Art Day Doodle With Craft Connection

Once a month I host a group of ladies here for "Craft Connection". We all made mixed media pieces which I demonstrated. It was so much fun spreading and splashing paint - layers upon layers. Each lady did their own piece. I wish now I had taken pictures of everyone else's work, but I didn't. :(

Altered Book Spread - English Garden

This is the latest in my series of entries into others' altered books for a round robin I'm in. This one will eventually wind its way back to its owner in the UK. Had a lot of fun with this one. Her theme is "English Garden". I found this little image on Pinterest and decided to try to integrate it onto the page by painting the rest. I do like how it turned out.

Botanicals Altered Book Page

This is a practice page for a round robin I am participating in. I'm not loving how it turned out, but I hope that the actual piece is better. I was inspired by this post Moss Hill Studios. I just adore her work!

Documented Life Project Journal Spreads

I have been joining in The Documented Life Project as of late. I have really enjoyed the weekly challenges. These are the first two weeks of April. I have been a bit behind since I started late, so I haven't been using it so much as a calendar just yet. But I am hoping now that I have enough done ahead to actually start using it as a planner and not just as a journal.


   

 

English Garden Art Journal Page for Round Robin

This is the original mock-up in my own book for the current altered book round-robin I am participating in. I wanted to try a mono-chromatic look, which is also a prompt from The Documented Life Project, found here, which is another challenge I am participating in.

To make the background, I gessoed the page, then scraped two colors of pink acrylic craft paint  onto the page with a credit card. Then I stenciled the flowers with white gesso. I stamped various flowers onto the page in varying colors of pink. Then I went over some of the flowers with texture paint, puffy paint or glitter glue. Then I stamped the title and outlined the letters in a darker pink pen. I did put a little green on for the flower stems and leaves. My dear husband pointed out that it really wasn't monochromatic, then. Oh well. It's my first try. I also tried shading some of the flowers and stems, but I wasn't particularly happy with how it turned out, so I abandoned that for the final version.

This is the final version of the book. The book theme I am working in this month is "An English Garden" and will eventually wing its way back to England to its owner. I have one more spread to do for her before I mail the book on to the next participant.

"Authentic Vintage" Art Journal Page

This is another page I completed while we were vacationing up North - the first time arting in our new house. This was the result of a prompt of cutting up a magazine picture and adding it to your journal through The Documented Life Project - week 12.

Art Journal Spread - The Documented Life Project Wk. 14

I decided to jump in and participate in The Documented Life Project weekly challenges after looking at all the wonderful art going on in the group. I needed to just jump in at the current challenge and take if from there.

We were on vacation this week at our new Lake House up north and so I did this piece on a page from an old calendar. I love the paper.

I gessoed the paper and then used a tutorial from Betty Franks Krause at  Mystic Tulip Mixed Media , using the supplies I had with me. I had to improvise, of course, but her tutorials are so well written and easy to follow, that I had no problem creating this beautiful background. Then I just used a stencil I had on hand for my name letters and doodled them in, using inspiration from Joanne Sharp's lettering which I found on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog. Isn't the internet wonderful for learning and aren't artists such a wonderful, giving bunch of lovelies!

Altered Book Spread - "A is for Apple"

Finished piece for my altered book swap - for a Big Girls Alphabet Book - A is for Apple
 

Below are the step by step photos of the process. I used the tutorial from here to make my background.

Gesso and dots for background,

Added three colors of acrylic paint -

Close up view of texture

Stamping and texture added.

Added apple from water color painting posted here.

Painting Apples

I've been enjoying a little foray in watercolor painting. I just did some apples, since I need one for an altered book project. I have been using opaque water colors. I really enjoyed doing these.

"Fill Your Life with Color" Art Journal Page

This is sort of out of the box for me, but I was working on a prompt from Journal 52 "Color Swatches", and this is what I came up with. I sort of modeled the page after this page by Karenika. I really like her style, so I thought I would give this one a try. It is a combination of water color, stenciling and stamping with a little freehand doodling. I will definitely revisit this style some time in the future. Karen is so talented and I love her artwork.

Altered Book Spreads - "She Who Loves"

This is the latest two spreads from my 2014 Altered Book Round Robin - this one has the theme of "She Who Loves".  This was a very small book - so it was a little challenging for me. I am not used to working in such a small size.  But it's getting mailed out today. Woo hoo!

Love is a Many Splendored Thing

Tags For Tag Swap - "Dick and Jane" & "Birthstone Colors"

These are the last 2 sets of tags for the tag swap I was in. The first set have the theme "Think Dick and Jane".

  

The second set has the theme of "Birthstone Colors"

 

These tags have now made their way on to their respective owners and the tag swap is officially over for me. I really enjoyed these miniature works of art and seeing how each participant interpreted the various themes. I would definitely participate in something like this again. Next up - a fabric book.

Altered Book - Mock-up Spread - Vintage Europe

For each of the altered book round robin pages, I make a mock-up in a book that I will keep for myself. It has a two-fold purpose - one is that I get to try things and experiment with my ideas and not have to worry about ruining someone else's book and the other is that I end up with a book of similar work that I did for other people. It is a little extra work, but well worth it. This is the mock up I did of the Princess Elizabeth spread that I posted previously. You can see subtle differences between the two.

 

Princess (Queen) Elizabeth Spread for Altered Book Round Robin

This is the finished piece for the altered book round robin that I did for the book with the theme of Vintage Europe. I did two spreads, one of Princess Margaret and one of Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth.

 

Here is the final spread of Princess Margaret plus a few close-ups.

"Princess Margaret" Altered Book Spread

I am currently in an altered book round robin that I am really excited about. The first book other than my own that I am working in has the theme "Vintage Europe". I have decided to use an old Moleskin planner to do a mock-up book for all the work I do this year. We are to do two spreads for each book, and so this is the mock up for the first spread. I decided to do spreads about the royal princesses, Margaret and Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth). They were both so beautiful and, in my mind, the epitome of royal princesses. I have really enjoyed reading up on them. Since they were young in the late 40s and early 50s, I thought it would go well with the theme.

Below are some of the step by step photos. I'll post the finished product of the actual book once I am done.

Planner with two pages glued together for strength.

Added Golden's gesso

Scraped on Golden liquid acrylic in yellow and stamped images using Archival black ink

Painted edges with Tim Holz Distress Paint.

Gessoed over it all, added texture medium through a stencil, added pink ink.

For the finishing touches, I added the photos of Princess Margaret, pearls, decoupaged paper napkin, Reminisce glitter glue, lace and pom-poms. Then I used rub-on letters and stickers to finish the page.

Now on to Princess Elizabeth.

Once Upon A Time Altered Book Round Robin 2014

I joined a new altered book round-robin for 2014. My theme is "Once Upon a Time". There are 11 players in my group and my book will travel to two places in the UK and Australia as well as the US. I am really excited about this one. I spent a lot of time getting my book ready. It will be mailed out today. I will post a few "in-progress" pages for a look at how this all came together. I am really looking forward to getting it back in 11 to 12 months and see all the wonderful work in my book. I  should be receiving the next book to work in pretty shortly.

Front Cover

Inside of front cover - Door Page opens to the Instructions page. I used a velcro dot so the door page actually does open. 

Instruction Page

 Sign-In Page

St. George slays the dragon - a page Ron printed out for me that I was going to use for a Fairy Tale Princess bridal shower I gave, but I ended up not using it, so I put it here.

Princess spread - actually the first spread I did. Used stamps, water color and lots of Stickles glitter.

Prince page

Prince page showing tag moved to reveal the dragon beneath.

Inside of the back cover - folder contains a list of all the players, addresses and emails.