Glitz-Oh Girl

For all of my Puget Sound (Washington State) area friends…a wonderful concert is coming up next week – 2 performances of the Candlelight Concerts, conducted by Maestro Arthur Shaw.  I’ll be there! Larry is playing viola in this select orchestra, with other outstanding musicians performing beautiful music for this season of giving and being thankful for our gifts. All music presented in a candle-lit setting- you will love this!   For more information on some of the musicians involved, please visit Marjorie Talvi’s blog!  (the link opens in a new window.)

This afternoon’s play – an ATC  ‘trade’ for a friend in Eugene.  Hope she likes it!

The image is  from Ten Two Studios. I used a stiff plastic backing (which was sent in an envelope from France for packaging of a postcard I won on Ebay!), vintage fabric napkin fragment, and a few ‘curls’ I punched from paper scrap. I outlined this ATC with some “Distress Stickles” (Tim Holtz) and bronze Krylon pen, as well as a bit of black ink.  The words are stamped on pattern tissue with Staz-On solvent-based black ink; I adhered the napkin piece to the plastic with Liquid Fusion- when dry, I added the image, paper curls, and tissue text with PPA, then added the border. I used some white ink to create the dots of the hat and ribbon.  Now to mail it off!

THIS JOURNAL IS SOLD

I’ve been working on this journal most of this week.  I adore vintage buttons, as you know, and had ordered some lovely pastel buttons with a tiny bit of ‘bling’ from a shop on Etsy.  The buttons arrived yesterday, so I was able to finish the binding.  Though I’m still using up my stash as I make and alter books, the buttons were calling to me! (I’ve also used my own vintage buttons on this spine, as well.)

The covers are bits of fabric I’ve had for at least 25 years, as well as vintage laces and crocheted place mats and etc. from my mom’s and my stash.  I applied some Liquitex Flexible modeling paste to the exterior of the fabric, to tone down the blue a bit.  I loved the look and didn’t want to cover all of it.  The cover image is from a 1922 national Geographic, which I cut out and added using PPA and machine stitching.  The key on the closure has one of Mom’s old earring parts glued to it (I use Liquid Fusion for all metal gluing- non-toxic and NO odor!)

The papers of this journal are watercolor papers, my own collaged papers of paper and fabric scraps, and some scrapbook papers which seemed to go with the colors of the buttons.  I also used sari fabric remnants on the interior of the journal, between each signature.  All of the images can be viewed in THIS ALBUM.

I’m especially fond of the back cover- I used a pocket from my now- 13- yr.-old grand daughter’s jeans from when she was about 6!  I asked her mom for some of the old and stained clothes she’d outgrown, for using in my artwork.) Nothing goes to waste around here!

My older grand daughter's 'pocket' from years ago pants...embellished with laces and crochet and tatting work. My maternal grandmother's ribbon lace adorns the spine and back cover.

…from Ten Two Studios!  Don’t forget to check it out!

I had a great time making my version of the Dan Brown “DaVinci Code” cryptex.

Here are the images – and you can read about it HERE.  I used a “Republic of Tea” cylindrical tin, with a second tin lid, glass bead ’tiles’, and other items mentioned in the link.

This spread is for Laurie’s book in the  Hawaii Altered BookRound Robin.  Laurie had no instructions, so I went with my own thing.  I made this Tip-in spread using pages from a facsimile catalog of the Great London Exhibition of 1851.  I cut them to Laurie’s book dimensions,  taped the backs together for tip-in, and then created my turtle design.  I made the template from an original book watercolor by Cheng-Khee Chee. (Old Turtle- by Douglas Wood, Scholastic press, 1992)  I cut out the fabric pieces using my template, sewed them on the pages, and then using the paper cover image of one of my 2 copies of this book, I cut out the head of the turtle and sewed it in place.

The background is fabric, stitching, Pitt artist pen and chalk ink.  I adhered plain paper to the reverse, to strengthen the spread, as the book pages were somewhat thin.

Turtle - dimensions are 10"W X 9 1/8 " H

It was time for me to put a new foil liner on my palette…I use the ‘non-stick’ foil, which defies being glued to anything – I also don’t like wasting pretty palette paint blobs.  So- I popped off all the paint from the foil and put it on this AB spread.  The masking tape at the bottom had held the foil to my wood board ‘palette’ – since it was paint-smeared too, I added it to the pages as well.

After gluing down the paint waste with my trusty PPA, I then added portions of a paper napkin image to the pages , then embellished the yellow blob into the “Royal Sun” – voila – subject matter disclosed!

Messy background of acrylic paint more or less mimics my messy palettes when I’m through with a project.

"Satellites of the Royal Sun"

Here I am again.    This spread was fun, because I love the crackled paint look. I chose my ‘found text’ and highlighted it with fluid acrylic paint. I then painted over the pages with an opaque ‘mauve’ acrylic paint, let it dry, applied crackle medium, let it dry to just tackiness, and then gave the final coat of lime green- which crackled within minutes of application.  The postage and postmarks are from my massive stash of stamps and envelopes.  I aged the pages a bit more with some ‘Distress’ inks.

The postmark in the upper left is from Bodmin, Cornwall, England.  My maternal ancestors’ home, where cousins still live to this day, is in Liskeard, Cornwall.  It reminded me of ‘beginnings’.

Source

Is it cheating to do more than I set out to do? Of course not.  Here are today’s 2 AB spreads.

