Something Different

I finished up another project last week --- pages for a Fat Book. Are you surprised? I was rather surprised myself.

Fat books are all the rage with the altered art and collage folks. In this case, the book is part of the Art and Soul retreat that is here in Dallas in May. I haven't registered for classes yet, but after Jeff and I work out our schedule I'm definetely looking forward to a class with

Claudine Hellmuth or...

Traci Bautista or...

Michael deMeng or...

Lesley Riley.

I am also eager to hang out with some other artist-types and maybe meet some local gals. So, when the opportunity came up to participate in this Fat Book, it seemed like another great way to connect with people in addition to challenging my creative side.

The pages had to be 4x4" on the theme La Belle Epoque (the beautiful era). Think French posters of the 1800's, Toulouse-Lautrec, art nouveau, etc. (Totally not my usual style.)

I looked at lots of images, did some sketches and thought about how I was going to approach this project. Most of the contributors will be creating their pages with photo-transfers, rubber stamps, and other paper-based media. I decided I really needed to do fabric. That's my thing, you know.

I ended up doing a tiny fused piece of a dancing girl. I added some embroidery then I scanned it, added a bit of text and printed out several copies. (Not before I replaced both the keyboard and the scanner which both died the day after Jeff went out of town. Oh, and don't even ask about the flat tire I had today.)

Then on to the embellishments. You simply can't just have a plain piece of cardstock. How passe.

Here are the pages in progress.


I had also printed out the right leg separately. I cut out all those legs and attached them to the pages with a tiny purple brad -- oh, the stuff you can find in the scrapbooking aisle. So, she can literally kick up her heels. Isn't that cute?! And interactive!

Then I added a pink feather in her hair and a strip of ripped cloth looped through the corner.


The text in the upper right corner says, "Celebrate the Creative Spirit." On the back side are a couple of circles with my name and info an another pair of purple high heel shoes.

I think they turned out pretty well. They are totally outside of my regular style and color palette. Not to mention techniques. It was a lot of work. Making 35 of anything just takes time. I'm really glad I did it and I'm so eager to take a look at the whole book and experience all the arty goodness of the retreat.