Fall Skinny Book Swap

I have been sick for two weeks, so I haven't been doing a whole lot, except for trying to finish up some swaps that were due at the end of the month. This is what I made for the Fall Skinny Book Swap on Art Techniques. I used leaf rubbing plates, crayons, and watercolor paints to make the background pages. Then I layered on fabric, paper, and a leaf made out of Model Magic that I painted with gold metallic paint. Autumn is my favorite season, so I am looking forward to seeing the other pages that everyone else made.

Something Really Scary

.....My cutting table! Yes, there is a table under all that mess. This month's Take it Further Challenge topic was your workspace. What it is like, how you feel about it. Well, this is my rotary cutting table, where I cut all of my fabric, when it is cleared off that is. Much of the time, it looks like this. Piled high with stacks of works-in-progress and other stuff. Part of the problem is my AADD (Art Attention Deficit Disorder), and the other problem is that I tend to put stuff on there that doesn't belong on my art table--like the charms that I am collecting for a swap, junk jewelry to take apart and repurpose, my X-Rays that I need to take to a Dr. appt., B-Day presents that my mom left here for my son's B-Day in December, etc.

I have a very small house with a home business, DH, 2 kids, and 2 large dogs, so we have a lot of "stuff" around. I no longer have a dedicated room for sewing, so my cutting table is in the kitchen, my sewing machine in the shared office, thread and fabric throughout the house! I am constantly trying to reorganize and clean up, but somehow, it always ends up looking like this. After taking this picture, I did clear the surface again, so hopefully that will last a little while.



So, with this in mind, I used some of the scraps that were laying on my cutting table, and made a fabric covered art journal. I only used the scraps from the cutting table, and I think it is fun to create something cool from a pile of scraps. I started making these books for the Collage UnLeashed swap, and am finding them very addictive!

I think my mantra for 2009 is going to be Focus, focus, focus...

Another Swap--Watercolor Papers

These are some other papers that I am doing for the Monthly Art Technique swap, also on Art Techniques. Susan Chong gave a tutorial for this technique on her blog, and we are swapping 10 of our own 6 x 8 inch papers. It is done with liquid watercolors, saran wrap, and then overstamped. I did two layers of watercolor and saran wrap before overstamping. These are 2 of my favorites, before I cut them down to size. Fun!

Fat Book Pages

I just sent out 120 of these 4 x 4 inch pages for a Fat Book swap on Art Techniques. I chose to do tissue paper collage. I started on 140 lb. watercolor paper (although you can do this technique on just about anything), and I layered a couple of layers of colored and patterned tissue papers to get this effect. It makes a wonderful background for collage, etc. I can't wait to get the other 119 techniques! This was quite an undertaking!

Handmade Book

Remember those monoprints from a few posts ago? Well, I finally got them sewn into my handmade book that I will be swapping on Collage UnLeashed. Initially, I had made my cover too small to accomodate the thick pages, so I had to come up with a way to extend the front cover. The answer: cool Jumbo Ric-Rack and a little handmade fabric fringe! I got this ric-rack in several colors, and I think it is just right for these funky handmade books.

Halloween Charms

These are some charms that I made using some handcarved bone skull beads. I made these for a swap on The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Arts group where I am a moderator. I also made an extra pair that I can use as earrings.

Some New Charms

These are some charms that I am doing for a swap on Mixed Media Art Friends. They are made out of shrink plastic, and are colored with permanent black sharpie and colored pencils. They were fun to do--I just made some simple outlines with the black marker, and doodled some designs. Then I filled in with the colors. Great TV project!