I may not have been posting a lot in the last two months, but I have been doing some creative things. I have taken more of SueB's classes. I was not able to keep up with the first one completely and do need to finish up a few items for it. The second class, Creative Mixed Media Journalling Techniques started just as the school year was winding down and I have had little time to really get into some of the great techniques that have been covered so far.

In other news . . . I was involved in a book swap. Coincidentally, the person to whom I was to be sending a book mentioned that she had seen some of SueB's books and really liked them. Therefore, I used some of the techniques from SueB's class and created a book with the theme "Our Town" -- my town happens to be Ottawa, Canada's Capital.

The cover is made of a stiff stabilizer that was painted red. Then I used a added printouts of photos that I took, mostly of famous building in downtown Ottawa, including our Parliament Buildings. I covered the first layer of photos with a sheet of white tissues and used gel medium to hold it down. This also made the tissue more translucent. I added some focus photos of top, to highlight them. The whole was then coved with fusible web and a layer of off-white tulle. The first photo shows the cover opened up with some of the photos being more prominent than others. The second shows the book closed with hand made cord to keep it closed. I searched everywhere for red maple leaf buttons to make the closure, but could not find them.

The last photo shows the inside of the book with the sewn in signatures.

Week 5 journal

This is journal 5. I pretty much made this one as instructed. I love this journal because it has interchangeable signatures, which is one of the things I really seek in journals and sketchbooks because I tend to not work linearly. I am always jumping from one thing to another and like flexibility in my sketchbooks.

I also really love this book because I am able to use lovely, premium 8 1/2 by 11 inch papers and fold them along the grain. I used three different colours of thread to hold the three signatures in. Then I added beads to weigh down the ends of the threads.

Week 4 Journal 2

This is the second leathery journal I made. This one is made from a large paper grocery bag. The folded pages measure 8 1/2 by 11 inches. I used a five hole pamphlet stitch to attach the three signatures to the cover.

I used a coppery elastic to tuck the flap into for a closure. I discovered that the thicker paper of the grocery bag does not work as well as the thinner paper of the lunch bag, though it does provide a much larger surface area so I can make a larger book.

It is also essential to really flatten the paper after crumpling and painting. It looks more leathery if it is really flattened as opposed to highly textured.

Week 4 Journal 1

This leather look journal is based on Lesson 4 of Sue Bleiweiss's Journal Making for the Fiber Artist class. I added gold flecks of colour to the red leathery journal. I had made this leathery paper before and I had forgotten how much fun it is.
I stitched the signatures through the cover using a long and link stitching. Each of the long stitches went through the long red bead on the spine. I think the gold colour thread complements the specks of gold that you can see on the back of the journal. A gold colour elastic holds the jounal flap in place.

Lesson 3 Journal

This is the journal I made using the Lesson 3 instructions. The twig I am using inspired the fabric choice in this case. The colours on the cover are brighter in real life and the fabric has an autumn woods feel to it. Inside pages, accents and tags are decorated with walnut ink.










I made three different sized tags with my Sizzix die cutter using the walnut ink coloured papers. These are attached to the journal in various ways.

Small tags are tucked into a pocket made from the same paper.

Medium tags are hung from a paper strip glued at each end to the sketchbook paper.

Other tags are tucked into a strip so that the strings hang out the side of the journal.

Some pages are merely decorated with a strip of the walnut ink paper.

Yet another sketchbook

This is another sketchbook I made. This one is for meeeeeeee!!!! I loved the fabric on the one for my friend so I made another one. This one has various yarns couched to the edges and tied to the rings. I made all three sketchbooks larger than the original design because I want to be able to use standard 9 X 12 pages in them. Here are the two sketchbooks that are still living with me.

Second Lesson 2 Sketchbook

This is the second sketchbook I made based on Lesson 2. This one has been given to a friend who loves blues and greens and is a marvellous artist.
The inside has decorated papers and lots of pockets for supplies.

Journal Making Class -- Week Two -- Sketchbook Journal

The second week's journal that I made in Sue Bleiweiss's on-line class is a sketchbook with removable pages. Instead of using a single fabric for the outside of the journal, this sketchbook is made using parts my son's old outgrown and holey jeans. I used lots of pocket portions so that he can keep treasures in them (he is 9 years old). The closure is a snap from an actual pair of jeans. The inside there are lots of pockets for holding pencils and other art supplies. Strips of fabric decorate the outside of the book rings that are used to hold the pages in the sketchbook.

I did muck up and put the holes for the rings in the wrong place. The two outside ones are fine, but the center hole is nowhere near the center. Ooops. The holes are not standard distance apart anyway, they almost have to be made using a single hole punch so it is not a big deal.

Journal Making Class

Starting on March 31st, I started Journal Making for the Fiber Artist, an on-line class with Sue Bleiweiss. As an avid bookbinder and fibre artist, this class really intrigued me. So far, I am having a lot of fun and creating some journals for myself and for some as gifts. My first journal from this class is pictured here. It is made from strips of silk, frayed at one edge and stitched down. The clasp is created from a fibre button made in the motif from a project from my City&Guilds course. The machine made cord is made of strips of silk stitched with the same thread as the satin stitching on the edges. Beads were added to the ends of the cord.


Beads were also added to the spine as I was stitching the signatures to the cover using a pamphlet stitch. Can you tell that I am a magpie?
The inside has two pockets, one on the left and one on the right. The pocket on the left was made using a similar method to the cover, but the lining was stitched to the cover fabric and then stitched to the Pelmet that I added to give the pocket more stability.










There are various pockets and interesting pages throughout the journal. Some of these are made from card stock and others are made from translucent mulberry paper. As you can see there is also a pen loop to hold a pen and keep it handy.


The journal in these pictures was completed on April 2, 2008. I am slowly learning about posting photos and blogs. I will post other photos of other journals in the next few days.