A new exchange - skinny book pages . . .

. . . earlier this year i was asked to join the "oh my gothic" yahoo group, which started out a couple of years ago making and exchanging gothic arches. Then the group moved into making/exchanging house-shaped collages and starting in 2010, the group will be creating 4" x 8" 'skinny book' pages. This size, shown above, is an interesting and new shape for me!

The idea is you create a single page, both front and back for your mailing partner that month based on her theme, her likes & dislikes. The front and back of the pages above are for Connie Senyitko, my January partner. Connie let the group know that she liked anything vintage; vintage images of children, birds, nests, flowers, quotes . . . . so i hunted around in my somewhat limited supplies (still awaiting the moving van/my studio proper, around january 15th) and found some things i felt worked, hooray! You will find I used collage images from ARTchix Studio.com as well as Victorian Birds & nests.

On the back i used a whimsical old postcard of children and birds that i have had for a long time; it came off my studio wall & into my art bag, but i thought it was just perfect for this project. I added color to the plain white watercolor paper page with my watercolor crayons, and i added some rubber stamping with an Azure Blue StazOn ink pad and a Brilliance Platinum Planet (silver) pad. I finished the edges with a 14K Gold metallic marker and could not help splattering a bit of the ink on the pages as well.

Each month, for 15 months, we will receive a 'skinny book' page based on our theme and when the exchange is over we can bind them together and have a very cool book that was created collaboratively! The theme for the pages I will receive is * * Love * * with my 'likes' listed as: fabric, flowers, leaves, creative & unusual approaches & techniques, meaningful quotes, you having fun with my pages, and what love means to you. I love nature and a natural look.

It is very exciting to be involved! Thanks to Debby Harrietta for inviting me!

lenna young andrews - december 26th, 2009.