Altered Sisters Round Robin - Surprise Me

The Altered Sisters met at my house this month for a holiday brunch, show and tells and the unveiling of another month of work in various altered books.  The brunch goodies were quite yummy, the conversation flowed and we've all agreed that this Round Robin has lasted quite long enough!  Two of the books are finished but most of the books still have another month or two to go before they go into the finished pile.

I worked in Susan's book this month.  The theme was "Surprise Me".  Well, that's an easy theme!  It means anything goes.  I've been playing with scans of my textured and painted handmade paper and decided to use this, in the form of a color copy, as a background.  There is some paint and pastels involved with this as well to bring up some of the colors and to soften the edges.  You may remember that I promised I would use a hand altered photo in every book I worked in.  I kept to that promise at first but this photo is being used just as I took it..  It was taken in Port Townsend, WA in April 2008 when I was lucky enough to attend ArtFest.

I can't help but wonder if these handmade paper scans have the possibility of a commercial life?  I'll show you more when the holiday rush settles down a bit.  I think I missed an opportunity when the whole scrapbook paper craze was still going strong.

Back to the topic of the Altered Sisters.  We gather once a month to share our artistic adventures.  If you don't have art buddies to share some time with, I strong encourage you to find some!  Art is usually a solitary venture.  But, it's so good to have positive people, who understand the ups and downs of an artist, that can be helpful, be supportive and be good friends.  I know there is the whole cyber world out there now, which is a huge helpful community and I'm so happy to be a part of it.  But warm, live bodies are even better.

Lorrie