Planting Seeds

I've been working on a new shared art project over the past few days.  But the thing is....I can't write too much about it until the end...which will probably be April. My Wisconsin friends Becky, Tracie, Brenda, and I are starting something new....and we all want our end products to be a surprise.  

But I can introduce what we're doing....because sometimes that plants a seed with someone else to start something....and I highly recommend a shared art journey with someone you love. 

I've written about several people over the years who've been inspired to start shared art projects...and that makes me so happy. My shared art journey started as far back as 2008ish with Lynn and Ellen....then my sister Marilyn and my friend Becky.  And I've never really stopped.  Sometimes it's a one time exchange....and sometimes it's a long term project....and I've loved every one of them.

Anne and I did a year long accordion motto book shared art project several years ago.... and is still one of my favorites.  Which leads right into this new project.

I had a few of these little accordion fold cardstock books in my stash.  I'm not sure where they came from....but they each had 4 pages so they seemed like a good starting place for some sort of a trade for us.  I sent one to the other three....and we had a Zoom chat before Christmas and came up with a plan.

We are each picking a theme for our own little book.  Anything goes.

We would do the cover page....using our theme as our inspiration. We would do the backside of that page...this time using words....and images if you want...again inspired by the theme. 

The books will travel around the circle over the next few months and we will do the same thing in each other's book on the theme of that book.  We aren't going to know the individual themes until we get the next book.

I finished my 2 pages today....and I'll get it in the mail soon....and I can't wait to see what the next book will bring.  

I am hoping to get to Wisconsin in April to meet Emily and Kegan's baby boy...my God Grandson.  The four of us will gather while I'm there and get our finished books back and we will all have a "reveal" at the same time.  It's so exciting to start something new! 

I'm sharing this photo of my little blank book....mostly because I wanted to share the little row of rainbow old spools I put on top of my bottle box.  I had some other random colors there when I posted about my cutting station....but I thought it needed to be a rainbow.

I've got quite a collection of these little wooden spools.

This is the backside of my page drying under my weights.  I can't show the page...but I can talk about more supplies.  I generally like to stitch art onto the surface...but when I can't I use this "red super tape" around the edges with some glue stick in the middle.  It's two sided tape....the red part peels off and it's awesome.  I've had these large glass paperweights for years....and I love that they look like giant marbles. With the help of a cutting ruler...this is my go-to drying and flattening method.

You probably won't hear a word about this project again until April....but I'll be quietly working on each book when it comes around until spring. And who knows....maybe this post has planted a few seeds for someone to explore some sort of a shared art project with someone you love.  

And I'd love to facilitate if you need it!  

There are several labels along the side of the blog to facilitate a search: shared art, 4 x 6 exchange, art journal, creative exchange, long term shared art, and pinterest inspired.