Gypsy Diaries

the front cover - need to do a lot more doodling and
add some ribbon flowers or something, not sure yet.
love the old woman, she's from a cabinet card I own.

Tangie from scrapbookgraphics (mostly a digital scrapbook site) just launched a mixed media workshop called Gypsy Diaries. I signed up immediately and I'm officially in love with this theme. Almost every time I've bothered to dress for Halloween (just not my thing) I've been a gypsy - gauzy blouse, layered colorful skirts, too much makeup, head scarves, tons of jewelry. So looking all over the interwebs for gypsy images and ideas has been a lot of fun.

This is an altered book project, altho you could certainly use a ready made journal, but I think you'd lose some of the inherent grungyness that makes this a neat project. I decided to use a book that my San Diego friend Julie had sent me recently. I removed about half the pages, glued the rest together 3 or 4 at a time (what a mess), painted the cover, and after it all dried overnite, I set to work.

first spread - fortune teller. been hauling the sticker of the woman around for years.
I'll probably still do some more doodling cause I just bought metallic gel pens and NEED to use them lol.
trying to be careful with my lousy handwriting, taking my time... something new for me.

right side of fortune teller spread

One of the neat things Tangie does in this workshop is what she calls patinas - shiny surfaces made with metallic acrylic paints and glitter glue. I jumped right in with my hands, which works way better than a brush for getting the swirling blended look. Then I made one spread because I had an image of a woman that inspired me.

Also got started on the front cover, but need to do a lot more to it. I don't want it to be a diary of me, so I'm going to tell various stories inside, based on my fictitious theme of Tales the Old Gypsy Woman Told Me.

 The last image is the start of a spread about a dancing boy who disappeared. Not sure quite where I'm going with that but I love the collage of the guy and the colors in the background.

inside front cover, still need to do a lot of embellishing and some writing,
but you can see the glimmer of the patina really well

the start of my dancing boy spread