Journals to the People: Wild at Heart

 

Love this journal. This is one of 6 journals I made for for Lindsey’s September Challenge where we were to use a selection of book and floral themed digitals from her shop.

I also had a play with mixed media on the cover with collage, paint and texture stenciling. My journals are generally “anything goes” in terms of style meaning no theme. I include what I like. If it looks good on the page, it stays.

There's a lot of collage going on.

There’s some of my eco-printed pages within.

This and That: Explore

 

Here's a fun random journal I finally finished up. It's a single signature, soft, "Frankenpapered" cover. The image is one of my original photographs taken in Santa Fe when I made my cross country move back to San Francisco from New York City.

The inside cover is fabric

Collage and decoupaged napkins

more collage

Journals to the People: Write On

 

Another re-purposed Readers Digest book for the August Challenge at Lindsey Zenor's Marketplace (Nevermore Creations)

I love these illustrations from the 80's books...and the caption! Classic.

Decoupaged hydrangea petals onto mulberry paper.

Writing board made from a Readers Digest illustration.

Journals to the People: "Jane"

 

This series of journals are for the August Challenge at Nevermore Creations Marketplace. We're choosing three digitals from a selection of five from which I chose:

Script and Lace

Old Books

On My Desk

On My Desk Journaling Cards

I also used some images from Dear to my Heart in my cover plates.

I purchased lifetime access to all of her digital kits and I'm taking advantage of the 300 free prints offered with the HP instant ink program.

This months challenge also coincided with my acquisition of 10 Readers Digest books. These are my favorite books to repurpose into journals and use because the size just feels so right in my hands.

The downside though is having to cut down almost all of my papers because the books are smaller than would fit the average sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper. One journal probably wouldn't be a chore but four?... Well... it's tedious.

Anyhoo, this is "Jane". I totally hijacked Jessica Rapp's journal naming idea...names from a specific era. I chose female authors or literary characters.

The blue button on the cover is antique. I bought  a card of them at the Marche aux Puces ( the big Paris flea market) 20+ years ago. 

Lots of machine stitched enhancement and collage.

As is with all of my journals, the style is Anything Goes. Roughly vintage, roughly Old Books themed but I throw in anything that I like if it looks good on the page.

Book page ruffles...

This and That: Dream

I took a break from the series of challenge journals I’m finishing up for Nevermore Creations Marketplace (see the last pic below) feeling a need to do something with the pile of stuff that didn’t make its way into those books. I switched gears and decided to make this Catch-All.

There was another method to my madness. I wanted to see how long it would take to complete one journal from start to finish. I usually work on several books at a time, completing each phase on all journals before moving on to the next. 

So. No overthinking. No theme. No distraction. No stash shopping. Use what’s already been pulled out.

I figured it would go pretty quickly since I already had both cover and the image plate made, they just hadn’t met yet😉 

I made two fat signatures determined to not re-file anything and find good spots for my extra pockets. I anchored each signature with some gelli printed card stock.

I made some floating pockets and envelopes

The detailing of the “Frankenpaper...

This is a fattie. 172 pages front and back (that’s 43 sheets of paper so 21-22 sheets per signature). The time drain was trimming down the pages.

The up-side to the fattie was that I was able to use a lot of the printed ephemera I’ve been hoarding that I usually find too one dimensional. I love it but find it hard to use on its own. Anyhoo...I was so happy to get it in this book. Staying true to my challenge, my ephemera books were already out😉

These cut apart postcards were from the first paper stack I ever bought from my first trip to Tuesday Morning. So happy they finally found a home. 

A belly band made from a beer box. I bought it because I loved the graphics.

Gelli plate play.

So how long did this take me? Somewhere between 13-15 hours. All day yesterday and about 3 hours this morning.

These are the journals I’m finishing up.