Weekend Journal

There were lots of items on the creative and life menu this week.  Here's a small sampling of what I did. 

First on the menu was getting my little mini menus prepped for my travel journal.  My son told me that they have LOTS of exciting dining in store for us, so I want to make sure I have somewhere to journal my meals from all our new, ethnic dining experiences. 

 Some of the menus open from the top, others from the side, and a couple are just single sheets.  You knew I couldn't leave them all totally white, didn't you?  I used a light wash of acrylics topped with a layer of Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments mixed with gel medium to give them a little shimmer.

I decided to make a plaque for my book of wisdom gift journal.  I pieced together some cardboard with gel medium and added these gold leaf embellishments with more medium.  I let them dry for an hour or two.

After the gel medium dried, I applied super heavy gesso to it, really laying it on thick in the center portion so I could inscribe the word "wisdom" into it using the end of a paint brush.  I applied the gesso more lightly to the gold leaf embellishments so some of the gold would show through the paint I would be adding.  I left the piece baking in the hot sun for a few hours.

Despite the heat and humidity, I've still been making it to the beach nearly every weekday morning for a walk.  There's always something lovely to see, like these perfect Milkweed pods.  They have beautiful, amethyst colored blossoms in the spring before the pods form, and Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves in March.  In autumn, these plants will be filled with Monarch caterpillars.

Here are some more photos that I took at Headlands Beach this week.  This is Queen Anne's lace and blue corn flowers.

A shady path leads into a tiny grove of trees where I sometimes see deer.  I also hear this is where the beach fairies live!

 Ro and I were able to get in another art date at the beach.  We moved a little further eastward this time, and here are some photos of our view from the shaded table where we worked.

In between all this arting and beaching, there were vegetables to be picked!  Here's a nice bowlful of  freshly picked Blue Lake green beans ready to be washed, cooked, and made totally unhealthy with the addition of some bacon drippings.  Hey, what can I say but "DElicious!"

My cherry tomato plants have produced an amazing amount of fruit this year.  There are always some in a bowl on the kitchen counter, and there have been plenty to give away too.

I'm always happy to see the beautiful visitors who drop by to feast on the butterfly bush.  This Swallowtail butterfly was about the size of my hand, and was gorgeous both above and below.

Someone asked me about the binding on the interactive gift journal.  I forgot to show it to you!   I really hadn't planned out the binding ahead of time, so I had a moment of panic when after I had several pages completed, I realized I had no idea how I was going to bind them.  Enter the accordion fold!   At this point it's not the least bit attractive, but it works on this graffiti style journal for now.

I wanted it to be expandable so the recipient can add LOTS of goodies to it without the book not closing properly.  When all of her embellishments have been added, she can add a binding with decorative duct tape to give it a more polished look, added strength, and stability.

Here's my completed journal page from our art date at the beach, and several other journal pages that I worked on yesterday.  I'm currently obsessed with circles for some reason.

Here is the completed Wisdom plaque attached to the journal.  I'm very pleased with the final result.  I added multiple acrylic glazes to achieve this look, and I added a bit of highlight with a 24K gold paint pen.

I added gold buttons to the side of the book using the binding threads ...

and I added lots and lots of fibers to both the front and back covers.  You knew I wasn't going to leave it plain, didn't you?

I'm happy to have the covers and binding completed, and I think it looks great.  Now......I have some pages to complete inside!

I hope you had a fantastic week and I hope you're having a wonderful weekend doing exactly the things that you find fulfilling!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Weekend Journal

GIFT JOURNALS

I didn't open my journal once all week.  That's because I've been busy making gift journals.  All 3 journals are still works in progress, but I thought I would show you what I've done so far. 

Here's the cover of the first journal.  Remember my mandala journal?  I've used basically the same technique, re-purposing cardboard, covering with paper (this time using gel medium instead of paper mache), and binding with a coptic stitch.  I've incorporated lots of my artwork printed from my computer.  I still have a lot of work to do on the pages, and I still need to finish the cover on this "Book of Wisdom".

I just love this binding technique!

This second journal is interactive.  It's loaded with all sorts of bells and whistles with fold-outs, hidden pockets and places for tags. The recipient was a stamp junkie, so I know she's got plenty of items to use to help fill this "smash' -styled journal.  Here's the cover and some of the pages.

Here's the inside cover and first page that is a tri-fold.

More pockets and fold outs

What could be hidden under the skelly flap?

YIKES!  I know she'll get a kick out of this!  She's a Halloween enthusiast, so lots of appropriate pages for ghouls, goblins, and things that go bump in the night.

A pocket complete with sugar skull tags

Some more pages that have to be bound in along with about 6 other pages that I haven't made yet.

The inside and outside of the back cover.  A compilation of my artwork.  You might recognize some of the images.

The 3rd journal is another travel journal.  Some lucky couple is headed to Hawaii in a few months!  Remember the journal I was going to use as my travel journal?  It was too small for my 2 week vacation, but perfect for a 6 day vacation.  The recipient takes lots of photographs but is not too much into creating art.  I have a lot more to do in this journal, and since I know she looks at my blog, I'm not going to give away too much :o)

I've included lots of pockets and tags in this journal too.  Hopefully there's plenty of room for photos and journaling.

So that's my week in journaling.  I may get to open my journal in the next day or two, but I really need to get these completed first.  Tomorrow was my deadline for finishing, but I've moved it out to Aug 1st.  I'll post photos of the completed journals soon.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE