lessons 6 + 7: vintage gluebook

Lesson 6 in the 'your vintage gluebook' class I am taking, was about visual weight in composition. I had never really thought about this before. I usually just make decisions in my art based on what looks good to me. I like how my instructor Mary Green is making me think!
Above, I chose the same purple flowered background as my last spread for this page spread: I wanted to continue with it because I liked how it looked. I had a color copy of a book cover which I thought looked heavy, and I crumpled it up to add more weight & texture.

I added another Lucille calendar page image on the left and 3 cards from Mary's Etsy shop – 2 of them are tucked under the book cover. Even though this is a paper + glue project, I must confess I added 2 strips of fabric on top of the book cover! And yes, I did dab a little leftover coffee on the edges again . . . it smells delicious!!!!

Lesson 7 Lesson 7 was all about the different kinds of paper you can use when creating  vintage gluebooks. Our exercise was to use ALL real pieces of paper, NOT copies. I knew this would be fun, and it was!! I really collaged the heck out of this with various real letters, envelopes, stamps, text, dictionary pages, magazine articles, maps . . . I used parts of old envelopes, a very old letter, and some fun snippets of text when layering this page.

Thanks again, Mary. I’m sad there are only 2 more lessons left!

Technorati Tags: vintage gluebook,collage

A card for Bean

A card for Bean, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

A sympathy card I hand delivered today to my neighbor, Bean . . . the front of this card uses a small section of the huge fabric-paper collage I made, remember? This tiny section of it includes a small photo of me (L) and my sister (R) when we were young. Bean loved the sewing I did on the paper card. Click on the card to see another photo that includes the envelope.
Happy Sunday!

smile

I found this video when reading Patti Digh’s 37 days blog. I had to share it : )

'smile' from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

‘where does our capacity to smile without reason exist’

 

Have a wonderful weekend! lenna  : ^  )

mermaid skinny

As part of my monthly “skinny book” page exchange, I’ve made a 4” x 8” two-sided mermaid page for my friend in the group with me, Cat Dodt-Ellis. We can make the pages out of paper or fabric, or a mix, but I know Cat loves fabric so that is what I used. I also had some great mermaid images on fabric from www.alphastamps and applied them liberally!


I always start by making each side of the page separately, and then put them together after embellishing. I used my sewing machine with it’s various stitches on the pages first. There is a piece of cotton batting behind each page.

Below is a close up of the front before I added shells and glass spheres

–click on it for a larger picture.

To put the two sides together I used Tacky Glue and a piece of heavy interfacing to strengthen the page.

 

The shells all came from Florida . . . . tacky glue holds them well.

 

This is the back, below . . . . .
i sewed on tiny "pearls", then added glass spheres and shells.

The two sides get put together back to back and top to bottom so Cat can flip through her book once she has received all the pages : 0 ) The front . . .

for Cat, enjoy!! Your page is already swimming through the postal system to meet you! xo lenna  p.s. You can view ALL the skinny pages I've made so far this year: CLICK HERE!

your vintage gluebook

lennaVGB-Lesson 5, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

For Lesson 5 of the Your Vintage GlueBook class I am taking online, Mary Green instructed us about using "pieces" in our composition. She really has me thinking about things more while I am creating . . . and it is so very good for me! I used pieces of 3 different papers from Mary: the birds on a branch, part of the Lillian calendar (the woman/man) and the astronomical strip. I also used part of a hand written letter from my own collection and strips of a flowered scrapbook paper I had. The background is a photo copy of an old seed catalogue; I like that as a background. This time I did not use any ink (we are not supposed to use it at all -just paper & glue!) but must admit I sponged coffee around freely!!!!! I was finishing up a cup and thought it might just be the look I wanted. i am pleased with this spread, and the whole little book I am creating. For lesson 4 I did the spread below.

 This lesson was on composition and the Golden Mean. WOW! I had never received instruction about this before; it is about proportion, ratio and balance. I am so impressed with Mary's class! I broke the rules a bit by edging the pages with ink, and using a transparency . . . but that is me! I love mary's ideas. I had never ripped paper and placed it vertically as a background. The right side is overprinting: copying an old advertisement onto one of Mary's background papers, which was in this lesson too, so COOL! I am having fun and hope you enjoy seeing my lesson responses. To see what the entire class is producing, go to the Vintage GlueBook online class Pool on flickr. You can join us if you like -registration is still running! 

Winners! 500 post celebration : ^ )

 Very scientifically, I cut my paper list apart . . . there were 35 names!

I enlisted the help of my husband Steven to pick 5 names  . . . 

He is demonstrating that he did not look at the names!

He chose 5 strips of paper with these names on them . . . .  

