ok - i am coming a little late to the wireless party, i'll admit.But i am going to be on the road and so we had to get an old laptop brought into the 21st century. We tested it out on the street where apparently all my neighbors are sending internet access out over the trees.I posted the title of this post out there on the street! Just to make sure i could. Talk to you soon with more art to come...
When i started my monthly altered book group - oh about 7 years ago now, the intention was to bring together artists with a passion for creativity, and the comradery of sharing our artistic endeavours. We began at attic archives, a paper store in Corte Madera, which has sadly since closed, after a bunch of us took a workshop with Beth Cote. 
We then moved my group (or my kikuyu, as i call them) to a class room at a private school in Mill Valley where one of us was an art teacher. Then we moved to a studio in Point Richmond, then a craft store in Berkeley. But for the last few months we have been meeting, a small but dedicated group, at Dorothy's house in San Francisco. The structure is always the same. Show and tell, followed by introducing the work we did in each other's books, then a small workshop. 
In the beginning the workshops were technique based, trying out new products, or ways with paper and paint. Now i am more interested in producing finished art pieces - so that's what i try to do. Today we created sweet spring-like collage on 5" boards i happened to have a large supply of. I was inspired by artwork shown on the decor8 blog, especially a company called Print, Pattern and Paper. I created all the pieces above - using coordinating scrapbook paper and Dorothy's extensive collection of paper punches.
Today there was a lot of great show and tell. Carol took two great workshops recently. She made a cool journal with kelly kilmer at Stampers Warehouse. She also took an A to Z technique class with Ulla Milbrath at Castle in the Air. Please check out Carol's blog for images. Carol created these 4 pieces with birds and flowers cut from assorted scrapbook paper.
Dorothy shared a richly coloured small board book she created at a workshop at Center for the Book. She also wowed us with a new quilt she made that featured circles. She created this lovely collage of flowers today, and stashed some paper to create more.
Shelley did these nicely coordinating flowers. Some of these WERE flowers, cut from paper, but some were created by arranging shapes. For show and tell Shelley shared a journal - called Wreck this Journal - a very cool interractive book with prompts to encourage you to create art right in the book. Check it out on Amazon.As you can see, we certainly enjoy our monthly sessions. Sharing art, making art, and talking about workshops and blogs and instructors. I have Carols book to work on now, the theme is All Things Greek or Roman. I'll be sure to share when i am done!
For my monthly altered book swap group, Dorothy decided to try something different. Instead of a book she chose to have each of us alter houses instead. It is all part of her current obsession with HGTV! I certainly know what that's all about...
She provided us with an assortment of house shapes cut out of heavy cardboard. Including some plain rectangles for us to customize as we like. Above you can see two houses Dorothy did, the house of cards, plus the sign in sheet house. Shelley did the house of blues and the beautifully textured house of secrets.
I just adore houses. Especially great big ones - victorian gingerbread, collonaded colonials, spanish meditteranean with wrought iron touches. But my current obsession is mid century modern. So for my first house i took my own family's 1957 house in Chateauguay, Quebec. You'd call it a ranch, but we called it a bungalow. it wasn't quite that colourful, but the slate stonework does indeed have shades of pink and blue grey, and the peak was painted to match BOTH at one time or another. My parents also had a 1956 two-tone Chevy. That's my two brothers, Mark and Ricky on the front steps. Let's pretend that's me in my parent's arms, but more likely it was Mark as a baby. Donna came later. Think we had a '62 Pontiac by then.
My next house is a "tres californie" contemporary with lots of groovy accessories. Grass cloth wallpaper (actually rubber shelf liner), a teal shag (microsuede) a tumbled stone fireplace and exposed wood beams (realistic scrapbook paper). I used a chopstick for a curtain rod and black leather for the ottoman cubes. mirrored circles create the ultimate wall hanging and irridescent shapes are used for the lampshade and pottery. I just want to move right in...
