Altered Book - Project 6

"More palachinki, please!"

I love the tactile feeling of collaged paper covered with gloss gel medium. It's smooth and pliable. I almost hated to put anything on it...however, I'm glad I did. I really like how this one turned out...simple, textured, and easy.

"More palachinki, please!" - detail

I bought some dimensional metallic paint because I love-love-love putting polka dots around things...weird, I know. But for some reason, I'm called to the dot for accents. In this case, I made a marquis around the title word, palachinki, to set it apart from the rest of the title words.

Yum!
Another detailed shot...

We have palachinki almost every weekend. It's Bulgarian and is sort of like a crepe.

Eat with confectioner's sugar and strawberries, like we do, or add syrup, honey, or the evil Nutella!

Altered Book ProjectTwo Steps Forward, One Step Back

Two Steps Forward
Introduction Spread

I decided to get my beginning pages in line by choosing the end papers and getting the contents page set up. I was going to have a "This Book Belongs to" spread, but it turned into the authors page shown above. Many Good Earth tea packets were opened in the making of this! I wanted to find 3 quotes for my tea cup that were somewhat related to my project.

One Step Back
Blurred Vision

Thinking I was making great progress, I decided to go back to the "Sweet Tooth" spread and do some fixing. The glue I had used in making the dragon was tacky and sticking to the opposite page. Before I went to bed, I applied a coat of matte gel medium to act as a sealant, only to wake up this morning to a bleary eyed dragon.

Dream House with Digital Effects

Dream House
Paper Collage with Digital Effects

I scanned my paper collage then added shadow and high light details in Photoshop.

"A Little Me"

Dream House
Paper Collage

Cloth Paper Scissors's challenge, "A Little Me", is to create a self portrait on a 6x6 canvas using multimedia. I opted to work on this while the paint was drying on another project.

Not having a clear idea of where I was headed with this piece, I let it evolve on it's own. When I do that, it takes A LOT longer...but I usually get a unique story. I was trying to make a house into a crown on top of her head, but it just wouldn't go there! So, final product, she's snuggling with a baby house on a quilt of grass.

It's a self portrait in that I have a love affair with little houses. It also represents my creative self. The colorful houses are my ideas. These houses are my homes, filled with family, love, nostalgia, and personal things...vessels of creative energy.

It also fits Illustration Friday's theme of "Imperfect". The little house may be imperfect, but it is still loved ;) Of course, one person's imperfect is another one's perfect...so...there's that.

Altered Book - Grocery Bear

Grocery Bear

I've been saving my grocery lists especially for a project in my altered book. One grocery list was written by my mom and on the backside was a note she'd written to communicate to my VERY hard of hearing uncle. We'd been visiting him in Montana and wanted to make sure he had a stocked pantry before we left for home.

I glued the lists on first, then collaged additional food words cut from magazines to fill in the negative space. To blend it, I used a roller brush and rolled on a thin layer of white acrylic paint, wiping it even thinner in strategic places for readability.

Grocery Bear - Detail
Mom's Note

I was rather stumped for an image. First thing I thought of was a fairy flying with a grocery cart. I reached for my bookshelf and found inspiration in a collage book by Claudine Hellmuth. I used her idea for the outlined grocery bags and immediately thought of a bear when I reread my Mom's note...while in Montana a friend and I had visited Glacier Park and the pamphlets saying, "Don't feed the bears" came forth in my mind for this image.

Grocery Bear - Detail
Claudine Hellmuth Inspired

Finalist for "Home Sweet Home" Challenge

I recently found out that one or both (it wasn't clarified) of my houses are finalists for the "Home Sweet Home" challenge by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.

I added wheels to my travel house and mailed them both off today. Hopefully, they will be published in the next issue.