Home & Garden Altered Book

Alternating Doors Technique

When you open the door....

...there are more doors

A very cool technique with endless possibilities.

What goes on behind closed doors...stays behind closed doors.

Home & Garden

Altered Book

I haven't completed my Home & Garden altered book, but I got tired of looking at the brown cover so I painted the front and the back in shades of pale green, yellow and blue and then ultimately decided that the front needed...a home and a garden...a little cottage by the sea.  I suppose I could have put "Home & Garden on the front...but I didn't want words to interfere with the scene.

Meet "Angel"

 These two pages I just added in my Femme Altered book.  The left side is a background pattern done with acrylics, pens, collage.  The right side features "Angel".  She was on the cover of National Geographic c.1983.  She's made from recycled trash and I just love her!  I don't know who created her but she's perfect for my Femme book.  The back side of her is featured in an earlier post as I used her in a collage.  And while I was searching for some little thing for that upper right hand corner of the page...I was looking in a button jar and I have no idea why a Chinese fortune was in it...not where paper items should be stored....but there was the perfect piece to finish the page.  It reads "Know and believe in yourself and what others think won't disturb you."  Obviously...Angel has no problem with that. 

Taverna - Altered Book

These pages in my Home & Garden altered book are inspired by a napkin I used.  The doorway and window on the right hand page are from a napkin as is the single window on the left hand page.  I painted the background and I added the windows above...there's room at the inn!  Napkins are really fun to incorporate into art.

 

Replay - The Wedding

I can't get the wedding out of my head yet.  In my previous wedding painting, I only painted the bride and groom.  Here is a different version, done in one of my altered books.  I decided to add a crowd in the background and I did this one with watercolor pencils vs. watercolor on the previous painting.  This captures more the feeling of Courtney & Jason's Second Line.....

And here are the pages together...the map of the French Quarter, a profile of Louis Armstrong, the Musee Conti where the reception took place...

and the small black rectangle says...and this is the essence of New Orleans... "It's New Orleans...You're different here." 

Courtney & Jason

I hope Courtney & Jason will forgive me....painting people is not my area of expertise.... but I wanted to paint them celebrating their wedding day on St. Patrick's Day in New Orleans.  They danced their way through the French Quarter to the wedding reception at Musee Conti....led by a jazz band and followed by all of the guests at the wedding....it was unforgettable....we were all singing "Hey hey baby...I wanna knooowww, would you be my girl....hey hey baby....waving green kerchiefs in the air.

WHO AM I?

WHO AM I?
 This collage is really all about me today.  It's not about previous....anything.  I spent a day recently with a dozen women doing a collage workshop.  We had to have an idea in mind before we arrived.  Some people did family, some did their mothers, some were about recent personal journeys....they were all impactful.  I can't wait to do it again.

A Visit To New Orleans

The French Quarter
A family wedding took me to New Orleans last weekend for the wedding of my niece.  There is nothing like a New Orleans wedding...on St. Patricks Day.  These pictures are from my wanderings in the French Quarter.   Everyone should visit this place once in their lifetime...it's an experience for sure!  The art, the food, the music, the masks, the "live" street art, the people.  There's no place like it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY

24 YEARS AGO TODAY,
as La Bamba was playing on the radio
in the delivery room,
Thomas arrived.

Oriental Flair-Home & Garden Altered Book

Strolling the Garden, updated

I don't usually to go back to a piece I've already posted, but I went back and worked on the Lady with the Umbrella, because I just wanted to add more layers and interest to the page and make the bottom of the page look like there was more a garden/flower element going on.   I still have "issues" with the arms....but I'll get to that too. I  also ended up sanding the umbrella a bit, hoping to make it look slightly more ethereal.  This picture, however, is just about the bottom of the page.

Strolling the Garden

Painting, Collage, Stamping

Acrylics, Watercolor pencils

A little bit of art I did today....there's never a shortage of inspiration for garden pages in my Home & Garden altered book...because I love these colors.  I was doing some background work on the pages and as I was working on the left page, I saw a "face"...not a face I intentionally created, it was just there....so I ended up creating a lady....strolling the garden.  Still kind of working on it, but decided to post it anyway.

