Title: Here's To Your Health
Structure: Tented Cards
Dimensions:

Video of My Process (NOTE: the audio in the first part of the video was somehow detached, but basically I'm talking about how my mother lost 52lbs while visiting with us and eating the way we eat. She was with us for 10 months.)

I had a lot of fun making this book. From the handwritten recipes to the watercolor borders, I found this process both meditative and confirming.

I mention in the video that this book was inspired by my mother and the fact that she had lost a significant amount of weight while visiting with us and eating the way we eat (mainly green smoothies EVERY morning, as many raw fruits and veggies as we can handle, and light meals when we do have cooked food.) This book was my parting gift to her as she prepared to return to Florida. I wanted her to have the smoothie recipes at her fingertips. 

The tented structure seemed perfect for this content. I couldn't see any other way. Plus, I got to play with power tools!!!

While creating this book, I kept thinking that I really wished I had taken a calligraphy class at some point because my handwriting is kinda blah. But it works. It's legible. 

If you've seen the video, then you know that I actually made two books. One for the BIAD series and one for my mom to take home with her. Her book was larger and I had to fashion paper clips for the temporary rings.

Of course there was also the upcycled art that I used. The bluish-gold papers that line the inside of the book were paste papers I made years ago in a class with book artist, Julie Chen. 

All in all, I'm happy with the results of this 17th book and I'm looking forward to what next week brings. Stay tuned! If you're watching the videos, I'm honored! If you're making the books, I'm intrigued, so please share here in the comments or on the Giving Hands Creative Community site. 

Title: Common Sense
Structure: One page book / Snake Structure
Dimensions: 5 x 5 closed
Video of my process 

It really feels like I'm so behind in everything this month. It's a month filled with great things happening, but it keeps me from being able to keep up with it all. So this book almost didn't happen. It got me thinking about what I might do if I missed a week. I think I'd be tremendously bummed and it might impact how I went forward. Luckily, that did not happen and so here I am with book 16. 

Each week, I have to reorder my list of top five BIAD books. It seems like I like the books more and more as I create them. So, to date, my top five are: 

• Book 4: Urbanite (accordion with pockets)
• Book 15: 15 (the blank art journal)
• Book 10: 20 Ways of Talking to Your Poem (Fan Book)
• Book 12: Game On (Domino Book) 
• Book 16: Common Sense (Snake Book)

This week's book, Common Sense uses a great structure with unexpected twists and turns. I love this structure, but had never made it using a painted page. The Fabriano watercolor paper I used really adds a layer of quality that I love. It gives it a thickness that alleviates the need for hard covers on the book. I think all the layers of gesso and acrylic paint help with that as well.

The text for the book comes from a collaborative poem written by me, my husband, Damon, and my two nephews, Cameron and Treavor. We were eating a meal at some restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida during the summer of 2009 (actually I think it was in 2007 or 2008), and we decided to write an exquisite corpse poem (each person writes a stanza using the last line of the previous person's stanza). I was happy to come across the poem because it really does fit the background and color palette I used. I love it when that happens organically. 

I needed this book to be easy and it was. It's one of the easiest structures I know how to make. The one page painted paper had some amazing textures and colors that really add to the narrative of the poem. I'm happy about that. 

Two things I wish I had done differently with this book:

1. The title -- Common Sense is okay, but I think if I had thought about it a little more, I might have called it Freedom Thinkers. That's a repeated phrase in the poem and I really like it.
2. The text strips -- I used printed text strips for the poem and I'm okay with that, but I didn't really try to get them on straight or even and so some of them are a little wonky. Of course, this adds to the handmade quality of the book, but I can see it so clearly and it bugs me a little to know that I could have done a lot better with that part of it. But I'm also trying to embrace the imperfection in my art (that's the quote from book 12). 

I realized today that this week, I'll be on the road again Thursday and Friday. That means I'm either doing the book on Wednesday or Saturday or maybe even Sunday again. I know that there are at least two weeks in the summer where I will be away for an entire week, which means the book will have to be made away from home -- that should be fun :-). So if I can avoid making the book away from home, I will, until I can't avoid it.

I'm looking forward to what this week brings. Stay tuned! If you're watching the videos, I'm honored! If you're making the books, I'm intrigued, so please share here or on the Giving Hands Creative Community site.  

Title: 15
Structure: Canvas Covered Art Journal
Dimensions: 6 1/2 x 9
21 blank pages
Video of my process

Immediately after this book was done, I was on to making another just like it. That's how much I loved the final product. The feel of the canvas around the watercolor papers had me eager to start journaling with paints and inks and gesso. 

If you watch the video, you'll hear me talk about the book that inspired this week's book. One of the members of the Giving Hands Creative Community, Lorrie, made a beautiful hand bound art journal for the current art journal swap. I was so enamored by it that I wanted to make my own. She used a pair of old khaki pants to make her cover. I used raw canvas. The results were amazingly similar. 

My plan for this blank book is to take a class with one of my favorite art journal teachers and fill the book with goodness. OR to simply make a new page each week. Maybe I'll even video that process too. :-)

I'll be making a lot more of these. I really enjoyed it. I think I'll even teach a live workshop where I teach this process to others and we make art journal pages in one day. Sound fun???

I'm looking forward to next week, as always. Stay tuned! If you're watching the videos, I'm honored! If you're making the books, I'm intrigued, so please share here or on the Giving Hands Creative Community site. 

Title: Full Circle
Structure: Circle Flexagon
Dimensions: 5 inch circle
Video of my process

The flexagon is a magical structure. Even though I know how it is made and I see how and why it works the way it does, I still find it magical every time I experience it. 

The topic for this week's book was full circle because I made the book the same day I read as a faculty member at Mills College. Five years ago, almost to the day, my hubby and I sat at Mills College for a faculty reading and I was in awe at the amazing readers and faculty members and the staff of the English department. 

Now, I'm a part of this fabulous department and that feels full circle if nothing else. So I started the book early in the day, then went to the reading and talked to some of our incoming students (who are amazing). Talking with them helped me gain some clarity on how to move the book forward.

I don't have much to say about this one, except that seeing it in a photo does not do it justice. You must watch the video. 

I'm looking forward to what this week brings. Stay tuned! If you're watching the videos, I'm honored! If you're making the books, I'm intrigued, so please share here or on the Giving Hands Creative Community site.

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