#1. Free online workshop of your choice = was won by Maggie from: Just add Glitter and Stir :  ^ ) 

#2. Collage Pack from my stash = was won by Judi from: Judi's Crazy World

#3. A Pile of beautiful fabric = was won by Elaine Akers from: Elaine's Creative Works

#4. Free Creative Swaps Registration = was won by Diane D.

#5. Art by me, made for YOU = was won by Tristan Robin Blakeman of: Enchanted Revelries

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s ! ! !

I wanted to celebrate this milestone of 500 posts in a little over 3 years and this give-away was certainly a fun way to do it. Truthfully, the best part for me was receiving your comments. Here is a selection:

"I have been enjoying your posts for awhile now . . .  Your work is always something to look forward to . . . I have always enjoyed your friendship and art. . . . You are to be commended on keeping all of us artfully connected . . . Your blog is always full of wonderful things to behold. Maybe one day we'll meet in person! . . . What a milestone this is and I am so glad that I have had a seat on the journey . . . 500 posts!! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun, getting married, moving house (several times) and making art! . . . Thanks for the opportunity - and for 500 posts worth of inspiration and friendship!" 

A lot of you commented who do not usually, and that in  itself was the biggest gift of all for me - thank you!!! Those of you who won, I will be emailing you and just let me know your mailing address or whenever you are ready to start one of my online workshops or join in the current creative swap or the next! 

Page swap: *WOMEN*

Above is a cropped section of just one of 7 pages I did for a page swap.
To view all seven pages, please visit this link on flickr. : ^ )

I'm a member of the Circle of Friends yahoo group which has a monthly swap exchange . . . on this group, Caroline Ouzts Hay proposed a page swap on the theme of women, and seven of us have signed up. Caroline is going to take our pages, swap them out among us so we have one of each, and then bind them into a cool little book before sending them back home, wow! I made my pages all the same way, but each a little different from the other. This is how I typically make things when doing multiples. With a little research online I found a list of 50 inspirational women which I decided to use to make my background. I copied the list and formated it so the words ran one line after the other on a page (not in a list). I chose an interesting font for the words, a light tan colour, and then printed my text out to use as a background for my seven 6.5" x 4"  pages. Previously, I had gathered all of my "women"  rubber stamps that I could find and I stamped them with permanent ink on top of the text. Then I got out my watercolor crayons and played! The quote on white sticker paper is one of my original "LennaLines" quote stamps from back in the day (2000-2003). I added a bit more of the leftover text to the back of the page and put all the swap particulars there. They have already been sent, caroline! Looking forward to my return. : ) lenna

give-aways!

This is just a reminder/last chance! Tomorrow evening I will draw names and give away 5 wonderful prizes to celebrate 500 posts on this blog! If you missed reading the post, you can read it and comment on it here to have your chance to win. Just make sure you tell me which prize you'd like and give me a way to contact you. If I can't contact you, I'll have to give the prize to someone else!!

Also, please check out the wonderful retro flower power crafting supplies giveaway my friend Tristan in CT is doing . . . just click on the flower power button on the top right of my blog. Good luck!

yellow : )) quite right

These two yellow ATCs were made for the ARTchix Flickr group where a bi-weekly ATC lotto is held. Whoever wins the lotto, picks a new theme and 2 weeks later, a new winner and host for the next round. The current host is my friend in Scotland, Frieda Oxenham whose favorite colour is yellow! I have made 2 ATCs in hopes that I can send one to the winner, and one to Frieda. The first ATC is all sewn, including the paper elements which are all from ARTchix Studio. The darker strip of yellow on the left is from an Indian print dress I used to wear many years ago, a favorite. I have saved a bit of the fabric through 2 marriages and many house moves!! I thought Frieda would enjoy that . . . I know she hoards fabric too!!

front 1

back 1 - the back is paper, sewed on

I'm just mad about Saffron.

A-Saffron's mad about me.

I'm-a just mad about Saffron.

She's just mad about me.

They call me Mellow Yellow,

Quite rightly.

They call me Mellow Yellow,

Quite rightly.

They call me Mellow Yellow.

front 2

back 2 - this is an old playing card

I'm just mad about Frontine.

A-Frontine's mad about me.

I'm-a just mad about-a Frontine.

A-She's just mad about me.

They call me Mellow Yellow.

They call me Mellow Yellow,

Quite rightly.

They call me Mellow Yellow.

