The King and I

This handmade book was inspired by an article by Jeannine Stein in the March/April issue of Cloth Paper Scissors - "Books with a Repurpose".  In this article, Jeannine shows how to use recycled materials (postcards, food packaging, greeting cards, etc.) to make hand sewn books.

The covers of this book are made from large playing cards and the pages are security envelopes, sheet music and plain paper.  I didn't have any book cloth for the spine, but I had a long strip of sturdy zebra printed cloth generously given to me years ago by a member of Canadian Stamp Talk, and it seemed to work fine.

Grid Lock and Baggies.......Again

OK, I told you I can't stop.  If you missed the earlier entry, you can read more here.

Here is a blue grid from the blue baggy:

There isn't so much in the pink baggy, so there are a few paint chips on this one.  But hey, they were in the baggy.

The yellow baggy is actually a yellow/orange baggy; I guess I don't work very much in these colours:

Yeah, I just can't stop.

Happy Weekend, everyone!  I'm off to the Grind today to trade ATC's!

Grid Lock and Baggies

This month on GPP Street Team, Michelle Ward is challenging us to do a grid in our journal.  She even shows a really nifty way of dividing your paper up without having to do the difficult math and measuring.  I like this!

She suggests that we might want to use some of the new paper we buy "for ourselves", thereby freeing us from the "pack-rat" syndrome that prevents us from cutting into the beautiful papers that we buy. 

Now I love grids, and I may be even more of a pack-rat than Michelle suspects.  I have a drawer full of paper scraps that I can't bear to throw away and they are nicely organized in baggies by colour.  Oh brother.  But this quirk of mine made it an easy challenge for me.  I pulled out the "green baggy", and it wasn't long before:

I love grids and I love paper!

May Vintage ATC Swap

The May Vintage ATC cards were swapped out recently.  Here are two beauties I received:

Here is the one I created:

Demo Day

This is how we renovate older houses in our neighbourhood.  Just a hundred yards from our place, this beautiful Edwardian house served for many years as a group home for troubled kids and had been well maintained by the owner – the City of Vancouver.  Sadly, its fate was sealed because it occupied a double lot that recently sold for more than $2 million in our overheated property market.   A few minutes after this picture was snapped (with my cell phone), it came tumbling down.  The Douglas Fir lumber will be ground to bits and carted to a landfill.  Soon to be replaced by two cardboard mc-mansions.  A triumph of greed over imagination.  - guest blogger Richard McCallum

Beautiful Card!

My sister, Dianne, doesn't have time to blog much any more, but she continues to bless me with her beautiful work.  Here is a card I received recently:

It is three dimensional, embossed in gold, and all sparkly, in addition to the beautiful colouring you can see here.

Thanks, Dianne!

Still Stepping on the Scale

Michelle Ward's challenge to work in various size formats (see this) is still rattling around in my head, so even though I'm past the June 1 deadline I'm still "stepping on the scale".  So many of the entries have inspired me that I've got  large size, acrylic painted papers drying in the basement.  I plan to make books so they are being painted on both sides.

Here's one with paper painted only on one side: