Peninsula Monday!!!

     Well, the girls didn't fire me last week, so here I am again!  (I do think that Mary will add some photos, too...so that will be good.)  We were going to meet at Mary's this Monday because it was a holiday and April wouldn't have to work, but Kit wasn't feeling very good, so we invaded Pinky & Cliff's place.  (Thanks, guys!!!)
     We spread a piece of clear plastic on Pinky's table so that we could do some gesso'ing!!!  Remember we're still working on our Folded Books.  Karen & Mary had already done some gesso'ing in their books, so they were a little bit ahead of us, but Jan, Pinky and I trudged onward.  Both Pinky & Jan had gesso, so we shared.  I should have taken a picture of that process, but...of course....forgot.  We just spread out our folded books until you were looking at all 16 squares (pages) at once, and painted them with white gesso.  We used a little heat gun to dry them out.  And then the fun began.
     We weren't sure why, but when Karen painted her pages, she had quite a time with the pages sticking together, and then tearing.  She didn't seem too bothered by it, though, because she just used some washi tape and 'taped 'em up!'  Mary confessed that she'd also had some trouble with them sticking.  Mary had some little pieces of a material that was kinda like vellum (or like the little tissues that you find by the donuts at Freddies....not that I'd know anything about what's over by the donuts!!!)  They worked pretty well to place in between each set of pages so they wouldn't stick together.  
You know, even though we're using the same techniques, we all have such different styles, it is always so interesting to see how each one turns out.  

   It seems like Karen leans more toward doing a little painting and then she often adds paper.  Here is a look at a couple of Karen's pages.  I believe that she painted the background with water color crayons, and then added the paper raven.  Looks cool doesn't it?

Here are a couple of pages that are devoted to her little Joe that just passed away.  Karen loved her little Joe, and is going to miss him a lot.  

 Here is another photo of her Sweet Joe!!!



Here you can see that Mary kinda likes Cowgirls.  I wish I could flip it upright so you could see it better....but I CAN'T.  (sorry!)
Don't know if you can tell but Mary has painted both the backgrounds.  The one on the right is using a texture template that she just bought at Dots & Doodles in Astoria, Oregon.  If you ever get a chance to visit this art shop, DO!  Run by a couple of neat characters and their DOG!!!
  Mary's second page is one that she painted using some of Pinky's water color crayons.  Nice job, Mary!!!

Jan painted the background with water colors (I think) and then glued on this snappy dancer.  (sorry about the reflection from my camera flash)  I like it, Jan!

I'm not sure exactly how Jan did this combination of pages, but they are wonderful.  It looks like it was gesso'ed, then painted, then stamped, then painted and drawn on, then paper added, then more stamping.....and well, I think that the newsprint might had been put on at the very beginning, and then gesso'ed over.  So cool, Jan!  You might want to comment and let us know your course of action on these pages.  Cool beans, Girlie Girl!



Pinky was doing a lot of painting with water color crayons & her new Gelato water color crayons (a little bit different material than regular water color crayons...they seem to be a bit more creamy.)    It's a bit hard to see, but Pinky first gesso'ed this page, and then stamped a white lacy image in the center.  Then she drew around the outside.  How cool is that.   Neat, Pink!

This next page is stamped with....well, I'm not actually sure.  I know she used a great big stamp that she has...but I'm not sure what medium she used.  It sure looks metallic & shiny!  Hmmmm....Pinky, will you make a comment and let us know how you achieved this?  Sure looks great!
 


These last two are mine (April).  The first one is gesso'ed first and then I dampened the page before smearing with water color blocks...then using a water brush, just brushed it around.  Kinda fun!  Really will have to put my thinking cap on to figure out what else I do with each page.

These final two sheets are side by side in my book and most of you might be impressed because one of them is ORANGE.  I know...will wonders never cease.  (I'm really not an orange fan), but I'm making my Folded Book be rainbological so it will go from red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet!!!  ROYGBIV!!   So....ah, I kinda, sorta had to have orange in there!     hahahaha!




Hope you have enjoyed your visit and hope that you will join us again soon.  We will be back again next week with even more work done on our pages.  Come check it out!!!!