An Artful Journey 2011 Day One: Simple Books

Olivia's Book

Last week, I shared with you some of the paste papers that I painted on the first day of classes at An Artful Journey. Today here’s a look at some of the simpler books we had the opportunity to create with our paste papers. What I enjoyed most about Albie’s class was the flexibility. She taught us different techniques, and then we could pick and choose what we wanted to do with the techniques. I knew that if Mama didn’t come home with something for the girls, my name would be mud, so I started by creating these simple little books for the girls.

Olivia's Book

First the paste papers…this was a fascinating and really relatively simple process. You can find paste paper tutorials on You Tube; each uses a little different recipe, many home grown. Albie taught us how to mix good old Elmer’s Art Paste with cold water and paint to create our colors. You vary the consistency of both the glue and the paint you are mixing in to get varying hues, saturation, and consistency of colors. From there, it’s all about putting paint to paper and using your imagination. Albie shared her HUGE supply of stencils and stamps with us to use in class, and I brought a few with me. We added paint and design and took away paint and design using the stencils, stamps, cosmetic sponges, credit cards, and mastic spreaders to create texture.

Sarah's Book

Sarah's Book

The covers for each of these little books was created using one 12” x 18” sheet of paste paper, and then I sewed two signatures in back to back; that was the tricky part! I prepped four total covers, but I’ve yet to sew signatures into two of them. I wanted to make sure I’d have some at home without signatures to remind myself how to do the fold. The finished books are 6" by about 4 1/4" after trimming to even the edges.


Covers without Signatures, front



Covers without Signatures, back

As you can see in the second photo above, Olivia has already completely filled in her little book, complete with a "The End!" on the last page. Sarah said she’d let me borrow hers until I had a chance to show all my friends and take photos of it. And as soon as I finished photographing them yesterday afternoon, she quickly took her book back and begin working in it.  Up next, a cute little Do-Si-Do book!