Journal Sketchbook Giveaway

by Linda | Feb 17, 2010 | my creative journal

Hello dearies!

Since I have no purpose for the journals I made I thought I would give them away to my lovely blog readers.  Anyone need a journal sketchbook for some art making?  I used materials I have lying around the house, so there might be wear and tear on the corners, but otherwise all blank pages ready for your creativity.  Check out my post yesterday for more pictures and details. There are two up for grabs…I’ll send them anywhere in the world.

Just comment below saying which one you want.  Or if either one is okay just say that and you’ll be put in both groups for the random drawing next week.  Enjoy!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Some mistakes in bookbinding

by Linda | Feb 16, 2010 | my creative journal

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share some progress in my journal making and bookbinding adventures…namely, some mistakes and major boo boos!  I was able to finish two journals, but learning a lot along the way.

First, I made this shabby chic journal, pattern paper from scrapbooking to make the covers with some heavier weight cream colored paper inside.  I stitched this page by page, so every page could lay out flat completely.  However, using embroidery thread and a loose hand, it became really loose as you can see in the photo and I don’t think the decorative element shows with such soft thread.  Inside I also printed a titled but made a mistake with the term “create fearlessly” as I meant it to go on the last page, oops!  Well, the rest of the pages are blank, so maybe it’ll provide funky inspiration regardless!

The second journal also has similar pattern paper covers and on second thought I will try to find some thicker type of board for covers.  This one has cream paper as well, but regular copy paper weight with 8 signatures, so lots of pages for sketching and such.  I also used natural fiber linen string, which I think looks much better…more structure and stitching design showing in the binding.  However, I also had tension issues with this as well, some places looser, some places tighter!

So now I am going to try and make a sort of remains of the day type of journal from some cardboard covers and random papers I have lying around.  Better bound than spread all over my room definitely.  Not sure what to do with these journals though…I already have too many started and doodled in…eek!

Laura Berger Artwork

by Linda | Feb 15, 2010 | my creative journal

When I first started getting into the blogging and exploring the art/craft community online I found the work of Laura Berger and have been following her blog ever since. I really admire her illustration and painting style…it has a digital graphic feel, but done by hand and has that handdrawn cozy feel to it as well. Her work is whimiscal and thoughtful at the same time, you just feel attracted to it.  All very inspiring and happy…hope you have a great Monday with all this lovely inspiration.

Images Copyright Laura Berger

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?

Color Inspiration All Around

by Linda | Feb 1, 2010 | my creative journal

A while back, I signed up an online workshop called Color Beyond The Basics taught by Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen. Although I’m starting out a bit late, I’m so happy to be a part of the 125+ people learning together online and discussing explorations in color. I’ve never had formal training in color theory and have always found it all a bit intimidating.  I seem to naturally have very different preferences in color, super bright as you can tell from the yellow scheme of my blog or perhaps unsuspectingly combinations that look good to me anyway…but I don’t really understand the whys of it all.  We are starting from zero in the class, so it’s really been eye opening for me to just stop and notice the color all around.

I’ve also gone ahead and done some research online, trying to read up about color inspiration and color combinations from the masters. There’s definitely great resources online, but having Julie and Chris available to ask whatever silly question I might have really really helps.  Online workshops are the next best thing to real life workshops, which don’t come by often here in Italy!  Although at some point I would love to be an apprentice for some of the craftsmen here, talk about cool…one day!  I started taking a lot of pictures around the house of color combinations that inspire me…also playing around with going RAW with my camera as well…

That little cute cactus is from my 4-year old niece who wanted to cheer me up when I arrived home from the hospital.  I had two other succulent plants that sadly died this winter – it’s been so humid here in Tuscany and it seems root rot got them! Perhaps full fledged cacti will be able to live through my black thumb skills!?  Either way, I just love the styling of the plant in the wooden bucket with the complimentary purple flower decoration…all so country chic to me.

Now I’m off to finish off my color swatch library, painting squares in an old grammar book, hehe…it’s pretty amazing to see the differences in the various paints I own and how mixes change the transparency and quality.  I wonder how far I can go with the mixing, so many to do!  I just started doing some simple skintones, but the possibilities are endless.  Hope you have a great Monday and don’t forget to stop and notice the color around you and take it in as inspiration!