Altered Book Challenge

I am sending out weekly challenges on my Canadian Altered Book Yahoo Group, but I'm not getting much response. So I thought I would send out the challenges to you too, each week. Last week's Challenge was to use some kind of a flip on the page, either flipping up or out (sideways) with some kind of surprise beneath. Here is the page that I did in the House of Blues AB that I am working on:




I used a piece of denim for the background for the flip card.


Looking at it now, I think I need to add some more to it. It looks a little bare to me. Not sure what to add, but If I do I'll repost it.

This week's Challenge: Use a FOLDED PAGE in your layout. If you fold down from the top right, you will get a triangular pocket that you can put things into. If you ALSO fold UP from the bottom right, you will get a triangular page that will flip. If you fold two page, one from th left and one from the right, you can glue them together for a solid page with no seams. Add your pages as links in the comments so we can see what you have come up with!

Earth Hour

How many observed "Earth Hour" last night from 8-9 o'clock? The idea was to promote awareness for our earth by reducing the power we use for one hour. Some cities, such as Toronto, made a huge deal of it! We did our part with a candlelight dinner and a game of "Myth Busters"!

My Winnings!

A few weeks ago I won some Blog Candy from Wanda Hentges blog, and a huge package arrived a few days ago! It was chock full of fun stuff to play with. Just what I needed! Thanks Wanda!

Spring-I wish it would come!

I haven't posted for a long while, let's call it the Winter Blues. . .

But here is the Easter card I made for my DH!

I can't wait for Spring to really show up. I'm SO SICK of SNOW!!!! And apparently we are not through yet. . . I have plans to take a photo for every day in April, of the same view, to watch Spring come in.

In the meantime, I have made lots of Journal Pages for Feb and March, so here they are:


This page above was inspired by a blog called ThriftyCollageArtist.blogspot.com
Although I enjoyed making hte page, it took a long time! I have kept some of the ideas for my next pages. One of which is to use a coloured pencil (watercolour pencils work nicely because they are so soft) to colour over my lines to tone them down, and fuzz them a bit. First I use white, then a simailar colour to the background. Also colouring around the images is a nice effect.



Valentines Day is usually a big deal in out house, I always get a dozen roses, plus a mushy card. this time I got the roses, but due to work, DH couldn't get out to get the card. So Valentines Day morning, a whole bunch of Pirate cards (he knows I love Johnny) were strewn around the house!
Now that's mushy!



A little bit of ThriftyCollage Artist here! I like my new border stamps from Michael's - a set of 9 for around 8$ -great buy!




I really like this page, kind of a Renaissance quality to it. I used a homemade stamp around the border - just bits of rubber I had cut off unmounted stamps and glued to a Jenga Block! Stamped with copper paint.

I was thinking that St. Pat's day might fall on this page, but it didn't. Oh well!




This page has all the stamps I bought at the stamp store in toronto (on Bloor St W). DH chose the angel, and the ledger page. He makes good choices! He also paid for everything-nice Easter present! Thanks DH!! I really liked the ledger flag-border, so I used it on my Easter card for him!

Altered Board Book

Here is the next page of my Altered Board Book for my ABCanada Altered Book group. The technique this time was to use fabric on the page. I used a beautiful piece of batik fabric my Dad brought back from Thailand as the background. The word "ART" is printed on an old kitchen curtain fabric, double layered and stained with Colour Mists. Then I took it to the machine and sewed around it. Sorry for the not so great photo! I'll try to change it later.




The entire book holds one quote, continued page to page. If you go back to the previous pages of this book you will see the quote. This page's word is somply "ART".

Altered Dictionary

In my small Kingston Altered Artists group, we are passing around dictionaries each month to alter. This one is a very old and very thick dictionary! I found out too late that the pages are very fragile and will not hold up under even the lightest tape. When I pull it off, the page either rips or the text peels off. So I wasn't able to mask the word I chose. This word is my second choice after destroying the first page I chose! But I really like how this page turned out, so things are fine! My letter was "C" and I chose "castle" as my word. I always try to incorporate my stamps whenever I can, so this was a perfect page for stamping only!! And I got to use a few seldom used stamps to boot.

Music Deco

We are coming to the end of our ByHand Music Deco RR, I only have one left to do. This is the one I just finished in Carmen's awesome deco. No one had done classical music yet, so I chose my favourite composer and did this spread. I found the big image of Beethoven on the internet, and altered it in Photoshop. The smaller transparency is from AlteredPages, and it is mounted on a wine label.




The quote reads: "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, it is the wine of a new procreation, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for men and makes them drunk with the spirit" Beethoven

This & That Mingle for Feb

I think this is the last round for the T&T Mingle at Byhand. I chose Mardi Gras, and here is my 4X4 that I made. The mask swings out to reveal a Mardi Gras parade underneath.

House challenge

This week's ByHand Challenge is to use the house template they provided and make a house. Here's mine!

This is my first time using a house template. I used some playing card images from Altered Pages for the doorway and the window. The rest is stamped. The door and window shutter stamps are from Michelle Ward. The little whispy plant stamp is a mystery to me. I stamped the one on the right, then used the same stamp to stamp the one on the left. How it turned the other way is a mystery! Optical Illusion? I don't know!

Altered Board Book

Here are pages 2 and 3 for my Altered Board Book that I am doing with my ABCanada Altered Book group. There are two pages left to do. The technique for the mermaid pages was to use a paper background, and for the black page, to use some texture. I used Cheesecloth, metallic letters, and Crackle Paint (TH) for my texture. The book is of a quote, a little on each page. Page one, which says "Creativity", is in a previous post.

Gothic Arches

I have admired Gothic Arches from afar - the new "craze" -and decided to join a Mingle to try them out. I made 3 arches using Altered Pages transparencies. The theme was "Vintage Romance". I didn't have any couples, so I went with romantic women.





The arches are about 5" tall, 3 1/2" wide (not true measurements)
They have been mailed out to 3 different countries!

ABCanada

ABCanada-or Altered Books Canada-my Yahoo Group, seems to be enjoying making their altered board books! Most have completed their first page. Here is my first page. I have a quote which will go over the 6 pages of the book. The first word of the quote is "Creativity". The background we did was a painted background.

Mermaids

We had our fist Altered Artists meeting of 2008, at my house! With my newly arranged art room we were able to fit the 4 of us comfortably, and I was very happy! Usually we meet at Marg's house, which is in her beautiful and huge basement. A little more cramped at my house, but it worked! We made Mermaids from the Somerset Studio Gallery. Here they are!







I'm not sure yet what I will do with mine (the one with "wonder" on the tail), but the first one I made (last weeks blog entry) I have since put into an altered book!

New Journal Pages

Here are my Journal Pages from the last 2 weeks.

My Marilyn page uses a transfer I did a few years ago - I can't remember how we did it though. The transfer was lying around, so I used it.



I've been on Atkins for awhile now -lost 25 pounds so far! So this page is about food, which I love!


I had a wonderful calendar last year by Jerry Uelsmann who takes fabulous photos and then manipulates them into these wonderful surrealistic scenes. I couldn't find his calendar this year, so I'll probably be using a few photos from his last year's calendar in my journals. This page is also about how every once in awhile, from nowhere, I smell my Dad, who passed away in 2001. very strange, and very strong, then it goes away. I always say "hello" and "I miss you!".



I love the black gesso on this page, and one of my new stamps that I got in a set of 9 from Michael's for under $8!! The border around the flower are some scraps from Wednesday night's Kingston Altered Artists meeting when Bev showed us a new technique using oil pastels and glitter embossing powder.

Snow Day

We woke up this morning to beautiful snow!! I felt nice and warm and cozy, and ready to create all day! I worked on my page for ABCanada (will post tomorrow), finished my Dictionary Page for my group that meets on Wednesday, and made a Mermaid from Somerset Gallery 2008.

This is my Dictioary page for an Altered Book Swap we do once a month. I had "B" and I chose "Blueprint". I was inspired by a Michelle Ward article in an old Somerset Studio, and I used Michelle's archetecture stamps on the page. It actually looks better in person, I think!


I also made this lovely Mermaid, using a template that I had bought years ago but rarely used. I had to draw the tail though, because the template had legs! Hopefully this will be our project on Wednesday and I will get to make more then!



This past Friday was my day to do ATC's for TIGAPF (Thank God It's Altered Pages Friday). I chose RETRO as my theme. It was hard breaking away from browns, swirls, vintage and crowns! We had to use an image from Altered Pages.

Altered Board Book

In my Yahoo Group, ABCanada, we are doing a step-by-step altered board book! If you are living in Canada, and would like to join us, please do!




