Designing Women

I had the pleasure of working in Lois' Designing Women book this month.  In a poem she wrote, she invites the artists to share a favorite color, technique, destination, hobby, dream and to "leave a little you behind."

For some reason, I knew that I wanted to create a flag book in my spread.   One afternoon during a "playdate" with some art buddies, I sat down to make my flag book.  I went to my scrap paper stash and pulled out samples of my favorite papers.  I am drawn to rich, dark colors, metallics and bling.  Before long, I had a delicious selection of papers to use for my flags.

I had initially intended to showcase a few adjectives that friends of mine have used to describe me on the flags, but abandoned that idea because I did not like the look of the words on the back of the flags.  I went ahead and adhered the flag book into Lois' book and proceeded to decorate the background pages with stamps using perfect pearls, but something was still missing.  I turned to my friend Su, to get some ideas.  Since Lois' book has to do with leaving something of yourself behind, something personal, Su suggested incorporating a handprint.  What could be more personal than that?

I pulled out all of my metallic paints and started covering my hands in paint to place a few of my handprints on the background pages.  I then took the words that my friends used to describe me and wrote them along the outlines of my handprints.  This is how it turned out: