Playing

After I had finished my altered book I wanted to play with the products that Shonna had designed for me.

Shonna designed 8 Thermofax screens and Kate Andre designed the 2 word ones.

Shonna designed this set of stamps.

How exciting is that - to have people design and make products for you!!!!  And you can't just have them sitting there, can you?

I needed to play!   But time has been a little short lately so rather than just play for the sake of it, I played at making the backgrounds for my Take Me Deeper pages in September.

Yes, I know that's getting ahead of myself but the theme for September is Promises - and I know this because I had just finished writing the weekly prompts and had sent them off to Mary for editing.

The theme for these pages is 'The Promise of Forgiveness'.   I used the olive branch image to represent forgiveness.   I wiped 3 colours of acrylic paint across the pages.

I used the stamp I had made from Shonna's design.  To make it, I used the thermofax screen on a piece of paper and cut the image out.  I drew round it on some cellulose foam and cut out the stamp.  You have to wet the foam to make it thick and sponge like and then I stuck it on some acrylic packaging.

 I printed with some acrylic paint.

  And when dry I went over it - sketchily - with a white pen.

On this double page spread I used black acrylic paint through the palm branch screen.  The theme for this week is 'The Promise of Wisdom'.  I used the palm branch as a symbol of righteousness and justice.  And the bell and pomegranate from the description of Aaron's robe in Exodus 28:33-34 which i feel links with the wisdom give to Bezalel in Exodus 35:30-35

Then I sprayed with Dylusions red ink spray.

It was too bright so I sprayed Dylusions White Linen spray through a stencil.

And dried off the stencil on another page!

I stamped the bell and the pomegranate stamps randomly on the page.

I coloured the pomegranates with a purple gel pen.  I did four layers so that it looks enamelled.  And I added gold leaf to the bells.

I drew on the palm branches with a white pen.

The theme for these pages is 'Equipped for Life'.   In the Promised Land God provided everything that was needed so I used all of the images.

I applied the acrylic paint and when dry I added the thermofax xcreen images using white acrylic paint.   I didn't use much paint so the images are quite faint.

I added black highlights with a black pen.

  

And then I thought I would play some more.  I don't make cards but I like making tags.  However I think a tag like this would work as a topper on a card.

I bought some paper napkins that had bottles of wine on but the labels are Love and Joy and things like that.  I tore this bottle from the napkin and took the top layer and glued it to the tag.  I used the coloured spots from the napkin too on the small tag.  I used the vine stamp and stamped on the large tag and the vine leaf on the small tag.  I inked the edges of the tags.  I could have coloured in the stamped images but decided to leave them as they are.  I glued the small tag to the large one and then wrapped the string round.

If you've never used Thermofax screens, here's a short video on how easy they are to use.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Altered Book

I have no idea where July went.  In June I asked you to come back to find out more about my altered book.  And I have just realised that I didn't do the follow up post.  Sorry about that.  So here it is.

This is a flip through of the whole book.  The book is based on Deuteronomy 8:7-8

And here are some of the individual pages.

I really loved making this book.  I made it as part of a class for His Kingdom Come.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

I've been busy

My word - it feels like forever since I blogged!

I've been really busy planning 3 new classes for His Kingdom Come on altered books.

I'll be giving more information in the next couple of weeks but I didn't want my wonderful readers to think I had forgotten them.  So for now here is a preview of the classes.

And here's a page from my finished book.  The theme of the book is The Promised Land and is based on Deuteronomy 8:7-8 

Such fun to make.

Come back to find out more.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bernice

More planner pages

Last month I shared the pages for weeks 26 to 28.  The 52 Psalms study is being posted again after a short break but I have carried on sticking them into my book week on week which means that when I was sharing weeks 26-28 I hadn't received the study.  So here's a catch up.

Week 26

Week 27

Week 28
One of the challenges for Documented Life Project was to add hearts to the page and I found this great piece of scrapbook cardstock.  When I came to stick the next Psalm in there were more hearts.

Week 29
This was another week of watching the Tour de France.

Week 30
And yet another week of watching cycling.  Although I did go off for two days to a workshop with Hilary Beattie.

In One Little Word for July we were presented with a prompt which required us to do three things during the month: Self-care, Giving and Celebrate.  The page on the right is a gelli print.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bernice

A new project

I started working on an altered book for my new challenge blog The Art of Practising Gratitude.  Usually I use an old book I already own or I recycle one very cheaply from a charity shop but this time I bought a book in the cheap section of Barnes & Noble because of its title: A Simple Act of Gratitude.

I read the book on my journey home.  It is the story of a man who decides he will write one thank you letter every day for a year and what happens to him as a result.  The art of practising gratitude really changes his life.

When I removed the paper cover I found a really beautiful hard cover just right for altering.

When you make an altered book it is better to use one that is sewn together, however this one was glued.  For more information on altering books have a look at this post and this.  I probably won't be folding any of the pages in this book as I did in Passport to Art.

The book needs to have some pages removed so that it doesn't become too bulky but first I decided I would go through the book and mark some places where there were words I wanted to keep.  Often this is called Found Poetry but for me it was just key words that were relevant to gratitude.  As I went through I drew pencil boxes and wrote down the page numbers.

As you choose the words don't think about the sense they make in terms of the page they are on or the story they are in.  Just choose words that appeal to you particularly about Gratitude.

I pulled some of the pages out in between the marked pages (often 3 or 4) and glued the remaining pages together in groups of 3 or 4.  Don't throw any of the torn out pages away yet.  You might need them to make extra pages for your book, make flaps or use them in other collage projects.

I went through the pages using clear gesso on the words I wanted to keep.  If you don't have any clear gesso use small pieces of washi tape or low tack painter's tape to cover up the words you want to keep.  You can remove this once you've painted over the rest of the page.

I used gluestick rather than wet glue because the paper wasn't terribly good quality and I didn't want a lot of wrinkles in the stuck together pages.  You do still get some wrinkling but it adds to the texture of the finished book.  Here you can see where I've pulled a few pages out and the rest of the book to do.

Make sure you glue together two pages either side of some you've pulled out to cover up the rough edges and to strengthen the spine.

When the glue and the clear gesso was dry, I started painting each page of the book.  It is over a month since I wrote the challenges for The Art of Practising Gratitude so I have cannot remember what art challenges I've put.  I decided that if I painted every page with acrylic paint - you could use gesso - then when I come to actually complete each day's challenge I won't be nervous about starting the page because it already has some paint on it.  If it doesn't suit that day's challenge I can always stick one of the pulled out pages over it or a coat of gesso.

A small amount of paint on the throwaway plate.

The page with the clear gesso before paint is applied.

The paint over the whole page.

The paint wiped off with a wet wipe to reveal the words.

If when I come to do the journal page the words are not relevant or I need to cover them over with something else because of the instructions for that day, then so be it.

I do hope you will join in with The Art of Practising Gratitude. Go over to the blog and join up by email so that you get every blog post.  Ask to join the Facebook group.  It will be good to see you.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice