Back from deepest Hampshire.....

Had a good few days with my friend Jan, visiting Quilts UK in Malvern and hitting the charity shops and car boot sales in her area. We bought some fabric and a pattern at the quilt show from Step by Step Patchworks and made a "squishy bag" . It was quite a challenge for me but encouraged by my more expert friend I made it through and am pleased with the result.

Since arriving home I have worked some more on altered books and experimented with an old book whose cover was hard and whose pages I glued together to make a thicker surface. I am using this book to try out techniques. I have tried collage with some stickers I bought on Ebay, (after painting the page with a glaze) and created a page about childhood.


I also cut pansies from some wrapping paper and created a "spread" including some poetry I found online about pansies. I am pleased with these although to be honest I think the photos look better than the real thing!

I am pleased with my experiments and am now creating an altered book to send to a friend as a gift. I am also learning lots from some new friends on a Yahoo Altered Books Club. I have learned from them about painting paper towels and then stamping them. More on that next time.....

Playing with gel medium.....

Have to say the weather here in UK is glorious at the moment......no telling how long it will last!

I have done quite a bit of experimenting this past few days. Today I have taken a black and white photocopy of an old photo (thank you Mister Print!) and tried something I have read in an super book called "Altered Book Workshop" by Bev Braselton. It involves painting the photcopy with three or four coats of the gel medium ( I have Golden soft gel matte bought from RS*) allowing each coat to dry thoroughly. Then sprayed the back of the paper with water until quite wet and rubbed gently with my finger. I was suspicious that it wouldn't work but it did! I ended up with a transparent picture once the paper was rubbed away ready to apply to a background. You then apply your chosen glue to the page on which the picture is to be stuck. Lay it down and gently pat to adhere. It gives a somewhat ethereal look which is really pleasing.

I am off to visit my patchwork mate Jan this week and we are going to Malvern for Quilts UK which is a nice little ritual which we do every year!

*By the way RS is Rainbow Silks...my favourite arty store.

My first altered book...in progress

I have been working on an altered book about how much I love girly stuff! Taking a child's old board book, bought from a charity shop for 50p, I have used texture gel and paint for the front cover and added little metallic letters to the front.

The board pages were sandpapered to give a key so that paint, texture gel or gesso would adhere nicely. There are pages which show tiny little beauty tools and hearts and "pinkness" - as I like pink. I did this book because my daughter and I were discussing how much we like to be girly! Silly really but fun nevertheless! We do silly things like try on feather boas and hats in shops and try out the perfumes on the fragrance counter!

The book is a work in progress and I will add things as I find them.

I have also joined a yahoo group which will be helpful to me as a beginner at the art of altered books. They have been very welcoming and I have access to other people's work which is a great help. As you can tell I am really enjoying all this!

Progress on the altered box.......

The altered laundry tablet box has made it to the next stage! I have now added some pearl beads f from an old necklace that was falling apart and stuck them on using Golden soft gel medium. This is a substance which I had read about in American magazines but was puzzled by the fact that it was often referred to as a means of glueing. I got it mail order from Rainbow Silks and it works! I spread a little onto an old kebab stick and made lines of it on the top of my box. Then stuck the beads on. Leaving it to dry I came back to it a few hours later and the beads are rock solid. Great! So I have used the same method, and this time a small brush, to glue down some shells I collected years ago. This is a photo of the result. I don't consider it finished yet....I think more collage is needed.