Smells like leather

What a fun time I had last Saturday.  Traveled to Louisville to attend a bookbinding workshop where we made a leather journal.  The class was taught by a very talented book artist who uses upcycled material, Melissa Oesch of ReImagined .  These are some of her samples she brought. Each one is unique and beautiful. 

This is the book I made (below).  My one regret is that I picked flimsy leather for my cover.  We had a choice, as Melissa went around the room letting us be the one to pick. So I have no one to blame but myself. I liked the look of this leather, but in retrospect, wish I had used a heavier leather.  After I got home, I stiffened the cover a little by attaching a scrap piece I had cut from my original cover.  I turned it over to the more suede side, and started sewing it in place, first on the right side of the scrap.  I was just about through with that and ready to start sewing the left side of the scrap and thought - eyelets!  So I used eyelets on the edge of the flap.  I will add a button or bead to the leather tie that wraps around the book.

I did treat myself to one of Melissa's journals, and I'm so glad I did.  I picked this one (on the left) because I liked the more tall narrow size.  Reminds me of the Midori travel journal a little.  That's also how I realized I like the thicker leather.  This journal just feel better to hold.  It has beautiful deckled paper inside too.

 

I've been experimenting off and on in the tall journal, testing pens, inks, watercolors, and paints.

This paper holds up surprisingly well.  The only bleed through was when I used a lot of water.  The Distress ink pad bled completely through the page when I added water.

Overall, fun class, fun day with friends, good lunch.  It all went too fast. 

June Weeks

I was playing around with printing out some days of the week for another journal I keep, my writing journal.  I'm not always at my art table when I work on this, and thought it would be convenient to have some preprinted days to put on the pages.  I played with font and font size and printed some out. Since it's saved on my computer, I can print more as needed, changing font styles and paper.

Then it occurred to me that I could change the print parameters and print it in a landscape orientation (with just the seven days of the week), and it would be perfect for the planner page.

So that's what I did, for the week of June 5th.  Printed it on ledger paper, added some arty stickers and it's done.

I've recently been playing with a border stamp that I love. I can't tell you who makes it because I don't know.  (It was a gift.)  I just know I went crazy stamping the border on paper, card stock, tissue paper, label paper, and book paper.  I put a strip in my little notebook where i doodle when I'm on the phone. 

And that's how I ended up with this planner page for the week of June 12th.  That border stamp looks great when you cut around the edge of the design.

I'm happy with those two weeks.  I'm getting behind on my PACs (the art cards).  I usually start something once I know the theme, just to get some ideas flowing, then i put them in a plastic sleeve. I need to catch up with those.  It could be that once I finish them and add them to the planner, June won't fit in this binder after all, but we'll see!

Welcome June

When I made my June calendar, I really had no idea where I was going.  I had no plan in mind whatsoever.  Lately, I seem to just pick up the last thing I laid down on the work table. In this case, it was a new collage sheet from my friend Gaye.  I had printed it on label sheets, and I stuck parts of it all around the page to make a border. 

I planned to use the calendar template from the DLP* downloads, but the regular size was too big.  I reduced it but that was too small.  I experimented until I got the size I wanted.  Like Goldilocks says, it was Just Right! 

Another thing I had laying around was old book pages where I had punched out some bird shapes.  I was about to throw those away, but instead punched some ovals to use as dates on the next weekly page.  For the base of the page, I used some kraft cardstock from my stash of background papers.  I had previously stamped a design on it, I think it was with acrylic paints but it was a long time ago, and I don't remember now.

I divided my weekly page for the week of May 29 through June 4 using different washi tapes. Then I glued the oval numbers to the page.

The kraft cardstock is a little flimsy, so it will have a backing added for the next week before I attach my June tab to the edge. 

 

 

*DLP refers to Documented Life Project, the UnPlanner project for 2016. 

 

May or May Not

More planner pages for May...
     For the week of May 15, I used the grid marks on cardstock to divide the days of the week.  I used my tried and true, go-to favorite tool, Inktense watercolor pencils to mark it off.

I have to say, this is the first time I was not happy with the way the pencils reacted when I brushed the marks with water.  It's not the fault of the pencils, but of the cardstock.  It has a feel to it that reminds me of the matte coat cardstock I used years ago.  If I remember, that had a clay-based coating.  There was almost no difference between before adding water and after.  Except it made the cardstock curl. 

For the week of May 22, I really didn't put much thought into it at all.  I have a few pages already cut to size in my planner notebook, and the red page just happened to be the next thing I saw.  I grabbed bits of stuff already laying around and glued those down.  I drew lines for the days of the week, adding circles of different sizes where I wrote the dates. 

I may or may not like this page.  I may or may not change it.  I think I will do something with those circles and cover them up with something that's easier to see.   But I've already moved to June, and I'm not going to spend a lot more time on it.