Mail Art!

I got this awesome piece of mail art from Greekchickie! I love it. Knowing that I love to fly, Marianna found all kinds of pictures of airplanes for me on the internet and decoupaged them to the envelope! Thanks M! It made my day!

Altered Art

This is a thread spool from a Serger sewing machine. I didn't make this one, a friend I met while working at the craft store made it for me. She is the one who has taught me so much about Altered Art...in fact, she taught me how to make almost all of the pages in the altered book below.

She painted the spool with metallic paints, stamped it with a permanant black ink, and attached tags that she had stamped as well. The tags are only glued along one side edge so that they stick out all over the spool. She then glued colored glass all over that is flat on one side and glued a large flat glass piece over the top. It's a very interesting piece I love to look at. I can definitely see one done for Christmas! 

Altered Book..Cover & Windows

This page is done by gluing 3 or 4 pages together and then cutting a window or two with an exacto knife around 3 sides when the glue has dried. Glue photo's to the back page so that they show thru the windos and then glue that page to the ones in front of it. I used chalk inks directly onto the page of the book and will later stamp images on the pages as I have in some of the other pages. As always, this is a work in progress, so I may make pages but not stamp them or complete them until some time later.



This is the cover...I have used Readers Digest Condensed Books that can be found at tag sales for a quarter. I have decoupaged several different kinds of papers ont the cover including a napkin, a piece of cork, a die cut, some string, a couple of feathers and some paper ribbon that I have unraveled.

Altered Book..Window Pages

This page was painted with metallic paints, then stamped in black ink. The tag book was stamped before it was folded, and then folded accordian style, trimmed at the top corners and hole punched in the middle. Then laying the book flat, glue the two end pieces to the pages so that it folds properly when the book is closed, but pops up when opened.

This page was "added to" by cutting and tearing pages out of a map and a phone book and stamping on them. I then glued the pages on the other side of each page so that these pages fold outward. Fun stuff I tell ya!






T

This page took a bit more work. After glueing several pages togther (about 18 or so) I cut a square just a hair bigger than the booklet I was going to insert. Accordian fold the booklet after stamping, and then glue the back cover of the booklet to the inside of the hole you created. The booklet itself is a piece of cardstock folded horizontally, and cut here and there with an exacto knife to create pockets. Add stamps and stickers and then insert decorated tags. I have also used eyelets to embellish. The booklet pulls out when you flip to this page. It will add alot more interest once I have added some fibers to the tags.

Altered Book Tags Tags Tags

These pages were very easy...just glue two pages together for stability, then fold the top corner down and toward the binding, and glue, then fold the bottom corner up and toward the binding gluing only at the edge. This creates a pocket that you can tuck a tag into. Hole punch the points and add fibers. Stamp to decorate.





This page was very simple. Just glue a couple of coin envelopes between the pages and stamp and insert tags. Stamp the page as desired.












This page is under construction. I just cut several pages at different lenghts with various shaped scissors, colored and stamped. The next step will be to add some tags to each page in such a way that it will spell something. I just haven't decided how I want to finish it yet, but I kind of like just looking at it the way it is.


This is just another angle of the page you saw in one of the other posts...I wanted you to be able to see how it opens...

Altered Book Magic Squares

These pages were easy to make. I am not very good at giving directions, but I will give it a whirl.

Start off with a square piece of paper, I used memory paper, but inked and stamped the white side. I think I used 4 inch by 4 inch pieces. Fold in half creasing it in both directions. Open, turn the paper to fold in the other direction again creasing in both directions. Now fold corner to corner, creasing in both directions, Then do the same to the opposite corners. Now you're on your own! Just kidding.
Invert the middle sections till it folds inwards on itself, leaving you with a smaller square.
Glue the back of these squares to the pages that have been cut off. Now when you open the book, you can open the "magic" sqares as well.
This page was made using several coin envelopes. Just glue them together, using a thin stripe of glue down the centers after cutting the flaps off. Glue a piece of cardstock to each end creating a book cover. Glue the back of the book cover to the page of the book that you choose. Add decorated tags to the envelope pockets.
Fibers would be a great addition at this point too, but I just haven't gotten around to adding mine yet.

Welcome!

Hi! I was inspired by Laura's Mail Art Blog, and thought I would make one too. I am into all kinds of crafts, and in fact, my job requires that I know a variety of different crafts so, I am going to use this blog to post my arts and crafts. Now that I am starting to be a bit more active with Mail Art, I hope to have some new things to see here every once in awhile. Right now, I am going to start with some pictures of my Altered Book that I had been promising to show Marianna for awhile now. Hope you like!