Something Round

I thought i'd play along with this week's mixed media monday challenge. The theme this week is Make Something ROUND. When i think round - a wreath was the first thing that popped into my head. I wanted to try making a wreath like one i saw online - using vintage papers twirled into a cone shape. it took a bit of trial and error to figure out the best way to make the cones. I secured them with mini glue dots that came on a cool roller dispenser.

I cut a piece of cardboard into a rough circle, laid down some double sided sticky tape and placed the cones on the backing. I created a paper ruffle for the center. and added a velvet leaf and leaf shaped button to the the middle of the ruffle. small wire twisted into a hook attached to the back with a giant sticky dot and easy peasy - hung it up!

I got the idea from someone else - i am afraid I forget who. I saw these original images and saved them as a reference. Next time i will save the link so i can give credit to the artist who created them. Here are the images that inspired me. Aren't they cool?

Here are some other cool wreath like paper art:

(again - please - not my work - but i forget where i saw the images.)

Blue Book

I just completed the last two tip in swap pages for the summer project i worked on with three other ladies. The theme for this book was just about anything, so long as it was blue!

For my first spread i found a picture of ladies of a certain age all dressed up for some high society event, like in Peoria or somewhere. I actually have the original photo. It came in a lot from ebay. It was black and white - so the dresses were easy to colorize in assorted shades of blue.

Would you believe that in the move to So-Cal, i discovered i had a box of tulle. Yeah - a whole box. No idea where it came from. Probably something nobody wanted - so i said, "I'll take it" - at some craft gathering or other. So i could create tulle skirts for 4 of the ladies in the front row - and they are all different shades of blue!

The quote says:

Thank heavens that only their dresses had to be blue for the Annual Blue Danube Dance, so that the ladies of the South Pasadena Women's Auxiliary could express their individuality with their colourful corsages.

In keeping with the retro theme, my next spread combines several vintage elements. Blue floral vintage wallpaper, blue chip stamps, cleverly sewn into curtains and a fetching housewife cut from a 1950's magazine. Haven't thought of a clever caption for this yet, but maybe i'll get some ideas, tonight watching Madmen.

Going to the Chapel...

And well, we did go to the chapel, and we did get married - some 21 years ago. About 8 months ago i started a new altered book project with the California Art Girls. Marie had the idea to create wedding journals, in which each of the participants would create artwork, representing their own wedding. I wrote about my book here. Here was the last spead i did in Terri's book. That was back in March before i moved to the LA area. Then as these things sometimes go - i did not get a book for a long time - and then like city buses - three came along all at once! So i was determined to make good use of the long weekend to get these books done and mailed off to the next artist.

Here is the first book i worked on - a large photo album with watercolour pages. So if ever you are wondering what to do with the sleeves of your wedding dress - how about wrapping a journal with them? That's what Marie did here!

I decided it would be easier to work on paper out side the book and glue them in later. Since my wedding colours were peachy pink and lavender, i decided to use plain lavender computer paper as a base. But way to boring. So i used a stencil and Color Mists to create a subtle pattern. Since the stencil invariably gets all wet with paint -i used it like a "stamp" to create the reverse pattern on the other paper. Next i added a border of floral wrapping paper to the outer edges.

I wanted to try a scrapbook style i saw online i am calling "all bunched up". Essentially you create a cluster of things in the middle of the page with a lot of space around it.

The pictures don't show all the layers - but there is lace, the angel is on vellum, and a skeleton leaf adds an ethereal quality.

Some squished up rayon seam binding ribbon adds a nice vintage touch.

Here is the sign in page - Marie provided bell shaped water colour paper tags for us to alter. You can see how fun it is -so much variety!

The next journal was a traditional wedding book - albeit altered in a painterly way that hallmark probably never thought of! Roberta included her sister and parents wedding photos - so i thought i would include mine.

That's their wedding in 1952, and mine in 1988. Not many bells and whistles on this spread - but i did spend a lot of time on the background - pale pink mulberry paper with peach and lilac ink and a final dry brushing of white to tone it all down. The images are sanded in a cross hatch manner to tone down the ink. My parents photo is clearly vintage - but it helps tie to two together. I used organza ribbon as photo corners - very subtle - but pretty. A few stickers of pink roses and lavender bunches are a nod to my actual wedding flowers.

The last journal was a cute compact little book, strangely enough about rottweilers, but carefully concealed with wedding finery by Nancy. It had a more contemporary feel than the others - so i wanted to do a spread that was fresh and youthful.

I started with a background of two floral tissue papers. I laid out my images - featuring my bevy of bridesmaid beauties. (they looked so good someone suggested they came from a mail order bridesmaid catalog!) Then i just filled in around the images with pink roses and lavender flower stickers. I let some of the text - a romantic phrase - from the tissue paper remain. The final touch was a border of peachy pink organza woven through holes punched into the page.

I think there is one more journal to come. Then my own book should be on its way back home - with a beautiful array of bridal bliss...!