Welcome to my Garden Book! Lisa here with Sunday’s feature for the blog party between Artistcellar and Genuinely Jane Studios. Since I had only 5 awesome Design Team Members and a guest blogger, and needed 7, I jumped at the chance to participate in this project. I love everything nature (except mosquitoes) so I gravitated towards this cute little book. This is the raw, straight out of the box form.
I started out by adding a layer of Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso. I like that it’s really thick and only really needed one coat. Since I like the grungy look, I didn’t sand or smooth any of the edges either. 
Because the cover of the book was going to remain white, I gave it a second coat of white paint and then grunged it a bit with a brown ink pad. The front of the book had to have flowers so I found some little white ones and wound them around the “fence posts” like a vine. I didn’t like the way they looked from the back though. Hmm. What to do… My Creative Consultant (more on that later) suggested we put the Monet-like paper on the next page and glue the first two pages together. So when you look between the posts there is some space (foam pads) and glimpses of a beautiful colorful garden. Brilliant! 
Next I dug around in my scrapbook paper pile and looked at my photos and printed any that I thought might go with my theme. I like to use my own photographs, that way, I don’t have to worry about copyright infringement. (The baby bunny and squirrel didn’t make the cut!
I know I wanted to use this giant bird (Egret? Heron?) I photographed at the Arboretum, which is practically in my back yard. I collaged some background paper, washi tape, some eggs, a birdbath and the photograph. My Creative Consultant bent some copper wire into the word “fly”.
I also wanted to use this picture of a birds nest, one of my favorites. I love the symbol of the egg, the anticipation of rebirth, the emergence of something new. I painted the background of this page brown, used the Branches stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop, and painted blue around the stencil. I used a real twig and feathers. Every time I look at this page I have to laugh a bit. Something is funny about it, but since you’re not supposed to point out the flaws, I’m not going to say anything! 
No garden is complete without a few bees buzzing around the flowers and doing a Very Important Job of pollinating the plants. I painted the background with some Stewart Gill True Colour paint and topped it with Honey Amber Silks Glaze. I used a stamp from my stash and a Crafter’s Workshop Stencil to make the little hexagons. I loved the saying, I thought it was appropriate. A lot of people say “I hate bees!” but bees are extremely important to our ecosystem. Poor bees, don’t hate them. (Wasps, on the other hand… ) 
At this point, I didn’t think I was going to finish this project on time. I never take into account how long it takes glue to dry and I kept putting off working on it because I had to do higher priority things like pack and ship orders. I called in the help and turned this into a collaboration. My daughter Celia’s initials are C.C. I like to think of her as my Creative Consultant. I put her to work right away. 
For the next page, I told her I wanted to use the flower picture I took and let her have a go at it. She painted the background purple. But not any purple. She had to pick out a few Stewart Gill paints and mix them right on the page. (Yikes! But I trust her…) She used a flower stamp from the stash to add some texture to the background and we put the flower and the chipboard letters on it. Gorgeous! 
No garden is complete with a fairy or two! I got this image from etsy, a store called “Lisa’s Altered Art” (no, not me!) I took the photo of the pink tulips in the background and thought the little fairy would look good in front of them. Next time be sure to notice the details, you may just see your own little fairy! 
Here are some details of a few of the pages. 
You’ll notice that I’m not using the binder rings anymore. Because the first two pages were glued together with a lot of thickness, the rings didn’t fit. I had Celia braid some twine for me and just looped it through the holes. It looks very natural, I think it matches the book much better than metal rings!
I had a lot of fun with this project, especially once I admitted I needed help. It was the perfect opportunity to have a creative play date with my favorite art partner.
The Blog Party isn’t over yet though! We still have two more days to go, which means more opportunities to leave some comment love for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate to Genuinely Jane Studios (from Artistcellar). And then visit the Genuinely Jane Studios Design Team member who has partnered with us each day. Today, be sure to visit Kim Hutchinson’s Blog right now to see what she did with Artistcellar Stencils and for a chance to win a prize from Genuinely Jane Studios!
