Purses, Books and Mermaids

Hello there, just checking in and touching base.   Funny how sayings or little quips of words stick with you.  I have nearly almost always used this phrase especially the touching base.  Playing kid games when younger and now when we have invested a lot of time watching baseball games. Touching base has a different meaning to me.  Like did a runner touch the base when he crosses the base? 

I have several purses I have made in CQ style and one is a boho bag and big even though I made it smaller.  I tried carrying it for an everyday purse but just to big.  Great for traveling though.  Hubby says I can even stuff our 60 pound dog in it if he folds his legs up.  I don't think it is that big though.  I have one purse I made when I first started with Pat Winter and her on line class. wow did it ever open an artsy door for me.   After all these years still love the embellishing part, not the figuring out what to do with it after it is embellised but that is ok also. 

I have gone back to the older purse and just happy to have it and the right size to carry everything I need in it.  

Here is the first one I ever made and you know  the dingle fringe on the bottom has held up so well and I don't think but lost one set of beads.  It is not a giant purse but that is ok.  

The back side of the purse, now it has under gone an operation and brought back to life.   The pretty fabric on the back started to come apart some and I happen to have some pretty lace and I think did a little dye job on it and now it is pretty and ready for another 5 years or so use.  Of course I had to have a bling button for the closure of it.  Some places I go people love it and comment on it but here in Abilene Texas I don't believe one person has said a word about it.  

I shared last time with you a Halloween inspired piece that Lydia and I worked on.   So for the last two Octobers I have done a little fun project called Jentober.   Jenny Manno with  Next JENeration Art on Facebook gives us 31 prompts and we joined them together how we want and to create. A page a day and it is fun and good for us to do art everyday.  There is no right or wrong, my kind of non pressure, we just create.  

Last year we were in the middle of packing for our November 14, 2018 move but I hung in there and got them done.  This year was fun also, no pressure on the home front.  I got to thinking, hubby says that is dangerous when I think, the pages are to fun just to sit in a box and do whatever they do while they are in there.  I don't think they are like my Faeries, have parties and drink your wine at night while we are asleep.  I have a friend Kathleen Klein who swears that is what they do at her house and  hides things from you.

Now several years ago when I was in Roses on My Table with Zinnia she taught how to make journal books.  So I thought why not do one for each of the years?  

The now finished two journal books

The spines of the books, I thought they are ok but need something else.  You know I needed some Annette bling on them.

So here you go some pretty rayon ribbons. I left the spiders on the one with the glass pumpkins and glass candy but need some fill in pretties.  They don't look half embellished.  Not sure if you can see the "diamond" in the silver spider.  

The inside cover of the book I painted and the splish splashed some acrylic inks on the pages and did the back inside pages this was also. 

One of the prompts and how I dressed the opposite page of each page.  The prompts was Elvira.  Bet you could have guessed that. 

The unembellished spine but shows the back and front of the book.  I used one of the prints off of my daily paintings and added it to the front.  Lots of color and texture here. 

The inside of the 2019 book. I did the same method of  embellishing it as the 2018 book.  Hey as the saying goes if it ain't broke don't fix it.  You never know though if next year I don't fix it lol   Who knows , I do like the look though and kind of fits the theme of the book. 

Inside the book with one of the paintings, the whole 31 prompts had to do with mermaids and this one had to be with flowers.  So I instantly thought Day of the Dead.  Now this is not original from my head, most of it anyway.  Thank goodness for pinterest.  I had more of the papers from scrapbooking and then added a little story about each page. Stories like how the mermaid was thinking or feeling.  Just ran with it and had fun.\

The embellished with ribbons spine but still shows the front and back of the book with lots of texture and a painting and spider on the front.  

Just fun and all of this out of watercolor hard cardboard backs put together and embellished.  

I did stray from last years paper.  Last year I used water color paper and this year Mixed Media paper.  Wow I didn't realize the difference in the thickness of the book.  I will stick to Water Color paper next year..  I guess with the mermaids in there they needed more room.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing the books and how they now proudly stand and not shoved in a box or drawer .  I think some of the mermaids could be CQ images like for a under the sea theme.   Mermaids are mainly under the sea.  Most of the time.

There you go and thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.

                                                            Annette

                                                            xoxoxo