Pink and Green Journal

This week I stopped by a new paper and book arts store called Small Studio.  I had heard wonderful things about the store, and they were all true!  I ended up picking up some beautiful decorative papers and some waxed linen thread in fun colors.  One of the papers I bought was a bright green sheet with pink branches and birds printed on it.  I arrived home and immediately started planning a book using that paper.  I pulled out some pages of white cotton paper I already had cut (well, torn with a ruler) to the correct size.  It is along the lines of a Stonehenge or Arches paper that I have leftover from a printing class I took.  As I was looking through my papers I also had green tissue paper I saved from a package, and various shades of pink paper I made over the summer during my internship.

Next I decided this journal needed some kind of closure and I just happened to have some green ribbon that would go perfectly with the bird paper.  (Actually, that shade of green is my favorite color... So I "happen" to have about everything in that same color.)  I started thinking about how the ribbon would attach to the book and remembered a sewing technique I learned over the summer where the signatures get sewn over a piece of leather or ribbon.  And the piece de resistance are the pink grommets that attach the ribbons to the cover near the spine.

 Everything came together so well, and the only thing I needed to buy was the decorative cover paper and the pink waxed linen thread.  This will actually be the first book I make and use myself.  Ginny at Small Studio said something that got me thinking.  We had a conversation about journaling and the benefits of capturing all the ideas and thoughts you have on a daily basis.  I realized the only time in my life I ever journaled consistently was 2 years ago during my Europe trip.  Looking back, the process of journaling really helped me gain clarity on certain issues, and my journal is my most treasured souvenir from that trip.  Starting today I am going to use this journal to write down thoughts, events, ideas, drawings, and everything else I used to do in my Europe journal or my high school sketch book.