The Birth of an Altered Book

I am taking Elizabeth's online class for making an altered book... a thing I wanted to do for so long and not quite had the courage or the knowledge or the determination to 'destroy' a book.  See... I am old school (as opposed to just plain old) and scribbling in books, tearing pages out of books and generally not being kind to books is a big no-no... so I knew I would have a few moments of trepidation and went forth to the thrift store to get a book... which isn't so bad really, because if it is in the thrift store it is already unloved and unwanted right?  I picked a few up that I hoped would survive the Elizabeth test of AB-ness... which involved inspecting it for how it was made and bending the spine back on itself as though it were a limbo dancer on crack...
I chose a dictionary... a very fat dictionary and I think it passed all the spot checks including the spine bending thing.

but it didn't have a nice material cover and it was exceedingly shiny... so I thought I would give it a quick sand down to see if that helped... and I was a bit vigorous with the sanding on the spine bit where the covers are attached... but hey ho... Elizabeth said that she Gesso's her covers as they get pretty messy whilst the altering of the inside goes on... but she also said that we didn't need to use Gesso and cheap paint would do... 

So I followed the class and prepped the pages... which involved removing a big heap of them!! Eeek... but it's ok, there are still more than enough left in the book!!

See?  Plenty left to play with and I even remembered to band off the niche section at the back!! (In fact, if I have to do something on all those pages I'm thinking another few hundred need to be removed because otherwise I am going to be 90 before the darn thing is finished...

and the paint was there and the book was there... so I painted it.  Doesn't look very pretty does it?  

So I gave it another coat with the hope that it would become something I would like to work in... but it didn't...

a coat of black paint didn't improve things that much... and it was obvious that my over zealous sanding had compromised the fold of the covers.... hmmmm... no problem... on a shelf high above my head was a box with 7Gypsies book binding tape in it!!

Would you look at that... it looks like a real book!! ;)

and the black paint was on my desk... and the tissue paper was handy... so I had a little play...

then I thought it would look cool if it had studs all around the edge...

and then I distresses the cover with copper and gold inks and weathered the studs...

and gave it a fine glitter glue coat to protect while I worked in it...

and the box of 7Gypsies stuff was still sitting near the desk so I added an escutcheon and door knob... and a title for the theme of my book...

Yep, Elizabeth is gonna wrap my knuckles hard with a wooden ruler... was only supposed to prep the inside... but I couldn't work in a book with an ugly cover... it wouldn't help with my mojo... I'll try and keep it as clean as I can... ;)

WOYWW 23rd March 2011

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying all the signs of spring... our clocks went forward week before last but Mother Nature obviously didn't get the memo about that.... perhaps she is waiting for the rest of the world to put their clocks forward and the daffies will start popping up all over the place.... but I'm not holding my breath as I need it to shovel snow off my driveway...

My work desk this Wednesday is looking a little weird... yes, you might ask why I have a little chair on my desk and why am I painting it?  Chris asked much the same thing when we were in the dollar store and I swooped down and picked it up with a big smile!!  You see, Donna, of Doings of Doone, made me a hoodie doll... the cutest little hoodie doll ever and I thought she might like a chair to sit on after the long flight to get here.. because I promised to give her a good home if Donna made me one!
On my other desk is the result of my mailbox altering.... the one I wasn't sure I should touch as someone had obviously spent a lot of time painting the farmyard pictures on it... but you lot said I could.... so I did!!

This is before I got the paints out...

I painted it brown, then gave it a coat of crackle and then painted it black.

I got my new Graphic 45 papers out and lots of bits and pieces... love those metal Graphic 45 flowers.

What a work up it was getting that door knob on the front... it appears that in a case of about 7 hundred drill bits of various sizes and shapes not one of them was a countersink drill bit... so we improvised and in the end we made it fit nicely!!

and inside is a lace wrapped bundle of 'love letters'...

The metal trim around the bottom are 7Gypsies book trims and I cut them down the centre and glued them on, think they look pretty good!!  Oh and Elizabeth should be super impressed as I actually dyed the lace with tea!! I was amazed at how well it worked and it does make it a nice vintagey colour.

Don't forget to head over to Julia's for the exceedingly long list of amazing desks to snoop about in... I don't think there has been a week when I haven't learned something new.

Dress Form.... work in progress!

I have been playing with my dress form... I thought I had made quite a few pieces of chipboard but once they are tied onto her I realised I need to make a heap more!! LOL

I'm now thinking that perhaps I should have got a smaller one?  She stands five feet tall!!

and I tried to use some ribbon reels for my snippets but it didn't work because they are made of chipboard so I have slung put them on here too! ;)

When I was shopping and the dress form fell in my basket, I also found this...

