Altered Book: July

Altered book round robin, book 6.

This book is a hefty art history text. I came across the cubism chapter and was excited to create visual interest based on cubes and squares. 

I'm still on a cut-out kick, and this afforded another fun opportunity.

Now, I just have to get this particularly weighty book to the post office. (Thank goodness for media-mail!)

Global

So, ever since I saw this Design*Sponge post, I've been wanting to paint my own globe. Then, a few weeks ago, I got a text message from my sister telling me she's found one for me for cheap! 

After a trip to Menards (and then to local hardware store for the stuff Menards didn't have) for chalkboard paint, painter's tape, and a mini-roller, I was ready to plan my own map of the world!

And here it is after a few layers of paint!

 

Altered Book: June

Altered book round robin, moving on to book 5.

This book is an instructional kid's art book, and therefore the inspiration is literally written on each page. I found these pages on texture and weaving, and I ran with it.

The first page turned out a bit wonky because the diagonal weave stretched a bit, but live and learn. Page 2 was definitely more successful.

Happy Saturday

Last Saturday was wonderful. I started the morning with farmer's market, brunch, and fabric shopping with one college friend and ended an afternoon of music and beer at the Ankeny Unplugged concert series with another. 

My friend Hillary is a sewing fiend. I've tried sewing myself bags and purses before, but they are generally 2 squares of fabric with a strap stitched on at the end. But Hillary makes these gorgeous, structured bags with fancy things like pockets and magnetic closures. She also has great taste in fabric. She took me to a local fabric shop, and although I don't own a sewing machine, I still came home with fabric. . . chalk fabric!

Another friend of mine is in the process of moving into a new home, and I wanted to use the chalk fabric to make her a fun framed chalkboard as a house warming gift.

You have to "cure" the chalk surface first by covering it entirely with chalk, wiping it down, and doing it again. This apparently helps the chalk surface stay eraseable and prevent permanent chalk marks.

I didn't take any more pictures of the process, but it was quick and simple. I just sewed a few colored buttons to the fabric and then placed it in an empty frame. I think it turned out pretty well.

Altered Book: May

Altered book round robin, book 4!

This is a cute book with a story of a little boy who befriends a wild goose. It is beautifully illustrated, and I loved this drawing of the little boy waving good bye as his goose flies away.

Judging by my previous altered book posts, I like color and particularly texture. I didn't have any particular thoughts behind what I did this time, just started cutting and layering, and there you go.

And, as you can see, I like to work on my floor. Glue and my oriental rug, even if the orient is really Home Depot, are probably a poor combo, but I've avoided catastrophe thus far.

Altered Book: March

I received the first book in my altered book round robin!

The book is a collection of essays regarding women and changing roles in society. The cover was altered along the theme of women and independence, and it seemed to make the most sense to continue along that theme. I debated the best way to go about it, I liked the idea of playing with fashion throughout history, but couldn't think of a great way to execute it. So, I decided to focus instead on influential women throughout history.

I bought translucent vellum and printed black and white portraits of some of my favorite powerful female characters.

I had randomly purchased this hardware-patterned scrapbooking paper, and I loved the idea of pairing this traditionally masculine pattern with the photos of these strong ladies.

I wanted the photos to be featured like portraits, so used a circular punch to create a "frame" from either the book page or the additional paper. I used the patterned transparency to embellish the frame.

Also, I am a huge nerd and overly obsessed with detail. For as many of the portraits as I could, I tried to pair the woman with an appropriate word in the text. On the left is Rosalind Franklin, the woman whose work in X-ray crystallography led to discovery of the double helix structure of DNA (although the credit went to Watson and Crick). Her portrait frames the word "scientific." Ella Fitzgerald frames "music" and Frida Kahlo "artistic."

Here are a couple more finished pages:

Coco Chanel with Queen Elizabeth I in the background

Kathryn Hepburn and Marie Curie

Rosa Parks and Amelia Earhart (who shares my birthday!)
with Rosalind at the bottom of the page.

I think I may even have it in the mail before the April 1 deadline. I love this creative outlet, and I'm excited for whatever's next in the robin!

Altered Book: The Cover

As a reminder, here is the book I've decided to alter for my Altered Book Round Robin.

After some serious deliberation, I decided I wanted to try making the cover look like stained glass, giving it color and depth. In order to do that, my plan was to do shape cut-outs of both paper and the cover. Having never tried anything like this before, I made a trip to my local Michael's (always a good time) to pick up an X-acto knife and cutting mat.


I drew my pattern on the back of black metallic cardstock and began cutting.

I glued my stain-glass frame to the book cover and used it as a stencil to make the same cut-outs through the cover, exposing the text beneath. The back cover actually turned out to be my favorite.

Front cover

Back cover.

I left some of the spaces filled in the back cover. In fact, it turned out so well that I didn't fill in with color for my stained glass look either. I just liked how it looked. 

After a mess of glue and tissue paper!

It seemed appropriate that the introduction should be the place where people introduce themselves and their additions to my book!

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