My favorite things…

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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…

I love that song from Sound of Music! Which is why I decided to name this latest series after that song. I got this idea from Misadventures with Andi, and thought it was an excellent way of keeping track of some of the things I love and sharing them with you!

I was contemplating if I should make this into another of my regular features, but then decided against it. I want this to be a totally fun post, without having to worry about missing out a day, so I’m going to post these whenever I have a few new things to share with all of you.

I was looking for the Now What? magazine this morning, which used to be published by Jessica Wesolek over at crea8it! While browsing through her site, I came across this lovely luminara. It would look beautiful on my sidetable! The best part? You can make it yourself at home! Click to know how to make a luminara.

I don’t know about you, but I often find myself loathe to throw out wine bottles, hoping I can alter them in some way to use them as showpieces around the house. Don’t these painted, stamped and wired treasure bottles look absolutely divine?

Inspired by all this craftiness, I headed over to Karen’s Whimsy, my favorite altered book artist, to have a look at her beautiful relinquaries. For some reason, this particular relinquary has been one of my favorites since a while.

Well, that’s it for this time! Hope you enjoyed looking at these beauties as much as I did while putting them together!

My secret garden

Today’s Friday Frame is a spread from my Life 101 altered book.

An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning. An altered book artist takes a book (old, new, recycled) and cuts, tears, glues, burns, folds, paints, adds to and collages it. The artist may add pockets and niches to hold tags, rocks, ephemera, or other three-dimensional objects. – Wikepedia.com

The spread features a window through which a girl looks out into her garden. The curtains were created by sandwiching some sari fabric between the pages. One part of the left page was ripped to create a “pocket” for the collage elements — bird, flowers and a butterfly. The rest of the page has been layered with paint and rubber stamping, with a dragon fly stitched on with gold thread and sequins.

Click on the picture to see more spreads from this book.

Liked this spread? Let me know through the comments!

If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!

Wandering Wednesday # 1: Journaling

One of my early visual journal entries

Most of us have kept a journal or diary at some time or the other (I know I have!) — and our blogs are, in a way, an online extension of our offline diaries. But just as blogs need to be jazzed up with images, so do physical journals. Instead of just pasting stuff in, though, why not get a little creative? Why not keep a visual journal?

Do I hear you asking “What’s that?” At its simplest, it’s a journal that combines words and images to draw out your deepest emotions on paper. Need more information? Check out these resources:

How to keep a visual journal
Make your own prompts: Take random photos and print them onto photo quality paper. Keep a stock of about 20 images with you at all times; these can serve as useful prompts when you find yourself short of ideas!
See what others are doing

Don’t think a visual journal’s for you? Then why not try a Creative Journal? The Creative Journal Method was developed by Dr. Lucia Capacchione, a registered art therapist and lecturer/workshop leader.

Creative Journaling is a tool for personal growth, health and healing, creativity development, life planning, and career and talent development. Using drawing and doodling; color and images; creative writing and poetry; and written dialogues, you’ll get to know yourself better.

Hope you enjoy these sites. See you on 1st September 2010 with more tidbits from the world wide web!

Mosaic maker: a pretty cool game!

I came across this game on Kylee’s Book Blog; it looked like fun, so I thought I’d give it a go! It took longer than I anticipated, but I really liked the result!

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

Do leave a comment if you try this on your blog; I’d love to see the results!

My first love: altered books

I’ve shared some of my photography here, so thought I’d go ahead and share a few pages from one of my altered books called Life 101.

Dawn
dawn
This is the first spread of my Life 101 book, which I used to explore life, its meaning, and its various hues.
A pale pink background, signifying the hope of a new day, a circle punched out of the page with an image peeking out from behind the window, screened with gold thread.

Music is the Language of the Soul
music

This page combines a Planet M postcard insert and a quotation. Background created with sponge and string.

Maya
still-i-rise
This page is a tribute to my favorite poet – Maya Angelou.

Tea stained background with sponged stamping in purple and grey, illustrating one of my favorite poems – Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. The images, which show capured slaves and slaves working in fields, were tea stained and distressed.

Friends forever
friends-forever
Ripped page pockets hold tea bags, postcards, etc.–ephemera that speaks of friendship. Text stamped along pocket reads Memories.