Anne Bagby Inspired Collage

                                      'Kimono'   "12 x12"  mixed media collage     Eva Macie ©

My gift boxes arrived from Creative Catalyst Productions and I was thrilled with all the goodies in them. There were Golden fluid acrylics, paint applicators, Creatology foam sheets, Lineco Tissues, deli wax papers, a Moo carving block, alphabet stencils, a 12"x 12" streched canvas and a Shirley Trevena’s DVD to replace the Anne Bagby DVD that I had previously purchased. Wow! Like the boxes, that was a sentence full! Needles to say, I was eager to start using my new products, but I wanted some of Anne’s instructions to guide me. I immediately reviewed Anne’s wonderful DVDs, ‘Collage: Paper, Patterns & Glazing’ and ‘Pattern & Form: Advanced Collage Techniques’.

I decided to create a 12" x 12" foam stamp using the craft adhesive backed foam sheets. One cut into the buttery foam and I was hooked! I spent hours, totally mesmerized, cutting little shapes and sticking them onto a chipboard backing. Anne used canvas board, which would have been a better choice because the adhesive pieces may have easier to reposition. In addition, it also may have warped less with all of the wet paint applications. I mixed all of my paint as Anne suggested, cut and ironed a stack of tissue paper and began pulling prints.

After looking at the variety of prints I pulled from my foam stamp, I chose one with a circle shape that I blocked out on the stamp . It looked Asian to me so I decided use kimono as my theme. I applied a glaze I made, similar to Golden’s asphaltum, to the printed tissue and then I stenciled the words ’KIMONO’. I created the kimono from one of my Citra Solv papers, which I printed on a label and collaged this to the tissue print.

For some reason the pictures I took did not come out well. The colors were totally off. I tried to correct this in Photoshop, but only made them worse. Honestly, the actual print looks much richer. I will mount this either on the canvas I received or rag board, then coat it with a satin acrylic varnish.

You can see the techniques I used in the free preview at  Creative Catalyst Productions

Citra Solv Altered Box Book

A Citra Solv altered box book? That is a mouthful and really sounds odd so I will explain what I mean by this. I have been in an altered book class instructed by Gary Reef. Most of the lessons have really been more of a non-traditional way of altering of books. Gary’s forte is assemblage and this is the approach he used altering old books. To be more precise the covers of old books as he guts out the book and uses the covers to house his unique assemblages.

It took me forever to make my book. I decided not to use a real book. We only have a few places near me to buy used books and the only ones I found were either too nice to cut up or not interesting at all. One of the books I bought was an old copy of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, 'Gift from the Sea'. Not wanting to cut it up, I was inspired to make my own. Mine is titled "A Gift from the Sea'

I constructed the book box from chipboard. A scroll design cut from mat broad and then glued to left edge of the chipboard cover served to create an embossed look. I scanned a Citra Solve page and printed it on label paper to cover the chipboard. Next, a book scanned on its side with rough pages to get the page effect. I printed this on label paper and applied it around the edges of the book. The frame around the opening is mat board. Inside the book is a scanned page from Anne's book, some shells and a small plaster bust from a mold I made for a mermaid doll. I sprayed it with copper and used turquoise acrylic to antique it. I did not glued the cover shut because hopefully I will finish the inside adding some more interesting shells that I love. At this point, I am tired of working with it!

Gary had four projects, but if I do another one, it will be a major surprise as these are labor-intensive projects. His energy and imagination are unbelievable. If I were a much, much younger woman, I would be in creative heaven knocking out all sorts of altered books and boxes.

Bamboozled Again!

It’s that time of year again when the bamboo tries to take over everything in sight, and I try again to forgive my neighbor for talking me into to letting her plant it. It has now invaded my other neighbor’s yard and I know she hates me for it. Having my son here to cut it back is super, as I can no longer do it. I worry that there will come a time when he will not be able to. He is not as diligent about it as I was, so now it seems to be getting out of hand. Add to that the heat and threat of tornadoes, I feel like the little dog in the Travelers Insurance® commercial. Worry, worry, worry has become my mantra. In fact, I did call my insurance company to see if my coverage was enough.

My escape is Photoshop and my current fascination with Citra Solv®. I wish I could pour it on the bamboo and dissolve it like the ink in National Geographic® magazines. The best I can do is to combine my dissolved ink images with a photo I took of the bamboo.