First here are the three final spreads:
As you can see the book has different page widths here and there because I bound several sheets of paper off center. It's the first time I did something like that and I found it quite challenging to work with. But I do like the result.
You will also see returning elements of butterflies, birds and postal stamps. These are stamps that I printed on pretty papers and so turned into collage elements that you can see all through the book. I think this adds a little bit of consistency throughout the book.
A book isn't a book without a cover and in fact I made the cover before I started doing the inside of the book. It is made of a sturdier paper (paper intended for acrylic paint) and just a tad bigger than the rest of the book. I covered the paper after decorating it in sticky back plastic.
To my chagrin the front went wrong and now has a very wrinkled plastic cover to it. I tried to pry it loose, but it just tore the collage up and made thing worse, so I decided to just let it be. I try to let all the things that go wrong on a project just become part of the character and the front cover has a lot of character, haha.
As you can see, the plastic was perfectly smooth on the back. Sigh...I have no idea why this went right and the front went so abismally wrong. Oh well.
The cover has extra flaps just like some of the pages, on both ends. The words 'begin' and 'einde' are stamped on the flaps and as you may have guessed they mean 'beginning' and 'ending' in Dutch. Just a little fun touch.
Finally here's a look at the entire cover with the book standing up. I'm still in love with the colors of this journal. It's so vibrant and fun!
And that's all there is to the Little Book. I hope you enjoyed looking at it and I hope it inspires you to play with lots of color too. I'm learning that just about anything can go together if you just place it right. I learned a lot making this book.
Now for the best news of all: starting today I have two weeks vacation! Yay! I will be away for the first week, housesitting for my sister. Well, in truth the house needs no sitting, it's just a free vacation for me while she and her husband are on vacation themselves. I will try to post from there with some pictures of what I'm up to. My assistant Peer, who also happens to be my cat, will have a sweet catsitter to take care of him so he won't be neglected and lonely. I will miss him though.
The second week I'll be home on the island and as you know there's plenty of beauty here to enjoy so that should be lovely too. I'll keep you posted. I have no specific artsy plans so even to me it will be a surprise what I will have to show you on that front. We'll just see what happens, shall we?
For now I wish all of you a wonderful and very artsy weekend!