Teesha Moore Journal Page Swap

I am hosting a swap where we are all creating 15 pages in "Teesha" style. Everyone will send me their pages and I will swap them out and send back 15 different pages so that the members can create their own journals.

I have received some fabulous pages to date. Below are mine.



I couldn't resist these cats, they were part of an advertisement for kitty litter. Because I am a DOG owner myself (Golden Retriever) - I couldn't resist the "pun".







All of my backgrounds are different colors - as I was having so much fun with this :)

Abstract ATC

Bren is hosting an Abstract ATC on CCSwaps. I decided to give it a try. I pulled out my alcohol inks, some glossy black card stock and some stamps.

Here is my creation:

Fabric Book

I hosted a fabric page swap on CCSwaps and I just finished creating and binding the book.

I used latch hook material to create the binding with assorted fabric scraps and fibers. While it was

a bit more labor intensive than I originally thought it would be, I am very happy with the results.

12 members participated in this swap by creating 5 x 5 fabric pages. All pages were sent to me for

sorting and I returned the sets to each member for us to bind ourselves. I can't wait to see how others

bind their books! I created my own front cover for this book - as the page I created for the group is a

back cover - with the thought that everyone could use their own page for the front cover.

My front cover:

view from open edge:

top view:

view of binding:

my back cover:

Adrienne's Altered Board Book

Here is the next (and the final one in my possession for the time being!) Adrienne's theme was for each of us to pick our favorite color! I picked Steel Blue - which I happen to think is a GORGEOUS color!



I used gray and blue paints to create the exact shade I was going for. I then DTP's the pages from a book to create my background.



The square piece of the right is actually a chunky book page I had left over from a previous swap. I loved the addition of the other colors with the blue and decided to add it to this book.



my sign-in tag

Bren's Altered Board Book

Here is another Altered Board Book for the Round Robin swap I am in. The theme of Bren's is "all about YOU" - meaning ME! ECK!



My background was gessoed and then painted with Golden's Acrylic paints.



This page represents a bit about me! I work with numbers in my day job, I love to read, I tease my friends that my days have 72 hours (just to make them jealous) - and I believe in smiles make the world a better place!

Altered Book Shrine

I am hosting a book shrine swap and figured I should try my hand at another one . . . . . one I am actually going to give away . . . . LOL!

For this one I used a children's board book. It wasn't as difficult to cut through the pages as I thought it might be. I actually think it was easier than going through a whole bunch of pages in a regular book. I then glued the extra pages together and to the back cover.





Back Cover:



Spine:

Trish's Altered Board Book

I was able to finish Trish's board book this morning and send it on it's way to Maggi.

I first painted with Gesso and then used distress inks on top. They left it rather tacky - which I didn't realize they would (learned something new!), so I brushed various colors of Pearl Ex on top.



Trish's theme is Women in Collage . . . . . so I gathered my "stuff" and got to work.

Below is the "interactive" page. Trish asked that we all select one word that women need . . . . my addition was "Hope".

Altered Board Books - Chrissy's & Maggi's

A group of us are in an Altered Board Book Round Robin. We all started with the same board book - and are sending it around, based on the owner's theme.

I have worked on two so far, shown below . . . and currently have three in my possession, but I am not late yet, they were just early :)



Above is the background I created for Chrissy's book. This started out as white mulberry paper, I resist stamped some images and then sprayed on Stamp Zia color wash sprays. I was very happy with how it turned out . . . . so happy that I hated to cover it up . . . LOL! Chrissy's theme is Friendship . . .



These are pictures from when we were in California - and I just had to include them . . . .
I love the footprint picture - and I included the following saying:
"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart".
Could it possibly be more appropriate?



For Maggi's background - I used color wash sprays on 2-ply paper towel, separated and attached to her book. Maggi's theme is Journey - and I choose to interpret that as a spiritual journey through art.





I will update more of the board books as I work in them.

Modified Exemplar

My eldest son graduated from 8th grade last night! WOW, does time go by quickly or what! His principal is leaving our school after this year and we are ALL very sad to see her go. I decided to paint a modified exemplar for her (where on earth do I get these ideas!!!). I called Jake's teacher and asked her if the next day in school she could get the kids to think of one word for each letter of the alphabet that made them think of her. They did an outstanding job. (Just for the record, she is CRAZY about hippo's - hence the letter "H" - just don't want anyone to think they were being mean . . . LOL!)

Jacob brought the list home from school and we got to work. My youngest son, Luke, gessoed the background and gave it one coat of paint . . . . then I attacked it Misty Mawn style to bring in just a couple more colors and texture. Because I had to write all the words on it - it couldn't be too dark or have too much texture.

