December & January

Out with 2012. I did pretty well writing a little something in my December calendar. Only a couple days where so little happened that I couldn't think of a single word worth recording. December's haiku reads:

oh no, December!
month of pine trees and eating and
excessive spending

In with 2013 - January is going well so far. <the pic is a few days old> Still need to decorate the page a bit more and think of a haiku for the month.

As with December, I just drew a grid for the days so that the marvelous painted pages could show thru. They were painted by Marinda and I got them in a duct tape journal swap. Quick, fun way to make a book, and it's easy to add more pages after the fact.

I'm hooked on the process of recording just a snippet of each day. One friend is using hers to record her art time. That's a great idea, makes you a bit more accountable to make time for yourself.

duct tape journal swap

I love swap reveals. So fun to see what went out and what came back.

I already posted about the duct tape journal I made for this swap. Here is the one I received. It was made by Malinda J, primarily a jewelry maker, who really cut loose for this swap. Every page is hand painted in a marvelous variety of colors and techniques.

The paint is smeared, scraped, swirled, brushed, and I don't even know what else. Then she did some random stamping, stenciling, splattering, and splushing.

I L.O.V.E. this journal. I can do every single technique she did, but when someone else does it, it's so much more interesting than your own work, at least for me. I love swaps for that reason. Sometimes you get schlock back, and sometimes you hit the jackpot, like I did this time.

Thanks, Malinda!

Love the left hand page a LOT.

I must admit that I made a new cover for it. It came with a perfectly good cover of scrapbook paper on cardboard, but I had an old book cover that was just the right size and really needed a home. It was the perfect complement to these handmade pages. I split the papers into 3 signatures and tied them with a sparkly ribbon that I've had for ages.

I'm using it for my calendar journal, a la The Kathryn Wheel, that I wrote about in this post.

This is a lovely spread, isn't it?

To the left is the inside of the old book cover I added, and the
great pink paisley duct tape I used for the spine.
The leaves are from a recent dog walk around the block.

The cover I made. Love the fancy worn corners.
The ribbons stick out to the left normally.
I laid them over the cover when I put it
on the scanner.