Final page for round robin

The final page in the final book in this round robin was to have a page using a colour that nobody else had used in the book. I didn't fancy orange or yellow, so I went for charcoal!!!


I painted the pages with 2 coats of Golden micaceous iron oxide, then stamped and edged with Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink, and added the embellishments. There is a surprise for the owner under the larger panel.

I have really enjoyed this swap, and seeing all the work that others have done in the books. I hope all the owners like the books they get back at the end of the swap!

Mermaid thing still going on!

This is another page for the round robin altered book swap - and there are yet more mermaids.


I sprayed the pages with several blue colorwashes, then closed the together and peeled them apart - and found I had something which reminded me of currents swirling, so I went with the flow (ouch) and created a sea based spread.

The nets down the sides are made by laying cling film onto silicone baking paper, spritzing with Johnson's Klear floor polish (Future in US), making some artisitc wrinkles, colouring them with colorwash sprays, then adding a top sheet of baking paper and ironing the whole 'sandwich' with a hot iron. Peel off the baking paper, the resultant sheet can be cut with scissors and glued using double sided tape or gel medium.

I added words, images and charms, and it looks done to me!

Green pages for round robin

I am taking part in a round robin altered book swap.
Each book has a colour theme.
The first book I worked in was yellow,
which I found hard.
This book is green,
and I enjoyed working in it.

Here is the first spread I did:

and here is the second:

The girl at the top of the right hand page is a piece of fantasy film, fused onto a stamp inked up with Stazon then peeled off. It looks coppery from this angle, but when you look at it form another angle, it is a completely different colour.

Round Robin book, 2nd spread

This is the spread I did in Linda's book.

Linda chose the colour yellow for her book,
with an option to include 'garden colours',
and a sub theme of doors.

I have never worked in yellow,
and found it quite difficult to
think of an attractive design.

I looked at the spread Linda had done in her own book,
and it had images of daffodils and a poem by William Wordsworth.
I decided to use the themes of flowers and poetry.

Once I had found the poem for the left hand page,
all about the wilderness and weeds,
by Gerald Manley Hopkins,
it led me to adding pressed leaves and
flowers - all grown in my own garden.

And once I had settled on flowers,
sunflowers seemed appropriate,
so I printed a sunflower stained glass image
onto a transparency and framed it with copper tape,
which is used for tiffany stained glass work.

I added a tag which has an appropriate
poem by William Blake on it,
and attached it with wire so that it can be
easily lifted and turned over to read the second verse.

Altered book round robin

I have joined a round robin altered book

There are 4 players,
and my theme is 'turquoise & copper'.
This is a nearly finished spread in the book:

I have also created a sign in page,
and a blank page, and hope my
collaborators are going to produce marvellous things!

Round Robin Board Book

This is a page I have just completed in a 'round robin' board book.

The theme was 'journey' - other contributors had
completed pages on spiritual journeys,
journeys across oceans,
journeys through time,
journeys to particular memorable places,
and the journey within,
but I chose to illustrate the journey of life,
and took Shakespeare's 'Journey of Man'
(from As You Like It) as my starting point.

I used photo transfers onto canvas for the images,
and although I like my doodles :-)
and the background
(torn pages from a thesaurus,
coated with Gesso & Nick Bantock inks),
I am not thrilled with the composition of the page.

It was, however, the only way I could find to
get all the components I wanted to add onto the page...

...and I hope Maggi likes it.