Christmas Cards 2017 Angels

Altered Book Swap Cherry Heaven Teal

I completed two more pages in D's book, as part of our colour themed altered book round robin swap.  With travel schedules, we did not finish by the end of 2014 - but it just makes the fun last longer!  This book has a cherry and teal theme, and is titled Cherry Heaven Teal.  The original title of the book being Cherry Heaven.  When trying to come up with ideas for my spreads, it occurred to me that there were no spreads about either cherries, or heaven!

For my first spread i used some Dove chocolate foil wrappers in teal and green to create cherry shapes. The background was painted with a berry coloured acrylic paint. I created a bowl in cherry colour from another foil wrapper.  I added some painterly swishes to create shadow and shape.  then added the stems which in hindsight are too thick.  I used some letters dyed with teal ink to explain that yes, these are Teal Cherries!

For my second spread, i started with a solid teal paper background.  I cut some classical angels from wrapping paper and glued them on with a glue stick, my adhesive of choice for altered books.  I added some washi tape music notes, and a gold foil doily.  The word heaven was some stick on raised letters with i stained with berry ink.  the final touch was a polymer clay stamping of an angel, which i also coloured with ink.

to see the spreads i did in D's book last year - click HERE.

Valentine 3 of 14

I received my third Valentine from the swap today. A lovely layered card from Celia. It features a lovely angel playing the harp - check out the butterfly wings! Thanks Celia!

Star Bright Star Bright

Or in our case, really elegant aqua and cream stars....

I got the idea for this months altered art project from the cover of Somerset Studio magazine. The Christmas Star that graced the November December issue was done by Rachel Killpack of Murray Utah. it caught my eye because it was done in soft creams and aqua with a touch of sepia - exactly the scheme i am doing for the holidays.

I thought - oh - i'd like to try that. Then when walking through Big Lots a few weeks ago i saw these jumbo metal stars for $5. They were gold or silver and covered with glitter (in case you go looking for them!) I bought 6 of them to share with the girls.

I had some suitable papers at home, but purchased another pack from Micheals - the urban prairie collection by Basic Grey. Typically, my 40% coupon was not accepted - because it was already on sale.

We started by sanding the excess glitter off the stars. Then selected 5 coordinating papers. I created a template to use to cut the diamond shapes. We applied the paper to the metal stars with gel medium and applied a coat on top. It makes them a bit shiny. Rubbing a brown inkpad along the edges makes the paper look a bit rusty - and creates the illusion that they are painted tin.

For the focal point in the center we created ruffled collars using vintage sheet music and a large binder ring. The angels are from a Dover sticker book - attached to cardboard to make them stiff. I finished mine with a bit of vintage ribbon. Shelley's (shown here) and Dorothy's (above) are not quite finished but you can see how lovely they are.

This is a great project to use your favorite coordinating papers. It doesn't have to be for the holidays, you could hang it on the wall and enjoy it all year round!

Beeswax Collage Play Date

I had a play date today with my good friend Amie. We did beeswax collage together. First we did collage on 5x7 canvas boards. We added fun beaded handles - going with a random pattern.

Next we used 8x10 stretched canvas, working on the back, so that our compositions are "pre-framed". We melted the beeswax in a mini crock pot and worked with a selection of papers from my stash. Amie sent me some gorgeous photographs of flowers which i printed out on matte photo paper. I used copies of vintage images.
Amie used one of the tin bugs i bought the other day - the colour was a perfect match for her purple flower. She chose some lovely quotes from a book i had, which set a beautiful tone for her artwork. Be sure to check out more of her fabulous photography at fifolilo.com
I went with an all white monochromatic theme to match this wedding studio photo. It of course becomes very golden with the natural beeswax. If you click on the pic you'll see my toungue in cheek humour with the dictionary scrap. The drips happened by accident, but we thought they looked cool, so we left them.
After Amie left, i got to work (play?) making some ornaments for a swap i am doing with the California Art Girls. I wanted to make little canvas collage with beeswax, in a holiday theme.I punched holes in the little canvas boards and applied a base coat of wax. You may notice the extra holes. At first i planned to make them in the vertical "portrait" format. I had some angel paper and decided to use that. I cut out the two little angels and the Christmas poem. But the angels were too wide, so i went with the horizontal "landscape" format instead.
For background i used some vintage sheet music combined with some Venetian scroll paper. For the gap in the middle i used a white lacy paper. Since most of it would be covered, i economized and just used two scraps under the wings.
I used melted beeswax to combine all the papers. I chose some holiday words and attached metal letters to spell out Noel, Joy and Peace. You never know how far you are going to get with a set of letters, luckily there were enough vowels to spell 4 words!
In the past i have used wood or chip board letters on my beeswax pieces. Let me say they are SO much easier. The metal gets so hot when you try to remove the excess wax, that they slide all over the place. Then you burn your fingers trying to put them back in place. Next time i would just glue them with The Ultimate. (as per Tim H.)
Some paper and the poem finished off the backs. More beaded handles and a touch of gold organza ribbon finish them off. Once i figure out how to sign my name in beeswax, i'll send them off to my artsy friends!

