Glitz-Oh Girl

The ‘Bind Your own Book’  round robin that I’m in with some of  the Ten Two Studios gang has been fun!  This is Livia’s book – with a Renaissance theme.  Her  page papers are gorgeous, but somehow I had a silly streak in working with this book.  Livia had the image of the Venetian masks already in her book.   I added the glass beads, the gold scrollwork, and the mask on the stick to the left side.  The butterfly  came from some decorative paper which I bought in Florence, Italy 3 years ago.   The womens’ faces were also already on the right page.  I added the frames around them, plus the Acey Deucy Venetian man stamp, the stamped text and gold tape.

This next spread just struck my funny bone.  The DaVinci paper also came from Florence. I stapled it together and put it in the envelope made with some of my art paper.  The images speak for themselves. I loved the paper Livia used for these pages!  I added some gorgeous hand-beaded silk ribbon to the edge;  The ‘top secret’ tape is from 7 Gypsies.  (Click the images to enlarge them.)

…is the theme of the book I’ve worked in today- another Hawaii Round Robin book.  The title led me to think immediately of Robert Frost and monoprinting…yep- my brain made that leap without telling me in advance – the nerve, huh?

I ‘mono-printed’ using acrylic paints – both heavy-bodied Golden acrylics as well as fluid acrylics. The monoprinting was my technique to go with the theme…it created a sort of ‘parallel universe’ right on the pages, though reversed in image.  The path theme was taken up with an addition of Robert Frost’s Poem “The Road Not Taken” – undoubtedly one of his best and certainly most-oft memorized and loved.

(Of course, I’m also VERY much drawn to his “Walking by Woods on a Snowy Evening” – but that’s for another day, as it was near 100F today here in SW Oregon.)

I printed out the poem on a transparency sheet, and attached it at the top of the right-hand page with big staples.  Hand-painting with more fluid acrylics and a white pen, plus stamping footprints on the pages, completed this spread, as well as a quick spray/wash of Adirondack butternut ink for the background.

(click the image to enlarge it)

This 2-page tip-in spread is for a book in the Hawaii Altered Book Round Robin that I’m in.

We are to share a technique in the theme of the book in which we work.  This book’s theme is images of London, Paris, Rome and Asia.  I chose to do a paper weaving technique.  The following image is of the ‘reverse’ side of the spread.  This tip-in is on 110 lb watercolor paper. I sprayed and wiped on Adirondack spray wash in Butternut and Plum colors.  I then outlined the random color with Pitt artist pen – and then chose the area in which to describe this simple technique.

Here is the interior of the spread.  I used stamps from Acey Deucy and Stampers Anonymous.

(click the images to enlarge them)

….is hot here in SW Oregon – especially the Rogue Valley, where I live- temps near 100F and above in late July and August. As I age,  I like the heat less and less…love to garden though!  So when it’s too HOT to play in our garden retreat, I think of what to create indoors.  Today, it was this domino necklace!

I got the idea for the domino ‘bead’ from Ten Two Studios.  Using the cool new domino images, and a gold skeleton key, I created this necklace.  I added one of my paper UTEE beads, jump rings, glass beads and then crocheted the necklace with 4-ply waxed linen.  The dominoes were ‘painted’ by simply using an orange Bic brand permanent marker. These have no odor at all, and the colors are super!!!

Life- so funny how it ‘interferes’ with my PLANS!  (that’ll teach me to make plans!)  My husband is now 3 weeks post-op a 3RD surgery on his right leg- hoping his broken femur will finally heal and we can get on with making ‘plans’. )

So what’s a girl to do?  have fun with books, that’s what!

I’ve changed the closure to my recycled (now titled) “Book of Odd”. I used a cleaned up  pull-tab from one of my laser printer cartridges…they make great belts (for books, that is).

The following images are of the ‘pages’ I’ve done in this book- today it gets mailed out to Texas!

AND ON ANOTHER NOTE….

I love hands!  and some of my old junky books I love and don’t want to alter their content.  However, this book had a HIDEOUS!! brown cover – published in the middle of WWII, I’m sure inks and stuff were at a premium…so I decided to alter the covers only, and spiff up the gold leaf text .  The book is ARTS AND CRAFTS: A Practical Handbook by Marguerite Ickis, 1943, pub. by A.S. Barnes and Co.  It’s in so-so condition, but very fun to peruse, and has a large section on book making and book binding!

Being a ‘handbook’, I have it now as a ‘work of art’ in our living room, along with a casting of my hand when I was 50….(“a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way….” – thank you, George Lucas )

I’m having so much fun making these postcards from the child ‘hand’ board books from Ten Two Studios. Images are also from there.

I used some napkin and scrap paper for backgrounds, a bread bag ‘special’ label, and art pen, rubber stamp,acrylic paint colored tape, and masking tape.  The reverse sides are painted, with a white’ gesso-ed’ square for the address.