Isn't it great?  I picked it up for my son as a 'talking point' in his flat....

It's made of old yellow pages or newspapers and laser cut... it won't go in the post so he will have to wait for it... 

I have nearly finished the snippet roll...  they are perfect for when you are sitting about waiting for appointments as they take up no room and you just need a needle and cotton and some buttons and beads to decorate them.

Printer's Tray.... sort of....

The lady in my local scrap shop must have looked at all the stuff in my basket and fingered out I might be the sort of person who would find one of the 7Gypsy and Ranger's Configuration trays of interest as she took me along the aisles and showed me them... I declined to purchase one as they aren't cheap!!   But... I still liked the idea so I got my sheets of chipboard out and started cutting it up!!

Once the construction side of it was completed the fun bit began and I stuffed it full of all sorts of bits and pieces that represent home to me.

Well, there had to be a putty cat in there somewhere, didn't there?

I am a big romantic at heart...

the locks and keys that keep us safe...

the importance of my family...

my growing collection of birdcages...

my love of jewelry and beautiful things...

My crafts... sort of figured the sewing theme looked better than a mini scrap shop!! ;)

And yes, I know there is nothing in the attic... I am sort of working on the idea of a heap of boxes and trunks to go up there... which would represent all the boxes of stuff sitting unpacked in my home in Scotland from all our trips!!  

Speaking of birdcages... when I was out shopping the other day I saw these lovely little feather birds that you can clip on your Christmas tree... well, I have big brown bears on my tree this year but I picked one up to sit on the top of my latest bird cage which sits with the other on the long shelf on the third floor of the house.  Pandora was the first one to find it clipped onto the cage and promptly attacked it.... so to save it, I put it inside the cage where it sat safely for a couple of days... until yesterday....

Hmmm, so how do we get in there?

Ok... you put your paw in that side and I'll reach in from here....

You pat it over to here.... where my mouth is...

I've got it!!  I've got it!  Darn thing won't fit through the bars....

I found the tail feathers when I woke up this morning... RIP little birdie.... LOL

What's on Your Work Desk 17th November 2010

It Wednesday again!  Actually it's still Tuesday night to me here in frozen Calgary but my desk will look like this till tomorrow morning - when I start shovelling the snow out of the driveway again... yep, we got hit with about 8 inches last night and all day and it is still falling! It's a wee bit nippy outside too, about -9 degrees at the  moment so goodness knows what it will fall to whilst I sleep.
But, you aren't here for the weather report - hopefully you are here to check out what is on my desk.... and if you are wondering what I am talking about, check out Julia's blog for the background and list of fellow WOYWWers!

So this is what is on my desk at the moment... I have looked at the Rangers and 7Gypsy printer tray type thingies and love the look of them so I thought I would have a go at making my own out of chipboard.  

On the corner is a bunch of stuff I have gathered together to put in and on the tray, lovely lace, some gorgeous flowers and a plastic tub full of fun stuff.

here you can see some odd bits, the bird cage and watch bits, some steam punk cogs etc.

Oh and just in case you were here last week and asked for a photo of the Coach bag... here it is!

and this is the view from the front of my house... looking very wintry!

This is from the deck out the back of the house...

and this is a photo looking down onto the basement scraproom window - so I am hoping it doesn't get too deep and cover it up! 

Tag Board 'Book'

It's my friend Trudie's and her husband's 25th wedding anniversary this Sunday so I sat and had a play this morning and came up with this.

Trudie has taken to scrapbooking after the classes I have been doing and is now a full blown scrap addict just like the rest of us.  When we were at the Ladies Valentine's Lunch Trudie picked the gift that I had wrapped... for the tags I had tied it up with!! LOL  Sadly, she had it 'stolen' from her during the present laughter and had to pick another gift... which I promptly 'stole', so she had to go and pick another gift... which Rose 'stole' from her immediately after that!!  Poor Trudie, she didn't stand a chance and it caused much hilarity among us women.  I thought a tag type book would make up for it... and she can either fill it and leave it as is or she can break it up and use the tags in an anniversary album of her own.
I have to admit, I find it very restful playing with chipboard, all that therapeutic sanding and inking is such a relaxing thing to do. 

I found these little glass bottles with cork tops in a cheapy shop in downtown Jubail so I filled it with a mixture of Doodlebug sugar coatings and it looks quite cute hanging off the front cover.  I paid a fortune for those sugar coating things and have never used them because it always leaves a sugary trail on anything I have done.... so it's great to have found a use for them at last!! ;)