Baby Wipes

I am making my way through the workshops at Twenty One Secrets. I am picking up some interesting tips, techniques and ideas from each one, even if I do not do or complete the project for each class. For example I learned a much easier way to make a home made journal from Terri Kahr's I have a Secret class. She makes it from a mailing envelope, card stock and a simple pamphlet stitch. And talk about fun. Each page is gessoed and color is drawn on with water color pencils and then rubbed, blended in with baby wipes. I took it a step further and used water color crayons. I found that color will really pop when letting one layer dry and then adding more on top. Right now I am just having a ball covering the pages with color. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that after raising a twin son and daughter, baby wipes would again be a frequent item on my grocery list. Tomorrow I will show you another piece I made from another workshop through 21 Secrets. Thanks for visiting here.....jo

What A Story!

My friend Robin told me recently that making journals was addicting. I was really excited about my first attempt at making a journal with duck tape but that changed pretty quickly.. Jodi Ohl over at 21 Secrets makes it look so easy in her videos. I started out ok until I "tried to nestle" (hot glued) the signatures in and then I couldn't get the book to open, or lay right or flat, so it ripped the first and last pages of each signature. OK. Jodi Ohl did that, too, in her video. No big deal.I patched the pages up. I thought maybe I hadn't left enough space for the spine so I separated the covers and started again making a wider spine. Maybe it was the thin black electrical tape I used instead of duck tape. I dunno. I went to purchase some black duck tape, figuring I could still cover up any more rips. I did hot glue the signatures back in but they still don't seem to lay right. I'm sure with practice and more mistakes I might do better but to tell you the truth, I was peeved. It was more like a challenge, a test> Did I measure everything right? Did I make a wide enough spine? Did I do everything correctly to make this beautiful home made book> I felt like I failed. Perhaps journal making is just not my thing or perhaps I really don't have the patience for it. Addictive? Not too sure about that. Robin makes journals. wonderful journals as well as she tells stories. I know. She's gifted me a journal or two and I've heard her tell a few good stories. And yes, I know there's tons of info on the internet for making journals. I wish the journal making fairy would throw some dust my way. I swear, I was like a little kid after nestling then wrestling with that glue gun that destroyed my pages. I'm on the home stretch of the ICAD challenge, although I'm still running a bit behind. That's ok. Here are a few more all in the same color palette. But if you have any ideas you want to bestow upon me I would gladly listen. Thanks for stopping in................Jo

Icads and More

I am once again running behind in not only posting but actually making the ICADS. Life, you know, has a way of sometimes getting in the way. Here are a few more. The second one was soaked in a chai tea bag bath. I wanted to see how dark I could stain it. This one didn't get too dark but it has a pleasant smell. I don't like the first one with the tree. I like the tree but the piece is missing something. It's not one of my favorites so I will come back to it at some point. The last two were made with layers of painted waxed paper glued on. You know. The paper laying around on the table you've used as a pallet or you've used it to wipe your brushes. I like the grungy look. I think I mentioned a while ago that I was taking the Twenty One Secrets workshops. I hadn't anything to show for it at that point. I decided to give it a try with Jodi Ohl's class on making a journal. This is how I've been using up my many gelli plate prints I've been making and any other miscellaneous papers. These are the front and back covers for my book. Here are the inside front and back covers. And here are some pages of the first signiture (or is it signature) at this point?. This is all new to me. This book is not going to be sewn into a spine but rather duct taped and then hot glued. I will see how it turns out. I figure if I make enough of them and experiment with different techniques I'm bound to make a home made journal I like. I know there's a million different ways and resources in how to make them out in cyberspace. I like that I can finally find a place to put all those prints. They take on a different look when cut down to smaller sizes. Stay tuned. More to come. Thanks for spending a moment here............I am having a staycation this week. I am not wanting to pay attention to the time in any regard unless it's having to do with eating.( my head will tell me if I have forgotten to eat.)........Hope everyone is well..............jo