A Little Monet Play Date

Altered Book - Flower Techniques

In the second round of our 2013 altered book round robin, i worked in Z's book - which is not so much a theme as a concept!  Her idea is to use flowers to illustrate collage and mixed media techniques.  These are the same mini spiral bound calendars we worked on last year.  You can see my book HERE.

Here is the "sign in page" - actually it is a sampler of paper colours and textures from a paper company, re-purposed here as a table of contents for the technique book. 

For her first "chapter" in the book, Z. showed us samples of embossed and debossed papier mache flowers - using rubber stamps, glue, napkins and tissue paper.  Her examples are intriguing and i cannot wait to try it myself!

For the second "chapter" i created three spreads using resin flowers.  This was based on a technique my pals learned from Kristen Robinson at the Create retreat last year.  Z and K attended the art filled event and brought me back a kit from Kristen's workshop - including an ICE Resin applicator. For this page i applied the ICE resin to some lacey pink paper, and then cut out two flower shapes.  Stacked with a button to create a pretty flower.  They are very pale, so i added some ink to the edges to try to make the layers show a little bit more.

For this spread I used the resin to coat thin tissue paper and napkins to create mica-like paper flowers.  I wanted to stretch it as far as i could - so i probably applied it too thinly.  It would be nice to try some with a thick coat.  Or several coats to build up the layers of resin.  There is a lovely vintage document for the background, and some resin coated floral tissue paper on top. I cut them both with scallop edge scissors. Then the resin flowers on top of that, with a few of my favorite aqua shell buttons.

For this spread i started with dictionary paper background and then applied several large roses from a napkin that had been coated with ICE Resin.  I let parts of the flowers extend over the pages so that you can see the stiff qualities of the delicate looking papers.  I added a few Paris addresses from the resin kit from Kristen.  and a pretty French perfume label sticker.

 For the instructions page - i glued a gold paper envelope into the book (trimming to fit).  I added a sheet of resin coated rose pattered tissue paper as an overleaf.  Then some additional resin coated poppies cut from a napkin.  A pink organza ribbon adds some prettiness.

 Inside the envelope are the instructions how to create your own resin flowers using ICE Resin.  In the workshop my friends took Kristen suggested using a large non-recycled black garbage bag as your protective surface to apply the resin to the tissue.  I used freezer paper and it worked great. I already ordered two giant vats of ICE Resin so i can try many more. (well, actually just 2-4 oz bottles - but that is enough to make many pretty flowers and other resin coated papers!!)

Decoupaged Vases

I had a very crafty weekend starting with a play date with 4 friends on Saturday.  We created "mosaic style decoupage vases" in the style Lucie created at a previous decoupage play date.  (see also end of post) Above are two that i made.  The "genie in a bottle" shape was a blue glass vase from goodwill.  I added my signature robin's egg blue papers in organized rows.  The band around the middle was tissue paper with script.  The square vase was one of a dozen that Karen's husband sand blasted for us!  The sanded surface made it really easy to paint with black gesso.  I added the same colour papers - cut into squares with a few butterflies thrown in.  Both these need a few coats of gloss medium to make them shine.

Here are Dorothy's two vases - both sandblasted and painted them collaged with assorted torn papers.  She used mainly tissue papers which are really easy to apply to curved surfaces. They remind me of beautiful greek pottery.

Here is Karen's vase decoupaged with vintage doilies.  yeah - those yellow-y ones?  thats authentic age - no colour applied!  She said it was like working with lace  - cutting all the little bits and rosettes. Interesting contrast between the rectilinear lines of the vase and the curves of the doilies.

Here is another one of mine - an interesting bottle shape from the goodwill - with a large dictionary paper flower and cubes of paper filling in.  This one was not sandblasted- so the black gesso did crack in spots - but i could touch it up  - or apply some more.  The little votives were an experiment with glass marble stones and The Ultimate glue.  It took FOREVER to dry - and had to be placed upside down so they did not roll off. 

Here are Shelley's two vases - the one on the right was done without a black gesso base coat - just overlapping tissue and hand painted papers.  It will look fabulous with a candle inside!

And here is a close up of the intricate detail on her decoupage on her second vase, which was sand blasted and gesso'd in black. I believe this was tissue paper.  Doesn't it look like an ancient relic?

And finally here are Lucie's latest works.  Just like her to come up with an exciting NEW technique when we were copying what she did a month ago!  On the right is another square vase with a gesso base and gollaged papers  - not so much in a mosaic style - but an interesting vintage collage with stamps, music and butterflies.

On the left  - wow - isn't that cute?  She cut a bunch of circles out of paper and tissue and possibly napkins and overlapped them in the cylindrical vase.  That would be a fun technique for those tall mexican candles - think how pretty they would be flickering and casting colourful shadows on the walls!

Thanks Dorothy for hosting us  - it is always a pleasure to create in your studio!

Here is a reminder of our original inspiration - Lucie's decoupage vase with flower.