Some More Flowers

Every year during the Easter Season our church decorates the whole church with Easter Lillies and then the parishioners take the Lillies home on Easter Sunday...Susan and I each get a pot and I plant them in the flower bed...These lillies are the result of the last 2 years...They didn't bloom until the 1st of June this year but they were so beautiful that I just wanted to share them with you.

The Hydrangea was a gift for Susan at the end of school. It has been blooming for over a month and is still covered with buds. The Hibiscus is a plant that Susan got for me because of my knee replacement surgery. It is so gorgeous...The center is red...One day it had 14 blooms and is now covered with buds...we had a bad hail storm and the leaves took quite a beating, but it has recovered and is ready to bloom again. Hopefully it will bloom all summer...it reminds me of Acapulco where they grow wild.

New Concept in Construction

I was reading Holly Harrison's Book "Altered Books, Collaborative Journals, and Other Adventures in Bookmaking" and a fan fold book called "Towers" by Michael Jacobs, tweaked my interest...because usually I make fan fold books with a theme in mind and I create the pages to lead the viewer through them just like you would read a regular book. But the "Towers" FF book is like a series of collages that are connected to each other. So my idea was to stretch myself to step out side my safety zone of former successes with this type of FF book....Below are the collages that I have created: Each collage has a front and a back, and ea. one is very different...sorta of...I used some of my hand carved stamps, prisma pencil, napkin designs (applied with Mod Podge), a large "script stamp" from Stampabilities and I worked on card stock using hand made papers that were a gift from Christy Sobolewski (That Average American Girl). I used Mod Podge to "stick" down the hand made paper to the card stock, then when it was dry I created 8 individual collages ( of course you all know how hard it is to venture out of your comfort zone) so when I finished the pages I looked at them and I realized that even though each page was different, they still had many similarities...Now the next step is to cut them into smaller pages that will be hinged together to make a Fan Fold Book...I hope you come back to see the end result in a week or so.

Doors and Windows AB

These are 4 spreads that I have just finished in Corrie Manning's AB for a RR that I have been working with for about 6 months...all of these books (there are 10 ABs) are just fantastic...The theme selected by each player is very inspirational, so it is not hard to come up with ideas, and it is very interesting to me that each artist's interpretation of the theme is so diversified. Every book I have worked in is a wonderful work of art. We should be finished by October and I can't wait to see my book..."Angels"...and enjoy the art work of the other 9 artist....

A Handmade Get Well Card from Toni Curtis

This is a beautiful hand made "Get Well" Card that I received from my on line friend and fellow artist Toni Curtis (Toni lives in Lousiana). Toni makes the most beautiful "Gypsy Bags" and art...she is what I call a "Southern Bell-Gypsy" because her work is so wonderful, free spirited, exciting and just plain awesome. You can see her work at http://artisajourney.blogspot.com Please visit her blog and enjoy the art there.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TONI....

Journals, RRABs and Beginning Fan Fold Book

These are 3 pages (well really six pages or 3 spreads) I have just completed in a Traveling Journal. This Journal is one of the projects that I have been envolved with in the Serendipity Journal Group, this project is in its 6th month and all of the journals are just awesome....I can't wait to see my journal that is in the UK at this time. It is great to see the pictures but to hold the journals in your hands and be able to read everyones entries is just the best.

Butterfly and Heart Neclaces

This necklace was made for Alex, Christy's daughter in Fort Myers, Florida...I hope she gets it in the mail before she sees it posted here...she is a very talented artist as is her mother.

The Butterfly Book necklace is a little "Diddy" I made up for Christy. I is a butterfly image folded in half with butterfly shaped signature sewn into the middle and a blue ribbon for the necklace. Then some fun fibers added for sparkle (OMG I do love sparkle)...these went off to Florida yesterday with the book below. I hope they enjoy both....

Butterfly Altered Board Book

I am sending this book to Chrisy in Fort Myers, Florida...."The Above Average American Girl" that loves butterflies.

This is a small children's board book that I altered using a butterfly theme...I got quotes from the Internet and butterfly images from everywhere...including some terrific paper that I got in San Francisco at the Flax store (I could live at this store). The back grounds consist of tissue paper, raw silk samples and some printed pages from a 1880's book. I used all kinds of embellishments from paper dollies, glazes, silk flowers and lots of fibers.

Flower Arrangements

These are a few of the 24 table arrangements that I made for the Oklahoma Wild Life Federation Banquet. They really turned out pretty.