If you don't know what a fat book is, i'll tell you. It is a collaborative work, where assorted artists provide pages to be bound together by the hostess, and returned to each participant. Each book ends up containing dozens of pages of art. The more artists, the "fatter" the book.
A traditional fat book is 4" by 4". Pretty small. But if there are 30 artists involved, then you have to do 30 pages. Some leeway is granted - in that you can make colour copies of your work. But hand applied embellishments are encouraged.
My friend Marie is hosting a fat book swap with the theme of "trashy romance novel". The pages are to be 4 1/2" by 5" - more closely resembling the dimensions of a novel. 
Because she did not get as many artists as hoped, and the fat book was in danger of being too skinny, she suggested we each do two or three pages. With 10 artists participating, we'll still end up with a book that is 20-30 pages thick. 
For my interpretation of the theme, i went with a wanton woman, who is a nightclub singer and a heartless dame. I searched for images to use, and decided someone like marilyn monroe would be a good choice, since i could easily find multiple poses by the same actress. 
You can see i toyed with the idea of colouring her in, but i did not like the pen marks on the dresses.My pages ended up with a "less is more" method. Perhaps a tad too clean and neat? not sure. 
Because the pages will be spiral bound - you have to leave a 1" border on the left edge. Of course you have to remember that on the back the border is on the RIGHT edge!
The only adornment is a dab of red lipstick and some glass glitter jewels. I love their graphic quality. I'll be sure to post images of the completed book once i get it back!
I just completed two spreads in Carol's latest altered book. Her theme is Greek and Roman influences - from the planets to the gods to the alphabet. Mars, Diana, Cronus and various muses were already taken. So i chose Venus and Achilles to inspire my pages. My goal was to create rich depth with layering painted deli paper with other textures. I printed the images onto matte photo paper.
I chose Venus for her beauty and the mistique of her missing limbs. Check out wikipedia for the story of her discovery - it is quite interesting. the thong? well, a bit of humour is always fun in an altered book.
I chose Achilles because of my own serious ankle injury a few years ago. I too feel vulnerable there now. I like how all the various papers come together.
As always, there is a sign in page when you are participating in an altered book round robin. I had my friend Z over this week to help me organize the remaining papers that hadn't been filed when i cleaned out my craft room. 
She found a page from a story book about Orion, so that made a perfect sign in tag.
Diane: what is your favourite subject in school?
Diane: what are some of your other hobbies?
Diane: what made you create an altered book with a ballet theme?
Diane: where did you get your beautiful images?
Diane: I love how you used the simplicity of a single word on the page to enhance the image and colours. How did you pick your words? 
Diane: what kind of book did you use as your base?
Diane: what will your next altered book be? Do you have new themes planned? 
Diane: You have a great variety of papers and embellishments. Do you have a lot of craft supplies?
Diane: Fly away is one of my favorites. Which one is your favourite spread?
Diane: Thank you so much Erica for sharing your beautiful art with me and my blog readers.
I have always used models cut out of magazines for this - because the folds are more obvious that way. Still, pop ups can be confusing and there are many different ways to do it. I'll tell you about two of them.
Trim the top half - like from the elbows up and over the head. Leave the bottom intact. The wider the image the easier this will be - so leave a border as needed.
Then fold the top half of the body at the waist, so that it is perpendicular to the fold. Think about bending to pick something up, it really helps! then unfold and refold everything the opposite way - so that the folds are really bent.
Then apply glue to the other back (now on top) - and just CLOSE the book. 
The pop up should be properly placed, and the model should POP up when you open the book.
so another method to keep some degree of elevation, is to "split" the legs so that they can be separated. 
You can split anywhere - it doesn't have to be along the fold. it just has to be split right up to the point of the v folds.This will force the top half to stay "popped". You can see how it works - before you glue it into the book. 
The trick here is the glue the folded model into the book - by putting the POINT deep into the gutter of the book. NOT the whole folded edge.
glue it lightly at first to test it. Then apply more glue and close the book
