An Artful Journey 2011: One Last Book

The Big Book! That’s really the only way to describe it! This was the biggest book I created, and it encompassed many of the techniques used in the smaller books. Here’s what we did…

This book is 8”x10”. The exterior covers, interior covers and signature covers are all paste paper pages trimmed to the size needed for the finished book, so I created all those papers first. Albie demonstrated the technique for covering the book board covers with our designated cover papers and then gluing in the book cloth spine. Then we measured and trimmed papers for our signature pages. Mine has three signatures and are sewn in with a pamphlet stitch (can you tell I’m a simple pamphlet stitch fan?) I used paste papers as covers for each of the signatures to add more color to the interior of the book. The paper itself is Stonehenge, so it’s good and strong for adding juicy water colors or acrylics.

I sit here and look at this pile of books I created in three days, and I wonder when I slept! (Okay, so I didn’t sleep much…) But what a wonderful learning experience it was. There are so many ways I can put all this to use that my brain is just overflowing with ideas. I’m even working on simplifying some of these books to use as projects for Mermaids and Mamas Artful Adventure 2011 (scheduled May 14-15 this year, more details to come soon! Click here to read about last year's Adventure) The last thing I’ll have to share with you in my next Artful Journey 2011 post are beautiful pictures I took around the retreat center.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from this Irish girl to you!