Poor neglected blog....

.... 'sidelined' because life takes over sometimes doesn't it?! 

Among the paint brushes, pens, rolls of tape, bits of paper, & work-in-progress-projects on my desk (and the occasional cat ) there are a couple of books that I've made following patterns I've found in books or on the www to see how they are made (i like making books). I use them to put little tests and ideas into (and sometimes I use them as a 'work avoidance' technique.. lol).. but they are just little books of stuff. They sit on the desk for a while and get worked in as and when the mood takes me etc etc etc.

This is the one I've just filled up, its reads like a snapshot of projects, articles and classes I've designed & planned over the last 6 or so months, and its quite small - 9.5x11cm.
Its almost like a mini journal.. a notebook about what I've done and lessons I've learned...

I like that the book doesn't close - that bits & pieces stuck in have given it lovely touchy feely quality.  It was made from a single sheet of paper that has been folded several times, then the folds were roughly seperated and the formed pages were sewn together at the centre. I like the 'rough' feel this gives the book - the pages don't quite match up but thats makes the book quite unprecious to work into - a bit rough and ready.

 Bits and pieces left over from my many projects with the Claudine Hellmuth 'Bloom' stamps sets - and there's a bit of PaperArtsy in there too.

This is a Papermania (DoCrafts) die that I wanted.. no, needed when I saw it in a magazine.. but then couldn't find it.. so I forgot about it... until I saw it in a shop last week - so pleased: it was like finding treasure - I couldn't take it to the cash desk quick enough! lol I especially like that it die cuts the entire alphabet in one go - makes a great stencil which is what I was playing about with on the pages.

One of my favourtite spreads - LOVE!! ('flight' was a recent addition - new die, so i was using it on anything I could! lol)

 This is where this book became useful - the right hand page of the spread has been gesso'd.  The same colour distress inks where used on both pages - look how differently the inks sit on the pages - who'd have thought they would be so different!?!

The colour on these pages are so lovely - they were left over from something and I didn't want waste them so I stuck them in...

... same goes for the tag & butterfly on this last spread.. they'd been on the desk, on the pinboard, back on the desk - I was getting fed up with moving them about so I've put in the book!  Waste not want not.

So there you are - my little book of stuff.. and now that one is finished I've made myself another, this time slightly bigger - with doodles, sewing, sprayed pages, more sewing, tabs & comic book pages - love it already - here's a sneak peek:

I'm off - got to make flags for cupcakes (what else would you do on a Thursday evening! lol)

Take care