Napkin collage, spray washes, marker on the first; acrylic paint, found text, Italian newsprint, scrapping border paper, sponge stamp and a found word from a “Game of Fate” card on the second.  Still using up my stash of stuff- feels good, and having fun at the same time.

Truth

The Jo

A sign of the times……

Rubber stamps, black gesso, acrylic paint, alcohol inks, Pitt artist pen, white marker pen.

OCCUP-EYE

If you know the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, then you know who Hal is…and if you aren’t familiar with the movie, then just enjoy viewing the page.

After I had made all the circles with the red dot centers, all I could think of was: “Open the pod bay doors, please, Hal” and :”I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that”.  This is one of my all-time favorite movies, which has nothing to do with this 5th day’s AB spread, except those ‘secret’ eyes of Hal.

Gesso, matte medium,  image transfer, acrylic paints, stencils and marker pen are the tools I used for this spread…I’ve had the inkjet image for years and frankly, have no clue where I got it, but I think it was given in a class I took years ago- maybe.  I’m enjoying this daily AB page process – my mind obviously wanders in weird directions, which is nothing new.

The Secret Eyes of Hal

Day 4 of my altered book page-a-day thing.  I used black gesso, fluid acrylics,  Ranger’s Adirondack color wash, collage image from Ten Two studios , stamped word, stamped image from a ten-yr.-old PostModern Design rubber stamp I have, sign language stamps, and pattern tissue.

My AB spread for the day.  The dragon image I cut from a book called “Dragons: A Natural History”- it was my mom’s – the girls are an image from Ten Two Studios, and the circus label I received from an altered books friend in Germany in a swap a few years ago.

Secret and Urgent

This is my altered book (Codes and Ciphers) effort for today. Napkin collage with old book image of bat, and Halloween image from Ten Two Studios, acrylic paint and black Bic marker.

02- Sticks and Bones

This evening I fell into a muse- and decided to combine the October Challenge on the Yahoo Altered Books Group  and start altering a book, perhaps altering a page every day- though in my heart I know myself too well and don’t expect that to happen EVERY day.   The challenge involves using whatever is at hand on our art table, and alter a page.  I used words from an old advertisement, my fluid acrylics, Pitt medium artist pen and a Bic marker pen, a small sponge stamp,  plus an image from a 19th century book on mammal biology given to me by dear friend Lee, for use in altering books! Lucky Me!

This book of Codes and Symbols was from a friend of my dad’s, printed in 1942. The paper is kind of porous, so I coated both sides with PPA  first.

Number 01

Techno Kitty thanks you for your innovative genius and contributions to the world of IT.  She especially thanks you for her iPhone!

ATC- Techno Kitty - actual size 3.5" X 2.5" computer circuit on mixed media paper.

I created this 2-page spread for Su’s book- she had sent the book pages (for those of us on the mainland) to alter.  When open, this spread is 9″H X 16″ W.  Su’s theme is “Earth Rhythms and Morphscapes”.  My sense of Earth rhythms comes so much from the Pacific Northwest of the USA- the mountains with their trees, the river valleys , the beautiful skies…the volcanoes.  In the Rogue River Valley of SW Oregon, where I live, we have our own local volcano- Mt. McLoughlin (used to be called Mt. Pitt).  It is just over 9600 ft., and is the crown jewel when the skies are clear.  The snow didn’t fully melt this year until into August, and soon it will have snow, if not already, as we are cool and rainy weather again.

My interpretation of the theme

I chose for my technique fabric and thread collage-  I cut the fabric to the design I had swimming in my head (free-hand) and tacked the pieces to the pages with glue stick.  I then used my sewing machine to sew and ‘paint with thread’.  That’s it.  I left the fabric unglued in places, to allow for a sense of motion, though it is all thoroughly adhered to the pages.  I kept the brown bobbin thread the same throughout, so the design shows up on the reverse. I left the edges of the fabric rough, as I wanted to extend the ‘organic’ sense of the pages.

Reverse

I first got this suitcase in 1956, to take to summer camp.  It is 21″ long X 13″ wide X 7″ deep.  It was THE ugliest brown fake-fabric-covered thing (the plastic handle is original and UNaltered .)  Ever since that summer, I have used this little case to house my precious childhood dolls and the clothes my mother sewed and knitted for them.  It is now 55 years later, and after receiving as a gift the neatest old newspaper for collage from my arty friend Lee, in Eugene, Oregon, I decided what better use than to collage the case to hold my handmade journals and ‘re-purposed’ altered books? (some of them anyway – my faves)  (The dolls and their clothes are well-protected elsewhere).

The newspaper is from 1880, is so perfectly aged that I did no ‘aging’ to it, and was crumbling enough that I had no qualms in using it for collage. .

The stand upon which I have the case is from my mother- it is a circa 1920′s luggage rack for ‘company’ in the guest room- and still has its original silk tapestry straps.  Since the ‘shabby’ chic style is still loved,  and I have an original ‘shabby’ ( with appropriately peeling cream paint),  I left it alone!

1880 newspaper

Political Alert!! - Political news of the day (lower edge, slightly right of center of picture- a bit blurry) has the title "A Worthless Congress" - this was 136 years ago- I guess what goes around, comes around again.... :^/

The interior rayon? (not silk) lining is in perfect condition, with the elastic still perfectly elastic! I left it unaltered, as it is a nice deep dark rich chocolatey brown.

Linda B. posted today- she  guessed  the title of the book sculpture correctly – it is……..

ta daaa….

“DEAD ‘C’ SCROLLS”.     I know- baaad pun- I couldn’t help myself!