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

Friday In The Studio – Planning Planning Planning

I really should call this Catching Up In The Studio as it’s now Sunday and I’m only now finding the time to do my catch up. It’s been a busy week as usual and the weather hasn’t helped. We’ve had some snow and having a dog who constantly wants to come in and out the floors are always wet and dirty so I spend my time cleaning up after him.

Anyway, that aside, I’ve prepared my planners and journals for this new year and I thought I’d share that with you seeing as I’ll be using them from time to time in blog posts. The four above are the ones I’ll be using on a regular basis and from the top they are, a Websters Pages Travelers Notebook which holds a sketchbook and journal in at the moment but I have the ability to be able to add other books as I go along. Next is my desk diary which is my daily agenda, always on my desk with my to do lists, money matters and notes etc, then comes my Simple Stories Carpe Diem planner which I started last year and abandoned after January! I’m hoping this year to really use it properly and after making new inserts and dashboards for it I feel it’s really my own style. Finally I’ve a gardening diary which was a gift a couple of years ago and although I’ve started it I don’t feel as if I’ve really got into it yet. I’ve lots of ideas for how I’ll use this one so you may see it from time to time here.

As I said in my travelers notebook I’ve included a sketchbook. I do have a much bigger sketchbook which I’ll continue to use from time to time but for a quick sketch on the go I’ll be using this one.  It’s a Moleskine as I absolutely love the paper even though it’s thin and buckles and warps when I use watercolour paint on it, this is why I like it so much.

A couple of sketches created after walks with the dog.

My planner is a Simple Stories ring binder style and now I’ve made my own dashboards it feels more like me so I’m hoping that will encourage me to keep up with it.

I’d love to know if any of you are using planners or journals this year and what system you’re using?

Hopefully I can inspire you a little bit to get out a pencil and maybe start something new.

See you soon

Jaine x

Friday In The Studio – December Daily

This is where I was a couple of weeks or so ago, all happy happy and totally prepared to fill my December Daily with lots of mixed media goodness and Christmas cheer but after filling only the first 3 pages I left it and pushed it to one side.

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The reason was hard for me to admit to but I simply didn’t like it. I really didn’t like anything about it. After all that work and all that expectation that my tea dyed pages would look aged and wonderful, in fact they left me feeling disappointed and let down. The pages were too stiff being water colour paper, the look I was going for wasn’t an antique one but bright white and clean like the robin paper on the left. I just pushed it to one side and left it not knowing whether to go on with it or not. Several times I opened my travelers notebook and wondered whether I should carry on in that instead.  The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea sooooooo…..

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last weekend I started to deconstruct my original DD and use the photos and some of the stickers I could rescue and start from scratch in my TN.

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Now I feel so much better. I love how the pages which have been painted on go all crinkly once they’re dry and I love the size and format of the whole thing.

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I’m now up to date with it and much more content.

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Have a good weekend everyone.

Jaine x