When I go to a second hand shop, I head to the book section first. I look for old books about birds, the ones with the colored illustrations. Now that I have duplicates of two of them, I feel better about tearing up the pages. Today, from the pages of one book, I made two small books (each  3″ X 4″). I was inspired by Anna’s tutorial on making accordion fold books.

Accordion Fold Books

She clearly explained how to make this simple and easy project. I used pages from one of my bird books as front and back covers.The background is tinted with chalks and inks, stamped with Layers of Color Beaded Frames, Architectural Blocks and Gothic Crosses art stamps, and accented with opaque white gel pen.

Signature

I used textured wallpaper (also found at a second hand shop)for the signature (inside of book), which I spray painted and rubbed with colored ink pads.The paper is smooth on one side for easy writing.

Front Cover Hawk Book	Back Cover Hawk Book
Front Cover Bird Book	Back Cover Bird Book

After working on project after project for work, it felt great to learn something new and just create for fun with no particular purpose in mind for my artwork. I think I’ll make more books as Christmas and birthday gifts.

I enjoyed this artful experience. Thanks, Anna!

Coins are the theme at Layers of Color Challenge this week. Here’s my artwork. I hope this Gothic Arch inspires you!

Remember discovering a coin on the ground when you were a child, and how exciting that was? I would pick it up and sing, “Find a penny, pick it up!…all day have good luck!”. My children would call the shiny ones, “girls”. I still look for found coins, but instead of picking them up, I point them out to any nearby children, just to see their smiles shine!	Penny Found
Image from Dover, background paper from Shabby Cottage Studio. All stamps used are Layers of Color Art Stamps, Flower Child, Architectural Blocks, Fleur Heart and Renaissance Hearts.	Close Up
Details include rick-rack, fringe trim, colored pencil, acrylic paint, stitched on heart charm, French coin replica from an old belt, and handwriting.	Details

Cammie has a Heart to Heart Blog Candy Giveaway where she is encouraging us to make a “Thank You!” card for those who care for Alzheimer’s patients. Her cause is heartfelt and her story is touching. Layers of Color is supporting Cammie, and honoring World Alzheimer’s Day, by donating two art stamp sets (winner’s choice)! If you participate, I’d appreciate it if you’d list ‘Layers of Color’ as a manufacturer. Thank you, and good luck!

My Heartfelt Appreciation For All You Do

Here’s my contributing card:

It’s made with Layers of Color Beaded Frames and Garden Borders art stamp sets, Paper Whimsy image, a copy of a floral textile and a canvas background painted with acrylics; all placed on orange cardstock with a black envelope.

If I was a little girl with pigs I’d both play “baby”, and roll in the mud with them! When we went to the county fair this summer we were able to pet the pigs, watch them race, and fantasize about owning them. Here’s my Layers of Color Challenge for “Farm Animals”…

Paper Whimsy girl and pigs from a children’s book.	Oink Oink
3-D dots as buttons, lace, moss, metal tag and sequin waste are part of this mixed media piece.	Piglettes
Layers of Color Fleur Heart and Renaissance Hearts art stamps along with lots of stitching, acrylic paint, spray mists, walnut ink are also used.	Close Up
Layers of Color Art Stamps are also used on the flower and leaf.	Details

I recently discovered that in the UK there is a farm where they breed sheep pigs! Two for one. That’s right, pigs with sheep curls! I think the redheads are particularly adorable!

We’ve been working so hard getting our new online boutique opened and running the business. It’s a blessing, but we’re overdue for a break. So the children are staying with Grandparents and my husband and I are getting away to the coast for the weekend! I’m looking forward to relaxing, deep breaths of sea air, leisurely strolls, candlelight dinner, watching the sunset, and peace and quiet. Ah, tranquility!

Pampered and Relaxed

With this in mind, I created my artwork for Layers of Color Challenge theme, Summer Respite. I used floral paper, Layers of Color Garden Borders, Fleur Heart and Beaded Frames art stamps. I love my new paper flowers introduced to me by my friend, Heather (Prima Floral Embellishments).	Summer Respite
I hope you too, enjoy your summer weekend!

We’re thanking the Lord for all our blessings as we celebrate the Grand Opening of Layers of Color Art Stamps online boutique! Our “doors” will officially open Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 8:00am Pacific Time Zone! The “Grand” calls for a party and the “Opening” works for the theme at Layers of Color Challenge. I’ve created Celebration Cinderella, and Jessica has created a Fiesta Party Card.

Celebration Cinderella by Laura Cinderella wears her party dress made of gathered tissue paper, Psalter music pages and Audubon Birds. I used several stamps from each of the eight, Layers of Color Art Stamp sets we’ll be offering for sale at our boutique.
Untie the button-styled brads and… the skirt opens, grandly revealing the Layers of Color Art Stamps Logo!

Fiesta Party Card by Jessica The first thing that came to mind when I thought of “party”, was the fabulous Fiesta I attended for a friend’s birthday. She did such a fabulous job decorating that I felt as if I were actually in Mexico.
For my “opening door” I made my friend a card that holds a CD with all the photos I took at her party. I used Layers of Color Garden Borders and Architectural stamp sets. I LOVE interactive cards, so this was a blast to make!

Thank you, everyone, for celebrating with us, and for sharing our family’s dream- come-true event!

Did you know?…Umbrellas have been found in historical artifacts and depictions thousands of years ago. Originally they were made as protection from the sun not the rain. The word umbrella is from the Latin word umbra, which in turn derives from the Ancient Greek ómvros. Its meaning is shade or shadow. An umbrella or parasol are also, sometimes colloquially called, gamp, brolly, or bumbershoot. The first umbrella shop of record, which opened in 1830, is still today at its original address in London. There, James Smith and Sons sold umbrellas that were works of art; many made of wood and whalebone and covered with alpaca or an oiled canvas, some even covered in feathers.

I added an umbrella to my artwork for Layers of Color Challenge. The vintage photo is of a female actress with a cane. I imagined her to be an umbrella shopkeeper, so I turned her cane into a colorful umbrella. Paraplule (para-plui) is French, for umbrella.

All stamps in this piece are Layers of Color Architectural Blocks stamp set. The background is paper rubbing over the stamps using colored pencils, then stamped over the rubbing with chalk inks and pierced through the paper. Details include stitching on the sheer ribbon and adding a decorative upholstery tack.

It was such fun to make that I also created a tutorial for this Unique Technique to show others how to make the paper umbrella and awning.

Jessica also met the challenge with this delightful rainy day dance! I love the bubble umbrellas and book page raindrops. This reminds me of Jessica’s childhood when she would dance in the warm California rain with her little friends…except they wouldn’t bother with the umbrellas… they wore their swimsuits!