I’ve jumped headlong into 2 new long-term swaps.

The first one I signed up for was a tip-in swap with 6 players. The same type of swap as my very first one…except that had more players.
It’s a color theme swap…obviously, my color is blue. I’m using this book that I rescued from the library’s free shelf. It’s not an old sewn binding book as is recommended but I figure since it won’t be traveling around I can fix any issues that may occur with the binding.

The second swap is actually an altered book round robin. As of yesterday there were 5 of us. It would be fun if we could get a couple more players but with this type of swap you really need to be committed since mailing entire books can get a bit expensive especially towards the end when the books are getting real thick and heavy.

Based on the sewn binding books I had on hand, I decided on the theme: There’s no place like home. The title of the book, We have always lived in a castle, helped determine the theme.  It will be really fun to see how the other players interpret the theme.

I wanted to leave the original title on the binding so I used what I call my Kelly Rae inspired background technique which basically consists of using gel medium to glue down scraps of book text onto the cover.  After it’s all dry, I paint. Sometimes more text shows through than this. I was actually going for more of that look but I got a little heavy handed with the base wash. So I went with it…

The cover isn’t exactly what I had in mind but it’s not too often I can get my vision to translate directly to the canvas.

Next I’ll work on the sign-in page. I have several ideas floating around but nothing has screamed at me as a must do yet.

Hopefully I’ll come to some decision while we are moving snow this morning. The kids got a snow day!  We got over 11 inches of snow and now there is freezing rain coming down!! What’s up with that!?!?