Then I said . . . "''hhhmmmmm, this could look pretty darn boring, I should paint a portrait of Mrs. Hartmann".

See what I mean . . . . . where did that idea come from ? ? ? ? ? I CAN'T PAINT!!! Oh well, why let something as little as that stop me ? ! ? ! I printed off a picture of her so that I had something to look at, got out the oil sticks and went to town. After agonizing over her teeth!!, I decided that I would just shut her mouth . . . . LOL! Yes, that worked . . . . Cool!

I needed a dress for her - so I cut one out of patterned paper as I didn't want to press my luck painting, attempting the arms and hands was about as far as I was willing to go, but there was still something missing . . . a big hole in the bottom left corner. She looked like she was just hanging out there on the right . . . . it needed something . . . . well, for goodness sake - since the letter "H" was Hippopotamus - why not paint one! Why not indeed! I have just one question . . . . . where on earth was Maggi when I needed her to STOP ME. I googled for a stuffed hippo - found one I liked, printed it so I could look at it and started in with the purple and white oil sticks. Okay - that was relatively easy . . . . good thing! Using a gold metallic marker, I made a leash from the hippo to Mrs. Hartmann's hand! Phew, looking good.

Now I have to add the words! Am I a calligrapher? ? ? Nope, not at all . . . so I found a font in Word that I liked and printed out all the words. With a piece of scratch paper next to me to practice on, I got to work. About an hour later, all the words were on, I added "St. Agnes Graduating Class of 2007 on the top edge, and the names of all the kids in the 8th grade graduating class around the two sides and the bottom and I was done!

NOT! It was missing a POW factor! Since they used "Queen" for Q, I decided to give her a crown! There, that looks nice. Then I remembered that she has some gorgeous diamond jewelry! So I gave her a diamond necklace, diamond earrings, and diamonds on the top of her crown! There, PERFECT!

Okay - still not quite POW! I was losing the hippo and some words into the background! I know, DOTS! I need some DOTS! So I got out a white paint marker and put dots around the hippo, looking GOOD! Then I also added some around the capital letters of each word! TADA! This time I really am done!

BTW - she loved it! LOL!

And here is our graduate:

ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY SEVEN, Tuesday, May 8

Wouldn't you just know it! After getting to bed at 12:30 - I woke up at 2:30!!! ARGH! I pulled out my whimsy pages and went to town on them for a couple of hours - so that was at least very productive!!

I then finished writing my notes for my journal and started getting ready to go home.

We packed up and then called down for the bellman to pick up our shipping boxes and also asked him to call us a taxi. We then went down for our last FABULOUS breakfast!!

The taxi picked us up just a bit late, but we got to the airport in plenty of time. We even had time to hit the shops for some gifts for our men!

The only incident we had on the trip home was almost missing our connecting flight in Atlanta. They switched planes at the last minute and we were completely unaware of it! A quick jog through the airport and we made it! Arrived in Milwaukee right on schedule, retrieved our luggage, and Craig and Dick were waiting for us!

We had a wonderful time and I can't wait for our next retreat!!!

ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY SIX, Monday, May 7

Our last day of classes has arrived, and it definitely brings a bitter-sweet feeling! On one hand, I am VERY excited for my Misty Mawn class today, but I am also missing my family - and am also excited to head home tomorrw and see them!

We were pretty organized today and headed out for our classes! I have "Layers on Canvas" with Misty Mawn and Maggi has a diary/journal class today.

Today's class ROCKED! Misty is a delightful, sweet and very talented lady! She had us feeling relaxed and welcome in no time! I was sitting with gal pal, Toni and Doris Arndt and we had a blast helping each other, laughing and sharing supplies! Kathy W. and Leighanna Light were also in this class and that was totally cool! Taking a class with instructors . . . . how fun!

The first thing Misty had us do was to cover our canvas boards with gesso. Then we were practically throwing paint on them :) I have never done much with my fingers and hands with paint - but I really got into this . . . . She next showed us how to add texture, and add and remove color. We all pretty much stopped when we liked the result. I didn't finish my projects there - but found some time when I got home to finish them up . . . . I may still add some more, but for now I am calling them done! (Mostly because I wanted to get my blog up to date . . . . LOL!)












Maggi's class went very well and she came back with a completed diary/journal! We decided to organize and pack up as much as we could, and then went downstairs to print out our boarding passes to get home. We spent a couple of hours with Margaret and Melissa at happy hour and then back to our room, ordered in some dinner, watched TV and went lights out about 12:30 am.