journals for a cause

I made these two journals and donated them to my friend Judah's Etsy shop.

Judah's partner, Charlie, suffered a debilitating stroke in August, and as they struggle to rebuild their lives they are raising money to defray their ongoing expenses.

These two journals, along with over a hundred other gorgeous items, are for sale at Charlies Spot.

It's the perfect place to start your Christmas shopping - there are original paintings, affordable prints, hand made jewelry, dolls, books, ornaments and more.  All proceeds go towards their medical bills, cost of ongoing therapy, and the remodeling of their home to make it more accessible for Charlie.  You get a beautiful work of art and you get to help a fellow artist.  Win!

Here are some close up shots of the journals I made.

They are both about 4"x5".

The covers are handmade "fabric paper" embellished with more of my hand-painted papers.

They have hand-sewn bindings, and are filled with about 40 pages of blank Stonehenge paper (suitable for watercolor, printmaking, drawing, and mixed-media.)

This one has an elasticized cord to hold it shut:

Nice deckled edges on the paper:

Long-stitch binding with waxed linen thread:

This one has actual dried ferns adhered to it:

View of the back cover:

Another fern on the inside of the back cover:

Close up of the crazy stitched circles on the cover:

I love making books.  Every time I finish binding a book I wonder why I don't do this all day every day?  Why did I wait almost a year since my last book-binding session?

Unanswerable questions.

If you'd like to own one of these for yourself, head on over to Charlie's Spot.

They are a mere $25 each.

Maybe while you're there you'll find treasures for everyone on your gift list!

UPDATE: As of Monday night, the blue one has sold!  Thanks, Vicki.
Another update:  The orange one sold too!

It all started with Rainbow Sherbet...

....and ended with this little book.

But let me back up.

 I’ve decided to play along with Summer of color 2012 – six weeks of color prompts hosted by Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle. This year the colors are based on ice cream flavors and this week’s prompt is Rainbow Sherbet – bold oranges, pinks, yellows and a touch of white. 

 

Naturally, I started with an index card

But not just one index card.

Whenever my card idea involves a specific background technique, I will usually make multiple cards with the same background so I can have extras or in case I mess one up.

The first layer of this card is liquid watercolors sprayed through stencils.  Four cards fit nicely under an assortment of makeshift stencils

After spraying, I a grabbed a piece of copy paper to soak up the paint.

I rather liked the way it looked and set it aside.

Meanwhile, I’ve got handmade books on the brain.  I just gave away 10 little books as part of the All Together Now blog hop, and I’ve been itching to make more.  If luck would have it, the current theme at the Butterfly Effect is books!

 

I looked around my work table and saw the extra pink and orange index cards and thought they would make perfect little book covers, and that the cool blotter paper would make great pages.  Out come the stencils and spray again to make more pages.

Some trimming, some hole punching, some stitching, and I’ve got a sweet little Japanese Stab bound notebook in rainbow sherbet colors.

Since one book puts me in the mood for another, I decided to make a small accordion style book.  I went digging for one I’d made in the past to use as a reference and I stumbled upon some sheets of  plastic slides I recently bought at a salvage store.  Now THOSE would make interesting pages…

I painted the frames with alcohol inks, and bound the pages with washi tape.  

 I dug through the scrap basket for bits of my painted paper in complementary hues and collaged them into small covers. 

 

 I wrote a favorite quote on the film part of the slide using a white soufflé pen. 

 It reads, "Art is the only thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting."

 I think I will add some kind of closure to it.

 

 Now, before I put some kind of closure on this blog post and head out for some ice cream, I'll show you one more sherbet inspired index card:

Happy Friday!

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