LESSology Challenge #1: The Altered Book Winners!!!:)

We were blown away by all the wonderful entries that came in for LESSology Challenge #1: The Altered Book! A big thank you to all who played along! :)  The design team had a tough time choosing the winner but the one that really stood out was this beauty from Sandi Taloumis...

She turned an old book into a book about random things she likes! :)
Congratulations Sandi on being the winner for LESSology Challenge #1: The Altered Book! :)
[Please grab your Winner Badge from the sidebar!]

We also selected a Top 3 who rocked the challenge!:)

Lalo

 Lynn

Val

Congratulations Lalo, Lynn and Val! :) 

[Please grab your Top 3 badge from the sidebar!]

And now for our random winner....Romina! :)
 
Sandi and Romina, please email your mailing details so that we can get your Creative Charms prize packs sent out to you! :)

P/s: Don't forget to play along with our current challenge - LESSology Challenge #2: The Trinket Box. The deadline for entries is Sunday October 2, 11.59pm EST. Please read the challenge rules to ensure your eligibility for our prizes.

LESSology Challenge #1 Guest Designer: Julia Stainton! :)

Hi! My name is Julia and I’m thrilled to be guest designing for LESSology! I’m just loving this site and concept and the challenges! What a great place for inspiration.

Challenge #1: The Altered Book Challenge is an amazing one. Have you seen all the possibilities? I’m super excited about it as it gave me the impetus to make something I’ve been wanting to create for a long time. My altered book is one that I created myself out of a cardboard lid off a banker’s box. LESSology is all about altering and upcycling and I’ve had so much fun putting this little album together.

My “Things I Like” Album is created from cardboard pages that have been cut to 5”x7” in size. There are six pages and I’ve enjoyed covering almost every square inch of them. The Crop-a-dile makes punching through cardboard so easy and my little album is held together with some binding rings from the office supply store.

This album is fun, messy and I love that anything goes. Don’t take an album like this too seriously. They are a great place for using up bits and pieces of this and that. I love incorporating things I have around the house. Scraps of canvas fabric turned into this pretty rolled flower on the cover.

Here are the edges of the pages. I’ve stapled on little tabs from tickets and ribbons etc.

How about a peek inside?

I adore sewing and old patterns make great textured backgrounds with glued to the pages. I crumpled mine first for extra texture and then used a liquid adhesive to adhere.

Most of the pages hold different themes on the opposite page but I’ve tried to tie them together visually by using similar stamps and colors on each page. Background stamps are a great way to alter and add interest to plain pages. I’ve also using liberal amounts of white paint on the edges of most of the pages in this book. Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint is so easy to apply with the built in brush and it adds a great texture when dry.

Lots of stamping and inking on these pages. Don’t worry if your handwriting isn’t perfect. Mine is FAR from being so. It’s a piece of you and just add in your thoughts.

We’re almost to the end with these pages. I’ve covered  them with Tape Strips and patterned paper.

Lastly, I have so many things I like that didn’t fit into my categories that I just kept listing them on the back of my album. Use every space if you want to. Lists are also a great way to journal that are quick and to the point.

 I hope you’ll be inspired to create a fun cardboard album. Have fun with it!

 Feel free to stop by and visit me at my blog, Belle Papier.

 Thanks so much for joining me today!

_____________________________________________________________

Wow! Isn't Julia's altered book just beautiful? :) Please leave a comment for our guest designer Julia.

Get your entries in for LESSology Challenge #1: The Altered Book!  Challenge ends on Sunday, September 18, 11.59pm EST. Please read the challenge rules to ensure your eligibility for our prizes.

LESSology Challenge #1: Creative Projects of Amy Tsuruta and Lisa Saunders! :)

Today we are sharing the creative projects of Amy Tsuruta and Lisa Saunders.

Hey there!  It's Amy, with my first LESSology project....

Check out my board book:

I picked it up at Target's $ spot...the first thing I did was paint all the pages black. 

