Use your fingers as your paint
brush and apply Lumiere paints (your choice of colors) here
and there. This will dry very fast!
Dab the Versamark ink pad
in different places on your pear. Sprinkle the pear with copper
embossing powder and heat with your heat gun very carefully! If
you overheat, your pear will shrink.
Use a foam brush and "paint" the entire
pear outside with Crystal Lacquer. Your pear will shimmer!
Use one half of the pear and trace a template. Fold an
8 1/2" by 11" piece of vellum paper in half and place the pear edge on
the fold. Cut three of these templates with the fold being
your "book" binding. Be sure to leave the "binding" (folded
section) at least 1" wide. Stamp or use decorative papers cut to the size of the template. Add embellishments. I softened the white vellum paper with DTP technique using Fresco Medici Marble and heat setting with an embossing gun. Use Tuscan Earth and Vatican Wine Fresco ink for blending. To blend these colors on my vellum I used my Color Box tool with the black moldable foam tip. On a couple pages add a copy of a vintage card printed on vellum and embossed die cuts. Using the template as a guide, cut the transparency leaving a tab on the left hand side to glue it down. Be sure and use your bone folder and make a good firm crease where the "binding" is. Cover the tab with the floral embossed die cut.
On the back page of the pear create a gel transfer with a floral image from Two Cool Texans.com. Use your Color Box Tool and add Giovannis Garden Fresco inks to blend the edges. Add a foil butterfly from Amy's. Cut a gold crinkly handmade paper template for both sides of the pear. Use
a Xyron, a UHU glue stick or
any adhesive to attach the paper to the cut sides of the pear. Let this dry completely. Add an additional
page on the left side. Stamp it before adhering it over the gold. Place a metal frame over the image.
You can be very creative with
this project making it your own. It is also fun to add stickers, glitter glue
or charms to the pear.
To make the hinge on the reverse side, use jewelry headpins and a glass bead. Wrap a narrow ribbon around the two beads; cut your ribbon; and using a pin, push the end into the pear with a dab of glue. Repeat for the second "hinge." Place your glass beads onto the jewelry headpins and insert the
headpins into the silk ribbon then the glue and finally into the pear. Let this dry thoroughly. People will be
thoroughly
amazed when they untie the pear and see a small altered book!
Additional ideas:
Be creative and stamp images on tissue paper and color instead of
using printed tissue paper. Be sure to spray the finished images with a
Krylon Spray to set the ink. Don't be afraid to try pieces of handmade
paper, old postage stamps, or bits and pieces of anything! Added glitter might be great, as well!
Have fun and try different fruits and vegetables.
Linda Lynch, Bend, OR
Senior Designer, Altered Arts™ magazine
www.itsmysite.com/sanitysite
The original idea for the altered pear came from Betsy Griffin of Innovative Stamp Creations.
