a better look

Here's a bunch of pics that give you a better look at the finished giveaway journal. I've captioned most of them, but if there's no caption, it's a pic of the inside pages.

Beginning to bind using some pretty turquoise thread I got while visiting Julie in San Diego.

Finished spine. 

Detail of cover. Dress tissue, spray ink thru stencils, black paint, gesso, collaged bits of paper, paint stamps with bottle caps and tape rolls, gesso thru stencils, black stamping. Used a lot of techniques on the covers and no particular plan, just added stuff till it looked good to me. 

 

Inside front cover and first page. Both inside covers are mostly vintage papers.

All the black stamps are Tangie Baxter's grunge stamps.
I have sets 2 and 3. Love them.

I added a small envelope with a painted tag.

Sprayed this with two colors of Dyelusions ink and got some real pretty color blending.

Inside back cover with a couple detail shots below.

Those bits of advertising are from a 1946 Popular Mechanics.
Wonder how well the 'poems set to music' guy did?

and the wiener is...

Jean of Jean's Muse blog. Congrats, Jean! I'll email you just in case you miss this post.

Here's the journal still under construction on my kitchen table. I've been working there for the last week so that I can watch the Olympics while I art.
The top center piece is the inside back (or front) cover done with mostly vintage papers, the purple/blue piece to the right and below it is the front (or back) cover, the other parts are the inside pages in various stages of being decorated with inks and stencils, and a bit of collage, and some stamping with Tangie's cool grunge stamps. I have sets 2 and 3 and love them.
I'll bind it this weekend and send it off to Jean on Tuesday.
Sorry I couldn't make one for everybody but thank you for all your nice comments, and thanks especially to those of you who signed up to follow me. Hopefully I'll keep you entertained. 

grow your blog drawing postponed til Sat

Sorry, certainly meant to get to this tonite but got home late from work, then started feeling lousy and spent the evening on the couch fast forwarding thru recorded Olympics. Fingers crossed it's something I ate and not the flu. Will announce winner tomorrow and mail journal next Tuesday. Covers are done and I've been adding stuff to the inner pages. Looking good!

Grow Your Blog!

VIEW OF STUDIO FROM STEPS

JOURNALS

Hi - I'm Leslie, the Woman of One Woman's Hands and I'm very happy to be joining in the Grow Your Blog party again this year. I acquired a LOT of followers from the party last year and hope to get a few more this year. But I don't blog so I can gloat over how many followers I have, I blog to keep a record of things I've done and so that friends and family can see what I've been up to without waiting for me to email them. :-(

I began my blog in October 2010 and blog mostly about my art - mixed media stuff like mail art postcards, ATCs, and art journals, which I make myself because I love bookbinding. I play around in Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 (PSE12) and post digital collages now and then. Around the fringes of those things I knit, crochet, stitch a bit, and do some beading. I used to be a quilter, and later, a crazy quilter but my hands can't handle the little stitches any longer.

ART ON DISPLAY

My animals make occasional appearances on the blog. I have the Standard American Pet Trio of dog, cat and parrot, and enjoy photographing them when they're doing something cute. I also garden in the summer - vegetables and a few fruit trees in our suburban back yard. I love to bake and have banana bread with chocolate chips and craisins in the oven as I type this.

WHERE ALL THE FUN HAPPENS

When we moved into our current house about two years ago, I took the entire front room (living room and dining room, 16' x 23') as my art studio and it's just wonderful. All that SPACE! And I use every inch of it since I can't throw anything away because in mixed media, you can use practically anything.

WHAT A MESS!

My *giveaway* will be a hand made journal, somewhere in the 5"x7" to 6"x8" range. I'll make the covers using gelli prints, markers, paint, pens, stamps - all sorts of wonderful art supplies - and the pages will be 140lb watercolor paper so they'll hold up to whatever you want to do with it. It'll be bound with waxed linen thread, and I'll include some decorative tapes and some fun gelli prints and vintage papers and tags for you to add yourself. I haven't actually made the journal yet so no pictures of it to entice you, but the last two pictures are the covers of a similar one.

You don't have to follow my blog to enter the drawing - you're entered simply by commenting on this post - but if what I do appeals to you, give me a try. You can always drop me later if I don't keep you interested LOL.

The winner will be announced on my blog on February 15th. Good luck!

And be sure to click on the Grow Your Blog button at the top of the right sidebar to go visit almost 600 more good blogs. Wow.