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I got my book back and the work is great. I had a good time with this project. Here are some pics of the work

I hope everyone is going to have very happy holidays. I'm just finishing up my work on Suzanne's book and when I get home from our Christmas trip, I'll be sending it on home to her. Marilyn

Happy Holidays

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL! I have one more book in my posession. By February this RR should be done. This is a busy time so if books aren't moving on its understndable. I hope everyone enjoyed this experience and maybe you will start your own rr in the future.
Carole

thank you so much !!!

For the great RR!!!! Hope to see your art again sometime soon!

Joy Jewel, your book will be in your hands sometime soon, hang in there!

Mea Culpa!

I made these pages for Sue back in early summer. I'd been saving them to hand to her at Art Unraveled and then never got a chance to meet up with her. (I know! The woman comes halfway around the world to my back yard, we're at the same event, and we never manage to meet up! The same thing happened to me with Kellie when I was in her neck of the woods.) I thought I'd sent these pages off to Sue but apparently they were sitting around waiting to be scanned and got forgotten.

So here are your Z and Q pages, Sue. I hope I'll get them on their way tomorrow!

Yes, I like pink a lot.

New Blog

Hi ladies,
I have created a blog...do come and see..........I still can't post as much as I'd like to but come on in and say hi. The blog is Mixed Media Meanderings
Carole

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Ladies!
I've been trying to upload pics but when i click on the Add Image Icon... nothing happens...anyone else having a problem?

Coming to the end

Well, Ladies, its been a fun ride. we are now coming towards the end of this RR. I will be sending out Sharon's book next week to Zoe. I have in hand Kathy's book which I will send for the Nov. rotation.

Carole

I worked on Suzanne's Fiber loving book last week.
Since my son is obsessed with Trains, I of course had to do a tribute.

at first I wasnt sure but now I liked it enough I did another one in my own personal sketch book.

Now to get caught up on the other projects!!

D is for Daisy

This is the page spread I ended up doing in Sharon's book. The daisy is a small fiber piece, and it includes beads in the flower center.

The quote I used reads:

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. -- Therese of Lisieux.

I'm sorry this was late, and I wished I had gotten a 2nd page spread done, but as we all know, life happens....

Home Is Where The Heart Is . . .

houses and hearts . . . the theme for "H" I did in Kelly's book. I also did an "M" page for her and it turned out nice, but I am in love, love, love with this page. I don't think the scan really does it justice! LOL, my arm hurts from patting myself on the back . . . giggle!



Love ya, love your art

Judy

A and J in Sharon's Book

I finished these up the other night and signed the sign-in page last night. I'll get them packed up to send to Suzanne in the morning.

Blogger isn't behaving properly so I'll see if I can get these photos looking better tomorrow night. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get them on my own blog.

Oops, I Did Three Pages!

Luckily, Kathy's book is a fat one with plenty of pages in it. I had done a two-page spread for the letter E (yes, I know Sue is doing E - I forgot - and she said she doesn't mind if people repeat letters or if they are out of order, thank goodness!) and wanted to put a ribbon in the corner so I punched a hole and then decided to cover that page so that it didn't interfere with anyone else's work. I didn't like what I did there so I cut out some paper to cover it with and that had circles on it. I had gotten out another piece of paper to decide between the two and then realized that I had circles and dots and the colors were related and just couldn't resist doing another page. They're so simple but I really like the way they turned out. Now I'll be happy if I can get the photos to look right on this blog!

I also have some work nearly done in Sharon's book and plan to send them both off to Suzanne sometime in the coming week.

So far, Kathy's is the only book I had to read before I could work in it. It's the worst thing about being a book-a-holic. I can't resist reading them all!

Pages for Kellie's book -- T and R

I did a "T" page a few days ago, but couldn't settle on an idea for a 2nd spread for Kellie's book until this morning.

Here's the "T" page:
The words that meander through the page are the lyrics to "Tiptoe through the Tulips"

Here's a look at the other page spread I made:


I posted a whole bunch of pictures of the process I took to create this page spread on my blog: http://blog.saltcreekquiltco.com

The glue is still drying. I'll get Kellie's book in the mail tomorrow, I hope.

on it's way!!!

Book is on it's way to Joy Jewel . . . hhhhaaaa, I think (heavy on the think) it's Carole's that I had . . . oh my! I've had it packed up and ready to mail for a couple weeks now . . . anyway, off it went yesterday!

Very Awesome Art From Down Under . . .

arrived yesterday . . . wow!!!! Thank you so much Sue they are fantastic. I have an idea I think will be awesome for your book and the letter "R" . . . I sure hope that what I am thinking happens from my brain, through my fingers, and onto the pages !!

Thank you Sue!

My pages from Sue in Australia arrived today! Wow -- like most things, their photographs didn't do them justice.

