Quotes

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." -Thomas Merton

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Altered Book - Second Vintage Entry

 
 
Here's the second entry in my new altered book.
The chapter on the page explains how I feel about this new endeavor:
The Magnificent Adventure
and it truly is.
It's very addictive and satisfies my desires of painting, beading, creating and all things vintage. 
One of the challenges in this project is trying to preserve the photographs, and I think I've been able to accomplish that by creating a journal box on the opposite side of the page of the photo.  I've left the journal box empty for now and will come back at a later time to fill it in. The box was shaded with pan pastels so that I can control where the media is placed. 
 
 
 
 
 
My favorite element is the vintage fountain pen created with a Tim Holtz nib, cardstock, paper lace, gold thread and some Prima rhinestones.  The nib looks like porcelain by applying embossing ink, and peal embossing powder than set it with a heat gun.
 
 
 
Chipboard adds another element and interest too on these pages. The leafy branch was torn in various pieces and used throughout the two pages.
 
 
 
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, and if you've started your altered book, or have finished one, let me know where I can find you.  Thank you.
 


Saturday, August 23, 2014

Altered Book


Recently, I was inspired by a fellow scrapping muse to work on my first altered book entry  for the book I had prepped several months ago and put away until I was inspired to work on it. When my muse said she was going “vintage book” shopping at some local thrift stores for an art journal book well that sounded like a fun trip to me. And, I was instantly reminded of the time I spent painstakingly removing pages from my art journal book with a ruler, and an exacto knife.   

Here’s Josie, my first entry in an altered book.
 


Some tips:
When you tear the pages out leaving a small lip of paper inside the book, glue the lip of paper down to your working page to add some stability to the book and prevent the pages from falling out of the book.
A light application of gesso was applied and I tried not to cover up too much of the title of the chapter, “Glorious Queens and Slavegirls.”

 
After applying the colored mist to the stencil/molding paste application, I applied a layer of clear gesso over some areas so that the second coating of the light colored mist wouldn’t be repelled too much and add more depth.  Clear gesso will absorb light mist colors beautifully and not repel them like white gesso does. Soft and light stamping was applied in the background using the Grey StazOn ink pad. I have left some space for journaling on this page.
 
I like the idea of adding charms hanging from ribbons on various pages so that they dangle from the bottom of the book.  This Josie charm was made with the EZ Shape Studio tool, and an EZ Shape Studio metal charm.  An application of gesso and bronze ink was applied to age the charm. I cut out some Prima rhinestones (the same ones used on the Blue Fern Studio flourish chipboard) and affixed them to the top of the frame. Inside the frame, a small piece of lace was placed on top of the Riddersholm paper, and the resin piece was placed on top of the charm.  


I made some mistakes in the process and hope to not repeat them again on the next page of the book which has already begun. The cover of the book will be done last because during the process I found I was handling the book quite a lot and I was applying pressure to the spine when working the pages. 

Not much is known about Josie as a person, and in looking at this photograph I have many questions to ask her: Did she marry as a trade, or was she in love with the man she married; what were her politics; did she believe or participate in the women’s suffrage movement; did she, like so many others during the Gilded Age, enjoy bicycling as a popular activity; what was a typical day for her like during that time in history; did she have her dresses made like so many other women in their early 20’s before stores like Selfridges were created.  It boggles my mind how she was able to live her life without our modern day conveniences, and for that I am truly grateful she came before I did.
I hope my fellow scrapping muse and I have inspired you to shop for a vintage book and start creating your first altered book. I found I really enjoyed working on smaller pages, and of course these books are much easier to store than a 12 x 12 layout.  For those of you that have already produced altered books, please let me know where I can come view your work for more inspiration and ideas to fill up the remaining pages of mine. 

Thank you for visiting.
Some products used:
You can purchase Blue Fern Studios chipboard here.

 
Prima Rhinestones use on the chipboard flourish and small charm.

 
 




Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Tutorial, and Lilac Fog...only look if you love the color of lilac, lavender, and purple.

 
 
As promised earlier, here's the finished layout featuring those wonderfully detailed lantern and key chipboard pieces designed by Blue Fern Studios. 
 
 I'm fond of Barbara Bixby jewelry and while at a shop admiring some of her very expensive and exquisite pieces, it crossed my mind that I might be able to make chipboard look like a piece of her jewelry, and at a fraction of the cost. Wishful thinking, right?  But, I wasn't going to let a little doubt stop me from trying.
 
The Lilac Fog in the background was created using Blue Fern Studios Quatrefoil Panel as a stencil, some light molding paste, mists, stamp, and a watercolor pencil.  A very easy process with dramatic results in any color of your choice.  
 



Here's how you can make your chipboard look like a pieces of jewelry:







Here's a picture of some of Barbara Bixby's work.


Saturday, August 2, 2014

Lots of Orange

It's not a color I design with or have in my wardrobe, but lately I've been drawn to the color of orange.  Leslie's Dream paper from Blue Fern Studios Ombre Dream Collection called out my name when I opened the paper package, and I answered the call by creating this layout with the Blue Fern Studios August Sketch.  Interestingly, I found lots of little bits of embellies, buttons, tags, washi tape, and ribbon in this color in my treasure boxes, and those things finally found a home on this layout. 





Close up of the layering stem chipboard by Blue Fern Studios.  I loved this little lacy piece, and wished there was a stamp in this exact design.  So, I did the next best thing and applied some bronze metallic paint on the reverse side of the chipboard and stamped it around my page.  Later, when I affixed the chippie with some glue, I wished I had though to soak the piece in water, split it, and use it for a stamp on future pieces.  Oh well....I know where to get another one.

Here's Michele Singh's August Sketch, designed exclusively for Blue Fern Studios.  I hope you can design with it too.
 

 
 
Thanks for stopping by...see you next time.