Eggstravaganza Countdown: 6 Days To Go

A couple of years ago when I decided I wanted to start making paper flowers, the first kind I made were these:

I still like them. Very simple with a bright jewel in the center.

I make them with very thin wire so they look good in all kinds of vases. Vases made of wood...



...and vases made of books.

I like to mass them together in a big jumble.

You can too. Just come buy some at the Eggstravaganza. April 9.

Eggstrvaganza Countdown: 7 Days To Go

Lots of tiny folded pieces.  

Pieced together to make five petaled lovelies. 

And crowned with a dazzling jewel. 

Because butterflies need a place to land. 

Eggstravaganza in one week. 

Eggstravaganza Countdown: 8 Days To Go

Guess what these are.

They're my shelves in my workshop full of RDCB pages that I've removed from books that I folded. 

I have boxes of them now. 

And stacks on tables. 

But check out my new obsession. 

Butterflies made of RDCB pages!

I love them! I've added a magnet to the back of them so you can pin them to your fridge. 

Or hold your favorite picture to your bulletin board. 

And they'll be on sale at the Eggstravaganza next week. 

Butterflies are free!  Well actually $2 each. 

Eggstravaganza Countdown: 9 Days To Go

Nine days to go until Eggstravaganza and what could be hiding behind the rich black cover of this RDCB?

It's one of my new favorites:

Ever since I saw this paper, I wanted to make this book. I love the subtle pink, gray, and taupe.

It really highlights the color of the pages.

And the black edge of the cover really sets it off.

Will this book be available at Extravaganza? Believe it!

Eggstravaganza Countdown: 10 Days

Spring has sprung! How do I know? The usual way. 

I saw a snake in my driveway.

Oh, and the new azaleas in my front yard are blooming.

And because my wreaths are looking forward to Easter!

What says Easter more than plastic Easter eggs and neon pink plastic grass?

How about a folded bunny?

This bunny is destined for the Eggstravaganza Craft Show at Klein United Methodist Church on April 9. Starting today I'm going to count down the days with pics of what you'll be able to see at my booth.

The bunny book is folded from an RDCB with a cherry pink and taupe diamond pattern and coordinating pastel watercolor-y endpapers. 

Wouldn't it look great sitting on your bookshelf to remind you that Spring is here?

Much better than looking for snakes in the driveway. Trust me.

Cover Art

I have an addiction to RDCBs, but I've told you that already. I even told you about how I ran out of room in the attic and started keeping RDCBs out in the garage. But the other day my OCD kicked in and I started stacking all the books with the same designs together.

See!

Look how pretty they are standing like colorful tin soldiers all at attention!

Anyway, it occured to me that if you've never paid attention to RDCBs, you probably don't realize all the fabulous covers they have.

 

For instance, there's this beauty...

 

 

Or what about this one?

 There are so many cool covers, that I decided to make a Pinterest board called Fabulous Book Covers just so you could see. 

Well, really I made it because of the OCD thing I was talking about above, but seriously, check it out! I was surprised to find that I already have 24 different designs pictured. But I know there are more designs than that.

Like in all those boxes on the couch waiting to be emptied...

Oh, and that box over there.

I'll get to them sooner or later and keep updating my board, but in the meantime, if you see a cover you like and you want a word folded fabulously into it, let me know at my Etsy shop.

My shelves will thank you.

And so will my couch.

And that box over there on the blue and purple rug.

My Very Famous Brother

My very famous brother turned a very significant age recently, so I want to to commemorate it with a special gift.

It is now part of family lore that my parents were so quick to pick up on his innumerable talents as a youngster that they put up a storage shed in the backyard of our childhood home for him to use as his personal playhouse. I'm talking playhouse...as in he put on plays in our backyard. Everything from Charlie Brown to magic shows to Shakespeare.

You should have seen him at age 8 give Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy, complete with burning candle, where he finished the speech and blew out the candle all in one terrifying "signifying naaah-thing" breath.

From there it was on to Disneyworld and Broadway (Ever seen Cats in NYC? Or Tommy? Then you've probably seen my very famous brother.) and now he's producing star-studded events like this one..

and this one and who could forget this one?

So like I said, I wanted to make him something special.

The first thing I did was to find a special book.


How about the 1964 Book of the Year for the 1964 man of the year?

Next I had to decide on a word, and no word seemed to sum up my very famous brother more than

I wanted to leave room for a little sumpin'-sumpin' on the end papers, so I twisted the word like I did for Twas which gave me extra space in the corners.

One thing that is different about this book than most of the books I fold is the colored pages. Usually I tear out any colored pages so all the pages look uniform, but this book was full of colored pages. See? 

 

If I tore out all those, there wouldn't be enough pages to fold any word. So, instead of trying to hide the colors, I decided to accent them instead. 

That's why I picked a very sparkly black paper to cover the end papers.

Then I added a sentiment in a coordinating aqua. (Hmmm...says the guy on page 49. This is pretty cool!)

...And voila, the finished product.

Here's to many happy returns of the day, very famous brother. Love you!