C'est bien! Marie Antoinette book pages are done

Several days of staging went into these 17 hand-drawn, hand-painted all original 4" x 4" fat book pages for the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group collaborative book. As I explained in my other posts here and here, I first prepped the backgrounds and then I put in the faces with pencil and tissue paper and then acrylic paint and molding medium.

The last two days I drew in the facial features, painted those, highlighted the hair with silver leaf and gold leaf and glitter, added metal as well as rub-on curlicues, punched holes, set rivets and attached assorted fibers. I also signed and dated all the backs and silverleafed the edges.

Something still didn't feel 'right' or done until I came up with the idea for the mask/opera glasses, an accessory with which Marie Antoinette is often portrayed. I sprayed the tiny sticks gold. Designed and cut masks out of black construction paper, glued sets together with the stick in the middle, punched eye holes, added rhinestone and glitter pen embellishments and tied the mask stick to the fibers. Voila! Now Marie can go to the ball, and I can mail my pages off to Tennessee to our hostess, Rhonda. What a gorgeous book this is going to be!

Now, on to my paper mache project.

My mini paintings for a 'girly' swap

These original paintings by me- and much of the credit goes to the styles of Kelly Rae, Suzi Blu and Shonna Bucaroff- are 4" x 4," and I made them for a personal swap of "girly" style pages with Malin Walkeby of Sweden. I finished them up about 2 a.m. last Sunday before hitting the road for several days for work.

I had great fun doing them, having been doodling faces for weeks in my journal. When I saw Malin's faces and girls on Flickr, I knew we had to swap. She also encouraged me to join the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group, and I have 18 pages of 4 x 4 Maries to make soon for a fat book in that group.

The backgrounds of my pages were the first thing I made, actually using rubber stamp in and a blender brush. Then I added texture by stamping over punchinella. Next I drew my girls in pencil, then filled them out with watercolor crayons. Next, I painted titan buff acrylic right over the facial features I had just drawn. I finished off the facial features with gel pens and more watercolor crayons, using water to smooth. I added paper, brad and button accessories as well as some vintage embellishments: sheet music, book pages, assorted goodies and beaded lace. Finally I stamped on some messages, put my info on the backs and six hours later I was done.

I received Malin's wonderful pages last night when I got home from my multi-state trip, and I'll post those very soon.

I have lots of wonderful artsy (and wordsy) news to share-coming soon!

2008: All Bound Up Neatly

One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year -so I'm a little behind- is to bind all the fat book pages I've collected during the previous year, like the one-page-per-month, all-original-art 4" x 4" page swap from one of my art groups, Chubbyville; extra pages from Art & Soul, ZNE, Itty Bitty Book Club and other swaps, gifts and the like. It's fun to bind the year together from start to finish. I started with The Year of the Rat January page by Lois Paolo from Chubbyville and decided to use clear acrylic covers -okay, took the easy way out. Still I've got a beautiful book of all original art from my art friends for 2008.

You can see my 2007 book here and here and all the pictures of my fat book pages to date in my Flickr set here. It sure seems like the 12 months between these two books went awfully fast. I have some incredible, one-of-a-kind books that I never tire of looking through, with themes like Halloween, Marie Antoinette, pink, Blythe, Birds, Dolls, prom dresses and more.

Mail Bonanza: Faerie Zine Fat Books are Back!

It wasn't just on the same day, but in the same envelope even, that three gorgeous, stuffed-with-original-art fat books arrived last week from Lisa Kettell and The Faerie Zine. Since some of these page swaps had been due back in July, I had kind of forgotten not only that they were coming but what I had submitted. So it is always fun to get back the finished product, or products in this case.

There were three books: Halloween Opera, Birds of a Feather and The Doll House Chronicles. You can see two of the covers above as well as two of my pages. The 'birdy' page is just one of my faves from one of the many other artists around the country and world who participated. For each of the three books I made by hand 25 or more all-original 5" x 5" pages, front and back. No small amount of work that!

Hostess with the mostess Lisa had the big job of receiving, sorting and collating the pages and binding the books, always a time-consuming job. She bound the bird and doll books accordian-style with hand-attached, fabric hinges and she used hand-pleating to bind the Halloween book. Just an amazing amount of work! And these were but three of the many fat books she's hosted this year, others being Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz and more. Then, she was not only a participant in these also, meaning she made pages too, but she was also in many other books in the Itty Bitty Book Club, including the Sweet Marie book below, Vintage Prom dresses, and more. No wonder Lisa says she's swearing off fat books for awhile.

'Sweet Marie' Itty Bitty Book Project is an Altered Art Confection

I wanted to show as many pages as possible from the Itty Bitty Book Club 'Sweet Marie' altered page swap/fat book on Flickr, hosted by fellow Marie admirers Jo Moran and her sis Mary Ann McKeating.

