But there's no turning back now.....see what happens when you host a thing called the Paperbag Swag?--you get the idea to make your own book in the same vein--and then make 5 copies of it.
;-)
But now I gotta clean up the mess I made on the floor today. I sure got a lot of stuff; and I could use a lot more I think. heheheh
Do you like Halloween? and vintagey stuff?
Then you might like this group:
There are lots of projects & give-aways coming for the next three months (for a ten buck fee) ~ I'm in! I've already got my mind flashed forward on Halloween and couldn't decide whether to do a Halloween Zine or a Day of the Dead Zine so I decided I might be combining them both--I think--just this minute that occurred to me so I may change my mind again....Anyhow I have a small stack of PaperBag books left over from my little project back in 2007 so I figured I would make handmade books/zines out of them with some possible pop-up action and fun stuff inside and put them in my shoppe. I have accumulated a lot of spook collagey type items over the years and I thought this would be a fun project. Hopefully it will not take me 2 years to do it!
I am having a hard time moving from paper projects to bears though -- this is not good. I need a clone.
I am trying to get my studio organized and trying to get myself on some sort of schedule. If you are not focused on one thing, not much gets done in a day. Thinking/creating takes a lot of time--I'm such a fusser over the small little details--And I'm trying to finish all the unfinished projects I have stacked up first before I start new ones. There are quite a few over here!
My friend Moo had a babyshower over the weekend so I made up these little matchbox sticker/seals sets--hers is the one with a boy and a girl--cause she's having twins!!! Yowza! Way to go Moo!
WooHoo! I just came back from the post office having dropped off my last --- Yes, I said LAST installment of the infamous Paperbag Swag project. Today was the deadline for finishing this project which originally was supposed to take all of us six months to do. But things happen, babies get born, people get pregnant, people get in a funk and before you know it, a year has gone by. But we got our acts together and by gum, everyone better have their stuff in the mail today!!!! That said, I CANNOT WAIT FOR MINE TO SHOW UP ON MY DOORSTEP.
So, my last pages were for Mimi--and I showed you all a little sneak peek a few posts back. Her book's theme was "identity".
I decided to focus on this doll cut-out she made and her self-portrait (both could be self-portraits perhaps-?).
So I started with this page--a humorous take on Mimi as a Paper Doll. I had this vintage paperdoll outfit in my stash so I printed out a Mimi head from her flickr pages and utilized Marcia Cross' gams from a magazine...
Then I finally got to utilize this big puzzle I'd put together and had sitting in my studio on top of my flat files for over a year. I knew I was going to use it for Mimi's book and I finally had my chance--Hurray (too bad I only ended up using a small portion of it)!
I like the analogy of self-exploration and pieces of a puzzle coming together so that's what's behind that page. Mimi also seems to like to draw eyes--the window to the soul--so I found a charm of an eye and sewed it in behind the two missing pieces of the puzzle (which is a puzzle of sewing notions btw).
This page lifts up to reveal the pop-up page:
This is a folding pop-up which was a bit tricky to do. The idea was to try and capture the feeling of Mimi's work table--she does seem to be quite the diligent crafter! Always up to something! So I made a version of her sweater baby dolls and the doll from her book we saw earlier. At any rate, I made the dolls in my cut-paper style and then I had to print them out as my cut-paper versions couldn't handle the folding. Finding the right bends and printing out a copy that didn't crack the color proved to be a challenge. I musta made at least 10 versions of these dolls trying to get copies that worked and looked good enough. But it was worth it--this really does look better in person.
And no paperbag book is complete without the paperbag swag...
And now...if you'll excuse me, I must go and pour myself a cold one to celebrate.
