May 21, 2009

art in the desert!

I haven't been doing much creating lately, but last weekend I got the chance to get back into an art groove. Kelly Kilmer was in town teaching the entire weekend at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, and I signed up for her Sunday all-day class. I wasn't going to, but I stopped in the store on Saturday just to say Hi, and everyone was having such a good time, I just couldn't help myself. (And, I'm sooo glad I did; it was a great day!) Sunday's class was "Reclaimed- An Altered Artist's Book" and was tons of fun, as always. The starting point was a used book that was gutted and transformed into a journal. I dug thru the books at the local Goodwill, and scored this great book- I looked at them strictly for the size/shape and cover design- I love the colors of this book, and bonus, it was only $2.99! (I did feel a bit bad about destroying a book, but I will use some of the interior pages and pics in my future artwork...) The first pic shows a closeup of the journal spine- I removed the book spine, and replaced it with a painted and stamped canvas one.
This is the entire front cover; the butterfly sticker and paper doily are from my stash (plus some glitter glue!), and the flowered tape is from Kelly's collection. I really love the color combination of this journal!!
This is the inside front cover; when I removed the book block, I ripped the inside cover paper, so I collaged over it. More springish colors here, with my SB paper and stickers, along with more of Kelly's great deco tape over the vellum envelope.
As always in a Kelly class, we did some fun painting techniques to make the journal pages- it's hard to see, but the page above has some texture made using gel medium underneath the paint. More of Kelly's awesome deco tape collection, along with another of my stickers.
Not all of my pages were painted; I left some of them blank so I could collage on them... this was made from magazine paper (the flames) and a vintage star chart(?) for the heart. I think this journal will be used mainly for the quotes I collect- usually I write them on scraps of paper, scattered all over, but this will be a great place to keep some of my favorites, I think. (for more photos of this journal, visit my Flickr page.)

4 comments:

Kelly Kilmer said...

I love love love love this journal!!!!!!

LOVE it!

Love the circle page, the heart, the colors, ALL OF IT!!

Yummy yummy book! I hope you have fun working in it. It was so good to see you-so happy you stopped in Saturday. THANK YOU for the goodies, too-love them and can't wait to use them. ;)

Keep in touch, k?

Roses and Lilacs said...

Hi CrimsonCat, I've seen these and wondered how hard they are to create. You make it seem do-able. I was thinking of making them as kind of family scrapbooks by adding photos to all the 'altered' pages.

Loved seeing your cactus and lantana (previous post). Now I realize why my lantana, grown as annuals, never do well here. I'm giving them too much water. If they are desert plants they want dry. Will try again;)
Marnie

Judy said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment about my fabric collages! I love your book you did with Kelly. I took two of her workshops earlier this year and really enjoyed them. Also signed up for Prompt a Day for the month of March and enjoyed doing those, as well. Stretched me!

Enjoy the journals and continue with them. It is fun!!!

Jennifer Williams said...

What a lovely journal! I have yet to fill mine up and finish the covers (I always muck up the covers with paint so I do the insides first).

THe inside pages make for excellent base work for collages. I also like to gesso out some of the words and draw on top of it.