Ali Manning's Little Link Stitch Book

Ali from Vintage Page Designs had a bonus book lesson to practice the link and kettle stitches. No hard cover this time and a little different way of attaching the first two signatures together - took me a minute but it was fun. It's supposed to have a cord or ribbon attached to the center spine stitches that wraps around to hold it together but I didn't have anything I liked so will add that later.

This was made with scrapbook paper for the covers and some rice paper in varying shades of green as covers for the signatures inside.

5 Day Fabric Journal Challenge

 Last week Ali Manning at Vintage Page Designs taught a 5 day challenge making a journal which included how to make your own bookcloth and using link, kettle and long stitches to sew the signatures and covers. 

The was the first one, using fabric from a skirt I bought several years ago and never wore. I had waxed thread but it was a little too heavy and made the stitching kind off tough.

This was using fabric from Joanns and sewn together with embroidery floss that I had at home. It was much easier to sew and there are tons of colors so it might be a better choice for me from now on.

This last book's cover is paper collage and also sewn with embroidery floss, but I waxed it a little first. There's only one set of long stitches because the cover (which was made awhile ago) wasn't as big as the other two.

I forgot how much I like making books and have joined Ali's Handmade Book Club. 

Can't wait to get started!

Fodder Challenge

Last week Willa Wanders had a 9 day free FODDERCHALLENGE featuring a different artist and technique every day. I didn't get to all of them, but it was fun and really interesting to see how other people work.

DAY 2: STICKY COLLAGE FODDER with Rebecca Chapman

the shapes on these collages were made by painting "color swatches" on adhesive label sheets then cutting out shapes to make the flower stickers - such a cool idea

DAY 3: WORKBENCH REMNANTS with Dee Dee Catron

She used strips of fabric with paint marks for the ties and on two of the collages, stamps, sewn parts; basically pieces you had on your workbench/table and fabric swatches

DAY 4: STRIPS AND STITCHES with Tiffany Sharpe

collage started in a journal by using strips of paper, fabric, washi tape glued to a piece of patterned paper, then random sewing and the addition of hand drawn leaves

The course is open until August 7th - to register: https://willa-workshops.teachable.com/p/fodder-challenge

MAX

 

This is MAX, who left us on May 16, 2021

oil on canvas

Whoa..... almost 7 years since my last post

 Obviously life has gotten in the way, but now that I'm retired I'm setting up my art studio again and look forward to experimenting with bookmaking, collage and gel printing. 

A pastel started a couple days ago.......of course now I have to finish it.

A few more photos...........

taken on my iPad and using photo apps to enhance (snap seed, DistressedFX, Camera+, XnView FX and Pixlromatic+)

IPhoneography

I'm taking an online iphoneography class with Bob Weil and it's awesome!
I have no idea what I'm doing yet - I was able to do a couple basic edits on these photos, but I have to watch the videos a few more, probably many more, times.  There are so many subtle changes that can be made - over the whole or just parts of an image.  I'm a little hesitant to show these, but, whatever.........

Home Land

I just came back from 10 days in Ireland - my first trip.  My paternal grandmother was born in Fauleens, County Mayo.  My maternal grandmother was born in Tullamore and grandfather in Dublin.  We were able to see the land that belonged to my grandmothers family.  The house has since been torn down but some of the stones from the wall and fence remain.  We were lucky enough to catch the parish priest at home and he looked up birth records for her and most of her siblings and parents.  I tried to imagine her running through the fields, through the forest, and up and down the hills as a kid.  Somehow I don't think it was as idyllic as I imagined.

I'm just starting to organize my photos, but here are some of the highlights.

Cliffs of Moher

Galway

Dublin

Sheep. Everywhere.

Bird People

Marion Bockelmann is hosting a swap on her blog and the theme this year is Bird People.
Here are my people........

Elements from various kits at Deviant Scrap and the boots are from bing.  The bird had kind of a royal pose which works well with the head.

It's a little hard to see the word "BIRD" on this scan - the dress is from a vintage 60's ad in my collection and the word "BIRD" was slang for "girl" in the 60's.

These elements were also from Deviant Scrap but the figure is from a vintage magazine ad for a department store.

My dad

My sister had this photo of my dad from on her computer.  I had never seen it before, so she sent it to me and I added a photo of a Japanese temple he took while in Japan.

no explanation needed

Journaling

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with art journaling.  I love the idea of it and am inspired to look at people's journals.  I hate to actually do it.  Well, not all of it - just the writing (journaling) part.  I like buying the sketchbook or journal, cutting out images or playing around on the computer to make blank pages to start with.  But that's as far as I seem to get.  I don't like putting my thoughts down on paper and I'm sure there's some deep psychosis behind this, but it's definitely a pattern.
Which leads me to this post.  I went to Italy last year and decided to take some of my photos and make some "blank" pages (yet again) to see if it pushes me to print them out and start writing.  I even went so far as to keep a similar feel to the pages, leaving plenty of room to write, but somehow I'm not overly optimistic..............

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted something.  So, in honor of St. Patrick's Day here's a collage done in Photoshop Elements (and yes, that's me.  A long time ago in a world far away.........)

These images and background paper are also part of the Tangie Baxter's Caravan 2013 .  I spent a fair amount of time adding things even though part of me felt it didn't need anything else.  Was it too simple?  In the end, I decided to go with my first reaction and leave it alone.  The quote (flipped backwards) is "Art is never finished, only abandoned"

Some of these images are also from Tangie's Caravan 2013.  (the map piece and the gel transfer of a DaVinci painting) This months Port of Call is Italy. The photo  of the Duomo is from an old book and an olive tree from a kit called Tuscan Sun through Deviant Scrap.

My Home is my Castle..........two more.........

My Home is My Castle swap

Marion Bockelmann is having her annual swap and the theme is "My Home is my Castle"
Having just returned from Italy, and wanting to go back, that was my inspiration.

bockel24.blogspot.com

ITALY

We just got back from Italy - first time to Europe and it was amazing!

Venice

Monteriggioni

Siena

Pompeii

Rome

Burano

Pienza

Florence