Monday, May 21, 2012

Unfinished spreads from the Little Book

Ooh, I just had a four day weekend and it was wonderful. Relaxing and unwinding, that was just what I needed. I didn't do a whole lot of art, but I was inspired by many hours of walking and lots of reading and one day of way too much shopping.  I also got a lot of sunshine, because despite pessimistic weather reports it was beautiful sunny weather.

But now it´s back to work and back to the studio, so let me show you some artsy stuff!


The project that is currently most on my mind is the little journal that I put together recently. I´ve decided to name it The Little Book, because that´s exactly what it is, especially if you compare it to my current everyday journal The Moon Journal which as you know is an altered atlas.


The Little Book is put together from A4 sized papers that were painted with acrylic paints. They were folded into one signature of 32 pages measuring 15x21 cm. Some of the pages were bound off center, which means that the book has some flaps and shorter pages, which is a new element for me and somewhat challenging when decorating it.


But that´s exactly what I´ve been doing, decorating spreads. The book counts sixteen spreads and  I am almost halfway filling those with images and other decorative elements. I intend to decorate the entire journal before I start writing in it, so the spreads I´m showing today are in effect unfinished!


I´m enjoying the very colorful base of the pages. I worried a little that it might be a bit too much, but it turns out to be absolutely wonderful to work with all that color. I love how it makes the pages pop!


The style is quite similar to most of my recent journaling, but I do notice that I use some different techniques that may not be so apparent to an unlooker. One of them is decorating borders and pieces with paint markers. I love my paint markers and they go so well with this book.


Another thing I hardly every use in my regular journal are stamps. I am now using them in just about every spread of the Little Book though. Sometimes directly unto the page, but more often I will stamp an image on decorative paper, cut it out and then use it as collage fodder. I am now so intending to spend some time just making decorative elements that way to use in my everyday journal as well.


In fact I´ve already made up a whole list of ways to make collage elements myself that should keep me busy till kingdom come.  ;-) More and more I feel a longing to make my own elements and combine them with found imagery and even commercial imagery like scrapbooking stuff. I love this mix and match concept I have going on in my journals.


Like I said, it's still nowhere near finished, but I do love where it's going and can't wait to see how it all turns out when I start writing in it. Until then I will first have to decorate the rest of the spreads though. Hope you enjoyed this first peek at the Little Book!

Wishing you all a happy and creative week!