The color wheel

This is the color wheel I made from magazine images for my Hands AB. I'm totally pleased with this spread.

Gesso on my hands

I began this spread in my Hands AB by laying down gesso. I didn't want to cover the entire page, just enough to hide most of the words.

Next, I added the Hand image, using the gesso as glue. Then I used a wet wipe to clean up some other pages in the book. To my surprise, the ink bled onto the wet wipe, so I gently swiped around the hand in places where I thought the image and the background were too close to the same color. I allowed the piece to dry, checked for good coverage, then used my Krylon Gold Leafing pen to write the sentiment. I'm not good at thinking up sentiments, so I'm sure someone else could do better.

Hand book homework

Here are two more pages in my Hands book. The background was made using a credit card. The book is too large to scan all at once, so this is the left page. I "freehanded" the hands and hope I get better at it soon. The stamp is my new one that Kathy picked up with a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby. I know how she loves to shop, so it was perfect for her to just pop in one day and pick it up for me. Thanks dear friend.

Over on ABC we have been talking about bird feathers and how you could go to jail for using them in your art, or even picking them up. That was the inspiration behind my little bit of humor.

Why four years? I have no idea what the punishment is, but it matched the four stamped birds.

I've been honored

My dear friend Halle has honored me with a Kreativ Blogger award. According to Halle's message "Upon receiving this award I am to tell 7 things about myself and pick 7 others who are deserving of this award." I'll try to do this award justice.

1. I'm a neat freak.

2. I love mathematics, statistics, and research.

3. I'm single, never married, and don't believe I've missed out on anything.

4. These bad economic times don't bother me as much as it does my friends because I've always lived frugally.

5. I've always been a recycler, even when it was not in fashion. Could be because I was born on Earth Day.

6. I love winter and hate summer. Maybe I should say I love the cold and hate heat.

7. I detest the term "list mom" since I'm not a mother to anyone (not even Bleubeard).

Although it was difficult to choose just seven, here are the deserving recipients of this award:

1. http://www.itsallaboutthejourney.typepad.com/ Mary is a talented card maker, photographer, and scrapbooker. You will love her blog and her generous explanations of how she creates each card.

2. http://maryshunt.blogspot.com/ Mar is an amazing artist whose stained glass is incredible. I'm always in awe of her art. She is also always quick to leave a gracious comment.

3. http://sharonkshubert.blogspot.com/ Sharon's work is all over the place. One day she's burning intricate designs into chopsticks, the next is creating the most gorgeous watercolors. Her blog never disappoints.

4. http://www.trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/ I had never been to Lynn's blog until I saw a link it and loved the name. You won't believe her paper art and stamping.

5. http://bitze.wordpress.com/ Patty is an amazing artist who I "met" during the OWOH giveaway. Anything she makes is stunning. Her art ranges from altered silverware to wood to fabric to stamping to collage. You name it, if it's altered, you'll probably find it on her blog.

6. http://nalasmom.blogspot.com/ I also "met" Donna during the OWOH giveaway. I was fortunate enough to win a mixed media piece and it is fabulous. If you like altered art and a colorful blog, her blog is just the ticket.

7. http://jackiesmithblog.blogspot.com/ You have to go to Jackie's blog because you never know what you're going to see. One time she might be posting lovely beach scenes, the next snow. However, if you love altered art, check out her blog banner. It's to die for.

OK Kreativ Blogger nominees, here is what you need to do:

1. Snag the logo and place it on your blog.
2. Link to the person who sent the award to you. That would be me (http://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/)
3. Name seven things about yourself people might find interesting.
4. Nominate seven Kreativ Bloggers.

5. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
6. Leaves a message on the blog of each of your nominees.

Earth HOUR

It's probably no secret to most who know me that I was born on Earth Day. Similar in concept is Earth Hour.

Tonight we celebrate Earth Hour for the second year. Last year I unplugged my computer and TV. Why you ask? Well because I just never leave lights on in my house. So, it was a total blackout at my place last year, although I loved the candles that kept me from tripping over Bleubeard. I will do the same tonight which will be from 8 to 9, as I lessen my carbon footprint even more than normal. So, please do YOUR part too. Simply turn off all your lights from 8 to 9 in YOUR TIME ZONE. Maybe you could even light a few candles and enjoy your night in a different way. And since some of my friends hadn't heard of this event, be sure to tell everyone you know. That way you too will be doing something good for the planet and the future of our existence.

Bunny and butterfly: an ATC

Loved the bunny and thought s/he looked lonely without a companion. The butterfly, although much larger in scale to the bunny, provides the needed friendship. All images are from various magazines.

A sneak peek

I'm working on a Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose swap on ABC to celebrate Earth Day. The idea is to use any and everything that would go into the trash. I am having trouble carving out time to make art, so thought I would give you a sneak peek at some of the materials I'm using for the backgrounds.
Click on the picture for a large view of the totally awesome fortune I found that describes me perfectly. These are the materials I planned to use for the background.

Here is a small part of the background I created using these scraps from my ever growing pile of scraps. I couldn't get the entire page on my scanner.

The next step will be to cut it to size and use the pieces as the background. You'll just have to check back to see what I do with this, because this is all I have to date.

An untitled entry in my altered recipe book

Spent about an hour doing art and whipped up this collage which I couldn't think of a name or a title for. I used one of my favorite backgrounds that was made famous by Kelly Rae Roberts. I added a glass of glazed carrots, but all the recipe squares came from a book on apples. Originally I was going to stamp a pear onto the background, but saw this image and thought it would work AND I could get rid of another magazine image in the process.

If you think of a good title, please let me know.

Drunk with love?

Celebrate with Chocolate Stout Cake. Another two page spread in my altered recipe book. This one looks good enough to make!!

My Hand Book

This is the first page in my hand book. It's the one I'm making in the on-line altered book class. For the background, I used paper from the gas station you use to dry your windows with. I colored them using various acrylic paints I watered down. The image is from a magazine and the idea is to reinforce the page, a technique I learned from Linda Findley.

A fun day with Billie in and around Wichita

Yesterday was the first time I've had a chance to spend time with Billie since George's funeral. We spent the day just relaxing and having as much fun as possible, given the circumstances.
We began by having tea at Billie's before embarking on our journey. Our outing actually began when Billie took 12 pairs of George's glasses to Howard's Optical. They will donate them to the Lion's Club.

Then it was way south to a small town nearby called Derby where we played Bingo. I had never played the game before, just used the bingo cards in my art. It was fun, but I didn't win anything. Billie however, won a set of four lovely hand made glass plates. They were gorgeous with bits of glass swirls in them.

I didn't bother taking my camera into the Bingo game, but I should have. It was quite colorful.


Back in the car, we drove downtown to check out our new Sports Center that no one except a few special interest groups wanted. On the way, we drove past the Boat House, a lovely old building that the City wants to tear down. Wichita has some really stupid policies. This place is gorgeous and could be rented out every day if someone would just take it over.

This is our new gazillion dollar eye sore that is supposed to revolutionize the downtown area. What it did was cause many of the lovely old buildings to end up under the wrecking ball.

Next we went to the river, where we got to see the new walkway and the "Keeper of the Plains," a huge metal statue by a famous Native American artist named Blackbear Bosin. The statue was recently moved from the Indian Museum to the river and it was raised another 50 feet or so.

Billie on the bridge looking at the Keeper.

A photo of the Keeper with the rocks and lights that surround it.

As we walked to the statue, there was an outdoor museum winding in and around the statue.

I really liked the bison relief on the wall.

My camera wasn't large enough to get the entire wall.

More of the wall.

And more.

Another view.

And yet another view.

This is a different wall.

The rest of this wall. Each of the dark rectangles tell about the individual symbols.

This is a portion of the wall above. I was drawn to it because of the hands on the horse. It was the only cutout in both walls, too.

Looking back across the bridge, we headed for the Keeper area.

Here is the plaque that tells about it. Sadly, I didn't get a view you could read.

Here is a photo of the Keeper looking up from the base. As many times as I have seen this statue, I had never seen the decorative colors on his pants until I was downloading this photo.

Flat Stanleys are everywhere. What fun!!!

These "rounds" are actually lights for the statue. The river and small dam were very dirty. I can't believe what crap people throw in it. Part of Wichita's downtown skyline is in the background. Believe it or not, the building with the angled roof is the tallest in Kansas!

I never got a good photo of Billie, but I had to laugh at this one. It looks like she is wearing a crown. For those who take really good or professional photos, they would never post this one. One of the "rules" is to make sure the subject has nothing growing out of the subject's head. However, the shape of the bridge structure struck me and my altered art background kicked in.

Layers and layers, trails and more trails surround the area.

You could hide in these nooks and crannies and never be found.

This is such a fun place that I didn't even know existed until yesterday. I had so much fun and it was something we could both do with no cash outlay. My kind of day: fun in the sun and FREE.

