Circle book pages are sent : ))

A few of the beautiful pages from my book . . . your pages should be there soon!

Circle Book Pages are SWAPPED!

Here are all the circle book swap packages on my couch! They still need postage put on them but everything is swapped & they are all packaged up & ready to go. I'll be going to the post office tomorrow morning to send them off to you : )) Notice the packing boxes too? My sweet husband was packing up some Kitchen stuff while I was working on this, bless him. We are doing so good, as we are almost all packed up and Thursday is the big day, phew. I think you will love your pages. There were a couple of instances where I had to swap 2 pages by the same artist to a person or two, but I did make sure if this happened that the pages were of 2 different designs. You may find this in your package. It had something to do with so many of you creating 20 pages, but some of you creating 10 or 15 pages - so the numbers, the mathematics were a little bit off! With a little jostling it all worked out in the end and everyone received as many different pages as they sent in. I don't think you will be dissapointed!
If you created 20 pages there is hardly any chance the longest screw post that came with the book will accomodate your pages. For 10 or 15 pages, maybe! I tried . . but the pages were too squished. What I did was take a ring clasp and use that to hold the pages & cover together. My book:



Thanks so much for joining me on this one! I love my book. If you have comments after you receive your swapped pages - feel free to leave them here under each artists' art/post. You can easily find them by going to "Participating Artists" on the right & clicking on their name. In most cases it will bring you to all posts tagged with their name. I will add comments to the blog as I can - they will wait for me until I do! : ) Lenna 9/9/07

Circle Book SWAP update

Saturday 9/8/07: ALL of the Circle pages I expected to arrive are now IN my hands! I am swapping these pages (so many beautiful pages!) and plan to send them out to participants on Monday 9/10/07 . . . I must get them out of here quick before I move on Thursday 9/13!! Well, we really did not expect things to happen so quickly when we put our little home on the market August 13th - less that a month ago, is that possible?? So, I am just going with the flow & trying to take care of things. It will be great! I am going to put some pics of my new studio below!!

You are welcome to leave comments for any of the artists under the post of their circle pages - just click on 'comments' & you will be brought to a form. Please do not worry if your comment does not show up right away - it will not appear until I approve it -note: there may be a delay in my response during my move! (September 12th - 18th). Thanks so much for being patient with me during this time - I will repond as I can & also approve messages, but there may be a delay.

This has been an INSPIRING, fabulously different swap and I credit all of the participants for really trying their best! I am going to cherish my book & I am so glad I created 21 pages myself! Here is a peek at our new studio in the new home. It has a loft that will be just right for Steven's drafting table. Hooray!















* P.S. I've added a few more photos now of our new home on my art blog.

Circle Book Swap - Casie Metcalf, ME

From Casie Metcalf in Maine, a totally different & wonderful take on Circle pages. Please click on the scan for more detail. I believe Casie designed these pages digitally and then printed them out to fit right on her circle pages. If she has time in-between taking care of her little boy Andrew, her on-line buisness and everything else she does, perhaps she can either leave a comment here or write to me & describe a little about what she did! Casie runs Vintage Image Madness -where you'll find thousands of vintage ephemera images at an affordable and reasonable price. You can order image sheets and have them sent along with other Vintage goodies, or pay a nominal amount to download the images to your computer and print them yourself (as many times as you want!) Everyone in the swap is in for a treat because along with each circle page Casie has packaged up a small sampling of what her website offers! Wow. Thank you so much, Casie. I often like to give a little gift to swap participants . . . but with packing & moving and all that I had not been able to give it a thought! I so appreciate your generousity.

Circle Book Swap - Mary Goodrow, MA

From Mary Goodrow in Massachusetts, a lovely variety of Circle pages. Thanks Mary, you did it! Your pages got here safe & sound & also on time, despites various challenges : ))) I love the hats!

