Journal work

I've been enjoying working in various journals, the one above is a regular hardback book I altered.  It has the most wonderfully absorbent pages in it and takes paint very well, dries so fast.  It is a book titled Married Love from the 1940's and the text is quite fun to read.  Rather risque for the time.  I cut about a third of the pages out before I began and I use them in other mixed media projects.

Dulcinea and Don Quixote

another from the Married Love book.  I haven't altered the cover yet.

These next ones are from a folded paper book I made with one large sheet of paper.  It makes a book of 16 pages that is about 9" x 6".  A nice size.  I should share the tutorial, you can find it here: folded paper journal.   They call it a Meander Accordion folded book.

Remember the paper buttons I made about a year ago?  I have used some of them here for my flower centers.

One of my favorite colors...

One final spread.  I've been doing a little doodling lately.  I made these hands on a separate sheet of paper while listening to TV, then cut them out and glued them into my book.

I made another Dooleybobber but couldn't show it until it was received by my friend Maggi.  I gifted it to her for her birthday.  I had an old embroidered cloth that I had picked up at a garage sale somewhere.  It was rather stained but it was perfect to incorporate behind the dooleybobber.

Sweet bird embroidery

close up of my hand embroidery

Finally, here is a little baby quilt I made for my newest nephew, Sam.  His mom is a professional photographer so if you like seeing photos of newborns, you should go take a look at Studio 623 blog.  Cuteness factor is very high!!!

close up of the only "baby" fabric I used in the center of each block.  (Linda, note the donkey:-)

Well that is about it for today.  I hope you all are faring well this winter.  Winter is almost my favorite season because I get to spend so much time in my studio.

Be well. 

Tiny Books

I recently signed up to participate in a Pay It Forward deal that Linda at Olde Baggs 'n Stuft Shirts posted on her Facebook page.  I agreed to post on my facebook page an offer to give something free to the first five people who signed up and agreed to do the same.  Last year I participated in this and it was fun so I was happy to do it again.  I made these little folded paper books to give away that Maggi at Hand Dyes taught me how to make.

They measure 3 by 3 and a half inches. They have all these little pockets in them that I try to put tiny treasures in.

The treasure might only be a poem or a feather.  I already gave one of the books away so I need to come up with two more things to give away.

Dooleybobber  #?
 
At the end of last year I made this on my needle felting machine.  I haven't made a dooleybobber in so long that I don't know what number this one is!  I stitched it by hand using hand dyed threads that I got from Maggi.  You might like to hop over and look at her luscious threads and fabrics and  indulge yourself and buy some, they are gorgeous.  Tell her Jan sent you.  Oh and do you see that gold colored rectangular thing in the upper right hand corner?  That was a piece of a plastic tray that held chocolates.  I put it on top of my wood stove on a safe metal tray and let it melt until it became mostly flat.  It didn't even stick to the safe metal tray, just came right off.  I stamped the word "Create" on it in Stazon ink.  I was just experimenting a bit.

I put that dooleybobber #? on the cover of a 3 ring notebook that I use as my desk calendar.  I have a folder for each month and can put in my writing and cards that I receive or whatever.  I'm liking this so far.  I have some wonderful calendar images that my friends in my Stitch 'n Bitch group made for me.  If you click on the link it will take you to our group blog.

More recently I have been playing with a gelli plate that my friend Anne at El Milagro Studio sent to me.  Above you can see the gelli plate and two texture plates I made from fun foam.  Wow, is this fun or what!?!  Thanks again, Anne!

Here are some of my favorite papers I have created so far.  I have the 6 inch square gelli plate.

Here are a few more.  The dark spiral that you see is a resist I created from Tyvek and used.  It was so pretty I want to use it on a card or in my journal or something.  Bonus!

I made these papers by cleaning my brayer off on them.  Cool, yes?  They remind me of Madras plaids.  I have lots of papers to use somewhere now and I've only played with the gelli plate for a couple of hours!  I made a card out of one of my pullings already.  Nice!  They have plenty of video tutorials available on their blog, check them out here.

Well that's about all for today.  I shall leave you with this self portrait.  Until next time,

Be well.