Bookmaking fun...revisited

It was some time ago that I made a concertina book after a prompt in the Hinges group on Milliande's. The plan was to turn it into a family photo album- hence the specific stencilling on the canvas covers... that was so long ago!

As part of my "Finish up 2012 projects" campaign I sat down and finished it- woohoo! As it is a present for a family member that we've not seen before 2005 the photos are really about the kids growing up...

Here it is finished

 

There is a tutorial to make the book over on the How to's... Books page if you'd like to have a go. It's a beautiful little book and so versatile- you can use it for any personal story. Why not have a go?

It's a cinch! really...

Having promised myself to scour high and low, internet and shop for a reasonably priced Cinch binder, I eventually found one a few pounds less than most, but with a bargain on coils to go with! So I did it... I ordered it, and it arrived Christmas eve so I didn't get to play with it until a few days ago... such frustration!

In the meantime my Big Bite had arrived, and being as compulsive as I am I had to play straight away...before friends arrived to stay... do you remember those really textural collage canvases I did  a while back? No? Here's a reminder...

I marked out the holes and spent an evening punching holes- what bliss compared to using a rotary leather punch! It is truly easy to use, I highly recommend it, and great for difficult places. My only issue is the depth of gap between the punch and base... by the time I put the canvas board in place I could not see my markings so some were slightly out of place... which, if you're a perfectionist like me, is completely horrible and unacceptable. (Still, I have the Cinch now, so not an issue for book cutting)

I had wanted to make some spiral bound artist journals with the set of canvases, and to make them truly unique I have filled them with a mix of papers, coloured hand-made papers to match the cover, water-colour, pastel, black, cartridge, card and charcoal papers- 4 or 5 of each in these 40 page journals.

Yellow- floral series, 40 mixed artist papers

Here's how they turned out- I'm really happy with them so I'll be putting them on Etsy and Creative Stores soon.

My Book, purple, 40 mixed artist papers journal

My Book, pink, 40 mixed artist papers journal

I still have to put papers in the green, red and blue books, but that won't take long at all. 

From then on I shall be using the Cinch to make the holes- and it also cuts through the canvas boards beautifully, making my life so much easier, hooray, more time to play!

PS. there's still a 15% discount on my Etsy stock if you type in NEWYEARSALE2013 at the checkout, but only until the 15th January, so grab a unique bargain now!

A tissue, a tissue...we build a house!

So, with friends staying over the holidays it was guaranteed to be a busy, fun time, with no time for creativity- of the non-food or drink kind!

So I have been busy in the last week catching up for my swaps... 

Marilyn is hosting a "Winter Wonderland" ATC swap on Milliande's. I decided to try something new, rather than painting or collaging pictures. 

I loosely sketched a winter scene on watercolour paper, then proceded to paste coloured tissue papers in the appropriate places. Once I was happy with the arrangement of colours I overlaid scrumpled white tissue to subdue the colour and make it more abstract. 

After the gel medium had totally set I loosely went over the faint pencil lines with a technical pen to outline the house and details.

They're ready to post now, I hope the recipients like them.

It was a fun experiment which I may well use again in a future project...

Why not have a go yourself? All you need is a few scraps of tissue paper, some glue or gel medium and a waterproof pen. 

New Year 2013

Well we made it through the end of the world, christmas and now new year, so I guess I ought to make those resolutions now!

May this year be a year of reflection and action towards conservation and preservation... we escaped it this time, but we are responsible for the state of the planet.. so I shall keep up my recycling and add a few extra good deeds if I can...

I promise to be more sociable-I've hidden in my house all year and it's probably not doing me any good...

I will complete all the projects I begin this year! and I will do tutorials for more of them too...

I will lose some weight, quite a bit if possible, the more the better for my health...

I will start making xmas stock in July because October is just too late!

Have I missed anything?  Oh yes, I'll be grateful every morning that I wake up breathing, and my family are happy and safe... and that my camera still works!

Here's hoping that your 2013 is what you would wish for, be happy, have fun... and create, create, create!

PS, I'm having a New Year Etsy sale, so type in NEWYEARSALE2013 for a 15% discount across the shop! Enjoy!