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This is the cover and Inside Cover of my latest RR AB for our "International Collaboration Experiments in Altered Books Group" My theme is Nature and the title (as you can see) is "Where The Green Fern Grows"This book was an old Child Craft Encyclopedia that I gleaned from the local Thrift Store for $1...great bargain...these kind of books (and school text books) work great for altered books because they were made to have a lot of wear and tear, and the spines are really strong...I figured for a RR....with 12 players, my book would get lots of wear and tear...especially since 3 of our players are in the UK and the traveling by land/sea/air or what ever the post office does with them (sometimes I suspect they use horses and camels..lol)...anyway, this is a sturdy book. I sanded the cover and then painted it with Lumineers (Love that paint). I found an "Animals of the World"puzzle book at Borders on the clearance rack, I took the North American Animal puzzle out and measured and trimmed it to fit the front cover of my book, I put a coat of Gel Medium on the back of the puzzle (just to hold it together and make it easier to handle). When my paint was dry I glued the puzzle on with Gel Medium...then I used my new Japanese Screw Punch (gotta' love it)to drill holes through the puzzle and the cover to accommodate the Wood letters (I stained the letters Green with Golden Glazes). I attached the letters with Brass Brads....I think it worked out pretty well. 
The Brass Brads holding on the wood letters on the front came through to the inside of the cover, so I needed some way to cover those and make them stationary at the same time so I put some "glops" of gel medium over the brads and stuck down some silk leaves over the brad backs. I decided it looked a little plain so I drizzled some glue around on the leaves and sprinkled on some seed beads. It is always important to put your name and address in an altered book that is going to travel, because if it should become separated from its packaging (for any one of a million reasons) then the post office would know where it belongs and hopefully return it to you. So I wrote my name and address in "Green Sparkle Gel Pen"...my grand daughter is into Gel Pens...so I have become the owner of a set of gel pens...gotta' love'm. I use them all the time now...ABs and journals...they are awesome. On the first page I used Golden Glazes for the back ground and the gel pens to write in the name of my book. I also glued some leaves and beads on this page to make the spread cohesive. To finish up I used some little butterfly stamps, that I have had for centuries, and Green Distress Inks to kinda' pull it all together.
These are some little keepsakes for each of the players in this RR. I always like to make a little something for each of the players as a remembrance of our creative time together. These little notes are made from paper that I got at Flax in San Francisco....can I just tell you how much I loved that store....The inside has a butterfly stamped on it and then I cut a heart shape from hand made green paper and sewed a butterfly charm on to the heart. The front has a butterfly stamp and some Green Braid glued onto the bottom edge. Nothing spectacular, just "special".
This is the sign in page for my book...the background is some of the bamboo print paper that I got at Flax in San Francisco...the pockets are plain parchment paper with Green Distress Inks speared on strait from the ink pad...The tags are also colored with Green Distress Inks...The pockets are folded over at the top with a piece of lace glued in the fold and then stapled with a staple that says, "Precious". The tags have some "hairy" variegated fiber strings and are stamped with the same butterfly stamps from the previous spread and on the other side of the tag is a place for each of the other artist to sign in, Name, Address and email address. 
This is a pic of how the sign in page looks with the tags out of their pockets.
This is my second page for the EC Project...It is a Clown painted on 300lb Watercolor Paper.
This is the first of 2 pages made for a collaborative project based on "The Exquisite Corpse" game. There are 11 artist, from all around the world, involved in this project. We have artists from Germany, Australia and all around the US that are making their pages for this wonderfully interesting book. If you are interested in "The Exquisite Corpse" just Google the name and you can read what it is all about. I want to thank my friend Christy the "Computer Guru" of digital art, from Ft. Myers Florida for her help in making the words work on this page....I would also like to thank my friend Ingrid Dijkers for inviting me to participate in this project, and for working out all of the details and for making the covers for the book. I chose a self portrait by Vincent Van Gogh as the starting point for this page. I made a laser print of the portrait in the size I needed, then I cut the image out and glued it onto card stock...if you look closely, you can see where the original image ends and my drawing begins....I used Prisma Pencils to complete the figure...I also used Prisma Pencils to color the back ground. I tried to make my background similar to the original painting...the challenge was to use pencils and make them appear to be oil paints, since the original was painted with oils. This is an awesome project and I am sure all of the other artist are enjoying the challenge to stretch artistically as much as I am. 
When I was still teaching Applied Design to high schoolers, my neighbor grew some gourds, well it turned out he grew about 200 of them and he gave me 160 of them to use for my class. Well that is great, BUT...it takes at least a year for them to cure and dry. Oh my! Anyway they did dry and the kids loved making objects (like bowls, bird houses, and ladels) out of them. I made several different things, but have given all of them away (no pics). I found a couple that I had cleaned and sanded and decided to decorate them......This is the one that I just finished.....
I drew some faces on it, then I used a wood burning tool to follow my drawn lines, then I drilled holes around the top and using some red cord to attach Pine Needles around the top edge. I strung some wooden beads to hang down at the point where I started and stoped the wrapping. I used paper pulp dye and permanent markers to color in the shapes(eyes, lips and hair). To seal the whole thing I brushed on acrylic varnish. 
