Under the Boardwalk, Altered Book Project

Here is a great altered book project I created, perfect for using vintage ephemera. images, mixed with modern day papers, inks, found objects and recycled items.

Under the Boardwalk was inspired by the history of boardwalk communities by the shore. It was inspired by my adventures to the Jersey Shore particularly Ocean Grove, Asbury Park, Seaside, and LBI. Vintage beauty pageants, and Victorian Seaside Splendor. By 1950's amusements and confections, candy apples, calliope music and summer nights.

If you love to recycle and use recycled items in your works, this is a great way to do that.

To make your own follow these instructions below: 

Materials:

• Sails and Shells Paper Pack, Canvas Corp.
• Seashore style ephemera, and vintage images, Lisa Kettell Designs
• Vintage or modern bingo cards,and wood bingo tokens Lisa Kettell Designs
• Chipboard style card stock, Canvas Corp.
• Basic office folders
• Paper Straws, Recollections Line, Michaels Stores
• Vintage style embellishments, 7 Gypsies
• Inks, Tattered Angels
• Found Objects: broken glass bottles, wood shapes, branches, cake balloons.
• Other: crepe paper, German glass glitter, tiny star fish, shells, muslin fabric, ribbon.cocktail honey combs stirrers,color clothes pins
• Tools/Glue: hot glue, hot glue gun, glue stick scissors, small paper hole punch, white floral wire

Directions:

1. Cut 2 pieces of the chipboard style card stock to 8 by 10 inches for the cover. Then cut out 4 pieces of basic office folders and 4 pieces of chipboard style card stock about 5 by 7 inches, for the interior pages,
2. Begin layering the cut interior pages with scrapbook paper from the Sails and Shells paper pack, Glue in place with glue stick.
3. Assemble all the pages together and punch 1 hole into the pages with a hole punch about 2 inches in from the top and another hole 2 inches from the bottom. Make sure you punch the holes 1 inch from the side. ( the side I'm referring to is the area where the book pages will have its binding.)
4. Thread each whole with white floral wire and twist around 3 small branches. This is your binding.
5. Start decorating the top cover with bingo board, scrapbook embellishments, paper straws, found objects, images, additional scrapbook paper cutouts,
6. Cut various strips of scrapbook paper from the Sails and Shells paper pack and cut fringe into them, then hot glue to the cover sides and interior sides,
7. Age ribbon, scrapbook paper and objects with inks from Tattered Angels.
8. Finally add the remaining embellishments: honey comb stirrers, ribbons, clothes pins and bingo tokens.

Tips/Tricks:

• Use old book covers or bingo boards instead of basic office folders or chipboard paper.
• Layer the whole cover with paper straws.
• Create these books with your kids or family on a rainy summer day.
• Turn this book project into a family vacation heirloom.
• Make a theme book. Example: fairies and pixies, flowerland, candyland, wizards, Santa Claus, etc.

I Hope you enjoyed this project and have fun making one of your own. If you do please post pictures and share, so we can all see the magic.  Stay tuned for more fun projects.

Thanks So Much,
Lisa :-)

Queen of the Soiree

One of my favorite things to do is to up-cycle discarded books and give them new life. For this piece I used a discarded used hardcover book and turned it into a vintage style handmade altered book. 

I ripped the original pages out of the book and replaced them with chipboard pages that were layered in vintage ephemera.

The pages where glued and stitched into the book using my double button technique. I coated the covers of the book with handmade paper rosettes and vintage bingo boards.

The front cover was further layered with a vintage party image from my collection which is available on the mixed collage image cd. I further embellished the covers with lettering, card stock shapes, buttons, gilding, ink and German glass glitters.

The inside pages where layered with more rosettes, ephemera, doilies, laces, and trims. German glass glitter and inks were also added to the pages for more dimension.

After every page was layered with ephemera, rosettes and embellishments I added various aged lace trims which I dyed with Liquid Rit Dye Cocoa color using a spray bottle and brush. Finally I added crepe paper fringes, sequin trim and broken jewelry pieces throughout.

