For the past three years, Craftster.org member “alteredmommy” has invited artists to participate in a special “chunky page” book to raise funds for her participation in the cancer fundraiser, “Relay for Life.”

If you’re not sure what a “chunky page” book is, you can see some beautiful examples from previous years at the following links:

Book of Hope 2008
Book of Hope 2009
Book of Hope 2010

The dual themes for this year’s pages are “hope” and “birds.” When I heard that I knew, just knew, I was going to use a quote from an Emily Dickinson poem. And even when I saw that someone in a previous year had the same idea, I wouldn’t be dissuaded.

It’s a really good idea.

In the end, I didn’t use a direct quote, but rather an “inspired by” phrase. Here’s the poem:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

I ask you, with the given themes, how could I chose anything else?

I started with an engraving of the Booted Racket-Tail, a South American hummingbird. I chose these little lovelies because, while beautiful, they look a bit like something out of Dr. Seuss — and what better combination to represent a mystical bird metaphor?

Using photos I found on the web for reference, I digitally painted the hummingbirds in Photoshop.

The hanging beads (oh how I love these beads) are from a (very broken) vintage necklace that I’ve been holding on to for, erm, ahem, 25+ years. I was certain I’d eventually find the perfect project for them and I now know it was worth boxing them up every time I moved.

And I only used a handful of the available beads so I can hoard hold onto the rest of them for the next Perfect Project.

The hanger is a bit of chain from another old broken necklace (yes, I do have a lot of old broken jewelry). As this page is to be part of a book, the hanger is more decorative than functional. Just a nice bit to drape down the back of the page… and it amused me to add a feature that makes it seem like this was a found wall hanging re-purposed as a page in a book.

(Note to alteredmommy: I promise, the piece really is square. I didn’t notice how un-square it looks in the photos until after I already packed it up for shipping. lol)

I’m just addicted to using these tiny little grommets from Dollmaker’s Journey. I love the finished look and added stability (better than just a punched hole) and they take a coat of paint (Polly Scale by Floquil) beautifully.

The tiny chain (40 links per square inch!) is pre-blackened brass chain that comes from the world of Model Train supplies.

I loved doing this piece and I hope it’s a worthy addition to what I know will be a stunning “Book of Hope”!

If you read my “March ATCs” post, you know I lean to the distressed side of art.

I recently had a conversation with someone who wondered how I achieved the look of aged paper with those images. When he was completely surprised by my answer, I decided I should share my two “secret weapons.”

The first secret weapon is found at every thrift store in the USA: really old books. The paper from old books is difficult to duplicate and cheap old books are easy to find.

I know. Some people feel it’s sacrilege to destroy any book.

I think of it as saving books from an undignified death in a landfill.

But when it comes to printing images from my computer, there are two problems with old book pages: 1) they have all these words printed all over them, and 2) they’re generally too fragile to survive my laserjet.

So secret weapon #2: wood stain.

Yep, wood stain. In particular, Minwax Wood Finish Stain Markers. My top color choice is “Golden Oak.” All of the other colors I’ve tried are too dark for overall aging (though they come in handy when adding stains and smudges).


Here’s how the image starts — printed on standard computer paper.


As a safety precaution, I add the stain on the reverse side of my printout. Both sides of the paper get soaked, but working on the reverse side helps keep the marker tip from smudging any heavily inked area.


Once the image is covered with the stain marker, I gently buff it dry (both sides of the page) with a paper towel.


As you may have noticed in earlier steps, the stain causes the paper to be translucent. Most of this translucency disappears when the stain dries. Most, but not all.

Because of this translucency, when mounting “stained” images on a collage, I usually mount on a light-colored background. When I do use a dark background, I paint the back of the stained image with a light coat of white acrylic paint. The paint doesn’t greatly alter the look of the image, but it prevents the dark background from showing through.


Here’s a comparison of the original printout and the stained one.


While “Golden Oak” is my primary stain color, I do use other colors (such as “Provincial”, “Red Mahogany”, and “Dark Walnut”) for adding spots, spills, darkened edges, etc.

Then, once the the staining is done, it’s on to the standard tearing and crumpling.