Art Books with Gretchen in Seattle

My friend Gretchen, in Seattle, makes great bound books. But she hasn't put much in them. I, on the other hand, make art books, but I rely on the generic blank journals to create them from.

Soooooo.....Gretchen and I got together and she made 2 wonderful blank books with papers she had printed on her jelli printing gizmo. She sent me one to add art to for her, and she kept the other to add art to for me. The picture above is the front of the book that Gretchen made for herself, which I arted up. Gretchen painted the picture of this heavy-lidded gal.

 

This page has a little portrait of a butterfly lady which I added wings to so she could fly. The yellow ribbon is attached to a tag that has a quote on it.

 

I tried to use differant techniques that I had learned over the years. This is one I worked out for myself. It is a wheel inside of two pages and as you turn it, the picture in the little window changes. The edge is bound with home-made washi tape that I made with medical paper tape and a rubber stamp.

 



I loved this picture for it's color and architectural beauty. I attached a square of tissue that I had stamped on and sealed it with gel medium.

 

This little folded pocket holds tarot cards that I chose for their art qualities.

 

I had a page from an Umberto Eco novel and noticed this little piece that I highlighted by painting over the rest of the paragraph.

 

I love these bird identification cards. I added a little pop-up to it...

 

 ...with this quote.

 

This little ship (from National Geographic) sails back and forth with a tug on the tab on the side.

 

The pages all are differant sizes, which added to the cleverness of the book. I Zentangled a few orbs with black micron pens and a white gel pen.

 

Another favorite quote with a packing tape transfer. These are really easy to make. Take a xerox copy of a black and white picture and place a piece of clear packing tape over it. Burnish it down well. Then soak it in water for a few minutes until the paper is thoroughly wet and then gently rub the paper off. The image will remain on the tape.

 

This is another transfer made with gel medium on a magazine page. The wonderful colors of the page come through to give it a nice glow.

These are my favorite pages. I finished the book and shipped it off to Gretchen, who enjoyed it.