I'll share more sneak peaks of the book and inside pages soon. I hope this project inspires you to create and recycle some discarded books in your collection, the possibilities are endless.

xoxo
Lisa

Meet the Storybook Toys, Friends of the Charlottes!
Pictured are: Violette, Bluebelle, Taffy, Pippie, Piccadilly and Percy!Each Doll is hand sculpted, (no molds), painted, felted, glittered and brought to life w/ a variety of techniques, each started with an illustration! These dolls are apart of my new illustrated doll line.
Now available on Etsy at http://www.moonfaires.etsy.com/
or click on the direct link to their listing at:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29165141
In my Etsy Store you will be able to pick which style doll you want and it will be handmade and assembled for you, all one of a kind.If there is a specific toy wood block base you'd like, I will do my best to accomondate you!For your doll you must pick between these styles: A. Violette B. Bluebelle C. Taffy D. Pippie E. Piccadilly F. Percy. Then your doll will be handcrafted and mailed off to you safe and sound. Each doll w/their toy block measures between 5 1/2 inches to 6 inches tall.The dolls are available and custom dolls as well!Magic and Joy!Lisa!

Their Story:
A whimsical symphony of music can be heard in the faint distance, as you walk closer it becomes more profound, sending delightful chills through you. Now just a short distance away the smell of chocolate, candy apples and cotton candy have filled the air, flickering lights in colors of the rainbow can be seen over head, the pitter patter of footsteps abound. Birds with pointy hats can be see flying overhead followed by racing dragonflies and Charlotte Flying Muses.

"Where is that red and white striped gate?", you have just asked yourself outload, then a little voice replies, "Straight ahead bare a quick left by the grand oak tree"
You turn to find a tiny chick who introduces himself as Piccadilly, an enchanting chick with a tinsel hat. After a grateful sentiment, you proceed ahead, bare a quick left at the grand oak tree and voila there it is, The red and white gate!

This is an enormous sized wooden gate with 2 pink column turret structures attached to it, followed by a line of giant bushes, to thick to pass through. The sign on the gate reads: "Ring Bell, To Enter", Once you ring the bell, the door slowly opens, revealing more and more glimmers of light and amusement.

Within minutes the gate opens to reveal the most magical, the most enchanting, the most amazing site to lay upon the eyes, a feast of pure imagination begins to surround you as you enter this most mystifying place. A Carnival, A Toyland, Storybook Land, A Fairyland, what else could you call it? Wizards of every kind, fairies, carnival-ites, real life dolls, charlottes and toys. "Could that be Pinoccio walking with a Princess?" "Is that a pool of mer-chicks frolicking around in the water?" As you walk by, you come across the most fabulous carousel ever seen with gilded golds, pinks, aquas, every color of a cupcake palette, with beautiful storybook characters gracing its floors, did I mention it is a three tier carousel!

Just around the corner from the carousel is The Magic Toy and Apothecary Shoppe, owned and operated by Percy Withermoore who also owns The Percy Withermoore Circus!
One glimpse through the large framed windows, one can see rustic shelves lined w/colorful bottles in odd shapes and sizes, ornate handmade toys and special goodies, a feast for the eyes.

In the garden of Mysterious Delights located on the outskirts of Storybook Land, is filled with secrets labrinyths, and tunnels, which lead to many other areas of Fairyland, including the Land of Charlottes, who are close friends with the Storybook Toys and Friends, One day if you come across a flickering light caused by a sweet chick, ask him or her the way to Storybook Land!

Art Doll Chronicles, Altered Book Workshop, March 15, 2009
Okay what is better then working on a project in your studio???? Working with good friends and new ones in a large studio right smack in the middle of NJ, that's what.. At least I think so...Nothing can beat a day dedicated to artful magic, when a group of talents together for a workshop and share their vision with each other, its pure MAGIC.

On Sunday March 15, I hosted a artful workshop at the Summit Visual Arts Center called: Art Doll Chronicles, Altered Book Workshop from 10am-4pm, in Summit, NJ. For those ever wanting to take a class there from NYC, the arts center is near the train.

In this class you will learn the many properties of recycling and seeing a variety of objects in a new light. The base this project is an old thick hard cover book, where the dust jacket is removed to reveal the fabric and embossed title. For this project it doesn't matter the topic or format, as long as it has a thick spine/binding of at least 4 inches wide, then the book is divided into 5 sections, each section is then held into place with paper clamps.

Next you seal these sections closed, let dry. Once the sections have been sealed, you are left with 5 thick pages inside the book, now with a ruler measure out a rectangular box, in each of the 5 sections, with an exacto knife cut into the measured box, until you have what appears to be a shadow box depth, 1/2 thick, repeat in all the sections. I pre-made all the books for each student to allow extra time for altering the books.

I did a demo of this stage of the books, then informed the class of the various paper layering techniques to build their books with, followed by quick tutorials on paper folding, piercing, collage, layering and the many uses for all kinds of crepe paper from discarded book pages to packaging paper, crepe paper, etc.

Its all in the perception, how do you see a piece, to me a scrubby dollar store steel dish brush can imitate German Bouillion, Paper bags can become paper doll clothing and well old books can become theaters in many shapes and sizes, they can become doll houses, or specimen boxes, the possibilities are endless. Each Student created their version of a storybook/doll opera, with each page being a different scene in their own doll opera.Here is a photograph of the amazing and beyond talented Kecia Deveney of Lemoncholy's Studio http://lemoncholys.blogspot.com/ whose work is over the top amazing, she creates so much artful magic, it was an honor to have her in the class, Kecia is wonderful, please check out her amazing works,and visit her blog to see another post of this fabulous workshop! In this next photo is the gorgeous ATC she made, It came wrapped so pretty, I didn't want to open it, glad I did, because this is what I feasted my eyes upon, this wonderful ATC, its currently sitting in my studio sending loads of magic my way.

In the next photo is my beautiful mother who is probably my biggest fan, always coming out to support me and show her dedication, I give her an A+++++++ and more. In this photo she is beginning to layer her paper to build her pages. The next is a photo of the 2 of us in the gallery, outside the workshop room.

My Mom is also an artist whose works can be seen in some magazines, my zines and on flickr, her work can be purchased on etsy http://auroratique.etsy.com/
Here is a picture of Kecia paper layering her book!
In the next picture, Michal, Lynne and Julie can be seen working on their books at the hot glue station. In this specific workshop I had set up several stations around the room:
1. Hot Glue Station
2. Paint Station
3. Doll Station
4. Glitter and Glue Station
5. Beeswax Station
6. Heat Tools, Rubber Stamping and Embossing Station
7. Paper Station
8. Ribbons and Trims
I found this makes a workshop go smoother by pre-doing somethings, demo the main, and set up various workstations, since everyone will be at different stages during the course of the class.

Here I am in the gallery by myself and then again with my buddy, the ever so talented: Linda Hahola, I love this woman, we met awhile back at Ranger U and became instant friends, I'll be heading over to her house with my other Ranger pals this saturday, I can't wait.

In the next few photos you will see some of the amazing books that were being created during the class, the first one is Linda's with a wizard of oz and distressed theme on the cover, complete with paper layering, beeswax and gold gilding with this new faux gold leaf ink pad and emboss powder I picked up for the class.Next is the first page of Kecia's book its pure amazement, looks like its illuminating off the page.The next book was created by the talented Lynne, who is just incredibly sweet and talented. I met Lynne over a year ago at one of my workshops at the Newark Museum and we just clicked, been friends ever since. Lynne creates beautiful pieces and moves fast too. Her book was almost fully done when she left. This is a photo of it. In the next picture is the amazing Julie's book, look at these pages, aren't they filled with magic. I'm all about the pink, which is why I just adore her book, pink colors, fairies, its fairy chic'.The next picture is Julie at the beeswax station, applying some beeswax from the melting pot to her book.Here is Linda working on her book at the table, notice the bevy of colorful and fun supplies. When ever I teach a workshop/class I must arrive on site with a quarter of my studio, LOL, I shop for extra supplies for the class, preparing for weeks, making sure I have a variety of supplies which can appeal to all art palettes. I normally make kits for my classes, but for this one, I made half kits and set up 8 work stations with the tools and supplies they would each need to complete their books, then they can leave with extras to finish their pieces, along with some of my molded doll heads, which I made with Model Magic, which was the perfect clay for the dolls in this book project. Model Magic dries fast, and light weight, like puffed foam.
Here is Lynne working on her book!
Followed by Michal working on her book. This was a fun day for all of us, the time went so fast, by 4pm, I was still thinking it was noon, thats what happens when a great group of people come together, like the saying goes: "Time flies when you are having fun"., that is absolutely true!

Thank You Everyone for sharing in on our day!
Magic and Joy!
Lisa!