12 Months of the Seasons

Hello everyone,

As I was cleaning and straightening up my studio, I saw this accordion folded book laying out and decided to share it with you today before I filed it away again. I had this out because I shared some of the pages with everyone who attended the Wednesday Night Live in C&T Publishing’s Digital Lounge.

Each Wednesday night at 9:00 pm (EST) there is a 1 hour show of craft demos etc. It is a great time, and the projects are always great, so, try to join in the fun.

OK, back to the accordion fold book. I made this book almost 2 years ago in a club I belonged to.The project lasted 12 months and we were to bring a 6"X6" panel to add to an accordion fold book. We decided to use the theme of the 4 seasons. So, at the meeting in Jan., Feb., and Mar., we were to bring one panel in at each month's meeting in the winter theme, Apr., May and June meetings were a spring theme, and so on, throughout the whole year, til the book was done. When we brought our panels in, we showed everyone what we had done, explained how we did it and then we drew numbers and took someone else's panel home. Well, with that in mind, I wanted to have a book of the panels I made, as well as a book of the ones I received each month. So, when I made my panels I made 2 the same. One of the panels that I made, went into one of my books the other panel was given away. The panels that I received, went into the other book.

Here are the photos of all the panels I made.

This is the cover.

 I painted it gold and adhered a piece of paintable wallpaper in the center.

The first season was WINTER

The deer I used was a copy of one that was in a grungeboard package. Since I needed 2 deer and only had one, I just copied the one onto the chipboard and cut it out. The tree was my design. I made the trunk out of chipboard and wrapped it with wire. As I wrapped I then added the naked branches and got what my minds eye saw, as a winter tree. As I started these panels I wanted to have a wire element on each months panel, but that just didn't work out. The next panel shows  2 photos of the snow in my backyard and the third was a window that I made. The bird was a picture off the internet, printed onto ink jet transparency. and the pine trees are stamped onto white cardstock. I sandwiched everything to give the illusion of looking out a window and seeing that bird.

 Next was SPRING

 

The background on the bird panel is actually from one of those $1.00 calendars you see at Michael's and various other places. I stamped a bird and cut it out and adhered it over the calendar image. The next panel was all stamped and hand drawn by me, using another panel from that cheap calendar as the inspiration. Lastly, the butterfly was a cutout from something and the flowers were stamped and cut out, stems hand drawn and the butterfly added.

Next was SUMMER

 

Summer just reminds me of beaches and mature flower beds. So again, I used another calendar page as a background of the beach scene and added bathing suits, The next panel is a collage of dried flowers and a scene from somewhere. The third panel is a hand drawn panel of flowers, these reminded me of hollyhocks from afar.

Finally we are into FALL

The panel for Halloween was inspired by a picture I saw in a magazine. I drew this house and the tree. Stamped the bat and the spider web and added the paper border at the bottom. Next panel,,I used another calendar page that showed this foot bridge in the fall. The leaves were die cut and colored with Twinkling H2O's, which is a product like Glimmer Mist but in solid form. I just surrounded the picture of the bridge with those leaves. The last panel is a stamp the I've had for years from Nature's Blessings. After I colored it I thought it really looked like a harvest bounty.Perfect to finish up the fall theme.

As I added the panels into the book, I designed a border to compliment each panel.

Hope you like the book as much as I do. It's fun to get it out and look at all the panels and remember.

Well that is it for today, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,