Every single page is luscious. I already told the group I think this is the nicest fat book of any size that I have ever received. This one is tiny though- pages are the size of baseball cards. Artists do a page front and back and then duplicate enough pages for every member in the swap and hand embellish each page. Sometimes people make every page by hand without duplication. I used two images from Sandra Evertson for Stampington and then colored them with gel pens, edged them in gold leaf marker and added poufy white hair on one side and a feather for her hat on the other.

Besides Jo and Mary Ann and myself, participating artists included Beth Fedorko, Terrie Ruiz, Nancy Reeb, Mahala Elliot, Jane Gherardi, Laverne Johnson, Wanda Eash, Kathy McElroy, Amberwaves, Rhonda Thomas, Suzy Spence, Lia Kent, Anastasia Christou, Annabel Orchard, Kellie Reynolds, Kathy Jacobson, Michelle Davis, Lisa Kettell, Linda Smith, Valarie Whicker, Bridget Schneider, Priscilla Jackson and Sherry Williams.

Fat Books, Skinny Books, Books that, oh! Never mind! You get the idea!

Although tiny is not my favorite format in which to work (the bigger the better is generally my motto in most everything!), these "itty bitty" pages from the Flickr Itty Bitty Book Swap Group http://www.flickr.com/groups/ittybittybookclub sure do make for cute books when they're all assembled. Founder Mary Ann http://firstborn.wordpress.com/ and her sister and partner-in-crime Jo http://labouroflovex3.blogspot.com/ started with a robin's egg blue theme and from there the group went wild with ideas and have since produced a house book, vintage prom dress book and now underway are books on Marie Antoinette, Breast Cancer Awareness, Halloween and Christmas.

Since we all know Marie Antoinette is one of my fave themes, that book was a no brainer, using images by Sandra Evertson http://sandraevertson.blogspot.com/ for Stampington http://www.stampington.com/. I embellished them with hair poufs on the front and feathers on the back side. One completed book will be sent to Stampington for their 2009 art call which will lead to a special Marie Antoinette magazine.

The second book I am doing is the breast cancer awareness "pink" book, and extra copies will be given to those in need and/or auctioned for charity. This one was also a quickie because I already have a published "stamp" on the Artchix Studios http://www.artchixstudio.com/pink faux postage sheet that is for sale on their site. You can buy those stamps, including my "P-I-N-K" one right here http://www.artchixstudio.com/mall/p319.asp. So I used some of those stamps, faux post from other art friends, and some actual cancelled pink stamps to make my "Cancel Cancer" page. If only we could cancel all types of cancers, and soon.

ZNE Does NOT Rhyme with Halloween

I don't know which is crazier: that I am still blogging about the ZNE Convention (that's 'Z,' 'N,' 'E," not 'zeen') or that I am already blogging about Halloween.

The darling house canvas says 'Home is where the heart is' (so true) and 'There's no place like home' (true too). I bought it from Cindy DeLuz of http://www.apurpledaisy.com in California. Her work just makes me swoon. I love the colors and the richness and the messages. We really hit it off. Anyone who knows me knows I like the whimsy style anyway, but Cindy is so sweet you can't help but adore her. Check out her Web site for more of her work. I can hardly wait to receive the canvas she is sending me in exchange for one of my bracelets from etsy http://www.hpsgsmith.etsy.com. I definitely got the best end of the deal, but of course I hope she feels otherwise! Don't worry, I'll be blogging more about her art.

The Halloween pages are 25 five-inch by five-inch double-sided pages I made last night for The Faerie Zine Halloween Opera fat book page swap. How great it will be to get this finished book back with pages from 24 other artists and an amazing cover from Lisa Kettell http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com. As it is, I cannot wait to get my circus, bird and dollhouse books back from her. She's crazy; she hosted all of those swaps.

I got the Halloween crepe paper at American Harvest in Pleasanton, CA. The entire store was jam-packed with Halloween stuff during the ZNE convention. I'm already making plans to attend next year, which will be April 29-May 3. http://www.znecon.com. The instructor lineup is incredible and includes both new and old art friends. I'll get to meet Lisa Kettell in person there if not before.

The orange Halloween ribbon with pumpkin faces is vintage, and I got it at the ZNE vendor fair "Pleasantries and Paperie" from a booth that sold nothing but vintage ephemera. Some of the other collage images I used are from Lisa's Altered Art (different Lisa) http://www.lisasalteredart.com, Teesha Moore http://www.teeshamoore.com, Retro Cafe Art http://www.retrocafeart.com, Paper Relics via Hannah Grey http://www.hannahgrey.com and Artchix Studio http://www.artchixstudio.com. Nothing like plugging people and virtual places I love!

Speaking of plugging, with all the ZNE love going around, I was excited to find that I was mentioned on three fantabulous blogs: Dawn DeVries Sokol, editor of 1000 Artist Journal Pages, gave me a mention at http://dblogala.typepad.com/dblogala/2008/08/ajf-the-big-sho-oe-an-ed-sullivan-ref.html, and Kris Hubick pictured 'us' here http://krishubick.blogspot.com/2008/08/longest-post-ever-zne-convenzione-2008.html. Also, the very talented Mica of Garboodles, who will be teaching at ZNE in 2009 blogged about the china head/paper doll box I swapped with her here http://garboodles.blogspot.com/2008/08/private-poppet-swap.html, and it looks like she has pictured what she is sending me. I may just have to tackle the mail person; it is adorable. Artists really are good people.