Easter ATCs

These are for a 5 for 5 swap over on ABC (see link on side of blog). Although I seldom do "cute," these bunny rabbits were die cut (thanks Kat) from some brown paper envelopes and/or bags. I began with some of my great smelling shaving cream paper, added flowers cut from a previous project, added the flower stems and leaves using my Zig pen, and put them all on a green ribbon which is supposed to be grass. They aren't my usual style, and they sure challenged my imagination and design.

Fancy feast or TV dinner?

My dear friend Halle, who made the book for this project as part of the 12 Days of Christmas swap, sent more pages for it when she realized I was actually using the book to make an altered recipe AB. I love the size of it, because it works so well for recipes. Halle put different colored papers next to each other, so no two pages are the same color. That works well for most things, but I wanted these two spreads to go together. I was glad she sent extra pages, so I could choose the color that would match both spreads.

I came up with this spread when I read something about frozen TV dinners being a product of the late 50s or early 60s. It got me thinking that people sat in front of the TV watching perfect households and perfect wives (who slept in perfect twin beds next to their husbands) who never once considered fixing a TV dinner. Such irony could not go unnoticed. Although I couldn't find the exact images or message to convey my thoughts, I did find some magazine images of Lucy and Ricky, with Lucy fixing a meal and serving dinner with her hair perfectly styled, her dress in perfect condition, and her apron on when she was whipping up a recipe. Thank goodness times have changed and women can now fix meals in our their sweats or even a nightgown now and then!! And the lucky ones have husbands or significant others who have dinner waiting for them at the end of the day.

Spring is here!

Maybe spring hasn't bloomed on the calendar, but it's alive on this ATC, made special by the German scrap bee (or could it be a wasp?) gifted me by Cindy. Originally I planned to place it in the upper left corner of the ATC, but it just didn't look right. After placing the bee on the leaves, I decided to cut off some of the unwanted empty space in the corner of the ATC. The flower came from junk mail in my mailbox.

Tip: wait for your gold leafing to dry before touching it. I accidentally drug my wrist through the gold leaf while moving the bee around. I should have known better, since this is not the first time I've done it!

Going green: a money ATC

Another tiny piece of art in the form of an ATC for my Money AB. This piece was made from a magazine image and junk mail.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

For all of you who choose to be Irish today.

Moo-lah: an ATC

This is an ATC for my Money AB. Since I keep finding such cool money themed images, these are the perfect size to fit into the pockets in the middle of the book. This ATC was made primarily of junk mail.

The Magic Flute: an ATC

The Magic Flute was just a fun and quick little ATC using magazine images and text, along with my Krylon Gold Leafing Pen.

March 14: Pie day

Just a little play on words for 3.14 = pi day. I had some trouble with the packing tape transfer of the apple pie. It must have not wanted to be part of the pun.

My final basement update before the stuff returns

If you "know" me, you know I'm a planner. You also know I love to organize and preach "zones." To me, that's the only way to have an organized work space. While I'm waiting on my "stuff" to return (the latest update is that it won't get here till next Tuesday), I have been putting on paper what I want to go and where.


These are scribbles. They were really not to scale, only for my clarification. As you can see, My room is 14' wide X 13'6" long, then 12'6" on the "closet" side. I have moved my work bench to the west wall, and will place my three new bookcases (plastic five shelf) on the south wall. That way I can get more items on the bookcaes, since the ceiling is a foot and a half higher in that area.

I drew bookcases and numbered the shelves, then determined what I wanted to place on them. As you can see, I've already changed my mind a couple of times. Better to move stuff on paper than in reality. Again, things are set in zones.

And finally, this is my work bench, but it too has changed, since I can't get 6' boards anywhere. Not sure what I'll do about that, but I would love to have all my charms on a sturdy board where I can reach them.

Also, I promise this is the final update you will see of this room until the "stuff is in."

This is the wall you see as you enter the room. It will now house my three new shelves.

A picture of the wall and "cubby" where I can hide a few things I won't use but once a year or so.

The west wall with the new electrical outlets. This is where I plan to set up my workbench.

A good photo of the painted floor and new light. Can you tell I really love that new canister light?

Part of the north wall and the small door that hides the whole house shut off valve. I'll need to keep this area open.

The north wall will basically hold the same things as before.

The floor again, this time near the closet entrance. Yep, I'm really happy with the all white and bright room.

Finally, both doors. This area will also be much the same as before. Now it's hurry up and wait till Tuesday.