August's first Saturday

August's first Saturday has arrived with all the steaminess of the usual late summer days here in the South. It's hard to stay outside for too long without running for the respite inside my own cool abode. Iced sweet tea with lemon and soft custard ice cream have become the staples of these lazy days and nights.

I have found time to work on organizing my art supplies... and while doing so, I've discovered all kinds of wonderful treasures I had forgotten... laces, ribbons, vintage earrings, baubles and so many sweet things that had gotten buried underneath piles and piles of fabric and papers. I was prompted to forage through my stash as I was working on my first journal for the FULL TILT BOOGIE online class with Mary Ann Moss. Her delightful style has pulled me out of the summer doldrums and inspired me to "play" with old vintage photo albums and day books from times long ago. I was able to snag a great old velvet photo album... the kind that held pages with many windows full of cabinet card-type photos. I just adore the "shabby-chic" quality it exudes as I flipped through all the pages... wondering whose pictures it held for all this time???

The premise of FULL TILT BOOGIE is to repurpose these delicious old albums and books and turn them into our own "art havens"... with hand-stitched pages of all kinds of papers... My book called "VELVET DAYS" is filled with Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolor paper (my favorite paper in the whole world), old file folders, vintage wallpaper, postal mailers and delicate rice paper. The spine of my book has been adorned with swatches of textured upholstery fabrics, silks and hand-dyed velvets. My dear friend Tonya had sent me a gift and I had saved the hand-made muslin rose she tied around my present. I aged the posey by misting it with a couple of vintage colors and sewed on an old button. My darling flower reminds me of my sweet friend as it becomes the closure of my book. I can't get enough of crinkled seam binding... and that green is oooh la la..... What are you creating these days???