Tip-In Page Swap for An Altered Book...

Front of Tip-In Page

Altered books are a passion of mine, and recently, altered book round robins have occupied  a part of my art world.  Recently one of the Yahoo Groups with which I am associated decided to do a "Tip-In Swap" for altered books. {Click for information:  Tip-In for altered books }

Immediately I was captivated, since I have noticed that when an altered book round robin has many participants, the books become stressed by all the handling and mailing.  So this was a great idea!  Only a single page to mail makes it more inviting to those on a limited budget, and it allows your own book to stay at home, where it will receive TLC from only one person cutting and pasting within its covers.  In addition, the owner of the book can expand the theme of her book using other altered book techniques for her personal artistic contribution, adding the tip-ins from the other players as they arrive, or waiting until the entire swap is complete, arranging it as do desired.

I like interactive elements in my altered books, so I will try to add something to open or pull out and read, or something hidden to find as a surprise.  Pop-ups are a favorite of mine, so future pages may have a pop-up or two.  So look at my blog occasionally.  Each month, until the end of the swap, there will be a new tip-in page for your perusal.  The person's book I contributed to this month used "Nature" as her theme.  The theme of my own book is "If The Shoe Fits..."

The front of the page was done using K & Company double-sided cardstock, which makes a sturdy page when folded.  I added a die-cut file folder stamped with images from Artistic Outpost both inside and out.  The second image shows the file folder opened.  The butterfly punch with all the open areas is one of Martha Stewart's, and the wings overlaying two of those butterflies are punched with a Stampin' Up butterfly punch and some recycled paper from the old punch paper and card system for computers.  I colored this paper with Tim Holtz's Distress Inks made by Ranger, using some of his ink blending tools to lightly add color and dimension to the ivory paper.  Also above the file folder is a series of small to large butterflies cut from one of Stampin' Up's Sizzlit dies that cuts and embosses.

The little brass dangly thing hanging off the spiral paper clip is a brass jewelry blank from Vintaj , and it is colored with Ranger's new Patinas made specially for painting metals.  They are so fast drying!  I love them!  Now I made several, since I got carried away with the Sizzix Vintaj metal embossing folders, so the next project will be making some jewelry with the fun little blanks!

Back of Tip-In Page

 The back of the Tip-In page has library pockets with tags inside, both die cut with Sizzix original dies.  The tags are stamped with tiny butterflies on one side, and words on the other, all from Artistic Outpost.  Two pockets are made with vellum, and two are made with the recycled punch paper, again tinted with Distress Inks.  The outer corners of the page are reinforced with decorative metal copper corners, applied with a Home Pro tool from Bonnie's Best Art Tools.  This Tip-In page swap has been fun so far.  I can't wait until next month, to see whose book I will be assigned to design another fun little tip-in page.