Book Exchange

This is a longstitch journal I made for Heather of Creative Solace. We decided we would exchange handbound books.

The cover is some of my handpainted watercolor paper.
I added her initials and a blue ribbon closure as well as sewing the flaps down to make inside pockets on the covers.



Some stamping of numbers, ferns and quotes were added before the binding took place....
as well as the leather spine.
I also added some quotes to the inside signatures on the subject of Time.



This is Heather´s book she made for me.
The Unseen Playmate by Robert Louis Stevenson.
These three fotos are courtesy of Heather.


The inside pages,,,, she so beautifully decorated with vintage fotos and a poem
about children´s imaginary playmates.

Another view of the inside,,,
these pages are tags which can be pulled out of little pockets in order to read the poem.

Thank you Heather for such a beautiful book. It is on display for all to read and admire.

My Color Adventure

What do pigs, cotton candy, a panther and a singer have in common?

Yes, you guessed it.....the color PINK!

A more apt title for this post would be "Patty´s Playground of Perfect Pinkness" .... of Magpie´s Nest.....let me explain why.

This tag is for you Patty,,, thanks for turning me on to a color I never really took notice to until you posted these beauties below.

It all happened one cold day last February. Patty posted this beautiful foto of these pink tulips on her blog, Magpie´s Nest. That same day I had been talking to a painting buddy about colors we never seem to use
and then I even read a blogger that was saying "pink stinks".......

When I saw the second foto of Patty´s I thought to myself....well, heck,,,this pink does not look the least bit "stinky" at all. I was actually being drawn to the color pink!

Patty´s fotos so inspired me that I even went out and bought some pink tulips and ended up painting them in watercolor.


One of several versions of my pink tulips in ink and watercolor.


I painted yet another small grouping of pink tulips in watercolor. I was beginning to like a color I always seemed to ignore.

All thanks to Patty´s wonderful fotos.

Patty and I then began to email each other about the color Pink and eventually we decided we would send each other PINK things as a color swap ......

Before we knew it we were collecting every pink thing we saw.
I could not believe how much pink I saw in advertising, magazine covers,,,,even all over the inside of my local phone book. Pink was found everywhere and before I could turn around I had a box brimming over with pure, perfect
PINKNESS.It began to get so full I thought I might have to hire Bekins to ship it to the USA!


Here is what Patty sent to me as part of our exchange.
Some of her art collage cards. I love her work!


A closer look..............



She even made me one of her birds nest charms out of pearls and copper wire. Isn´t it gorgeous.
It looks great hanging from a chain. Thanks Patty, I love this!

Patty sent me all sorts of paper for my collage stash. Different textures and weights and some vintage pages. Many have already been put to good use.

A lovely pink lantern and fan to cool myself off during these hot summer months.

Some pink energy tea,,,,cut outs, buttons and lovely small embellishments.

Another look.............

A wonderful pink illustration and still more paper.

More cut outs and interesting papers.

Don´t you just love all this pinkness!

A pink advertisement for a market in her area.

Here is a "pink freebie" for you Patty and all who come here to see our fun swap. Thanks again for making me stand up and take notice to the color Pink ,,,in all it´s beauty.

Wishing you all,,,,, and especially you Patty,,,,a perfectly fun,,,pink kind of day................

If you want to see what I sent to Patty ,,,go over to her blog the

Magpie´s Nest and have a look.

Book Salad

A lovely "Book Salad".....

Foto taken by Franca at Woven Letters. These are the books

I sent to her for one of our art exchanges.

Here ,,,a closer look at the Longstitch mini-journal with leather spine.

The cover is painted with watercolors and then rubbed with a thin coating of waterproofing wax.

A Matchbook style notebook.

When the pages are all used up,,,,no problem, just open the metal brads and refill with more paper.

A Pamphlet Stich landscape format notebook.







A great little book for jotting down notes or sketching a quick landscape.

Easy to assemble....punch the holes for the eyelets and add string or ribbon as a closure.