Monday, November 23, 2009

Journaling in a handmade journal















Well, it's been a long time. Again. I had been hoping to participate in a twenty minute challenge this past weekend but I got caught up in journaling. I stumbled (quite by accident) across Teesha Moore's videos on journaling and just had to try them. You can get an idea here of her work. If you do make some, please let me know. I'd love to see them!

Sooooo, I made two books. I still have to stitch them together but decided to start painting in one of them because I just didn't feel like going to shop for the proper 'thread' needed.

These books are soooo much fun! You make one book out of one full sheet of w/c paper. In her videos, she mentions to not use Arches. "Only use Fabriano." Her reasoning is that Arches will crack when you fold it. Bull feathers. I made one out of the last sheet of Fabriano that I had and then, because someone told me not to, I had to make one out of Arches, too. The Arches one seems just as good. (And I've always loved the way Arches reacts to paint anyways. You could say, I'm partial to Arches. To put it mildly.) And it did not crack when I folded it.

I followed her style and painted the first book in brilliant and bold colours. My next book will be painted in more earthy muted tones, I think.

At first, you just don't know what to 'journal' about. But, after cutting out some pics in old mags and catalogues to use as a few collage pieces, the ideas started flowing. And the best thing is to not plan these out. Just do it. Go with the flow.

Here's a pic of the page I've been working on and a shot of the bold colours I painted the pages in. Sorry these pics are a bit dark. I'll take better shots tomorrow during daylight and will replace these. I decided to use a pic of the drawing I did of Death Becomes You.

When it's all stitched up, there are 16 pages, 8" x 10" in each book.






8 comments:

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

These look A·WE·SOME Deb!!!! Soo cool! Can't wait to see more pages finished, it sure is fun!

Deb Léger said...

Hi Teresa! Thanks!! They're heaps of fun to do. You just do what ever comes to mind.

Ann Buckner said...

Glorious colors- but those pages draw you to spend more and more time journaling. :)

RH Carpenter said...

This is so cool, Deb! You were busy this weekend on these and I love the cover. Hope you find the thread to bind them together - or maybe keep them separate until you do them all and then put them together however you like them best?

Susie Short said...

Such pretty colors! I'm anxious to see what you do with them. These look like the kind of books you want to touch and hold. Keep us posted! I like 'em!

Deb Léger said...

Hi Susie! Thanks for your comments - yes they're colours to touch and hold and keep on doing. Lots of fun. Thanks for dropping by!!

Deb Léger said...

Hi Rhonda! I think I'll use narrow ribbon for the binding and when I do one in more muted natural colours, I'll maybe us jute to bind it. Next time, I'll definitely stitch before painting though. If I can. They're very long and kind of awkward to move around to paint when unbinded. Thanks for the comments.

Deb Léger said...

Hi Ann! I think that anything that gets you creating is a good thing. But working on them also gets you into the mood to paint as well. :-) Thanks for the comments and I am still going to do some of those twenty minute paintings!!