The Painted Board

Home & Garden Altered Book

 

 

The Painted House by John Grisham is the book I am using for my Home & Garden altered book.  The inspiration for this page came from the text opposite this art where the author is describing how someone has painted a board on this tired, old brown house. 

In The Spirit of the Garden

In The Spirit of the Garden

Home & Garden Altered Book

Paint, stencil, collage

WORD JOURNAL - Quandary

I haven't added any words to my word journal in a very long time and I've been thinking a lot lately about my approach to art...I've been in such a quandary....I started out with my first art journal back in 2007, Simply Blue, and all of the pages are painted.  I'm sort of a "kid in a candy shop" when it comes to art supplies...every time I see a new medium...I want to try it but it distracts me from what I love to do most....and that is paint.  I do love what you can do with collage and rubber stamps and paper....and wouldn't give it up...but I need to also paint because the more you use the skill, the more you improve.  In my art journals, I don't use a lot of words because I want the painting to tell the story.  In my altered books, I do more collage.  So...quandary is the word...along with perplexity and dilemma.  Each tag has a wooden letter bead attached to the string..didn't quite make the photo.

 

Home & Garden, Altered Book

I had some time earlier today for creativity....still running on the energy of yesterday's altered book workshop, so I decided to do another two pages in my Home & Garden book...using napkins, magazine photos, some acrylics.  This came about from coming across the napkin with the rooster in my napkin stash and from there I went through a box of things I've torn out of magazines.  When you collect things that you like...that speak to you....you can always find materials to put together and it becomes an interesting piece.  For me, I love the colors and the patterns of the things on these pages.

MARDI GRAS -Altered Book

FEMALE/ALTERED BOOK

Went to my monthly class yesterday and the theme was Mardi Gras.  The technique we learned was how to make something look like a tile.  The tiles across the top of the left page and the one on the right top, are pictures done on inchies and then treated to give them the look of being tiles...you can't see the shine in these photos.  There is also gold paper on these pages...the metallic doesn't show... and ribbons and feathers and rhinestones.  And some glittery purple paper bottom left and top right...all  in keeping with the theme!

Perhaps my "dry spell" is over...

A PLACE TO STORE " IDEAS"

I saw the new Smash books when I was in Michael's last weekend and while I was there, I said to myself....why would I want to buy a book that already has things on the pages....when I can create my own and have been...from a blank book.  So...I didn't buy one.  But I went back and looked at them online and decided...just get one.  I have to say, the quality of the paper is very nice.  And I feel like it's a book that I don't really care...if I mess something up...
I am always dog-earring pages in catalogues and magazines of either color ideas for rooms, or a cool gift idea, or a neat recipe that I almost never get around to trying or I have an idea for a Christmas gift...but it's only February...so how am I going to remember it in December???  Well, that's what I am going to use this book for. Inside the front cover, I glued down a polka dot napkin and on the opposite page I created a pocket for some of those things I've already torn out of magazines this year. I kind of scribbled and just did whatever. The one thing I'm not crazy about is the quality of the polka dot tape because it doesn't stick very well to this paper so I'm adding glue...I think the paper is just too slick for the tape.

THE WOMEN I CAME FROM

 

Sadie, Virginia & Ann

Altered Book - Women

 

I received a really nice email yesterday, from an artist friend that I met 3 years ago, who lives on the other side of the planet.  She got me to thinking about the women I know and so I decided to journal about the women that I came from... on my mother's side...my great grandmother, Sadie (Sarah) and her daughter, my grandmother, Virginia...who died before my mother, Ann, was married.  My mother told me a few stories about them as I was growing up, but it's not the same as knowing them...and yet...they are where I came from.  I wish I knew more about them...what exactly did we have in common besides our DNA?  Well, one thing I know...I got the "not so great" math gene from my mother judging from her 4th grade report card.   But I also know that I got her creative gene...which I am very thankful for.

The Year of the Dragon

First altered book class

 

of the new year...we did the....

