Deco Books

I've been working on a few deco books, trying to make each very different. I also wanted to experiment with some of the paints, techniques and unused stamps I have in my stash! All these pages had to feature the word 'art' somewhere on the front - and it's more obvious on some than others!



This is a double page spread for Chrissy. I painted the pages with Golden iridescent copper paint, stamped the veining with Brilliance galaxy gold, the spotting with Stazon turquoise, and embossed the main stamped images (Crafty Individuals, Diva Impressions, Art Specially for You) with Moonglow midnight teal embossing powder. The hearts were punched from glossy black card sprayed with Radiant rain gold. The pages are edged with Golden's gold mica flakes.




The front and back of Fiona's page. I painted the page with Golden micaceous iron oxide, which has a gorgeous subtle shimmer. I stamped the veining with Brilliance platinum, then added the images. The fish (Curtis Uyeda at Paula Best) is stamped and embossed in gold, on black cardstock, and the little girls (Diva Impressions) are stamped and embossed in white, on paper which had been sprayed with a range of shimmery colorwash sprays.





Carol's pages were washed with watered down colorwash sprays. On the front page, I doodled with a white pen before washing, and it acted as a resist. The image on the front is stamped and embossed with Moonglow midnight obsidian embossing powder, the then dragonfly is embossed for a second time using Kaleidoscope embossing powder - this is sparkly and changes colour the longer you heat it.

The back of the page is overstamped with Stazon turquoise and Invoke Arts stamps - which I purchased while I was with Carol in Portland last year! The photograph is one I took earlier this year, and it is backed with some tyvek and framed with part of a Crafty Individuals image stamped on transparency. The 'forever' stamp is Cat's Life Press (I think!).

Photograph for Trish's ArtBuzz challenge

Trish Bee:

http://artbuzz.wordpress.com/

wants evidence of pictures taken of "something that moves you or catches your eye, something which looks artistic, a natural beauty which hasn't been staged or posed in any way. No people or pets for this - try to think of every day objects or things in nature…it could be the leaves on the ground, flowers, clouds or even litter on the floor."

I took a few pics and thought I'd share them with you!




A stone in the wall of a ruined castle - Dolforwyn Castle near Montgomery, Wales.

I love the way the stone has crazed,
and how the crazing is white and
a stark contrast to the deep grey of the stone.



A churchyard next to the sea - at Dyffryn Ardudwy, near Harlech, Wales.
This looks so atmospheric. I love the sea,
and would love to be buried next to it when I die.



A window at Valle Crucis Abbey, near Llangollen, north Wales.
I love the texture of the carved stone, and also the view it frames.




Shalllow water on a beach on Anglesey.
If you look closely you can also see a small jellyfish.
I love the texture and the reflections off the water.

Free collage sheet

I created this collage sheet today,
from photographs I have taken over the last year or two.

(click to enlarge)

I have uploaded this as a low resolution jpeg to save webspace.
If you would me to email a high resolution file to you, sized to print onto A4 paper,
please leave a comment with your email address.

Little Beauties - Birds

Little Beauties are nice little handmade embellishments. I am running a series of themed 'Little Beauty' swaps over on CC Swaps yahoo group. The latest theme is birds, and these are winging their way across the Atlantic to Idaho. I hope my swap partner likes them. Some feature shrink plastic, some have transparency overlays, one is stamped onto a very thin slice of wood, and one has a kitchen towel background - it was sprayed with Radiant Rains spray and all the mica settled into the channels of the pattern.

(click on the image if you want a more detailed view)

Deco book spread

The owner of this book wanted a double page spread.
The previous pages were sea-themed,
so I took my inspiration from that,
and continued the theme...

Stamps are by Stampington.

Remember you can enlarge the image by clicking on it.

Round Robin book, 2nd spread

This is the spread I did in Linda's book.

Linda chose the colour yellow for her book,
with an option to include 'garden colours',
and a sub theme of doors.

I have never worked in yellow,
and found it quite difficult to
think of an attractive design.

I looked at the spread Linda had done in her own book,
and it had images of daffodils and a poem by William Wordsworth.
I decided to use the themes of flowers and poetry.

Once I had found the poem for the left hand page,
all about the wilderness and weeds,
by Gerald Manley Hopkins,
it led me to adding pressed leaves and
flowers - all grown in my own garden.

And once I had settled on flowers,
sunflowers seemed appropriate,
so I printed a sunflower stained glass image
onto a transparency and framed it with copper tape,
which is used for tiffany stained glass work.

I added a tag which has an appropriate
poem by William Blake on it,
and attached it with wire so that it can be
easily lifted and turned over to read the second verse.

Double Deuce Dare

I was sent a number of items in the mail,
and had to create something using at least 70% of them,
then send it on to a named recipient.

Sounds easy. Unfortunately, my muse
took one look at the items and ran away!
I am not really comfortable creating in a 'vintage' style

This is what arrived:




Anyway, this is what I created - a decorated tin:



A booklet to go with the decorated tin:









I hope the recipient likes it!

Tall Skinny Page - finished

Well, the swap stated that we had to
combine animals and children in a non-cute way....

