Three-Color Palette Chunky Challenge

So I decided to challenge our Chunky Players this round.  You know how we all seem to gravitate to our same favorite colors?  Well, to take everyone a bit outside of their color comfort zones, I asked each player to give me three numbers between 1 and 50.  I then matched each player's numbers against a master color list and gave them the three colors to work with.  Some combinations were complimentary.  Others, not so.  Therein lies the challenge!

As the pages started to roll in, I was amazed at how creative everyone was with this challenge.  They gladly trusted me to take them out of their comfort zone and the result was quite wonderful!  

The colors I chose were tangerine, prussian blue and silver.  I had recently taken an altered book technique workshop where I finally learned how to create a tunnel book.  I employed the tunnel technique to created my chunky pages this month.  It was a bit labor-intensive, but I had help from my Altered Ladies friend, Pat, who eagerly volunteered to die-cut my birds and branches so she could practice using the Big Shot!  I think she had so much fun, she will be buying a Big Shot of her own very soon!  I prepared all parts of my chunky pages and assembled them on my recent flight to San Francisco.  I love passing the time on an airplane doing art projects!  By the time we touched down, my pages were pretty much finished!

Pinocchio: The Puppet Who Became A Boy

I had an interesting challenge working in Teri's "Fairy Tales" book this month.  Her book opens up in a vertical orientation.  Some of the spreads that preceded mine took advantage of the height of the book (e.g., Rapunzel, Jack in the Beanstalk).  What fairy tale could I pick that would allow me to do the same?

I just couldn't think of a fairy tale that inspired me, so I moved into Children's Stories, then Disney movies and that was when it came to me.  I could do Pinocchio!  I thought a pull-tab would be the perfect mechanism for his nose.  And, to give this spread some height, I depicted him in his puppet stage so he could be suspended by the strings of a marionette.

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Artist-Inspired Chunkies

I knew this chunky theme would be a challenge for me--mainly because I do not paint or draw.  How could I possibly create chunky pages in the style of an artist I admire?  Well, one day it came to me.  I found these mustache stickers and for some reason, when I turned them up-side down, they reminded me of Frida Kahlo's unibrow!

I proceeded to cut out photos from the scores of catalogs in my stash and then began matching the "unibrows" to the faces.  This is what I came up with!  I framed the unibrowed faces with strips of metallic stickers and placed a small embellishment where the lines intersected for interest.  I used "Frida" post-it notes that someone had given to me to decorate the back of  my pages.  Lucky for me, the other chunky players have a sense of humor!  I think they'll all get a chuckle out of these pages!

Sharing Some Words of Wisdom

My idea for Hope's "Words of Wisdom" book was based on a motto that a friend of mine had shared with me years ago.  It took some time to find just the right image of the woman I pictured saying these words, but eventually, I found her!  This spread says it all for me!

I printed the words and the image onto transparencies.  To prepare my pages, I gessoed the pages and then used a variety of metallic sprays in lime green, turquoise blue and purple.  Next, I cut the windows so the transparencies would show through.  Simple and fun!

Industrial Revolution

What a fun little book Hope has in our Altered Ladies AB RR!  Her theme is Industrial Revolution--metal, machinery, steampunk...I had a couple of ideas about the materials that I wanted to use in my spread.  To my surprise, I started playing with my stash of Mrs. Grossman's "Scrap Metal" sticker line. I cut up old cereal boxes and adhered sheets of the metal finish stickers to them.  Then I took out my Tim Holtz "Gears" die along with my Big Shot and started mass producing gears in all sizes and antique patinas!  I affixed the gears with glue and foam tape to create many different layers.  Finally, I embellished my spread with real metal gear parts and look what happened!

Chunky Time is Back!

After a brief hiatus, my chunky page swap has resumed!  To start off the new year, we decided to recycle those 2012 calendars to create our chunky pages.  I chose a calendar with beautiful artwork and showcased all the vibrant colors and bold patterns with an iris-folded circle.   Since we had 12 pages for this round, I used each month's artwork to create a unique iris-folded circle.

For the backs, I punched out a bunch of the numbers from the calendars, but instead of using only the numbers, I realized that the back sides of the punched out numbers had some interesting designs and colors on them too!  Couldn't let those go to waste!  All in all, my calendar pages were bursting with color!!

The "Ooh-La-La Mailbag"

Darrell's "Ooh-La-La Mailbag" book asked us to go postal!  Stamps, postcards, letters, catalogs...anything goes!  I chose to put all that junk mail to use in my spread.  What fun!!  I had seen paper beads made from rolled magazine pages.  I adapted that concept to create the background seen here by tightly rolling strips of magazine pages about 2 inches wide by 10 inches long.  You never know exactly what your finished tube will look like, but I tried to use pages that were full of color.

Next, I glued those tightly rolled tubes right onto the page to create my background.  I finished my spread by spelling out "What's in your mailbag?" in die cut letters.  I needed to find a way to make the letters stand out against the busy background.  Instead of using catalog pages again, I cut the letters out of white cardstock and painted them red for maximum visibility.