The past couple weeks I've been working on something fun!  Taking a book that I found for 10 cents and giving it new life.  I love books and reading so this felt a little weird at first but as I dove in and started drawing and blacking out text, it felt wonderful.
I tried to read a little of the book to make sure I did not want to read it and I don't so on with the altering.  The first page I decided to highlight some w words and then draw what I felt at the top using a permanent sharpie.

The next step will be to black out all the rest of the words that are not highlighted.  The wonderful thing about this is you have a background of words already for some blackout poetry.  I will add some color when the inspiration hits me.

The next page that I turned to was talking about cocktails so I decided to draw a martini glass with an olive.  I haven't decided yet on the background but I may apply gesso around the glass to white out the words and then apply some color.

I challenge you to find an old book or one that is destined for the trash and give it new life. The one nice thing is you can just bring the book with a pencil and a sharpie and do this whenever you feel like it. It doesn't take up much space and you can prepare your pages and add color later. I will post some more ideas and photos as the book progresses.

Have a wonderful day!
​Naomi

I am the second stop for the Growing in Unity Blog Hop and I am so excited to show you my project! Here is the full list of blogs in case you are out of order or missed one:
1. Janet O Harman http://twosistersscrapbooking.blogspot.com/
2. Naomi Hanson https://www.woodlandfoxcreations.com/
3. Kelly McKown-Santi https://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.com/
4. Katy Duffy Fowler. https://www.facebook.com/CastlehouseCards/?hc_location=ufi
5. Sandra van Blaricum https://cardsandcreativity.blogspot.com/

I decided to do an unconventional piece.  I worked on a mixed media project and pressed a Unity Stamp into some texture paste. I first cut up some watercolor paper down to 4.5" x 6". I added the paste to the paper and made different impressions and textures.

I used the bee stamp from the April 2019 smak kit What the Eyes Say and pressed the stamp into the texture paste.  I cleaned off the stamp right away so I wouldn't get any texture paste dried on it.

I also used a glass jar top to impress some circles into the paste to create some more interest. I continued on with some more watercolor papers, texture paste, and creating different textures with found objects, drawing in the paste with a skewer, stencils, and adding in a little glitter too.  I let all these dry completely and then you can add colors.

The next step is adding colors.  I chose to use India ink, watercolors, and gelatos.  You can use any kind of colors you want but just keep in mind when mixing colors too much, you may get some muddy colors when they mix.  I decided to highlight the stamp by using some magenta ink in the impression.

You can also color the texture paste and add this to the base canvas board like I did below.  I cut apart all the pieces into random shapes, arranged the pieces before attaching to make sure I like the layout and then attached these to a canvas board using the texture paste as long as they are light objects.  You can use gel medium to attach heavier objects.  I just kept building and coloring until I was happy with the layout.

The very last step was adding some colored texture paste to the background, adding the cut up pieces, adding black tinted texture paste through a stencil and around the edges and then adding some twine, a few random pieces of sequins, and a wood word. My advice is to take a break if you feel stuck or overwhelmed by the piece and come back to it later. The nice things about mixed media is you can always go back and make adjustments later.

I hope you enjoyed this different project!
​Naomi