New year new books.

2011 Art Journal

Although we're a whole week into the new year I still have that fresh, new and full of potential feeling only the new year can bring. I've been following the Creative Jump Start Summit 2012 this last week and it's been so inspiring. But when I went to do some playing in my art journal it was almost completely full. I made this journal from some scraps of water colour paper I had left over from some precious book projects. So the size was determined by the size of the scraps. Even the cover was made from a scrap piece of water colour paper. I thought it was going to be a little small for an Art Journal being only about 5"x5" but at it turned out I found this size worked out really well. It's seemed to suit me just right, it wasn't too small to work in and have room to play and it wasn't so big that it was daunting to fill the page. Although I have some other store bought journals this one has been my favourite so I decided to make a similar one for 2012.

2012 Art Journal

I didn't have much in the way of watercolour scraps this time but I did have a few large sheets of similar paper. I can't remember what kind it was, it's smoother than water colour paper but still heavy enough to be able to work in any kind of medium I want. I decided to make this one a little bigger so it's about 6"x5 1/2". I used the same Butterfly binding because I really liked the openness it gave to each page. I used a corrugated board for the cover since I seem to have an excess of it and I really like the look. So now I'm ready for a new year of Art Journaling. I hope to get more of it done this year.

When I was searching for paper for my new Art Journal I came across some nice smooth black paper in my scrap pile so I made this book to try out some white on black zentangles. Can't wait to try it out.

If you haven't noticed yet I have a new winter schedule up on my workshop page. I'll be teaching at a few local studio's in the next few months as well as here in my own studio. At Earmark Studio I'll be teaching the Piano Hinge book and Metal embossing on canvas. At Laura Daub's Studio I'll be teaching metal embossing also. These ladies are both amazing artists and have beautiful studio's. To learn more about them check out their web sites.

Wendy