Marilyn

I managed to find some time to work on one of the Music Decos that have been coming my way. This one has 3 pages of Marilyn Monroe in it already, so I could hardly do anything else! So here is my Marilyn page in Sandy's Deco book:



and my sign in tag:


I did the B&W Marilyn face myself in photoshop from an album cover photo. You can barely see it in the photo, but there is a pink glow all around the image - a happy accident!

Mandala

I have been home sick lately, and so took the opportunity to try something new - a digital Mandala. I was given a tutorial link here and followed the directions, and viola!



Here is the piece that I used as a base:



I also made another one for a 4X4 fat book, I'm just waiting to see if I am allowed to use it!

Still home today, maybe I'll do another one!

October ATCs

For my Byhand group, October's theme was Egypt, Hallowe'en, or indigo. I chose Egypt. In my little group that meets at Marg's, we did some ATC backgrounds that worked well with the theme. Marg prepared the ATCs ahead of time by squirting glue in squiggles over top of magazine pages cut and glued to ATC sized card. When we got the cards the glue was dry. We scribbled oil pastels over the cards, then rubbed them with "Never-Dull" -something that apparently is used for shining up hubcaps. It was very smelly, and was kind of soaked cotton. Anyway, we rubbed the cards and the pastels smeared around and blended, and it took off the magazine picture. The end effect was rather interesting. Here they are, all images are from Altered Pages. The stamps are from Non-Sequitur (plate 41) . The Isis eye is a punch.

3 X 3 Swap

In my AlteredDesigns group I am participating in a 3" X 3" swap, we make one 3X3 for each person in the swap. Each person had a different "vintage" theme. Here are my completed 3X3s. All collage images are from Altered Pages except for the cowgirl, whom I found on the net. The blocks are from a Tim Holtz paper. The orange bird is from the Dollar Store!

Vintage Children for Fran

Vintage Cowgirls for Barb

Vintage Floral for Sandy

Vintage Kids for Karen

Vintage Ladies for Kelly

Vintage Male for Ultra Violet

Vintage Pin-Up for Jan

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was our 23rd Wedding Anniversary! I made my DH a card, which was inpired by my Challenge #2 on my AlteredBooksCanada Yahoo group. The Challenge was ripped pages, which I used for the inside of the card. The handmade paper backing the quote on the front was made with last year's wedding anniversary roses!

Journal Finished

I have just finished my 2005-07 Composition Journal. I go from periods of writing in it all the time to missing weeks or months in a row. This time I hadn't written in it since August 07, picked it up yesterday and finished it off. So here are the last pages of this journal.



For this page I started with the photo of the blue and white striped towel and the bathtub. I pulled the blue colour for the left page, and the orange colour of the towel on the tub for the right page.



I often make several pages ahead, and this one as no exception. I liked the door and the door handle, so designed the page using those pictures. I added the border around the door. When it came around to writing on this page, my ex-husband had suddenly died in Halifax. The somberness of the page reflected this. As one door closes for him (the door opens and his obituary is inside) another one opens - I believe in afterlife, so I believe he has more adventures ahead of him, therefore the door handle works well for this.



This page was done ahead as well, I loved these photos of the anorexic looking girls, especially since I was trying to lose weight at the time. I was reminding myself to eat well desptie the fact that I wanted to lose weight. I had a flap in between these pages, so I added various cards and ephemera that I had picked up in my trip to Toronto.


Last page! I love this page, the Asian aspect of it, and when writing on this page I had actually gone to a Chinese buffet! This page was about my trip to Niagara falls to visit friends, but I stopped writing halfway through the visit - no time! Then I didn't pick it up again until yesterday, my 23rd Wedding Anniversary. So I decided to make this the last page of my journal. Now to start a new one!

ABCanada -Challenge #1

In my new Yahoo group I am issuing altered book challenges to be done in your own book, and shared with the group. My first challenge was about hidden tags. I am working in my House of Blues Book, essentially each page is about something blue. I like my page, but my tags aren't really hidden, I think I will do another page.

If you would like to join in our challenges, feel free to join our group! Just click on the Canadian Altered Books Yahoo group link on the sidebar.

Music Deco

I am in a deco swap on my Byhand group, called Music Decos. We each made (or purchased) a small book that could be easily sent in the mail, and are following each players directions of what they want in their book. Here is my book, called Rock 'n Roll Legends:



The cover shows Elvis's cape that he wore, now residing in Myrtle Beach's Hard Rock Cafe. We visited the HRC in March and took lots of photos, and I'm glad to be able to use some of them for my deco! I made this hard cover deco from an episode of Craft TV Weekly.

I used Santana's guitar to hold all the tags for the artists...


...and my first page was about my favourite legend, Mick Jagger. I love his stage presence and his swagger, but most of all, I think I admire him because he is still alive and performing! I was about 13 years old when I first discovered the Beatles, then the Rolling Stones. I'm amazed that he still has the energy to do what he does, especially living the lifestyle that he does. Keep on Rockin' Mick! Click here to see Mick in action over the years!



I have also completed one page from another deco, this one about quotes:

I used images and transparencies from Altered Pages, as well as some scrapbooking paper, a stamp from Michael's, and some white rub-on letters. The other letters are from a big stamp I have, kind of like a date stamp, but with about 10 rows of all the letters in the alphabet which can be rolled to make whatever word/s you want. I use it all the time! The quote is by Plato.

