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~ Like dew hanging from the tip of a leaf, a single bead or word adds sparkle where there was none. BE the bright!

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Category Archives: journals

Journaling in Coloring Books

26 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in color, drawing, journals, On my Worktable, Uncategorized, words

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art, coloring books, journaling, journaling in coloring books, staying strong, vertigo, writing

I quit journaling daily a while ago. Maybe a couple years. But today I felt like writing some words in a coloring book. I didn’t feel like coloring because I’m still dizzy with vertigo. Day 8. Bah. So I’m journaling in coloring books.

There’s a lot of blackness in vertigo because the eyes are kept shut. Open eyes, spin, close eyes, blackness. But even the blackness moves.

Vertigo makes you feel alone. But you’re not. You’re never alone. Even when your eyes are shut, there’s still Light and you’re not alone.

Journaling in coloring books. Seeing lines already on a page gives me comfort. And sometimes necessary recentering.

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Giving Thanks continues…

29 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, family, food, holiday, home, journals

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dinner, family, food, gratitude, holiday, joy, optimism, table setting, tablescape, Thanksgiving, turkey

We are still eating delicious Thanksgiving leftovers so it’s fitting that the house is still decorated for fall. I’m glad we were back in time from Japan to see the maple turning red. The color was spectacular this year! Brighter than it’s ever been, even on a cloudy day.

The Japanese Maple was spectacular this year.

The Japanese Maple tree was spectacular this year.

The table was set. Even with the heavy overcast, the new windows provided splendid light.
2 2014 Thanksgiving table set
I asked one of the guys to label the serving dishes to make filling them faster when the food was ready. He labeled the water glasses! So funny.
3 2014 Thanksgiving table labels
The turkey was small this year, barely 14 lbs. It was the perfect weight for me to lift by myself. It was nice being able to use the rosemary and thyme growing in the kitchen planter.
4 2014 Thanksgiving turkey
Not all the family was present and we missed those far away. But everyone here was in a jolly mood and we were happy to be together.
5 2014 Thanksgiving everyone happy
We started with a salad course. One of the guys cut the peppers into leaf shapes. We made our own house dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, cracked Tellicherry pepper, water and a bit of boiled cider. It was delicious!
6 2014 Thanksgiving salad plate
Then on to Pumpkin Bisque. We tried a new recipe this year. The cardamom was prominent and very good with pumpkin.
7 2014 Thanksgiving Pumpkin Bisque
After the salad plates and soup bowls were cleared, we placed the rest of the food on the table. Here are some of the dishes.
8 2014 Thanksgiving table
9 2014 Thanksgiving side dishes

Baked Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans and Bacon

Baked Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans and Bacon; Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup; Buttered Squash with Cinnamon.

10 2014 Thanksgiving turkey

French Bread Stuffing with Sage Sausage; Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Turkey with Rosemary and Parsley.

The turkey was taken to the kitchen island for carving. This was the first year we used a fresh turkey. It was delicious and tasted much better than a frozen turkey. It did cook faster than I thought though, so we’ll remember that next time. Look at the steam rising! Delicious.
11 2014 Thanksgiving carving
We didn’t take any more photos. There were many wonderful moments, such as when grandson “cooked” his real food in the toy oven. But I was so thoroughly enjoying the baby and grandkids, eating pie and participating in our myriad conversations and laughter, that I completely forgot to take photos.

This morning I finally got around to washing the crystal. The glasses sparkled in the sun. As I held a glass, I wondered whose hand had held it and extended it in a toast to family. Even the grandchildren got to hold the crystal in toast this year. My beloveds were here! That’s a warm and happy thought indeed.
12 2014 Thanksgiving washing crystal day after
The latest additions to my gratitude journal are even more full of thanks. Being thankful ALL the time is truly a choice. You can’t complain one minute and be thankful the next. Choose optimism, choose joy.
13 2014 Thanksgiving journal
This year we placed his cutting board in the center of the table. Thank you God for good meat, for good bread, for good wine. Thank you for family and friends. –I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13 — Thank you for helping us see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, here, now.
14 2014 Thanksgiving letting the candles burn
Today I made the apple pie I didn’t have time to make for Thanksgiving. Today we’re still giving thanks.

