No Surprise

Joy is not a final destination....it's always a work in progress.

It's no surprise that the Kawandi paper quilt ended up being a journal cover. That's what I'm mostly doing these days.

Since it was a long narrow piece...I did a trifold...just like a wallet. That gave me two folds to attach two different signatures. 

It's kind of chunky...and the fabric backing lends itself to the more rounded spine. I just love the way it felt in my hands. 

There were a few larger papers in Roseanne's pile that I didn't work into the altered journal for one reason or another. So I used ALL of those...and EVERY SINGLE scrap of the other papers that were left over in this chunky little joy journal. I smiled all the way through making it!

I glued smaller scraps together to create bigger pages...I collaged on the back the thinner papers for reinforcement and I glued in little snippets. No scrap went unused! 

I folded pages to create pockets to tuck in more scraps and snippets. 

There are still plenty of spaces and places for Roseanne to add quotes and writing...and snippets and art.

This page spread has a pocket on the left...and a belly band on the right. 

I tucked in some of Roseanne's scraps (one I made into a little tag) in the pockets and tucked a few art papers under the belly band.  I added a few words here and there leftover from my tag project.....let's just love one another! That would solve a lot of problems.

Roseanne got her journals today...and she opened the box during a Zoom call. 

We had a good time...and it was fun to visit and talk about the process.

Fun Little Joy Journal

The colors of Patty's hydrangea leaves are absolutely stunning this time of year!

As are the colors in another neighbor's hydrangea. These fall pinks...yellows and oranges make me so happy.

I decided to forge ahead on Tracie's junk joy journal and mail both pieces at the same time....so that has been my creative focus the last couple of days. 

Tracie included this heavy calendar cover (?) that was beautiful on both sides that I wanted to use for the cover of the journal.

Rather than just fold it in half and use it as is....I cut it into strips....alternated the sides....and stitch them back together using a zig zag stitch. 

I reinforced the edges and spine with fused fabric....and added a little topstitching to make sure the fused fabric stayed put on the glossy paper. 

This journal is filled with an interesting assortment of papers that Tracie sent me. She has two grandsons...Anders and Five. 

There are several references to the number Five in the book...and some of Anders' sweet artwork. There are also some vintage coloring book pages and a few other miscellaneous papers. 

Tracie included a butterfly napkin in her pile. I separated the layers and glued it onto a piece of lightweight cardstock and cut it out....and cut it in half. I glued one side on the inside cover...and the other half on the inside of the back cover. I think it looks great against the background paper.

I think it worked out pretty well.  It's a fun little joy journal...and my personal bike courier will take it to the post office tomorrow. He'll get a nice tip!

Joy is on the loose!

Joy Journal

I realized I didn't share more photos about my Joy Journal from our recent art group trade. Since today was mostly an errand day....it's the perfect day to share.

I had so much fun working in everyone's journal...trying to personalize and add to what was already there. 

I'm not sure the others have their original journals back yet...but that will happen soon. Then hopefully we'll have a Zoom chat to share and celebrate the finished products. We all saw some stages of each one...but we've only seen the finished product of the last one we did. And we all may end up doing more in our own journals. I know I will.

We started  this project back in April when we were together...and I wrote about it here: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2025/04/rebirth.html

My original journal was filled with a variety of recycled and repurposed papers and artwork. A few pages were blank.

There were pages to color, doodle and embellish...and there were pockets to fill. It made its way around the circle and everyone could do anything they wanted. There were no rules...and nothing was off limits! 

I'm not going to post every single page...but I wanted to give you a sampling of the joy that is inside.

I can see the personality of each person coming through. There are a few things I'm not quite sure who the artist is...but I'll find out.

The original page here was from a garden center catalog...so the sunflower seed packet was perfect. I'm not sure who added that.

The circle stickers are on watercolor paper...so it will be fun to add to that. And I love the little pencil faces along the side...I think that's Tracie's work.

This cute little cat is tucked in the pocket....

and I love the Vonnegut quote!

A friend is what the heart needs all the time! 

Henry Van Dyke

I love these colorful wonky circles! 

I'm guessing Brenda did the colorful swipes...and Becky probably added the vase....? But now I need to put something in it. There are more pages...but you get the idea. I'm going to have fun adding my own touches here and there. I'll keep you posted on this Joy Journal Journey. What a fun shared art project this was!

Dotted Swiss

This quote made me chuckle: If you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a plastic lid that doesn't fit any of your containers.  

I'm currently missing three of my favorite socks....one from three different pairs. I guess I better check the plastic container drawer. 

Does anyone remember dotted swiss fabric? I had several things made out of it growing up. I think this painting technique looks like dotted swiss.

I painted the dots with white acrylic paint using a fineline applicator. After it was dry I watercolored over it. I love the way the paint stains the dots just a bit....but mostly they resist the paint.

