Handmade Book Inspiration

For the last few years, I've been intrigued by hand made books. I had no idea that it was a thing. I found there are magazines dedicated to book making. I have tried my hand at it, making small, simple books. I've made a few small folded, accordion books which didn't require stitching together.

Then I tried my hand at some larger books with cardboard covers that had to be stitched together.

This one was made with watercolour paper and is being used as a scrapbook.

This one was made with sketching paper and is being used as a sketch book.

The one I am currently working on has a mix of watercolour paper and sketching paper and was stitched together using the coptic stitch.

I then found some scraps of fabric and sewed pieces together, trimmed it and glued it to the front and back covers.

front

back

I am planning to use this book as I do my devotions each day, noting the lesson learned or the comfort I felt from the Bible passage and doing a sketch or watercolour painting to go with the words.

Continuing Creativity While Away from Home

As I mentioned in last weeks blog, I brought some pre-packaged supplies along on my trip. In little sandwich bags I placed some fabric cards that I had started. At home,I planned how I wanted to embellish them and included the embellishments, thread, and some small scissors that I was able to get through security at airport. I had plans to work on them in the plane but I had forgotten to include needles. So this week I worked on them at my daughter's apartment.

Inspired in Whitehorse

I'm a little late with this blog once again. This time it's due to the fact that I had to fly out suddenly to Whitehorse, Yukon because my daughter was having a difficult labour having her first child. I spent four days in hospital with her and her husband after my grandson was finally born. My daughter had to recuperate from a 5 day labour and a Caesarian Section. So there was lot of sitting around and watching her sleep.

I had thrown a few art supplies such as pencils, watercolour pencils, sketchbooks, and some pre-packaged fabric card supplies. So while my daughter rested, I did some sketches in her hospital room. I was actually inspired by a book I received from my nephew. It is called "Drawing Your Life" and gives tips on how to document life with sketches.

Here's a few photos of the new parents and baby.

New Year's Resolutions

I am not normally one who makes New Year's Resolutions. It's not because I don't think I can keep them but more the fact that I just let life happen and go for the ride. Lately, however, I have come to see the benefit of setting goals and formulating plans to get me to those goals. When I was a young mom and wife, I didn't have the time to set goals and try to meet them. I was busy working at our business, raising 3 children and caring for my home. Now that I am an empty nester, I have some extra time on my hands which allows me to pursue my art and improve my skills at it.

A few years ago, I set the very achievable goal of making more art and was successful in doing so. The next goal was to try to get my art into some shows. I also achieved that this past year. So as this new year begins, I'm thinking of what the next goals would be. Where do I want to go with my art? Do I want to try to enter shows in other countries? Do I want to pursue gallery representation? Do I want to work at fabric art predominantly or continue to hone my painting skills as well? Should I enroll in more courses? Or do I just want to make art for the sake of making art or to give away? Do I want to teach art to others? Should I volunteer somewhere sharing my art with others? So many questions and possibilities!

It is rather exciting but also a bit scary to put yourself "out there". What if I get rejected? What if my art is not as good as I think it is? What if I give a piece of art to someone and they really don't like it?
Our inner critic starts to "nadder" in our heads. We artists have been calling this our monkey on our back and we all have had to contend with it. I answer my "monkey" by telling him, it doesn't matter what others think of my art. It's how it makes me feel and what I think that is important. It is the joy I get from creating and giving. When I make art for others, it is not so much the art but the heart that I put into it that means the most to me and hopefully the recipient sees it this way too. I also find when I am making art for someone else, I strive to do the best I can.

I have decided that one goal for this year will be that I will do more drawing and sketching. I started that this past year with my enrollment in Sketchbook Skool. I've seen that it is possible to do a drawing every day. I will draw what is in front of me, whatever that will be; the beautiful, the ordinary, the mundane, the funny.....whatever I find. I'm not sure how successful I will be at this, but I'm going to try.

Sketchbook Skool also gave me the idea of putting together a book with just drawings I've done of our business. I was hoping I'd have the book before Christmas to present to my husband but it didn't arrive until a few days after Christmas. I am really pleased with it and I think my husband is too.

Do you make New Year's Resolutions or Goals for the coming year?  What types of things do you resolve to do or what are your goals?