And so it begins again . . . .

I was asked by my friend Destree (she has a blog, but I don't know if she wants me to be linking to it yet - what do you say, Destree?) to participate in another Altered Board Book Round Robin, this time hosted by Destree. Our first rotation was to have occurred on Wednesday, April 1st, right smack dab in the middle of when we were on vacation in Washington and the day before Artfest was to begin. So, I asked Destree if I could get my book to her at the beginning of the following week. Of course, she replied. Little did she know that upon my return, my week would disappear into the void of a series of horrible allergy attacks, a grandson day, a dental appointment, a doctor appointment, and a hair appointment. I didn't end up getting my completed book to her until just this last Saturday, leaving her only four days to get her two pages done in my book. I felt so horrible I delivered my book, Michelle's book (not due until this Wednesday), and a little gift I had purchased while at Artfest Vendor Night (that was my peace offering). The gift I gave her was done by Syd McCutcheon, who sells her art under the name of Sheep Floozy.


Enough babbling. Show us the art! For both my own book (the inside pages) and Michelle's, I used techniques I learned at Artfest from Karen O'Brien in her class, Myth and Mystery. It was fun using the techniques so soon after just learning them. Here is my blank book and the progress I made on the two inside pages:

At the same time that I was doing my pages, I played in Michelle's book. Here is the cover of Michelle's book as she delivered it to me:

And then what I did to my two pages inside of Michelle's book. The bird woman is labelled Gypsy Woman.


For the outside of my book, I used some of the techniques I learned in Lynne Perrella's class, A Face in the Crowd, also at Artfest. The key component here is gesso . . .

The poem at the base of my book by Henry Van Dyke reads:

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest.