My Art - T&T Fat Book Mingle page

Created this fat book page for the This & That Fat book page mingle. I chose do a page on Valentine's this time around. The background paper I used is actually gift wrap which started out being ivory with tan writing. I colour washed it with acrylic paint to better suit my colour scheme. Worked out very well!! It is always better to colour wash your paper before you cut it to size because sometimes the paper shrinks a little. The top of the image is the back and the bottom is the front. I created a shaker to add to my page using acetate and a frame from the same sticker sheet I used for my coaster calendar. I had hoped the words underneath would be more legible - just a few too many red and gold confettis in it!! The words are repeated on the back so that works. I added some paper lace from a doily, some ribbon, a bit of the border sticker and some handwritten love quotes. I am a bit early with this one - not my usual MO - but I have classes to teach in February which will be taking a lot of my time so I am planning ahead with some of my other projects.

Therese

My Art - Valentine's Mingle

This Valentine's mingle has been going on for a few years and it is always fun to participate!! I decided to step it up a notch for myself this year and created a double coaster calendar!! It was so fun to make!! I covered both sides of my chipboard coasters with my own hand decorated paper. The inside piece had to be colour washed a bit with yellow to bring it up to the same warmth as the stickers I wanted to use. No problem - worked very well. The strips are stickers from a $1 store pack. I created a little acetate pocket for my calendar pages (printed using PrintMaster). It can be filled with another small calendar for the next year or a photo, postage stamps, or whatever!! I attached it with double sided tape. Added ribbon on both coasters for accent and interest. Added a gold embossed heart on the left hand side along with "CREATE"!!
Created a little binding with gold thread so the coasters would stand and not be wobbly with each other. Added gold hearts to the outsides to cover the holes I punched for the ribbon. The front also has an interesting angel transparency on the front. A totally fun project and will make a great addition to someone's studio!!

Therese

My Art - Journal Tip ins

I am part of a new group that was spawned off of one of my regular groups to experiment with altered journals. The eight of us have each chosen a theme and indicated the size of pages we need to tip into our journals. Here is the spread I created for Bettiann's journal whose theme is nature and quotes. I started with light weight cardstock and glued in place two pieces of scrapbook paper which I colour washed with umber to tone them down a bit. I added butterfly borders from a sticker pack. Added a strip of flourishes on transparency and attached it with eyelets in the center of flower punchies. A few of the flowers "burst" with the application of the hammer to the eyelets. They have a more organic look. Real pressed flowers - a pansy and a yellow daisy. A few more stickers, a colour printed quote and some quotes written in by hand. Added a cinquain I wrote several years ago for an exchnage which worked well with the theme. I attached it with corner stickers and leaf eyelets in the top corners to create a pocket. Inside the pocket I added a tag with my info and a photo. I was careful not to add too much bulk to the spine area. Very happy with the way this layout turned out!! We will all have wonderful journals by the end of the year.
I would certainly encourage you to modify any preprinted paper to suit your needs. Amazingly, a very light colour wash can bring a paper that is just "off" in colour right up to where you need it to be. I also use my stipple brush and inkpads to modify the colour of items which are not quite what I need them to be. Works really great with silk flowers!!

Therese