more gypsy diaries spreads

I've done several more spreads in the altered book that I'm using for the gypsy diaries workshop. Half the fun is looking for images, thinking about layouts, cutting out all the elements. I'm all about the process when it comes to mixed media. The finished product is great, but the amount of UFOs I have laying around makes it clear that I enjoy the doing more than the done.

This one ended up being a color study simply because I like the label, which used to be one piece, and decided I was in the mood for collage. The torn book page was left over from when I needed rough book page circles for something. I colored it with distress stain, cut the flowers from one of my old books, and found the gypsy girl sticker on a 7 Gypsys sheet. The bit of paper upper left is from the class papers. It's more glittery in person and altho orange is maybe my least favorite color, I quite like this one.

I've been into horses my whole life, from when I galloped around the house with a newspaper tail pinned to my butt, whinnying at my mom when I was hungry, to competing in hunter/jumper in my twenties, to trail riding with my friend Babs for 20 years on her exceptional horses. So I've been collecting horse pictures with no particular plan for them. When I started the gypsy book, I knew a horse spread would be part of it since gypsies traveled by horse drawn wagon. I thought I'd journal more on these pages but I'm ending up being happy with them without a lot of writing. 

Many of the gypsy-ish images I found had them holding instruments of some sort so there will be a few music spreads. This on uses an old library card pocket and a tag. The more spreads I do, the less this becomes a gypsy woman book and the more it becomes a gypsy themed art journal. Which is fine. It's not like I had a bunch of stories all figured out in advance. Which is maybe the problem haha. Whatever. I'm thoroughly enjoying working in it, using class elements and ones I already have. It will be a fun book when it's done. I think there are 38 spreads to do, even after tearing out a lot of pages and gluing 3 or 4 pages together. I'm thinking of a table of contents in the front...

This is part of a quote supplied with the class. I like the entire thing but didn't feel like writing it all out. I may put it on the inside cover. I love this blue, with a bit of the book text showing thru. The woman looks like a poetess to me. Wish I was better at different types of lettering. Need to practice that.

Gypsy Diaries - travel

Did another spread in the Gypsy book on Sunday. I had in my head that she would be a musician but then when I went looking for other elements for the page, I saw the compass rose; and I'd just come across some old stamps in my stash, so she turned into a traveler instead. And the butterfly... well, I don't know. I'm not really a butterfly person but the page needed something more. I doodled all over it (the butterfly) with metallic markers and it looks ok there, altho the right side seems kinda bare still.

Thank god for Michaels 50% off coupons cause I really *needed* the Sakura metallic gel pens for this project. Much better at $7.50 than $14.99. Even at $7.50 I hope they last a good long while. I used them for the lettering.

Anyway, I like the colors in this one. I'm trying not to be all matchy matchy with this like I have a tendency to be, but I still used gold and turquoise elements and markers to go with the girl's clothes. It all shows up well against that plum colored metallic background paint.

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