Author: blogmanager

Friday In The Studio With My Junk Journal

Happy June everyone. We’re half way through the year already,how did that happen?

The Craft Stamper Magazine is out today Friday 2nd June and my article in this months edition is a subject I love dearly, Junk Journaling.

Here’s a sneaky peek at one of the pages from my journal.

Of course I do happen to have a hand made junk journal in my pocket sized travelers notebook which I adore.

It’s great for sticking small bits in and doing a little bit of journaling too. Easy and quick to work in and a whole lot less intimidating because of its size.

June 1st I took the opportunity to sit outside and update my planners. The gorgeous one on the right is by Prima and I bought it from Paperpenandplan.

They also sell the stickers, gel pens and Prima glue pen which you see in these pics.

I’ll be listing junk journals for sale soon so look out for those. In the mean time I’ve got a few pocket size notebook covers left in my Etsy store basementsixtyfive

Have a good weekend

Jaine xx

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blogmanager

webadmin@basementstudio.lu

Catching Up for May

I hadn’t realised just how long it had been since I last posted an update. Such alot has been going on and I’ve been really busy on and off. This weekend in particular was a local Arts and Crafts market which I decided to take part in. It’s been many many years since I did this sort of thing and I have to say I was very nervous. It’s easy to get really comfortable when you’ve built up an online community where everyone else knows everyone else and if you don’t want to show your face you don’t have to. So I wasn’t sure how well my stuff would be received by the public and explaining what I do to people who mostly have never heard of me was a scary thing. I needn’t have worried though as I had some amazing feed back and people genuinly liked what I was doing.

Half of my tent was me and my cards, books, book covers, kits etc and the other half was my connection to workshops, so my two friends Katherine and Lena helped me out to do a Make and Take table with the aim of hopefully getting a few more people interested in signing up for workshops.

Make and take ATC.

I spent a few weeks putting together notebooks and sketchbooks by hand and making Travelers Notebook covers out of felt.

I also made mini junk journals too but I had no idea how these would go down. It’s not a concept which has taken off here at all and explaining how to use a mini journal with each page made from different materials would be a challenge but on the whole they were loved and I did sell more of these than the plain notebooks.

Inside watercolour pages had been tea dyed to create an antique feel.

 

Before all that though I’ve been working on a few other projects like this journal page which is the latest in the Canvas Corp Brands Traveling Art Journal project. This is the April page. I really enjoyed creating it but was a little worried I’d gone a bit over the top this time.

This is the March page which looking at it now is just as busy. I must be going through a busy faze.

I did have to have a little titter to myself when an ooops moment provided a bit of extra publicity. I designed this little birdy stamp for the cover of the June Craft Stamper magazine but it came out a month early by mistake with the projects which went with it appearing in the June issue but the birdy on the cover of May. So although it was a headache for the Craft Stamper team it meant an extra month for me of my little birdy stamp. Win win.

I’ll be listing my notebooks and covers in the shop and on Etsy along with other colours and notebook designs so look out for those.

Have a good week

Jaine xx

 

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blogmanager

webadmin@basementstudio.lu

Friday In The Studio, Small Is Beautiful

Oh bother, I’ve missed a few posts, I’ve not been well so I’m afraid my best of intentions went right out of the window.

I’m having a good day today so I can catch you up on the good stuff which did happen last week.

Well for starters the sun came out and made us all feel really Springy. As much as could be done outside was done outside and a spot of sketching was right up there. By the end of the week it started pouring with rain and I  ended up with a jumper on again which goes to show we shouldn’t take these moments for granted.  As I said I wasn’t feeling well so I ended up watching my neighbours digging over their plots ready for the new season and all I can do is imagine their thoughts as they look over at mine, destroyed by the dog and full of weeds.  Hubby and I have got a plan up our sleeves though which will knock their socks off!!  Maybe.  This week the sun came back and we were treated to some truly warm days.

I did receive a very welcome package from Paperpenandplan just over a week ago containing some Simple Stories goodies. Planner stickers, stamp, washi and paper pack. I couldn’t wait to open and use it.

As the title suggests, small is indeed beautiful to coin a cliché and my passport sized Travelers Notebook is fast becoming my absolute favourite planner of all time.

I decided to make a mini insert for it using some of the Simple Stories Domestic Bliss papers which arrived from Paperpenandplan.

As before the binding is hand sewn as that’s my favourite method of binding.

I love it.

Have a good weekend and for now Happy Friday.

Jaine x

 

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blogmanager

webadmin@basementstudio.lu

Messy Monday is back

Well, almost back anyway. Clare and I had a bit of a session making Travelers Notebook inserts but sadly Clare had a paper cutter crisis and ended up binning it for something else. She promises to get back to it next week so I’ll hold her to that.

I turned it into a tutorial for Clare to follow next week and anyone else who wants to know how to hand sew a binding.  This is the finished booklet. I think uit looks quite smart. I used a piece of Canvas Corp paper called Bikes And Baskets for my cover.

To make my notebook you’ll need a piece of scrapbook paper for the cover and I used 14 sheets of A4 watercolour paper at 125gsm.  I find this perfectly adequate for what I want to do with my journal, any thicker and it’s hard to fold. You’ll also need a knife and ruler, pencil, cotton thread and a needle.

Fold all of your papers in half and place them all inside one another.

It’s easier if you make a stitching template before you make your holes, you can use this again and again. I used a 7 hole stitching method (you always want to have an odd number of stitching holes). Find the middle of the page then make three marks either side of the centre hole at 3cm, 6cm and 9cm.

This is my stitching chart if you can follow it. So basically starting with the centre hole stitch from inside to out leaving a small tail of thread on the inside. then it’s back up through hole number 2 and out through 3 etc until you’re back in at number 6 where you jump over the middle hole and go out through 7. Continue going in and out until you’re back in the centre hole again.

If that’s a bit confusing here are the picture steps.

When you’ve finished sewing, trim the sides and round the corners and you’re done.

I’ll be back again on Friday from the Studio.

Have a good week

Jaine xx

About Post Author

blogmanager

webadmin@basementstudio.lu