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

Marianne's back pages by Lolo

What I love about this patterned paper is often times it can be as it is. For instance, this little bluebird is sitting in the middle of a mandala shaped design. All I did was write this in the middle..."This little birdie brings a message of love from lolo in Rhode Island to Marianne in the Netherlands."

The larger piece of paper (because it overlaps the first) is filled with these wonderful organic shapes like flowering branches. I wanted to put a raven in there but I think a Red-Winged Blackbird is quite a better choice this time. Besides, he's such a hopeful sign of Spring!
I colored in some shapes here and there to give this side more color.
There you have it. Now tomorrow it will go to Joss!

Marianne's front pages ala Lolo

Well I can tell you we've all been waiting for Sjimmie to show up from The Netherlands!

Bliss has been waiting by the big studio window for weeks now.

Wait!! What's that shadow behind the stained glass window? Poor kitty is cold and wet from the snow. Oh my goodness, it's Sjimmie!! He's finally here! Let's let him in and make him warm and cozy. Bliss, will you share your food? Emma, will you be nice??

After a nice meal and a little grooming, Sjimmie, Bliss and even Emma became fast friends.

I gave Sjimmie a tour of the studio and he cuddled up next to Bliss, taking in all there was to see.

He kept being distracted by my beautiful birth mandala that his mom Marianne painted for me. We all knew he missed her. The three new friends spent a wonderful few days together before we sent Sjimmie on his way to London where Jossie would see to it he gets home safe and sound.

We're going to send him first class with a special blanket in case he gets caught in more snow!

Bye-bye Sjimmie! We loved having you here! Next time bring your mom!

The back pages will be worked on today as well. I'll post them asap ;)

Soulbrush's Pages by Lolo

Well first let me say how seridipitous this day is because I knew I wanted to do my pages about Maggie Rae, but I had no idea today was her first birthday! I changed my initial ideas and made it into a birthday celebration with Grandie and her friend, Riff Raffie the giraffe!

What fun the three of them are having, and look at that bejeweled tiara on Maggie Rae, Princess of the day! Happy Birthday sweet little girl!

The book is all done now and on its way back to Jossie!! I'm honored to be a part of this journey ;) xoxoxoxo

Mim's pages by Lolo

Mim asked that we make the theme about women.

Strong, smart, magical...every woman :)

I looked back over my illustrations I've done the past couple of years and made copies of my Wallfowers and my Bagladies. Guess what? There were nine of them. NINE!! Kismet.

I printed them out on the finest photo paper and made a collage of them. I'm letting them stand alone/together. No words are needed on that page.

For the back page I wrote a short poem to describe them and all women out there.

To describe us.

Wallfowers and Bagladies,

Strong.

Independent.

Thinkers, dreamers, doers.

Conquering fears,

persuing dreams,

rising to the top

like the finest cream.

Here's to women everywhere!

Thank you Kj for your editing services ;)

Lynn's Page by Lolo

Man oh man did I struggle with this one! You all know how creative and prolific Lynn is. I just had no idea how I could represent her. I finally went way back to an old children's book illustration style I used to use and painted a lady sleeping with her kitty under a dream quilt.

Of course the lady is Lynn and the kitty is Henry V.

I painted this with watercolor on loose canvas...I know, go figure!! It was hard. The watercolor kept beading up but I persisted, darn it all because I had it all drawn in. I then embelished it with glitter and shine here and there because I could :)

When it came time for the back I went into my digital card program and looked at quilt motifs. I wrote a quick little poem and dropped it in and...voila!! This is my page for Lynn, front and back.

The painting looks a bit muddy for some reason. I think it's because glitter doesn't scan well.

Whew, these journal pages are challenging!

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

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 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!

Lisa's Journal with Lolo's pages

Ta-daaaaah!!!

Here are our pages put together. I had such fun with this, thanks Lisa!

Now it's off to Soulbrush for her magical additions!

Lolo's second page for Lisa's journal

I love it when things just evolve without a plan!

Here's the flip side of my page for Lisa's journal. This pattern reminds me of vintage wallpaper. I started going through my bits and scraps of collage cuttings and this is what I got. I used another stamp with birds, a piece of my special "studio lolo' notepaper for the center, I added a little atc bag, some butterflies and rubber stampings. I thought it would be appropriate to put a postcard from Rhode Island in the mail bag with a message for you ladies! I hope you can enlarge it to read it.

What fun this is! Lisa, thank you for such a wonderful venue ;)

I'll assemble it soon and post it and then it goes to Soulbrush!

xoxo

Lolo's page on Lisa'a Journal

yay, I finally got the muse to hit me between the eyes!

This is my first page for Lisa's journal. The other side of this paper is a different pattern which I'll show when I get it done, then I'll show you how our pages look together ;) I went with her bird theme because I love birds. I started with decoupaging the poppies from napkins, then I glittered them with a light dusting. I stamped faint leaves and purple swirls, drew and painted the Cardinals, added a stamp from a letter I got from Canada and a pretty little sticker, and then I topped it off with finding that perfect quote from a magazine.

Now I'm ready to continue! Stay tuned for page two, and then eventually I'll get going on mine.

Lolo's Cover so far...

Well I finally came up with a square format. I love squares! But I couldn't figure out if I wanted a theme or not. I was going to go with "Wings and Wishes" because there are so many ways to go with that. Birds, butterflies, bees and all things you dream or wish for. But then I said, nah, no theme! I did title it though, "9 Visions." I did the cover on my computer in my greeting card program. The eye has the world in it (although I stretched it to an odd shape!) and the eyelashes are nine paintbrushes representing us. I'll be embellishing it when it finishes drying.

I'd really love it if you could do a two page spread. The pages are only 6x6"...no worries! I'll do the first page and the last page because they're single as well as doing the first 2 page spread. And I'm just going to punch holes in the corners, so when you do your pages please punch the holes to align with mine. And remember that the holes will be on the inside when you open the book, not on the outside of the page. I'll probably tie it together with a ribbon or 2 binder rings.

So draw, paint, doodle, collage, sew whatever you want. The possibilities are endless in these journals! I hope to do my pages soon and send it off to Soul!

xoxo