Graffiti of My Life

Back cover

Back cover and last page. So we will look at this backwards. Sue me.

Every signature had an inclusion

So every other page will be inclusion free

You know that dogs have to be in this somewhere. It's me!

Inside of front cover

I don't know what happened, but the above is 12 photos. When I tried, twice, to add a 13th photo of the front cover it just won't load. Not sure if that means blogger has a limit on photos, or there is something wrong with that particular digital file. I will try again later.

When Cathy and I took the folio class with Dina Wakley at Palette and Paper in Indianapolis last month, Dina told us to email her that following week. She would respond with a code for one free class on her website. I chose this class, called The Graffiti of My Life. The pages are water color paper, the covers are chipboard. Each page was cut to size, saving the remains for the binding pieces. Those pieces we folded and glued to pages, to make four signatures. Dina then suggested you run that through a sewing machine to make sure the attachment was secure. I used black thread for contrast.

First of all, this is a wonderful class. The pace is perfect, you can go back and review if you need it. She gives you a lot of information on color coordination, theme of a journal, and continuity. Is mine exactly like hers? No. But I so enjoyed this, and again, learned a lot.

Best hint I can give you: I used Dylusions spray inks, which are color intense. I also used a large stencil for the alphabet, and it was hard to hold down and spray, so because the stencil was not "tight" to the water color paper, the ink ran under the stencil. If you want crisp lines, don't do what I did. If you want a great water color type art effect, yeah, perfect. It is what it is, and I happen to love it. And that is what keeps me coming back to mixed media projects. You have no guarantees on what results you are going to get. Sometimes you are just amazed at what you made.

We hand bound this album using the Copic stitch. There are tons of videos on YouTube that teach you this stitch. This was my first attempt. I printed out the PDF instructions included, thinking I would do better working from that. Nope. Third pass of the needle through the holes, and I was completely lost. So I stitched this together sitting in front of my computer, pausing the video every 2 minutes. Worked for me. I used a waxed string intended for jewelry making. Don't do that. It worked, and looks fine, but is not as tight as it should be. I will now search for waxed linen thread, which is what Dina recommends. Again, learning as I go. It's called warding off dementia.....

Have a great day. Thanks for stopping by.
Linda