No More Cabin Fever!

So I’ve spent the last week indulging in a bit of comedian Jeremy Hotz‘s whiny attitude, lying around like a lump and sucking down meds like there’s no tomorrow. (As Jeremy would surely say: “Bronchitis. What a miserable disease that is!”)

But this morning, a mere two days after the doctor predicted it would happen, I woke up feeling better! So much so, in fact, that I was able to patch myself up into something resembling the human species (with the help of many Maybelline and Cover Girl products) and get several swap packages off to the post office.

I recently joined an art journal round robin; we started with blank notebooks and are pretty much doing whatever we desire in them. Lots of room for experimentation and just plain fun. I forgot to photograph the pages I did in the first journal; these are from the second.

I’m sure you recognize that “bleeding tissue” background by now!  The left-hand page is the same background with instructions written on how to make it.

This is a set of two spreads that tie in together via a window cut in the middle page. I had to photograph each page separately and digitally “stitch” the pages together, so that’s why they look a little funky! 

I love twill tape; it’s very versatile and quite inexpensive.  It comes in an off-white color that you can alter with inks or chalks, and takes stamping very well.  The beautiful fairy image is one of my favorites; it’s from a collage sheet available at Shabby Cottage Studio.

Currently I’m hosting an ATC swap on Swap-Bot in which we each have two partners.  We read our partner’s profiles and make each of them a custom ATC based on what they love.  My first partner doesn’t have a whole lot of information in her profile, but she does mention liking owls,  so I made her an ATC based on the March calendar page I made last year.  It’s time-consuming, but a ton of fun to make a little drawing, divide it into parts and then cut out colorful papers to assemble into the finished image.

My second partner loves black cats, full moons, vintage recycled ephemera and anything off the beaten path. Hopefully she’ll love this! The red panel and the quote were cut from a book printed in 1956 called Chinese Proverbs, one of my most valued thrift-store finds. I have to thank my pal Terri for the idea of aqua and red as a color combo, which is her current favorite. They really do work well together!  The stamped/embossed cat is mounted on foam tape, which gives it a nice depth.

The final swap I got off in the mail is for a “glittery surprise.” I joined a group on Swap-Bot for gals who love glitter, and this was their first swap. My partner loves butterflies and journals, so I decorated this comp book with some cut-out paper butterflies, a painted tissue background and tons of glitter glue accents. The picture isn’t the greatest; this looks much nicer in reality. I had some trouble with the edges of the tissue wanting to come up, but then Dude saved the day with a roll of electrical tape! It worked great to smooth down and even out the edges. (He is so not getting it back.)

I also made my swap partner a glittery ATC to honor her love of cupcakes. (Seriously, who doesn’t love cupcakes these days?)

So being sick hasn’t been all bad and whiny and miserable.  🙂  I got a lot of projects done and got to spend lots of time with Dude.  (Well, sort of.  He was so fearful of catching the “creeping crud” that I wasn’t allowed to be closer than a few feet away at all times and had to spend nights in the guest room!) And while I’m rather dreading coming back to a pile of work resembling Mt. Vesuvius at the office on Monday, at least it’s job security!