This was a new item for me this year - pocket calendars with artsy mixed media covers. My friend Jean gave me a big hunk of primed canvas about a year ago and as so many things do, it just sat. I decided to do something with it and came up with the idea of a little book cover for pocket calendars. This way, you can buy an inexpensive calendar at the store and have a fun cover for it that will continue to work year after year. I did these by first cutting out the pieces of the cover, then transferred laser copies of images that I'd first manipulated, colorized and added words to in Photoshop. I used Golden's acrylic medium to do the transfer - brushed a liberal layer all over the face of the image, then flipped it medium side down onto the cover canvas piece and brayered it to smooth it out and make sure there was no air under it. I let that dry, then used a piece of wet (water) cotton fabric over the end of my finger to rub, rub, rub all the paper backing off the image. I then made some scratches, etc. in the image to "grunge" it up a bit. Next I applied Golden's acrylics - both heavy bodied and fluid types - to add color all over the edges and rest of the cover peices. I used rubber stamps with Stazon inks to add some additional embellishment plus bits of gold foil here and there. I sewed the covers together by machine and included a funky fiber bookmark, with little beads on the ends. Add a pocket calendar and voila! Art for your purse! I posted the few I had left to my Etsy shop, if you want to check it out!
