It's About Time

I had the inspiration for Lorraine's "It's About Time" book long before I got the book in my hands.  Spencer Day sings this song (I think it's titled "Till You Come to Me") on his Vagabond CD.  There is a line that says" "and the clock says that I'm half past losing my mind."  I love this visual.

How perfect that I found an image of a person holding their head in their hands in frustration but the head is missing.  All you see are the hands cupped about where the head should be.  I then found a beautiful image of the insides of a Mont Blanc watch in a catalog.  I substituted this image for the person's head.

Now to add some drama to my spread, I created a pop-up.  This is a V-fold pop-up technique that I learned from my friend Pam in a workshop she did a few years back.  I like how this pop-up mechanism doesn't flap up and out when you open the book.  The movement of this pop-up is subtle and vertical.  It may be hard to see this in these pictures.

The other thing I like about this V-fold pop-up mechanism is that you can add a background to compliment the moving part.  In this case, I used an enlarged picture of a watch face (in keeping with Lorraine's theme).  I added more height by building up the back layer above the top border of the book.  And, since I still hate my handwriting, I used little self-adhesive letters to spell out the line from the song.  I think it turned out really cool!  

Opiate for the Masses

I just LOVE the theme of Sophia's book:  "Opiate for the Masses."  So, call it inspired, but I've already finished my spread in her book!  I originally wanted to do a spread on Reality TV but Su beat me to it!  So my next idea was to pay tribute to those mind-numbing video games.  Seems everywhere I look, people are playing games on their phones.  Remember Angry Birds?  I have to admit, I am a fan of Candy Crush Saga (though I have been stuck on level 70 forEVER!)  According to my hairdresser, the latest craze is a game called Tsum Tsum.  But it was Bejeweled that first got me addicted to this past time and that is where the inspiration for my pages in Sophia's book came from!

I used highlighters to create the colorburst background.  I gathered up a handful of  acrylic "jewels" and started gluing them onto the page.  The title page is also "bejeweled" and further embellished with glitter glue.  Voila!  An homage to one of America's favorite past times, video games! 

Artists' Quotes on Art

Colleen's book is all about artists' quotes about art.  Much of the artwork that preceded me were spreads done in the style of the artist whose quote was featured.  Although not a requirement, I found myself gravitating toward doing the same type of layout.  

Perhaps I was influenced by the Ai Weiwei spread that Colleen had done in her own book.  I was drawn to the urban, industrial vibe.  It immediately brought to mind the graffitt art of the elusive Banksy.  I searched his many quotes and found one that resonated with me:

"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

I chose this silhouette of a boy (holding a bouquet of flowers) and girl (holding a baseball bat) and showcased them against an urban wall--much like Banksy's canvas.  (I even included a drain pipe as he sometimes does). I created this background using a pulled paper technique.   This techniques reminds me of brick or concrete walls where bills and posters are repeatedly posted and removed leaving paper remnants.  I then printed the quote onto acetate and cut out a window to display the words.

What's My Line?

For Amy's "What's My Line?" book this month, I thought I would give you a peek into the the dialogue that my husband and I often engage in.  I think this started shortly after we were married when he asked an uncle of mine what his secret to a successful marriage was.  My wise uncle told my husband, "Two words:  Yes, dear."

Over the years, my husband has developed his own responses to maintain harmony in our marriage.  The snippets I feature in this spread also include:

She:  "Do you want "A" or "B"?

He:  "Okay."

She:  "No. Not okay,"

He:  "Yes, dear."

She:  "You're crazy!"

He:  "Married you, didn't I?"

She: "Hurry up!  We're late!"

He:  "Just waiting on you!"

And finally (which I used for my sign-in),

She:  "I love you."

He:  "You better."

My original idea was to have a spinning wheel of quotes for each figure, but that proved to be too technically challenging.  I then decided to utilize magnets so the dialogue could be interchangeable.  I went with this comic book look when I found these two faces.  The look on her face is much like the frustration I feel when I am having these conversations with my husband, but the expression on the man's face is priceless!  It thoroughly captures the same feeling of delight my husband has when he delivers these lines!  Makes it really hard to get upset with him!

For the past 18 years, he has kept me laughing and that is (one of) the secrets of a successful marriage!  I think my uncle would approve!
  

