Lolo's page for Katie Jane

Katie asked that we do a nature theme which had me right from the start!

The pictures that have already been done are exquisite. Katie's Goddess tree, oh my Goddess how wonderful! So textural and rich and full of life.

Carolines magnificent bird in rich colors and textures to die for.

And Lisa's watercolor and natural objects in the way of butterfly wings, bird feathers and plants. Wow, a hard act to follow!

I've been anticipating my first snowy winter in a very long time. I love love love birch trees, the stark patterns and sleek trunks, the graphic branches making their own statements. I wanted to capture the last few Autumn leaves hanging on until after the first snowfall. Those hardy straglers not ready to give it up yet.

I had this fiberous bluish paper that seemed to call to me for Katie's page. I started with colored pencils and added a bit of acrylic paint, and of course I had to make the snow sparkle with some glitter glue, my new favorite staple.

It's subdued yet I think it says something.

Bring on the winter because we'll still be here in the spring!

I hope you like it Katie.

Since I'm not sure how you'll be finishing the book when it gets back to you, I'll leave it up to you if you want to glue this to something more hardy. To keep postage at a minimum for all, I'll just leave it as it is.

Light and breezy, easy-peasy. Enjoy! ;)

Lolo's Cover and pages...finally!

I got off to a pretty slow start on my own journal but this weekend it finally created itself. It started out as our journey cross-country which really ended up being a spiritual journey for me.

The snail represents taking the slow way home (car vs. flying.) We're moving house and home with Bliss and Emma trying to balance themselves on this trek. My raven guide is with us, of course!

Several times along the way we felt like giving up but we pushed on telling ourselves every day "we can do this!"

The snail has left a glittery trail to our new home.

Open the doors...

Look inside the envelope...

Keys to our 'new life.'

I'd like it if you ladies did something about journies, any type, physical or spiritual. We're all on one big journey, after all!

Just do one page that folds in half measuring 12" x 6". I'll glue the back of your first page to the back of the previous second page resulting in a book format.

This is on it's way to Joss today so she can add her special touches!

I'm looking forward to the beuty you'll all add to this journal.

Thank you! xoxo

Katie Jane's Page

Here is my page for Katie Jane's Book. Her book is about nature. A subject that if you read my blog any at all you know that I love nature. This page has a watercolor sky with dried flowers, ferns and feathers. I will be getting this sent to Lolo today (Tuesday).

To All My Arty Soul Sisters

Marianne

Mim

Lynn

Suki

Kate

Caroline

Lisa

Lolo

I wanted to drop in to your lives and say a BIG BIG thankyou to you all for the tremendous effort you are all making to get stuck into these books as they arrive, the delight you are showing in all the art you do, the pleasure you are all experiencing in receiving each book, and the thrill I get every time I see a new page.
I never in my wildest dreams ever thought this project would take off like this and be so successful
All I can say is:
THANKYOU
Joss xxx

Butterfly for Lisa Front and Back

This brightly colored butterfly is no doubt inspired by the African American quilts I saw yesterday! It is made up of machine felted velvet and woolly bits surrounded by variegated ribbon yarn, embellished with beads.

If you click on these to enlarge them you can just about FEEL the fabrics!

close up and then
the back which I left uncovered.
It makes for a rather delicate page on scrapbook paper, as the machine felting
hammers holes in the
fabric to adhere it to the paper. I did not want to weaken it further by top sewing on it.
So handle with care please.



Here you can see the hundreds of tiny holes felting gives the work.
I added brads to strengthen the side of the page that is fastened into the book cover
with all the other wonderful pages.
It will fly off to Suki tomorrow and then only Kate and Caroline need add their
artistic endeavors before it finally arrives in Lisa's hands!

Suki's pages

The first page for Suki's book is a sandcastle.

Notice the heart inside.

Home is where the heart is.

The second page is inspired by a poem by Twilight Whispers.

I wrote the words on the back

I connected the two pages by making the horizon longer.

So they formed one image in the end.

When I started I planned something very complicated. I wanted to make a collage. Use the stamp I got from Linda and her beautiful papers etc. I wanted so much and it ended so simple.........I just started and it turned out this way.

I was pleased with the outcome. I hope you will too Suki.

and here is the poem:

Finding My Home

Finding where my loyalties lie
Finding where the bluebirds fly
Finding the path that leads back in time
Is finding my home

Finding where my young years are
Finding memories from afar
Finding where my mind has gone
Is finding my home

Finding where the rainbows end
Finding where the oceans blend
Finding a quiet and calming place
Is finding my home

Twilight Whispers

It was so nice holding Suki's book in my hands!

To see all the pages everyone has created in real were a sight for sore eyes!

I will send these on to Mim this week .

Have fun Mim! In between all your busy things.

A Page for Caroline by Soulbrush

As Caroline's book is all about strong images and forms, I decided to do this flower for her. I used 4 inks only (the green is under the gold on one leaf to accentuate it). I painted over strips of newspaper, which always gives depth to a piece. I loved the startlingly vibrant effect.

Hope you like this Caroline. It will be winging its way to Marianne on Monday.