Thank you Ethan and Gabe for taking some of the photos and thank you Holly for the delicious Candied Carrots and Baked Squash. ::smile::

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DIY – decorative Wrought Iron design paper

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in art, crafts, handmade books, journals, mixed media, tutorial

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Tags

coffee dyed, crafting, crafts, DIY, handmade paper, make your own, paper arts, paper crafts, tutorial

A couple months ago I made some beautiful coffee-dyed, wrought iron patterned paper completely by accident. I wanted coffee-dyed paper for a project so I boiled coffee grounds (about twice as strong as a usual pot of coffee) in water and let it steep about half an hour. I strained out most of the coffee grounds by pouring the mixture through a coffee filter and then added another couple tablespoons of instant coffee.

Even though it was spring, the sun was high in the sky and it was hot out so our cast aluminum, wrought iron-style table was hot. I figured all the heat would help the paper dry.

The day was bright and dry when I dyed  the wrought iron style paper. The  large pan of coffee dye was wide enough for the paper to fit comfortably.

The day was bright and and the sun was high when I dyed the paper. The large pan of coffee dye was wide enough for the paper to fit comfortably.

I dipped each sheet of drawing tablet paper into the coffee dye and let it drain a little against the edge of the pan. Within seconds of being laid on the table, the table design showed up on the paper! Here you can see the still-wet sheen of coffee on the paper.

The coffee pooled on the top of the paper and the pattern of the table magically showed up on the surface of the paper.

The coffee pooled on the top of the paper and the pattern of the table magically appeared on the surface of the paper.

I covered as much of the table as I could with the dipped paper and loved the variety of design on each sheet of paper.

The table is covered with wet paper. The edges of some sheets are already drying and curling up.

The table is covered with wet paper. The edges of some sheets are already drying and curling up.

I wish I had written down how long it took the paper to dry, perhaps half an hour. Once there were no more puddles on top, I flipped all the papers over to dry more. When I turned each sheet over, the design on the bottom looked amazing! It is beautiful on both sides but especially smooth and beautifully shaded on the bottom.

The wrought iron design on the bottom side of each sheet has a beautiful creamy color and delightful shading.

The wrought iron design on the bottom side of each sheet has a beautiful creamy color and delightful shading.

I will be using this paper to make handmade books and journals.

If you dye paper like this using a wrought iron table, please let me know how it turns out. Cast aluminum doesn’t rust so there was no rust residue on my paper. A wrought iron table might have a different effect on the paper.

The table surface was very hot. I haven’t experimented to see if this works on a cold table.

There may be coffee dripping from the paper so don’t do this over a deck surface that you don’t want brown drips on. There was very little coffee dripping from the paper because the day was hot and dry and the paper absorbed it very quickly and it didn’t matter to me if there were brown specks on my deck.

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The Crown Journal

15 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, Gilded Life, handmade books, journals, tutorial

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

All Sparkled Up, bookmaking, crafts, crown, handmade book, handmade journal, journals, lace, paper crafts, tutorial

The Crown Journal.

The Crown Journal.


For years I made my own blank journals using a standard codex construction with fabric bound spine and hardcovers. The signatures were sewn onto cords or tapes and then glued into the hard cover. This site, Humblebee & Me, has an excellent tutorial for sewing signatures on tapes.

It’s been a few years since I made a handmade journal so I finally had time to make one a couple months ago. I followed Jeanne Oliver’s video for stitching the signatures together from her wonderful The Journey of Letting Go class online . (I highly recommend the class, not just for the terrific art instruction, but also for the heart-felt inspirational videos. Jeanne, you’re the best!) Jeanne’s stitching process for sewing the pages together was easy and fun.

I didn’t photograph the steps to stitch the text block together but here is how I made the Crown Journal cover if you want to make one. This is an abbreviated tutorial but there’s enough here to give you basic instruction to make the lace crown, which would look great glued to an altered book cover. If you want actual measurements, let me know in the comments and I’ll measure some of the components for you.

