Journal Maker
Vintage wallpaper samples:
Update - November 19, 2019:
My first experiment with the vintage wallpaper samples: eventually a success. Lots of things learned in the process. The biggest lesson, the old child's encyclopedia cover boards are too thick to fit in my Cinch machine. The machine was strong enough to punch through but it was a mistake hammering the wallpaper and scrapbook paper covered board to get it to go in. I enlisted my husband and his drill press to fix my problem. He added wood filler to the mis-punched holes which I later covered with washi tape when it was dry. The drill puckered the edges so I used my hammer again because I didn't learn my lesson yet. This time, though, I was gentle, and it smoothed the holes out nicely enough. The holes were lined up well that I could use the Cinch machine to do the rest of the binding and now I'm in love with the journal and don't know if I'll give it up. My next plan for the wallpaper involves the encyclopedia covers. I want to see how a codex style--you know, like an actual book with a proper spine and everything--would work out.
September 19, 2019:
When I don't know what to make or I need something easy, fast, not too messy, something I can get into a rhythm with, that I can quickly crank several out at a time, I tend to make journals. Lately it's been simple pamphlet stitch journals. They are quick and easy and you can use all sorts of paper and washi tape. And I have reams of paper I can use in the pages. They're great.
My husband and I like to go to the Albany Antique Mall in Albany, Oregon. Last time we went, I discovered a cache of wallpaper books. When I was a kid I had access to these things, probably because of my grandma and her antique shop. I remember cutting out the weird fibrous textured paper with old lady flower print designs and using them for I don't know what. Since getting into mixed media, I've kept my eye out for just such a book. No luck until now. These are wonderful with their gaudy, late seventies, early eighties style. I'm pretty sure one of them is on the walls of my dentist's office.
The book was big and bulky and unwieldy so I ripped out all those pages of wall paper, threw away ugly repeats that I didn't want to use, tossed the bulky cover, and saved the model pages of the different rooms featuring how amazing the wall paper would look in the bathroom with that furry toilet seat cover and mat. I want to make journals out of these pages. The wall paper will probably go into journals and mixed media work. For now it's all in a pile on my craft room floor, waiting for me to finish up the other projects going on, waiting for me to slice them into manageable sheets and folding and sewing them together with other papers. I guess I'm needing to have a think about how exactly I want to use them, how I want to construct the books. Whatever I end up doing they'll be amazing and deliciously tacky.