Kate's Page for Soulbrush's Book

I was trying to figure out something good to make for Soulbrush's sketchbook and I remembered how much she likes artist trading cards. So much that she has over 400 of them! Well, Joss, here's a really BIG one! I did a paper collage about friendship done with my dyed tissue paper, fuzzy thread, rubber stamps and postage stamps from the US.

But that's not all. I also attached some of my real artist trading cards to the main page with clear corners that can be removed if she wants to store the trading cards somewhere else. Hope you like it, Joss!

This book is winging its way to Caroline in Malaysia right this minute!

Flip side of Mim's page by Caroline

I bought some lovely handmade paper yesterday and couldn't resist using it right away! I decided to do another quick something for the back of the page I made for Mim, so began by cutting out some paper dollies from a magazine page. I then covered them with this swirly world- like paper!

Kate's Page for Marianne's Book

This is my page for Marianne's book. Marianne's cat Sjimmie is traveling the world through her book. She wants him to get a feel for life in each of our areas and so I call this painting "Sunday In The Park". Here I am taking Sjimmie on a nature walk through my favorite sculpture park, Pyramid Hill. We had a lovely day enjoying all the interesting sculptures that many of you have already seen in photos on my blog. He especially liked watching the ducks in the pond. Thank you, Marianne, for letting Sjimmie go with me on this special nature walk.

A page for Suki by Soulbrush

I wanted to make some sort of 'angel' figure for Suki.
So, I drew her and stuck bright papers all over, in a mosaic -type pattern, with black outlines.
Then I looked at her and realised that all the paper may come loose in transit around the world. So I placed a piece of weaved fabric over her and stitched it round the edges with black cotton to hold it all in place. (you can't see the cotton here).
I like her. She is calm and gentle and will be with you Suki, helping you in your quest to find a new and wonderful place to 'rest your weary bones'. Made and sent with my love.

Mim for Lisa's book

The artwork in this book is amazing - thanks Lisa --it goes off today to Lynn - and is just wonderful!! wait till you see it. Here is my little contribution.

A page for Mim by Caroline

Here is my page for Mim's travelling book. Mim's lovely book is all about Women around the world so I plunged right in with a bevy of international gals and a flock of international birds for good measure! This has been created with oil pastels using the 'sgraffito' method. It was such fun to do and I have written a complete post on my blog about the techniques I used - hope you'll pop over to see! The book will be winging its way to Lisa on Monday! Now I have no books :( ..... looking forward to receiving another soon!

Lolo's page for Caroline

I had so much fun doing this page! I always start out a bit intimidated without a thought it my head, but then as with most art it just evolves.

The first thing I did was draw a raven in pen and ink cross-hatching on this light green tag. I didn't like the way he turned out so I added colored pencil to darken him and acrylic paint for the highlights. I then painted the branch and juicy blackberry with acrylics and added a whimsical vine with a sharpie.

The little bag that holds the treasure was embellished with rubber stamps, Distress-Inks and glitter glue. The card inside the bag was a piece of cardboard that came with something I bought and I kept it because of the wonderful vines and flowers. I thought I'd use it in the future for an atc or something.

I painted only a few leaves and one flower in watercolor. Then I added that wonderful diamond glitter, after all the flower holds magic!

The background is patterned paper which I embellished here and there with colored pencil in aqua and light green to tie it all in. The postage stamp and words are stickers.

There you have it. Raven's search is over. Who knew he'd find the flower in Malaysia?! Now he'll fly to London so Jossie can do her page.

What fun this was!

(The flower card didn't scan well at all. It's really very pretty!)

suki's page for Marianne's book

Well my jacket blocked off the bottom of this but I'll leave it. Acrylic paint on Stonehenge paper. Two pieces of scrap paper for tablecloth and bowl. The shutters open and close and the shutter shadow in this picture is caused by the sunlight and is not painted on.
Marianne had a peace sign and a silver moon on her page so I repeated them here. I think I made Sjimmie a tad fatter than he is. Marianne said Sjimmie likes to eat tomatoes and canned mushrooms which is why those are on the table top.


I am not really good at direct painting like this so there are numerous mistakes. I prefer painting on a surface that I can paint over and over until I get it "right" which only means the way I want it. I will mail Soulbrush and Marianne's books to Katie Jane hopefully on Monday.

Suki's pages for Soulbrush's book

I purchased some London stickers a few months ago in anticipation of doing Soulbrush's page. I also had, in my collection, a London A to Z which consists of London street maps. So the background center section of each page is a London street map covered in white paint. I used sturdy art paper as the page and painted it with acrylics.

I found the airplane sillhouette on line. Yesterday I bought the stick on letters at Job Lot. I wrote all our names in the windows of the bus. I hope I didn't forget anyone. Doily on lower left with gold leaf.

With permission from Soulbrush, I downloaded Maggie Rae's photo from Soulbrush's blog. I put black glitter around the map edge and didnt like it so painted over it. Now it looks like shading. I will hold this until I finish Marianne's page. I received both books at the same time. What fun!!!

