Connie's Skinny Book

I've been working on Connie's pages for a while. It seems I have an idea, then no time.... then some time and lost my idea! I think it's all the busy-ness of the holidays. Her theme is vintage children. I never use vintage photos because I find them too lacking in COLOR, so my interpretation of the theme came out as playing dolls, paper dolls, and girly colors. The cutout doll was created using PaperWhimsy art, the rest is mostly rubber stamps. I love using stamps as I feel like I'm "playing". I was having so much fun that I added an opening door,too. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!!

Skinny pages for Trudi

Finally finished my skinny pages for Trudi! Her theme was artist's choice, but mentioned that she likes complimentary colors, butterflies, and postage stamps. I love using complimentary colors together-- but chose one of my very favorite combinations -- yellow and purple. Then I incorporated the lines from John Lennon, "Imagine all the people living life in peace". I truly loved doing these pages, as I felt free to play with my love of color. I hope Trudi likes them, too!!

Heather's Skinny Book

My next Skinny book page was created for Heather, whose theme is "Women Who Dared". My first thought was the first modern dancers who created different dance moves that didn't look like ballet. I thought about Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, but finally chose Twyla Tharp since I recall her influence on my early choreography efforts. I kept the look modern and sleek in black and white with a splash of red, because I felt it represented her. Hope Heather likes it!

dream a little dream of . . .

Since Caryl's theme inspired me to "dream" a little, I continued using the Mamas and Papas songs, but chose Mama Cass's Song for these pages. I show the before -- gesso, distress ink and calligraphy ink thru a straw. I actually practiced it here before completing Caryl's pages. Then I added collage elements, stamped some of the lyrics, and added a journaling ticket and technique tag. Once, again, my favorite colors, I seem to gravitate toward pinks and golds.

Feelin' groovy

I recently organized an internal product launch party for our corporate office. The theme was "Feelin' Groovy" which meant I listened to a lot of 60s music to get inspired. After listening to California Dreamin' it dawned on me that my Skinny Book partner, Caryl, had a theme of "Dreaming". So... I spread gesso with a credit card and then when dry, sponged blue and sepia dye ink. I then used a straw and blew around some iridescent brown calligraphy ink, collaged pieces of a California map and a vintage postcard and stamped the lyrics. It was fun to interpret her theme as things were happening in my life -- much the same as journaling!

Love skinny book

After seeing my journal pages, I thought they would be perfect for Lenna's love book. Hearts mean love to me and Lenna loves quotes -- so perfect fit. Here's how I revised the original design to fit the 4x8 pages! I love working in pinks and oranges.

Hearts, my favorite

Gesso and crayons

I have been struggling for a while to bring balance into my life with enough time for my art. The name of my current journal is "BALANCE". I had a promo piece for my daughter's college art gallery show in the back seat of my car since May. It finally made its way into my journal with some fun watercolor crayons! My daughter showed her Honors thesis, DeZign magazine, a mag she created for design students.

I did a "before" and "after"... I love making a mess of the page after everything is glued down!

Hello, Summer!

Welcoming Summer, even though it feels like late Summer temperatures! Enjoyed a few days at the beach, and then in the mountains. These pages have been a work in progress. First, background in fall colors with leaves that didn't look right, then layers of red hot paint and white swirls, and finally some alphabet stamping and collage. I had fun adding the painted piece of map. Heart Tag is from Lynn Perrella's collage sheet.

Summer wreath

You may recall my Spring wreath, well... I got my summer wreath out of the box and it was falling apart! So I stripped all the old silk flowers off and added new ones!

Venice Skinny Pages

I completed the Venice pages for Frieda in our Skinny book round robin. Since I enjoy watercolors, I thought this page was a perfect match for a watercolor-wash background. I actually used Sparkling H2Os which are watercolors with sparkle built-in, since Frieda likes sparkly things! The images are from Mary Mata sheets from Stampington & Co.

Skinny Book Summer pages

I completed my next set of pages for the Skinny Book Round Robin. Linda's theme is "Summer", and summer to me means the beach! So I made her shell pages with a map of Delaware (we both visit beaches there) and a repeat theme of a skeleton shell - one stamped, one real! I enjoyed this theme, hope you do, too!

Pansies and violas on the deck

I enjoy sitting on the deck with pots of purple and yellow flowers - my favorite color combination!

Lisa's Skinny pages

I completed my pages for Lisa's book. I chose angels as the theme, since it was artist's choice, but I know that angels and Renaissance are some of her favorite things. Since I always work by color, I chose the complementary colors of rust and teal. I continued my challenge of adding pattern pieces, rice paper and atlas maps to the pages. Oh - and I decided to orient her pages horizontally! Enjoy!

Skinny Book Round Robin

I received two pages already for creating my Halloween-themed skinny book, so it's time to design the covers. I decided to make a trick-or-treat bag as the covers and place the rectangular pages inside. I painted the backgrounds on heavy watercolor paper and cut them to match back-to-back. Added some collage, punched holes, stamped some tissue, added rings, black wire and fiber. I think it will work fine as I fill the pages. More to come as I finish the inside front cover...

Skinny Book

I'm participating in a Round Robin with 13 other wonderful artists. We are creating "Skinny books" - pages that are 4"x 8". I am without a scanner, but here's an update of the latest pages for Debby, this month's partner. Debby's theme was artist's choice, so I played with color (my favorite) and added botanical images for her vintage book. Everyone has a different theme, but I decided to use pattern pieces, white rice paper and a piece of a map on everyone's pages. It's fun and a challenge to incorporate for everyone.

Journal pages other places

I often take color copies of my journal pages (usually at reduced sizes) for making personal greeting cards. I found another way to enjoy my pages... I received a cool calendar from a vendor at work. It sits in a cd case and there is a page for every month. I recycled last year's by copying journal pages at a reduced size and adding a new calendar. Here's a sample of January's. These "white pages" were done years ago! Enjoy - and try copying art you've already created and use it somewhere else. It's fun!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all! Jay got me white roses over a week ago and they are still going strong! I had them in a vase for over a week and then the leaves started drying out. So, I thought I would cut them off and put them in my floating bowl. I love them here!