Secret Obsessions

Su's Dark Side theme is "Secret Obsessions."  I must admit, I have long been fascinated with body adornment and modification.  From ancient cultural practices like Chinese foot binding, lip plates or discs, brass neck rings and corseting, to the more modern practices of tattooing, piercing and yes, even vajazzling, all are intended to beautify the human form.

For my spread in Su's book, I began with a picture of a nude female torso--a blank canvas of sorts.  As I glanced through the pages of Su's book, I discovered that a few of the pages could almost look like a full body tattoo. That's when I decided to print my female torso onto vellum because I wanted the design of the underlying page to show through.  I then used the back side of the printed vellum for a more subtle effect.

Adhering vellum is not the easiest thing to do.  Most times, I will use eyelets or brads because unless you can find a way to cleverly disguise it, tape will usually show through.  After some research, it sounded like spray adhesive was the way to go.  I applied a light coat of spray adhesive to the back of the vellum.  After a few seconds, I placed the vellum onto one side of the page.  This part was a little tricky and it took me two tries to get the first half of the page down in the right position.  I thought that pre-folding the vellum would help guide me to position the vellum in the correct place.  However, if the crease ends up anywhere else but in the gutter, you will see another visible crease in the vellum.  After some work, I managed to get the second half of the page properly adhered and then trimmed the overhang from the pages.

Up close, you almost can't tell there is a picture of a nude body.  The image becomes more visible the further away you are.  I also love how the page design appears to tattoo half of her body.  That left me to explore another form of body adornment--a nipple piercing--on the other side.



    

Silly Patron Saints

I am working in Lisa's Silly Patron Saints book this month.  The artwork that preceded me was phenomenal.  It would be impossible to top their humor and their skill level!

Once I got over my initial intimidation, I turned to what I knew best.  Lately, I have been very conscious of just how much physical space my craft and art supplies actually take up in (and out) of the house.  The reason for this is because my husband is in the process of building me my very own craft room.  Finally, a space all to myself where I can store all of my supplies and materials and create art!  Now that I will be soon faced with the task of moving and reorganizing my art supplies, I am starting to realize that there is NO WAY I can possibly fit everything I have into my new space.  At least not if I plan to work in that space too!  As much as I would love to simply relocate all of my things into the new craft room, the reality is that I will have to purge and get very clever with storage solutions to get it all to fit.

This is what led me to choose my Silly Patron Saint for Lisa's book.  My spread features the Patron Saint of Ever-Shrinking Storage Space.  Sound familiar?  I have stacks of drawers and boxes and bins all about the house that are packed so full of stuff, they can't close properly.  I took a picture of a chest of drawers and created drawers--not unlike the ones I have--that pull out (and not too easily) to reveal my stash of embellishments, charms, fasteners.  I didn't even bother to show you my bling, game pieces, stickers, tags, die-cuts, pens, markers, papers, ephemera, books to alter, ribbon/fibers, fabric/lace, tapes, glitters, adhesives, tools, tissue/napkins, stamps, punches, mark-making tools, dies, stencils, paints, ink pads, stains, technique books --I could go on, but you get the idea.

Champagne Magnets

A few weeks ago, I was vacationing in Sonoma with friends.  What an utterly fun and relaxing time!  Each morning, we went for extended walks in the neighborhood.  During the day, we shopped and explored different wineries.  In the evenings, we shared delicious meals while talking into the wee hours of the night.  One afternoon, we went to a Champagne Bar called Sigh.  If you order a bottle of champagne, they will open your bottle using a saber.  This ceremonial technique for opening a bottle of champagne is called sabrage.  We were fortunate enough to be at Sigh when another table ordered a bottle.  The owner took the bottle outside into the courtyard to open the bottle for them.  The force of the blunt side of the blade hitting the lip breaks the glass to separate the collar from the neck of the bottle.  The cork and collar remain together after separating from the neck.  In one fluid motion, the bottle was opened and ready to pour.  I had never seen a bottle opened like that before! 

To commemorate our weekend together, I wanted to make something to send to the girls that would remind them of the fabulous time we spent together in Sonoma.  I borrowed the motto from Sigh's website which read:  "The sound of the cork escaping from a bottle of Champagne should mimic the *sigh* of a contented woman" to create these fun little refrigerator magnets to send to the girls!