Often when I'm playing . . .

 . . . I get a crazy idea.  When I do, I usually try it.  That was what happened this week when I was making cover paper for the Head Shots book in progress.  I love making painted paper, and when I wondered what would happen if I threw a stencil on the paper and then let it dry, I just had to try it.

I liked the results so much I had to try it again.

I particularly liked a couple of the closeup shots on the second one.

I just know I'm going to have to try it on every possible combination of colour and stencil, so you know my next few weeks are going to be fun!

While I've not yet made a mini book from the painted papers, I do have a lot of them on the go.

I normally work on these one at a time, but given I have so many in this series, I'm trying to do the repetitive portions as a group, so all the edges got treated here at the same time.  Next I'll be getting into the individual pages to work on them with stamps, stencils and whatever etcetera comes to hand.

And now that the cover papers for Head Shots are in creation, I'm hoping to finish that book in the next week or so.  I've made the painted paper for the inside covers 

and decorative edging, Eileen has supplied me with matboard to create the covers, bless her, and John has chopped them for me.  Progress is being made!

How's your progress been this week?  I hope that you're on a massive roll with your creative life...

People are so amazing,....

 ...aren't they?  This week I received a package of papers, gifted to me from half way around the world, by Tracy of Sojourner.  Here are just some of the delights I found.

It was such a treat to open, and I can hardly wait to play with all these goodies!

And you know there's nothing more fun than getting snippets of art play from friends, especially when they come complete with a hand-crafted card.  And aren't those two little bits at the bottom fun?  They make me think of beach huts.  

I'm loving the possibilities inherent in the deli paper prints, too, since I have very few of these papers and so enjoy the way the translucency looks over top of other bits of art.

And get a load of these masks - aren't they wonderful?  I can see a gel printing session coming up!

And on the home studio front, my large journal and the black and white one are languishing on the side

while I work my way (slowly) through a binding technique with some 'Head Shots' I did some years ago.

Off to the side there are some dozen and a half mini books in various stages.  It's important to me that I start as many projects as possible while the ideas are fresh, right?  😏

My work tables seem to be heavily loaded to the book side these days, and I'm going to blame it all on Joe Rotella and Vintage Page Designs.  I just can't seem to stop.  If you're a book fiend too, I highly recommend you join the Creating Handmade Books with Vintage Page Designs Facebook group...you, too, will be drooling, stunned and addicted.

I'm wondering about your addictions - do you follow them through at the expense of everything else?  Do you do, and do, and do until you get it out of your system?  Would you rather create than eat (I wish it would go that far!)?  Tell me about your creative life!

Another week ...

...and I've more blog friends here for you.  

You'll love the digital work at Sim's Work where you'll find luscious layers of delight like this one:

A favourite romp of mine is Felix the Crafty Cat.  I'm very fond of the Masterboards that Angela creates, among other things, and it's always a treat to see the most recent cards and other exotic creations!

I can't help but appreciate the wide-ranging items done by Craftartista - Mia's creativity runs from digital to colouring books to mandalas to poetry and much more.  

A long-time artsy friend is Zsuzsa at Inky Dinky Doodle - her colour always has me drooling and her creativity is boundless.

And while we're not online friends (yet) I've been recently perusing Vintage Page Designs given my ongoing and renewed interested in hand-crafted books.

Wherever you're heading on the web, I hope you'll check out all the artists you can find; there's nothing like whetting the appetite for more creativity!

It's great to have...

so many fabulous artists friends online, and I really enjoy following their blogs.  So I'm letting you in on some good ones in this post, and will repeat this type of post periodically, 'cause there are just so many!!!

Make sure you pop over to The Stardust Factory.  You'll love the luscious layers in Deann's digital work, and when they're coupled with her oh-so-spot-on bits of quotes/poetry/songs, the double whammy is outstanding.  Here's one of her recent rich pieces called Gypsy Dreams:

For thought-provoking insights, you can't outdo Soujourner.  Tracy does wonder-full journal work as well as paintings, book-bindings and more.  Her introspective posts are clear, concise and pack an excellent humanistic wallop.  Check out the colour in this page, called 'Close to home'.

One blogger that is always great for a belly laugh is MadebyCHook.  Corrie's work is always beautiful, and often side-splitting; for that I am beyond grateful.  I swear she made this one up from my head:

For garden-inspired beautiful mixed media, I encourage you to check out Laura Leeder's work.  One can't help but think of garden light when viewing her birds and flowers and this one, Peace on Earth, is so serene.

Eileen Gidman is an artist accomplished in many areas - from watercolour to plein air painting to dyes on textiles.  It's the latter that really pulls me in.  The process is labour intensive, but the results are so worth it; her new series of wow-colour pups just makes me grin.  This one is called Playful.

I'll be sharing more of these wonderful artists soon;  in the meantime, do pop over and give these artists some love.  You'll be most welcome!