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Sunday, April 27, 2008

ALTERED PHOTOGRAPHS

Since I love photography and have been teaching a class to our local 4-H chapter, I've been doing some research on altering the emulsion on the photographic paper. I discovered that if I used a semi-gloss paper and print the image in black and white, I can color in, whichever parts I choose with watercolor pencils. It makes the photograph look almost like it was drawn.





Saturday, April 26, 2008

MATTE BOARD PAPER PAD

I am having such a good time with this matting process. This is a double matte that my friend Andy and I cut the day I was up there, and she didn't like it, but I took it home anyway. Now that I have been binding everything in sight with my new wire binder, I made a paper pad and bound it between a front and back cover, and on the front cover I was able to put one of my photographs in the window and cover the back. I LOVE these pads. Not only are they handy and practical, but it's another way to show off my photography.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A PLACE FOR EARRINGS

I was getting so tired of trying to find a pair of earrings to wear to work everyday because I had to sort through them. A lot of them were put away in other areas and I forgot I had them. I tend to be one of those "out of sight, out of mind" people when it comes to having too much stock and not remembering where I put it all. I have since developed the attitude that "It's not getting what I want, but rather wanting what I've got." Yesterday I developed an idea for my earrings using an old piece of copper tubing that I had laying around. I make most of my earrings myself, and I tend to make them pretty dangly, so I needed room for them to hang without interference. Now I not only have a great place to hang and view the earrings I made, but it also dresses up the bathroom a bit.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

PREPPRY SPRING SWAP ITEMS
















Wow - Look what I got in the mail today!!! My items arrived for the Preppy Spring Swap from Cassie in Florida. Look at the cool stuff. We were to send six items, the theme being preppy and pink and green, and each item was for the word "SPRING", i.e. Special green wallet, pink slippers, etc. Those slippers by the way are tres comfortable. Cassie and I found we had so much in common. We both like to shop so we went way over the six item limit and we each strayed a bit from the color scheme, but that just couldn't be helped. That purple bath towel is so pretty and one of my favorite colors as well. I loved the journal and the book about the Madison County covered bridges, and, well, the vase, the lotions, the icicle makers, the paper clips, notes with envelopes, clear lip gloss, ribbons, Hot Tamales, "K" sticky note pads, and everything else. Plus, it was all cleverly put together in a green plastic bin with my initials on the outside and the word "create" on the inside. Talk about a classy, fun and exciting package to receive in the mail. Woo hoooooo. That has made my week. Thank you Cassie and thank you Connecticut Charm for hosting this fabulous swap. I can't wait to check out everyone else's blogs to see what they got.




UPLOAD PROBLEMS

Apparently Blogger is having upload problems with uploading photographs at the moment. I guess they are working on it. I wanted to post pictures of the items I received from Cassie from the Preppy Springtime Swap, but I will have to do that at a later date when it is working properly. Everything she sent was totally me, so the idea to fill out the "get to know you" list, was a great one. We found we had lot in common, especially the fact that neither one of us can follow directions *wink*.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

LEARNING TO MATTE

I am so excited that I am getting a chance to learn to cut matte board. I have a friend, Andy (short for Andrea) who does it professionally and she said that if I went to her house where she has her workshop, she would show me some techniques. So, the day before I was supposed to go up there, I sat down and designed four mattes that I wanted to cut. This is the one that turned out the best and took the most time. It is 8" x 8" and being that small, it was kind of tough getting these cuts to come out just right. Andy did most of the cutting, but I did some of the cutouts myself. I did the slits around the sides, a couple of triangles and on the inside black matte, I made some wrong cuts, but I still like the way it turned out. I also did a purple matte with a lightening bolt, but didn't scan it into the computer yet.

I recently purchased a binding machine and will be making many projects to bind together, like date books, journals, photo books, etc. I will be using the matte board for back and front covers. Some will be cut and others will be collaged, etc. Look for those posts soon.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

MAILING DAY

Today is the first mailing date for our round robin on my Altered Book Yahoo Group. We now have six people in the round and the mailing sequence pretty much makes a trip in a nice circle around the U.S.

I am so excited that this came together. The Altered Art Books Group on Yahoo has over 1,700 members and while I was in it, I couldn't tell who was doing what or talking to who, or what round robins were going on where.

My Round Robin Express Group will remain small and therefore, manageable. I hope everyone in it stays enthusiastic and diligent in meeting their deadlines. That way, everything will run smoothly.

Once we have about 20 people, we are going to break down into two groups of 10 for the robins and I'm not sure that I will let more than 20 people join at a time. If anyone wants to join, please stop by. There is a Yahoo button on the left that will get you there, but you can't do much looking around unless you join. Please don't join just to look, though. I have a strict "no lurking" policy in place and it just wastes your time and mine. Looking for serious and dedicated people only.

Have a wonderful day.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

NEW JOURNAL

I got another journal done. This one was particularly fun because I got the spine just right and it almost looks like it was professionally bound.
I drew a moon, which is the symbol on my necklace, and

inserted it inside the front cover. You can't tell from the upper, right picture, but the ripped black piece is attached to the back of the first journal page. It sort of looks as though it's floating off into nowhere. I have four more journals in the works, and soon will be showing you some spiral bound journals as well. I'm just so excited about these books. I'll post them within the next week or two.

Preppy Spring Swap

I finally mailed my package out to Cassie for the Preppy Spring Swap. I went way over six items (hard to keep to that small number), and I strayed a bit from the pink and green theme, but I think she's going to like everything. Can't wait until the postman brings my box from Florida - woo hoo!!!!

Friday, April 11, 2008

HARD COVER JOURNALS

I finally mastered making hard back books. This was always a goal of mine as I use so many journals and always wanted to create my own. I feel like a factory as in 3 days I've managed to make 6 journals, and all different, some have blank pages and some have lined pages as well. I have a few more pictures below:


























































Sunday, April 6, 2008

ALTERED BOOK ROUND ROBIN PHOTOS

It's almost time for the first mailing of the Yahoo Groups RoundRobinExpress' first mailing. Below are photos of my cover and the inside two pages. I used a large, pull out tag for the artists' signature information and the page on the right is a list of likes and dislikes for our theme. I am so excited to get this started.















Tuesday, April 1, 2008

ALTERED BOOK ROUND ROBIN

In case you missed my post on the left side of the blog, I'm hosting an altered book round robin. We currently have 4 people involved, including myself, so it is still small and personal. We'd love to have you join. If you're interested, click the Yahoo button in the left hand column. If that link isn't working, go to Yahoo Groups and do a group search for RoundRobinExpress. But hurry, the first mailing date is April 17th. All but the mailing order is posted. It's going to be different and lots of fun. Hope to see you there.