A few of us on the Ten Two Studios Design Team are doing a “Bind your own Book” (BYOB) round robin.  My book is made entirely of recycled stuff- cereal boxes, cracker box, tea box, tea bag envie,  tissue box, etc, recycled junk mail envelopes, an old bingo board, cream cheese container seal, plus colored tape, two flattened pop cans for the covers, and a little engineering to bring it together.

The ‘newer’ art supplies used are double-sided ‘red liner’ tape,  waxed linen binding thread, colored eyelets on the pop cans, and a strip of fabric.

I used 2-needle coptic binding (X4) stitch, so the book will lie flat when worked in.

Alas, some of the cardboard was soft, and the thread ripped up a bit, so the stitching is not as “loverly” as I’d like–but heck, it’s recycled junk.  I’ve had some of this stuff for 4 years, waiting patiently for me to get my act together.

This is one of three spreads I created in Patti M.’s book, for our Ten Two Studios Design Team Altered Book Round Robin- it is my rendition of one of my favorite spots- the Oregon Coast.
I used napkin collage for the ‘window frame’ border, and then craft acrylic paints and a few artist pens for the ocean scene.

I love our beaches- they are usually mostly empty, big, wide and with white/light tan sand.

Beware- our water is a tad chilly most of the year – but oh so beautiful for birds, sea lions, whale watching and all around peace.

(At the bottom left page, I said it’s as calming as ‘pure dark chocolate’- I love using packaging bits for collage.) You can see all of the pages I created for this Round Robin in this album.

I cut apart a cute little ‘hand’ board book, to create this altered book, with the pages as individual altered page postcards, ready to send as needed!

I used acrylic craft paints, old book pages, rubber stamps, and the color-themed images from Ten Two Studios, as well as faux postage.  Individual card images can be viewed in THIS ALBUM.

I love these ‘hand’ book- little board books in juvenile hand shape – so fun to alter.

My first project is here;  I used art paper to cover the whole thing, cut out hearts, glued pages together, with images from Ten Two Studios.

This is another video of the journal I’m doing through Juliana Cole’s online workshop. My Altered Book Journal on YouTube.

I created this watercolor a few weeks ago when I did some others….it’s 12 X 18, on Canson aquarelle paper- using Twinkling H2O’s watercolors and Pitt artist pens (bold and fine tips). I’ve just photo’d and printed out an 8 X 10.5 for an altered book I’m working in – will share that soon. TFL!

My beginning book structure for Juliana Coles’ online Extreme Journal Altered book class.

I created these little artist trading cards (ATC for short) using just some scraps of red background paper (backed with 90lb. wt. watercolor paper), and microscope slide images from Ten Two Studios. A few rubber stamped words and,  Voila!

The slides are adhered to the cards not only with the fasteners, but also a little gel medium on the backs of the slides.

Please  see 2 more new Altered Book  spreads here.

I loved making this large AB spread. I cut two pages back to back in the shape of a wing, so that when the pages (wings) opened they would spread across the facing pages.  I backed each wing with watercolor paper, for strength, then embellished them with artist pens and watercolors.  Napkins are collaged on each page, along with a black paper frame, and an image from the book.  This type of ‘addition’ at the gutter of a book is easy, because it is simply changing the shape of pages already in place.  The paper backing doesn’t add much depth, so the pages still close flat against each other.  (sorry for the slight glare from the camera flash).

To see other pages in this altered book round robin, visit this album.

This is my work in Sherrie’s book- which has the theme of ‘Wings’.  The book is about 10″ square when closed.  I took one of my watercolor works, added the doodangles, then ripped it in half and added it to the pages of this book.  I added the ‘feather’ butterflies and writing,  plus the flower.  You can see all the pages I’ve done in this RR so far, including my book, here.

I love this little book -Donna’s theme is “Nature” .  I incorporated birds, fruit and butterflies from Ten Two Studios images,  napkins from a swap gift from some AB Group friends, and a doodangle butterfly. I used PPA to adhere the images to the pages, embellished with some gel pens and Pitt artist pen (black), and when it was all dry, I sealed the pages with Microglaze.  The stamped words on the butterfly spread are from an old Wordsworth rubber stamp I had in my ‘stash’. 

I’ve been immersed in my doodling mania for well over a month- and am incorporating them into altered books, watercolors and journals.

In continuation of the Ten Two Studios Design Team AB round robin, I’ve added 2 more spreads, using some of my own doodles which  I’ve copied and adapted to the book.

Here’s one image- I doodled in my Doodangle journal, then copied the pages, reducing the size of the images to fit the pages of  Peace’s book of ‘Witch Queens’. After adding some white book tape to the gutter of the pages for reinforcement , I attached the doodles to the book pages,  then extended and embellished upon the doodles.  Behold the Witch Queen of Doodles… (click on this link  to see the second image of Peace’s book, as well as the others I’ve done so far.)