Altered Book : Beyond the Sepia Lens

The latest book i worked on, as part of our 2013 altered book swap, was D's book titled - Beyond the Sepia Lens.  Inside the pages of the small calendar she created a story book world where a girl swallows a moth and is drawn to the light.  We were asked to weave the

tale in and out of the past and future.

 Here is the first spread i did.  I started with a background of a aged document and added a vintage image of a lady "sprouting" wings like a moth (in keeping with the fanciful story).

I don't usually show images from my fellow artist's work - but this page D created is the jumping off point for my next spread.  She wrote that Rosa went to Cuba and met two brothers and had quadruplets.

Here is my page - showing the quadruplets a litte older.  the text says that in order to all attend the same school, they had to pretend their brother was one of the girls.

Here is the sign in page - we were each given a strip of paper to make a tag and afix to the back of the book.  I used some scraps of paper with a wee birdy or two and a scrabble letter M for May.

Play Date - Altered Blocks

 My friend L was in town this weekend and we got together for a little play date.  I saw some cool altered children's blocks on line and thought - let's try that!  L took some old blocks, i picked up at a garage sale and gave them a coat of gesso. then she took some stamps and stickers and added some  whimsy.  then she took some crayons and blended into the gesso to give depth. They look so modern!

 My friend Z joined and and decided to finish her block doll project she started back HERE.  this is a sweet doll with her grandaughter's image.  Love the pretty wings and the hair bow!

 And Z continued to work on this biker chick doll with cool earrings for arms and spikey ring makes a striking head piece.  She'll be getting a couple of nails for legs and feet!

I also added a child's block to my doll - Q for "cute"!

Next I took some blocks and gave them a coat of gesso.  Then i took pages from a french dictionary and glued them to the sides with matte gel adhesive.

I chose the french words for laugh, dance, sing, music and sweet to represent my husband.

They are still a work in progress - but here you can see i added blue and green crayon blended into the gesso to give them some colour.  Kisses and hugs to my sweetie!

Farewell My Beloved...

Sad to say that 10 days after our wedding anniversary my dear sweet husband Jim quietly passed away here at home.
We knew it was going to happen - just not so soon.
After more than 25 years together i enough wonderful memories to hold in my heart for a lifetime.
And the support and love from many close friends, neighbours and family members here in California and back home in Canada.
I will continue to post images of my art and play dates to share with the blogsphere, as life must go on with some normalcy.

Happy 25th Anniversary Sweetie!

 View from the lanai on the northside of Kauai

 

May 28th, 1988 was my wedding day, 25 years ago. 

My hubbie and I just got back from a memorable vacation in Hawaii to celebrate. 

 Diane and Jim and a pretty lei

 

So today is kind of a "normal" day and we are having Kraft Dinner for supper. That's what Canadians call Mac and Cheese! And we're going to watch the hockey game because, duh, we're Canadian.

Sunset view from the lanai in Wailea on Maui

 

Lest you think romance is dead, my sweetie just handed me a poem he wrote,

 that reads in part:

...when i think i can't love you more than i do,

you walk into the room....

 

I love you Jim and every day is magical

 whether we are watching the sunrise or sunset from a million dollar view,

or sitting on our couch, eating mac and cheese.

Hearts a Million

Remember the heart swap i did last month and wrote about HERE? Well here is what my friend D did with her's.  She not only applied all the hearts we swappes to the painted and textured background, she also searched around the house for OTHER  hears to hang from the bottom.  So pretty.  (sorry for the fuzzy photo!)

Check out the contrast with my light background heart.

And check out our art pal in the Pacific Northwest who posted a picture of the goodies we shipped to her after the swap HERE.

Altered Book: The Odditorium

We continue to do our monthly swap in these cute little spiral bound calendars.  This month i had the pleasure of working in K's book, entitled The ODDitorium.  We were asked to create colourful pages with equally colourful characters.  Love the trim detail on her spine.

I always wanted to try this - with my love of birds and vintage ephemera.  I used a magazine image of a garden for the background, sanding slightly to make it more aged and soft.  The girls were copied from a vintage cabinet card.  a few details were added to their dresses with blue pens.  These girls didn't have those lovely large hair bows you often see in victorian times, so a bit of vintage seam binding ribbon is soft pink was added.

For this spread i flipped through a decorating magazine looking for inspiration.  I found the elephant in a mattress ad, and the birdbath was actually a high end carved stone bathroom sink.  I added them together with a flock of small birds.  I used a similar garden image for the background and added a few flower stickers for colour.  The water splashes are blue ink and glossy accents to give them some depth.

The sign in page offered us small cards to decorate.  I added a bird and vintage postage stamp and signed the back.  Our hostess D cannot stop exclaiming how much she is LOVING these little books!  They are really developing a fun personality and are quick to alter due to their size.  As there are 6 of us in this round robin swap, we will each get the books to work on twice during the year.  By December the books are fat and full of shared art!

Block Head Dolls Play Date

We spent saturday afternoon crafting art dolls out of blocks of wood.  Our inspiration came from some similar dolls i saw online on Teresa Mcfayden's whimsical blog HERE.  I read that she got the idea from Laura Robberts blog HERE.  You can see Laura's video and even sign up for a workshop to learn how to make your own.

You can start with any old wooden blocks or shapes. I had some 1 1/2 inch childs blocks so i used those.  I stacked three together using tacky glue and painted them with white gesso.  My friend Z gave me some Jenga blocks she bought at a garage sale.  Her husband cut some into thirds to make the heads.

 The process is kind of varied but for me followed this sequence.  Cover the blocks with paper.  Add tissue napkins with gell medium to add layers.  The faces were cut from vintage photos (copies) and Anthro catalogs.  Join head with wire, a dowel, or screw eyes.  Add small nails with beads for hair and arms. 

Many of the samples i saw online showed faces with underlying or overlying text.  Since image transfer is iffy, i decided to try a technique i learned about years ago but never tried until now.  Buy a small box of roller papers and the beauty supply store.  (you know the kind you use with a home permanent?)  Use a blank ink pad, like StazOn and stamp text on the thin paper.  Then glue it onto your face with gel medium.  It literally disappears!

 For this little Jenga doll i used paper beads we made HERE.  I always thought they were kind of icky and looked like larvae and never wanted to use them for anything.  For for legs on this quirky doll i think they are PERFECT!  She isn't quite finished.  Still needs more details - hair, hat, arms, whatever.  The "you will be taught to fly" quote was cut from a napkin.

 This gal has screw eyes to join her head to body and some wire legs wrapped with paper clay.  I will paint the clay as soon as it dries completely.

 Here is a work in progress from D.  Love the tacks used for hair on this expressive face. Like her use of small spools to hold the doll upright.  (mine will probably hang on a hook)

 D made her block doll reversable - here it has a complely different look and mood.

 K's work in progress features many metal elements including a clock face and some wooden spool legs.

K also worked on this architectural creature which will have copper tassels for limbs.

 Here is a doll from Z - in progress.  She chose the zebra print to echo the edginess of the biker chick face.  A studded collar was a perfect addition.  The image in the background is our inspiration from Teresa's blog.

 Z is also creating a doll with her grandaughter's face.  Love the cute dotted sparkly dress with the velvet trim belt.

 Another work in progress from K.  As you can see just about anything goes and those butterfly wings will be really impressive on this doll!

Another piece by K - where she is using larger wooden blocks and a wooden ball for the head.  Love the lace cap contrasted with the metal elements.

As you see just about anything goes and we had so much fun creating our block head dolls!

Another successful play date!