It "niche" the end.

Now I realize that title only makes a bit of sense if your pronounce as knee-sh

...not knit-ch.

Regardless of how you say it...my Nature book is complete!!



I decided to place one of the prairie dog photos I took at the MN Zoo under the niche.

 The opening of the niche was slightly larger than the photo so I recreated the sandy hill this little guy was perched upon in sand.

Worked perfect and if I hadn't told you why, you'd have just thought I was terribly clever. *wink*

I've decided not to alter the outside of the book as it lays relatively flat. This way it can sit on the shelf along side the rest and be a big surprise to anyone who pulls it out to read.

Such a good feeling to complete another project. It's been tucked away in among the rest of the UFO's for several years. 

Thanks to Elizabeth for her online class that got this book started in the first place. 

 

Another nature page

Hey I'm on a roll. 

Two pages in 2 days...amazing.

Not much room left in the book. 

I still need to figure out the niche part...what I'm going to put in it...what I'm going to put in it to be exact. 

In hindsight, I didn't really make it deep enough .

 

Beauty of nature

I was inspired to pull out the book I used for my friend Elizabeth's AB 101 class I took several years ago. 

I never did complete the class. I figure I can join back in where I left off since she's currently reteaching the class for free on her blog. 

My altered book theme is Nature.

It was so fun to play in paint and glue again. I have to keep at it since it makes me feel so carefree.

 

Cleaning inspiration

Over the weekend I started picking up my art space. Putting it back to rights after a shameful amount of time of just moving enough stuff to get a few inches to work within. 

Of course, as I was sorting through my piles of papers, I found a blank ATC background ready to use. The stamps where also within sight so...this simple ATC was born.

Next I found this raven image and knew that I already had a pre-painted page in my Playtime AB that would likely look pretty good. When I have extra paint on my palette I paint it onto a random page in a book. Waste not, want not.

Lastly I grabbed my Nature book from the AB 101 class my friend Elizabeth taught several years ago. If you are interested she is currently teaching it again

...for FREE...

on her blog.

I'm not thrilled with the outside edge. I may go back and cover the dots or make them a little more subdued. 

I'm hoping to get my art space completely cleaned up and show some "shameful" before and then clean after photos soon. I have a knitted dishcloth order to fill before I can commit anymore time to my art. Totally forgot that they were needed by next weekend!! AGH!

Nature AB page

I've been struggling with allergies this week. Haven't gotten much on my "to-do" list accomplished.

I did sit down and create this yet untitled bird page.

I also started a couple other pieces. Not sure where the others will lead.

Cellular...

Still plugging away at my Nature AB.....

I got a couple new white pens and am really liking how they look. They are Souffle white ink pens by Sakura of America. (no affiliation...just a happy customer)

Baby, it's cold outside...

I needed to warm myself up so I created this Spring inspired altered book page.
Now doesn't that make you feel a little warmer already...

The doily was snagged from a free box at a garage sale. I used my favorite UHU twist & glue on all the fabric pieces. I sprinkled some fine glitter over the page to cover any spots that the glue seeped through. Made it look like a meant to do that. Maybe I should have just kept quiet and you'd just go along thinking how brilliant I am. Just kidding!!
I think I've been shut in too long. Cabin fever is setting in. Symptoms may include: laughing at yourself, by yourself and imagining everyone else thinks you are hysterically funny too.

Paradise

What I love about altered books

I love the slightly wavy pages from layers of paint, glue and 3D embellishments.

I love how the edges get all gunked up with various colors as I work through the book. Some could think this was a failure on my part to properly protect the other pages. To me it adds to the beauty.

Who could resist decorative edges?!? Not this girl.

I'm drawn to the way an altered book looks as it stands. It tends to pop open a bit so you get a little peek at what's inside. Delicious.

Reach

This is the latest page in my AB101 book. Still not back on track with working on the lessons I missed but there is lots of room left in the book.

These flowers were cut from a cute little hat my daughter wore. She completely wrecked it at some point and it was recently discovered under her bed. Hmmm... Wonder how it got there. Busted! The little stinker.

The journalling reads:
Free to dream, to reach for the sky.
May each and every one of us have that great opportunity set before us and have the strength to grab hold.

The light of day

My latest page in "Nature's Majesty".

I colored the illustration already in the book with watercolor crayons. I then masked it off along with the words with painters tape. I always stick, un-stick and stick again the painters tape to my clothes before applying to the page. Especially on pages that are weak of fiber like these.

I sponged on black craft paint and let dry overnight. This morning I stamped the swirls with white pigment ink then gently brushed on yellow and copper pearlex powders.

The journally was done with a white gel pen.

Roll with the punches

Get it!?! Awh, never mind. My sense of humor is a little dry at times.

I used punches to create the leaves and flowers. I had a great book about the Caribbean that provided the colorful images. The yellow was a spectacular tropical fish.

I only used a spot of glue in the center of each of the punched pieces. The glue made them curl a little which unexpectedly gave them great dimension.

Butterfly pages

I really wanted to do another lesson for the AB101 class I took online. It was over long ago but I have yet to finish. Of course my muse didn't cooperate with me today and this is the spread that came out. It incorporated NONE, ZIP, ZERO of the lessons..oh well. I never was much of a rule follower.

I decided to only glue down one side of each butterfly so they'd have a dimensional quality. Hopefully they'll still pop up after being smashed in the book over time.

New altered book pages

I think I've caught up with the class now.

I did skip one lesson since it involved a zipper, which I don't have on hand. I do plan on trying that technique at some point though.

The first photos shown here feature folded pages. I really like the way it reveals hidden text or images when you turn the page. I'll definitely use this again.

The wired button edged page took some time but I love the look of it. We had a guest instructor for this lesson. Ingrid is an amazing artist.

Pocket lesson

I'm working on catching up with the online class I'm taking. I'm currently 3 weeks behind!

The lesson I just finished was creating pockets.
I've made many pockets in altered books before but had a hard time coming up with something to fit my theme. I'm thinking that I shouldn't have made I themed book, just a technique book for this class.

Oh well..live and learn.

The Autumn page I figure on journalling on the tags at some point.

The daisies page just sort of fell together when I found two coordinating scrapbook pages in my stash. I stiffened the daisies that hide the pocket by attaching them to some heavy weight cardstock before cutting them out. I love how this spread turned out. I had originally thought I'd journalling on this page as well but I think it would distract from the simplicity of the page.

Homework lesson 4

I did my homework...

What do you think?

Color Wheel assignment

One of the assignments from the online altered book class I'm taking was to create a color wheel from magazine images.

I wasn't sure how I was going to make a color wheel fit into my Nature's Majesty theme but then I noticed how well Mother Nature uses the color wheel on her own I knew I'd make it work.

Before life interuptus....

I had begun an online altered book class. Why you ask? I thought it would be fun to learn some new techniques and it would also get my creative juices flowing. It also helped that my good friend Elizabeth was teaching the class.

These are photos from my 1st two weeks of homework assignments.







The first was to choose a book and remove pages while leaving a block of pages to cut a niche at the end in the next lesson.

The next was to reinforce the book end pages and cut the niche.

Of course, now I'm two weeks behind on my assignments and virtually all of my stuff is boxed up since my craft zone is covered in boxes of my parents stuff I'm sorting through for them.