Altered Book Collage and Mixed Media - Vintage Boy and His Dog

This is a recently finished page that I did while vacationing up North at our Lake house.

A Boy and His Dog

I haven't had nearly as much time this year to spend on my own art, since I started teaching art at my school. It has turned out to be a much larger undertaking that I anticipated. So it felt really good to do something just for me for a change. Teaching art has certainly stretched me in many ways and my art has definitely improved because of it, but I miss having the free time to just go into the studio and play.

And I haven't had too much free time to post on my blog.  But summer is coming. So I hope to be better about putting things up.

If you happen to visit, please leave a comment so I know you were here.  Thanks.

Altered Book Mixed Media Collage

Haven't posted here in a really long time, but I have been making art. Here are a couple of collage spreads that I did recently inside my altered book turned journal.

Altered Book Spread - Collage

I am trying out different things in my art journals these days.  This particular one is a collage of various vintage papers and ephemera.  I really like it. I don't know whether it is completely done or not.  I am letting it rest awhile to see if I feel it needs more later.

Mandala Altered Book for Round Robin

Mandala Altered Book Final

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

 

"Maps Gone Steampunk" Altered Book Swap

I've been very busy making art over this time I've been off, mostly focused on the Christmas season, but I want to post pictures of my Steampunk book made as a page swap. Here are a few pictures. Will post the rest later.

"Peace of Mind" Altered Book Page