Tuesday 16 December 2008

A Book, A House


I am in a  "house book" swap with some other ladies and have been taking some time out to create on a monthly basis (though we are only in our 3rd round). Each month (or two to give time to fit in art in our busy schedules this holiday season) we are give the names of two participants to create pages for. These images are not in order of sending but are the following themes:

Vintage Gentlemen - this proved to be quite hard for me to get my head around but once I started it all became quite easy and I am fairly pleased with what I have done - truly is anyone ever really happy with their own work. I have found that I really like to do gel transfers of images on all sorts of surfaces and if I am careful it works out well - and it helps that we have our own colour laser printer.

Glass House. I had all sorts of ideas for this but ended up with an idea for a green house, I couldn't find small enough leaves so we ended up with "african violets" encased inside the page - 2 layers of card with windows cut on both sides, acetate over the holes and the leaves and flowers sandwiched. You can only just see through it on the side, the card was painted with Tim Holtz crackle paint to give an aged look and then stamped. The flower centres are kindy glitz (similar to stickles in the US) black opal.

Next we have Architectural House, you wouldn't know it to look at it really,though the back of it reflects the theme more. I interpreted the theme more as the back is plans of a kitchen and I have given it a goddess theme (though no pictures for some reason I forgot to take it). The front has been embossed using my cuttlebug and inked, the image of my goddess is behind fly screen mesh and the key is a 7Gypsies one with German Scrap wings.

French House is next, I used a colour of blue I associate with France for some reason, it is one of my favourite colours, again gel medium transfer which proved to be hard as I had cuttlebug embossed the cardstock - I need to plan more, but that is how I work - instinctual, planning never seems to work for me that well. I usually get a vague idea and run with it.  The flowers are rub ons I had to hand and the theme called for something like them, I am not sure what came first though the flowers or the title. Can you guess I love my script dymo!

Finally for this entry is Cream House Book, what to do what to do was the only thing that came to mind for me when I saw this theme. I decided to have a play with some stuff and if I wasn't happy then I could keep playing around till I was - I cut out several house shapes so I could just keep going with my muse - in the end it was scrim and gel medium background, painted cream, I had a frame which I again painted cream and then rubbed back, an architectural element (Krafty Lady mould) and a heart with some scrim. I needed something to add a bit of life so I added the pink velvet in the frame. The back of this is more distressed scrim (flat this time) painted cream and it actually looks really good - I prefer it to the front and wish I had tried that first. It is very textural and tactile as far as pages go. The words Smooth and Classic are a play on the fact that the cream colour as far as builders etc go has changed from smooth to classic in the last 10 years - same colour just different name.

Okay so that is me for now - I have about 3 other entries in draft mode just now, one is awaiting photos - hopefully I can get these done before christmas!
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6 comments:

Myléne Hillam said...

OMGawd, the cream page is awesome! I LOVE the texture - must try that some time.

Peta's page said...

I just love your site and visit often, but never left any comments. You are very inspiring thank you! I have left you a something on my blog!

Anonymous said...

Hi girlfriend! You have been busy. Wish I had seen these in real life!!

Take care.

Cheers
Anna
xx

Anonymous said...

Hello!
I'm the former Lady Sleekit, now renamed the Lady Neeps. I clicked over frae David's blog tae see who's usin' Scots words in Australia.
Ye seem tae be as far frae me as ye c'n get.I'm in Mackay!

daviddrawsandpaints said...

Wherever ah go THAT wummin Neeps' been there afore me!

Just got round tae answerin' yer comment Ev, if ye care tae have a look.

Btw, I like yer collages, and also yer black&white cat. Meoowww!

Sam Marshall said...

These houses are beautiful i love the texture you created with the Cuttlebug- looks awesome.