What I gave Kat for her birthday in 2006

I can't take credit for the originality of this book. I got the idea from Michelle over at Green Pepper Press (GPP). She used to sell kits to make these houses, but I don't find a link to them anymore. However, I didn't buy a kit, but used what I had on hand. Since I had no instructions for making this book, it was really a trial and error event, which I was really pleased with when I was finished.

As I mention in my next post, my friend Kat, over at Kat's Kuriosities is having a birthday on Friday. She called me last night and told me she had been working on MY birthday gift for a week. Since I don't have anything to show you for this year's birthday gift, I thought I would show what I made her in 2006 and 2005 (next post).

I am not sure how much larger these photos will get, but you may click on them to find out. My friend Kat sent them to me via e-mail, so they are low res. Thankfully, when she got home that day, she took pics of them, since we had to finish the book on her birthday. She had the coil machine, which she gladly "loaned" me so I could complete her book. Actually, she had to insert the coils, because I had trouble starting them. Nothing like having to finish one's own birthday gift.
This is the book in its entirety. The blue in the background is something at Kat's house, and not part of the book. This is how the book looks when slightly open. All of the pages are cut at different places, something Michelle at GPP suggested.
The front of the house is a transparency made from blue mammogram film which is heavier than transparencies and will take heat. I embossed the door and window images with bright red EP, which turned very dark after embossing. Color lesson: red and blue make DARK!!
This was my first attempt at acrylic paint and glue to make a crackle finish. For this page I began with yellow and followed with red. This is the front of the book with the transparency open. The title of the book is "House of Friendship."
The red and yellow crackle did not do well on these pages, which are the inside of the front page. This also shows the next pages. On the left is a note I wrote to Kat on my hmp, on the right is a packing tape transfer of a magazine image and the words "House of Art" printed on my hmp.

On the left middle page is a card that reads "you're a special friend." I added a rose as embellishment. On the right, barely visible is Kat's birthday I stamped into white polyclay and baked. Below that is "blessed birthday" written in dymo clear tape.
This is a closeup of the message I wrote to Kat. It is located on the left inside of the first page.

I used a sea sponge to make the blue glaze background. I added a picture from a magazine and swiped the same blue glaze over it. The matching page, seen on the far right has glazes swiped on using a credit card, to which I added words from a dymo labelmaker and "Magic" printed on my hmp. Center: yellow is the same message to Kat, this time written in a foreign language and printed on my hmp. The images on the right are printed on mammogram film and heat embossed. This time I attached the transparency to the background instead of allowing it to swing free.

This view shows several pages. On the far left and right pages is a photo of an Oriental man sitting on a bed (right) with others standing (left unseen in this photo). Hiding the standing people is a woman stamped on my hmp. She has no companion page. The two middle pages are pocket pages and they are the only ones in the book that do not line up when cut. I glazed, stamped, and embossed on these. They each hold a tag, but Kat can store mementoes, ATCs, or photos in them.

The outside of the left pocket page has a polymer clay butterfly and the back of the right pocket has the chimney. I have since learned how to handle the chimney, but as I said earlier, this was a trial and error book. There is a cute fortune on the outside of the pocket, below which is a symbol I cut from a fortune cookie wrapper.
This is a single tag which I placed in the left pocket. It was created from excess cardstock which did not crackle. I added a 35 mm negative film strip, tickets, an "L" from a mammogram (with photo of a boy playing the Lute, and a fortune. They are held together with a brad.
This shows another tag, this one with a birthday message on the back. I tried to make a crackle background and failed. I ended up using various colors and swiped over the colors using a credit card. I then stamped on the tag using black Staz-on because the copper pigment ink I tried didn't work. These tags were made from leftover cardstock from one of the pages in the book.

The far left and right pages are the backs of the tag pockets. The middle pages contain two vintage images: one of the brain (a common theme in this book) and the other of a hatching chick with a lightbulb above its head. The images are mounted on wallpaper samples which are glued to scrapbook paper that I "aged" using dye ink. It's been two years since I made this book, so I have no idea what the message on the chimney is. I couldn't enlarge the photo enough to tell, either.
This is the page I made the tags from. I added a small coin envie and stuck a bookmark I made in it. The sentiment reads "Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Samuel Patterson" This was my favorite background, even though it started out as a failed experiment. The background visible on the left is made using Copper Lumiere and a sea sponge dipped in black acrylic ink. I don't actually remember what is on the page.

The left and right sides are scrapbook paper that I added vintage images and sayings to. The sayings are printed on tracing paper for a see thru effect. The middle page is the last one. The failed crackle background began with red and yellow was on top. Kat had given me the image and I recieved the icon pins in a swap. (I removed the pin backs before gluing them to the page).
I'm almost ashambed to show the back page. It's pretty cheesy, but I wanted to surprise Kat with her birthday gift (a gift card) in the pocket of a POTHOLDER which was destined for the trash. The saying above: Back door friends are the best. The name plate below and the "brads" holding it are made from white polyclay. Again, background is failed crackle using red and yellow acrylic paint and glue. As an aside, the potholder was so bulky, it wouldn't go through the machine that punches the holes for the coil, so Kat punched the holes by hand.

I see Kat removed the gift card before she photographed the page :>)