put a bird nest on it…

and call it done…

my twenty-eight spread journal using an old rescued encyclopedia volume that I have worked in so much lately

now has a cover on it using a piece of one of the cutter quilts I got recently…

while I was out on the back porch (where the light is good for photography) a robin redbreast popped into our angel fountain not seeming to mind me being quite close…

as I had my camera handy I clicked a few photos of her splish splashing away…

something went amiss with the robin that nested in our pink climbing rose out front as the four beautiful eggs disappeared from the nest over night leaving us guessing what might have gone wrong…

 back to my art journal…

I always like an excuse to use one of my wire bird nests as they are such fun to make…

I am close to finishing a smaller Funk & Wagnalls volume but that may not happen before our trip in June…

*Wordpress tells me this is my 1,660 th blog post*

Enough …

here we have the last spread in a visual journal that I started working in back in 2009…

as finishing this journal this month has been a challenge I set for myself I am entering it in Susi’s Art Journal Journey May challenge…

lots of my painted pages began because of inspiration from a Julie Prichard online class that taught me so much (she is a wonderful teacher!)…

the first spread I completed above in this 1958 Funk & Wagnalls  Encyclopedia was inspired by a Pretty Paper Hearts challenge blog that no longer exists …

 links to several other spreads can be found here… 

below you will find a bit of my creative process for the last pages which got quite thick…

strips of my citra solv paper and torn vintage map (thank you Carmen ♥) blended in with some white gesso…

using some of my unmounted rubber stamps on pattern tissue paper…

and lots and lots of layers of Distress Stains (one of my favorite Ranger products!!!)…

using my hand to blend and smear the stains and YES it DOES stain your hands …

to finish off the gutter of the book I wet my hand a little and used a small paintbrush to gather enough color to finish off the center of the pages…

above you can see my pages before I found my tiny seashells and starfish from a trip to Florida…

I did try and not make the pages too bulky but you know how it is once you get going…

I am a big mermaid fan…

twenty-eight spreads (double pages) in the recycled encyclopedia that originally covered French Literature — Gothic Architecture and now all it needs is a cover…

“Enough is abundance to the wise.” ~Euripides

and a bit of extra fun with my mermaid and free Photofunia…

wherever you stand…

a couple more pages for both the Art Journal Journey (Challenge Yourself)  and Dawn’s Journal Journey’s (Birds) challenges this month…

I have wanted to try my hand at using water soluble oil pastels and gesso for some time now…

first scribbling on my encyclopedia pages…

then blending with the white gesso and adding a paper doily from a tea tray enjoyed with a special friend recently…

I made a copy of a face from a magazine and various cut out flowers from catalogs along with a birds nest for ‘hair’…

the bluebird of happiness…

Rumi’s quote speaks to me again and again…

a bit of sari fabric and some velvety rickrack…

my first pages for these two challenges can be found here…

be blessed …

my little 4.5 inch book was  finished in the span of a few months with no real plan or theme…

just a place to play…

back in 2010 I created a “soul” angel from a sweet Paper Whimsy girl’s head, butterfly wings, a Tiffany lamp from a catalog and a stamped heart that I colored…

a copy just happened to be handy on my work table and this time she is acting as the soul of the Bluebell Forest on my pages below (shame about the glare but I was having sunlight issues in my photo below)…

there was some green silk ribbon threaded on a needle all ready and waiting on my pin cushion so I decided to stitch on the torn page from an old dictionary and a closeup photo of Bluebells from our archive of hundreds taken over the years…

when I first ordered these handmade books from LaWendula I immediately stamped the seedhead on the left with one of my hand carved stamps …

the book then got set aside for awhile … 

a bit of found text helped complete the pages along with a scrap of map that I colored and a piece of painted metal zipper…

I shared my “Truth” pages above with you back in February adding some tabs to each spread as I went along this time…

same with my “Kindness” pages…

I am repeating the images here for my own convenience to have the finished book all in one place…

I think of my blog as a visual journal of sorts recording some of what I get into and even find it handy to refer to when I need a date or link or something…

I usually like to add the covers to my books at the end making it easier to work in the journals along the way…

one of my favorite sari patchwork purses was falling apart so I decided to carefully tease all of the patches away from their backing keeping them to use for future stitching projects…

the piece below was the perfect color and made a nice cover for my book…

the title of my little book (also found text) ended up on the back as I did not want to add anything else to the front…

 I hope to share one of my larger completed art journals very soon as I have been busy on the last couple of spreads…

promise…

Susi’s Art Journal Journey May challenge theme is to “Challenge Yourself” (all are most welcome to join along each month)...

my challenge began with two painted and stenciled pages that I made just because I wanted to play with some replacement dabbers and my favorite distress stains (I missed the opportunity to snap a photo of my beginning pages as my camera always seems to be downstairs)…

 I also enjoyed stenciling with some extra thick gesso to give texture and interest to my book pages…

I had no specific plans for what else I would be doing to these plain painted pages until I uncovered a wonderful Paper Whimsy image sheet on my work table…

I started with the right hand page brushing several coats of soft gel medium onto the little girl distressing with a sanding block along the way…

repetition is something I enjoy while creating so I carried the strip of three images over to the left hand page and before I knew it they ended up being speak no evil…hear no evil and see no evil…

I altered a white paper doily rescued from a recent tea outing with a sweet friend of mine using colors that would blend in with my painted pages…

then I let words pop off the pages of some book text that was also handy and my pages began to really come together…

adding the lace at the bottom was a nice way to connect the pages and compliment the lace in the girl’s collar …

 tiny posies snipped from a vintage hat were the finishing touch to some of my favorite green leaf ribbon that you may have seen me use before…

I continue to be thrilled by the challenges of beginning with plain book pages …

letting the ideas come and flow as I go creating something I could have never planned beforehand …

thank you for visiting and letting me share my excitement with you which is exactly why I started blogging back in the fall of 2007 …

* Happy May *

Kindness is …

not sure whose quote that is but it is a good one…

the Sweet Pea image is printed on fabric from here…

using more bits from my flower press along with lots of layers of paint, gesso and papers …

and another spread I created using a copy of a sketch of mine on the left and a photo from a garden brochure on the right along with torn shorthand book pages, some pressed flowers and greenery…

LaWendula’s handmade books (4.5 inches square … 11.43 cm) make perfect little canvases (I am working in the green one on the bottom right just now)…

this is my second quote spread for Dawn’s Journal Journey’s April “Quotes” challenge…

stitch by stitch …

 

a chance to use some of my rusted and hand dyed fabric pieces…

 not worrying about making exact stitches or finished edges is relaxing for me while listening to TV…

 

 a beautiful German Swan image printed on cotton from Johanna in Germany…

in the center you can see how plain the flags begin with a sleeve at the top for stringing/hanging…

the embroidered netting is from a thrift shop shower curtain (wish I knew who to thank for the little girl image?)…

I printed a copy of a small canvas I created onto cotton adding dyed netting, a silk ribbon bow and a piece of gorgeous lace from Mapy in France…

this flag came about when I found the last piece of lovely silk kimono left over from making a Japanese Journal that used wonderful ingredients all the way from Jen in Australia …

the Japanese lady is printed onto new tea bag paper which was a gift from my friend Judy Post…

“All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle.”  ~Ellen Birdseye Wheaton, 1851