Round Robin Journal Page - for Paula

I'm involved in a round robin being organised by Astrid.

This is my page for Paula who is an extremely talented artist. Paula's theme is IMAGINE and after seeing her own page, I could only imagine what it would be like to be as gifted as her!

I started the page off by covering it with torn pieces of the old book (mentioned in posts below) with some matte medium, then painted another coat over the top. I then melted some beeswax and black oil pastel over the whole page and covered it with a light dusting of some gold Pearl-Ex. This gave a nice texture and in a few places some of the text from the old book still showed through.

The three diamond shapes are Memory Glass with Pearl-Ex coated on the back and rubber stamping on the top (except for the woman's face which is stamped onto paper and placed behind the glass).

To finish the page off I stuck on some pieces of mosaic near to each piece of Memory glass.

I was pleased with how the page turned out - and hope that Paula likes it too.

There is a blog dedicated to the round robin which can be found here.

ATC Challenge - theme: Parisienne

There is an exciting new group, being run by Margaret, called Maggies Monday Musings where a weekly challenge for making ATCs is set. This week's theme is Parisienne. You can choose whether or not you wish to swap your ATC with another player. This is my entry called 'The Gay Parisienne' and I have chosen to swap with a random partner (how exciting, wonder who it'll be!)

I made the ATC by using some acrylic paint glazes onto some unstretched canvas, which I then stuck onto the ATC. On top of that I collaged some printed images, there is a real old French postage stamp and a bit of rubber stamping - as well as a couple of charms to finish off. I hope whoever ends up with it, likes it!

An Altered Alphabet Card

I used some of the old book pages (see post below) for this altered alphabet card which I’m sending to someone as a gift.

The alphabet card is actually quick thick and sturdy (4mm). I coated a layer of matte medium over the card and stuck on pieces of the torn pages. I gave it another coat of the medium over the top. I then painted a light wash of white and burnt sienna over the top, with more of the burnt sienna around the edges. I then glued onto the top of the card a piece of mount board which had began as an ATC. This also was covered with one of the book pages with matte medium. Once dry, I stuck some random pieces of masking tape over the top, then tore them off. I then painted over the top with some watered down acrylic paint - this gives a nice distressed look. The main image is printed and stuck down, as are the numbers along the bottom. Finally, some lace, buttons, ribbon and beads to finish. Oh, and not forgetting the ‘crystal’ at the bottom which was actually recycled from an old chandelier.

A Bygone Age

Hunting around a charity shop recently I found a beautiful tatty book of the
‘Old Curiosity Shop’ by Charles Dickens. It must be very old as the pages show real age around the edges and it doesn’t even have a publishing date in the front. Tucked inside was an old postcard (blank on the back) showing a picture of the Old Curiosity Shop. I used to work near to the actual shop in Holborn, London, so this brought back some happy memories for me.

I’ve been wanting to have a go at altering a book, ever since I saw a webisode called ‘Altered Baby Book’ on TV Weekly. However, the book I bought was too badly damaged at the spine to do this with, so instead I’ve been ripping and tearing the pages to incorporate in various projects. I feel a bit bad about defacing the book but ease my conscience when I think that at least it’s being lovingly crafted with and not just languishing at the back of a shelf in a shop somewhere.

Torso Shaped ATCs

I love making ATCs and recently saw some unusually shaped ones on Cindy's blog. She agreed to swap a couple with me so here are the two I've made for her.

Both are made from mountboard and have backgrounds of melted beeswax and oil pastels and crayons. The first one has a printed image and the second a rubber stamped image onto paper from an old French dictionary, sealed with Gesso. I sprayed some gloss varnish over both of them, but the second one blurred a bit - still I think it still looks ok. Hope Cindy will like them anyway.