Calendar Swap 2013 - Just One Word

 Our monthly gathering for play dates and altered books swaps kicked off 2013 last weekend.  We each received a new blank calendar to use for the swap.  Same as last year - the little spiral bound calendars are a nice size to work in quickly.  No stress - just fun!
For my new book i went with a theme called Just One Word.  the concept is that you will create a spread - any style you like, then add ONE WORD to describe it, or express a mood of feeling, or whatever!

To emphasize the theme - the first few pages of the book express this boldly.   For this spread i used 4 different background papers and added gesso to soften the patterns.  then some yellow and green ink.  The word JUST is raised up on thick glue dots.

  Here is ONE.  My friend Z created the bird stamped muslin ribbon on top of the page.

 And WORD - the background is a combination of printed paper and tissue paper.

 Here is the introduction page for the artists who will work in the book.  The tag came from Wendy Addison and said "open me" but of course - since i can only put ONE WORD on the spread, i had to cover up the "me".   The notes to the artist are inside the envelope.  I explain the concept and let everyone know that foreign text, or allover text used as a background are ok.

Here is my first spread in the book.  I took the image of Venus by Botticelli, and cut her out from her background.  I placed her instead on a blue sky with some white clouds.  On the left i created a collage landscape using strips of blue and green papers to evoke the sea and the sky.

I added my one word: idyllic.

Here you can see in the original what i was hoping to achieve.

 For my second spread i used some images of fast moving water over mossy rocks.  I created some interest on the page by adding strips and a couple of puzzle pieces.  The word i chose - Rush, 'cus you know, that water appears to be in a hurry....!

And finally here is my sign in page.  only, yeah it just says SIGN, per the one word per spread rule.  I used Mexican bingo cards for the sign in cards.  Each artist will decorate, add fibers, whatever they want, and place it in the other envelope.