I've Been Busy

Yep, I've been busy. I've had a lot of projects on which to work and I'm getting things done. Definitely feels good! Here are some of the things that have been keeping me busy.

First, here's a little bound journal I made for the almost-monthly Mini Book swap on BookArtz. The cover is 140# CP Fabriano watercolor paper. The inside pages are BFK Rives. i love the creamy color of the pages, the torn edges, and most of all how versatile the paper is in accepting pens, pencils, and even water media. If you don't soak it down totally, it doesn't buckle much. I stitched it together with some left-over cord from an embroidery project a long time ago.

And here are my Matisse pages for the BookArtz Monthly Page swap. This year's theme is Artists. Pages are 5 x 5 inches and can be either about the artist or in their style in some way. I'm using my new Bernina and free-motion quilting. I like the organic shapes done in different bright colors of the same Mettler embroidery thread. The fabric is just a poly cotton over Warm n Natural batting. I basted the edges together so I wouldn't have any problems constructing the page. Next, I've added some color with Lyra watercolor crayons to the shapes on my page, the one with Matisse in machine-embroidered script and have to decide today if I'm doing that to the others or not because these puppies have to be in the mail tomorrow.

I've been working in Calendar Journals for the Calendargirlz Round Robin. I've shown other pages but here are another two from Juliet's journal with the Frida Kahlo theme.

I really like what i did with this little drawing of some Granny Smith apples for a page in a recipe book swap that I hosted and finally got mailed out after a big delay. The book turned out wonderfully and I was pleased with the covers as well as my pages and the elements of each. This was done in a commercial sketch book, so the paper had to be flattened again after I wetted it with a paint brush to give the sketch the watercolor effect. I am LOVING these watercolor crayons so much that I've got three sets! (All different sets so the colors aren't the same.)