I've been working on making these polymer clay mosaic tiles the past few days. It's kind of addictive and I am really having fun with these. They are a little time consuming but that's okay. Here I've laid them out around a mirror to see how they might look as a frame. It's impossible to photograph a mirror without being in the picture so I laid a piece of wax paper over it.

You can use all sorts of things to imprint the clay before baking. I used a lot of the rubber stamps I have but you can also use old jewelry, tools, leaves and sticks and just about anything that comes to mind. You can use a wooden toothpick to write or draw into the clay if you don't have the right word stamp. It certainly sparks the creative juices.

After the clay has baked you can get really creative with paint. I like to use my Perfect Pearls paint powder to give them a metallic sheen. The good part about this project is that if I have a space that needs a certain size tile I can simply cut one to fit. I have also incorporated some of the beach glass chips I bought, but in the future I plan on using lots of fused glass tiles, scrabble tiles, and glass and handmade paper beads.

The weather gods are blessing us with some very rare sunshine today so I may have to get out of the house and get some.

Carpe Diem!

Lolo's Book is home!

My beautiful journal has finally made it back full circle and I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

What a bunch of talented ladies you are. I adore every spread!

I didn't see a couple of them before they arrived here so they were a total surprise to me. They look so wonderful all together!

I won't describe each one as I feel they describe themselves.

Please click to enlarge each one to savor the amazing work that went into each page.

Here they are in no particular order because I forget the path they went on :)

My own page showing my journey, both physical and spiritual, from California to Rhode Island.

Katie Jane's lovely page with a quote by Lao Tzu...

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Lynn's page showing the places she's been, complete with her smiling face in a current photo and one of her younger self.

Marianne's pages with landmarks of many of the places she's been. She included the Golden Gate Bridge in California, close to the starting point of my journey and ended up with Emma, Bliss and Sjimmie at our house in Rhode Island!

On the back of this page is this striking photo of an Egyptian woman along with a stunning piece of gold leafed papyrus from Cairo. This is also where Marianne made my pages!

Staying with an Egyptian theme, this stunning page was painted by Soulbrush.

No one does patterns like our girl!

This lovely textural page was done by Suki with a quote by John Muir.

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out until sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."

Definately a spiritual journey page.

Mim made a really fun travel collage! I think she soon found out I'm an armchair traveler :)

I live vicariously through a few of you who are always off to exotic places!

Caroline's page is a beautiful watercolor of the woods accompanied by one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken."

Please enlarge it to read it. What a lovely spread!

Finally, Lisa's page is watercolor and collage depicting a  well-traveled suitcase and great words of wisdom throughout. Please click to read it all!

Ta-Daaaaaa!!

The stunning result of 9 talents from around the world, all friends connected through art.

Thank you so much ladies. I'll treasure this forever!

xoxo

Caroline's page for Laurel's book

At last I've completed the page for your book Laurel! Boy, has this book been taking its time to travel around the world - it must be something to do with your 'journey' theme! I know how much you're into trees Laurel (and now me too, by the way) so I decided to take the lovely poem 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost, with its path in a yellow wood, as my starting point. I've used my favourite technique again - watercolours on gessoed mountboard. I'm quite obsessed by this method at the moment!! Hope you like it Laurel. It will be on its way to Lisa tomorrow.

Kate's Page For Lolo

Last week I recieved Lolo's book. Her theme is "Journeys" and since I love to travel this was an easy subject for me. Every day is a new beginning in this journey we call life. Whenever I see a magnificent sunrise I feel full of the possibilities that await. Lolo, I hope all your jounrneys are safe and your steps, exciting!

suki completes Lolo's page

The page came out sort of dark, but anyway..... The quote is from John Muir: "I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." Lolo's theme is journeys and so I wanted to reflect the outer journey of crossing over the bridge pictured here and the inner journey as reflected in the Buddha.

I mistakenly said in a previous post that I received these pages from Joss. It was Lynn who mailed them to me. I had seen a sticker on the back of the envelope with Joss's name and thought it came from her even though I didnt understand why she was mailing to me.

I will send on to Kate soon.

Lolo's traveling sketchbook received by Suki

Just wanted to let y'all know I received Lolo's book from Joss. Oh gosh, it is soooo beautiful!! I will soon begin my page. This must be one of the last ones for this traveling journal project, no?

Lynn's Page For Lolo's Book: Journeys

I really enjoyed making my page for Lolo's book as it took me back in time when my journeys began. The year 1964: The photo of me in the upper left hand corner is from my immigration to Israel papers. I am pregnant in this photo with my first child, who was indeed born in Israel.

The ship: The Olympia was taken by my first husband (Israeli) and me in 1963 to Europe on the first leg of an Odyssey to visit my parents in California. On the way we stopped in many European countries and here you see signs of Paris ( Eiffel Tower, Paris) and London (Tower Bridge in London far left lower corner).

Skip ahead to 1979. See passport photo in upper right hand corner. I am now divorced from my first husband, and am traveling to Israel again to visit my children, who were living with their father and step mother there. (Daughter was there from age 9-10, I arrived in time for her tenth birthday party; and my son, age 13-16).
My daughter stayed one year; my son went back and forth for three years.

Jump ahead to 1982. See my visa to China on middle left side and photo taken in China next to it.
I went there with a small group of health professionals for three weeks.

I backed the piece with a map of the world, and trimmed it with gold glue.


I believe the airplane was the one I took to China.

I've taken several more trips but this is all that would fit comfortably on a 6" X 12" page!

Thanks Lolo for the opportunity to revisit this time in my life.

I took photos of my photos so I could collage this again for myself.