Family Mementos Chunky Book Swap 2016

It's time for the big Chunky Book swap reveal for this year. If you don't already know, this is a swap I do with my ATC group each year. This years theme was Family Mementos. We had 9 people participating so we each had to do 9 pages. It makes for a great keepsake when we trade and get a page from each person. As you can see from the result we had a great time going through all those old family photos and ephemera. It was also great fun to hear the stories behind some of pages.

Kathy

Linda

Louise

Lucie

Marie

Olive

Veronica

Virginia

Wendy

I'm already wondering what next years theme will be!

Wendy

The great Wing chunky book swap.

During last months ATC trade that I missed they also did our annual Chunky book swap. This years theme was Wings and we had 9 people participating so we had to make 9 pages. Again I was lucky enough to have some of the ladies take photos for me so I can share with you. 

Linda

Louise back

Louise front

Lucie

Lucie

Olive

Peggy

Veronica

Virginia inside

Virginia front and back outside

Lucie

Marie

How inspiring are these!! As difficult as it is to find the time to work on this project each year, I'm always glad I did. 

I will share my pages with you tomorrow.

Keep creating!

Wendy

Book swap of the year.

The ATC group that I belong to does a book swap once a year. We choose a theme, give ourselves a few months to work on it and have to do as many pages as there are people that sign up. This year the theme was favourite quotes and we had to make 10 pages. So when done we get a page from each person to put our own book together however we like. As usual this years book pages were outstanding. It was so fun to see all the quotes chosen as well as the variety of art that was created. It's also interesting to see how different people work. Some do all different pages, while some do a variation on the same and some do one and make copies for everyone.

Linda

Louise

Lucie

Marie

Michelle

Nancy

Olive

Veronica

Virginia

Wendy

I forgot to take a group photo of my pages so I did a mosaic in photoshop to share for now and will share some individual ones later.

Next I will be sharing with you some fantastic work from a group of High school students that I taught a few days ago. But first I have to get the photos ready for you. 

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Projects in progress.

Book swap backgrounds

If you don't already know this about me, I must tell you, that I rarely only work on one project at a time. Sometimes one gets put away to work on another but often they just start piling up here and there until I'm forced to clean to have space to work again. It's just how I roll. I don't question it any more. But some days I look around and wonder how the studio got to this point of disarray. I'm sure I couldn't have done it all on my own but there doesn't seem to be anyone else around to blame. That's when I know that I share my space with fairies who keep working on things when I'm out of the studio. They're usually pretty helpful at fixing creative blunders or blocks but they are very messy workers.
Well today is one of those days when I walked in the studio and am sure the fairies have been at it again. First of all above you can see the pages in progress for a book swap that's due in April. If I leave them on the table, every once in a while some new things just happens to them. 

Hmm...where to go from here!

 And then their is the painting projects I started. A few weeks ago while visiting Laura Daub's new studio, across the road I discovered another wonderful new shop, Malenka where Katrina transforms or as she likes to put it 'refreshes' old tired furniture. Well the wheels just started turning and I had to try out this inspiring new paint she sells by Annie Sloan called Chalk paint. First I bought a small jar of Duck Egg to try out on my last Ikea drawer set. This is as far as it's gotten. I'm thinking texture paste and lots of antiquing but you can never be too sure how these thing work out so who knows really.

Oh my that's orange!!

And then I had to go back to get some Barcelona Orange for this bedroom bookshelf and possibly a dresser. I have to admit I'm kind of stuck now with this one. I know it's not done but I haven't decided just how antiqued and/or distressed I want it. Also the dark wax isn't working exactly how I expected to so some experimenting is in order. I think it's going to go back into the room to contemplate on it some more. Also I've run out of time and need to clean the studio for Easter weekend. 

If you have some time this weekend, I highly recommend these wonderful shops in the Britannia area of Ottawa. Go Saturday afternoon and do some doodling with Laura. I went last Saturday and had great fun and learned some new doodling designs.

Have a Great Easter weekend.

Get creative!

Wendy

Maps, text, sewing book swap.

I'm a little slow but finally here are all the pages from this years ATC group book swap. The theme was maps, text and sewing. So the pages had to be 6"X6.5" in size and you had to do as many as signed up which was 11. I believe this is the 9th book swap we've done since our first in 2006.  It's always fascinating to see the variety that our group creates. I found this one a bit of a challenge to get all three items on a page but I guess that's why we do them.  I started off with an idea and was going to make all the pages along the same lines but then I got bored and kind of veered off on a few other tangents and finally my pages got finished. So here they are.

 Linda

 Lucie

 Marie

 Michelle

 Nancy

 Olive

 Sheila

 Veronica

 Virginia

Wendy

So in the end each person gets a page from each participant so you end up with a wonderful little inspirational book. Thanks ladies for all your creative work. The books look awesome.

Happy Creating.

Wendy