I've been juggling projects. Here's my page for the 2008 Art Unraveled Technique Chunky Book swap. My page was inspired by "Landscapes of the Mind" with artist
Anne Grgich. I took two classes with her and absolutely loved her techniques. Painting with coffee? Hilarious! I printed coffee cup rings with coffee for recipe swap pages last month.
We focused on portraits during her workshops but one lady drew a bird for her collage and I still had it in my mind. I wanted to keep it loose and simple and chose a flower image.
I started out by gluing down pages torn from old art ed magazines. Next, I painted over it with a wash of yellow and gold acrylic. Next step was the black outline done with Golden Asphaltum paint. I almost freaked! The paint came out heavier than I expected and it took days to dry. I mean days....this is Arizona. I expected it to be dry overnight.
Once it dried enough, the flower petals were painted with washes of acrylic and watercolor crayons were used to add a little texture. Each page was outlined with Sharpie that went kaput after a few pages. I think the markers picked up some of the glue and they stopped working. The rest of the pages were painted. I had a few choice words floating around the studio...
The altered composition book for another swap is done. I was going to add color but in the end I really liked the simplicity of the collaged textures. I added two rows of ribbon along the left edge and spelled "thoughts" with acrylic letters.
I did add color on the photocopies of the cover collages and used those pages on both inside covers. Watercolor crayons were used to color over the security envelope textures which I outlined with Sharpie Poster Paint markers.
I folded a couple of pages over to create a pocket and used some leftover scraps from the cover collage to make it big enough. The word "Keep" was stamped and outlined. It's ready to mail.
Next project-Funky Chunky themed pages for another swap. Everyone chose the size of their page. Mine is 7" x 3.5" It's new size for me which is exactly why I picked it. I pulled out every paper towel stained with paint that I've been setting aside for some time. What was I holding onto them for?????
I tore them into pieces and randomly glued them down to a large 24" x 36" sheet of tagboard. I made two large sheets. One with cool colors and another with warm colors, until I ran out and added purples. The cool colored pieces are my favorites, so far. The large sheets were cut down into 7" x 7" squares and then folded them in half.
I have a couple of ideas for the next steps. Sewing....painting...printing... we'll see.
Marissa
I taught my first class at Frenzy Stamper almost 2 weeks ago. We had a blast! It was a small group but we managed to take over 4 work tables with our books and supplies. Everyone was able to complete one book and second books were well under way before we packed up. I have pics to share but for now I want to plug my next class.
I've shared this altered composition book on the blog before. I just love this book. I worked on it for a year and add in a little here and there as I come across things that fit.
Time willing, we'll work on completing 2 pages. A woven page using colorful magazine pages. (Arizona Highways, here I come)!
Then we'll finish off with a little coin envelope magic. This looks so complicated but is quite easy and it looks soooo cool! I'm already digging around in the studio getting the kits together. Join me!