The second ATC is also fabric with paper, but no sewing this time. I used my xyron adhesive machine instead. The images again are all from ARTchix Studio. Yellow is not a color I typically reach for, but I really enjoyed exploring it and can see why it is Frieda's favorite color. It makes me think of all the daffodils in Frieda's Macbiehill gardens! and I cannot resist but to add:


enjoy!! : ) lenna

lesson 3: your vintage gluebook

lesson 3 vintage gluebook, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

I am taking an online class called "Your Vintage GlueBook". In fact, you can still join the class -just click on the link to find out more. For the third lesson's exercise of composition with a 2-page spread, I used a map for the page background. In all of my altering of books etc, I don't know if I have ever done this before . . . and I love the look! I took the two women from an image sheet that Mary provided, cut them apart and placed them way apart on the spread. I added textured wallpaper, a bit of sewing pattern paper and an image of a ship from an old book. Oh yes, I could not resist edging the pages with some caramel ink, so I did. (Gluebooks are typically just paper & glue). I think I will try another spread with a photo in the middle (cut apart) like Mary's sample, but must say I enjoyed doing this exercise very much.
Thank you again, Mary Green!

happy may

A cool little video (i love making these things!!) of my mixed media art created at the end of April and mostly during May, 2010: ATCs, Twinchies (2"x 2"), vintage gluebook pages, a magical collaged journal, fabric tags, mail art and altered book pages! a little creative fun....

Cover: Vintage GlueBook class

Cover: Vintage GlueBook class, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

I am taking a wonderful online class taught by Mary Green, of Green Paper!
I don't really remember how I found Mary's blog, but probably when visiting another blog and seeing a link. I found some lovely vintage images offered on Green Paper for free and I was intrigued that Mary also offered online workshops. I bookmarked her blog. A short while later, my friend and student, Sharon Walworth told me she had taken one of Mary's Artist classes; a collection of projects by different artists. I also saw some beautiful samples Sharon had made while gathering things and getting ready for the vintage gluebook class. That was it! I signed up for Your Vintage GlueBook class. I am so glad I did! Usually, I am the teacher and recently I have been busy working privately with a number of students learning both collage on canvas and the mini art quilt book. But it is so much fun to be a student instead!

I am enjoying TAKING this class very much. It is a challenge for me because I do not usually use vintage items exclusively, nor do I typically work with just paper and glue (that is the idea behind gluebooks). If you have visited my blog for even a short time, you know I will often add paint, stamping, ink, fabric, watercolor crayons, found objects, whatever I can get my hands on! So far, the Vintage GlueBook class makes me work harder to create some different pieces (for me). Mary's instructions are very good and I highly recommend this class. Even though the class began on Sunday, there are still lots more lessons and you can join at any time. The "class blog" will remain open for 7 months after the end of class - through December 31st. Cool! Maybe I'll see you there!

* * * Don't forget to add your comment to my 500 posts celebration give-away! * * *  Just click on that link and leave a comment expressing which prize you'd like to win . . . and don't forget to add you email or send it to me separately so I can get in touch with you - good luck!!!!

lenna's pages in mary's 'your vintage gluebook' class

500 miles? No, 500 Posts Give-away for YOU!

The post I added this morning about my altered book coming home was my . . .  500th post! The very first post I wrote here on this blog was dated December 8th, 2006 -wow! It is a little hard to believe I have been blogging all this time. I want to thank you for being here, whether you lurk and read, follow and/or comment, email me, join my art swaps . . . really any combination! I am happy that you visit, share my life and art. 

In celebration of writing 500 posts I am going to giveaway 5 prizes. 

Yes! 500 posts = 5 prizes!

#1. one Free registration to any one of my online workshops -taken at your convenience. I offer 4 workshops: The Mini art Quilt Book, Collage on Canvas, Fabric Stamping/Painting, plus "Open The Door": A mixed media photo/art journal.

#2. one collage package, hand picked by me from my collage boxes. I will gather items from my stash. Here is one of about 5 of the collage boxes I'll choose items from.

#3. This lovely selection of fabric - the whole pile! The piece top left was hand painted by me!

#4. one creative swaps registration for FREE! The registration could be for the current Tag Book swap or the upcoming Garden variety Postcard swap announced in June. 

#5. One hand made piece of art by me! This will be decided upon after the winner has been randomly chosen, based on the winner's likes/dislikes and desires : )) I will give you a few ideas on what I could create & you can tell me what you might like if you win!

How to win any of these wonderful thank you prizes?? 

Please leave a comment on this post with your email and tell me WHICH prize you would love to win! If you do not want to leave your email publicly, you can email me and let me know you have commented. If you don't give me your email I will have to chose someone else, to be fair. 

FIVE winners will be chosen randomly and announced one week from today on Monday the 24th in the evening. What do you think?? Now just for fun, I thought I should have a theme song for my 500 post accomplishment . . . . 

