Altered Books and Art Journals and Random Artastic Fun

SO-

I recently began runnin' around with a new altered book club over at one of my favorite stores in town- Paper Crown.  We meet the last Wednesday of every month.  I had a great time at the first night, last January 30.  I had such a great time, that I can't wait 'til 27FEB!

At the class/club/whatever we're calling it, we each brought an old book.  We passed our books to the left.  We took the other person's book home and 'did a page.'  When we return, we'll pass our books again and continue.  I can't wait to see all the things that people will do to my book!

First of all- if you're one of the fun people from the class-  DON'T READ further!  Or look at any pictures.  You'll see it all on the 27th.  Okay?

I'm sure that ANY person reading this blog would know what an 'altered book' is- but just in case you don't, I'll try (my best) to explain:  

An altered book is a book that you alter in some way and/or many ways.  No, I'm not being smart.  You just....alter it.  With paint. Or collage.  Or saliva.  Or however.  Usually all of the above.  

I love the look and feel of an old book.  And a worthless old book (yes, they exist) that's been painting and glued and filled with interesting things- well, it's amazing.  And I had so much fun doing the page in the other person's book, I had to grab another old book and start a private/personal one, all for myself.

We were given 'Hearts' as our first theme, due to Valentine's Day.  Here's my very first page:

There is lots of stamping going on up there...   First, I 'glued' a few pages together on each side with gesso AND painted over the pages with more gesso.  I used the Kaisercraft 'Graffiti' stamp all over the page, stamped at alternating angles, to cover the pages.  Then some more randomly smeared gesso on top.  I cut the heart shape in the center out, except for a center hinge.  I painted the pages behind the cut pages with red paint.  Which, as pretty as red is, tends to always look like splattered blood.  I glued on a cut-out King and Queen of Hearts from a deck of Dollar Tree playing cards (I'm not ruining my classy deck of cards from Tiffany's on an altered book.  Not yet, anyways.) and stamped a crowned lion (from the dollar bin at Michaels) in the bottom left corner.  I found the wings at The Graphics Fairy.  If you aren't obsessed with the Graphics Fairy, I don't know what's wrong with you. 

There's a close-up on the crowned lion stamp.  Ain't he cool?  You can also see some of my random Distress Stain and penciled handwriting. 

There's a final shot, sideways- hoping it would show off the 3D aspect of the heart, folding out of the pages.  I don't think you can see in any of the shots, but I used some metallic Distress Stain to 'gild' the edges of my layout.

NEXT:

Since I work with Miss Chris, who is going to the altered book club with me-  we decided to 'trade' peoples books and do another layout before it's time to go back.  I wanted to do another heart page- and since this book belongs to my friend, Darla, I wanted it to be pretty cool:

Dangit.  Since I went with such a monochromatic look, here, you can't make out most of it...  I finally had an excuse to use my new Tim Holtz WORD PLAY die, to cut 'and love' from some chipboard.  There's some Mister Huey's splattered over my white and beige painted pages.  The heart is another freakin' cool find from The Graphics Fairy, and the penciled handwriting is lyrics from one of my favorite songs (Midnight Radio) from one of my favorite musicals (Hedwig And The Angry Inch).

The 'LOVE' stamp is from the dollar bin at JoAnn.  You can see some of Mr. Holtz's tissue tape peeking out on the right, there, too.

Have any of you altered a book or art journaled?   Show me!  I'd love to see!

-k

Encaustic Tag Book Class with DINA WAKLEY!

For anyone who didn't sign up for this freakin' great class: I'm sorry you're such a loser. So what if it would've involved a drive on the interstate or connecting flights? What else did you have to do today? And I would've taken you out for a wild night on the town afterwards, too. So it would've been doubly worth the time.

So what did I learn? I learned that I am in love with Dina Wakley and will join her cult and buy all her stamps. Hell, I would drink her Kool-Aid spray inks if she had some. I also learned that some beeswax, tissue paper and a hot iron can make some amazing shit. Also: A hot iron can burn you. Who knew?!

While I'm here, I've gotta thank Maura at My Heart's Fancy, for hosting the class, and of course- Darla, who signed me up for the class!  Oh yeah!  Don't miss KORY & DARLA hosting CRAFT WARS Commentary LIVE on the Scrapbook.com forum this Tuesday!  Bring your smarts comments over and join us!

First up:  My inky hands.  That's the sign of a successful class. 

Here's my book- the one you're kindly humoring me by pretending to be exciting to see:

Tied up with an ink-stained ribbon.  I love dyeing ribbon with ink and/or stains.

