Party at POE'S Art

I'm slowly catching up on my obligations to the Raven Altered Book club at Altered Gypsy. I finished up the last 3 books I had in my possession this weekend. Most pages you saw a few weeks ago but I did manage a few more.

For this one I started with a leaves theme but then got stuck. I finally went with the Trees poem by Joyce Kilmer. Love that poem. (It's a two page spread.)

I used the same poem on a canvas quite awhile back (2 years ago I think? It already sold) but you can see info about it on this post.  Here's the pic of the canvas:

The second two page spread I did was entitled Party At Poes! Once I put a hat on Poe, the page naturally went from there.

I will tell you about the process of making the whole page since it was an experiment in experimenting. Here were my steps:

1 - glue down scraps
2 - swipe yellowy green paint all over the pages
3 - hate the look and try something new
4 - emboss big round emblems (stamp is by Stamp-In Up.) with a clearish rainbow embossing powder, very proud of myself here
5 - swiped brown paint all over the background, thinking the embossed part would act like resists and paint wouldn't stick to those parts. I was wrong
6 - again hating the background so I decided to heat up the embossed areas again, thinking they might magically pop through the brown paint. By accident swiped my finger through the heated up HOT paint and it wiped off revealing some of the embossed pattern. Burn - bad, pattern showing up - good. So I keep doing that and got interesting results
7 - embossed more in different areas with a vertigris color and a fence type stamp in glossy red. Starting to like it more.
8 - ran out of ideas so I started flipping through a Somerset Studio for ideas. Saw a house in one with a pic of a person so I thought I'd try that. Made a house for Poe out of corrugated cardboard, painted papers and a Poe image from AlteredPages.com Poe collage sheet.
9 - Made a pocket for Poe's house and slipped it in (it is removable). From there I just attached birds, lettering, rub ons and stapled on feathers (yes, too lazy to glue them on.)
9 - then apparently I wasn't too lazy to glue on beads. Or to draw circles all over with metallic colored pencils. Go figure.

And that in a nutshell is this page spread. I might do this type of background again. Like how it came out.

Poe and Raven Art

At the moment I have 3 Raven themed altered books for Altered Gypsy I'm supposed to be working in It's been a month or so of non-creativity while I prepared and started our homeschooling year. The teen is taking college classes this year so I'm down to one student. It's a different ballgame, and I don't have to juggle students. I'm liking it so far. We're still working on attitude adjustments in schooling but don't we all need that at times? lol

Anyway, on to art. In the first book I completed a 'sign in' tag with a POE theme as well as 2 single pages and one 2-page layout.

This two page layout needs something I think but just not sure what. I'm not sure I'm happy with the polka dot background but can't change that now, can I? lol

The two smaller Poe images here were from mail. A friend sent cards and on the outside of the envelope she stamped Poe. Like I always say, SAVE EVERYTHING! The larger Poe image is from an Altered Pages collage sheet (the Poe image on the tag above came from the same sheet.)

Post Options

In the 2nd book I"ve done a 2 page spread so far. I really love the slapping papers on a background approach when I can't think of an idea. As I'm putting scraps on the pages, ideas come to me. And it cleans out my scraps box as well!

Working on new pages tonight. I'll share when I'm done.

I Am Not

I was visiting Jenn's blog  yesterday and saw that she has posted a unique list. I thought I would play along.

Things I Am...

NOT!

1 - an early bird. I'm more of a sleep-until-you-feel-guilty-for-being-a-bed-slug type person. I'm also a night owl so you can see why I don't want to get up anytime soon...

2 - a chronic wallower in self pity. Can't stand it. I have times when I'm complaining about my life/hair/weight/house, etc... but I get to a point where I pull myself up by my garter belts and say 'Okay, what are we going to do about this situation?'

3 - punctual. Yeah, not one of my strong suits. Life is short, why do I have to be on time?!

4 - a purple lover. I don't like it. I would go so far to say I hate it. Loath it. Don't think it should be one of the colors in the color group. Just sayin'...

5 - satisfied with mediocrity. Those who know me should know this is true. I don't like ordinary. I don't like to be like everyone else. Of course if one was honest, I'm probably as normal as they come because what is normal but whatever is unique to you? I just am not a go with the flow type person who only does things to fit in with others. I guess that's what I mean by  not being mediocre.

6 - a girly girl. I tell hubby he is lucky I'm so low maintenance. I only own 2 pairs of shoes, clogs and flip flops. I used them exclusively during the year until one falls apart and I replace it with the exact same style if I can find it. I only wear lipstick and the occasional mascara. I didn't used to own much jewelry until a friend started selling Premier Designs jewelry and I had a party. I probably get my hair cut every couple years and I'm not happy about that either. I'm hugely content in jeans and tee shirts and I don't own a dress or a skirt.

7 - a latte frappe froo-froo drinker. For the most part. I've had the occasional drink from Starbucks if I go there with the teen or mom but I much prefer a glass of iced tea.. Hot tea in the winter..

8 - a mealy-mouth. I'm a fighter. I'm the go to gal in our family when there is a problem. I remember my parents calling me from Georgia (I live in Missouri) to ask me to call their cable company to fix a problem. They know I will fight for them. I'm hugely protective of my kids and husband and have regularly offered to beat someone up (ie: a bully, a co-worker or boss) that was hurting my loved one. I've never had to do it but the offer still stands. :)

9 - stagnant. I have to try new things. I've owned several businesses, have lists a mile long of art techniques to try and books to read. I'm sure I would not run out of things to read  until the day I die. I like change. I'm always amazed I've lived in the same town in the same house for 15 years. But with a family you have to take them into consideration. If I was single, I'd travel all the time. Maybe write books on traveling, get paid to see the world, have no permanent home. This would be the life for me. My youngest brother is this way and seems to love it.

10 - a small animal lover. I don't like things that can crawl and go 'bump' in the night. Nope. No hamsters, tarantulas, snakes, lizards or even fish really. I'm quite content with cats and dogs.

What would be on your list?