If you’ve been following along and saw my art studio make over, you know how much I adore love that room.  This project was so fun partly because I could work on it a little here & there and leave the mess right where it was all along.  Oh, the joy of it!

I am heading to Squam Art Workshop in New Hampshire next week and had read that people bring little “pressies” with them to events like this to swap.  I have no idea what people bring along for this, but I decided that I would create some bookmarks with a fall feeling since it is September.  Here’s what I did:

I started with a few sheets of cheap thick water color paper and a foam stamp that looks like a vine.  I first stamped with green paint, then with an ochre color…

…I mixed a little matte medium with some brown paint and used a foam brush to drag it over the entire thing to create a patina of sorts…

Then I picked up a small leaf stamp that I had carved myself and stamped with it in a brick red.

I later decided it wasn’t enough and picked up a smaller leaf stamp I’d also carved and added more in brown. And of course, no design of mine is complete without a swirl, so I carved a new rough looking swirl and added it in dark brown as well.  Then I took a large fleur de lis foam stamp and used a translucent gold ink for a little unexpected shimmer…

A gold ink pen added little dots all over.  I then stood back and said, “OK, now what?”

Well, the back of the pages had picked up a little ink & paint along the way (now how did that happen..?) and they looked a little unfinished anyway, so I mixed up the brown & ochre with matte medium and brushed several coats on the back of the pages, letting them dry between.  I really like the texture this created.

After trimming them out into their final size, I said, “These can’t just be plain old square edged bookmarks…” and grabbed my Fiskars funky edge scissors and trimmed both the tops & the bottoms. And of course I had to include my name, so another round of stamping ensued…

I loved the shapes left after trimming & punching the holes, so I scooped them up into a baggie to take along to Squam to use in a collage workshop ~ I couldn’t just throw them away….

Add a bit of gold ribbon and presto: A Pressie!

Here’s the whole pile ~ ready to go snuggle up in somebody’s book!

This really was too much fun ~ I can’t wait for the workshops themselves!!!

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