Double Happiness Celebration Today

by Linda | Feb 14, 2010 | my creative journal

More Journal Making and Messy Work

by Linda | Feb 11, 2010 | my creative journal

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share my creative workspace today, so here are some views of the messy state of my room. I’m still working on my novice bookbinding skills, making more journals and trying to figure out how to use the leather I have – spreading glue all over my desk of course.  I’m also experimenting with messy acrylic paintings, on the desk and on the floor…no more space left!

Bookbinding experiments and ideas

by Linda | Feb 4, 2010 | my creative journal

Happy Thursday to everyone!  I am working on an artsy baby journal for a friend of mine and wanted to share a bit of my novice bookbinding learnings through the process.  At times I feel like a kindergartner, because I’ve managed to make everything a bit sticky from the glue magically invading and spreading all over my creative workspace!  Other notable learnings?

• Choose sturdy material – board for the covers and heavier weight paper for the pages
• Use a glue brush and wash it out before it hardens
• Glue spread onto the heavier surface seems to work better, less bubbles
• Precut, prepunch, pre-everything to size before moving to the glue phase…ooops
• Don’t try to punch through 12 heavy pages at the same time
• Measure out more than enough string for sewing, so you don’t have to add more mid-sewing

I also realized how much precision really matters for certain details of the finished project. For example, cut too close or too far and you get imperfect corners for the covers.  Maybe I shouldn’t eyeball it!

The photo above also shows my experiment of using regular cardboard for the cover material, which is cool for the thickness, but very porous and seemingly easy to puncture and damage. It also didn’t help that my recycled shopping bag was totally wrinkled for this cover, but I liked the colors and pattern a lot.  I created a bunch of different covers to experiment with the materials I have lying around the house. The itty bitty one you see below in the center is leather wrapped around a board and threaded together.  That little prototype is really sparking ideas!

I’m not really that picky when it comes to creating art journals, but for a gift I want it to be as nice as possible.  I did my best and here is the final product and inner pages.  It’s a bit loose because I stitched each page separately to keep it flat and easy to spread out and draw on.  Although I initially didn’t want super girly colors, it ended up sort of strawberry shortcake themed and I think it’s great for a baby girl!

Off to finish off my experiments and make more journals…for what I’m not sure yet…

Treasury Love

by Linda | Feb 2, 2010 | my creative journal

I’m so thankful for the great community out there because the lovely BobbiLewin has featured me in a treasury!  It’s pretty cool that Etsy enables folks to curate a mini show, although I’ve seriously never been able to catch a time when treasury creation is open…it’s like Ebay auctioning, you have to wait and strike fast!  I happened upon this feature, I wonder how sellers can be automatically notified if there in a treasury?  I always want to thank the creators after all!

In other news, I am feeling a lot better now and trying to get back into the swing of things with more energy.  I continued onward with my series of graphic art prints and also starting to work on binding a journal with some printed words. It’s an artsy baby journal for a friend who is expecting. If you haven’t noticed already, I jump from project to project, letting my energy and excitement drive me forward.  We must follow our muse and be ready whenever, right?