Altered Tag - Dare to Dream

This is an altered tag I did today. I'm trying to create a piece of art each day for a week. The image is from Digital Collage Sheets. The flower was made from two separate pieces of a paper flower with a brad stuck through the middle.

ATC - Sweetheart

This is an ATC I did for a "mingle" on one of my groups. The image is from Digital Collage Sheets. I embossed my flourishes with some Distress embossing powder in pink. There's some mulberry paper on the top and bottom of the card and the base of the card is some Basic Grey paper that I added a little to. The heart is stamped with chalk ink. The card stock text is edged with some more chalk ink and then I added some clear embossing powder on the top and heated it just until it was barely melted and still dimpled. I rounded the edges of the card and inked with some silver/grey ink.

Heart Box

This is a small heart-shaped paper mache box that I decorated for an art lottery.

Valentine Fat Book Page

I've been working on 14 5"x5" fat book pages for a Valentine's fat book swap on one of my Yahoo groups. I started with a tissue paper background and then added white pastel crayon to the background to highlight the creases and soften the tissue paper images (vintage Valentine). The text heart is from a vintage copy of Les Miserables and I added a smaller heart tinted with a pink chalk inkpad. I added the image and used white gesso to add the ring around her face. The checkerboards were stenciled top and bottom and I added little white dots to highlight with white gesso. The page is outlined with a silver leafing pen, and I punched 3 holes and added grommets and some pink ribbon. The pink flower has mini white glass beads in the middle.

Sepia AB Spread

Altered journal spread for a color-themed book RR. Theme was "time flies" and color theme was sepia.

Sepia Background for RR Journal

I'm currently working in an altered book based on a color theme - sepia. I created this BG with lots of different papers that had sepia tones in them and drybrushed some white gesso over them.

Caged Bird

This is the 2nd page that I did for the bird altered journal spread. I used the background that I posted yesterday (below) and added the white square. I had to try this technique I found on Kathy Wasilewski's blog using white-out tape. It was awesome! I drew the bird cage around an image from Digital Collage Sheets, and then I overlayed some dress pattern tissue. The text was an experiment which could've gone horribly wrong, but it didn't (although I won't try it again). I ran some dress pattern tissue through my inkjet printer. This was pretty much a big experiment on all fronts...the best kind of art, I suppose.

Background

I created this background today for the other page I need to do in the altered journal "bird" book. I really enjoy creating backgrounds. I think the collage/art part of it is the hard part! Suzan (Thrifty Collage Artist) does the most beautiful layered backgrounds. I'll look at her art and try to deconstruct her methods, but I'm afraid that I'll probably never achieve that level. But it's something to strive for! This BG started with a piece of basic grey paper, then layers of pink/purple/grey watered down acrylics. I stenciled some diamonds on with ivory acrylics. BTW, I only use the cheapy acrylic craft paint. I layered some other paper onto the bg and did some more swiping with the acrylics. The last thing I did was spray some Krylon webbing spray on top. BGs are fun...but now I have to do some art on the page. Ugh. (lol)

Bird Nest

I created this page for an altered journal RR I'm in. This is for Michelle's "For the Birds" book. I love the size of these pages. I also love the fact that she has us arting the front and back of the page which allows me to create two totally different pages instead of doing a two-page spread. The background for this page started with Basic Grey "alpha pistachio" from their Aged & Confused line. I added stencilled dots from punchinella, and stencilled tiny squares from drywall tape to the BG. I used my cardboard paint stencils for the "1 2 3" and created them using sprayed walnut ink. I stamped a bunch of my favorite flourishes (Autumn Leaves stamps) on the BG too. The image is from DigitalCollageSheets, and I made the nest out of jute twine. The word "nest" are sparkly greenish chipboard letters.