Sew and sew and so on

I've been hanging 0nto a dozen or so "girly" fat book pages from friends, as well as some I made, knowing that I wanted to bind them into one book. I was going to use my Zutter binder, but then I decided to cover the covers with fabric. So I just used two rings to hold it all together.

My beginner sewing attempts with my tiny machine continue: I tried to make a patchwork, quilted cover out of fabric scraps, a chenille heart, buttons, a puffed applique and some embroidered roses cut from a vintage hankie.

The end result isn't too bad, but I know I spent more than eight hours on it yesterday, whereas an experienced sewer (sewist?) would have had two four-inch by four-inch squares covered in less than 30 minutes. And, the eight hours were even easy! But they were fun. Well, sort of. Except for all the times I broke my needle, broke my thread, sewed crooked, jammed the bobbin case...pretty much everything an inexperienced sewer would do. But it's a good way to learn.

And now I have a darling book. The back of the Little Red Riding Hood page and the Starry Night page are both by Malin of Sweden. I just adore style, and thanks to her I found the Suzi Blu group. The Barbie page is from Bryanna of The Canary's Cupcake, a fellow enthusiast of all things girly--like Alice in Wonderland, Marie Antoinette, Blythe and Barbie.

The next-to-last page shows the inside front cover with a pocket for Moo cards and the facing page is by me. And the last picture shows the closed book, nice and fat. Thanks to everyone who swapped a page or pages with me.

Marie Antoinette Mail Art Book and ATCs

The results of lots of hard work by a lot of artists have paid off and come to fruition with the latest fat book by the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group, a private, juried group of 75 artists, of which I am proud to be one.

Rhonda Thomas hosted this lovely 4" x 4" book of all original art by 17 artists, who each made 17 pages, so that everyone would have a finished book. I am treasuring mine. You can see some of the pages above. Mine is the Marie with removeable masquerade mask. More about my hand-painted pages here.

The six artist trading cards are from the same group, a swap in which each person used rubber stamps to create Marie-related images. Other ATC swaps in the MAMA group have included "Marie cuties" and "Big Hair Maries." Still waiting for the spoils of that one to arrive.

I am presently in a charm bracelet round robin with that group: sending bracelets along to eight other people, adding charms as they arrive in my mail. Can't wait to get my finished bracelet back!

And I am also making a Marie torso for Terri Gordon as part of the Marie Halloween swaps going on. I already received my torso from Tristan Robin Blakeman. More about that here. One of my torsos is above as well as my charm bracelet.

So Excited! You'd Think I Just Got Published

These two amazing books are by and belong to two fellow artists and people I can truly call friends. I am so excited for them! Each is very different - the book and the person- and I feel privileged to say my art is in each book. The thrill of publication belongs solely to the artists, Jane Powell and Lisa Kettell. But, I'm so thrilled for them, you'd think they were my books.

Altered Art Circus is now available here on Amazon. You won't be disappointed. And I can say that even though my copy is not in my hands yet, for I have some of Lisa's original work as well as works by some of the other contributing artists.

Artist and Silver Bella founder Teresa McFayden reviewed the book here. Although I didn't get a mention there, I am just so happy with her review of Lisa's book. The circus animals by Lisa that Teresa shows on her blog are great, and interestingly enough, Martha Stewart just featured a similar project here by Katie Steuernagle, Matsutake on Etsy. And talk about full circle, Lisa was in the audience, third row, for the Martha taping that day!

The hand-made, 75-pp book above is equally impressive. Owner Jane Powell of Random Arts in Saluda, one of my favorite places, decided to host a collaborative journal project and even sent out some supplies to willing participants to get the ideas flowing. When the unique pages started flowing in from around the country and beyond, Jane knew she had something special.

So special is this book that Jane "donated" it for a fund-raising auction for the Saluda Senior Center and then Jane bought it back in a bidding war for $500.00! How great is that? You can see my "Sorry, Time's Up" page peeking out of the photo above and my finished project here. I hope I can get to Saluda again soon to see the entire book. Here's her story about it.

'By the Sea' Treasures from Art & Soul

I felt like a kid on Halloween night, dumping out all of my treasures from Art & Soul Portland; arranging, rearranging, mentally cataloging and slowly putting away all that I had collected in the way of supplies, trades, purchases and finished art.

It is tradition to bring small pieces of art to swap, such as charms and artist trading cards. Charms were very popular since many A&S attendees belong to a group called Charmsters, including my hostess Michelle. I swapped enough charms to make an entire bracelet, nicely full of handmade goodness (top). A few extra charms from Michelle made their way into my pile of goodies during our 1:1 swap (second photo). I also received two lovely 4 x 4 fat book pages from her for my 2008 book. The other pics/piles are more swap receipts, ephemera collected, class supplies, purchases from the on-site store, Collage, and vintage finds from around Portland.

The bottom three photos are my background papers completed in Traci Bautista's Doodling & Letters class. The will now be cut up for ATC or other backgrounds.

Arte du Blythe Fat Book Auction Live Now for A Place to Bark

The "Blythe and Friends" book, pictured above, contains 25 hand-made, front and back, 4" x 4" original mixed media art pages as well as handmade front and back covers, from artists in nine states and three countries. The book was created by the Arte du Blythe group on Yahoo, which was founded by Shoshanah Jennings of Hannah Grey Curiosities & Drygoods (http://www.hannahgrey.com/) and Heather Simpson-Bluhm of Bluhm Studios (http://www.bluhmstudios.com/), both based in California. The book was hosted by me, the group administrator, here in Indiana. It features work by well-known and published artists such as Vicky Breslin, Debbie Metti, Angela Hoffman, Chelise Stroud-Hery (founder of ZNE), Shelly Mundel, Maija Lepore, Heather Simpson-Bluhm, and Shoshanah Jennings. Artists from the United States, Canada, and Israel sent submissions.The book is a paper arts lover's dream or is perfect for a lover of Blythe, animals, dolls and/or good deeds.A Place to Bark and Meow is mixed media artist Bernie Berlin's no-kill animal rescue in Tennessee. Bernie Berlin's blog is http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/. As she herself says, "I run a full-time dog rescue, taking in the dogs that have been abandoned, abused or police confiscated. I foster, retrain, transport & adopt. Cats are also welcome at my rescue. I am drawn to the unwanted, unloved and misunderstood. I am hoping to educate and effect change for the animals that do not have a voice of their own."

A Place to Bark and Meow was one of the five top national finalists in last year's Parade magazine charity profile/fund-raiser. To date 2,453 people have donated $44,527 to AP2B, but the needs are constant as Bernie travels to other states to rescue abandoned, abused and injured animals, rehabilitating them (often with costly veterinary bills and medicines) and then placing them in loving homes. Bernie currently specializes in Faberge-style eggs and is the author of the popular Artist Trading Card Workshop. She will send a special surprise to be enclosed with the 'fat book' for the winner.

To bid, simply leave a comment at this link or click on the headline above.

Special thanks to Scrapbook Royalty and its head tiara, the darling Elena Etcheverry, Traveling Princess, for hosting this auction.

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.

If Idle Hands are Bad, I'm Looking Good

It was another one of those weeks that just would not end. Having an overnight meeting in the middle of the week just makes five days last forever. I could not wait for Friday night to get home and organize my studio. A week of mail and art supplies had piled up, as well as a bunch of stuff from vacation. I can't work with a mess about me, so the first order of business was putting everything away (so I could get it back out. I know, I know.)

My first batch of supplies from Hannah Grey had arrived http://shop.hannahgrey.com, and I was ready to see what I could make with the stash. As a Design Team member I have 35 days to make something with each of the materials I receive. So, I used the HG blank tag book, collage sheets, Paris charms and ephemera to make this circa 1947 notebook from Paris Fashion Week. I imagined what kind of notes a young ingenue interning with Mlle. Coco Chanel might be taking, along with fabric swatches and sketches she might be keeping. The good news is you can buy all these supplies and more at http://www.hannahgrey.com.

I was hoping to work on my 28 original pages for the Arte du Blythe fat book I am hosting. I am 1/7th done, which is not much! I have some supplies and art gathered but realized with other deadlines looming, I needed to move on to something else.

As one of six artists asked to be in a Marie Antoinette 8 x 8 round robin, I realized I only had a few days left before I needed to mail my pages due to leaving for Art & Soul http://www.artandsoulretreat.com April 30. I'd had this wire dress from from Stampington sitting around and knew I wanted to use it. Thankfully, the muse kicked in and one of my pages is done, which is 50%, a lot better than 1/7th!

