Journal Class: Part Two

Alert readers may remember when I purchased this fun fabric back in August. I decided to use one of the "fruit ladies" fabrics for the cover of my second journal in Sue Bleiweiss's online class. This one is a sketchbook with watercolor and drawing paper. The velcro closure is covered by a piece of fabric with a giant pear bead from one of my old necklaces. After all, I do identify most with the "pear-shaped" lady!

The inside cover has a wild peach and orange fabric that almost looks like bookbinding paper, plus a colorful, juicy faux patchwork in red, pink, orange, yellow, peach, and purple. The pocket on this one goes all the way across the bottom of the journal from front to back. I was able to sew along the lines of the print to create some of the pockets for art supplies.

Instead of sewn-in signatures, this journal features hammered-in eyelets and removable hole-punched paper. I had no problem with the eyelets until the bottom two, when I was also going through the two layers of pocket fabric. Loose-leaf binder rings are used to hold the pages, and are decorated with strips of fabric and fiber along the spine.

The first page and several other divider pages feature painted watercolor paper.I used Setacolor sprayed or painted on, and then either used plastic wrap or paper towels to create mottling. I also added some metallic Lumiere paint to give it a gleam.

The cool text on the first page arrived at my house serendipitously when my husband picked up his annual box of wildlife calendars from the N. C. Wildlife Association. Included was a fabulous poster encouraging children to enter a wildlife art contest.

Here is the inside back cover, loaded with bookmarks, sketching pencils, and some colorful gel pens.

And here is my first page of doodled feathers, created while DH was trying out his new surround-sound speakers on the VERY loud movie Iron Man.

And a couple of doodled bookmarks, made from leftover pieces of the painted divider pages.

I have some coordinating Fruit Ladies fabric that might have to become a tote bag to carry additional art supplies like watercolor pencils and a water jar.