I hope I achieved it!

Tall Skinny Pages

My fingers are covered in paint and ink!

These are the backgrounds for my tall & skinny pages
for a swap Sweetpea is hosting on CC Swaps.

I finally went shopping for cardstock
to make 26 tall and skinny pages,
and have spent some time this morning adding paint,
colorwash sprays, and stamped partial images.

My images are all ready to be printed and added,
so i hope to get these in the post early next week.

I may even post a picture of the
finished pages when they're done!

Underwater little beauties

Here are some 'Little Beauties' on an underwater theme,
for a swap I'm hostessing.




The mermaids are made with friendly plastic in an
Enchanted Gallery mould, and the fish
is made with air dry clay in a Krafty Lady mould.

Animals and 'art'

Please sign the petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

which may make this and other artists think again about the use of animals in their work.

This is barbaric and completely unacceptable in my opinion.

Deco pages

Just a couple more deco pages for the
NGS yahoo group deco book round robin...

Altered book round robin

I have joined a round robin altered book

There are 4 players,
and my theme is 'turquoise & copper'.
This is a nearly finished spread in the book:

I have also created a sign in page,
and a blank page, and hope my
collaborators are going to produce marvellous things!

Flourish ATCs

I made 2 ATCs with 'flourishes'
for a swap on CC Swaps.

I have seen lots of ATCs using flourishes recently,
including some absolutely stunning examples
(just scroll down Kelly Burton's blog:
http://artsyvisions.blogspot.com
and you'll see what I mean)
but most seem to be the same
'vintage' style - very nice, but not quite 'me'.

So, here's my slant on flourishes:

This one uses silver mirror card,
a flourish stamp, versamark,
some Stewart Gill 'lead patina' embossing powder,
a tasteful nude image, some background paper,
a fabric flower and a little brad!

This one uses some pre-printed
background cardstock,
a piece of Tyvek (painted with colourwashes,
run through a Wizard in a cuttlebug folder
& highlighted with Stewart Gill paint
and Brilliance ink),
a Paper Whimsy image and border,
plus a transparency stamped with a
Crafty Individuals flourish in Brilliance ink.

Deco pages

I'm involved in a round robin deco book swap,
but my muse deserted me....

This morning I got up at 4.30 a.m.
and found inspiration!

I had created a small digital collage
by taking a photograph of a flapper
and using the 'watercolour' filter,
adding a clock,
and changing the colours.

I really like the result,
so you'll probably see it again on other things!

The background of the page is
micaceous iron oxide - it gives a lovely fine shimmer.
I stamped over it with Brilliance ink, and then added the collaged image.

On the back, I used one of the Little Beauties
we've been swapping over on CC Swaps:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CCSwaps

This page is in a Deco where the owner
specified an Asian theme,
and covered the pages with pages
from an Asian newspaper.

I stamped some Basic Grey paper with Japanese text,
and then stamped and embossed with a
fish stamp - I love this stamp!!!

Travel tip in 2 & 3

Sometimes I make life harder for
myself - and I have no idea why!!!
I signed up 3 times for the tip in pages
swap - so why not just make 3 copies of one design?

Too easy....

So here is design number 2....


celebrating the history
and culture of Wales


the third design also focussed on
Wales - using photographs I took myself,
celebrating the countryside
and some buildings I love:

The final design doesn't work as well as I
hoped - it kind of looks less like a tip in page
and more like a photo album,
but at least the landscape is unfamiliar
to the person who'll be receiving it.

Travel Tip in page

I have signed up for a 'Travel' themed tip in swap.

Once upon a time, a long time ago,
I lived on a ship, and travelled the world....



I remember sending
airmail letters & postcards home,
probably not as often as I should have....


I often used to wonder about the world
below the waves we were sailing over...

...but have never found the courage to travel there.

Collage sheet freebie

Here's another collage sheet for you to use in your art. I travelled far and wide to find the doors, windows & statuary to take photos of, so please don't sell or repost the images in any manner. You are more than welcome to use the images in your artwork, but not for magazine submissions or to make a profit...

Another deco page

I've had some kind of flu-like virus for a few days and had begin to think my muse was sicker than me as I wasn't even feeling up to making art - but I am feeling a little better today and have done some art - first the photo collage, and now this deco page. I am pleased with it. I hope the owner likes it too.

Collage sheet freebie

Please feel free to download and print and use in your art.
You may need to adjust the size in print preview before printing!

Another deco book

Another deco book is on it's travels, this is my contribution:

I painted the page with Golden micaceous iron oxide,
then stamped a scroll with Brilliance platinum planet,
added 3 flowers,
stuck a skeleton leaf down with gel medium,
then added a paper clay lizard that
I had also painted with micaceous iron oxide.

For the back of the page,
I used a brass stencil and some
Dreamweaver stencil paste
(which is way too gaudy)
then stippled over the stencil paste with
Brilliance inks to dull it down a little.

Deco Book

Here is my page in somebody else's Deco book...




I covered the cardstock with metal tape, added colour with alcohol inks, added a packing tape image transfer, framed it with some german scrap and stamped some leaves.