Right now it's a fairly small group, and we would love to have more people join us! Just click here and hopefully it will get you there, then just click on "join". I will have to approve you (just tell me where you live) and you'll be in! Other than that, not much happening this week! Probably because I am back to work (teaching) and I am once again exhausted at the end of the day. I do try to get some journalling in before I run off, however.

Two more Journal Pages

Here are my first two journal pages of the new year:


My birthday is on the first of January, so I always start the year out right! The crown is actually bright pink, my daughter gave it to me on my birthday morning. I love Ellen and watch her whenever I can!




I loved this little row of Gingerbread Houses! The big one seemed to go so well too. My brother just bought a house, so this seemed apt. His would be one of the little gingerbread ones though!

New and Improved Stamping Room!

I am lucky enough to have a whole room (the 4th bedroom in my house) as my stamping room, I think the room is 9X12. When we moved in there were floor to ceiling bookshelves on 3 walls. This is the second time I've re-done this room. I don't think I have the "before" pictures on this blog, but my work table was a long (' maybe 5') teak desk, with only one place to sit because of the drawers. It was also rather thin. I covered it with a plastic tablecloth because I was so worried I would ruin it. The floor was covered with a beautiful Persian carpet. Very dark, also worried I was going to ruin it. if I dropped anything on the floor, it was a miracle if I found it, as the patteren on the rug is so busy! So I rolled up the rug to use in another room, moved the desk to my DD's room for a sewing table, and my Mom bought me a big 6' craft table for my room! No worries now! And I could potentially have company to play with as I could fit 4 people around this table! Here are the photos:

view through the door

My favourite stamps -these shelves used to be just storage

My iris carts. This wall used to have a desk with my sewing machine on it. I could hardly move to sew, so I didn't. I bought one new iris cart and the grey set of drawers.

This section hasn't changed much., but as you can see at the bottom,
I now have 3 empty shelves (let's go shopping!!)

My new table! The board with the mat on it that you see used to fill the whole
of my old desk, so I do have quite a bit more room.

This is where I keep my cardstock, in the filing cabinet. Scrapbook paper,
Paper pieces (large) and collage images are in these 3 boxes on top.
You can also see some unmounteds in the CD rack.
I have to put a carpet or someting under the filing cabinet because it keeps
moving when I open and close it!

This shelf is to my left. It used to hold all my inks, because tho only place I could sit was at the left end of my desk. Now I have some trays of stamps there (right side). The left side of this picture hasn't changed much. All my ephemera and findings are in these boxes. Tags, coin envelopes, dominoes, cards, etc. The one thing I did change is that I bought this set of 5 see- through boxes (Canadian Tire) and labelled them Plastic, Wood, Metal, Asstd and Paper. This is my general collection of found items, which preveiously were all mixed together in a 3-drawer box (the one you can see below on my table). I like this becasue not only are things separated, but I can see through the boxes for inspiration. All my alphabet stamps are in the rolling 5-drawer cart under the table.

Close up of the see-through boxes

These are the shelves directly behind me. The back of my chair broke off a few months ago, andI like it better this way, much easier to manouver. And without the rug, my chair moves nice an smoothly! So everything I need at my fingertips is directly behind me, or on my table. These shelves hold all my inks (divided into colours) and all my brads, eyelets, beads, jewels and other tiny things (in the black drawers). Also my embossing powders, and most used stamps. Glue stick, sandpaper, sponges, etc are also right here.

This is a view of my table from one end. All my pencils, and paintbrushes are on the table in cups that are in a basket. Everything I need all the time (scissors, gel pens, Krylon, rulers, etc) are in this lazy susan thing I got at a garage sale. I can easily take everything off my table when I have company over to play.

Here are my magazines. Two years ago I put them all into binders with those magazine holders. I never read them! They were also very heavy binders, and it wasn't easy removing a magazine. So I put them in the plastic shelf magazine holders instead, and already I'm using this resource more!


This is my new sewing room, aka my DD's room when she comes to visit. Thses two desks were in my stamping room, the one on th eleft was my work tables, and the sewing machine was againt the wall where the iris carts are now. This is much better! I'm already half-way through a sewing project for school!
So there you have it. My first New Years resolution done!! Now for the rest...LOL!

CHALLENGE: I would love to see what you have done with your stamping/crafting room! Please link through my comments to your pictures!