The multi-talented Lisa Kettell http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com is hosting the Marie book with plans to either submit it for publication to L.K. Ludwig for her book on collaborations or for Lisa's own second book. Either way, the pressure was and is on. Every artist is so talented, and without slighting anyone, least of all Lisa, I must say that Debrina Pratt's http://whimsicalworldoffaeries.blogspot.com artwork makes me crazy with excitement! Knowing my Marie pages would be alongside hers was very intimidating. Debrina's style is just one in a million. I love her colors, her characters, even her use of fonts. See what I mean? I'm just crazy about her. But, baby Marie came out all right, so on to page two and the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say.

Art & Soul Fat Book, "By the Sea," Here I Come

Suddenly my blog seems to have become "what I did on my weekend." It's not supposed to be just that, although when you eliminate politics, religion, co-workers, family and personal issues, it's either blog about my arting adventures, or tell you what non-food object Larry the Cat has recently consumed.
So, obviously this post concerns the most recent weekend and the approximate 23 hours total I spent on 40 fat book or 4 x 4 original pages front and back. These will be mailed off to a hostess who will create covers, sort pages from other artists, bind the books and return to me at Art and Soul May 1 a fabulous finished book.
I decided to go with a Zetti theme for half my pages and a nautical alphabet for the other half. All the pages were first cut from watercolor sheets and then painted with acrylics, gel medium or gesso in shades of blue. After each side dried, I rubber stamped nautical images with distress ink on one or both sides.
Next came drawing and collaging my Zetti mermaids a la Teesha Moore http://www.teeshamoore.com/, then watercolor painting, glitter, gel pens and other accents. The pages you see here are not done yet, but are waiting for embellishments of beads, charms and fibers to be added before they are mailed. All these additions help make the fat book fat!


Besides this, I kicked off my weekend by finishing 32 handmade Mermaid Ballerina charms pictured further below, which were mailed off today for another Art & Soul swap. Now I am down to my miscellaneous charms and swaps I will take with me to trade with the other artists there, a highlight of Art & Soul for sure.

And, to prove I have more to talk about than just my weekends, I have to say Yay! to Alex who made the high school varsity baseball team, which we kicked off tonight at a team and parent dinner. (We have a scrimmage planned for tomorrow in the rain and sleet). I also have to say Whew! to me for surviving today: a 6 a.m. drive out of state for a day of meetings, a rush home to take two dozen homemade lemon bars to said baseball dinner, and living through a 90-minute radio interview on blogtalkradio.com for my ZNE art group. Finally, I have to say Happy Birthday (the 18th) to my childhood friend Jeaniene: you're older than I am once again!! Yay!

Good night, Gracie!

Be There, or Be a 4 x 4

It was kind of a weekend for squares, as I spent most of my time making 4 x 4 book pages for The Artists of Chubbyville on Yahoo! All Originals Page Swaps for February and March. I also contemplated my covers for my 2007 Fat Book of all original pages by me and other artists. The book looks great with all the danglies, and I can't wait to photograph it. I found some cool pink paper beads on etsy that will be just perfect for spine danglers. I have been saving them for about six months for the perfect project, and this is it.

My page at top, entitled "Chaos," pretty much represents me trying to cram all of my projects into two-day weekends (whose idea was a two-day weekend anyway? Oh, yeah, well....). I mean, geez, how can one possibly sleep in, cook those good weekends meals, go out a bit too, shop, clean, pack for the coming week, tend to ebay and etsy (both buying and selling), get caught up on reading (just finished Sue Grafton's 'T'-excellent), read all the latest art, fashion and gossip mags, email, blog and have any time left to breathe? Eep!

The birdy page is "Birds of a Feather should Feather Their Nests Together." I could elaborate, but I won't!

The two top and the bottom pics are a self portrait for the ZNE Artists and Poets group http://www.znepoetry.com/. I'm likin' the front, and its zentangle-ish feel. I HATE writing descriptive stuff about myself, which anyone who knows me will not believe. But, it's true. So there's my words for all the world to see, in no particular order, mix and match.

If there is enough interest we will make a fat book out of our 4 x 4 self portraits.

And speaking of fat books, which I guess I am in depth, The Arte du Blythe group on Yahoo, which I now moderate, is fixin' to do a Blythe fat book swap as well as an auction copy for charity to support artist Bernie Berlin's no-kill animal sanctuary, A Place to Bark (see blog badge at right) http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/.

Not one of these fat books is top secret, proprietary or closed; just give me a shout if you want more info to join! You can be square, too!