Altered Book - Marie Antoinette

Altered Book for Round Robin with the theme Marie Antoinette. I really enjoy working with historical themes because I love reading all about the times of the theme. This topic was fascinating and I learned a lot doing the research for these pages.

First spread shows the first portrait on the left of Marie in casual cotton gown and on the right - the repainted portrait after the public uproar - repainted to show her much more "queen-like". The public claimed the first one looked like she was in her underwear!

Pull-out tags tell the story of the portraits.

Spread showing Marie and her Hameau de la Reine - a village she had built on the grounds of Versaille to replicate French  village life. She often went there and dressed as a milk-maid.

Fold-out on the left shows a collection of Marie's shoes, which according to the etiquette of the times, she had 4-6 pairs of shoes made each week.

Sign-In tag

TBT "Deux Vagabonds" Altered Book Page

This is an altered book page I made last fall. I happened to decide to work in this book again, and saw this and thought it was worth another post.

It is sort of hard to see, but there is a lot of texture going on. I used texture medium through stencils on certain areas. There also is quite a shimmer to some of the paint.

 

There is a chill in the air and fall is definitely on the way. This is a good layout to say hello to Fall.

Altered Book Round Robin - Life is a Journey

This is a spread from another round robin I am playing in. The theme is Life is a journey.

Women in History - Art Journal Round Robin

This is the first round robin of this type that I have been in. We made our own journals using the Teesha Moore tutorial for her 16-page journal from one sheet of paper found here. I used a scraped paint background, then stenciled over it with Donna Downey stencils and used some found objects for further mark making ala Traci Bautista's Printmaking Unleashed. Then I used washi tape, dry-walling tape and perforated tape pieces to add more texture. The cover has a piece of ephemera that is a portrait of Mary of Teck.

 

Inside cover spread has sign-in tags and a page featuring Elizabeth I. 

 Back cover

Inside back cover flap

House ATCs

I have had a wonderful summer where I got to spend lots of time making art. Here are some ATCs that I made for a House Theme swap.

Each one has a door that opens with a little tiny picture inside. I used lots of backgrounds that I made using Traci Bautista's Printmaking Unleashed techniques.

And then even my husband wanted one, so I made him a bookmark.

 

Front

Back

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!