I started off with the front cover.  I actually kept both the front and back covers clean and simple since this is for Darin and he's not a fussy kind of guy:)  So, check it out, his favorite color is blue....see that blue patterned paper?  We recently went on a cruise and one of the things the cruise line left for us was an invite to some kind of jewelry show...that paper is the invite:)

I knew that I wasn't going to use all 8 pages of the book so what I ended up doing is adhering some of the pages together which gave me 4 interior pages.

Here's page one:

All the interior pages are lined with Webster's Pages...all the chippies are Crate.  The alpha on this page is by Sassafras.

I'm imported {canadian} and darin is domestic {montana}..haha.

We recently celebrated our 3 year anniversary...

In February of 2010, Darin proposed to me:)

The alpha on this page is Lily Bee.

Here's the clean and crisp back cover...more of that invitation paper:)

Thanks sooo much for stoppin' by the LESSology blog...I can't wait to see YOUR projects!

Hi! It's Lisa! An art journal is something I’ve been wanting to start for quite some time now. This challenge was the push that I needed to get me going.

I searched the local thrift stores for my perfect journal and found this beautiful hardback book. Emma by Jane Austen. So English and it cost me just $2.50.

I always feel a slight sadness at the thought of defacing a book, but hope that Jane Austen would think that the book is still being loved and appreciated but just in a different kind of way : )

I have removed pages, stuck several pages together to form more sturdier pages and covered these in gesso.

The pages have been misted and painted in lots of different colours.

I am decorating this art journal using odds and ends and scraps. It feels good to be able to use up these bits that are too pretty to throw away.

All my alpha stickers are from Basicgrey and years old. They’ve been saved and not used, so now is the time to finally put them to use.

I have decided to use this journal to record those funny moments. We have lots of them in our family, but we don’t always have the camera to hand at that exact moment.

Now I have somewhere to remember them.

Thank you for stopping by :)

Hope you have enjoyed the design team's projects for The Altered Book Challenge! Now it's time for you to work your magic! :) You have till Sunday September 18, 11.59pm EST. Please leave some love for our designers!

LESSology Challenge #1: Creative Projects of Angi Barrs and Julie Tucker-Wolek! :)

Today we are showing you creative projects from Angi Barrs and Julie Tucker-Wolek.

It's Angi here to say...YAY for our first LESSology Challenge!!!  I'm so happy that all of you altered art fans have supported our new venture. Now let's get to the fun...

I started out with this book about "Friendship"...

And then I turned it into this...

I've had this book for several years. Some of the pages are worn, so I decided to "re-do" some of them. Here are a few of the page makeovers. I used My Little Shoebox products for the majority of this project.

I cut out "Frienship" quotes from some of the worn pages and added them to my new pages.

On this page I even added a Bitty Bag and put a  "friendship" journal card inside.

Here's a close-up of the cover. Our first challenge is sponsored by Creative Charms. I've added one of their sparkly gradient gems to her hair. Love their products :)

Love this Prima flower and more MLS goodies.

I hope you all enjoyed my book makeover!

I can't wait to see your fun altered creations for this challenge.

 

Hi everyone :) It's Julie!

Here is my altered book for our very first challenge :)

I started off with this old book from my daughter ... she is potty trained now, so I knew it was safe to alter it up! :)

First I used gesso to cover all the pages up :) While the gesso was still wet, I added circles to the front and back covers with a bottle cap :)

Then I painted my pages :)

And while all the paint was drying, I misted and glittered some of the alphas I knew I would be using for this project :)

Once everything was dry, I put large doilies on each page and misted each page :)

And here is my final result! :)

I used a lot of different things from my stash on this book! :)  Some Bo Bunny, Echo Park, Prima flowers, Creative Imaginations, Websters, Making Memories, Sassafrass, flowers from Tessa's ETSY shop, a floral ribbon from a happy mail package from my friend Lena, and the BIG flower on the front cover I found on clearance at Michaels! :)

I hope you enjoyed my altered book! :)

Inspired to partake in The Altered Book Challenge? We would love to see your entries! :) Please leave some love for our designers!