It was fun going through my stash of supplies to pull out some pretty options.
The dyed seam binding tape, blue sequin fabric, lace and rhinestone chain were from A Gilded Life.
To make the text block, I cut up a sketch pad.
The linen was purchased from sources online.

Glittery trims, lace and rhinestones to make a handmade journal.

Glittery trims, lace and rhinestones to make a handmade journal.

Both front and back covers were assembled the same way. Each cover has a piece of ivory linen and natural color linen, one small and one larger piece of chip board (cut from the back of a water color tablet) and a piece of thin cotton batting for padding under the ivory linen.

The materials used to make the book cover: Ivory linen over batting over chip board, which is then glued to a larger piece of chip board covered with natural linen.

The materials used to make the book cover: Ivory linen over batting over chip board, which is then glued to a larger piece of chip board covered with natural linen.

The batting is lightly glued to the small chip board square and then the ivory linen is placed over top of the batting. This piece is turned over and the ivory linen is glued to the back of the board, mitering the corners on the back.
The natural color linen is glued to the larger board without any batting.

Once the cover pieces are covered with linen, then you get to do the fun stuff!
I lay loose pieces of lace and rhinestone chain on the top of the book cover to see what I liked before gluing anything down.
I also tried several different lace pieces before making up my mind about the crown.

Trying out pieces of lace for the crown.

Trying out pieces of lace for the crown.

To glue such fine netting, I spread tacky glue on the flat lid of a plastic bin and then laid the blue lace in the glue… then quickly picked up the lace while still wet and smoothed it in position on the padded ivory linen.

Gluing the sequined lace on the journal cover.

Gluing the sequined lace on the journal cover.

There was just enough glue on the thin lace netting to glue all the tiny pieces down securely, with no edges pulling up and no glue squishing up. I want the lace to be durable because this journal will last me at least a year.
Crown Journal-2c
The back of this board shows how the edges of the linen and lace are glued down on the back of the padded ivory board.

The back of the top cover piece.

The back of the top cover piece.

To make a lace crown, choose lace pieces that will look like the points of a crown when placed together. I used three different pieces of lace. To curve the lace, cut small slits between the motifs of the lace as shown.
Crown Journal-3a Making the Lace Crown
Here you can see where I snip the lace so it will curve better.

Snipping the lace so it curves better.

Snipping the lace so the edge can be overlapped so it curves better.

Once the lace is ready, glue the pieces together to form the crown.

The lace crown pieces all glued together.

The lace crown pieces all glued together.

Tacky glue is thinly spread on a smooth surface and the lace crown is carefully pressed into the glue.

The assembled crown is laid on wet tacky glue.

The assembled crown is laid on wet tacky glue.

While the glue is still wet, lift the lace crown piece up and carefully position it on the cover and press it down on the ivory linen. It dried fairly fast when I positioned it but I still pressed down in places to make sure it stuck well on all edges.

The crown is carefully positioned on the book cover and pressed down around all edges.

The crown is carefully positioned on the book cover and pressed down around all edges.

Cut rhinestone chain to size using jewelry cutters and glue it down with 527 Multi-Use glue or other strong jewelry glue.

Jewelry cutters are used to cut the rhinestone chain to size.

Jewelry cutters are used to cut the rhinestone chain to size.

I pressed my needle nose pliers into the book cover to make small indentations so rhinestones would set in deeper and more securely. These were glued with the 527 glue also.

If the gems are large, make a small indentation so they can be set more securely into the book cover.

If the gems are large, make small indentations so they can be set more securely into the book cover.

