If words are the cogs.....

Another double spread in my "Altered Soul Inside " book, using Amy's free classes for inspiration :D

It includes a page pocket and masculine(ish) portrait,which I think I struggle with because my men folk have such gentle/big eyed features.

The Butterfly Effect theme for this week is "Book Pages" so I thought I'd use book pages to make my book pages.....if you get my drift ;S

This is a pocket made with a torn out page to be added later....
These are 2 more torn out pages, scribbled on with Inktense water soluble pencils...don't look much do they....
til you add water! This pic doesn't do justice to the intense pigment you get with these pencils.
Next I tore up the torn out pages and glued them onto my prepped double spread...
Added some stencilling and pocket and roughed up with a bit of distress ink....
and started portrait :D
I used water colour pencils again to colour the face...

Doesn't he look peaceful :)........deep in thought......

More zig zaggy stencils and acrylic paint finished with the words....

"If words are the cogs of the machine that is book, then imagination is the fuel!"

Enjoy :D XXX

Linkint to

The Butterfly Effect# Book Pages

Inspire Me Friday Linky Party#35

Was also going for Inspiration Avenues#English Literature, but I missed the deadline doh!

El Gato que esta triste y azul.......but rocked my world :D

Had a bit of a stressy week, with Chunky Monkey managing to get most of the week off, but it did give me plenty of time for crafting......:D

But what really made me smile this week was when my Bubbles by moonlight pic reminded Leovi of an old song, and she/he(sorry Leovi I don't actually know if your male or female, how weird is that?) left me a verse from the song in my comments box.

I searched tinterweb to find the full lyric and artist (Roberto Carlos, aka El Rei, the King of Latin Music!!)

The song is called "El Gato que esta triste y azul" which google translates as "The Cat who is sad and blue!" How perfect is that for my fold-out page title???!

And the beer bottle top hubby treated me to this week....."Blue Moon"...and he squished it for me too :D
So the sentiment goes to hubby...cos" Life with you is Stardust and Moonbeams"

I hid the song lyrics (translated into english by google :S) inside the page

The little strip at the top reads "the cat is in our sky"
and included a pic of said Roberto Carlos from the 70's/80's :D

This is how it looks folded-in :D
So yet another big shout out for Amy and her free classes at Flutterbye.ning, for keeping me sane this week...well...as sane as I can be ;P

And thanking my baby niece for reminding us of the magic of this season...we took her shopping for trimmings and she was totally awestruck with all the trees and bling :D

So those are the things that Rocked My World this week....how was yours?

:D XXX

Moonlit Kitty

After seeing lots of people making cards with stitching on, I bought this diddy sewing machine so I could have a go......that was about a year ago now...naughty Gina :(

Anyhoo, Amy had another free class in which she stitched a piece of fabric onto card before painting it....*dig out machine* :D
gather bits of fabric card, and one of the pages I cut out of my altered book to stitch dog pic in last week( for I had a cunning plan!!!), and stitch all 3 layers together....
works better if you thread machine 1st......:S
Yay!!! Stitching....and it only took 3 attempts at threading :D
Next....loose control of devil beast machine!!!
but at least all the layers are stitched together haha!
Draw Kitty (yes Amy, I drew a kitty for you! Don't get used to this, it's a treat!)
Paint over fabric with cheap acrylic paint(use very little water as the paint will bleed )
I was going to paint a moon, but then I got to thinking bubbles...by moonlight :)
So the kitty is now called Bubbles!

Now for cunning plan....use the kitty pic to make a Fold out page in my altered book!!
Gessoed both facing pieces for future decorating, and laced outer edges together with 3mm ribbon....
AMY!!!! I did a Fold out!! :D Yay me :D
Hope you enjoyed this bit of silliness :D and remember....make sure your layers are dry before lacing together or your pages won't fold out ;)

If this appeals to you, check out Amy's Cat Class (it's free!!)

Time for Tea....Altered Popjes

The title of this post relates to the cute doll faced girls drawn by the lovely Manon, who recently gave a free class at Flutterbye.ning.

I decided to make one of these girls for this weeks Butterfly Effect challenge of Tea/Coffee, and put her in my altered book:D

I simply covered my page with this scrummy piece of Tim Holtz design paper, which cried out to me "Time for Tea?"
I drew a pencil sketch of the doll face(didn't show up enough on photo) and started too colour with promarkers....

Painted over with a layer of watered down gesso.....
then added black outline.....all as instructed by Manon :D
But I picked up the wrong pen...and the black ink bled every time I caught it....
so I very carefully built up the colours with markers and gesso(making sure each layer was dry)
got "miffed" at all the smudges and coloured over with pastel pink.....
before adding a final layer of gesso. Not very happy with the finished surface, but we all make mistakes...doesn't mean it's useless.....
I thought "surreal", and made her into a teapot :D
I painted the dp with a dry brush and gesso to age it a bit more, and over stamped with a fabby tea cup stamp that was a gift from Stef aka Glitterbabe, using TH's distress inks in faded jeans(blue) and Aged Mahogany(red).
The fabric was from a Dezinaworld Treasure Lucky bag, and I thought it would make a pretty outfit for afternoon tea :D
And every teapot needs a cosy :D

Here she is in my altered book.....
and I think she turned out pretty cute :D

Enjoy :D XXX

Her masters voice!

EDIT: My dry pic stitched into altered book with black 3mm ribbon :D

Today I have tried another of the FREE classes at Flutterbye .ning :D

This one is with Natasha, who is painting a simple portrait of her cat to add to her altered book. I have a dog...so I copied the style but replaced cat with soppy dog :D

Quick sketch onto gessoed card...
Add main body colour...
built up a bit of background...
added a bit more detail...
and a little more...
and finally some texture(scratching into wet paint, stencil clock faces,dabbing with mucky baby wipe), and shadow(not poop) where she is sitting :D...
just waiting by the front door for hubby to come in :D

I haven't put too much detailed work(door furniture etc) in the background because the dog(Meg) is the focus, and when it is dry I have to stitch it into my book!!!

The door is an irrelevance to Meg, it's what she can hear on the other side that is important to her!