An Exercise in "Book-Binding" and "Patience"

Hi There Folks;

Have you settled into January?  

Now that the Christmas rush is over, tinsel and tree gone...how about your New Years Resolutions?  Have they died like mine have?  The only one I've kept so far is to "Journal" everyday.  I am being creative everyday.  This makes me happy and keeps those creative muscles supple....now if only I could exercise everyday, I would be even happier that I have muscles.

A really good read on Journal Fodder Junkies take a look at Eric's Rules.  They are amazing and inspiring.  This is exactly what I'm talking about.  No matter what your creative craft may be these are good rules to live by.

So today is my second day off in a row (this never happens).  And I have been struggling with my new 2011 journal.  I love it but the paper sucks.  

 So I searched the Internet (as I always do when faced with a challenge) and found this.  So I went to my paper stash and behold I had some old watercolor pads collecting dust and various other good quality paper and decided to try my hand at book-binding.  The black book on the bottom is my journal and on top is the signatures that I made and sewed together using a "copic" stitch so that the pages lay flat when the book is opened.  Cool eh?  The fun part came when I gutted out my journal and placed the signatures inside and it was toooo THICK...omg!!! How could this have happened!  OK...deep breathes and problem solve.  

I had left one signature in the journal because I have done some art in it already and I wanted to keep some of my pages in, but this made it too thick so I cut out a little more of the pages in my journal and placed weights on my signatures so hopefully that will make it fit.  I am learning alot in this old art of book-making.  I do love it but I must say I am a bit stressed, my beloved journal has been gutted and I have nothing to draw in.  So I will be up ALL night until it is fixed.  As you can see there is my journal on the bottom and my signatures on top.  It will work out and I should give myself a break as Jackie says; "this is your first time, you can't be perfect at EVERYTHING."  This is true, I am so hard on myself.  I am pretty proud for attempting this, even if it doesn't work out I still come away with alot more knowledge that I didn't have before.

I belong to a "Mail Art" club.  People in the club send you a postcard in the mail and you send one back, as simple as that.  You can do anything you want.  If you are into photography you glue a picture on a postcard and send it, if you write send a poem on a card etc.  I received one over Christmas from "Lady L"  (oh yeah it's anonymous) and this is one that I was working on for her.  Making art for someone you don't know brings up alot of different feelings, you are basically doing "art by intuition" I guess.  I did what I like and I sent it.  This is how it turned out.

Well...I must get back to my poor journal with no substance, she needs her guts.  Wish me luck.  ;)

"You're Braver than you believe and Stronger that you seem and Smarter than you think"  Winnie the Pooh

Here is Milliande's Day 2 video