Altered book swap and workshop

When i started my monthly altered book group - oh about 7 years ago now, the intention was to bring together artists with a passion for creativity, and the comradery of sharing our artistic endeavours. We began at attic archives, a paper store in Corte Madera, which has sadly since closed, after a bunch of us took a workshop with Beth Cote. We then moved my group (or my kikuyu, as i call them) to a class room at a private school in Mill Valley where one of us was an art teacher. Then we moved to a studio in Point Richmond, then a craft store in Berkeley. But for the last few months we have been meeting, a small but dedicated group, at Dorothy's house in San Francisco. The structure is always the same. Show and tell, followed by introducing the work we did in each other's books, then a small workshop. In the beginning the workshops were technique based, trying out new products, or ways with paper and paint. Now i am more interested in producing finished art pieces - so that's what i try to do. Today we created sweet spring-like collage on 5" boards i happened to have a large supply of. I was inspired by artwork shown on the decor8 blog, especially a company called Print, Pattern and Paper. I created all the pieces above - using coordinating scrapbook paper and Dorothy's extensive collection of paper punches. Today there was a lot of great show and tell. Carol took two great workshops recently. She made a cool journal with kelly kilmer at Stampers Warehouse. She also took an A to Z technique class with Ulla Milbrath at Castle in the Air. Please check out Carol's blog for images. Carol created these 4 pieces with birds and flowers cut from assorted scrapbook paper.Dorothy shared a richly coloured small board book she created at a workshop at Center for the Book. She also wowed us with a new quilt she made that featured circles. She created this lovely collage of flowers today, and stashed some paper to create more.Shelley did these nicely coordinating flowers. Some of these WERE flowers, cut from paper, but some were created by arranging shapes. For show and tell Shelley shared a journal - called Wreck this Journal - a very cool interractive book with prompts to encourage you to create art right in the book. Check it out on Amazon.
As you can see, we certainly enjoy our monthly sessions. Sharing art, making art, and talking about workshops and blogs and instructors. I have Carols book to work on now, the theme is All Things Greek or Roman. I'll be sure to share when i am done!