Suitcase Saturday

A hatbox this time.  Gone are the days when ladies always traveled with several trunks and hatboxes - but they are still around - this one a decorative storage version from Ross.

It holds gloves, bowties and one lone net be-decked fascinator 

(just the thing for a royal wedding!)

Gathered from thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls and eBay - they often provide just the right finishing touch,

 An Evening at the Opera-Box #5

for an assemblage,

13 Journals Round Robin - The White Journal

or a journal page.

Suitcase Saturday

I found this small vintage case at the local swap meet a few years ago. It's delightfully worn and faded.

I keep some family photos, letters and diaries from the
late 1800's and early 1900's in it.

Baby pictures of my maternal grandmother,
an autograph book, Victorian scrap pictures,
letters from the front during WWI.

I used copies of some of these for a journal spread
in a swap I was part of several years ago.

13 Journals - Sunset Fairies

The second of the 13 Journals that had fairies in its theme. Another chance for wings - but remember, it was 2005, they weren't quite as passe yet. The sunset part of the colour choice brought out the reds, oranges and yellows, including the gorgeous paper in the above spread that has gold foil running through it.


The velum over lay was printed with a recipe "to enable one to see the fairies" found in an old herbal. A nod, on the page below, to the flower fairies, this page featured strips of textured yellow and orange heavy paper, copper tape and a charming wooden feather.



It's been fun re-visiting this project and sharing it with all of you. This was my only round robin experience so far and I enjoyed it very much.

13 Journals - Chocolat

Who doesn't love chocolate? That was the colour choice for this entry in the 13 Journals round robin project. I used a handful of vintage chocolate labels embellished with small metal picture frames, a fold-out library pocket filled with more chocolate images and coordinating ribbons.

And even a couple of contemporary labels taken from Swiss chocolate that daughter Bronwyn had brought back from a trip to Switzerland a few months before.

13 Journals - Fairies

What is the colour of fairies? Every participant in the 13 Journals round robin was able to interpret this in their own way. I pictured the forest and did one page in spring colours and one in autumn. Wings and a title page from a vintage book of fairy tales added interest.

I also included this group of pages from A Midsummer Night's Dream - the ultimate fairy tale! - I distressed with ink and added ribbons.

13 Journals - Fjord

This one of the 13 Journals was entitled Fjord. I was stumped for awhile but during the month it was waiting at my house someone donated a stack of sheet music to the library and in it was a copy of the Norwegian nation anthem "Ja, Vi Elsker". Using that as my starting point I raided a stack of atlases for various maps of Norway, put them on a painted blue background and overlaid them with portions of the sheet music and dictionary definitions of fjord. Page pebbles in several different colours of blue were the finishing touch.

13 Journals - Yellowgreen, Copper & Gold

The "copper" in this 13 Journals entry immediately made me think of the Statue of Liberty, and I used that for my inspiration. I pulled out all my copper embellishments - letters, mesh, metal and foil tape and wire. I used pictures from the Smithsonian archives of immigrants at Ellis Island between the years of 1895-1910. I began with one face, the fear and hope plain on her face, and then turning the page a spread showing crowds waiting and then a family looking across the water towards their new home.

The picture of Liberty to the left above was taken by Margot many years ago and entitled "Pregnant with Liberty", she kindly allowed me to use it for this journal.

I included a portion of Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" found at the base of the statue:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

13 Journals - Yellowgreen & Lavender

Yellowgreen & Lavender suggested a springish flora and fauna theme to me, so I went with dragon flies, flowers, a hand tinted page from a plant field guide and butterflies. I found several different ribbons in matching colours and covered the right hand side of the spread with fabric. Look closely and you will see one of the very few times I succumbed to the "dunce-cap/wings" phenomenon!

13 Journals - Violet & Green

Violet and green were the colours of this book in the 13 Journals round robin. I went with a Parisian theme. The preceding entries had all mentioned a crown so I included that as well.

Two parts I especially liked on this spread were the old calender page from the '20's and the vintage plastic slide holder in which I inserted a diminutive photo of the Arc de Triomphe.

13 Journals - Sepia Grandmothers

This book in the 13 Journals round robin was entitled Sepia Grandmothers. It was one of my favourites. I used copies of Victorian scrap that my grandmother collected as a girl, copies of her baby pictures and pieces of vintage correspondence.



Another photo shows her and my grandfather standing in the garden of the house where my mother was born in Azusa, and a vintage postcard of Warren, Indiana, my grandmother's birthplace. She grew up, married my grandfather, and lived there (other than an 8 year homesteading experience in West Texas) until they moved to California in 1920.

