ARTchix unbound Chunky Book

Have you ever made 76 pages for a chunky book? Wow. It's quite a job! I just finished doing just that because I joined a unbound chunky book swap hosted by Helga Strauss, the owner of ARTchix Studio! The theme for this swap was 'By the Sea' and we were instructed to create a 4" square collage (front and back) with a By the Sea theme using at least 2 ARTchix products. Then make 76 photocopies (front and back) onto heavy cardstock, cut them out, glue them together in the center . . . and add embellishments to the final piece as you like.

My version of by the sea is pictured here - click on any photo for more detail. For added embellishments, I used a 14K Gold metallic marker around all the edges and also on the netting that I added to the bottom of each page. I also stamped "believe" in blue on each page and I added a page pebble (a clear, round plastic dome) over the face of the girl on the collage sheet to make her look as if she was underwater. My husband was simply amazed that when I decided to add the page pebble to accentuate her face that I had enought of them around in my studio to do that. "HA!" he laughed. "You had 76 page pebbles just hanging around in your studio??" Well, yes. but I did have to hunt for them!

My background was created with the ARTchix Sea Dreams collage & transparency sheets. The girl featured in the middle of the collage is from Day at the Beach collage sheet. I put Brass Gears in her hair, a Brass Sunburst Halo around her waist and I used Victorian scrap shells (they look real, don't they?) and 3 miniature starfish. Wow! Photo copying the metal items was interesting . . . I was not so sure about this original collage when I was done photocopying it, but my husband Steven thought I was crazy. "I love it!" He said. "It's one of the most interesting things you've done." I do trust his opinion and so with the grace of a little more time from Helga, I was able to put all the pages together.

Helga is hosting a number of interesting ARTchix swaps and collaborative Projects this year!