Saturday, November 7, 2009

Fantasy Folded Altered Book

I'm still in agony with the dreaded cold but wanted to come on and post a bit anyway so maybe I'll get in the habit of posting more often.
I did do a 2 page layout in the Fantasy Folded Altered Book last night. I don't think I'm done with it yet but thought maybe I'd come here and start to show some of the pages I have finished. On the side,  I was also working (fooling around) in a cheap little notebook that I liked and decided to alter. Well, I altered it so well that it fell apart. There must be a trick to doing those flimsy lined pages that are bound with the coiled wire? I did glue 3 or 4 pages together and the pages held up fine but soon I couldn't get the pages to open and slide along the coil even though I was trying to keep the coil clean of paint and mediums. It started to tear and come apart at the perforations. I'll just save those pages and use them elsewhere on down the road.
So back to the Fantasy Folded book; before I show some of the pages I have to say that because this book is just my own, I haven't paid a lot of attention to what images I use or where I got them. If you happen to see any images that I got from "you", then I thank you so very much. I can't give any credits on this book too much, because my memory is the size of a dried pea and I'd have to go searching through the image files to see IF I did save it correctly using the person's name I got it from. ( I know.....I write long rambling sentences, too!) Anyway, I have tons of images, I love searching for them, finding them and hopefully using them and again I thank anyone who has shared their images for any of us to use. Most of these pages are done just cutting and trimming the images, doing the collage using gel mediums and or mod podge and maybe some markers, ink, caran d'ache colors, glitter and possibly other ephemera here and there.

I don't have these pages actually numbered yet as I'm working willy nilly on whatever page suits my fancy at any given time. I think this will be page 6 & 7. The creases on any corners are where the page is meant to be folded. I opened them to show the whole page.


This might be 8 & 9


and this would be page 10 and then a 1/2 page fold (you can see a portion of page 12 that was waiting to be done when I scanned the page).


and this page 11 (half folded page) and then page 12 finished.
Remember to click on the picture for a larger view (if you dare).

I'll show some more tomorrow....after the game & race!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Altered Pages

So much for blogging a little each day! I've come down with the dreaded cold so been laying low this week. Thought maybe I'd be real brave and show some pictures from a book I've been "fooling" around in since last Winter when I was laid up with cellulitis and a venous ulcer in my legs. Wasn't much fun but it gave a lot of bed & couch time. So,  much easier than a Altered Book is doing Altered Pages. I grabbed a Readers Digest Condensed Book and have been slowly altering the pages with found words. I usually keep it on the coffee table and then grab it while watching a Packer game or a Nascar race and spend time finding words or taking sharpies and blocking out words. The art isn't intended to be great art; it's mainly just doodles to block out words. Then later I go back to a page and maybe add some image or do further doodling. At this point I can't say that any page is finished. So because this book has 4 different stories, the form and choice of words differ in sections. That doesn't really matter but I found in doing these that one story gave me found words that brought back memories and feelings I tried to bury. It's amazing when doing these pages how certain words will just jump out at you. Just like a form of therapy.
I'm finding it hard to scan these pages to show. So I spent some time trying to learn to scan better and so now I'll see if I got the words to show or not. The print is small and some have a glare because I scanned some after I went in and put a protective coat over the page. I'll never learn to scan first in order to reduce glares.
So here's 2 just random pages that I went back and added images to:

(what's a pretext to a rueful smile?)


(she can't understand this, she just wanted it; reflected on wider implications)
Next starts a different section of the book and this will show the beginning of a series of pages that will tell a story....maybe. These aren't finished but I'll show them anyway:


(terrible secrets of the past, haunted by truth)


monster, the smell, the sound, was terror spun into nightmare. destroyed life; it would be finished)


(a flicker. The monster's here. I had to hide)
(hands shook, didn't speak; there were signs.)
This one (above) actually shows 1 page and a half page


(door shattered; Horror)
This just shows another half page and then a page with only the "found words" and the rest of the page not blocked out yet. Hopefully the words will be readable. I saw they weren't so came back in and added the found words under each image.