Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Cotton Candy Girls

A while ago I signed up to do an online course with the gorgeous NATASA, I love her whimsy artwork, and when she decided to launch her first course I wanted to join in.

She called it Cotton Candy Girls, and in total we received 5 lessons and then 3 bonus lessons. Each lesson had videos and pdfs, and was well thought out with clear videos and very detailed pdfs.

I didn't have time to do the lessons as they were posted, but as everything was available to download, I was able to work through them at my own pace.

Each piece was done on either canvas or in a journal, but I felt I wanted to work on something that I could actually continue to use. So off I went to the charity shop and came home with some hard backed books, they were only 20p each. For the price of all of them I couldn't have bought even one canvas, so I was very pleased.

At first I thought I would pull out all the pages, and just use the covers...and then refill with blank pages. But then I got to thinking I could just alter the pages.

I really enjoyed painting these and would highly recommend you keep an eye on Natasa's blog for when she launches her next course.

So here are my finished Cotton Candy Girls.

week 1. The Angel


and the back..





week 2. Funky Hair Girl


week 3. Fairy Girl


week 4. Rainbow Girl


week 5. Girl with Cat


and the back...


There were 3 bonus lessons, one was a boy which I didnt fancy doing, so here are the 2 bonus girls that I did.

Bonus 1. Bonus Girl



and the back..



Bonus 2.  Soul Sisters


and now for the insides, so far I have ripped out pages, glued pages together, cut out secret compartments and created drawers. None of them are finished yet, so I shall just show you a few photos of the insides 'in progress' Now that the covers area ll done they will sit on the bookshelf and I can work in them like journals as i need to.. i think it will take a very long time to fill all 7 books, but I shall show you bits from them as I go along.


In this one I glued pages together to make them sturdy, and then at the back I glued a whole chunk of pages together and cut out section for matchboxes to slide into.


In this next one I cut out a secret compartment, no idea what i will put in here..


and in this one I cut out a centre section and added in a small journal..



Obviously there is lots of work still to be done on the insides...

9 comments:

  1. These are lovely and such a nice way to use unwanted books :) x

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  2. These are all so amazing Darcy...I think "funky hair" is my fav...always wanted funky hair :D XXX

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  3. oh Darcy I love them.. and again the fact that you were creative enough to paint on old books is just awesome!

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  4. Oh exciting! And beautiful! I love the matchbook idea! Haven't ever seen that before.

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  5. Oh they are so fab! I love "The Angel" so much! She is great, and that green is fantastic!

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  6. Awww! I feel so honored you dedicated a blog post to the girls. :) I really love them and I'm super excited they are cover girls for your altered books. :)

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  7. WOW Darcy...this will be an incredible treasure when you're done!!! It's fabulous!!

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  8. Wow Darcy these are fabarooney!
    Love love love them!

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  9. These are special! love them all ;0)

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