raven's wedding dress shopping day

a special page from my comp book journal, as colored and decorated by my granddaughter, raven, and myself on the day we went to have mommy's wedding dress fitted. we needed something to keep "us" busy after we were done checking out the special toy room there for children. the book and colored pencils were just the ticket.

mommy was standing on the podium, looking like a fairytale princess as she was getting her dress all pinned up, while raven and i were frantically working on our journal page. amazingly, we got done at just about the right time, too. obviously i've had this page for a while and just forgot to get it photographed and posted, as the date on this page is nov 2005.

page background was painted w/ cheap acrylic paints and colored w/ prang colored pencils.

cafe del rio journal

this comp book journal page was done in honor of one of our favorite places to eat -- cafe del rio. since this restaurant opened in the mid-90s, we have spent many many hours of fun family enjoyment around the tables here -- dipping chips in salsa and cheese dip and sharing time together and talking about our lives and our events. everyone special in our lives has been to cafe del rio w/ us, too.

the decor is done as a mexican cantina, w/ buildings and designs painted on the walls. the colors are stereotypically bright, and that's what reminded me of cafe del rio when i opened up to this bright orange page and wondered what to do here. plus, a couple trips to "chips and cheese" with "the girls" (summer, raven and riahna) gave me plenty of inspiration and reminders.

the page background is painted w/ cheap acrylic paints, drawings in prang colored pencils, and writing w/ red gel pen. the page was then sprayed w/ matte sealant to prevent smudging.

plaza lights 2005 journal

recently i noticed that i had several journal pages that were "all done except for _______". a final detail or a few little things, but it has kept the page from being done. so i went through my comp book and marked the pages and made notes about what i needed to finish these up. on this page, i needed to have the picture printed and then write the journaling (which couldn't be done until the picture was placed!).

this is one of my favorite pictures of our trip to kansas city for the 2005 thanksgiving lighting of the country club plaza. it has taken forever to get this journal page done and posted b/c i couldn't seem to get all the things i needed together at the same time! this page is a part of my comp book journal where i just journal/create pages of events/feelings/designs for enjoyment. another journal page entry from this weekend can be seen at give thanks 2005.

the background was first painted w/ acrylic paint. then i drew an outline of the buildings on the plaza and used elmers glitter glue to dot on the outlines of the buildings to represent the christmas lights. it took forever for the glue dots to dry, and then even after drying -- the dots mashed flat in the book after is was closed for a while. black sharpie marker provided the black writing and black windows on the buildings.

the picture was taken by my son (scott) w/ my sony 5.1 megapixel cybershot camera and cropped to the size i needed to fit on the page. there is no protective covering on this page, as nothing requires it to keep from sticking together.

the fog pop-up ab page

this altered book page was done in a book with the theme of "cats". this was a techniques round robin, so we had to work with the owner's chosen theme while incorporating the assigned technique for that month. this particular month -- the theme was "pop-up pages".

i chose to use carl sandburg's poem "fog" to be able to incorporate pop-up pages that had buildings and fog on them. i painted the background pages black, to represent night in the city, and glued down a picture of a cat to represent all the stray and homeless and loose cats that run free in an urban environment. i also used a cat-toy mouse for the cat to have to show that cats do help control the environment from the diseases spread by too many rodents. the mouse was positioned and attached by the tail so that it hung outside of the pages when the book was closed.

for the silhouettes of the city and the fog in the background, i used stickers that looked like city skylines and stuck them to white sheets of vellum. i left about 1/4" of vellum below the stickers so that i could make folding tabs to glue to the book. i made 3 different layers of vellum/skylines so i could cut the outlines and edges to be different to add more volume and depth to the pop-up section.

next i had to figure out how to fold my pieces so that they would automatically stand up when the book was opened and automatically lay back down properly as the book was closed. this took more time and effort than i figured that it would, but overall it turned out well. i'm sure there are patterns for these things, but i'm more of a trial and error type person. of course, that means that i make errors and spend time fixing things!

Fog

THE fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

who is watching journal

this comp book journal page started out as a page painted in a mixture of blues and greens. i thought it would look good to have a scene from the water's edge drawn there, w/ tall reeds and dragonflies and a dryad watching. the colors were bright, even on the grasses and dragonflies, but faded to almost invisible when sprayed.

the background was done w/ cheap acrylic paints and the drawing was done w/ prang colored pencils. when completed, the whole page was sprayed w/ krylon matte sealant, which dulled the colors of the pencils against the background. even w/ going back over the design in pencil again, i couldn't get the pencil colors to show well.

the idea behind this page is that a person should always be careful in life because many times others are watching and a person may never be sure when this situation could come back up to create a problem.

ATC exchange - received from bonny

"Remember Summer" ATC received from bonny racca - my october 2007 ATC exchange partner through DT2.

this beautiful and original ATC was waiting at the post office for me today from my friend, bonny, from canada. it's done in watercolor and sepia ink on a creamy tan colored background.

it's just beautiful and i'm so happy to have been the recipient of such a card. getting a piece of original artwork in the mail is such a treat -- but this group of artists is just amazing!