Hand Stitched Books

Since we’ve had the dog at home, Jess the basement cat has become a bit of a recluse mostly favouring the upstairs bedrooms to the basement studio. I thought I might have to change her name to bedroom kitty but then this week she decided to help me like she used to by sitting on my table with her bottom firmly sat on something sharp and pokey.  I’ve missed the fluffball and her questioning stare on my work table.

I imagine she was curious to know what I was doing especially with that cotton thread sitting there.

I was making these four travelers notebook sized mini scrapbooks using kraft file folders as my covers. I love the look of the kraft and patterned papers together, the brown card shows off the little embellishments beautifully. The tape down the spine is to add a bit of extra strength as I sewed through the layers.

Also last week I finished my latest sketchbook. I went back to a coptic stitch binding leaving it on show which isn’t always the best idea unless you’re  super accurate and neat. Just don’t look too closely at the wonky stitches. The spine of the book was in such bad condition I had to discard it anyway so cutting the book apart didn’t make me wince. I see it as rescue anyway not vandalism.

I found the book in the recycling centre and fell in love with the cover. Of course I’ve kept and am using the inside pages too but the cover was crying out to be repurposed into a new book.

I think there might be a recycling trip tomorrow on the hunt for more treasure. See you on Friday and have a good week.

Jaine x

Ireland And The End Of Summer

Things here have turned cold, windy and very wet and I get the feeling Autumn has come in with a kick. We’ve just returned home from a holiday in Ireland where we had the same weather on the whole but at least there we were expecting it and it didn’t spoil any of our enjoyment of the country in the least.

Ireland was fab. We walked and walked for km’s taking in some stunning scenery along the way.

Of course I took my Travelers Notebook with me and kept up my weekly journal spreads.

The backgrounds were painted before I left as I don’t think I could have got away with putting any more stuff in my suitcase. There was already alot of tutting and exclaiming every time my other half had to load and unload my case from the car.

Now home I’ve been catching up and just before I left I received my Sweet Treat box for September from Paper Pen and Plan and have been keen to play with the kit in this months box which includes a stencil (by me) and a Tattered Angels spray mist. I used the mist to make these two journaling cards and I’m so pleased with how they look.

The first one is fairly straight forward with some spraying through the stencil.

holding the spray not to close to the paper, I sprayed ink lightly to give my paper a bit of a background.

 

 

 

I placed the stencil on the lower part of the paper and covered the rest up with some scrap before spraying again through the stencil.

 

I trimmed down the paper into the size I wanted and used some Distress ink to darken the edges.

On the bigger card I first scrunched up some tissue paper and used it to cover the surface which gave it this distressed surface.

 

 

I wiped over this with a baby wipe just to spread the ink around more.

 

 

 

Again I sort of wiped over it with some Distress ink to enhance the creases in the tissue.

 

 

 

I think it looks really cracked and distressed with the ink.

 

 

 

Anyway, that’s about it for today in the studio, have a good weekend all and I’ll catch up next week.

Jaine xx

Junk Journaling

This week I’ve been playing in my junk journal which is in my travelers notebook. I find this very quick to work in as the pages aren’t big and it’s not one of my best journals so I’m not afraid of messing it up. Great for experimentation and letting go. This one I’ve used the Dylusions paints from the shop.

After a conversation with Clare from Paper Pen and Plan we both came to the conclusion we really missed our Messy Mondays so she decided to bring it back but this time in the Facebook group so everyone else could join us. To join in visit paperpenandplan on Facebook.

Since posting my junk journal in the group I had a couple of questions about the paper I used and I thought I’d post a little show and tell here but it was so long and picture heavy I decided to make a little video instead showing how this……….

became this……..

So here’s the video.

https://youtu.be/o_gPspGNZT8

Have a good weekend

Jaine xx

The Word Of The Week – FOCUS

Focus, it’s a good word. One I use often but totally ignore. I’m one of the worlds worst procrastinators so my to do list just gets longer and longer. I’ve been trying to get through the list this week before I go away at the end of the month but I think I’m finally there.

I’ve been so good that today I actually had some time to do a bit of art journaling. Oh I have missed it. I can’t remember the last time I got the paints out and just created something. The starting point was the feather picked up on a walk this week. I used the Dylusions paints from the shop for my background and glued in the feather. A bit of collage and journaling finished it off and I think I’m a happy bunny again.

Here’s a closer look at it.

We’ve had some pretty sad weather this week, for August anyway. Not as bad as some folk in the UK but still cooler and at times wet, so an afternoon of lovely warm sunshine was very welcome and provided the perfect opportunity to get outside to do some sketching.

I made a start on this weeks planner pages laying down some watercolour and marking out my grids and days.

This is how it looks today, friday and almost finished. I’m loving this sort of layout and for the moment I don’t see myself changing it at all.

After the success of last weekends felt TN launch in the Etsy shop, I added to that family some pen holders also in felt. I’m very proud of them all and I’m hoping they’ll be as popular as my notebook covers. To find yours you can follow the link here.

Well that’s it for today. Have a good one where ever you are and stay creative.

Jaine x