13 Journals - RED !

The RED! journal was the first one I received in the mail in the 13 Journals Group round-robin.
I took my inspiration from vintage fashion and then pulled out every piece of red I could find in my stash.

I was especially happy with the copper metallic pen on the embossed background paper that picked up the copper foil along the page edges.

13 Journals - Autumn

Autumn, my favourite time of year, so it was an added pleasure working on this one of the 13 Journals when it came. I had been collecting leaves for a few months prior to be ready, and loved the pewter twig I found.


The vintage carte de vista photo seemed to have just the right touch of poignancy that we so often feel when the leaves begin to fall.

13 Journals - Pink/Yellow/Aquamarine

When I found out the colours for this one of the 13 Journals, my mind went directly to Mexico - I mean, pink and yellow? Gotta be! I had a huge stash of ephemera that would work for this project, including loteria cards, papel picado banners and vintage photos.

As I remember it's the one that I finished in record time. Usually the journals would sit on my art table for 3 weeks and than I'd finally get them done in the last few days, but this one almost made itself!

13 Journals - White

This was the white journal from the 13 Journals Group. The substrata was a vintage stamp album. So everyone got to pick a country to do their spreads on. I was very happy when the book came in the mail to me and no one had chosen the England pages yet. With white and England to fuel my creativity I decided on an Edwardian shopping spree. Vintage sewing notions, advertisements, postcards, a long kidskin glove and a bow rescued from a bridesmaid dress all added to the fashion fun.

I was especially pleased with the glove. I attached the top to the back page with long brads and then flipped the finger section over the front of the page. It could be lifted to see the contents of the front page.

13 Journals - Ocean

The 13 Journals round-robin project grew out of all of us attending the True Colors Workshop at The ARTbar in Santa Ana, California in June of 2005. This remarkable gathering featured the artists of the True Colors collaboration that was chronicled in the book True Colors - A Palette of Collaborative Art Journals published by Stampington & Co.

The workshop was a three day event featuring the amazing artists who had participated in this collaborative. There were classes, lectures, and a chance to actually see the 16 True Color journals in person. Also sign-up sheets for those of us who wanted to do our own round-robin of colorful journals.


Since there were 13 of us in the group, in a hearty burst of anti-superstition, we decided to call ourselves"The 13 Journals Group". For 15 months our books traveled around the western United States as we filled each other's books with pages of the chosen color. Several of us were able to re-convene at The ARTbar when the journals were done for a wonderful visit and reunion.
The top photo is the cover of my journal Ocean, and the bottom one my spread from the same. Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing my pages from all the journals. Another wonderful outcome of that workshop was my friendship with the fantastically talented and all-round crazy person Lisa Hoffman.

Happy Birthday, Grandma

Blanche Hutzel Ewart - 16 months

I never knew my mother's mother. She and my grandfather were killed in an auto accident 4 years before I was born. I know I look like her, as did my mother. In 1885 on October 4, she was born in the Franklin Township of Indiana. It was a blisteringly cold autumn that year and she arrived a month early - the family legend says she was so tiny they put her in a shoe box lined with dishtowels and into the warming oven to keep her from the cold. When she was 16 months old she weighed 16 pounds and was 16 inches long. She was always short of stature, 4'10" - but long on intelligence, strength and love.

Upper right - Grandpa & Grandma Ewart - 1930's

Lower right - Grandma - 1885

She and my grandfather homesteaded in west Texas, farmed in Indiana and eventually moved to California in 1920. They had 6 children - 2 boys, followed by 4 girls - the last, my mother who was born in Azusa, California in 1925. My grandmother raised rabbits and vegetables and did paper deliveries during the depression to help bring in needed cash. She lived to see several grandchildren born, and, the death of one of her sons.

I've been told she had a great sense of humor - something my mother and I shared. One of the regrets of my life is that I never knew her. Happy Birthday Blanche Hutzel Ewart, my grandma.

pages from The Grandmother Sepia Journal - 13 Journals Round Robin 2005-2006

Seeing red

"RED" spread from 13 Journals Project 2005

I'm supposed to wear red for a Valentine's dinner at the upcoming Taos workshop - but, I'm a redhead, red is just about the only color I dont' wear. I have nothing red in my closet or my bureau - redheads don't do red! I do have red earrings, maybe a red scarf... will be packing soon, so hopefully the solution will arrive quickly!