An Altered Board Book

I've been collecting a few childrens' board books for some time now, together with lots of info. and ideas as to how to 'alter' them, so I have been playing with one recently. The two above are about 3 and a half inches square, and the little one only about 2" square.
Here we go, having rubbed the very shiny surfaces with fine sandpaper, stuck a torn piece of embossed wallpaper on the front and then covered the whole book with gesso.


I then painted the front and back very quickly with blue paint and a bit of purple, then did the inside. While it was still wet I painted the same colour on a seperate piece of paper and then pressed that onto each page (which creates texture!)

When that was dry, I stamped a couple of words and stuck a couple of pictures and some lace etc. on the pages, then I painted the whole book with yellow Neopaque (which allows colour underneath to show through)

I then painted all the book with BLUE paint which of course turned it all green!
I added some rub on Treasure gold in places, and painted the edges and the motif on the front with gold leaf......
and finally added some ribbons and beads on the spine. I've tried to create a 'fairy' feel to this little book and hope to 'alter' a few more with the same theme, perhaps different colours, although I can't seem to get away from the woodland feeling, it seems to fit fairies very well.

Artist's Muse Chapter 5/Challenge 5

I must admit, I had some problems with the Challenge this month, in that I could not really reconcile the challenges in the book with those Sue B had set, if you didn't want to work in paint. The August Chapter/Challenge in The Artist's Muse Book is actually called Pouring On Creativity, and the challenges are about pouring paint...... Sue suggested we take 6 to 12 fabrics, all sorts, and tear into strips, then weave them. I knew what the end result would be, that was my problem. I could not get them to look anything other than woven strips of fabric (no movement at all, not like runny paint that you slosh all over the place!) I have, in the past, done 'curved weaving' where you cut random curves into two pieces of fabric, then weave them together, but as I say this uses only two large pieces, not many strips.
However, I eventually decided to cut the strips up and stitch them back together, hopefully creating some movement in the lines of weaving.
It worked, to a degree. We also had to make something with the fabric we made - I made these four postcards. The fabrics I used included silk, satin, netting, organza, chiffon, velvet, dyed garden fleece, cheesecloth, cotton, lace and fancy yarns. I should have used a lot of different colours, as well as textures, but I knew it would look a mishmash, and I woulnd't like it, so I controlled the outcome from the start by my colour choice. I therefore missed the point of the Challenge which was(according to the Book) ' to let go and allow yourself to create chaos' and 'give up control' ...... whoops! better luck with the next challenge.

Textile Challenge - August

This month, the challenge for the Textile Challenge Group I belong to is to make an Art Doll. Several of the ladies are making small Dotee Dolls (gorgeous!) for a swap, but this doll is an idea in Sherrill Kahn's Book called Creative Embellishments. There is no actual pattern, so I just made a card cutout pattern by drawing half the doll on the card and folding it in half to make sure she didn't come out too lopsided! I then drew around the card pattern, and that was the stitching line. She is about 5" high, and looks rather exotic on my new bag.

What do YOU think?.....
This is a small Art Doll I made by reducing one of Patti Medaris Culea's patterns. She is about 9/10" high (depending whether her legs are dangling!) and is sitting on a pottery mushroom tealight holder.
Here she is again, same mushrooms, same doll but with different wings and head dress!
Closeup of her face (about three quarters inch from forehead to chin, so this is bigger than lifesize!)

Postcards from the Edge

I recently received two lovely postcards in my mailbox. This one is from Anna and is made from, amongst other fibres, Tyvek and puff paint. Anna has a recipe/tutorial on her Blog that she posted on the 29th July that shows beautiful pix. of how she achieved this lovely texture. There are also lots of other goodies to get your creative juices going..... go take a peek!
This card is from my friend Dot, who does not have a Blog, but I am working on her!! She tells me she made the card after devouring Ineke Berlin's book on Landscapes. Dot has been experimenting quite a bit with sheers lately, and if you click on the picture you will get a closer look at all the different coloured snippets of sheers that have gone into this mini landscape. Just magical!

Nice Matters Award

I had a nice surprise a couple of days ago, Sue (Papoosue) at http://randomblethers.blogspot.com/) nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. Thankyou so much Sue, I am most honoured. As most of you know by now, I am supposedly to nominate seven more blogging friends, but as I have only been blogging for about three months, I feel I would rather say here how much I have enjoyed meeting all the lovely ladies who blog, to see all their wonderful art which they so freely share, and pass on this award to all the blogging friends I have yet to meet. Thankyou again Sue.

KINDRED SPIRITS (ongoing)....

I want to make some postcards for sale at our (Kindred Spirits) Exhibition next year, and this is my first effort.
The theme is Myths & Legends, and I am into Fairies. This postcard is rather fragile because of the face (which is made from a push mold) and the wired beads, and wouldn't be safe going through the post, so I shall be giving this one to a friend for a 'special' Birthday! ('special' being an unmentionable number).
Perhaps more paper and less fabric would be better?

Bits of Lace etc...... Part Two

Further to yesterday's posting, I wanted to do more to this piece, but was a bit nervous, so I rubbed Treasure Gold on about half of it, and have an A5 piece, and made two Postcards.
Then I took the plunge and painted the rest of it with black ink. I then poured neat bleach over the middle bit, and it finally died!! (it lost all its colour and went a very miserable looking grey) However, I decided to try and salvage it, so I added some golden yellow paint/ink, and then some scarlet, and when it was dry rubbed it all over with metallic silver wax crayon. The piece is big enough to make another two postcards, so all is not lost. What an optimist I am!!

Bits of lace, emulsion paint and inks

I I've been playing around the last couple of days with emulsion paint and inks. First I free machine stitched a few scraps of lacey bits onto some black felt, then I painted it with matt emulsion paint.
Then I painted it with green caligraphy ink, purple ink I mixed using Procion dye powder, and finally with Stephens blue fountainpen ink. I was amazed to see how it dried in patches of colour, between each application of the ink.
It is also quite supple - not anywhere near as 'stiff' as I thought it would be.