Altered Book

...the fun is inside...

   Just recently I hosted a gift swap. It's called, The Calm After The Holidaze." Basically, it's a time after all of the holiday madness, for fellow crafter's to make each other gifts. In my search for what to try, I found several tutorials on altered books. In this case, it's taking a hard cover book and changing it into an art journal or paste book. Some might even call it a Smashbook. Here's the book that I came up with...

It's a vintage children's book. The title is, "The Happy Hollister's." I found this book at the thrift store. Think I only paid $1.50 for it. Which makes this a pretty frugal project. I'll take you through the steps, that I did, to make this journal.

First, open up the book to the inside cover. There is a piece of paper and some thin mesh to cut through. The best way to cut it, is with an Exacto knife. Make a slice in the front and one all the way in the back. The above picture is what you have left. If you want to cover the inside of the cover with a decorative paper, do so now.

Now you wanna add some holes for the book rings. I found that the easiest way was to use a drill. I drilled four holes, the size that would fit my eyelets. Two holes on the front and two coordinating holes on the back cover. Next, I set my eyelets. I used the large size Dritz eyelets. They can be found in the sewing aisle. For under $3, you can get the hammer style kit. Here's a link to a video on, Make It Mine Magazine, on how to set the eyelet. 

The next part is some what tedious...but also fun. Gather up as many papers as you can. Cut them slightly smaller than the cover. In mine I used lot's of watercolor paper to handle heavy duty art'in. Mixed in are papers for writing and pasting on. Pretty much anything goes for paper. I've also went over board on tabs! I used scraps of ribbon, clips and even file folders to create them. Another small detail was the addition of metal book corners. I used a strong glue to adhere them. They are a Tim Holtz product. 

To finish off the book I threaded a ribbon around the spine. I dyed the ribbon to specific colors that I wanted to use. I also added a store bought leather tassel. That's the finished project! In my next post I will tell you how I made the ribbon. :) 

Making A Big Splash!

...a bit of fish Envie...

    I know I probably mention this every single time, but dang it! It's been such a long time since I've posted anything new. I need to get back to my blogging. It's not a new year resolution or anything. Otherwise it would certainly fail, if I had to label it as something. Anyhoot, let's get on with it. Here's the progression of my latest Envie from Envie Addicts Unite!

I started with my water color base. It's already cut in the shape of an envelope. I took a brush loaded with water and splooshed it near the bottom of the envelope. 

I'm using Brusho watercolor powder. I sprinkled it onto the wet portion of the water. Coaxed my, water loaded brush, across the now blue colored water. ...Since I had it in a cardboard box...I did splatters. Easy to keep the mess contained . With a blow dryer I dried it up some, then added water drops. I then picked up the drops by dabbing with a paper towel.

Once it was all dried, I went in and sketched a big 'ol fish! I used a fine lined Sharpie. 

I thickened the lines with a brush pen. Then lined with a white Uniball pen. My favorite doodle this time are the little paper boats that I've drawn in. :) I got that idea from a coloring page I saw on Pinterest. 

Here's the finished Envie... With all the blue going on, I decided a nice big red stamp would contrast nicely. Gotta love Wonder Woman! :)

Fun Tabbed Rolo's!

...let 'er show up...

   Sometime ago I entered a swap for Rolodex cards, by a friend who goes by the username Nightowl_too. There was a misunderstanding in the rules...which then turned into a happy accident! The happy accident turned into some really fun tab topped Rolo cards, to be created in a new swap hosted by Notinkansas. Here is a tut on how I did mine. 

   First it starts with a sketch. I did mine on Rolo blanks that were made over sized. It's still the standard 4 inches across. However, I made it taller than 2 1/4 inches tall. I made it approximately 3 1/2 inches tall.

I drew in my bird and traced in where my cut line would be. My cut lines varied, but for the most part I kept it near what would be the original height of  2 1/4 inches. Below is a pic of where I am coloring in the bottom half. The white section above will be cut away.

Here's the finished card...

Here is another step by step pic...

I cut Bristol paper down to 3 1/2 x 4 inches. Rounded the bottom corners. Punched the Rolodex holes, then art'ed. 

Here are a few more examples...

Anyhoot, that's it for today. Again...I've been having some troubles with pictures disappearing from my posts...fingers crossed that these will stick!

It's Been A Long Long While!

...Blogger Blues...

