I volunteer at the local Friends of the Library bookstore, so I have access to lots of books that are about to be discarded. I have rescued lots of book covers that are destined to become hand-made journals.

Here is the cover of the book I used for my first journal.

I painted the outside of the cover with some black, and metallic gold paint. On the front cover, I used one of Tracy Moreau’s stencils.

Then I put on some new end papers, and paper inside the spine.

I have always wanted to have a sketchbook with coloured pages for pen & ink drawing. So I collected a bunch of sheets of coloured paper, assembled them in signatures, and sewed them into the book cover as we learned in the class.

Here is the cover of the finished book, complete with bead decorations (of course).

And here are the coloured pages inside the book.

This has been one of the coolest art projects I have ever done. Thank you, Diana!

The workshop was wonderful. The whole process is easy, fun, and very messy. A good time was had by all.

Martha

Now, Julie and Chris are offering an exceptional prize: win all their classes, past, present, and future. Forever. How cool is that?

There are several ways to win. Visit this page for the whole scoop.

I applied this theme to my online life which seems to be taking more and more of my time and spilling over into my artistic time.

I interpreted the “opposites” theme several ways:
(1) black and white on the left page,
(2) complementary colours on the right page,
(3) black and white on the left vs. colour on the right.

This two-page spread contains some thoughts and quotes about time and art. The background of the left page is done with a Derwent Inktense pencil, there are several collage pieces, and some Zentangle patterns done in pen & ink. (Click the image for a larger view.)