Books

My sister and Randy both joined in the journal swap, but for work reasons, did not have a chance to make pages yet, so had to drop out of the main trading. We will be exchanging sets later on when they get caught up. 

I decided to give Sissy a head start on her journal by adding some trims and backgrounds, as well as making the cover in her favorite color, aqua blue.  Although, the vintage, flocked wallpaper I had to work with was more blue than aqua, it came close enough.

I used aqua in all of its shades, from more greenish to deeper bluish.

This is a background page for her, made of old, old, old netting with sequin trim over wallpaper then trimmed in hand dyed velvet ribbon topped with 4 MOP buttons. The buttons were then foofed up with ancient, ribbon roses.

All she has to do is glue down a picture or whatever she wants and this page is finished.

Here is a completed layout, with wallpaper background, and a photo of the three of us under a hole cut into a postcard from 1910.

There is another picture of us at the bottom of the post card.  

While we aren't exactly the Crawley sisters, we are wearing their hats. I cut the hats right off of Sybil, Mary, and Edith from this photo and glued them onto our own heads and embellished them.

Each book in the swap, got two coloring pages. I gave Sissy the two to do herself, but also colored the three sisters on one of them and cut it out from the rest of the page to glue onto decorative paper for her to use in the book.

Her cover is slightly different than the rest, I added the flowers to the front instead of tying them to the ribbons. I'm not sure which style I liked best, both turned out pretty.

And her book has a colorful rhinestone instead of clear ones on the "clasp".

This week, I made some time to do a few pages for the art journal swap.  And of course, I used The Good Stuff!

The era and the show is sooooo lush and luxe, that I had to use only the best supplies to meet the quality of the subject.  Of course, I love using the Good Stuff on a regular basis, but this was a fantastic excuse to pull out things I'd been saving for something special, like this ancient, beaded trim.

The finished journals are supposed to be functional for their new owners, so some pages are meant to be finished or used by the person who receives them.  To fulfill that function, I've added some blank stationery, tied in with a pretty bow and accented with that beaded trim I'd been saving.

Other pages are supposed to be completed as art journal pages.  

This picture is from an old fairy tale book, and is meant to be a princess, but it reminded me of Lady Mary waiting for breakfast in bed.  I've  trimmed it out with velvety flowers and ribbon, along with a sheer lace. You can't tell in this photo, but the picture is accented with clear glitter ink, too.

Here is another page that can be used by the book's owner. I've lined a very old envelope with card stock to fortify it, then opened one side to make a folder before gluing it down.  It ties shut to hold in special items tucked away inside by whoever gets it in their book.

The show has so many themes that can be explored, from the era, the gowns, the people, the occupations, and on and on.  One of the storylines I loved was about Mary becoming a hog farmer.  

And she did it without losing her elegance.

I tried to show that in this, by using all the frills, flowers, and gems along with the pig pictures. Although, Lady Mary never looked as sweet as the girl I cut out of an old book, did she?  Still, it had a slight resemblance to her, so I thought it would work.

For this "Women in Business" page, I used an actual photo of Lady Edith that I'd got online and printed.

The text is covered in old, lace netting, then I've snipped ads from a magazine with work opportunities for women of that era, and glued them over the netting along with some gilt trim, and a bit of  beaded lace, in metallic gold.

Here is another pocket page, with the storage created from a very, very vintage wallpaper, and decorated with velvet, gold trim, and a sparkly top hat over a picture of ladies at the hunt.

The covers are about finished and ready to add the pages after the swap boxes fly in.  All are cut out, this stack is the last few that need trimmed up.  The other supplies to finish them are ready to go, all the pictures are printed, frames are painted, and the lace is sorted.  More "Good Stuff" for me to play with and enjoy working on!

Tonight is the LAST night for Downton Abbey.  I find that painful to say. The show was in its 3rd season when I discovered it, so I was late to join, but fixed that quickly with a little Netflix bingeing and was soon enamoured of it all.  

The show touched many of us, not just for the glorious sets and costumes, but the stories too.  Last week, while I was in Coronado Island, I attended my THIRD Downton Abbey art retreat. It was a popular theme, wasn't it?

For this event, we stayed at a 1930s era mansion and I took advantage of the lovely interiors to get some photos of my Farewell to Downton art journal. Some of the pages I'd made there were for the swap, some for my personal book.  Beth and I spread supplies out on a dining room table, and I worked on the book for a big chunk of the weekend.

Most mornings, I was at my work area before anyone else even came down for breakfast.

The theme has so many opportunities to explore, I never got bored with it. And want to do more, too.  

Also, having a big space to spread out, and leave our things for 5 days was hard to resist.  There were other projects for the retreat classes (photos soon), but our time there was pretty laid back, we were free to work on our own projects, explore the house, beach, or the nearby town, and hang out with new friends.

But if you know anything about me, you'd guess that I was constantly drawn to my pile of goodies and bottle of glue.

So, here is a big stack of pages to show you, as examples for your own books if you are joining the swap.

I've mentioned that the book should be a "working journal".  Artists will be completing some pages, and leaving some for the new owner to work on.  Like this page lying on the desk, it is a piece of stationery with plenty of room for the person who gets the journal it goes into to use for photos, doodles, notes, anything she'd like.

And the page on the easel? It is an example of a decorated page with a pocket that can be filled with whatever momentos the artist would like.

My plan was to do half and half of completed artwork, like the collage on the left, and pretty pages that could be used by the next artist, like the one on the right. That one is old ledger paper with a pocket that has a tag tucked into it.

Hopefully the pages where we leave space for further work, will be lovely as is, while being an inspiration for the artist to fill and finish.  

These pages all leave workspace.  The one on the left is a decorated pocket page, the middle is a collage of pretty papers to use as a background, and the front section is stationary paper with a die cut rose and lace trim.

Notice that the pages I have done have trim or lace or flowers on different edges? It makes for a more interesting finished book if there are tidbits peeking out from all sides.

The one in front is for my own book, it is the finished version of the coloring page that comes with the journals.  And the buttons? That is a necklace! From one of our workshops.

This page is pretty simple, old rose wallpaper, a cut out lady from a vintage magazine who has been glitzed up with some rhinestones, lace, millinery, and velvet ribbon, then some tatting trim at the edges of the paper.  

A layout doesn't need to be elaborate to be eye catching.

And the Downton theme can mean so many things. I went with a lot of the fashion of the era.

Here are ladies from an old fashion magazine layered over netting and a map of the British Isles, then blinged up.

Here are two more pocket pages,both have two pockets to fill up.

You are welcome to be more direct in your own interpretation of the show.   I plan on having more examples of the themes to show later on.  

If you are going to miss this show as much as I will, maybe you'd like to join the swap? Creating pages will give us something to fill the hole left by this beautiful program.

And the book itself can be a treasured memento to look through and reminisce.

I have been getting some questions about the swap details, and hope that these pictures help answer them. If you have any, please feel free to contact me at:

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

And here is a communication I had with a swapper, with her statements answered in red: