Karen's Muse and Musings

A New Altered Book

I'm participating in an altered book round robin with the CalendarGirlz group. In the past, we have purchased calendars to alter, but Kathy McElroy came up with an unique idea to alter a book with a holidays theme. The plan is to send our books around this year, and each player will do a spread for a holiday that occurs within their month. Each person chooses the holidays they want illustrated in their book. For instance, for January you could go with New Year's Day or choose Martin Luther King Day. February could be Valentine's Day or President's Day. You get the picture.

I'm behind in showing you my book. I had it done and mailed off on February 1st, but I've had so many art commitments lately that I just didn't find time to feature it here. Here is one of the divider pages for the months. They are all very similar.

Below is my spread for New Year's Day.

My absolute favorite thing about altered books is how they look standing up with the pages fanning out. Mine already stands up by itself — wondering what it will look like by the end of the year!

It has been a while since I've actually altered a book, and it has been so much fun that I wonder why I don't do it more often. Since this book was completed over a month ago, I have now finished my first spread in another player's book, and I will post photos of it tomorrow. Come back!

What happened to the month of June?

Oh my gosh, the summer is half over! The last few weeks have been so busy for me. In late May, there was my fabulous visit with Joanne, Catherine, and other art friends in Michigan. Only downside was I caught a cold on the plane on the way home. Then a couple of weeks later, I was off to Birmingham for a workshop with DJ Pettit and Deryn Mentock. That was fantastic! DJ and Deryn are both generous and patient instructors. When I came home, I caught grandson Bobby's summer cold or virus. I thought I would be immune since I just had a cold. Wrong! This virus was much worse — high fever, chills and aches for a few days. Then came another trip, this time to Lakeland, Florida, to meet my great nephew, Ethan, for the first time. Between and during the traveling and the illnesses, I still had my babysitting duties for grandson Bobby who is now 10 months old and growing so fast. Normally, I keep him 2 or 3 days a week, but this week I'm keeping him every day. I now know why younger women have the babies — I'm exhausted!

One of the projects we did in Birmingham was a fabric and paper journal as taught by DJ. I fell in love with this project and I am longing to finish it. Hopefully, I'll get back to it this weekend. Here's are a few photos of what I've done so far. First, the front cover. We began by tracing a DJ drawing and painting it. You would think everyone's results would be the same. Not so!

I'm pleased with the cover although I want to do one that features my own drawing. Now here's my back cover which is entirely my own. (The brocade band on the sides of both covers is actually the spine of the book.)

Now here's a peek at the inside.

I love the idea of using vintage items like the doily and gloves as "pages" to wrap the signature. I'm dying to get back to work on this. I have an antique shirt collar I've been saving, and that will be featured on the next signature.

Now here's a photo of sweet Ethan, my great nephew who fell asleep in my arms as I sang to him. My sister took this picture which I will always treasure. That spotted thing behind him is my freckled arm!

Calling All Angels

These are a few spreads from an altered children's board book I just completed.

Angels and Pockets Come Home!

My Stone Angels book and my Pock-et-FULL book have come home to stay! It's always an exciting day when one of my round robin projects comes home to me, but the beauty and quality of the artwork in these books have elevated me far beyond excitement — I'm truly ecstatic.

The Pock-et-FULL book is definitely FULL!

Here are some views from my Stone Angels book.

To all the artists who worked in these books, let me say thank you for doing such a splendid job. Both books are treasures!

Now here's another angel, my little Misu. Her favorite place to be is sitting on top of my desk so she can see everything that's going on. Of course, she doesn't like the cold, hard desk, so she has to have mommy's sweater to lie on.