Art journal making and book making

Above-I watched a YouTube video about making your own Washi tape. The instructions were to cut strips of tracing paper and then glue little bits to the narrow strips. I decided to take a large piece of tracing paper and glue a collage to cover the paper, then cut that into strips. I haven't cut it yet-I'm thinking some of it will be made into book pages or pockets for book pages, and also Washi tape-which of course will have to be glued on the back.

Above is a book I made with sewn signatures, then glued those to the inside spine of an old gutted hardcover book. I used a variety of paper and sizes.

I realize I am very slow to jump on  the wagon of junk journal making, so this will be very boring for those of you who have done this for years. I'm having so much fun with it, and it's inspiring my painting as well.

Above is another book I have made. I made two rice paper inserts that are glued to the inside front cover and inside back cover. These pages flip upward and are meant to be painted on. The rest of the book opens normally.

Above and below are beautiful handmade papers form JoAnn's. It's their Parklane line of papergoods. This is lovely, heavy paper with vibrant colors. It's large enough to make many book covers or journal pages. I also bought the paper collection (below) which has 2 of each design-with some papers printed on front and back. For paper-lovers, these are a must have!

Look at how beautiful this paper is!

Below, I have been making linocuts to print in my books.

 And experimenting with Yupo paper and clear gesso. I used water soluable pencils and then painted over them with the clear gesso. Later I'll put some color on this and change it up to use in my books.

This is just so much fun. Thanks for visiting!

I'll show the progress of my books as I work in them.

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