PS the idea for the pages is that we all are flying to London to visit Soulbrush. Click to enlarge photos.

pages for Lisa's book

Today I finished working on Lisa's pages.

I received the book in the weekend ans first I admired the pages inside.

My... what gorgeous pages, the book will be so nice!

The front of the page is daytime, the back is night,

there is less to see but everything is still there ,like magic!

The owl can see it all.........

The pages are done in watercolor and ink.

I know Lisa loves birds and nature so I tried to incorporate those elements.

I loved working on these pages because I love animals and nature as well.

Well who doesn't?

The white sides will disappear later in the cover.

On the back page I wrote (in white pencil)

the last lines of a poem by Hazelmarie Elliott.

I will soon forward it to Mim and hope to get a book soon again.

Hope you will like it Lisa.

Between the Now and Then

Upon horizon, night to day ~

there between the now and then,

I often pause along the way,

to tiptoe through the moonlit glen ~

or perhaps take in sun's light,

night to day ~ day to night.

Upon horizon, day to day ~

there between the then and now,

as seasons grow along the way,

to crease the face of timely brow ~

or perhaps steal time away,

day to day ~ day to day.

Upon horizon, day to night ~

there between the now and then,

I stand beneath my autumn light,

bereft as memory calls again ~

to pain the heart with bygone sight,

Night to day ~ day to night.

Upon horizon, night to night ~

there between the then and now,

I know that winter casts its sight,

on one last leaf that will not bow ~

to frost within its golden sight,

night to night ~ night to night.

Upon horizon, night to day ~

there between the now and then,

I know my spring will fade away,

and summer's soft remember when

will echo gently autumn's way ~

day to night ~ night to day....

Winter's near ~ Winter's near......

Hazelmarie Elliott

A page for Lynn by Caroline

'Gather ye rosebuds'

Last week I reported that I had an idea for Lynn's page - hmm, well that didn't quite work out as I expected but nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with this collage resulting from my many experiments! Lynn's book has some lovely textile pages, so it seemed a good idea to keep going. What's that you say? You don't see any fabric? Well, my finished page does have one small piece of fabric in it, honest! Can you tell where?..... It's actually the strip of rose petals! These are petals from roses grown in the Cameron Highlands (a beautiful area in Malaysia where it is wonderfully cool: flowers and vegetables are cultivated alongside tea plantations up in those hills. I will be posting about my recent trip there over at my blog in the next few days, if you're interested!). Anyway, I digress - back to the fabric. I bonded these petals to a small strip of silk fabric and though I intended incorporating it with other textiles, I got side tracked when I found a lovely magazine image of pink roses! I didn't want to stick this directly on the page so used an image transfer method which results in a slightly distressed look. On top I layered pink tissue paper which gave it a nice misty feel. I then took another sheet of watercolour paper and washed on some pretty colours, wet in wet. I chose areas of this to tear up into strips and drew rose outlines with coloured pencils, adding more colour to the large background bloom. A few lines of text were postioned and coloured to blend into their backgrounds. I covered the main rose bloom and leaves with hand made paper, leaving a white edge on the background for emphasis - I love the way the fibers in this paper make the bloom look so realistic ! I also added a little water to the coloured pencil on the stem to give it form.

Hope you will like this Lynn - I so enjoyed the process and learnt a lot along the way!

Suki's Book, Lolo's Pages

I was on a bit of a creative roll after doing Gina's ATC so I thought I'd seize the day and get going on Suki's journal which arrived yesterday.

I started with some wonderful textured paper that has been put away for years. I 'Googled' raven images (of course!) and came across this wonderful Celtic design that I 'borrowed.' If the artists name was available I'd give proper credit.

I glued the raven and started embellishing the edges of both sections with scrolls in aqua and purple. I then spotted these sweet tags I bought on Etsy a while back and inserted one in a little atc bag that I also embellished with doo-dads. On the back of the tag I wrote "May your travels take you to your heart's desire."

I also glued a fotune on the page that says "The greatest gift of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little."

On the next page is that lovely raven. I drew in snowy hills, bare trees and a full winter moon. I wrote "Gently falling snow, guide Raven home."

I also found a line I cut out of a magazine a while ago that says "find your happy place and just be."

I finshed it off with glitter for the snow.

Now it will be on it's way to Soulbrush for her magical touches!

This was such fun for me. I hope you like it Suki!

Soulbrush's page by Lynn

We all know that Soulbrush (Joss) loves South Africa and she is generous with her gifts to us too. This page has a background of hand painted muslin, which I also stamped. It's top sewn free motion style and my tension was loose which I decided I liked so left it so.

The giraffe's, her favorite, and zebras were cut from the tea towel she sent me a while ago...what goes around comes around... and some of the beads I sewed on and around it were also a gift from her generous soul. It's sewn as a quilt with inner batting and is backed with burlap for a African rustic feel.

The colors are much brighter in person. You'll just have to wait until it arrives at your door to see. Tomorrow it travels to Suki in NH.

I have no doubt she will love it.

How's that for confidence?!

;-)

Click on photos to see details of which I speak

it's sewn in gold metallic threads and black bobbin thread which comes to the top

in some places.