I worked on a spread for Kellie's book yesterday. I need to do another and then mail it on. I'll post pictures once I'm finished.

Thank you Sue! I can't wait to get my book back so I can put these in and see everything else that has been added to my book!

Hi ladies,
Very Cool ARt.......I've started the backgrounds for Judy's book. I'm going to use P for Portals , I'm not sure what letter I'm using next but I'm leaning towards M for Muse. I know I haven't posted here but I just got over being sick and my work schedule doesn't give me much 'play' time. I try to use my free time for my family and artwork but I will try to post more often.
Has anyone seen the book Kalidescope (spelling may be wrong) well, I ordered it from Stampington. I'll share my thoughts on it when I receive it. If any of you guys have read it...let us know what you think.
Carole

K is for Kite

Just more fun in Kathy's book this time. Of ocurse I am partial to the letter K myself. I left the kite loose so hopefully it will have taht kite feel with a red long ribbon hanging past the books edge.

F is for Fishsticks!

Just a sneak peek of what
I put in Sharon's book this week.
Opah Fishsticks are fun to make!!

"T" for Marilyn's book

Turquoise "T" on Two-color fabric with Twin circles

I Trapped Tangled Threads with Tulle and did some Threadplay on Top. (Actually I did bobbin work, as the Thread I wanted to use is Turquoise Kreinik metallic blending filament, which I didn't think would work coming through the needle).

The fabric was layered with Two layers of Totally Stable stabilizer (a Sulky product).

Some of the "T"s were on purpose, some I only realized after I got going (like the Twin circles or the fact that the name of the stabilizer started with a "T"...)

The color is much prettier in person. I still need to attach these to the appropriate places in Marilyn's book, and will get it in the mail next week.

Poetry pages for Marilyn

I'm still contemplating what I'm doing for my second letter in Marilyn's book, but I wanted to show off the front and back of what I did for the letter "P" for her book. In all honesty, I'm not sure yet which is the front and which is the back....

I'm particularly fond of wordplay and being clever, although I hope it isn't too silly.

Make note of plaid, pink, poetry, polka-dots, pocket....the pink background is painted paper...

There are 3 poems in the pocket (which is made of two layers of polka-dot fabric and a layer of Peltex interfacing). I might add more poems, just haven't picked any others yet. I was trying to see if there is a shade of green that has a "P" name, haven't found one yet...LOL.

Are the blue letters and brads Powder blue? I don't think they are Periwinkle, but they might be Persian blue.

Oh wait -- what about Persian Green or Pine Green?

I told you I was silly.....VBG

Sharon's pages

The e page did not scan well. It's brighter and prettier than this. I wasn't sure if you'd like 'girly' stuff Sharon so it's a darker kind of pink. The v page is A A Milne's Vespers from 'When We Were Very Young'. I know you like literature and this just popped into my head when I was trying to think of something that started with v.
Sue

Zoe's pages

The opposite problem here. Zoe's pages are too big for my scanner bed. My scanner does not do justice to lumpy things. The v page is a Venetain blind book. I would say it's more of a Roman blind but I got the idea from Alisa Golden's 'Creating Hand Made Books' and she calls it a Venetian blind!
Sue

Marilyn's pages

Marilyn's pages are so small that they fitted on my scanner bed together. The v page is vintage value and I explain what it means to me in a library pocket underneath the tags. They are very different and I hope that they will look OK in your book Marilyn.
Sue

Suzanne's pages

Here are my pages for Suzanne, with fibres. I don't embroider any more and these took me ages. There is quite a bit of fibre under Experiment that can't really be seen so well on the scan due to the vellum.
Sue

This one is ready to go on!

OK, I may have been the last one to send mine on to the first collaborator, but I'm making up for lost time. I'm getting ready to pack up Kellie's book to send to Suzanne. Any and all of you, including Carole, of course, may feel free to bug me about getting this book out. Kellie, don't look at this post unless you want to see pages in your book!

I chose to do Z because it was really speaking to me, and then B because that's what spoke up in a little whisper when I was leafing through the book trying to figure out what to do next. I had NO intention of them being done in a similar style. This is not a style or even a background technique I've done before, so I just did what I seemed to need to do to this book to get my pages done. I'm really liking what I did. I hope you all - and especially Kellie - like it too!

This page is a pop-up because it just seemed like the right way to do it. I never do this style, these colors, I've never used alcohol inks before though I've had them for ages, nor have I ever used the poster paint pens I bought a few months ago. I was reading Aileen Roberts' blog, Aileen's Musings, about using what's on your desk and thinking about how it seems like everyone I know who does art was cleaning out their studios and getting rid of things they weren't using. Why did I have all these things that I wasn't using? Why not just try them out? Why not try them out here? I guess I did. I'm happy with what I did.

