Something About Nothing

I recently ordered Lesley Riley's book Creative Lettering Workshop , and her Reverse Alphabet Stamps.   I desperately needed a play session and so I broke out the stamps, paints and Gelli® plates. These stamps create reverse letters, therefore if they will create backwards letters if used directly on paper, but when used in a transfer situation they come out perfectly forwards.  I really like how the individual stamps can connect together.  You can put them all together and store them in a big rectangle.  I still need to figure out a storage place for mine. I played around with some cardstock, inks and paints. The words on the pieces in the upper right are stenciled on after printing. I went a little crazy stamping about. Because the Gelli® plate is soft I tried to be careful with how hard I pressed the letters into the paint.  Too soft and the letter was barely there, and too hard and I got an imprint of the box around the letter....

My friend, Dana Ryan Perez, invited me over for a book making play date.  Dana was an environmental scientist (before it was cool) and is now a talented book maker and mixed media artist. Dana and I in front of her son's fabulous painting. Her studio was beautiful!  Lots of skylights for wonderful lighting but I was more focused on the scene below. Her father was a printer and the printing drawer on the wall was his. Dana has been making these adorable little Washi tape covered books.   The measurements on the mat give you an idea of how small they are.  The book in the middle was created with little pockets to store feather treasures in. Dana said she finds herself collecting them from the park and golf course where she jogs in the mornings.   Isn't this adorable!!! The books at the bottom of this photo were created by Dana in preparation for a class she and another friend, Toni, taught to the Utah Surface Design Group w...