Round Robin

In the altered book world, a round robin consists of a group in which each member passes a book from one person to another, altering a few pages before sending it on. This is usually done by mail, involves several people and takes months to complete. My family spent this past week together camping at a nearby lake. Every day we spread our art supplies on a big picnic table under the shade of grand old trees and had our ‘altered’ version (pardon-the-pun) of a round robin. It was great fun. Contributors include both my daughters, my mom, and even my dad! It will take a little more work to get a page from the husband and sil—but we won’t lose hope.

I chose not to assign a theme, but rather let each artist create from their own inspiration.
This is my mom’s first page—ever. She made many more throughout the week.

The creative gene runs rampant in our family. This is my dad’s first – and so far, only- page:

A fun thing I sometimes do when hosting an altering get-together is offer ‘recipes’ or challenges to get the creative juices flowing. Below is a challenge to my eldest:

"Close your eyes and select two colors of paint from the paint box. Close your eyes and select two folders from the picture files. You may choose one picture from each file. You may use items from the scrap tray for other details."

Her choices were the colors pink and gold and pictures from the food and Oriental folders. Here is the result:

Caption: "If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" (Also notice the serendipity--the book title: The complete book of pitfalls--discovered after the page was finished!)

Using the same challenge, my youngest created this page. Her choices were the colors orange and turquoise, and pictures from the alphabet and flower folders.

It is amazing how each person interprets the choices they are given, creating something beautiful and unique. Could there be a life lesson in there somewhere???

I'll have more of our round robin later........