This is Jimmy Ray...he is Johnny Lee's brother...and he likes to play baseball as much as Johnny Lee likes to fish. Jimmy Ray is a paperdoll in a box, created for a swap over in my PaperWhimsy Group. I know someone with the initials RA is going to be very surprized in a few days when Jimmy Ray arrives at her house. The paper doll is on cardstock and I used Prisma Pencils to color him. I had to paint the shoes white because they were printed in black and Prisma Pencils wouldn't cover.The box is just an old cigar box painted to match the background fabric which I made using Sherrill Kahn's methods from her "Creating with Paint" book. The grass and weeds are just that, except they have been dried and dyed. The baseball bat is a miniture wooden bat, the ball glove is painted wood, the ball is a miniture ball that I drew the red stitching on with a permanent marker. The fence is wooden and colored with markers then wired together. Those are just little rocks in the bottom. The ivy around the outside is silk and the green trim, both came from Hobby Lobby. Everything was glued in or on with Gel Medium, PVC Glue or E6000. 
These are the pages for Nadia's Journal....in the traveling journal group that I am envloved with...the journals have all been terrific....not a "lemon" in the bunch.
These are the pages that I just finished for Our Round Robin Altered Book group. This book title is Trash to Treasures. The first page is "Find a penny, pick it up and it will bring you luck". I used Distress Ink...Red and Green...then did some swirly stamping stuff, then I glued the mesh bag from the onions on top, punched holes in the right hand edge and wove some fibers and ribbon, with a key, attached through the holes, then glued a red Asian envelope from "Collage Stuff" (She has great stuff down there in Houston), I made two tags, one with an Asian coin on top of Distress Ink like the background on the paper, with the same fibers and ribbon as the edge, the other tag has the same ink with the lettering, I attached it with some tiny star brads, those red round thingies with gold swirls are some old earrings that I took the clips off of.
This is my "Natures Treasures" page. I used Golden Glazes (which I am sure you have noticed are my favorite thing to use as background, because you can layer it and get awesome colors) and some Rose print tissue paper that I got at the Dollar Tree store when I was in California. Then I used the same stamp that I used on the first page. Stamped the lettering and glued on the images (the images were some I got off of the clearance counter at Hobby Lobby, they were really for wall decor) Eastism: "Clearance Rules"....well after all this is a "Trash to Treasures" book.
This is my "Trash Angel" page. I used Golden Glazes and "Moon Mist" from Paper Whimsy for the background...then I got into my stash of "junk" I picked up at Delozier Auto Service, while getting my oil changed. The wings are rusted metal, I guess all of this stuff came off of a car...duh...the body, arms and "halo" are also rusted metal...I got some really cool stuff at Pier 1 on clearance for 90% off, after Christmas, so the beads around the halo, the stars and the angel "gown" are those treasures you see. The face is a stamp from Tin Can Mail. I used some old broken jewelry on the front and the metal letters are another Hobby Lobby Clearance find. I really like the way this turned out...it looks really good in person even if I do say so myself.
There is definitely a big difference between the GREEN of California and the GREEN of NW Oklahoma. These are the typical Prickle Pear Cactus that grown in the dessert of Oklahoma...I took these pics now and I will go back and photograph them when they bloom...they are so beautiful when they bloom. You can actually cook these and eat them. I will try to find a recipe for Prickle Pears. My grandmother (my dads mom) would make jelly out of them....yes jelly.
This is an old wagon wheel of a very large old wagon...the rust and the weathered wood fascinated me...so I took some pics to share. There is a lot of old wagons in Oklahoma. We also have RED Dirt in Oklahoma. The red in our dirt is rust...when the glaciers moved across North America towards the Equator, thousands of years ago, they began to melt the closer they got to the Equator. The glaciers picked up iron ore up in the north and as they moved South and began to melt, the iron ore had rusted and the rust was deposited in the Oklahoma Territory....hence our dirt is red....just a little trivia to go along with my pics...learn something new everyday don't we?
These are 6 pages that I did in Seren's journal...this project has been so much fun...we each started our own journals and then mailed them to the next person. Mine seem to be a little more "artsy" than the others, they all can write really well, but I am such a visual person that I like to start with the picture first and then there doesn't seem to be much space left to write...oh well...I guess it works...I know it is a lot of fun getting to know all of the players...they are becoming great friends that I would have never met if not for this venue......JPG)
The Brass Brads holding on the wood letters on the front came through to the inside of the cover, so I needed some way to cover those and make them stationary at the same time so I put some "glops" of gel medium over the brads and stuck down some silk leaves over the brad backs. I decided it looked a little plain so I drizzled some glue around on the leaves and sprinkled on some seed beads. It is always important to put your name and address in an altered book that is going to travel, because if it should become separated from its packaging (for any one of a million reasons) then the post office would know where it belongs and hopefully return it to you. So I wrote my name and address in "Green Sparkle Gel Pen"...my grand daughter is into Gel Pens...so I have become the owner of a set of gel pens...gotta' love'm. I use them all the time now...ABs and journals...they are awesome. On the first page I used Golden Glazes for the back ground and the gel pens to write in the name of my book. I also glued some leaves and beads on this page to make the spread cohesive. To finish up I used some little butterfly stamps, that I have had for centuries, and Green Distress Inks to kinda' pull it all together. 
.JPG)
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