Circle Book Swap - Vicci Henderson, CA

"Women in Blue" ~ 10 very rich blue pages from Vicci Henderson in CA . . . Thanks so much, Vicci - I can't wait to swap all of these circle pages out. Just one more day for arrivals and I will get right to it! (better than last minute packing). We move out a week from today & may be in limbo for 2 weeks . . . the seller needs a later closing date. I will find out more tomorrow and let you know! If you are in my other swaps you can hold off mailing for now - or if you do mail, don't worry. My mail will be held for me at the post office until I pick it up! Thanks for understanding.

Circle Book Swap - Vicky Martindale, MI

from Vicky Martindale in MI: 20 beautiful berry-persimon-blue green-and green circle pages :)) Lovely!

Circle Book Swap - Rena Matus, CT

Here are 20 'Orchid' pages from Rena Matus in CT, beautifully framed in gold or silver - thank you, Rena! Tomorrow (sept. 7th) is the deadline for all pages to be in my hands.

Circle Book Swap - Linda Garcia, NM

From Linda Garcia in Santa Fe, NM we have 20 Circle pages in various hues that Linda describes as "Simply Southwest Colors". She defines them even further on the back of the pages as "sky blue" and "jasper-red gold-bronze" and "jasper-red malachite"- yum! In her note to me, Linda said perhaps the majority of her colors should be called: "Graffiti Desert!" She used spray mists to acheive alot of what she did - great job, Linda!! I love the Southwest feeling, thank you for participating! Click on the scan of her pages for more detail.

Circle Book Swap - Carol Murphy, CA

Carol Murphy, a talented mixed media artist & instructor from California is participating in our Circle Book Swap - lucky us! She really blew me away with her creative approach to these pages . . . she has utilized encaustics - she teaches a great class on this -- and Carol used some of her own papers, artchix and other images, transparencies, she added an edging to the pages - wow! She sent 15 + and extra page for me so I have two scans of her pages for you to see - click on them for more detail!!! Carol also wrote in with some answers to Jo~Ann's question on HOW she created her circle pages - check at the very bottom of this post - click on COMMENTS.

Thank YOU carol!!

~To enjoy all the great work that has been coming my way, scroll down a few more posts . . .

Deadline for all pages is Friday, September 7th!

Circle Book Swap - Connie Holso, WY

Connie Holso from Cody, Wyoming sent in 10 really wonderful circle pages that are fabric based. She has added lace, stitching and even dangly beads on some of the pages. Being a fabric lover, I literally gasped when I opened her package! I am so glad you were able to participate, Connie. Awesome job! Click on the scan of Connie's pages to see the details she put into these pages . . .

Circle Book Swap - Jennifer Rogers-Daniels, CA

10 very pretty pink-purple pages from Jennifer Rogers-Daniels in California. Thanks so much for playing & adding these beauties to our circle swap books, Jen! Click on the scan for more detail!

Circle Book Swap - Nina Owens, TX

From Nina Owens in Texas, some wonderful circle pages. Nina had written in an email to me what she did to create these pages, so I will quote her:

"I had purchased one of those huge embellishment packs from Michaels after the holidays last year which had over 40 different color coordinated embellishment pieces. I decided to use some of those as the starting point for my colors. I also decided to work in colors out of my comfort zone, such as pinks, purples, red, peach. Using the embellishments as the color starting point, I played around with reinkers and alcohol for the backgrounds. They came out rather nicely - but then I was stumped, what to do for the focals? Was going to try stamping, but that didn't look right. That was the point where I considered dropping out.
I decided to go through my old art print catalogs that I got shortly after starting work at Michaels. found some images (Kim Anderson) that were black & white and amazingly enough the touches of color in the photos went exactly with the backgrounds. "

Click on any photo for more detail -- and thanks so much for your pages & your description, Nina!

Circle Book Swap - JoAnn Reichert, PA

On Saturday I received FIVE packages for our circle book swap! Here are Jo~Ann Reichert's lovely pages; she made 5 of each design and an extra one for me!! I am keeping one of the blue fringe ones with the couple hugging under the moon : )) Thanks so much, Jo~Ann! I love the variety from the pink fairy girl, to the earthy Travel page to the romantic Blue Moon . . . .

