My "The Decorated Page" Workshop Lesson 5

I have done three more layouts for my Decorated Page workshop for the Yahoo group-Artists of the Round Table. This workshop has been a blast and using the theme of an autobiography has made making the pages sentimental. As I go along not all the memories of my childhood are good, some are even scary to remember, but I have to do it. This is a book that I want my children and their children and so forth to enjoy, even if they know of the horrible things that have happened to me. AT this point I am not sure I will make pages for those memories. I might just write about them and I may or may not leave them in the open. One of the exercises of this workshop was to insert an envelope as a page, so I may put the stories in there and leave it up to the reader to decide as to whether or not he/she wants to read them.

The layout of the two little motorcycles are done using the Diagonal and Springboard layout. The point of the springboard is to put objects that will remind you of a story. On the blank pages after this layout I will write the story of me and these two motorcycles. I loved these bikes a lot and they are the part of my childhood that bring me great joy.

The bookshelf page is done using the Columns and Information Gathering layout. I used a gold pen but the scanner cannot translate it. The writing is some of the authors I have read. The photos of the books are the ones I enjoy reading over and over except for Jasper Fforde. I have only read his books once through, but I enjoy reading the books in his series. I love to read, among other things and this love has thankfully passed onto my children (hubby loves to read also). I was privileged to teach two of them how to read (wish I had started teaching my children at home when the oldest was starting school) and that is one of my favorite accomplishments.

The final page here is actually the next to the last page in my book. I am saving the last page for my 50th birthday, which is next May. The page layout is using Organic Shapes and Decision Making. Once again the scanner did not pick up much of the shiny pink flowers. The paper I used was a 12x12 scrapbook piece that I thought was very pretty. I did antique it a bit in order to fit the theme of the page. I love antiquing paper because bright whites bother me. My fingers are still burgundy from the inking I did on the background. I should have scanned my fingers, they were a big mess. Hey, they looked like artist's hand;-)

I only have three more layouts to do (I think) for this workshop, but many more pages planned for this art journal. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Have a happy and creative day!

My "The Decorated Page" Workshop Lesson 4 (so far)

I am a member of "Artist's of the Round Table" Yahoo group, which is another group of artists. The group offers free lessons (you have to buy the materials and/or the books used) and I joined the group that is working its way through the book, "The Decorated Page" by Gwen Diehn. It has been a fun way to create an art journal.

The theme of my art journal is an autobiography of my life. Okay, it will not cover all of my life but a good amount. It sure is eye opening reflecting back on one's life and fun at the same time. This book is another acknowledgement of my wonderful 49 years. I might have it done by the time I turn 50, which is almost a year away.

The fun part is finding the material to use on the pages. I gathered up the few photos I have of me and will use copies of them on the pages. The other great adventure I had was going through postcards at our local antique shop. I found a lot of groovy postcards and a couple of magazines from way back when. I went with my 26 yo dd, who adores antiques (so, I guess she adores me;-) and while I sat searching through boxes of postcards she rambled, very slowly, through the rest of the shop. Great fun!

I did not post my other lessons because I just did not think about posting them on my blog, my bad! What I did in those lessons will be seen for the most part in the upcoming pages I do finish. For now, I hope you enjoy these pages.

Have a fun and very creative day!

The space postcard was the coolest one I found. It is very thick and I wanted to be able to read the senders message to his son or daughter (Kitt is the name) on the back, so I used a springy thingy to hold it to the page. It can be removed in order to read what I put on the page.

This is the front cover of the book and yes that is me when I was 14 or 15 cleaning the BBQ grill.

These are the homes I lived in when I was a kid until we moved to ?, you will have to wait to see where we moved;-)

In order to get the photos of the homes I had to use my digital SLR camera to take a picture of the computer screen. The maps I got from Google Earth. My scanner is not big enough to scan a two page spread so I copied and pasted, etc., in Corel Paint. It turned out okay. The one side is slightly off so San Fransisco has an extra letter, but that is okay.
Now, I am off to work on more pages. I hope you enjoyed these.