Altered Plans

Initially, I'd planned to spend all of today preparing for our trip. But my altered book was calling me, so I had to alter my plans. It was time well spent, too, because I finished three more spreads: pages 9 through 14:

9 and 10: Masked over images, then spray painted primer over both pages,
followed by matte black spray paint. For the page numbers, I outlined the stencils.

To add a little interest, I turned the "zero" on it's side.

11 and 12: Once again, I masked over the images, threw down the alphabet stencil,
then lightly sprayed both pages with black matte spray paint.
I followed this with a heavy spraying down the spine, and a curly-cue on page 11.
Once this dried, I went over the curly-cue with a blue metallic marker,
and outlined the bird on page 12 with the same marker.
It's hard to see, but he light blue metallic plays nicely against the black and white background. This time around, I scribbled inside the "11" sentcil,
and drew vertical lines inside "12" (to repeat the verticality of the alphabet stencil).

13 and 14: This time, I place a large alphabet stencil across both pages,
then did a heavy spraying with orange, glossy spray paint.
The translucency of the paint really appeals to me--I like the way the birds
(on page 14, especially) show through.
Because the letters of the alphabet are so large on this particular spread,
I decided to spell out the page number with a much smaller stencil. I did this with a gold metallic marker. I also used the same marker to outline "HI" on page 14.

657 Days Until George W. Bush Leaves Office!
658 Days Until the BIG PARTY!!!!

Altering & Gardening

Well, I finally finished the pages that I started in the altered book, and even managed to start & finish a few more. I thought that I'd concentrate on trying some different techniques, hence the page numbers (for keeping track). I used stencils for the page numbers. All of the photos in the original book are black & white images. If you'd like to experiment with some of the same methods, I'll list them below each photo.1: watercolor & acrylic, with a coffee filter and stenciling.
2: watercolor over black & white printed image.

3: watercolor & acrylic, with stenciling.
4: watercolor over black & white printed image, acrylic dragged
over surface with a wooden skewer, and joss paper.

5 & 6: watercolor & acrylic (with stenciling on 6).*
Incidentally, I really love that Sun stencil, so you'll likely see a lot more of it in the future.

7: acrylic, painted around a black & white image, glue stick cap used to stamp the circles.
8: coffee filter over: acrylic paint, dot stickers, and cut out; and
glue stick cap used to stamp the circles.

I really like the coffee filter effect. It resembles velum, but with texture.

* The bubbling that you see on pages 5 and 6 is due to, I think, having painted the pages prior to gluing them together with Mod Podge. I started atering the pages, and then decided that they needed to be thicker than just one page, so I fused the pages together with Mod Podge. Each page is now 2 pages thick. Unfortunately, that bubbling occurred, but only on the pages that had paint on them prior to the fusing. Live and learn, right? That's why this is a book for experimenting different techniques :)

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that that was a full day's work; or very nearly. I also took some time out to finish reading the cards from Wide Open "creativity notebook and card set" (see earlier post) by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts. I'm telling ya--that's just about the coolest book/card set I've ever encountered.

So, today I decided that I needed to get outside. It's a gorgeous day for it, too! Sunny. Cool. Just the slightest breeze. Miss Frida and I worked out in the garden--turning over the soil, then raking everything smooth in preparation for this year's crop. I need to get some snow pea seeds and get them into the ground before it gets too warm. Then I can relax for a little while and figure out exactly which varieties of tomatoes and peppers I'll plant this year. Gonna need some of those little jewels (sweet 100s) for salad, but also some biggies for salsa. Yum! My mouth is watering in anticipation!

666 Days until George W. Bush Leaves Office!
667 Days until the BIG PARTY!!!