Saturday, October 25, 2008

Fat Book






































In an egroup I belong to, The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Arts we recently had the opportunity to participate in a fat book swap. Now, I'm a swap virgin and thought, OK, I need to begin somewhere, this sounds like it should be good. It was anticipated there would be about 40 participate in the swap and I thought that sounded quite manageable. By the time the swap closed, 120 people had signed up to participate! Very intimidating. Each person had to create a background, no two people could use the same technique. The size is 4x4 inches and we needed to create 120 pages using our background technique. On the back we needed to provide the instructions on how to create our background. I chose to do a gesso and soluble oil pastel background, even though I had never done one before! I spent lots of time experimenting until I was happy with the results. It is surprisingly easy to achieve and very effective. When I get a chance I'll do a step-by-step to show you how it is done. I am going to post some photos of my 120 pages all ready just before I posted them to the USA. I will be receiving 120 different background technique pages back in the next month or so, very exciting.
I did six colour combinations, 20 of each, so I wouldn't get bored and so I had enough soluble oil pastels to complete the backgrounds.

6 comments:

Curiouser Alice said...

I'm in that Yahoo group, too, and I've been watching this swap over the last 2-3 weeks, to see how close you all get to the 120 pages. I am flat-out AMAZED that only 4 people totally dropped it. That's only 3% that dropped, and I don't know of any swap out there that can boast that kind of percentage. I'm even MORE amazed at the angels that stepped in to make 120 technique pages on the fly. And what a reward for your 1st swap...120 technique pages!!!

Seriously, you utterly rock, for not only making your 120 pages and getting them out on-time, but also that this is your 1st swap. AND, to top all that off, your pages are GORGEOUS. I love how the colors blended without getting muddy. Did you use the Portfolio water-soluable oil pastels?

Michi Michaelson, Orange County, CA said...

Hi Brenda!
CONGRATULATIONS on starting your blog . . . I've only started mine this year, too!!!! It's looking WONDERFUL!!!!! I am so excited about the 120-page FAT BOOK SWAP!!!! I LOVE what you did with yours and am anxious to receive mine in the mail!!!

Rena Sawatski said...

Love the look of these backgrounds. Hope you will find time to post the tecnique "how to" as I am a background Junkie.

Carolyn Albro said...

I'm in the group also and unfortunately came in after the swap had already started : (

Can't wait to learn your technique, it's beautiful : ))

Marilyn said...

Brenda, I can totally relate to the blog thing. Two years ago, I hardly knew what a blog was. And I'm in the 120 page swap for Arttechniques(my first). What a panic I was in when I found out there were going to 120!!! Oh well, it was fun and I can hardly wait to see the pages from everyone else. Yours look great!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I just found your blog through your page in the Millande Creativity Club. I just joined the club and have been looking around. When I saw your post on the fat book I had to reply. I also participated and it was my first swap too. Well, just wanted to say hi and tell you thanks for your fat book page. I am loving looking through all the pages. Haven't tried any of the techniques yet. Have you?