Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pages for this month's Color round robin recipient

Coincidentally, my swap recipient this month was also Rikae, who I received pages from. Now that she has received her swap tip-ins, I can show them. Rikae's color was jade, with touches of red and blue allowed. However, she included something I have never seen in a color swap before. She requested we also make them oriental. Now I can make green jade tip-ins, and I can make oriental tip-ins, but I had a terrible time trying to make jade oriental tip-ins.

I had told Rikae that I would make an extra tip-in for her, since she had sent tip-ins to both players who quit and had never received anything from either of them. So I felt she deserved to be compensated for her previous contributions.


This was actually the last tip-in I made. It shows, too. For some reason, I simply couldn't come up with any ideas. Again, it was that oriental jade that killed my inspiration. For this side, I used a Buddhist quote over a photo of a river in Vietnam. I made the window frame from Starbucks stirrer sticks. Originally, they fit well, but they were too big for the page. When I cut them down, I didn't get them as even as I had the first time. I added another oriental image, this time from Indochina.


This is the back side of the first page. After I scanned it, I realized I had not signed it, so did so right before I sent it. I looked and looked, but could find no images of Indian elephants. I had used all my images and book pages on elephant tip-ins I made for Patty S. last year. Guess that's the hazard of using original pages. When they are gone, they are gone.

I found these elephants in my die cuts. Apparently, I had cut them when I was using my friend Kathy's die cut machine. They were made using some of my rusted papers over which I glued pictures of a woman dancing a traditional Indian dance.


This was actually the first page I made for Rikae. I was quite enthused about the oriental theme in the beginning and tried to stay true to the jade-with-bits-of-blue-and-red theme. However, yellow popped into the picture, too. For this background, I used perfect pearls. I even "greened" the oriental money. I used jade thread to sew the page to the back, which is below.


For this page, I started with a book image, then added pieces from the spine of another book. I swiped the perfect pearls around the outside edges of the page, although it is hard to see because the mica in the powder doesn't scan well.


For this piece, I started with more perfect pearls, since I had extra. Rikae's pages are 8.5 X 5.5 inches and I know how much she loves India. For the focal image, I used a picture from a travel magazine that I fussy cut. Behind it, I placed a transfer of another magazine image. I love using magazine images when I make tape transfers. Finally, I added a piece of an old men's tie lining that I colored using a green Sharpie and rubbing alcohol.


The back side of this tip-in started with some pale green acrylic paint, then I added the drips and circles in red, and painted blue through punchinella (sequin waste). I added the Farsi writing I found in a newspaper from Las Vegas of all places, and "Namaste," which I printed from my computer.


For the tag, I tore the edging from a jar of Dragonfly spring roll sauce, and added the image from a Sumatra Starbucks coffee container. I placed these over some oriental writing I colored green using Bingo marker fluid. It is much cheaper than Tim Holtz's daubers and gives the same effect, only with brighter colors.

7 thoughtful remarks:

elle said...

I absolutely luv these pages, Elizabeth. A book of dark jade would also be enhanced by some lighter shades so these would be perfect. Great job!

Anonymous said...

These are fantastic Elizabeth, I really like what you did here. The elephants are a favorite. xox Corrine

Dandelion and Daisy said...

Nice! Rita is my last swap....strangely I'm not into Oriental but I have a stack of paper, fabric and images already set aside for her pages. Thanks for sharing what you've done, you always inspire me!

voodoo vixen said...

Lovely tipin pages E!! I love the colours, very lush and Asian-y looking!! You just reminded me I have a heap of tipins to put into my book of Shakespeare... oops... see how easy it is to forget all the best plans?? LOL

Halle said...

These are great! I was working on her pages just today. My pages are more towards green I think. Jade is such an interesting color but a hard one to simulate.

Steph said...

needless to say, I love your asian inspired art...
awesome oages, E!!!

Dianne said...

outstanding pages! I think you did great with the challenge of color & theme!