   It's been a really long time since I've posted anything. The reason is pictures. Yeah, I have holes in many of my posts. My pic's are missing! I tried to figure out my problem. Really don't have a good solution. Anyhoot, I believe I know what the issue is now. (I hope) It's with Picasa. I had gotten a smart phone and they are usually run by Google which uses Picasa. Some how I automatically got Picasa on my phone. It was linked to all of my devices via my phone. In an effort to clean up my phone a bit...I erased pics on my phone (on Picasa) that I knew I had stored else where. ...Well...it erased it everywhere I used it! Anyhow, I have my devices un-synced now. I'm hoping that this will solve the problem. We'll see...fingers crossed. 

So let's give this another try shall we? Thought I'd start off with a simple post for now. I've been busy making some thangs for a few swaps. Rolo's, ornaments, leaves and brooches. I have to get them mailed out soon, but here's a pile of them!

They were a lot of fun to make. It was the first time in a long time that I was on a roll. Sometimes it's a struggle to make each one...but these were just aching to be made! :) Here's a close up on some of my faves...

These are the ornaments I made. The swap encourages strangeness! I used a yard stick as the base...and pics from Ranger's "Found Relatives" collection. It's topped with floral wire and later I added some ribbon and fibers.

Some fun brooches!

Here are the leaf shapes...

Finally, some Rolo's...

Well, in some ways this is a test to see if my pics disappear! I hope that this one sticks! Thanks for stopping by. :)

May Enive

...red caps and fireflies...

   My goodness, it has been a long time. What can I say? Life happens, but I'm still art'in along. I'll walk you through, for instance, with my latest Envie. Yup, it still starts with a little sketch.

My next step is to line everything with a Micron pen.

I use three different colors of Inktense pencils.

Here are the colors blended when activated by water.

So, this is where I sorta screw up! LOL! I started using Gelato's to smudge in color for the background. It looks like it starts off okay, but then it turns into a big smudgy mess! I almost trashed it. Figured I had nothing to lose, so I took the sprayer from my sink and sprayed down the Entire Envie!

The Inktense stays put and the smudgy stuff fades into nice water color muteness. On top of all of it I swipe in Blue Distress Ink. This ink can be manipulated with water as well. I used a water loaded brush to push the color around.

I've outlined the shrooms with a white Uniball Signo pen. I colored in the yellow dot's, that are my version of "Fireflies," with an acrylic paint pen. The paper was still wet, it allowed the paint to go fuzzy around it's edges. Giving them their "glow." 

Here's the finished Envie...

Sennelier USK Books

...a tip in swap...

   I've got myself wrapped up in another art swap. This particular swap is being hosted by a good friend of mine, Ruth Morris aka Art_Junkie of ATC's For All. The appeal of this swap is to end up with a finished sketchbook. I have yet to complete my own sketchbook, so this is awesome to have! We are using the Sennelier USK Book. They look like this...

I wanted to personalize my own book, so I painted up the cover. 

I've also colored in the edges of these accordion folded pages.

The above shows some of the art that I got on one of the swaps. I'm in a second round now, that will fill the book back and front. I did leave the first couple of pages blank, for a table of contents. 

Here are some of the pages that I will be turning in for trade. We glue these tip in pages, in to the book. :) It's cheaper than sending the whole book to be art'ed in. 

Valentine Postcards

...How Do I Love Thee...

   Our Valentine swap over at E.A.U. was a big one this year! The last couple of years we only had 10-12 trader's. This year we had 19! I thought that if I just do some Gelli printed posties, it would be easy peasy. However, it got all complicated! ('Cause that's the only way I know how to do things!!) Recently my camera on my phone went kaput, but I think I can still explain how I made my postcards. Here's what a couple of them looked like...

I used 140lb watercolor paper. The first step was to Gelli print a few different shades of red. Once it was dried on some of the cards, I used some distress ink and stencils to add a red pattern. (tone on tone.) 

Next, I took my Vintage Remington Rand typewriter and typed out sonnet #43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."

So, on top of all of that I did another Gelli printing. First roll out your paint. For me, it was contrasting colors. Then, I placed paper heart cut outs on top of the paint. This will block some of the color, letting the first layer show through. Once it all dried, I took a white Uniball Signo pen to draw in the web like designs. I wish I could show you more examples, but my camera just wouldn't cooperate. They were all very different. I tried a few different colors throughout. :)