"But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles
To fall down at your door"
- The Proclaimers

my AB came home -yay!

my AB came home -yay!, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

I was one of 10 participants in an Altered Book Round Robin starting last September, sending about once a month. In May of 2010, my book is home! Look how beautifully Susan Cervantez wrapped it up for me! The participants, who met on the ARTchix yahoo Group, sent their books around in a round robin fashion from one participant to the next until everyone had worked in all the books. It was hosted by Sallie Rodman, who I thank so much for inviting me! This was a great Round Robin.

If you click on the picture above, it will take you to my book and all of the pages that were done for me by the creative women who participated, wow! If you would like to see a slide show of these pages, go here: altered book RR: group pages.

Since this was a RR, I worked in each of the women's books that you see have worked in my book here and you can find those pages in the altered books album. All I can say is, was WHAT FUN to work in an altered book!

jacaranda tree

jacaranda tree, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

These trees are really amazing and there are so many of them here in the Bradenton, FL area. I just had to take a photo of it! I was actually taking photos of "what's blooming" for a photo contest on ARTchix studio and I also took a lot of pictures of beautiful flowers in my mom's garden . . .

To view a lovely slideshow of all of the blooming flowers I found and snapped pictures of, just click HERE!

Chestnut and Fern

Debby's CROPPED for detail, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

Above is a close-up of one of the Fabric ATCs I made for the "Color Groupies" May combo of chestnut + fern. We did get a little creative with the naming of our color combos this year I'll admit; next, I will be working on Campari and Orange! Frieda Oxenham, who is part of this group along with Debby and Caryl, actually sent me a photo of a bottle of Campari when I told her I did not know the color!!

These ATCs were started as a larger piece of fabric and netting, to which batting was placed behind, while I sewed various stitches in a random fashion. I will add some photos below to show my progression.

fabric, netting and batting pinned together

lots of stitching!

my ATC "sandwich"

sewn together

Adding color - it needed more "chestnut"!

made for Caryl - images from Alpha Stamps

made for debby

made for frieda

This one was made for me to keep. Caryl's, Frieda's
and Debby's chestnut and fern ATCs for me,
will join mine in a special Colour Groupies album.

A close up view of mine - click for more details.
I hope you enjoyed this peek at how I made them!

windmill sailboat re-build

06-04.21.201011, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

My husband Steven, and my dad are rebuilding a Windmill sailboat that Steven picked up for free . . . Well, the bottom of this boat was so rotted they had to remove it! Here is my dad sanding away planing away (oops!) after they got rid of the rot. This was in my dad's garage, but they now have a dedicated workshop -my mom is happy!! No more sawdust on her car! They are rebuilding the sailboat and changing the design a bit. It will have an epoxy/glass -as in fiberglass- finish, like my dad's boats. This is for strength and water resistance. Steven is also changing the rigging and a few other parts of this boat. It will be a 'modified windmill' when finished - wow! what a project. It keeps them both busy and off of the street! To see the project develop, visit the slideshow here.

chandler is magic -part 1

Soon after we moved to the home we are renting here in Florida, we met our neighbors Bean & Chandler. They were both so friendly and welcoming! The first day we met them at a community picnic, they invited Steven and I over to their home later that day, to meet some of our other neighbors. Chandler then surprised us by doing a bit of his professional magic and mind illusion act. He describes it on his web site: as "magic as entertainment" and it most certainly is! Here is a short video of a small part of Chandler's show - the rings - that was shot by my husband Steven, in Chandler & Bean's backyard! Chandler has been delighting people all over the world for 25 years on stage, television, comedy clubs and corporate events . . . I like to think of this show as a special neighborhood engagement!

I wanted to do something special for Bean & Chandler because of their kindness. I thought a long time about what I might make and collected some related things. I visited Chandler's web site and copied a few photos of him, I made color copies of playing cards (he uses these a lot) and especially one card Steven had signed that ended up as part one of the shows Chandler has done for us. We have seen him do his illusions a number of times now and each time he floors me even more with his incredible talent!! It is truly amazing. I can only upload a 100 MB video here, so what you see above with the rings is just a tiny part of what Chandler does. 

I wanted to add photos of what I made for them in this same post, but it is not allowed with the upload of this video included here - so i will make a second post for that! 

chandler is magic - part 2

(part 2) On making something magical for Bean & Chandler: I finally decided on making a collage notebook for them, and here it is. Do you see the "rings" on the top left? They are supposed to resemble the rings in the video in the previous post!! click on any photo for more detail . . .

Chandler is magic!

This was done with acrylic and Lumière paint, decorative paper from Peggy Skycraft, photo copies on presentation paper, rubber stamps and a wee bit of stardust glitter. * Thank you, bean and chandler! *