After traveling for 7 months and visiting 5 other art-makers,



my "round robin"altered book has come home!

I am continually delighted when looking through the pages....

finding roses (The title of the original book was "Watching the Roses"), mermaids, poetry, personal memories and even paper dolls. Altered books are interactive...
sort of like a homemade "pop-up" book for an individual. This one has pockets holding more treasures and tags hanging in the binding.

THANK-YOU, Gayle, Lizzzie, Linda, Julie and Carmen! I hope your round robin altered books are soon home to you and that they bring you smiles of delight!

[NOTE: If you would like to learn more about how to make and altered book and what one is look here.]

Another altered book page..."A FEW GOOD MEN"

As I cut and paste, I look for mostly feminine images...so a lot of these were in the reject or "backside of the clipping". I can identify Hugh Jackman, St. John, Gregory Peck (I confess to adding him on purpose), and a greenman? Seems to me that most of the art and artists I see on blogs is very "girly" and men deserve a bit of time too!

....I left some of the original book text showing...it says, "Bless his heart"....and old saying which basically means they just can't help how they are!

One way to find JOY....

do some collage art!*

I love this lady's smile!!!! ...... the crow is the Native American totem for my birth month.

Oranges, browns and blacks hold this all together. The art quilt designed by Susie Swan, is from a Matisse called "The Amber Necklace". Her quilts were featured in a recent Home Companion Magazine.

On the flip side of the quilt is a guide to doing a deep and healing "inner" smile from yogo teacher Lilias Folan. [ I remember the wise man in Bali telling the heroine of "Eat, Pray, Love" that the secret of meditation was easy, it was to "smile"...."smile with your liver", he said.]

* Just before bed last night I picked up a book I read from once in a while, "Spiritual Housecleaning" by Kathryn L Robyn. (subtitled, "Healing the Space Within by Beautifying the Space Around You"). The page I opened to (without "thinking") was a section called, "Alone, Not Lonely: Solitude".

She talked about spending quiet time on READING....literary novels which will help "grow" your
heart...not newspapers and magazines, technical manuals or professional journals. She also said,
"People used to make art to call upon the sacred self...Sitting alone, or even quietly in a group, carving, sculpting, painting, sewing, weaving, quilting, etc., is often the best way to take yourself to the inner place of connection.......try making a collage, cut out pictures that represent who you are deep inside. Or who you once were or dream of yet becoming. Glue them on a sheet of poster board and hang it in your bedroom. Rekindle your sacred spark!"

That was synchronicity for me! I had thought the book would say something like, "clean out the basement", organize your linen closet... ( she does indeed cover these things in the book and goes much deeper into the depths of cleaning than most of us are aware of! LOL!) but the page that opened for me last night said to make collages! So I am affirmed in my cut and paste journey!

Another snowy forecast and more art journal pages

This is a fictional nostalgic page about a French follies bergere dancer who has memories from the past as rare as pearls! -Life is the dancer and you are the dance. (Eckhart Tolle)


This is a dreamy "sleeping beauty" called "Luna", she is waiting for some important romance in her life! It has something to do with being awakened with a kiss...otherwise, she will just sit in that chair and pine away!

Here is a romantic memory....on the blog of the photographer of a wedding last summer. Yes, it was my son's wedding day!

Another day of altering books....(or why I am not getting around to reading blogs right now!!!)

This is an opening page of Lizzzie's new book. The theme is "happiness".

This is a page with a window which looks through to the flowers on the coming page.

She still has to decorate the left side.

My window, in the middle of the rose bouquet, looks through to some text about roses and some sketched roses. [I always seem to be influenced by the original book's title...this one is "Watching the Roses".]

When the page it turned, you may look back through the window to see part of the white rose, which is completed with a drawing using pigma pens and oil pastel.

Today's altered book page....
"Daughter of Time" continues...


Using flowers from a Bath and Body works mailer, a copy of my zinnia painting, as stylized portrait of my mother from her senior picture. The text is painted over with ecru acrylic except for the words, "Ella" (her name) and "high school" which were left visible.

This is the purse/tote which I have knitted and am now felting......

It is from Shetland wool, knitted in a tube (130 stitches on size 10 circular needles) decreasing and changing colors as the knitting progresses. The garter stitch handle uses 2 strands at once and the extra 2nd color yarn is used as a chain stitch embellishment. I will post the felted photo later....the purse is still in the washing machine with blue jeans and a towel....next into the dryer and then we'll see....

Meanwhile....here are pages from a fun artist's day, doing altered books with my friend Lizzzie!!! Lizzzie's book was called "In the Middle of Somewhere".

Mine is called "Daughter of Time"....(some of these pages are complete and others will still grown ad develope as I come across suitable images!)

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