Fatbook Pages*

I have finished my 52 fatbook pages for the ArtFest Fatbook exchange. I am done. I am going to have them in the mail tomorrow and they will arrive before the deadline. When I say before the deadline, I mean, practically on the deadline but a couple of days early. It's that whole procrastination thing I wrote about last time. At least I am not having to overnight the cards!

I am happy with the cards, too, which is a bonus!

I feel like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I'm freeeeeeeeeeee!

I was able to play in my Caribbean travel journal this morning because I have finished my commitments for ArtFest (ATCs and Fatbook). I entered my notes from a class that Nonie and I took from Dave Fox at Rick Steves' last Thursday on how to "Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and still have time to enjoy your trip)." Mr. Fox had a lot of good ideas, like writing postcards to yourself and mailing them home as souvenirs and journal entries, journaling about someone you met that particular day, writing about a digital photo you took and leaving room in the journal to paste a copy of the photo when you return home, etc. While most of these things I have figured out for myself over the years, it was very helpful to have them all listed and organized on one sheet of paper (two sided!). Good class, nice man, and a fun evening. The Rick Steves Travel office offers lots of free classes and I plan to take more advantage of this great travel resource that is one block from my house!

I like the way my journal is shaping up and I'm having way too much fun adding backgrounds to my pages and bits and pieces here and there.
*Fatbook=a compilation of a group of pages (4 inches by 4 inches, 4 x 6, etc.) done by a group of artists as a round robin exchange. A fatbook page is often heavily embellished with fiber, ribbon, beads, lace, all manner of dimension additions that add to the thickness of the individual pages rendering the book to be fat! It usually is very thick, much thicker than the binding. Each person sends to the host or hostess of the exchange the number of pages required and receives back a book that has one page from each participant, bound in some manner.