I signed up to participate in Susan Lazar Wojtkowski's "Amazing Race Art Journaling Challenge." Over the next several weeks, Susan will post the name of a country from which we will draw our inspiration. She tosses in "detours" which gives us a choice to try a new technique or learn something new. She even provides fun facts (arts, music, food) about the country we are visiting to get us fully immersed in the challenge.
Although I am not an art journaler, I have been craving doing some art for myself lately. I decided to treat the challenges as prompts for my own altered book. You can imagine how excited I was to begin this journey! However, when the first destination was announced, I found I had a challenge of another sort on my hands.
The first destination announced was China. I know that many people are intrigued by Asian motifs and themes. I am not one of them. I have very little in my stash that is Asian. So here I was ready to begin this journey with little material to work with. What would I do for my China page?
When I am stumped for an idea, I find that just starting often helps get me through my block. Here, I grabbed an old book with a sewn spine (didn't even prep the pages). Next, I pulled out my stash of gelli prints and thought this brick pattern in red would make a nice background. This particular print was made with a brick patterned embossing folder on deli paper. I went to my foreign text stash and found some Chinese text and selected two pages to use. I selected ink pads in reds and oranges and applied color to the columns of text with a make up sponge for a diffused, blended look. Then I glued those pages over my gelli print. Now what?
I few years back, I had experimented with a pop-up flower in a friend's altered book I was working in for a round robin. I loved how it turned out, and always wanted to have one in my own book. A pop-up lotus flower would be the centerpiece of my China spread.
I created this flower out of 9 sheets of vellum. I love how the flimsiness of the vellum gives the petals a more natural feel. finally, I had watercolor crayons that I had never played with before, so decided to use them to add just a hint of color to the petals.
Now, onto the next leg of the race: France!
When I am stumped for an idea, I find that just starting often helps get me through my block. Here, I grabbed an old book with a sewn spine (didn't even prep the pages). Next, I pulled out my stash of gelli prints and thought this brick pattern in red would make a nice background. This particular print was made with a brick patterned embossing folder on deli paper. I went to my foreign text stash and found some Chinese text and selected two pages to use. I selected ink pads in reds and oranges and applied color to the columns of text with a make up sponge for a diffused, blended look. Then I glued those pages over my gelli print. Now what?
I few years back, I had experimented with a pop-up flower in a friend's altered book I was working in for a round robin. I loved how it turned out, and always wanted to have one in my own book. A pop-up lotus flower would be the centerpiece of my China spread.
I created this flower out of 9 sheets of vellum. I love how the flimsiness of the vellum gives the petals a more natural feel. finally, I had watercolor crayons that I had never played with before, so decided to use them to add just a hint of color to the petals.
Now, onto the next leg of the race: France!
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