The page is in an extra junk journal I made back when I made mine for the art group trade. I thought this was one might be too big...so I made a second smaller one for the trade. Just today I decided it was time to start working in it and added this dotted swiss page. (I was supposed to be cleaning and organizing.)  

The opposite page is from the Reverse Watercolor book that Becky gave me and is calling for some doodling and/or collage at some point.

I found the circle paper cut in my stash and added a couple Margie card strips along the edge.

I used a page from a Gudrun's calendar for the cover.....just the right weight.

I used another page from the same calendar for my trade journal.

I'll share pages as I go along....but I'm quite fond of this little journal and I'm going to enjoy working in it.  

Here's what it looked like with just he acrylic dots.

A Few Finishes

Subtitle: Joy Journal

Today I'm celebrating a few finishes....but first....a few Mother Nature moments.

This is one of the first butterflies I've seen...and it played around on the lilac for while.

And this morning the ducklings were more visible. They still didn't scoot into the water....but mom was keeping an eye on me. 

And now for the finishes! I'm all done with an order of 300 Christmas matches with a few winter blue snowflake ones thrown in. That was a lot of cutting...folding...and glueing. 

Folly 101 puts hostess bags together with things like napkins, a candle and a box of matches. They like to get this done well in advance of the hustle and bustle of Christmas so I've got that covered....pun intended. I've been working on them here and there for a few weeks in the evenings....after having cut most of the papers on our road trip to Perry a few months ago.      

Nice to have this project finished and off the dining room table. 

   

And ALL of my journals projects got mailed today! Thank you Paul for doing that on your bike...which makes parking so much easier. Enclosed is an altered art journal and 3 junk journals for Lynn, an altered journal and a junk journal for Brenda, and Becky's junk journal is on it's way to Tracie for her to add to for our Junk Journal Journey. 

I'll be getting Brenda's to work on when Becky is ready to send it. I've loved this new art exchange so far! Each journal will be so unique.

Remember my art paper Kawandi quilt project? It became a cover for a junk journal that I made for Brenda with all the leftover papers she gave me for her altered journal. 

I tore off a strip of a rainbow hand dyed fabric for the closure. It's a little long but I didn't want to give up any of the colors. It coordinates so well with the papers.

Brenda can decide if she wants to shorten it. 

Traditional Kawandi quilts often have a colorful floating patch called tikeli. 

I added one under the button for stability...and a bright one on the back.

 

Here's a little glimpse inside....a lot of this and that.

There are a couple of these little cat paintings in Brenda's altered art journal...

and now there's one here.

At the other end of this tiny page are a couple of photographs of her dog from a Christmas photo card she had in her pile. 

I really enjoyed working on these projects...they've been a labor of love. I actually have a junk journal of my own that now I can start working in. And I was tickled to hear from Ellen today....she is inspired to create what she is going to call a joy journal. She found a book of handmade papers at an estate sale and she will include things from An Ounce of Joy I sent out several years ago. That makes me so happy! I think joy journal is a much better name than junk journal...and I told her I may have to adopt if for my own. 

Let's hear it for fabulous finishes....and fresh starts with joy journals! 

A Good Day!

The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. 
Julia Cameron

There is so much spring happening out there....but this thistle caught me by surprise on our walk this morning. The snowflake shape and fuzzy leaves were just a delight. There is a chapter in The Comfort of Crows called Loving the Unloved Animals: the opossum and the vulture...and even the wasps...the spiders and yes...the mosquito. 

I'm choosing to love this unloved weed plant.

As you know I'm in a handmade journal mode...and what I love most about it is they are ALL for other people. Today I worked all morning on all the different journals...and then spent a whole afternoon in the garden and yard. It was a good day. 

I've been making books and journals for a while...but the junk journal process is relatively new for me so I'm always looking for ideas. Just this morning I stumbled across a youtube video by Meg Frances  about a patchwork quilt-like approach to assembling a junk journal. It thought it would be the perfect way to approach the second journal for Lynn.

I likely will use this circle watercolor that Lynn did for the first page....but then the patchwork begins. 

I started just like Meg did...folding a smaller piece of paper and just kept adding and glueing until the page reached the size I wanted. The black and white stripe was actually a piece that is mostly folded to the other side. I love these little peekaboo moments.

Since I used Meg's method...If you want to see the process I recommend watching her video. She shows and explains it very clearly:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkC9nVYOnFI

There are advantages to this technique. It's a great way to use up small scraps....and since you are layering papers on papers on both sides the thinner papers get reinforced. I think I'll get better as I go along...and I'm certain I will add in some pages with just book pages and some that are one type of paper to break it up. That will give Lynn plenty of options for paint and collage.

Lynn  had a box of cutouts that would be fun to layer in....but she can do whatever she wants! It will be her journal to play with.