What I did on my Saturday...

I tend to let myself play on Saturdays... I drag out all of my supplies (or at least it seems that way every time I put them back), and just create. And you all know how much fun I have "re-purposing" old books into new versions. This time I even had a bit of an idea of what I wanted it to be instead of just sitting down and going with whatever happened to happen. That "vision" didn't include the colors that I usually gravitate to, rather, this time I was inspired by the colors that are in a graphic I have of a vintage Geisha postcard. So this was going to be a bit more challenging for me. (This book is also much more symmetrical than I usually do... another thing that is very out of character for me... an even greater challenge than the colors!)

I began with one of the book covers I had already gessoed, and then added a base coat of a dark grey. Layers upon layers of paint and colors later, I had a cover that mingled light blue, a light grey, and silver. I painted on some cherry blossoms (the cover is upside down in the photo).



I did go back to my "comfy" colors when I worked on the inside though. Hot pinks and oranges to bring color and warmth to the book.





Again, layers of paint, paper... this time from a book I found that was written in Japanese, the characters are just perfect for the project, how could I not use it? I added the graphics to both inside and outside covers, and even did a bit of the doodling on them to add more interest. This is the back inner cover.









And, after adding the pages, this is what the front inside cover looks like.





The outside cover... On the spine of the book the orange cotton fiber that was used inside to bind the pages was exposed. I decided it was too harsh, and too sparse as it was, even though I wanted to pull touches of the inside colors to the outside. To mask it a bit I used a green cotton that coordinates with the green on the grass and wove the fibers to leave only tiny touches of the orange exposed. I'm very pleased with the extra texture it adds.






The inside contains 40 pages of 90 pound cold pressed water color paper.






I just love it when a day of playing actually yields something completed! And you know what the very best part is? This is the November give away!

In case you don't remember the "rules" for the give away, anyone who follows this blog and leaves a comment on the blog between November 1, 2010 and November 30, 2010 is eligible for the give away.

Heaven knows I try to keep things simple... and this is definitely pretty simple, huh?

Now, I am off to get to the chores... drudgery... ugh... Y'all have a wonderful Sunday!



This has been linked to: