A Few Altered Book Pages in Progress

I have been playing around with adding texture to my pages, which is something I have been wanting to do. I found some texture medium on clearance at Michael's so I got busy right away playing. I am also adding to my Vintage Gypsy Altered Book.

This is an altered book cover that I am working on - I added the texture medium through some stencil shapes.

Both pages have decoupaged maps underneath. The page on the left is painted with acrylic and texture medium, in which I made some marks. The page on the right was painted with Golden Liquid Acrylic and then washed with a gold acrylic.

I then used an old plastic doily and another stencil to add more texture, including the work "Dream". Afterwards, I used some Walnut Ink Stain to rub over the piece and add color and show off the texture. You an really see it well if you enlarge the photo.

This is a piece that I have been playing with, which also has torn maps decoupaged underneath. The green is a piece of handmade paper and the piece is painted with acrylics and aged with Walnut Ink Stain.

This last piece shows some additions I have made to the inside cover of my Vintage Gypsy Altered Book.

A Painting of The Woods

I painted this for my daughter's boyfriend for his graduation present. I know it is hard to tell in the photo but I decoupaged torn maps on the canvas before I started. I tried to add lots of texture. It was a huge learning experience for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. It took a lot of thinking to decide what a guy would like. I'm always doing things I like, but I didn't figure he would want roses or tea cups! Ha! This is actually modeled after a scene in a card game that he likes to play. I liked the whimsical, "Tolkien-esque" look to it, and that was sort of what I was going for.

It is done on a stretched canvas, 16X20, and is done in acrylics, mostly. I used various gel mediums to add texture and also used some water color. After I decoupaged the maps on the canvas, I sketched the big trees using water color pencil. I then was able to sketch in the other trees and path, etc. I watched a couple of You-tube videos about painting forests and sunlight. Then I worked on it with various acrylics and mediums.

It was so much fun that I am already starting another painting for my daughter as one of her graduation presents. It will be totally different from this one.

I took this picture of the corner to try to show some of the texture. I am going to link up to Paint Party Friday.

A Flock of Steam Punk Birds

I participated in a swap recently where the theme was map elements and steam punk. You had to use maps in your page along with the steam punk theme. I decided to use birds and printed out the bird outline on map pages. Then I placed the birds & their embellishments onto scrapbook paper by Tim Holz. Here are my birds.

Tag Booklet as Bridal Shower Activity

I hosted a bridal shower recently and this is the tag booklet we made for the bride. The bride is from another country and had not met the groom's family and friends before, so I came up with this idea as a way of bringing memories or advice into her life, along with a keepsake. Also, the bride and groom are moving to China for a year after the wedding, so large gifts were not very suitable, hence the shipping tag idea.

I mailed out shipping tags with the shower invitations and asked each guest to write one of three things on one side of the tag: 1) a favorite memory of the groom, 2) a favorite marriage advice or 3) a favorite Bible verse. Then the guests brought the tag to the shower and we decorated the other side and connected them together with a ring.  Also, if an invitee could not make it, I just asked them to mail the tag, and we completed the decorating.

To add to the fun, we had the bride vote for her top three, and the winners got to take home one of the table decorations.

Book of Days - More Pages

My two page spread for the First Day of Spring - I had fun with this one.

I theoretically joined a challenge to attempt to copy 3 Modilgliani paintings, but I only did one and never posted it. But I really enjoyed reading about his story and the tragic story of his lover, Jeanne Hébuterne. She was born 2 years before my grandmother and had such a tragic life. So I chose a portrait of her.

The left tip in is an attempt at water color from the Strathmore Workshops. It opens up for more journaling, which you can see below.

The water color tip-in opened up here.

This is another spread that is a multi-fold-out. Opened up here and folded closed below. I also have a tip-in from a happy mail card I received from Elizabeth Helwig.

I am pretty far behind in my BODs, but I'm hoping that the summer will allow me to catch up. I hope to be returning the blessings for my Happy Mails and swaps.

Book of Days Pages

More Book of Days pages - I'm pretty far behind on posting.

Finally, A New Post - More Book of Days

I have been incredibly busy with things that have had to take priority over arting and blogging, even though I have missed blogging terribly. I have continued to do a little art here and there, but not as much as I would like. One thing that was a big set back was that my computer crashed and I lost my photos that I had already prepared to post. We had three family birthdays, spring break, my daughter's high school graduation, her graduation open house, a wedding shower, a wedding, end of the year teaching, and my husband finding out he needs a hip replacement. Good times, but lots of busyness.

So I am just posting a couple of pictures from my Book of Days.

"What Brings Me Joy" Flap closed

"Home" Flap open

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.