When Is a Laundry Room not a Laundry Room?

When it's an art room, of course.....I have a laundry room next to the back of my studio and it has turned out to be a perfect place for gelli printing....

It's been such a long time since I pulled out my gelli stuff I had to take take a quick peek at the book to refresh my memory...but, as it turns out, it comes back to you really quickly..

Today was a dark and delightfully rainy Friday and what better to do than hang out and play with paint?
I couldn't think of anything......I had pumpkin curry in the fridge for lunch and rain on the roof and paint and paper and good music.....

It was so easy to set up since I had the boxes of supplies right there in the cupboards of the laundry...er...art room....just pulled them out and in five minutes I was pulling prints.

Making pages for my altered book -- hey -- you guys told me I needed to make my own altered book after I showed you the one I made for Dori's birthday....

***And the pages at 5 x 7-1/2***
I'm just saying in case any of you ( I can punch the holes.and you know who you are) want to send me some pages you make to add to my book.

Stencils, fingers....it all works....I employ a variety of techniques.

I was smart enough to pack a box with everything I need -- papers, bubble wrap, tags, card stock,  mark making things-- so all I had to do was to get busy.
And WHY have I waiting so long to do this? It is so easy and fun and a perfect thing to be doing on a rainy day.
(You may have to get used to us here in San Francisco talking about rain all the time...we are trying to get over a drought and every time it rains we get over-excited)

I ended up with about twenty double-sided pages and some tags and postcards....and one little bag I gellied too...not bad for a few hours.

You can see three postcards here and a couple of test sheets....

So, that you have it -- a rainy Friday afternoon with me.

Next up, got to trim the pages to size and do some collaging on them and punch holes and add to my altered book.
What are you all doing? Is it raining where you are? Or, maybe snowing?
Grab some paper and paint and start playing.
It's the weekend.

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Passing the Afternoon Most Pleasantly......

There are lots of ways to spend a pleasant afternoon.....and one of them is to go to a SF Correspondence Co-Op meeting....

You can sit around and socialize...and you can make things at the same time.....

I like to collage...and take photographs.....and inspect the swap table.

Just look at this fabulous two-tone bird made with rubber stamps from Paris....

It takes two stamps and two ink pads and look what you get....oh lala!

I packed my special mail pouches up for the meeting.....The one on the left from the fabulous Dori Singh and the one on the right from my pal CeCe in NYC.
I'm pretty lucky.

Another rather delightful way to spend an afternoon is at the Vintage Paper Fair,
some thing I did just last weekend.

How could I pass up these postcard folders for $1 each? I couldn't.
I love the old graphics and they are fun "as-is" or to cut up for collage or use in travel journals.

One seller was selling old snapshots for .25-cents each. I don't know what they go for where you live, but around the Bay Area they are A LOT so I sifted through two large boxes for a stash of old photos to use in collage and cards.

And envelopes! Oh yes please. I just love vintage envelopes. (One day OURS will be vintage!)

Old handwriting? Old stamps? Cancellations?
What's not to love?

They really new how to make good letterheads back in the day, didn't they?

Picked up a few face value stamps too...

I think these are my favorite finds. Tiny little pictures of fancy ladies all dolled up with great hair and hats.....

These are going to work perfectly in those passports I am altering...

So, now another way to spend a perfectly pleasant afternoon is to stay in my studio and make things using all these great paper finds.
One thing leads to another, right?
I have lots of ideas.

You have a favorite way to spend a pleasant afternoon?
Do tell.
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Birthday Book for my Friend

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A birthday book for my my special pal. It was really fun to make this.  Thought you all might like to see the pages and process.
It was a rush to the finish line to get this to her in time so I am going to work on some more pages for the book and send them on to her.
That way the party keeps on going on!
I hope she likes it!(It was fun to think up pages with things she likes like mushrooms & Squirrels)
(And yes, she already has the book -- I am not spoiling the surprise).
Now I am thinking of making myself a book like this....
what do you think? Should I?

And the STAMP GIVEAWAY from the post Put A Stamp On It -- I forgot to tell you guys the stamp winners in my last post so here goes --
(drum roll please)

miss polly -- I had to pick you because the comment you left was a riot! I am sending you some stamps to fondle all you want.
&

Dawn C -- loved your comment too and would love to see a card you make with stamps. Just leave a comment with your mailing address(I won't publish it).

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