered Book Page

I have been busy this summer, but now that school has begun, I hope to be back to a better routine. This is a page that I did a while ago, but hadn't posted yet.  I may add more to it later, but I like it the way it is right now. I have lots of other pages, but no camera at the moment, since mine was stolen. I need to replace it soon.

Steampunk Round Robin Book

I participated in a Steam Punk Round Robin Book Swap where each person made 10 pages and submitted them to one person, who took one page from each set and bound them into a book. Each page had to incorporate a map either in the background or in the elements on the page. Later, the additional theme of steampunk was chosen. Here is my book.

The front cover was prepared by our swap hostess - I love all the dimension she used!

This close up shows some of the yummy texture and details of the cover.

She also did the inside front and back cover - and the first page of my book is my steampunk bird.

These are the inside pages, front and back. We were to have something on the back, although it did not have to be fancy at all. Most participants outdid themselves!

This is the inside back cover with a delightful pocket! This was such a fun swap. I was pretty unsure at first when the theme of steampunk was chosen, but I do really love the final results! This swap was part of the Yahoo group, Altering Without Limits (AWOL).

A Few Altered Book Pages in Progress

I have been playing around with adding texture to my pages, which is something I have been wanting to do. I found some texture medium on clearance at Michael's so I got busy right away playing. I am also adding to my Vintage Gypsy Altered Book.

This is an altered book cover that I am working on - I added the texture medium through some stencil shapes.

Both pages have decoupaged maps underneath. The page on the left is painted with acrylic and texture medium, in which I made some marks. The page on the right was painted with Golden Liquid Acrylic and then washed with a gold acrylic.

I then used an old plastic doily and another stencil to add more texture, including the work "Dream". Afterwards, I used some Walnut Ink Stain to rub over the piece and add color and show off the texture. You an really see it well if you enlarge the photo.

This is a piece that I have been playing with, which also has torn maps decoupaged underneath. The green is a piece of handmade paper and the piece is painted with acrylics and aged with Walnut Ink Stain.

This last piece shows some additions I have made to the inside cover of my Vintage Gypsy Altered Book.

A Painting of The Woods

I painted this for my daughter's boyfriend for his graduation present. I know it is hard to tell in the photo but I decoupaged torn maps on the canvas before I started. I tried to add lots of texture. It was a huge learning experience for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. It took a lot of thinking to decide what a guy would like. I'm always doing things I like, but I didn't figure he would want roses or tea cups! Ha! This is actually modeled after a scene in a card game that he likes to play. I liked the whimsical, "Tolkien-esque" look to it, and that was sort of what I was going for.

It is done on a stretched canvas, 16X20, and is done in acrylics, mostly. I used various gel mediums to add texture and also used some water color. After I decoupaged the maps on the canvas, I sketched the big trees using water color pencil. I then was able to sketch in the other trees and path, etc. I watched a couple of You-tube videos about painting forests and sunlight. Then I worked on it with various acrylics and mediums.

It was so much fun that I am already starting another painting for my daughter as one of her graduation presents. It will be totally different from this one.

I took this picture of the corner to try to show some of the texture. I am going to link up to Paint Party Friday.

A Flock of Steam Punk Birds

I participated in a swap recently where the theme was map elements and steam punk. You had to use maps in your page along with the steam punk theme. I decided to use birds and printed out the bird outline on map pages. Then I placed the birds & their embellishments onto scrapbook paper by Tim Holz. Here are my birds.

Tag Booklet as Bridal Shower Activity

I hosted a bridal shower recently and this is the tag booklet we made for the bride. The bride is from another country and had not met the groom's family and friends before, so I came up with this idea as a way of bringing memories or advice into her life, along with a keepsake. Also, the bride and groom are moving to China for a year after the wedding, so large gifts were not very suitable, hence the shipping tag idea.

I mailed out shipping tags with the shower invitations and asked each guest to write one of three things on one side of the tag: 1) a favorite memory of the groom, 2) a favorite marriage advice or 3) a favorite Bible verse. Then the guests brought the tag to the shower and we decorated the other side and connected them together with a ring.  Also, if an invitee could not make it, I just asked them to mail the tag, and we completed the decorating.

To add to the fun, we had the bride vote for her top three, and the winners got to take home one of the table decorations.

Book of Days - More Pages

My two page spread for the First Day of Spring - I had fun with this one.

I theoretically joined a challenge to attempt to copy 3 Modilgliani paintings, but I only did one and never posted it. But I really enjoyed reading about his story and the tragic story of his lover, Jeanne Hébuterne. She was born 2 years before my grandmother and had such a tragic life. So I chose a portrait of her.

The left tip in is an attempt at water color from the Strathmore Workshops. It opens up for more journaling, which you can see below.

The water color tip-in opened up here.

This is another spread that is a multi-fold-out. Opened up here and folded closed below. I also have a tip-in from a happy mail card I received from Elizabeth Helwig.

I am pretty far behind in my BODs, but I'm hoping that the summer will allow me to catch up. I hope to be returning the blessings for my Happy Mails and swaps.

Book of Days Pages

More Book of Days pages - I'm pretty far behind on posting.

Finally, A New Post - More Book of Days

I have been incredibly busy with things that have had to take priority over arting and blogging, even though I have missed blogging terribly. I have continued to do a little art here and there, but not as much as I would like. One thing that was a big set back was that my computer crashed and I lost my photos that I had already prepared to post. We had three family birthdays, spring break, my daughter's high school graduation, her graduation open house, a wedding shower, a wedding, end of the year teaching, and my husband finding out he needs a hip replacement. Good times, but lots of busyness.

So I am just posting a couple of pictures from my Book of Days.

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