Someday, the altered art you make today will be
old, faded, falling apart, and someone else will salvage the bits and use them
in new altered art.It's the best that any piece of art can hope for

~ anon~


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Saturday 4 September 2010

Well it certainly took some hammering!

As the main focus of the penultimate Altered Element DT Project, Lynne sent me an Eco Green Crafts Board Book to play with. A simple project I thought, but this has undergone several changes and has withstood the battering very well!

First of all I painted it with my favourite Eco paints and sponged on some Brusho mists, Lynne also sent and stamped it with the Artemio stamps I received as part of a pack a month or two ago. It looked ok I thought, but then I went away on holiday but when I returned and found a few minutes in between washing sleeping bags I realised I didn't like it at all.
As it had had a coating of acrylic paint it would readily take some alcohol inks, they went on very well and the result was pleasing but it didn't please me enough, so I used some alcohol to remove them.
This did no harm at all to the book, just harmed my mojo a bit as I was at a bit of a loss as what to do with it, so left it for another couple of days.
Now this is an interesting subject, I wonder what your views are? The finished article is to be a small token present for a special friend of mine, just to say thank you and that I luvs her. Now here's the question, when you make something for someone do you think you should make it to suit their taste and style or do you make something in your own style but is straight from your heart? This is so far removed from what this person would choose to have in their house but I am hoping they will love the fact that it is part of their friend Nicks. I'll tell you when they have received it.. but they will say they love it anyway so that's no test is it!!?? tell you what I will pay a surprise visit and check which drawer they have shoved it in LOL

Anyway back to the plot, as you can see it has now been painted, inked and sprayed for a 3rd time. It has been blasted with a heat gun on several occasion's and suffered no ill effects at all. That just goes to prove recycled stuff can be of the highest quality!
I painted the book with shades of gourde, orange and sunflower eco paints and then blended some Barn Door distress ink around the edges.
I edged it with some torn double sided tape which I gilded with Crafty Notions Gilding flakes I also gilded the edges of the pages inside.

Regulars to my blog will know I love my chooks (and the recipient is a bit fond of my girls as well - damm too much info I bet she will guess now) so I just had to buy this paperartsy stamp and use as the main focus of the cover, I love the way her legs dangle off the end and her wing goes the edge, I don't 'do' straight edges very well! Her body is made from some metal I embossed and her legs are made using Lin and Leandra's clever tape sandwich technique, but in this case its a more of a triple decker sandwich as it has metal on both sides. The same gold metal was used to cover the top and flap of the book, but has been coloured slightly with acrylic paint and sprayed with cosmic shimmer. I have bought some really cute chicken stamps from T.A.E and will use these inside
Lynne also sent three shades of the new Brusho Mist Spray's  these are a joy to use and I used them to colour some watercolour paper which will act as the backing papers fo the pages inside (which i cant show you until the recipient has received it!)
I also sprayed these onto a small piece of card onto which I did a touch of journaling and put behind a microscope slide.


I think thats about it apart from a few other bits and pieces I added from my stash including the cutest chicken button I received in the post today from my fellow fowl lover Kathy -thanks Kathy - very oppurtune, you are a brave person if you read this far..... sorry bit of an epic post!

Remember to treasure your friends because

and


Now off to tidy up, if you saw the state of my desk you would faint with horror!

PS................
The Altered Element will soon be calling for a new Design Team, if you are interested keep an eye on their blog. I have really enjoyed my time with them, why dont you give it a go?
http://alteredelement.blogspot.com/

9 comments:

  1. Nicks I love it - is it for me???? lol
    Linkon

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  2. Clever girl Nicky, love the sandwichy legs. Chook looks right at home. OMG you mentioned my blog, only one thing on it! Lost mojo and convenience in doing it! P.S I had to tidy up today, sis-in-law visited, now I will have to pull it all out again! In answer to your question, if I make something, I try and combine both things, I think of something they like and then work in the colours I know they like and the rest comes from the heart! Does that help!

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  3. Brilliant design and colours Nick, wow it really pops out at you, simply gorgeous.
    I refuse to answer the question in case it incriminates me............lol
    Annette x

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  4. Nicks that is a tough one and it depends on the recipient and whether the item you make will conform to what you want to do or is being stubborn and dictates its own form!

    This is so cool though, its really funky xxx

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  5. Oh, I love, love this! Too wonderful and wished it were mine! lol

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  6. From the heart Treacle, always from the heart. The person who gets this couldn't help but be pleased. Ejay x

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  7. From the heart is the best for sure - every time she sees it she'll know how much you enjoyed makng it for her, which is a huge part of the gift, huh! I love it. Good grief how different from the first photo!

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  8. Gosh, Nicks, this is so gorgeous, if she doesn't want it, can I have it, LOL.

    ReplyDelete

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