AU swap page madness

This was the scene in our house last week as I scrambled to finish my pages for the Art Unraveled Technique chunky book swap. I was very ambitious in my page design, so it took more time than I thought (of course, like everything). I made 30 pages total, 4 x 4 inches, but they were painted on both sides (all slightly different abstract designs), and each page also had an ATC-sized (2.5 x 3.5 inches) mini-book containing 10 pages, decorated with art related quotes and other ephemera.

So, the last night before the mailing deadline, the dining room table looked like Hurricane Paper had hit, and it was definitely a Category 5! Every space was covered, and most of it was more than one layer... I was looking for my collected postage stamps, or the cigar bands, and would have to lift up four or piles of paper, scraps, and dyed paper towels before I'd find them. I work best when I can see my supplies (unfortunately, though, working this way means everything ends up piled around my work space).

But I got them finished, and packaged for shipping, as you can see below. (I would have liked to do more decorating in the mini-books, but I had to draw the line somewhere.) The return pages have already been sent out,; I got mine already (since the hostess is in the Phoenix area) and they're great!! All the pages are inspired by techniques learned in various classes, and they range from funky fabric bead decorations to etched metal and aged patinas. The swap hostess even made wonderful decorated covers for us, so all we have to do is bind the book together, in any fashion we choose.I don't want to show them just yet, though; I want to wait a little longer to give the mail a chance to catch up to farther-away participants! (so, you'll have to wait, but I promise to show them soon...)

I also have been working in my journals, since I had all the paint and paper out... the pages below are decorated with a very simple stamp that I got for free- a wine cork! Well, okay, not free, technically, since we had to buy (and drink!!) the wine, but they do make great impressions. Some people also use corks to make some pretty neat carved stamp designs, but I haven't ventured into this yet; it's a pretty small space for carving, in my opinion.

I use coated paper plates as paint palettes; I squeeze 4-6 colors onto the plate, and leave small spaces for mixing the different shades. Eventually the colors get a bit mixed up, so these circles are swirls of marbled acrylic from the paint leftovers on my "palette" (the paper plate).

I may do more (painting, stamping, etc) to these pages before I journal on them, or not... I tend to prepare backgrounds, then let them "sit" for a while till I get inspiration for journaling on them, or inspiration for the next layer of color.