I'm feeling bookish...

...these days (all days, if truth be told).  I've just finished a journal that's been in the works for quite some while and thought I'd share it with you.  Called 'Good Fortune,' the tie-it-together item is that there is a fortune cookie fortune on each page.  Some are real, and some are invented...can you tell the difference?

Coins from years of travels (mine and others') are secured to the front of the journal.  And guess what - this thing is heavy!

Front cover 'Good Fortune Journal'
© Win Dinn 2017

I enjoyed working with the unusual shape and size of the spreads.

Fortune:  Your ear for music is becoming more finely tuned.

Most of the backgrounds are created with mono-printed sheets and brayer cleaning pages.

Fortune: A single flower has no need to envy the garden.

I've added monoprint cutouts to some pages,

Fortune: A new outlook brightens your image and brings new friends. 

and torn pages, card remnants,

Fortune: Artists find more than one path to the garden.  (image on the right is by the incomparable Laura Leeder)

and even fun foam castoffs to the mix.

Fortune: Today's your red hot day.

Not only circle-obsessed (and you'll tons of those below), I'm also fascinated by connected ovals.

Fortune: A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts.

 I've used ephemera from cards I've received (thanks for these Judy),

Fortune:  Nature will tell you everything you need to know.

and some lovely Mucha images from a deck gifted to me by Alice.

Fortune: A pair of this or that - what's wrong with a single?

That was indeed good fortune!

Fortune:  You've been dealt a good hand - why not play it?

What better use for mop-up paper towels than a garden, I wonder?  None, I tell myself.

Fortune:  It's springtime - let's party!

You gotta know the upside-down bird is my favourite.

Fortune: Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

My eye goes around and around on this page...it's definitely playtime when one uses layer upon layer of palette transfers, stamps, tissue and more.

Fortune:  The most direct approach isn't always the best.

The stencil I used for the pig-tailed pretty is one I created from a photo of my lovely niece Shaina.

Fortune: Impose not a burden on others which you cannot bear yourself.

There will always be a mandala or two in any journal I do - I can't seem to resist!

Fortune: Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success.

Red, yellow and orange just make me so happy.

Fortune: Share your happiness with others today.

 There are flowers everywhere - it must be coming up to summer, or maybe it's another obsession.

Fortune: Contemplate the flowers - more fun than weeding!

Textile fragments show up on this page - another gift from Alice.

Fortune: Some of the sweetest berries grow amidst the thorns.

Paper napkins, fabric fragments from Alison Bjorkman, and hole-punched prints all add to the colour here.

Fortune: Remember the birthday but never the age.

For some reason, husband John objected to this fortune.  :D

Fortune: The real questions is not whether machines think but whether men do.

 First version of this page,

Fortune: Are you listening?

followed by the opened cards.

An inside peek at the above page.

This page is much darker than I would usually do, and the cityscape was really fun - it's many years since I've lived in one.

Fortune: Sleep, rest, recover; then dream again.

And here are more flowers...definitely part of my good fortune!

Fortune: Flowers don't work for a living - they merely dance.

Again!

Fortune: Live like a wildflower, growing with the wind.

Here's another departure from my normally bright palette...inspired by Mucha, no doubt!

Fortune: No matter your game, play like it matters.

I'm not so much hankering for a tropical vacation right now, but this page will spell delight come mid-winter!

Fortune: A tropical vacation is coming your way.

My usual style, according to the fortune!

Fortune: Running around in circles?

 I suspect this was a reminder I needed!

Fortune: Step outside - there are whole universes to explore.

Here we've reached the end.  This back cover was meant to be covered in bills that I've saved from various vacations to different countries.  Of course, I couldn't find them when they were needed. They will no doubt turn up sometime in the near future, grinning cheekily while they give me the finger!

Back cover 'Good Fortune' 2017

Perhaps you'd share your favourite fortune cookie fortunes with me in the comments below - there are at least four more journals in progress in the studio, and I could always do another of these!

In the meantime, maybe you'd like to play hide and seek with some of the ephemera in this journal. Can you spot the two tags included, silver dollar (watch out - it's a trick!), book page, a pen, thread, stamp, lichen, library pocket, CD, dryer sheets, credit card fragment, string, wallpaper, massage ad, lost earring and globe?

I love taking...

a closer look at what's in the studio.  Just as I love macro photography, zooming in on pieces of art just gives me a rush.

This is a portion of a 'man thing'...you know I got into John's stuff to work on this.  Quiet please - he'll never notice!

The cross in this piece came from a fabulous store here in town called Gold N Treasures.  I've scored so many wonderful metal embellishments from there that I may have made some enemies in town by depleting their stock.

The large button top centre of this photo came from the stash I scored from Eileen, and the coin bottom centre was part of the collection Rochelle (my favourite daughter :D) gave me when she was last here for a visit.  She spent some six months travelling in South America, and I get the mementos - how cool is that?!

This martini glass is just full of texture,

and I'm amused to find this computer bit poking out of a piece - how did that get in there?

You can tell that I'm crazy about cheesecloth.  I mop up leftover paint with it, and it gets incorporated into many pieces.

The Golden mica flakes medium is another favourite of mine right now...I must be a crow I'm so attracted to shiny things.

The brown texture below is a mixture of dried (used - waste not, want not!) coffee grounds and soft gel medium,with a bit of Inka Gold brushed overtop.

Coins, bottle cap flowers, buttons, coffee grounds, cheesecloth - it's all there for the viewing.

I'd decided yesterday that I was just about done with bottles and glasses, but then I had a brainwave this morning - Lord help me, there are four more bottles in the sink with labels soaking so I can test it out.

A huge thanks...

goes out to fellow artists for feeding my creative frenzy.

This past week I put out an APB looking for metal buttons and old costume jewellery.  And boy, did I get results!

I was gifted pounds of gorgeous metal buttons,

dozens of pieces of earring and pins, 

chains galore (including a hand-crafted one!),

buckles,

antique keys (I LOVE keys)

coins,

some wonderfully mandalic circular metal pieces (?),

 beads,

 more beautiful jewellery including cultured pearls,

and another bag full of lovely filigreed plastic buttons.

How could I help but spend a couple of hours making more flowers?  It was all just impossible to resist!

Thank you Eileen and Laura for feeding my addiction...there will be many lost hours coming up in the studio!

Then I was rooting through my art pen case, and found this lovely silver tree of life earring, stashed in there, no doubt, by Alice on her recent visit.  Wow - thank you!

And while I'm on the topic of generosity, I want to give a shout out to the wonderful community 'Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art' over at Google+.  I've been involved in a tag swap there for some months and invariably I'm bowled over not only by the tags I've received, but the add-ons of ephemera gifted with them.  You're a fabulous bunch of peeps!  

Thank you to all my artist friends - you feed my frenzy and fill my soul!