Happy Holidays!!

I'm slowing down a bit on my art projects for the year. Trying to finalize Christmas shopping and wrap gifts while packing for a trip to Boston for a week. All my projects are complete and mailed, just waiting for returns on a few swaps.



In September I joined a round robin deco book swap. The ladies in my group were from California, North Dakota, New Zealand and the UK. My book actually made it back home and I love it!



Here are pages I created for work in the others' books:

Micromummy - UK - Vintage Babies:

Lise Bu - UK - Vintage Ladies:

1orange - New Zealand - Blue & Black:

Monarch - North Dakota - The Sea:






Rockstarsgirl - California - Hindu Gods & Goddesses:

Skeleton Dress Up Challenge

Last month our ATC instructor, Evelyn, gave us all these cute skeletons to dress up and return this month-we'll all vote and a prize will be awarded.

Mine is wearing transparencies of haunted houses and is embellished with Tim Holtz metal numbers, philosophy tag, jump rings and a clasped chain to hang it from.

Hope I win, but probably too freaky for my cohorts!!

ArtSea2008

Just returned from a wonderful trip to San Simeon/Cambria for an ArtRereat! I've never attended one before - it was AWESOME. I can't wait to do it again next year. It was put on by The Stamp Art Shoppe in Roseville, CA - Sandy and Richele did THE BEST job putting together their first retreat! VERY GENEROUS goodie baskets and lots of fun projects made this retreat a winner!! I still can't believe I was able to make some of the projects we did!!

I'll post pictures as soon as I get unpacked - am off this weekend for a camping trip - so maybe Monday??

Have a great weekend!!


OK here are the pics - I couldn't wait.

June 16 and June 21 -New ATCs

I haven't been doing as many online ATC swaps lately ~ too busy attending classes, working, traveling, etc. Maybe I'll take on more after vacation in July. Here are a few that I've done the last week or so. I really like how the "His & Her" cards came out. Mine are definitely all "Hers" - the theme dictated we could do either or both. I don't think I've used any of these rubber stamps before so it was nice to use something collecting dust in my bins.

I think with the Green Swap card I may have gone overboard. She is maybe a wee bit....too much? I don't usually do all this glitter & sequin type stuff - felt right at the time, but I may have been wayyyyyyy out of my element. What do you think????


G is for...green...girl... (For a "Green" ATC swap)



Following set was for a "His & Hers" ATC swap:

HANDMADE BOOK

My Sweetie and I are going on a cruise next month. We leave from L.A. and spend a day each at San Diego, Catalina Island, and Ensenada, Mexico. I wanted to make a special book to journal in as well as having a place for photos and envelopes for ephemera I collect along the way. I still need to do some embellishing, but may wait to do that until after the trip - not sure yet. I love this leather clasp from 7 Gypsies - it works great and was sooooooooo easy to install.




The pages are all attached to an accordian style binding:


There is an envy like this for each city:


We leave in 22 days!! My first cruise - can't wait!!!

MONOCHROMATIC CHUNKY BOOK SWAP

I frequently do ATC swaps through the mail with an online group: atcsforall.com. They also have swaps for chunky books pages, round robins, inchies, rolos, and a multitude of other things.

I decided to branch out a little and join this chunky book page swap. I made 8 pages - sent 4 off for the swap and kept 4. It was hard to decide which ones to let go.

Here's the final product with my 4 pages and 1 each from the other 4 swapers. I just used my Crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the corner of the pages. One swaper had already punch a hole in the corner for her ribbon so it just kinda worked out. I used a binder ring to hold them all together. I found these at Wal-Mart. A package of 8 colored rings is ONLY 88 CENTS!! What a deal! And nice colors (red, green blue, yellowy gold). Check out ATCSFORALL.COM if you haven't yet.

On the following images I'm using the other swappers' screen names.




One of my pages:


Page by jennalee from Southern CA:


Page by KatieV from Bloominton, IN:

Page by Janice from Warrington in the UK:


Page by Me:


Page by Shoreart from Philadelphia, PA:


Page by Me:


Page by Me:

May 2-4 - COLORS ALTERED BOOK

My daughter and I had some special bonding time together over the weekend and decided to create "color" books from altered children's board books. We sanded the gloss down from the pages, layered on acrylic paints and drizzled on Pearl Ex powdered pigments (mixed with some water) then collaged and embellished with a white gel pen.

This is one of my favorite books that I've done. I think this is because I really like the way the pages turned out - similar to what I've seen in books, but have never been able to create until now. Also it is a tiny "journal" of what was going on at that time in my life and shows things I like. Just a little window of my world. (Gas is NOW $4.55 a gallon here - amazingly it has stayed at that price for more than 3 days. For awhile the price jumped 5 cents a gallon every few days. I hope this is it. I wonder if the price will ever go down???? Probably not - just like my daughter will Probably Not finish her book - I don't think she even painted all her pages - but she was a great cheerleader for my efforts.)

May 22 - BIRD HOUSE BOOK

Richele Christensen at The Stamp Art Shoppe in Roseville taught us how to make this sweet book.

We used Tim Holtz products from Ranger including crackle paint and grunge board. We also used black chipboard and the "bind-it-all" machine. This was a great project, but when I bind things I prefer my regular office-style binding machine. I like the wire spine that we used with the "bind-it-all" but the process was a little much. Many people like it so maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it?

Here are several images of the completed book: