More Book of Dreams Pages

What a beautiful day it is today. I didn't plan to spend it all inside, but I got so engrossed in working on my Book of Dreams that the day just slipped away. Sometimes even nice weather must take a back seat to artistic endeavors when inspiration is present.

I am loving this Book of Dreams project so much. I haven't even started working on this week's challenge of "Pop-ups." Actually I was looking through my Book of Dreams and came across a circle I had cut in a page a couple weeks ago when we worked on "windows." For some reason I didn't use this circle at that time, but now I thought a transparancy I had of a vase full of French Lilacs would look nice in it. So from that little chance rediscovery of the cut out circle came these pages.

For many, many years I have longed to visit Paris. It has been a dream of mine since I was in 7th grade where our class took French lessons from a teacher named Madame Varias. She was quite a character, but we all studied our DLM French dialogue tapes until we could recite them to perfection! What I like the most about Madame Varias was that she would tell us about life in Paris - the food, the sights, the culture, etc. I remember thinking to myself that someday I will travel to Paris and see everything she described to us.

In the photo above, the left hand page is an illustrated map of Paris. The right hand page shown in the photo below is done in shades of purple, lavender, teal and brown. I covered the whole page in a wash of lavender and collaged on top of that with a combination of patterned papers, rubber stamps, ephemera, ribbon, a rhinestone earring, paper clip, buttons and page pebbles. I made the tiny travel journal and it has handwritten pages and maps inside of it along with a hand beaded tiny bookmark. The hazy, translucent white circle in the center is supposed to evoke a feeling of a moonlit Parisan sky and has the word "someday..." written in white opaque ink. It also corresponds with the tranparency on the half page, giving it a light background to allow the transparency to show up better.

In the transparency half-page shown below, I used several teal glazes for the background and collaged over it using patterned paper napkins on both sides. I enjoy using napkins and tissue paper on collages because the thin tissue seems to melt into the background. Finally I embellished the page with some rhinestones, a rubber stamped embossed image and some beaded fringe.

So now it is time to get started on the pages that I am supposed to be working on this week - "Pop-ups." I think I may have to get my geometry skills dusted off for this one!!