Finished Junk Mail Journal

I came across an unfinished journal in my studio,  and decided to get it done in time for Christmas gift-giving.

The cover is made from a florist box from Hawaii. 

The inside cover is gessoed and painted and stamped.

I stitched the painted catalog pages together with a long sewing machine stitch.  Then I punctured holes through the pages and the cover, and used pipe cleaners to secure the signature.

I had some colorful lined post-it's and some orange duct tape, and added in places for journaling.

I also used some painted papers I had on hand.

With some colorful paper clips and a few bookmarks, the journal was almost 

Jdone.

I tied some fibers and fabric scraps through the pipe cleaners on the binding, and it was done!

This went to my daughter-in-law's sister, Kate, who is a college student.

Here is a quick little watercolor portrait that I did of my granddaughter, Lily.  We received a photo album full of good pictures of the three kids in our older son's family, and I used one as the reference for this sketch.

We did a lot of traveling during Christmas week.  I slept in five different places in seven days!

We finally got to go inside our new cabin, which is installed in place but not ready for occupancy.

I discovered that from our deck, we can hear the waterfall from the dam on the creek below.

We designed our fireplace while we were there.  We are getting quite excited about our new mountain place!

Junk Mail Journal- Finished!

I have been showing some of the pages in progress for this painted junk mail journal.  Last weekend, we stayed home...and I finished it, along with several other projects!

I made a cloth cover, sewed on a piece of needle-felted fibers in rainbow colors,  a bit of beading, and lots of ribbons.

When you open it up, all the colorful pages and ribbons and fibers come into view.

Although the outside fabric looks a little gaudy, the inside covers are a dark hand-dyed fabric.  I added a pocket on the front inside cover for bookmarks and a big post-it notepad.  The pocket is made from one of my sun-printed fabrics.

I added lots of bookmarks, clip-on tabs, and binder clips.

I had a few watercolor painting scraps and bits that I added in to some of the pages.  (Now why is Blogger turning the image upside down?)

This was a fun project, easy to work on in small doses if you don't have a lot of time.  Just paint a few pages at a time.  Most of the pages in this journal actually came from an American Quilter magazine.

Going out today to babysit for my little Charlotte.  Can't wait!

More Painted Pages

Yesterday I started working some more on the Junk Mail journal.  Here is one signature, not sewn yet but with added tabs, some fibers added, etc.

 

 

 

I can't wait to have enough pages to put the journal together.

 

Here are a few watercolor backgrounds for a different journal.  I use cheap watercolor paper from tablets for these.

 

After watching Beryl Taylor's DVD with my art quilt bee Monday, I decided to start some fabric paper.  Just take muslin, and dilute some white glue with water.  Glue down some white tissue onto the muslin, and coat it with the glue mixture.  I had a piece of muslin with some painting on it, so I used that.

 

When it is dry you can add more layers of collage, paint, or whatever you want.

I also covered some card stock with painted dryer sheets or "wet wipes", using gel medium.

 

These will all end up in something, some day!

Yesterday I got my grandmother fix by babysitting for baby Charlotte.  Love, love, love!

At four weeks, she is really focusing on her toys, faces, and paintings in the room.  And smiling!

Tonight I am hostess again, this time for my local quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies.  Since I'm not sure how long I will have a house, thought I better sign up for both bees this month.  I made a strawberry cake and some brownies this morning.

 

I'm afraid it is going to be a downpour when everyone is traveling.  We are supposed to get an inch of rain tonight.  Hope everyone arrives safely!