Sunday, February 20, 2011

And finally, my turn to paint...

This book has been a work in progress for a week or so. I ran across an old calendar that had artist paintings for each month. I obviously had hung on to it for some reason. Apparently this was it. I ripped out all the pages, adhered them onto some Canson paper from my stash. Took the thick chipboard backing from the two packages of Canson paper and covered them with Sticky Back Canvas (artist canvas with adhesive on the back) and laid on some paint. I used Amsterdam acrylic paints, fairly cheap, but work for me.
Here's the cover. It's based loosely on a photo I (or my mom took, they're interchangeable) took when we went to Florida last April. See photo at bottom of this post. I added the splatters at the end...it just looked too...clean.

Here's the binding. The pages are all single sheets (I added a small folded piece around the edge of each sheet to strengthen the pages.) I love this single sheet binding. No idea what it's official name is. I also bound my December Daily with this method. For this book, I used baker's twine (basically cotton 3 stranded string).

Interior pages. They all have the calendar artwork on the left and a blank page on the right. I sewed around each page. I used a glue stick, since I had so many, but I do not trust that it will hold for long, hence the sewing...plus it's just cool. And, I got a new sewing machine, since I killed my baby Janome... 4 layers of thin fabric (what it was rated for) or 4 layers of paper including chipboard... whatever (as LAD would say). I went back to Singer...we'll see how long it holds up to the rigors of my book making...

Back cover.

Outside back cover, also covered with canvas and painted.

I added a coat of gloss gel medium to the covers. It gives it a shiny look and made the colors a little richer...

However, it bowed my cover, but it will flatten out, eventually.













Oh, beach, I hope to see you again soon. But until then, I'll stare at my book and think warm thoughts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so awesome!!!!!!!!! When is it you and your mom are going this year?

Robin

Ma said...

End of March... going to look at airplanes, Fonda, AIRPLANES.. and the beach, if you insist. (Old ones??? I'm gonna tell Theresa what you said). Love the book!