I purged a bunch of books recently. With the exception of some that I know SOMEONE has in boxes in the attic, I believe I am now down to the collection of books I really love. Not just my favorite books, but some of my beloved childhood books, and some books signed by the authors. I had 17 boxes of books that went to Half Price Books. (For which I got a whopping $17. Paid for lunch that day, anyway.) I actually love taking my books to Half Price because I know someone will love to have the books at a bargain. To me it's more of a donation than a sale.
I have a stack of books I use for art journaling and cards in my room - some dictionaries, some in foreign languages, some Nancy Drew books and other books with illustrations that are fun to use in projects. But one of the things I kept finding for the purge pile was DICTIONARIES. Geez - how many dictionaries can one person have? Don't answer that - my back still hurts from hauling them to the car. I was trying HARD to remember the last time I had used a paper dictionary for something other than art. It had to have been in college, which was an unspecified LONG time ago. It's funny how something that was so essential in my childhood is now on the dust bin of history. That escalated quickly!
I still love them though - I love looking at the pronunciations, and the way they're all neatly laid out the same. What an undertaking the first one must have been! So imagine my delight when I pulled out my big art journal dictionary - it's humongous - and I found this page on Noah Webster. So of course I had to read it - this is why art projects take three days, people - and I saw that he grew up on a farm, and was passionate about educating people about the importance of agriculture. Having just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, this little fact spoke to me, and I thought I would use his bio page as the background for this beautiful wheat image from Power Poppy. I am nearly as obsessed with wheat stamps as I am Eiffel Tower stamps. This one is gorgeous because it's big enough to really paint. I gessoed the dictionary page - with paper this thin, I like to gesso both sides - it flattens out the warping. Then I stamped the image with waterproof ink, and watercolored it (supplies below.) I love the bright colors against that vintage, distressed page.
The sentiment is from the same stamp set and I used the Stitched framelits to cut that out of watercolor paper.
I'm hopping again with the MISTI team today, and you can win their prize - your choice of an original or Mini MISTI, AND the Power Poppy Prize - they are giving away (2) $25 gift certificates. Just leave a comment on all the blogs for your chance to win. The list is below - good luck! :)
Loveyameanitbye.