Background Technique: Put white gesso all over page with sponge brush as smoothly as possible. Put about an eighth of an inch of Ranger Alcohol Ink Blending Fluid in a 2 ounce deli cup and add 6 drops of ink. I used Butterscotch, expecting an ochre or butterscotch. I got this lovely warm yellow instead that pleased me very much! I used a natural bristle 'mop' flicked back and forth quickly to apply the color to the gesso. I think I had to mix up my little recipe three times to cover both pages. (The B was cut out and gessoed but painted with a watered down straight Light Magenta Golden Heavy Body tube acrylic paint.)

Here's another page that is just not my style, if I even have a style, that is! It started out as a mistake. I had glued two pages together and gessoed them then I had that blank whiteness staring at me, glaring at me! I wanted to do paint scraping on it and dripped a few controlled colors on and scraped them around. Then I didn't like what I'd done. What to do? The next day, I poured some turquoise and patina green Golden Glaze over it. It looked too plain, so I added some ultramarine glaze and realized that I had way too much on there. So I swirled them all around anyway and it looked kind of cool. So I let it dry. The next day, I had another blank page staring me in the face, so I picked up the black poster paint pen and drew a frame. I did some doodles on some deli wrap and then repeated them on the page.

Yes, I only got about three quarters of the way around before I had to reach for the dictionary!

And there's a surprise in a pocket on the other side of this page, the "front" side. Take it out and read it. My sweetie thinks I'm nuts but he likes this work, too.

Rules...

How many of us have rules in our books?

I do. I want all the letters to be in alphabetical order and I've left one front and back in the book per letter. I labeled them with pink metallic pencil just to make sure I had the right number of pages. You're welcome to add pages, of course, so you can do a spread instead of a front and back, if you want to. My book is rather small at 4.25" x 7.5" so you might choose to work outside the book and then tip in your work. The book already doesn't close so I'm looking forward to one FAT little book when I eventually get it back! There are a couple of other rules and they're written in the front of the book. I think I have a pretty good sense of humor and the only things that really offend me are meanness, politics, and religion as I think the first is just unnecessary and the others are things that should be kept to oneself or discussed with those who aren't bored by them.

I'd be interested to read anyone else's rules.

And yes, everyone thinks they have a good sense of humor, don't they?

Finally!

It's taken me forever, but my book will arrive at Suzanne's today. I apologize to everyone for getting off to a slow start. Here's what the covers look like.

I named it Elemenopedia.

D is for Dance . . .

NowThis I like better. This I used Fibers to fit the fabric request. Fibers I like! LOL! I did a flip page, and stuck with having staff and notes to go with the m is for music page. I also wanted to bring red and black into it also to go with the other page. This flips open, that's a first for me, I haven't done much with flips and pop ups and such fancy things before . . . LOL . . . I tore the second hole on the fringe spots, thus I decided to cover that fact by using the tassel . . . . shhhh don't tell!

I don't have this packed up to mail off yet, but expect that I will be doing that sometime this week! I'll keep ya posted as to when I send it on.

M is for Music . . .

Okay . . . This isn't my favorite piece I have ever done. It's working with fabric that threw me. I detest sewing, so it was a struggle for me to come up with something. I had this material from a time when I decopauged clear plates . . . don't ask, it was a strange phase of my life, thought I was going to be rich working the craft show circut LOL!

Any way, I sat and frayed the fabric while watching TV and then tea dyed it so it wasn't so stark white. The I stamped on music, added the red heart to dot the I and added some red flowers . . . The border to the right is some ribbon from a friend.

hI everybody . . .

I've been out of commision for a week now with some respiratory crap. Blah. It's had me in bed for a week . . . not a fun time let me tell you! But I am on the mend finally, so hopefully I will get a chance to do some art!

I've been sleeping for a week dreaming about different things to do . . . hopefully my dreams will come true!

Elongated

Elongated has finally dried and here is most of it. The accordion folded word is too long for my scanner but hopefully, this will give you the general idea. If you can't see any letters, look sideways. Suzanne's pages are well and truly on their way but they still require stitching which is the kind of thing I take to work with me to fill in the quiet times at night. Back to work tomorrow night for 7 nights. Art production slows considerably.
Sue

Here is Judy's 'da Vinci's Vision' . The frame is from a packet of tape and I'm pleased with the way it turned out. 'Elongated' is taking forever to dry and I will post it tomorrow.
Sue

My Pages

I have been inconsistent with the sizes for my pages. 8 x 10 or 11 is OK as I will be attaching them all to bigger pages in an accordion style book. Our pages in Australia are different sizes from yours and this is the nearest approximation. The letters that have been taken so far are P (Suzanne), C (Me) and R (Judy). I have almost finished Judy's pages and will post pics as soon as they are dry. Because I am out of the rotation I am doing pages as people let me know what sizes they need. Zoe and Suzanne will be next. Not waiting for books to arrive means that I can be wildly out of order :)
Sue

. . . may I brag a little? . . .

