Egypt Altered Book Pages - Round Robin

This is the first spread in an altered book I just did with the theme "Egypt". Each piece flips out and has information on the back of what each artifact is.

The background is a carving of Akenaton and Nefertiti and three of their daughters.

And the next spread has pull outs kept in a papyrus pocket with a stamped background. I had purchased a big sheet of papyrus last year at Hollanders in Ann Arbor MI, one of my favorite stores.

When you pull out the pieces, they also have information on the back describing each artifact.

Ancient Egypt is one of my favorite subjects. I love Ancient History. So this was a really fun round robin to participate in. I was lucky enough to have an old Stampin' Up set that had Egyptian images. Most of the other images either came from a daily calendar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art or images from old National Geographic or Smithsonian magazines.

American Southwest Altered Book Spreads for Round Robin

Completed Spread 2 - Flap Open

Completed Spread 2- Flap closed

Navajo Bead Boy Sand Painting Replica

Glam Girl Using Printmaking Unleashed Techniques

While I was participating in Traci Bautista's Printmaking Unleashed 30 day event, I did a lot of work on a bigger sheet and decided to do a Glam Girl over the top, ala Doodling Unleashed. I used a background I started two years ago when I took her Strathmore online class and started to add to it. I used stencils, spray paint and spray ink, found printing tools, markers, puffy paint, acrylic paint and more. So many things going on here. The flowers in her hair are decoupaged from deli paper print cut outs. I think she turned out pretty well. The photo doesn't show up well, but there are highlights using a metallic gold pen throughout her hair. It really shines in the light. Now all I need is a girly-girl granddaughter to give it to ;)

I am joining in Pink Saturday over at Beverly's place How Sweet the Sound today.

Printmaking Unleashed 30 Day Challenge - Day 4

I decided to participate in Traci Bautista's Printmaking Unleashed 30 day challenge this month. The challenge for Day 4 was to make a stamp with cardboard. I cut out a cardboard feather and used that to stamp on the piece above. I then added the lines using a white gel pen

American Southwest Altered Book Work In Progress

My next round-robin altered book has the theme American Southwest, so I have been playing around trying to come up with something to go in her book. I have been having a bit of a hard time with this one. I just started with some colors that I felt gave the idea of the SW and scraped paint onto a piece of mixed media paper. I then started layering texture using my fingers, various stencils, rubber stamps and other things I had lying around on my art desk. I found an old coloring book I had from Dover on American Indians of the Southwest and hand copied the Navajo sand painting design onto the page.

I also just worked on another background page, trying for different effects. So here are my two works-in-progress.

I will likely cut both of these down before using them. I'll post the final results later this month.

"Love" Altered Book for Round Robin

Just mailed out the most recent of the altered book round robin books. This one had the theme of "Love". The first spread was done using lots of colors and then finishing off with oil pastels. I love the glow the hearts have. The second spread was my try at doing Zentangles. I wasn't totally happy with this one, but oh, well, it had to go out today. Hope the owner likes my efforts.

Zentangled Hearts

Sign-in page

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.