quick little book

I discovered the helpful, fun site of Kiala Givehand and her self-challenge of creating A Book in A Day for each week of 2013.  She made a video of each and shares her process and some instructions..... I was inspired to create this version of one of her books. Here's my step by step process: (lots of pics ahead :)

Using pieces of my gelli prints, I cut 10 pieces about 4" tall by varying lengths long - longest maybe 10".  Fold each page in half.  You can see I have a little range of heights, though not any dramatic differences. TIP: it's sturdier and better to keep them all the same height (or within 1/8" or so) but the widths can vary to your heart's content.

Step 2: Cut a length of string/yarn/ribbon (I used embroidery floss) for each page.  Glue each page shut after snugging the string into the fold.  She used double sided tape; I used my glue stick.  Press pages under heavy book til well dried.

My pages glued with strings inserted.

Step 3:  Assemble the pages in the order you want, lining up all the folded edges evenly together.  Clamp them together so they don't move while you're tying them together.

Step 4:  Tie each string to the adjoining string until all pages are knotted together, top and bottom.

Then it's time for finishing touches - I took several of the top strings and tied them to bottom strings and added a bead - it's not necessary for holding the binding together, I just tried something new.....  I separated the threads of the floss to fringe it....

As you can see, my interior pages were all different lengths.....

Quick and fun!  - I'll show you as I fill it up a bit - I'm thinking......a bird theme.  Let me know if you give it a try.

PAF: abstract, again

Hope you're not getting bored with these photo processing experiments. I just find the process fun and interesting and endlessly surprising - working with my images and transforming them into something appealing but not recognizable....the unrecognizable is easy, the appealing, not so much! :)

Here are the images I started with:

Outside the Summer Palace, Beijing, China

Purposely blurred dahlia

Pipe at a construction site

This week I tried something different to show the process; let's see if it helps...

You can see from the steps above how changing the blending mode (that's the hard light/difference, etc notes) dramatically affected the color tones from one to the next.  Even though I didn't care for the blue green colors that I got from "difference", I kept going and the addition of the hard light mode brought back the warmer colors from the dahlia.  Though the work palette is too small, you can see I have 3 flower images stacked & erased, then I have the 2 tube pics layered on top of that and finally the two textures over everything.

Here's my final image - I kept the face sort of clear but I like the layers of color and shapes - almost like an actual collage.  Bonnie's two free textures Heavenly (enhanced the blue tones and warmed up the overall colors) and the dramatic Etched in Stone (added text) really contributed to the finished product.  That Etched one really blended all the colors together beautifully.

See how creative others are this week by visiting Pixel Dust Photo Art.....even better, try it yourself.  No harm, no foul....it's just for fun and to help improve your photo editing skills.