Altered Book Pages for LInda: Where the Green Fern Grows

...which means anything to do with nature. Linda's book is a delight to behold...bold colors, huge spreads and lots of fat, chunky embellishments! Considering my love of mermaids, it's no wonder that I decided to do a "sea" theme. The text reads "In Mermaid Scrabble, the Z is only worth 4 points and there are no vowels.". Isn't that a hoot! I hope Lnda likes the spread...it's full of color (teal, purple, aqua) and texture (over-painted sand, embossing powder, stencil paste, flowers, and bubble dots).

Mermaid Paper Doll Shadow Box

PaperWhimsy had a sign-up for a Paper Doll Shadow Box Project and you know I had to sign up!! Love the paper dolls and we were given a "secret sister" to create for. I have fun all month teasing my "sister" so that she wouldn't think it was for her. I know she loves it and can't wait for her to receive it in the mail.

The doll has a PW face with french text body & arms. I hand-drew the "seaweed" around her face and added the crystal and flower embellishments. For her tail (which moves) I used distressed embossing powder.

For the background, I did some needle felting using a stencil and poked the olive & lime roving through the cut-outs to make the "seaweed" design. I added some navy and purple roving to create a bit of a swirld and after placing the doll on the background I added some sequins and beads. Do you like it? I am very pleased with her and excited to mail her to her new home. :-)

My Artful Hands - 8x8 two page spread

One of my groups, alteredartswaps, is doing a year-long project where 13 of us "mingle" our art. We will make our own covers and punch the holes so that at the end of the year, we will have 12 delicious pieces of art in a book. Each of us chose a theme and we are assigned partners monthly. This month I created for Barb Burkard and her theme is "My Artful Hands". She requested that we trace our left hand on one page and our right hand on the other page and then "art away". OH, and she asked for sepia tones & vintage papers.

This project was a bit of challenge for me. I did the background (notice the stenciling?)...easy peasy...then I traced my hands, no problem...then blockage! What to draw? I don't draw well...now what? I decided that it's best to just get started and let the art flow so that's what I did. Seriously, it took me almost 8 hours to draw and doodle the henna-inspired art...got a major cramp in my hand! But when I was done, it looked okay and then I added the darling little 3-D faces...one of my new favorite elements...put a little "hair" and a bow and I'm done. LOL. I hope Barb likes it, I certainly had fun...NOT! LOL...well maybe a little. tee-hee

One good thing though, I had to "stretch" a bit and for that I'm grateful. Thanks Barb!

January, Day 7 - Back to the Basics

Patricia and I promised to start back on Bernie Berlin's workshop after the first of the year so yesterday we discussed the next technique "Stencils" and here are the results. I LOVE IT! Sorry, just had to shout that out cuz this was so much fun...definitely try it! I highly recommend this book, you can even click on the amazon link to the right of my blog and go purchase it there.

I used 140# watercolor paper as the base...nice and sturdy (also a favorite of mine). Using heavy acrylic paint, I painted the background a nice Tangerine Orange. Once that was dry, I used a square stencil and pounced in some semi-opaque Orange Juice acrylic paint. I let that dry completely and then added the Pure Pink acrylic stenciling using star-shaped punchinella.

I liked how that looked very much but have been itching to use some stencil paste I had so I added the final layer using the paste and various flower stencils! WOW! Once again, I'm sorry...I just had to shout. Love it, don't you?
I am going to cut these down to two 10.5" x 3.5" strips and send one of them to Patricia. That way we can use them for IttyBitty or ATC backgrounds. She is going to send me 1/2 of hers too. Isn't that fun? Can't wait to see what she creates.