More Book of Days

I'm finally posting a few more pages from my Book of Days (BODs) Altered Book/Journal that I am doing with Effy Wild. During Spring Break, I hope to have more time to get some photos posted.

Effy's challenge for this spread was to use mosaics in the background.

For this spread, I tipped in a birthday card that I received from my mother many years ago. I didn't want to lose it, so I was happy to be able to include it in my book. The trees are just looking out my window at school. That day happened to be pretty and sunny.

 This spread shows a tip in that is happy mail that I received from an online friend along with a magazine that I won in a drawing.

This is a hand drawn face from a magazine picture. I cheated and made an outline first from tracing paper, so I knew where to put the eyes, nose and mouth. I also drew the butterflies.

Just tried a lot of new things here, including using white over the doodles from Doodles Unleashed workshop by Traci Bautista.

The challenge for this page was to answer the question "What do you need to tell yourself?" and to include an envelope on the page.

This page was inspired by a picture in a flyer that came in the mail from Pier One. I really like this one. I think this takes me up through entries till the end of January. Hope to post more pictures soon.

Hope you've enjoyed looking at a few of my pages. I am having tons of fun.

Book of Days & Paint Party Friday

I have been having a great deal of fun doing Book of Days with Effy Wild. She is offering this year-long course free of charge and it has been so inspiring. I can't believe her generosity. The basic idea is that you do one two-page spread and one multi-day spread each week, along with a two-page spread for special days like holidays and birthdays, etc. She has two videos a week and a Wednesday dispatch. She also does a live stream once or twice a week. It is absolutely unbelievable how much creativity you can experience free of charge. You can still sign up for her course here. She also offers a premium course if you prefer more privacy and personal interaction.  She walks you through everything you need to get started.

I chose a short-hand text book that I picked up at Salvation Army for under a dollar. One of the important aspects for a book that is going to take this much painting, adding, etc. is that it has a sewn binding. You have to remove lots of pages so that the altered pages fit. Good quality paper for the pages is also a definite plus.

I have been doing pretty well at keeping up each week. I am going to post a few of the beginning parts of the book today.  She also encouraged us to choose a word for the year to focus on. Mine is "Humility", which was a word that God kept laying on my heart for several weeks leading up to the start of this book. I just felt it was going to be my word for the year.

This is the cover of my book. The paper along the right side of the book came in a wonderful package I received from Patty Symkowicz when I won a drawing from her blog. I just felt it was so beautiful that I wanted to include it on the cover.

This is the inside covers where Effy asked us to write a letter to say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012. She challenged us to use an envelope in our spread. The photo is not a very good one, partly because I couldn't get rid of the shadow on the left side and the metallic paint on the envelopes caused the camera to go a bit wonky.

This is the first two-page spread that I did celebrating Jan. 1 - Happy New Year.  I used a decoupaged napkin, stickers and a cut-out from a calendar page.

This is my first Monday spread using Effy's recommended theme of "looking ahead". It has lots of layers, paint, ink stamping and collage pieces. This is one of my favorite spreads.

This is my first multi-day spread for the first week in January. I journaled a bit about each day. I painted the background yellow and then used post-it notes to mask off the writing squares when I painted the rest of the page. More stickers, stamping and ink sprays finished it off.

Well that is a look into my first week of Book of Days. You should really check out Effy's blog and her Book of Days course. It is not to late to start.

I am also linking up with Paint Party Friday. You can hop over there and check out many wonderful artists who are sharing their passion for painting. They are such a wonderful, friendly and welcoming group of people who are always encouraging. It has been a blessing to me to find this Friday party.

Paint Party Friday

That's it for today! We are having a rare spell of fabulous March weather, so I am going to go out and enjoy some of it. Blessings to you all.

Altered Book Spread & Paint Party Friday

Trust Your Muse

This is one of my favorite altered book spreads. I enjoyed making this one very much. I am linking up with Paint Party Friday put on by two lovely ladies, Eva and Kristen. This week they are having a fabulous give-away celebrating the one-year anniversary of PPF. Head over and link up to enter, and also check out some wonderful art while you are there! I am so pleased I have found PPF, as I find I am painting more and more in my books and also painting on other surfaces now. It is quite an inspiration.


I am also enjoying working in my Book of Days, a free workshop by Effy Wild. I am using an old shorthand book and altering it. It has been so rewarding. I will be posting a few pics of it, too, as I go along.

