Perpetual Playtime

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 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. ...

. . . of sorts. I guess it's okay to call them "journals". They aren't diary journals but rather art journals.   Here are five (current count) pictured here. About a month ago I posted about the one pictured lower left. That one is my Letter Love journal for the online class, Letter Love 101 , by Joanne Sharpe. With the slow migration to electronic communication over the last 20 years or so I found that my penmanship had deteriorated a bit and I wanted to make myself more comfortable and happy with hand lettering, so I signed up for access to the lessons. It is self-paced so you don't have to start at any particular time and, more importantly, you don't have to "stay with the class" as you work through the lessons. I like that because that means I don't have to stress about not getting a lesson finished on a deadline and falling behind. Here is a close up of that journal: Link to the original post featuring this journal:  http://perpetua...

This has been a pretty bad week for me. Well, actually, just the last three days, but that IS the majority of the week so far. It all started day before yesterday when I woke my PC up and there was a bubble in the task bar saying that McAfee had run an update & I needed to restart my PC. No problem - click the restart and as it boots back up I get the BSoD (blue screen of death) . Tried everything I could to recover without a reload of the O.S, but no luck. As much as I hated reloading the OS I was at least accepting of that being the final solution since I felt my pictures and documents were all safe on Carbonite. (And this is no promotion for any products or services, this is just how I have chosen to backup my files - and about 10 years of digital images) Anyway, finally get the OS reloaded and now I have to change all the generic stuff and start trying to recall what programs I had that I want to reinstall. Thinking that it might be wiser to restore my Carbonite fist, in case...