Untie the ribbons, why don't ya?  There, now you can see the cover.  I cut the wings from a stamped image of a bumblebee to glue on the crowned lady.  The two fellas were from a book page I found in Miss Dina's giant bag of collage papers.  Wasn't that nice of her to not only bring things, but let us take anything from the bag that caught our eye?!  The kraft tissue paper with words all over it was donated to me by the kind (and fun) Texan ladies who were sitting at my table.  See how I called it MY table?  I'm full of myself, aren't?  It was THEIR table, and they were so cool to shout at me that I could join them, when I found I that every seat at Darla's table was taken!

Here's the inside of my book- six tags.  Each one carefully (that means quickly and without thought) designed, colored, painted, waxed- all by ME.  We were given a printed out page of inspirational quotes.  They were all very nice and thoughtful- but you know me, I had to cut them up and reassemble the quotes until they barely made sense and weren't as thoughtful.  Yeahp, I'm the crafty William S. Burroughs.  But I like them.  And they're now ME instead of 'quotes.'  Which, seems very 'me, to me.'  Does that make sense?  Hmm.  Does to me.

The last tag, up there on the right, was made in about three frantic minutes.  When we began to assemble the book, I found that I was one tag short.  I got a spare tag, rubbed some paint on it, sprayed some ink on it, grabbed a couple of pieces of stamped tissue paper, and ran over to the wax and HOT iron table to melt it all together.  And you know what?  I think it's my favorite one.

Aaaaand- here it is, all opened up and standing up, as proud a pimp at 1st and Main:

One more shot of my book, in all it's colorful glory:

Alright, that's it from me.  I've got a wild party tonight.  I need to attempt to scrub the rest of the ink from my hands and try to look presentable.  I shouldn't look like THIS until 2:30am.  

Have a great day, everyone!  Go make something!  Here's a picture of me 'n Dina Wakley, herself!  This just might be my Christmas card.  Don't we look like such a happy couple?  We'd only been together for three short hours.  Looks like years, doesn't it?  

Happy Saturday night, people!  First round is on me!

-kory

BasicGrey Class at Whole Lotta Scrap

Last night was my first night at Whole Lotta Scrap's Basic Grey class! 

My fun friend, Miss Coworker Chris, told me about the class and asked me to go-  well, I love BasicGrey and how much do I love WHOLE LOTTA SCRAP?!  Seriously- have y'all been to this store?  It's HUGE.  It's like the Mega-Mart of Oklahoma scrap.  The store is big.  And it's filled with the newest, latest, and greatest-  every scrappy item you could ever want to buy and rub all over your naked body. 

The owners are great, too!  I don't know about you- but when I go into a store, I expect to be treated like the celebrity that I am- and they know how to treat a visiting dignitary. 

Oh, you wanted to know about the class- not just about how popular I'm not. 

First of all- to get to the class, we had to leave work right at 5pm.  Whole Lotta Scrap (I love saying the name of this shop- it's fun.  Say it.  Say it again.  Now say it like you mean it) is in Norman.  Which is, per Marjorie, my navigation unit, is about 27.46 miles from my place o'bidness.  That's a helluva drive.  I can't even say what kind of drive it is during rush hour traffic. 

But thanks to Marjorie, we made it there in a record 43 minutes.  During rush hour traffic, from work to the sorta-East side of Norman in 43 minutes?  It can be done. 

I haven't totally finished my two page layout from the class- but it's almost there...  I had lots of fun, using my new Ingvild Bolme Distressing Tool and my beloved Picket Fence Distress Stain to customize my layout in my own fun Kory way.  I also threw some twine into the mix, in the style of the GREAT FRANK from The Haus of W!  As soon as it's complete, I'll hafta take a picture!

The great thing about the class was that we were free to do the layout how we wanted to do it- we didn't have to follow and exact plan.  I loved being able to just do what I wanted- and it also helped that we were free to get up and shop!  You know how I love to buy things-  so you wanna know what I got?  I picked up another template from The Crafter's Workshop, a set of blank chipboard shapes, a small brick wall stamp from Prima, and what I really wanted, and have been wanting since I first saw them:  Graphic 45's new stamps, 'Olde Curiosity Shoppe Two.'  This set is the ones you can see here, at Scrapbook.com.  Did you take a look?  If not- it's the set with the old bottle stamps.  These are great!  I'm already coming up with all kinds of fun ideas for these little effers.

Also, right before the class, the very nice Vickie from Okienurse's Paper And Ink Therapy, came up to me and said hi!  She is great- check her out!

Alright, I got work to do- I can't sit here all day talking to you.  But I mean that in the kindest way.  See you later!

-kory