Strange Day

It is a day of many differences.  Technically it is Thursday, but I have done a lot of Friday things.  Shopping for one as I am actually doing my paid job tomorrow. I have also been a bit creative which is usually a Friday or weekend thing.

I have often looked a a book that I made several years ago and wondered if I should make others like it.  I wanted to keep the original, well, original, but the style and method of creation is so enjoyable that I couldn't resist any longer.

With the process in mind I decided to make 2 at the same time.  The production line method suits me and it also means that all the sticky-icky bits get done and out of the way.

I took some card off cuts, these are 3 inch squares, and started by covering them in pages from an old book.  My youngest son was horrified that I was ripping up an 'Oscar Wilde book'.  I quickly informed him that it was a) not a first edition and b) only a book about the works of Oscar Wilde.  Maybe I should have thought more about how he knows about Oscar Wilde?  Oh well.  Education is a fine thing.

Front Cover - The Road I Took

I then tinted the edges, and used a set of house stamps to decorate each page.  I masked out the houses to give the look of a street by stamping in layers.  I then coloured the houses using Pro-Markers in subtle shades of grey - only 2 for those that think there has to be 50 shades of grey.

I printed out the words from another stamp (Paper Artsy I think) and cut them up into bite-sized pieces and mounted them onto black paper.  I Haven't put a title on the front of this one yet as I am still enjoying the moon silhouette.  These are becoming a bit of thing with me at the moment.  I really must put the circle punch  out of reach.

Once the holes had been punched into each page with the Cinch (I have a Bind-it-all too but thought the round holes would look better on this) I threaded some hemp string to bind and added some wooden beads in similar colours to decorate.

Dreams - by Langston Hughes

I also made another book featuring the lovely Lavinia Stamps and the moon silhouette AGAIN.  This one is very similar to the original. I used slightly larger card for this one coming in at about 3 x 4 inches.  This time I used the words of a poem by Langston Hughes.  Short poems work well mainly because there is a limit to the number of words you can get on a page when the books are so small. 

Dreams - by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

Well that is all for today my lovelies.  I need to remember it is Thursday and make sure I get up for work in the morning.  Fingers crossed there isn't a frost, brrrrrrrrrrr.

Have a lovely Easter weekend.

Kim x