 "Year of the Dragon" 

The little "purse" on the right page involved some origami techniques.  The purse opens out and there is a card with Chinese letters that spell out Happy New Year inside.  I love the cool things you can do with origami....I just need patience and practice to master...not even master...to achieve the techniques...perhaps a new year's resolution I could keep....learn origami!  The little red envelope on the left holds a piece of  fake Chinese money.  The dragon is embossed on the red disk as are the Chinese letters in gold on the bottom right page.  The Dragon is a symbol of good fortune and power that commands respect.  Do you know what Chinese year you were born in?

Home & Garden Altered Book

I wanted to try cutting  a niche in this book...something I haven't experimented with before and it turned out great.  I didn't make it overly deep, just deep enough to hold the brass dragonfly.   And I had a nice piece of scrap paper to put behind it that has a touch of metallic to it.  These pages are about some of the smaller "critters" in nature....those that fly.  Sometimes, in our childhood days...we could be frightened by these critters....they are kind of weird looking...but for some reason I was thinking about the many dragonflies that may have landed on my arm at one time or another and I wasn't bothered by them at all...they are rather fascinating.  They move quietly about.  If they could talk...what would they have to say about life....what would their observations be?

Merry Christmas, Tom!

In The Pursuit of Happiness

I have had the best Christmas....I spent it with my son, Tom.  Now....crazy as this sounds....my son wasn't home for the first time in 23 years to celebrate Christmas.  But being focused on creating this little art piece...he and I were together and he'll be home soon.

I have a few more little "touches" I need to do and I also haven't figured out yet how I'm going to close the flap on the right....it says" Thank you for your service..."  but it will come to me, just as the theme for this piece of art came to me....

 When I sat down yesterday to do some art....this wasn't at all the direction I was going, but as often happens when you sit and start playing with things...ideas start to form....

And the next thing you know...you can hardly stand to stop working on it because the ideas are coming so fast and you're waiting for things to dry.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom,

must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."

---Thomas Paine

Inside the red envelope it says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

 The Christmas stamp represents freedom of religion.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE

Look outside:  it's morning

This is a day you'll remember

Hurry, get up and go

There are those who believe in you

Don't give up

 

Once in every life

There comes a time

We walk out all alone

And into the light

The moment won't last but then,

We remember it again

When we close our eyes.

Like stars across the sky

And in order to shine

You will have to win

We were born to shine

All of us here because we believe

 

Look ahead and never turn your back

On the caress of your dreams,

Your hopes and then,

Turn towards the day that will be

There is a finish line there.

Like stars across the sky

And in order to shine

You will have to win

Like stars across the sky

Don't give up

Someone is with you

Like stars across the sky

We were born to shine

And in order to shine

You will have to win

And then, you will win.

----Andrea Bocelli

HOME

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

NAKED TREES

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NAKED TREES IN WINTER

 

Trees in winter are really more beautiful than they are when they are clothed with leaves....in winter you can really see their shapes...they aren't camouflaged.  It's not that their seasonal colors aren't beautiful....but somehow in winter...their soul is revealed.   Haven't painted in weeks...felt good to sit down with the paint brush today...and because this is in my Red,White & Blue journal...I added the flag....I could have put a cardinal in a tree, but I didn't want to take away from the starkness of the trees...

What is Christmas?

I've been away from blogging....just couldn't seem to get here.  I haven't created anything either....after the nor'easter on Halloween weekend....I just had other things on my mind.  How do we roll so fast from Halloween to Christmas week?  Retailers kind of push the plate on that...I wish we could restore Christmas to what it truly is....and it's not finding the "big deal"  at 4:00am on Black Friday....that I am sure of.

I fee like I've already celebrated Christmas...my sister and husband were here to celebrate her birthday and we exchanged gifts;  and I and many others helped  to spread the word about an injured Marine in my son's unit that resulted in many generous people giving their time and making a donation to help get his life back on track.  God bless him!  So....I don't really need anything else except to go to church and give thanks and pray for those who aren't as blessed as I am this Christmas.
Here are some photos from around the house....

There's something special in each of these photos for me....