Let's Go Fly a Kite

I love the annual Long Beach International Kite festival! I have been seen on the beach feach year for the past 20 years.
I had fun when I returned home this year paying with some of my photos making a tunnel book!  I just love this little memento of the week on the beach looking at the color in the sky.  I added silver string to look like the kite string! 

Four Sweet Books

The large sheet of white watercolor paper just sat on my desk without any personality.  So I sprayed it with some water and used a few colors of watercolor paint and some splatters. 
I made four books from this sheet.

The first one is a little accordion book that is an album for a friend from a weekend trip.  Its just sweet with a handful of photos.  It is good to get some of those photos out of my phone!

Then I made three mini books.  One is an accordion style and the other two are meandering books.  Sometimes I just make books for fun... and wonder how I will use them in the future or who will eventually be the recipient!

Featured artist for Edmonds Art Walk

I was the featured artist at Coldwell Banker Bain in Edmonds in June!  My acrylic paintings of flowers hung in their office for a month.  The art walk was a bit of a rainy night but it was so great to meet people coming in to see my art! 

  

Meandering books with cut outs

Meandering books are so easy to make!  Then typically use one sheet of paper folded and cut so that they meander when open. 
I saw a post on Pinterest where an artist had cut many holes in a variety of shapes like windows on each page and painted the paper so that the meandering book has some more interest. 
These two examples are my take on the idea of peek a boo cut outs.

The first one is made from an 8 1/2 sheet of white cardstock that is painted.  The second one is larger and made from a kraft grocery bag.  

Mini Book Class at Edmonds Community College

I spent the whole weekend at a class with about ten other participants learning to make mini books from John Arbuckle.  I had such an absolutely fabulous time!  I didn't want the day to end.  It set me off on my own making all kinds of other books.

What is Hiding inside that Book?

My grandmother had a book in her house that when you opened it there was a deck of cards.  I always thought that was fascinating!  So I have fun making books with hidden compartments that can be used to hide something.  Here are two I worked on for gifts. 

Two Grandmothers

My Grandmothers came from different worlds. I loved them both so much as a child! When I found the photo of the two of them together from my parents wedding, I just had to make a book to celebrate their first 60 years as I am 60 this year. 

The 5x7 inch book is on paper I tore to create decked edges and stitched pamphlet style with one signature. Many of the pages fold out so that larger photos could be added. These are a few pages. I will treasure this book!