10 May 2010

ATCs, Books, Critters, Scenery and Rambling from Yours Truly

It's been raining today. The severe storms passed us by but there were still clouds and there was a bit of rain to go along with the gray, dreary day. Course I slept most of it away, completely oblivious to the events forming weather-wise in my neck of the woods. I woke up to the storm just arriving around 'bout 4 pm.
I went to bed at a decent hour last night. Honest. I did. 12:30 am...one should have to have that much sleep!

I got some art scanned and pictures taken of little books. And while I was at it, I took pictures out the front door and of the furkids in the house. No clue where Doob's hiding right now. She wouldn't come out for a photo shoot. Lola didn't cooperate real well with the shoot either but I did get one semi-decent picture of her. Billy's a photogenic fellow. He sits still. No one else does.
Course he gets bored with the whole thing by the second or third shot...
Miss Lola looking out the front door. It had finally stopped raining. That light at the end of the hallway is where I am at this very second, typing away on my keyboard.
And there's Fred. I know he's in the deskroom, not because of the color of the carpet but because of the things there with him. My easel is in the upper left hand corner..the legs of it anyway. That's Fred's wooden croquet ball there on the floor and the pedometer that's to be hung on his collar...he needs an exercise regime! Look how fat that dog is!
We're all just hanging in the house cause it's way too wet (and cold if you ask me) to be going outside!

How about some art? Or at least my attempt at art...
A Full Nest
ATC
10 May 2010
365 Project Day #129
fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock

Georgine the Giraffe
ATC
9 May 2010
365 Project Day #130
Bic, Sharpie and fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock.

Green Lizard
ATC
7 May 2010
365 Project Day #131
Sharpie and fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock.

Irrelephant
ATC
9 May 2010
365 Project Day #132
Sharpie markers on recycled cardstock.

Orange Lizard
ATC
7 May 2010
Sharpie and fibracolor markers on recycled cardstock.

Sunday Morning
ATC
9 May 2010
Markers on recycled cardstock.

I've been working on these little books for days.
Gold metal lamp part/floppy disk book
9 May 2010
I finished this one on Mother's Day. The covers took over a week to make. They could have been made in a much shorter period of time but I wanted to make certain the glue dried well at each stage. The covers started out life as hard floppys for the pc. 3 1/2 inches square, brightly colored...I believe these were pink to begin with. I bought a box of these at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for 50 cents. I really wanted the box they were in as much as I wanted the disks themselves!  What I did was cover the floppy disks with the canvas I was telling you all about in the last post, painted it with gold glitter glue and sprinkled it with bright blue glitter. The canvas wraps around the edge with the stitching. When all of that was dry I went around the disk where the canvas didn't cover and filled the gap with gold dimensional paint. The inside of the covers are painted an antique gold. The back cover inside has a peacock feather on it. The sealer I used for the feather wasn't a great idea...it took away the irredescent quality of the eye in the feather. The gold frill-work is from a hanging lamp shade. It's made of aluminum with a gold finish on it. I just cut it with the tin snips and used E6000 to adhere it to the canvas cover. This little book is a tad larger than 3 1/2 inches square. It has 4 signatures of ten pages. The paper consists of vellum, both white and colored, copy paper and manilla drawing paper. I sewed it with a steel blue colored cotton string. I am very pleased with the outcome of this book! It's sewn nice and tight. The only thing that I'm not pleased about with it is the sealer and the feather not cooperating together. But that's a lesson learned: sealer and feather don't go together and they never will.
Lennox Book
10 May 2010
This book was a PITA from the time I started it to when it was finally finished! It turned out OK, but I need to do something different with the next circuit board I make into a book cover. First off I had to get all that crap off the circuit board! That was accomplished reatively easily with the new set of tools I bought last week. I kept all those little capacitors and resistors and what have you that one will find on a circuit board. It was taking the damned thing out to the garage and grinding off all the sharp little points that all those resistors and capicators and all th left behind! The surface of the circuit board did not fare well with that procedure. The side of the cover you see in the picture is not the side of the cover I had wanted to show. PITA. I sewed it on backwards...go with the flow~!!! That's what I tell myself. There are no mistakes in art!  I wanted to save the integrity of the design of the circuit board itself and the grinding marks didn't accomplish that at all. It's still a cool little book though and lessons were learned in the making of it. That's the goal, to never stop learning! This one has seven signatures of 5 sheets of orchard paper. It's sewn with sage green cotton crochet thread. The back cover is a thick piece of bookboard that came from the cover of a wallpaper sample book. It is simply painted green with shiny acrylic paint. It took four coats of that shiny acrylic paint to cover what was printed on the bookboard. This one took days to make as well simply because of the green back cover.

Blue Floppy Disk Book
4 May 2010
Easy peasy little book to make! It has five signatures of five pages of green ledger paper sewn with steel blue cotton thread and silver metal tape over the spine. It had to have the silver tape! The sewing was way too loose! Way too loose!!! The silver tape tightened things right up though. It is 3 1/2 inches square.

The stuff that all these little books are standing on came out of an old keyboard. It is circuits printed on clear plastic. You'll be seeing this stuff on a little book in the future.

Went to Pburg on Mother's Day to my sister Elaine's house. Me, Susan, Linda, Sam, Aunt Sherry, Elaine and Monty and of course, Ma were all present. Ma got lots of good pressies from those present and she gave us girls pressies as well. We pigged out on quiche, fresh strawberries, kiwi fruit and grapes, cranberry punch, bannana nut muffins and deviled eggs. Then Sammy and I came back home. I did talk to RW while I was in Pburg. He had to work so I didn't get to see the boy that day but it was awful loving of him to call his mama on Mother's Day and offer to buy her lunch, which he would have cooked. I had just eaten though so I declined that invite cause he was at work and I wouldn't have got the chance to sit and visit with him anyway. He does make a mean chicken fry, that boy does!
On the way home, Sam decides he wants to drive down a country road. I'm cool with that! We found this bbq grill in the cattails by this little creek on G road. We brought it home with us for the junk heap. It was already in two pieces. We also got a couple of lengths of cable that were just laying there.
You wouldn't think anyone would want to foul such a pretty spot. That dark spot off to the left is the bottom of the bbq and the over turned L shape just above the right hand bottom is the top of it.

I told you all it had been raining today. I took this next picture around 7:30 pm this evening. Two hours or so ago. Everything is just so green!
Weather gurus were discussing severe storms but none of those materialized in my neck of the woods. This picture with Fred sitting on the front porch is the same view as the picture in my header.
Front yard looking south to the highway through the pear tree. My van got a bath. It needed one.
Looking north from the front porch.
This tree had birds in it. They were singing and singing and singing! Such a pretty sound.
This is looking out the back door to the north. That house in the distance is about a quarter mile away.

I guess I have rambled on enough for one day!
Get your hugs!
Give some hugs
and
share some smiles!
Peace
831

1 comment:

soulbrush said...

look at you,just yesterday it was bottle top men and now it is books, you are so inventive friend. brrrr winter is back in london too. the whole planet is upside down.

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