A Sketchbook from scratch

In Simply Create I have been showing folks how to make their own 15cm square sketchbook.  I started with nine A4 sheets of cartridge paper from Hilary Beattie’s £10 paperpack.  I used 3 sheets of 100gsm, 3 sheets of 140gsm and 3 sheets of 220gsm paper.

I found some painted papers and various music papers and text papers. I began by ripping up bits of the papers and gluing them onto one side of the 100gsm paper. I used gel medium underneath and on top of each piece.

I trimmed these sheets down to cut the random edges off.

I painted all the sheets of paper, whatever gsm weight they were. On some I used a sponge and others I used a sponge roller. I used acrylic paints to colour my papers.  I randomly stencilled on all the papers.

I cut along the long edge of the paper to reduce the width to 15 cms.  When folded this would make a 15 centimetre square book.

I set aside 3 of the folded papers to be the outside of each signature.  I cut different sized pieces off one end of each of the other 6 pieces. Using double-sided tape, I attached one of the cut pieces to another of the painted papers. Because I had used the same colour scheme on every piece of paper the new pieces match in some way the original but disrupt the flow of the page.

I made covers by cutting 2 pieces of cardboard just slightly bigger than the closed folded pages. I painted a thin line round the edge of the cardboard on both sides.  I stitched the signatures together - there were 3 folded papers in each signature and then assembled the sketchbook with the covers.

I decided to use Florida as a theme for my sketchbook. I collected together bits of papers, photos etc to do with this theme. 

These pages have images from paper napkins.

The collage is made from the inside of an envelope, a piece of scrapbooking paper and a word. The writing from the previous page shows through. I drew dotted lines with a black pen on the white stencilled shape. And sketched round the paper napkin shells with a black pen. I used a white Posca pen to put the dots in the orange swirls.

I hope you have enjoyed how I put this sketchbook together.  Full details of step by step instructions on how to do this are available at Simply Create.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
 

Journal 2020

Last time I showed you this year's journal set up and ready to go.  My last update of my 2020 journal was at the beginning of November.  I'm amazed!  I didn't think it was 2 months ago I last shared my pages.  I have shown you the Advent Words pages that feature in the journal.

I am really pleased that I completed the journal.  I don't always!  I quite often run out of steam either in June or September.  But in 2020 I kept going.  Mostly because it did me good to record what I had done on each day.  Lockdowns and restrictions made it feel as though I hadn't achieved anything, but recording what I had done confirmed my achievements.

I tended to fill in my calendar at the end of the month with what actually happened!

I started trying out new layouts and included to do lists

Another monthly calendar

I started filling in the gaps with Christmas images from a sheet of scrapbook paper

I'm not sure how I managed to have a spare Christmas card without an envelope.  Plus we did our cards before the last day to post.  Unheard of!!!

And lastly a handmade card sent to me by my dear friend Suki.

Most of December seems to have been taken up with Simply Create. I've still a few videos to make for it.  This week I'm going to concentrate on monoprinting.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Introducing Simply Create

 

I launched Simply Create on December 12th and I am thrilled that lots of you joined me in the Simply Create group on Facebook.

 

Simply Create is about the creative process.

It is not about creating works of art or even finished pieces of anything.   You will learn how to use art materials and tools in different ways which I hope will lead you to investigate your own ways of working, build your own creative language and find your own style.

Plus it is totally FREE

  Is Simply Create for you?

You can find all the information on this page.

If this is not for you but you know someone who would be interested, please pass on the link to this page.

Thank you to everyone who has continued to follow my blog through 2020.

Here's to 2021.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice

A new and exciting project

 

I am launching a new project very soon called Simply Create.  I’m currently working on it, making information PDFs and videos.  In setting it up I’ve learned how to use a teleprompter app, how to edit videos and how to add subtitles.

So what is Simply Create?

Simply Create is about the creative process.

It is not about creating works of art or even finished pieces of anything. You will learn how to use art materials and tools in different ways which I hope will lead you to investigate your own ways of working, build your own creative language and find your own style.

 

It will be based in a private group on Facebook. 

And the really special thing - it is totally FREE

 

Come back on Saturday and I’ll tell you more.

See you then.
Bernice

Some questions to answer please

I'm interrupting my Norfolk series to ask you to answer some more questions.

Thanks to all those who answered my questions about my blog last month.  I really appreciated you taking the time to reply.  The concensus was to carry on as usual.  For me to blog about all the things I listed in the Taking Stock post.

As I said, I have more questions, but this time I've put them on a Google Form.  That was a whole new learning curve!

I'm contemplating putting together a series of short video courses on a variety of mixed media topics.  There's a possibillty of textile ones as well, at a later date.

These courses would be for beginners, although they would serve as reminders for those who have some mixed media experience.  They will come under the umbrella title of Simply Create.

Although I can think of several topics to cover, it's more important to know what you would like to learn.  What media would you like to know about? What techniques would you like to know how to do?  Click on the link to the Google Form to let me know.

See you on Saturday for my last post from Norfolk.

Thank you so much
Bernice