Okay, I will . . . lol . . . . has anyone seen the new Belle Amorie Jewlery 2 issue? . . . . I haven't yet, but I do have some little diddies in it . . . . I was ever so excitited as they are my first attempts a soldering anything . . .

Question about Sue's pages

While waiting for Marilyn's book, I was wondering about maybe getting a head start on the pages that I will need to send to Sue. Is it possible to find out what size they should be, and if there are any guidelines for how/what we should be doing with them?

It's not like I'm actually bored and really need something to do right now (VBG), but had a random thought and decided to ask!

Introducing myself!

I meant to do this a few days ago, but my connection to the Internet was flaky over the weekend and I've been busy ever since....

I've been a quilter for about 10 years, was a cross-stitcher before that. In the past year I feel like I've woken up from a long obsession with fabric and thread, and have started to discover what else is out there. I'm still obsessed with fabric and thread, I'm just trying to expand my repertoire and play with other art supplies.

You will probably find that most of what I do in your books incorporates fabric or thread or fibers (unless you tell me not to...), and as you will find out when you get my book, I've challenged you to try to incorporate fiber into what you do in my book.

I did blog about the beginnings of my book a few days ago on my own blog, so I won't put the same pictures, here. (You are welcome to go visit my blog if you want to see what I did...)

http://saltcreek.typepad.com

I can't wait to see more of what everyone is doing!

(On the personal side, I'm married, with twin boys (7 years old) and 2 dogs. We live in a small town in Eastern Iowa, my in-laws farm, and some day my DH hopes to take over the farm.)

Where's Marilyn's Book?

Ummm... on my worktable. :( But it's getting there! I'm getting so psyched up by all of the posting here and the photos are inspirational.

So I guess I'll go work on it!

Posting...

OK, This is my first time doing this. I am not a computer goddess and I hope no one here thinks I am. Actually, the people who tried to change me from a mainframe programmer (yes) into a web programmer found that out. That is why I am a librarian. And it's my good luck and their loss.
I have Zoe's book and I had an IDEA this morning. I will try to launch myself into it this weekend. The IDEA will have to remain a secret until I try it - I don't want to dilute it if you know what I mean.
Sue, Kelli's pages are awesome. Totally.
I am relating to words and letters in a whole new way. What fun for a librarian. My staff already think I am a bit odd.
Sharon

Good Mornin!

Hi all!
Finally got all signed in and trying to think of cool pages for these books!! I'm so excited, I went to a thrift store yesterday and was browsing thru the games I found a very old "bingo poker" game. The cards are cardboard with an entire deck of lil cards in place of the numbers, (12 cards in all!) plus a whole bag of poker chips. All aged and awesome. Also got a huge tin of a floor puzzle, great big ole puzzle pieces and a nice tin to store my stamps in! All for the low price of a buck. I think I shall go scour a few more places today for more old games and postcards! Publish

wow, very cool

Hi guys
This is very exciting, our own blog...
Anyway, working hard on the
next book
See ya Zoe

Kellie's pages

I thought that as no-one else other than the book owner will see the pages I do that I'd share them with the group via this site. These are the pages I've done for Kellie - vault and E=Mc2
Sue

Off and Running!

OK, I’ve got Judy’s and Kellie’s names corrected and I fixed something else this morning that I can’t even recall! I still haven’t fixed the colors for posting. Looks like we’ll have several reds when I do get that working!

And… big drum roll….

I got Kellie’s book this afternoon!!! I’m saving the box to send it back out in. A bingo chip fell out of it already so I’ll probably be checking all the doodads to see if they need re-glued. Oops, there went another one!

This is SOOOOOOOO cool!

I'm dying to show you the pages but don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone.

Wow, everyone. We're off and running!!!

La Paix d'Art . . . Peace of Art

La Paix d'Art . . . French for Peace of Art. Don't ask me to pronounce it; I can't! I do however like the idea behind it all, as I do find some peace in art as a whole, and creating it helps me create some inner peace in myself.

My name is Judy, and I live in Michigan with my husband and daughter. We live in this little tiny small town and I work in a town somewhat bigger and only about 15 miles away. I work at the very same hospital I was born in!

No, I'm not a nurse, I am a Computer Goddess . . . or that is what I have everyone here beliveing. Smiles. We have fun in our office. It helps with the demands and stress that we encounter everyday.

The above pictures are the beginnings of my book that is going out on it's journey through this round robin. The cover is for Alphabetica as a whole. The signin page is G for Group, as hey, this is one great group of artists! The "X" page is . . . "He Signed His Mark as an X".

I know when this book is done with it's journey and finally comes home it is going to be filled with some kicking art! In the mean time, if you'd like to visit my blog, it can be found at

http://www.lapaixdart.blogspot.com/

La Paix d'Art all!

Ja-who-dee