Perpetual Playtime

I made another journal . . .  This one started (as so many projects do) with a YouTube sitting session. I sometimes spend so much time travelling from one video to the next that in the end I have no idea where I started. That's the case here - I watched a video, linked from that one to another "suggested" video, on to another (rinse & repeat) and then saw one where someone (and I hate that I cannot find the video that provided my first inspiration) made a journal with envelopes. A couple of days later I went on a failed search to watch that video again and ended up watching several envelope journal videos, but never happened upon that specific video again. But I wasn't deterred since I had the general concept. However, on this subsequent video journey I did come across a video by Kathy Orta that showed her Hidden Hinge process . So I went with that and jumped right in. There are actually two different Kathy Orta videos that show the Hidden Hinge, but since...

. . . From Recycle (for the most part.) Yes, two fauxs - since this faux leather is paper and not cloth. I figure, if faux leather is made from cloth, that this is a paper faux of the cloth faux. Have I lost you yet? eep! Yep, I made most of it from recycled items. I bought the leather cord that closes it at Target and I bought the skeleton key on etsy, and all other components are recycled (of course the thread to sew the signatures and the glue to bind the cover to the liner is not recycled, but that probably should go without saying.) This journal took a couple of months of migration and morphation (new word! Yay me!) to find what it wanted to be. It started with a piece of junk mail. Yep, junk mail - back in October I had a tri-fold cardboard mailer delivered to my mailbox with a free sample attached inside. I started to throw it all away when inspiration jumped right off the card. I removed the sample and the sticky that held it in place as well as the sticky that hel...

My granddaughter came to visit last weekend and brought her journal we worked on in July back so that she could add more pictures (Click HERE to see the July journal). She also pointed out that her journal was almost full and that we needed to make her another one.  Well, I'm always interested in trying something different so I went in search of ideas for her next journal and found a technique I thought would be interesting - sewing it together using a coptic stitch. I watched several videos of different people using the technique and decided I could do that.  Here is a WIP image:  I cut the front & back covers from chipboard and let her look through my scrapbook paper for something she would like for her cover. I did the cutting and she did the gluing.  We used basic copy paper folded in half for the pages. I would start the paper folds and then had her press the crease with the bone-folder. Once we had folded 50 sheets (we could now ca...

I'm not very consistent with blog posts, and sometimes I'm just in a short hiatus from crafty stuff, but that doesn't mean I'm not slowly working on something. Right now I'm in the process of altering a piece of junk mail to turn it into something I'm happy with for a homemade journal. But that is a slow process since I'm not really sure how I want the journal cover to look. So, while that has been on my table for a couple of weeks it my still be there in another couple of weeks. For me that is just how my creative process works.  But, when I realized I had not posted any blog posts in over two months I thought I might ought to. So today I will share my granddaughters creative project. She is altering a pair of plain white Keds with Copic markers: Pretty good if you ask me!

This is Lisa, my little sister, in this video. I love this explosion box she made and thought I would share her video with everyone. I ordered this cartridge through Lisa a few weeks back but just have not opened it (much less used it yet), but this video makes me want to get finished with what I already have on today's "To Do" list so I can go play with this cartridge! Cute cute cute! If you don't have a personal CTMH consultant, please consider ordering through my sister, not only because she is my little sister but also because she is a truly wonderful person.  Here is her CTMH link:   http://lisamoore.ctmh.com/

I've often started a written journal just to give up when I realized I had no clue what to write about. I usually figure the best place to start is at the first memory I can recall and work forward, but that thought always fails me because the logical part of my brain tells me "No, that is an autobiography.' So I bail on it altogether.  Today I found a blog post for writing memoir journal entries and Rita A, the blogs author, will post journal prompts two or three times a week and the followers simply journal about that prompt. Sounds pretty good to me. The first prompts can be found on this blog she post:   Tattered Past: Memoir Journal Workshop: Day 1 Okay, off to find a book to use for my journal. Y'all get a book and join in!

My View , a photo by Redonna on Flickr. Watercolor in my small moleskin - springtime view out my den window. I did take artistic license and chose not to add a chain-link fence that appears in the lower left and I did not include the neighbors house that sits on the other side of the lake.

Today I am posting the work of my 7yo granddaughter.  She loves animals with a passion so we put together a mini-scrapbook for her to put cute animals in. She did most of the work - with a small amount of help but a lot of direction from me. I think she did a pretty bang-up job on it (all things considered . . . not the least of which is the fact that she is ADHD and not on medication - translation? A lot of patience on my part and a lot of telling her to come back & lets finish what we have laid out).  We started by folding an 8X10 manila envelope in half and adding bright pink Duct Tape for added strength in the binding. I cut a square from a scrap of blotter paper and had her write the title on it. She stamped a flower border across the top & bottom and then we layered her title square with some blue cardstock. After running two short strips of woven ribbon through the Xyron I had her affix those to a pink cardstock (roughly 5X7, but not exact)...

I realize that I will never be rich or famous for my watercolors, but they sure make me feel good. Not only as I work on them but just looking at them when I am finished. This is today's watercolor - not any specific flower, but pink, and I like that.

Today I'm posting something different. This is a picture I painted with watercolor to submit to ' The Sketchbook Challenge '. I came across this blog last week and found it interesting. The theme for June is  Urban Sketching. I don't live in an urban home so I went to the internet and found an image I thought I could work with and gave it my best shot.  I may be my own worst critic, but I also realize I could use a lot of practice with many aspects of this picture. But, none-the-less, here is is beside the image I found on the internet:

I didn't expect to finish another cover so soon, but after the gesso was dried on the smaller journal in yesterday's post I started working on that journal since I already knew in my head what I wanted to put on it. I did part of it last night and finished up this morning. Other than putting a good coat of fixative on it, well, it is done. White gesso and watercolor paints. Free-handed the picture. And I wrote the text with a calligraphy marker, but the gesso was not a smooth finish so it didn't come out as well as I had hoped (gotta try a different gesso). Again, I call these journals, but I'm not sure that they are technically journals. In fact, this one is actually a Strathmore Watercolor Visual Journal that I use to sample my watercolors in so that I can see how they blend and pick up. And this book is almost filled since I have been using it for a while. It wasn't until I started altering the covers of the other journals that I decided to alter this one also. ...