Door Decoration for Latin Class

This fall we had a door decorating contest and the elementary Latin classes won. Here is a picture of our winning door. The leaves and flowers all had Latin words on them that related to good character and kind and serving behaviors. Even the 2nd graders were able to participate. For winning, we got a pinata filled with candy and all the children got at least one swing at the pinata. My son helped, making sure the pinata was more difficult to hit by the older students.

Doodles Unleashed Glam Girl & Paint Party Friday

Here is my finished version of the Glam Girl from Strathmore's Workshop by Traci Bautista.

www.AlteredSchoolmarm.blogspot.com

I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday.

Doodles Unleashed Workshop & Pink Saturday

It has been a while since I've posted, but I've been making art just the same. Today I want to post a few of the pieces I've made taking the Strathmore Online Workshop, Doodles Unleashed, by Traci Bautista. The Strathmore Online Workshops are a series of three free workshops and this one has been fabulous. You still have time to join in. There are two more this year, along with this one. I did it last year and it was fabulous. And they are absolutely free! I am learning so much!

These are my first attempts, so I'm not totally happy with the results, but I've learned a lot. The best thing is the freedom to just play that is an integral part of the workshop. I have never worked on this large scale before, so that is also a huge learning curve. And another huge bonus is that I have convinced both of my daughters to "art" with me. That has made it much more fun and meaningful - spending quality time with my girls.

This is from Lesson one, "Playful Printmaking".

Close-up detail.

This piece is quite large (18"X24") and is done mostly with water color and ink. It is from Lesson 2, "Spontaneous Watercolor Backgrounds".

Another Try at Lesson 1, "Playful Printmaking". Work in progress.

I have done more, and will post them later. The last two workshops are making her "Stylized faces", which she calls "Girly Glam." Lots of fun!


I am sharing over at Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound. Join in the fun and check out many wonderful pinks!

Heroes & Villains Altered Book Spread

In the altered book round robin I participated in, one of the themes was "Heroes and Villains". I chose to do Frodo and Sauron from Lord of the Rings.  I did a spread in my own book first and then did an improved version in the Round Robin book. The Round Robin book was really grunge board from Tim Holz and was the first time I had worked with it. The final pages were a bit wonky, but I like them.

 Frodo and his valiant hobbit supporters

The evil Sauron

The two pages side by side

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday this week, although a bit belatedly. If you love to look at fabulous art, go over and check out Eva and Kristin's blog. It is phenomenal!

Sailing Collage Art & Paint Party Friday

Below are the two pieces of art that I created for my daughter's apartment. I had wanted to try collage on a larger scale, so these two are 16x20 each, designed to hang side by side.

These are the final versions of the two pieces I made. Below I will show the intermediate steps. I used maps and music pages for the original collage, then added handmade paper, text pages and gesso.  Over top of all that, I painted with fluid acrylics. The sailboat and lighthouse were sketched and painted onto watercolor paper and then added with heavy gel medium.

It was a lot of fun and I will definitely do this sort of thing again. It was exciting to try a larger scale piece after working so long in books.

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday for the first time. I'm off to work today, but I'll be visiting the party later today. Stop over there and check out what everyone is up to.

Round Island Light House Altered Book Spread

I wanted to do a large canvas for my daughter's new apartment, so I decided to do a two-page spread in one of my altered books to get a feel for the techniques I wanted to use and how it would look. The following is my "mock-up" practice art for the larger art I ended up making for my daughter for Christmas.  I used collage, stamping, painting, and water color for this piece. The picture is modeled after the Round Island Light House at the entrance to Mackinac Island.

 Final Spread

First I prepped the pages with gesso and light sanding. Then I decopauged torn map pages and text pages onto the page.

Beginning to cover page with torn map pieces.

Completely covered pages

Page covered with gesso.

Painted with acrylics.

Final Pages

I decopauged handmade paper at the horizon to represent Mackinac Island and dotted a few buildings on the shore. The sailboat and lighthouse were sketched and painted separately on water color paper and applied to page using heavy gel medium. I then decopauged torn paper for the base of the lighthouse and stamped randomly on the picture with phrases that were meaningful to me.

I used this work as my guide for the larger canvases I made for my daughter. I'll be posting pictures of those soon.

I'm linking up with the Just Journals Link Party over at Marcia Beckett's blog, Dabblings.

Dabblings