Still at it....The Montana Book

I haven't given up! In fact, I have rolled over all my 2011 Year of the Book resolutions to 2012. I think I'm allowed to do that...by my rules at least. I have been working on pamphlet sets all along and will be posting some of them on Etsy as soon as I get a shop set up. I took the month of November off from blogging to do NaNoWriMo, which is, in short, writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. This was my first try and I am proud to say I completed at 51,022 words - all I have to do now is edit, no small job I assure you. Catching up begins with completion of one of my nearly finished books. As is almost always the case, I wasn't nearly as 'nearly' finished as I supposed I was.

I used various sizes of board for the pages and bound them all with two large blue rings. Most of the pages were 8"x 8" but a few were 6"x 6" and the evelopes were 4" wide and cut down to 6" tall.

Most of the Montana Book was completed during the two week trip I made in 2010. I had three goals at the time, one was to incorporate more actual artwork, another was to do most of the work on the road, and the other was to work in more vivid colors than is normal for me. I was only modestly successful at the first goal, fairly successful at the second, but quite successful at the third. Most of the 'finishing' work consisted of adding the envelopes holding my photos from the trip.

Since I was traveling alone, I felt the need to be in contaact with someone - not for safety issues but because it is almost impossible to shut me up. After I returned home, my daughter printed off all my texts and I copied them onto these pages. The color enhanced photos on the back cover were done in Picnik.

I have posted these mosaics on Flickr as well as the original scans in case anyone wishes to take a look at some of the text. I also have a Flickr set with all the photos from the trip http://www.flickr.com/photos/39450859@N07/sets/72157623648251864/
Montana is still home to me, although I have been in Washington since I was in the fifth grade and I am blessed to have a whole bunch of wonderful relatives still there.

Cousin Convention Book

I almost forgot about this book, it might actually be the first one I made.  It was done for what we call our Cousin Convention in 2001.  There are seven of us left on my Mom’s side and thanks to the brilliant idea of my cousin-in-law Dick, we have been meeting every two years for a long weekend.  It has not only kept us all in touch, but has given the next generation a chance to get to know each other.  We have met in Seattle, Charleston, and all over Montana.  I made one of these little booklets for each of my cousins – and for once, I thought to make one for myself.



This is the front and back covers - the booklet consists of a single sheet folded into five panels.  The front includes a basic family tree and a scan of a postcard sent to my grandmother in 1949.  As usual, I used postage stamps and rubber stamps and a quote, pretty standard items for me.



This two-fold includes grandparents wedding photo, scan from a baby book, another postcard scan (from 1919) and a photo of the old homestead with a yellow rose that has grown to cover yards of ground around the building remains.



On the left, a photo of Grandma and chickens at the 'new house' (this side of the Baldy) and pheasant feathers.  The right page was personalized with family photos for each branch of the family - my Mom on the chair and four generations showing me on Grandma's lap.

I worked very hard to make everything on this book meaningful - all the postage stamps related to us in one way or another, pheasant is standard fare in Montana - but I must admit, the joss paper was a bit of a disconnect.