What's a Convenzione without a little Shopping and Swapping and Selling?

The ZNE Convenzione http://www.znecon.com/ last weekend had so much eye candy that I don't think my glasses fit anymore! Naturally, I had to come home with a "few" treasures. Few is a relative term when your suitcase gets weighed. In the top photo is a little nestie I got at Miss Vicky's Cut-it-Up store in Colfax, CA. It is by blog friend Karyn Gartel, so that is even cooler. The batty girl is by Lori Mitchell, and I got it at American Harvest, an unbelievable store in Pleasanton, CA., where you can buy works from Lisa Kaus, Ingrid Pomeroy, Iva Wilcox, Colleen Moody, Sally Jean Alexander and many more artists from our little circle. The dolly box is by Iva, and I got it at the ZNE vendor fair. The bracelet is by Miss Vicky herself-talk about eye candy-her bracelets are good enough to eat. More about her store later. The birdy is a Lisa Kaus original and is a 6 x 6 chunky canvas, which she signed for me.

Next up are darling ATCs I got in our swaps. Pictured are cards by Gina Gabriell, Nadine Johnson, Gina Halle, Jackie Baxted, and Lani Kent. The cards I made are here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-zne-convenzione-countdown.html. Finally, we also did a chunky or 'zaftig' book swap. I made the cake pages here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/06/sunday-storms-sweets-siblings-and-swaps.html and in return, received this book chock-full of 4 x 4 pages by other artists. The cover is by Donna Cook, but each book was entirely different. It was fun to get a page by Nadine Johnson that nearly matched the ATC she gave me! It was also fun to see pages from friends who were not there like Mary Ann http://firstborn.wordpress.com/ and her sister Jo http://labouroflovex3.blogspot.com/. Extra books were sold as a fundraiser by ZNE We Care Coordinator Elena Etcheverry of Scrapbook Royalty http://www.elena.travelingprincess.com/ and proceeds benefitted Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/ and the Pink Sky project http://chelise.typepad.com/stevie_brianna/

Art, Dolls and Fat Books

With just a little midnight oil Saturday night, I finished my 24 all original 5" x 5" doll house book pages for The Faerie Zine's fat book page swap, hosted by Lisa Kettell, http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/. I had fun using collage sheets from a fellow Altered Art Diva Joanne Thieme Huffman http://www.jthcreations.com, Lisa's Altered Art http://www.lisasalteredart.com/, and German scrap from Moline http://www.moline.etsy.com/on Etsy. I got to throw on my girliest papers, laces, buttons, bows and trims as well as some vintage sheet music. Off they go in the mail Monday!

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Here are some pics of pages from myself and other artists and of the collating process of the fat books I volunteered to bind and distribute for two groups: ZNE Artists and Poets http://www.znepoetry.com/ and Arte Du Blythe http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Arte_du_Blythe/.

I talked about the Blythe book here http://bly-me.blogspot.com/2008/05/blythe-and-animals-for-cause.html. It is progressing nicely. After all of the pages have arrived, the books will be wire bound and within, a full set of pages between handmade covers returned to each participant. So, that's 392 pages to collate plus covers! The final books also include embellishments, beads, yarn, fibers etc for the spine, pages and covers, so it has been quite a project for everyone- not to mention everyone who wished to participate created 28 or more original pages. That was a daunting task in itself. But as you will soon see when the finished book is shown in a future post, it will have been well worth it.

Why is it called a 'fat book'? The books are a chunky four inches by four inches square and each page is very textural. Embellishments to the edges may dangle off, raise up, etc., making the book a three-dimensional piece of amazement.

Even more exciting is the fact that one book will be auctioned off to benefit A Place to Bark http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/, a no-kill animal rescue facility in Tennessee run by the very capable Bernie Berlin, herself a published artist.
I will be taking a class from Bernie in August in California at http://www.znecon.com/ and plan to ask Bernie to sign the book for the lucky auction winner. Watch for more info right here about that auction.

The ZNE Artists and Poets book is a collection of self-portraits from nine artists, plus handmade covers of Mulberry paper by Laurie Blau-Marshall, Washington, of Living Out Loud http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com/; Cathy Minerva of Georgia and also embellishments by Stacey Merrill and Jodi Barone of Vines, http://www.wildvines.blogspot.com/, the group moderator. Allison Berringer of http://musingsofnosilla.blogspot.com/ and Hope/Harvestorm also created group logos or blog buttons that are featured in the book.

So, as you can see, it was truly a collaborative effort. That explains why I was glad to spend tonight in my kitchen with 535 four inch squares spread all over everywhere during the collating process! I'll probably be seeing them in my sleep.