October Mingle

My October Mingle is about Groucho Marx, born Oct 2, 1890. His full name was Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx. He made 15 films with his brothers, and had, as well, a successful solo career. He had a distictive image, which included heavily painted on eyebrows and mustache! I loved researching Groucho, and it was hard to choose just a few quotes!

I have been tagged!!

I was tagged by a cyber-friend, Mary-Beth, to join in a "middle name" tag and it goes like this: Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blogpost containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

My middle name is "Lee", nice and short! When I was born, my name was Linda Lee Littlepage!

Laughter-I love to laugh!
Ephemera, constantly collecting!
Eager-to get to my stamping room as often as I can!

Now I have to select 3 bloggers so I will select but a few of you whose work I admire. I hope you will also enjoy this exercise, as I have. Thank you Mary-Beth!

Therese Malak-a good friend and "play buddy"!
Dawn Sokol-wonderful journals
Yogi-wonderful art and bookmaking


You have been tagged!

Mona Lisa

I had an Altered Mona Lisa ATC swap due Monday - got right on it and made 3 ATCs, but when I was done, I realized it was an ALTERED Mona Lisa Swap- Mona needed to be altered! So I made another three ATC's!

September Mingle and ATCs

Here is my September Mingle from my Byhand Yahoo group. I chose Sept 13, International Chocolate Day!

Here is the front:



it opens...



and here is the back:



All stamps are from Stampin' Up


And my September ATCs for the same group, I hope they arrive in time! The theme this month was blue, or Asian. I combined blue and Asian for 2 of them. For the 3rd I used my new Colour mists.

New Canadian Altered Books Yahoo Group!

I have just started a new Altered Books Yahoo Group for Canadian Artists. If any of you visiting love altered books and want to participate in an all Canadian group, go to ABCanada and take a peek!

Remember the Johnny Depp ATC's I made?

Here are the ATC's I received back from the swap!



Artists Left to Right:
Shauna Miller
Jackie Baxted
Bev Burgess
Ivette Anrade
Jackie Garbarino (owner of Altered Pages!)
and at the bottom, Andie MacCowan

A Couple of Cards

I have been very busy with school but managed to pop out a
couple of cards. I'm in a few swaps I should be working on too, so
hopefully there will be more updates on the blog soon.

My friend Tracy just had her second baby girl, so I made her this card. I have
very few baby stamps, so I always seem to be using the same ones every
time!



I found a green scrap of paper on my table, so I used that with my stamp of the song "Momma's
Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird", and stamped at an angle. Then I mounted
it on a larger pink piece of CS. There was too much white, so I stamped
another baby words background stamp in pink on the card. I stamped the
Mommy Bunny and Baby on white andwatercoloured it, then tore around it.
I used the pink ink pad around the edges. I glued everything down,
edged the card with the pink ink, filling in the bare bottom left
corner, then added a bow.

The next one is a Halloween Card:



I found a baggie leftover from a workshop with a green Bazzill piece of CS, a black piece of CS and a scrap of scrapbooking paper. I thought I would make a card using all 3. After gluing the
black onto the green, and the orange paper onto the black, it looked very Halloweenish , so I found a Halloween image from Altered Pages and glued it onto a black strip that I had cut off the original black CS. I thought it needed something else, so I found my new Magenta Cat
stickers, and made a black cat in the upper corner. I used some Dollar Store Rub-ons for the Boo!.

August Mingle page

This 4X4 page was done for the Byhand Yahoo group ongoing "This 'N That Mingle". This month I chose "Less Salt More Herbs" day, August 29th.




I used a photo of a saltshaker form the internet, a Margerita Colour Mist for the background, and Stampin' Up stamps. There is kosher salt glued onto the salt shaker and oregano glued onto the herb shaker. The back gives herb names and what they are used for.

Finally!

I apologise for the absence this past month, Summer is busier than I thought it would be! A lot of my creative efforts have been spent on making things for my classroom. I also have some journal pages to upload at some point, but I have a friend visiting, Therese from "Art- just do it!" , and we have spent the last two days playing. It's been awhile since I've just played! So we made some ATC's for a swap on Byhand - the theme is green or seaside. I had picked up a few Chapel Road stamps at a local stamp convention in Bancroft (Stampfest) and so I thought I would try those.


The green paper I chose was a bit too green for me so I changed the colour on the next two by spritzing with colourgreen and yellow mist, then for my last ATC I went with Bazill paper. I also picked up the swirls from Stampfest as well, called "Spiral Symphony" from gel-a-tins stamps . The ums come in a neat little tin box.


And the last one was on Bazill:




Therese brought a very cool idea of how to make a Brag Book from those clear plastic badge holders you can get from Wal-Mart or Staples. We found that ATCs fit perfectly in these holders, so I made an ATC book to hold ten ATCs so that we can see front and back, or 20 ACTs just the fronts. I made the covers from the coasters I bought awhile ago, decorated the front and back of both covers, then put it together using plastic slide ties that I bought at the Dollar Store.

Therese also brought stuff to make the "dangly" and we played with stamping on wooden bits and game pieces, then pieced them together with beads and wire. I attached mine to the top of my book with a cream coloured safety pin. We also discovered that Crop-o-dile will poke holes in practically anything!

Here is the inside of the book:


And the back:


The swirl stamps on the book are from Michelle Ward. The picture on the back is from Altered Pages. That's all for now! I'll add a few journal pages soon.