Can't leave the paint alone.

THIS MONTH I am doing a much smaller book - one of the books I made during the February book binding classes I took each Friday. Since the pages don't allow much room to do more than a small sketch or journaling, I've been missing pushing paint around.
Then I remembered I had never finished the cover on my August book, which is huge. I had visited Dawn Sellers' blog (that was on Monday) and she was doing cool things with glazing and layering matte gel and paint - and I have to admit I didn't read through all her instructions. I was just so excited I jumped up and went to my art table, took the large book, inserted newspaper to protect the pages and started dumping on thick matte gel and wiping it all over the paper with an old debit card. Then I added a little yellow paint, since August suggests yellow to me. (In Oregon, that's the month when summer really begins.)
I embedded a large tag, with a string hanging from it, and painted over it. Then I laid down a leaf skeleton from the tulip tree and painted over that (carefully) and ended up adding a piece of crumpled tin foil, too.



I stamped the cover with a star-shaped rubber stamp, did some writing ... just about everything but the kitchen sink.
The front cover took overnight to dry and last night, Tuesday, I painted the back cover. It was fun to get the gel and paint on thick and then drag a tool through it to make a pattern. I figure I can always put more goop on the outside over it if I don't like it. Perhaps I'll even check out Dawn's instructions and see if there's something even more interesting I can do.
I'm a slight bit concerned about reinforcing the spine of my "book" also, after the things I learned in the book binding class.
This August journal/art book is so large (12" x 15 1/2") because it's made from folded watercolor paper. Looking back a few months, it's amazing to see what I did and wonder if that was really me! I remember the enthusiasm I had experimenting with all sorts of new paints and techniques - cutting up fashion magazines and putting men's heads on women's bodies, and painting with melted wax. I really made some big messes.
Well, I'd better leave those excuses behind and try to get a little more radical with what I attempt inside the house, too.
It's getting late. Better be toddling off to bed soon. Cheers! - femminismo