For the past three years, Craftster.org member “alteredmommy” has invited artists to participate in a special “chunky page” book to raise funds for her participation in the cancer fundraiser, “Relay for Life.”

If you’re not sure what a “chunky page” book is, you can see some beautiful examples from previous years at the following links:

Book of Hope 2008
Book of Hope 2009
Book of Hope 2010

The dual themes for this year’s pages are “hope” and “birds.” When I heard that I knew, just knew, I was going to use a quote from an Emily Dickinson poem. And even when I saw that someone in a previous year had the same idea, I wouldn’t be dissuaded.

It’s a really good idea.

In the end, I didn’t use a direct quote, but rather an “inspired by” phrase. Here’s the poem:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

I ask you, with the given themes, how could I chose anything else?

I started with an engraving of the Booted Racket-Tail, a South American hummingbird. I chose these little lovelies because, while beautiful, they look a bit like something out of Dr. Seuss — and what better combination to represent a mystical bird metaphor?

Using photos I found on the web for reference, I digitally painted the hummingbirds in Photoshop.

The hanging beads (oh how I love these beads) are from a (very broken) vintage necklace that I’ve been holding on to for, erm, ahem, 25+ years. I was certain I’d eventually find the perfect project for them and I now know it was worth boxing them up every time I moved.

And I only used a handful of the available beads so I can hoard hold onto the rest of them for the next Perfect Project.

The hanger is a bit of chain from another old broken necklace (yes, I do have a lot of old broken jewelry). As this page is to be part of a book, the hanger is more decorative than functional. Just a nice bit to drape down the back of the page… and it amused me to add a feature that makes it seem like this was a found wall hanging re-purposed as a page in a book.

(Note to alteredmommy: I promise, the piece really is square. I didn’t notice how un-square it looks in the photos until after I already packed it up for shipping. lol)

I’m just addicted to using these tiny little grommets from Dollmaker’s Journey. I love the finished look and added stability (better than just a punched hole) and they take a coat of paint (Polly Scale by Floquil) beautifully.

The tiny chain (40 links per square inch!) is pre-blackened brass chain that comes from the world of Model Train supplies.

I loved doing this piece and I hope it’s a worthy addition to what I know will be a stunning “Book of Hope”!

Over at Craftster.org, I”ve been participating in the monthly Artist Trading Card (ATC) Swap.

I’ve never done ATCs before — in fact, before becoming addicted to Craftster, I only had a vague notion of what an ATC was. If you’re like me, here’s an ATC explanation from Wikipedia:

Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards, or 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches (63 mm X 89 mm), small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland. Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals or cloth. The cards are usually traded or exchanged rather than sold.

By participating in the March ATC Swap, I discovered that I love making completely distressed ATCs. Here are my ATCs from March (themes based on the interests of my swap partners):