Inspired by Books Project - Altered Pages

I've completed another project with the fabulous collage sheets from Altered Pages. (You can purchase my most recent kits of postcards and plaques in the kits section of the site.)

I designed these items for one of the bigger monthly kits. It's a little different from what I normally create but I've been inspired by the wonderful book related sheets she sells. Jane Austen Paper Dolls, Edgar Allen Poe, Antique Book Covers, & a few other sheets that will be out when the kit is released.

Update: Kit can be found HERE.

This is a combo fabric and paper book, made of woven fabric, vintage sheet music, book pages, graph paper and more. I sewed, drew with pastels, colored pencils and gel pens. Sharpies also appeared. I painted, glittered, sewed on fabric strips, paper, lace & ric rac and also handsewed little beads. I wrote in my own handwriting, not sure if I like that part but it adds to the character. It's by no means perfect in design or even shape but I like it.





This piece is all paper. I used notebook paper graph, receipt and book pages. The cover is made with inks, paper and oil pastels. It's a great little book for keeping track of the books you read during the year.



The bookmark uses an image of Edgar Allan Poe, with a stamped crow/raven on his head. Alluding to his 'The Raven' poem where the bird says 'Nevermore!' many times.



The wood pieces I started with the idea of bookends although they're a bit light, so we'll call them fancy paperweights. lol I stole 2 blocks from my dd's toybox and painted, inked & covered the sides in old book pages. I collaged panels for the fronts and added vintage lace to the sides. I have a friend I plan to give them to.



Finally, here's a set of simple cards. I purposely left sentiments off so I can put whatever I want on it when I want to use them. Or if I give them away, the recipient can choose.



I have a few more items in mind to make but we'll see what materializes. The ideas just keep rolling in with these collage sheets!

Fabric Book Covers

I'm becoming one with my sewing machine apparently.

A while back I read this fun article in Sew Somerset (Summer 2008 issue), a magazine I had been craving for months (finally bought it.) The artist Roxanne Padgett was tired of not having her art supplies with her at all times and decided to make a cute art-studio-on-the-go.

It inspired me to make something for my daughter. A book cover for homeschool. The cover is layered fabric. The inside has a pocket for pencils/pens. Surprisingly I did not have any polka dot fabric or purple fabric for that matter (my dd wanted some purple in it), so I painted polka dots with acrylic paint/textile medium mix onto yellow fabric.




Stay tuned to the Collage Contessa Etsy Shop over the coming weeks. Now that school is running smoothly, the shop will be collecting the fruits of my labors. Including more book covers I'm working on. If you're interested in a custom cover, holler with your color choices and I'll get you a price and time frame it will be ready. Great Christmas gift.

Talent & Ability - Creative Therapy

This week's Creative Therapy catalyst is 'What talent or ability do you wish you had?' Go on over and play along! (Image is from Altered Pages.)



Confidence. Complete confidence. Friends and family would say I’m pretty confident and I’d agree for the most part. Yet there are those times when I question everything. Am I a good enough wife, a competent mother and homeschool teacher, a dedicated Christian, an interesting person & caring friend, a loving daughter, a talented artist? Usually I believe I am but there is that little negative bug in the back of my brain that sometimes says ‘but what if you aren’t and you’re just fooling yourself?’ I hate self doubt. I would love to have the ability to be completely confident in my life, my choices, myself; with no doubt that I’m doing everything the way I should and could. But I guess that touches on the ‘perfection’ level. No one is perfect, only God. I firmly believe that he only gives us what we can handle so I think if I have complete confidence in him, the negative Nellies in my brain will leave me alone. It’s a constant struggle though. We all want to measure up. Believing in yourself brings the confidence I think. I’ll keep working on that.



Technique Highlight:
I took a piece of cheesecloth, ripped holes in it, sprayed one side with repositionable adhesive and laid it over a primed canvas. I dripped alcohol inks on the cheesecloth, sometimes moving the ink around with a wet brush or water pen. I also painted with white gesso (white paint will do) through some of the cloth as well. I dried it a bit with the heat gun and then pulled off the cheesecloth. Perfect background. For the chipboard letters, I quickly brushed them with aqua and olive green alcohol inks. After they were dry, I took a baroque stamp on a wheel, rolled it through paint and then rolled it across the letters for the pink swirls.