3/26/11 A Little of This, A Little of That

I've spent the day working on another set of pages in my altered book from Lenna's course  (4 Artists 4 Ways) and once again trying to work with Photoshop Elements.

I also managed to get three collages done in Photoshop Elements using images from Paper Whimsy.

3/19/11 Another Page

I finished another page in my Altered Book from the 4 Artist 4 Ways class with Lenna Andrews.  I haven't had a chance to start on Lisa's lessons yet - maybe tomorrow.

3/13/11 The Weekends are Never Long Enough

I thought I'd get more done this weekend- I'm taking the Artful Pages class and this week was led by Lenna Andrews and focused on altered books.  I cut some pages out, attached pages together to make them  thicker and started painting.  The book was titled Five Days in Paris and I decided to use gold and blue paint which I applied without much thought for the first layer - I just wanted to cover the pages.  I remembered a book of black and white photographs of Paris that I had so I started cutting that up and also went through some images from Artchix Studio that I had.  I took about 50 pages at the end of the book and glued them together at the edges and when that dried I cut a rectangle out of the middle of the page.  I'm still looking for a few charms or metal pieces to put into this niche but right now there's just some images.  Below is a photo of the open book and then a close up of the page with the niche.

This was fun and the directions were great  - Lenna has a way of making everything seem easy.  She gives lots of options and lots of techniques to try.  I'm hoping to work on more pages this week - maybe a little glitter will find it's way into this book..........

3/6/11 Artful Pages - Journals

The second week of the Artful Pages online class was hosted by Hope Wallace Karney and focused on journaling.
The first lesson was about facing a blank page - something familiar to all of us.  She suggested the prompt of One Word that sums up your childhood and then using the letters of that word to add descriptions and help with the journaling.  The second lesson was on Secrets and Wishes and making pockets, tags and inserts.  The final lesson was about Following Your Heart.
She offered lots of images to download, but after I started the One Word from childhood I decided to continue with family images for the rest of the journal.
I haven't added the journaling to these pages yet so I thought it was a good time to post - before I reveal all my secrets.

I still need to finish some of the letters on the second page and fill in some of the empty spaces.

The photo on the right side is actually a pocket that is attached to the edge of the book page so it can flip out - there's a green tag inside.  The rectangular photo on the right page is attached to the inside edge with tape and also flips up in order to journal on the back of it. 

The last page isn't exactly the layout suggested in class - I attached a piece of paper on the left that would flip up and a pocket on the right that is only attached at the spine that also has tags inside for journaling.

Lenna Andrews is the artist hosting next week's lessons and it's about altering books - I can't wait to get started.