Circle Book Swap - Mary Zimany, CT

Mary sent in some really interesting and beautiful circle pages for our swap . . . . she says she made the 'fabric backgrounds' in the different color waves you see, but they feel almost paper-like to me! Maybe she can leave a comment & tell us more how she created them (she did! Look in the comments for this post, below - thanks, Mary!). Here's a picture - enjoy!! I expect to receive quite a few more sets over the next few days. > : ))

Circle Book Swap - Cat Dodt-Ellis, ID

Here are Cat Dodt-Ellis' "grunge flower" color pages, as she calls them : ) Cat wrote to me: "They were such fun to make...what a great swap idea!!!"

Cat sent in 5 of each color you see - Thanks for participating and adding some grungy color to our swap! Very cool. I love how our books are turning out!

Circle Book Swap - Michelle Forbes, Kansas

Michelle Forbes from Topeka, Kansas sent in 10 wonderfully different circle book pages for our swap that I just received yesterday. She based the colors she used on the names of Crayola Crayon Colors - i love it! Here is a close up of two of my favorite pages (click on the scan for more detail) and you can see all of michelle's pages below. Check out the page back of one of her circle pages and you will see where she literally ripped the name off of a crayon and placed it on her page!

Thanks Michelle, fantasic art work.

Circle Book Swap - Linda Kunsman, PA

Thank you, Linda for the beautiful circle pages that you have sent in for our swap!! I love what you have created. This swap is even more fun for me than I expected because it's so great to see everyone's take on the theme -what to make for a colorful circle page. I think when this is done and we all have our swapped pages back it's going to be one awesome book!

Those of you in this circle book swap, please send to my current address as this swap is due September 7th -- before I MOVE!! If you are in one of the other swaps due later this fall, I will be sending you my new address soon. It looks like we will be doing the closing on the 2 homes on the 14th of September, and that means I will be out of here the day before (although my mail will be forwarded). The Mother Goose ATC swap is not due till October 27th and the fabric bag swap not until November 15th, so there is plenty of time!


Here are the rest of Linda's pages . . . . . so beautiful!!

I love the way she has layered the text in black and white and the quote is fantastic! Click on any picture for more detail. I think what I like best about this swap is all the pages are so different from each other, yet so complimentary! I thank you ALL for participating and look forward to getting my mail over the next few days . . I have recently heard from Nina, JoAnn, Cat, Rena, and Michelle that their pages are on the way!
: ) lenna

Circle Book Swap - Lenna Andrews, Avon, CT

Click on any picture for more detail ~

These are my own pages for the Circle Book swap - I am participating in as well as hosting! I started out by painting the back of the pages with Lumiere and Textile paint by Jacquard. Then I added various papers to the front with YES glue to match the colors I painted on the back. ARTchix studio faux post seemed perfect to add to each circle page along with some of my old "mail art" stamps. Since this is an exchange through the mail, why not? See the faux post below -- Winter Post 21 with the girl on the sled? This is something I designed myself that Helga Strauss of ARTchix made into an ARTchix winter faux post!! Pretty cooOL .

I did have a lot of fun making these circle pages and look forward to swapping all the participants pages out and creating a great little circle book!! It has been busy around here as we are most likely moving in 2 and 1/2 weeks ??? Yes! that happened quickly, didn't it? The buyers of our home have moved the closing up to September 14th. I think all will be fine with this swap as it's due on September 7th. I imagine I will swap it out immediately!! We are working on packing up and making good progress . . . and don't worry, if you are in any of my swaps I will stay in touch and let you know my new address! Thanks for your support. Lenna

Circle Book Swap - Cynthia Weed - Cody, WYO

Wow! the circle pages I have received so far are really amazing. I am so glad I am hosting this swap. It is hard to imagine what these pages will look like before you see them, and when you do . . . well, it's a great experience!! From Cynthia Weed in Cody, Wyoming, we have 20 beautiful "shades of Rose". Cynthia's are all fabric, and very beautiful. Click on any picture to see more detail.

Thankyou, Cynthia!