You are Invited....

...to a Party Theme altered book! Well, i was anyway. Carol, from my altered book round robin, created a festive gold covered book with the theme of Parties. Create a spread with the party theme of your choice - real or imagined. As much as i would have loved to create the ulitmate gathering with expensive caterers, and a luscious exotic locale, i chose instead to recreate on paper two actual parties that i hosted years ago for my neice and nephew.

This was back when i lived in the same city as my sister. I gave all her kids parties until she moved away. Now she does something horrid like order pizza or send the kids bowling.

Anyway - there were many great events to choose from. Should i pick the "buckeroo is turning two" western theme? I even sent Jim to buy a hay bale for that one. Or the pirate theme complete with a cardboard schooner that sailed to a treasure island. Well - my den sofa piled with cushions did a good job of hiding the buried treasure! Or what about Daniel's "I hate Barney" celebration - complete with Barney road kill cake (like trifle with purple cake, green whipped cream, cherry pie filling "guts" and black licorice in a tire skid mark across the top.)

Instead i chose Erica's first birthday and Evan's third. For Erica's party i chose an angel theme - and set the stage with a cloud like atmosphere. I had a full bolt of tulle from my sister's wedding - so i used that to literally encircle the living and dining room. I hung gold stars and angels from ribbons. All the food was white or close to it and of course the birthday cake was angel food!

I cannot remember what i did for an invitation - this was before i had access to a color printer - but my pages reflect as much as i can remember of the event. There is angel patterned tissue paper crinkled up with a border of tulle ribbon. Some victorian scrap sun, moon and stars decorate the page. As i recall i gave away glow in the dark stars in the goody bags. The menu is written on the back of the cut out angel.

For Evan's third birthday, i chose a Nature Safari theme. I bought all the decorations, gifts and party supplies on a business trip. I remember calling the front desk of the hotel and asking for a box to bring it all home. i think i went crazy at the Discovery Store or Nature Company i forget which. I decorated the house with paper leaves and lots of sunflowers. We played musical chairs with lily pads instead of chairs - making the kids hop around like frogs until the music stopped. But the highlight of the party was the butterfly catching contest held in the basement - where i had strung up large paper butterflies on elastic string with magnets - so that they could be "caught" in a butterfly netting bag. They were hung on a pulley system - so someone could make them "fly" while each child took turns trying to "catch" them.

For my pages i used a colourful blue and turquoise wrapping paper with butterflies. then added bugs cut from tissue paper and then some frog and bug stickers. I used three flaps cut into the middle page of the spread to highlight the games, the menu and the goody bag. That was my favorite thing. I took mason jars and filled them with things that looked natural, that a kid might collect our in the garden - but were all edible. Green licorice created grass, gummy worms, chocolate bugs and some stickers. I covered the opening with mesh (so the bugs could "breathe" and tied it off with green raffia. That's Evan and my friend's son Ryan getting ready to bag some butterflies, shown on the page dangling from thread.

Oh - i should mention that huge "E" is from Tim Holtz's grungeboard alphabet. I just love the large scale of the letter. I added some color with green ink pad and them some faux stitching with a turq sharpie.

I wonder if Evan remembers? Now a way cool 15 year old i doubt he would be impressed...probably prefer pizza and bowling.