The crown is complete.
Crown Journal-4c
The front of the book cover is ready for the next step.
Crown Journal-4d
While the glue was drying, I made the ribbon rose buds for the journal spine. A length of ribbon was tied to make a loose knotted ribbon rose bud. I made three of these.
To make a knotted rose bud, the ribbon is tied as if about to make a knot, but the ribbon is looped over and over 4 times, not just once like a standard knot. Then when the ribbon is slowly pulled tighter, the layers of wrapped ribbon overlap and form a pretty bud shape. If the ribbon is pulled too tightly, the flower shape disappears and turns into a big knot. So you have to stop pulling while the ribbon is still loose. The ribbon “tails” are folded to the back and then stitched together so the ribbon bud doesn’t come apart. I cut off the excess ribbon and gently fringed the short ribbon tail under the bud.

Making the ribbon rose buds.

Making the ribbon rose buds.

Three lengths of ribbon were stitched and gathered together.
Crown Journal-5b
These longer ribbons were stitched behind the flower buds.

The ribbon loops are sewn to the back of the ribbon rose buds.

The ribbon loops are sewn to the back of the ribbon rose buds.

I ruffled a long length of seam binding tape to use on the front cover. Here it is pinned down on the larger natural linen-covered board as I adjust the ruffles to fit. But before gluing down the ruffle, I glued on the decorative top of the cover.

Seam binding tape is gathered down the middle and the pinned to the cover to check for size and adjust ruffles.

Seam binding tape is gathered down the middle and then pinned to the cover to check for size and adjust ruffles.

I spread tacky glue generously over the back of the ivory cover piece and pressed it down on the larger board.

Glue is squirted on the inside of the top cover piece. After taking this photo, I spread the clue around using an old credit card and made sure the glue extended all the way to the edges and corners.

Tacky glue is squirted on the inside of the top cover piece. After taking this photo, I spread the glue around using an old credit card and made sure the glue extended all the way to the edges and corners. Tacky glue is great because it sets up fast but you have to work quickly.

Some of the glue squished out around the edge but that was good. I used my fingers and a pallet knife to press the folded ruffle into the glue. I used the ruffle folded in half all the way down the length for extra fullness. It was easy to press the center of the ruffled seam binding tape into the glue and it held well. I squeezed more tacky glue into any spaces that didn’t have enough to hold the ruffle well.

The top of the cover is glued on the larger linen-covered board. Then while the glue is still wet, the ruffled seam binding tape is pushed into glue.

The top of the cover is glued on the larger linen-covered board. Then while the glue is still wet, the ruffled seam binding tape is pushed into wet glue between the two boards.

The back cover was different. Instead of a ruffle all the way around, I just pleated the four corners and let the seam binding tape stay flat on the sides. I glued this down before gluing on the back piece.
Crown Journal-7a
I cut a small motif from the blue lace and laid it in glue as for the front cover.
Crown Journal-7b
The glued motif was positioned and pressed down carefully, especially around the lace edges. Here is the finished back cover.
Crown Journal-7c
I glued a piece of decorative paper inside the front and back covers to cover the edges of the linen and lace. The same kind of paper was used to wrap the front and back signatures so they would match.
Crown Journal-8a
Each signature was folded inside a piece of vintage wallpaper or decorative paper. Here you can see the gap between two signatures in the journal.
Crown Journal-8b
I accidentally placed this piece of wallpaper upside down during construction of the journal. I don’t mind because mistakes like this make me smile and remind me life isn’t perfect.
Crown Journal-8c
Once the book was sewn together, I stitched and glued the bundle of ribbon rose buds into the spine.
Crown Journal-9a
Crown Journal-9b
Here you can see the stitching along the spine.
Crown Journal-10
The bundle of rose buds in the spine doesn’t interfere with the book opening fully.
Crown Journal-11
I used a decorative paper punch to punch the edges of pages in random places.
Crown Journal-12
One of the ribbons is threaded in between two signatures to be used as a ribbon bookmark.

One of the ribbons at the spine is used as a bookmark.

One of the ribbons at the spine is used as a bookmark.

Crown Journal-15

The finished Crown Journal.

Crown Journal-14

The binding of this book allows it to open fully, even with a ribbon bundle glued and sewn into the spine.

This journal will last me about a year because I tend to write very small. I’ve been using it for two months so far and it has shown no signs of loosening and all the lace and gems are glued down tight, even when I slide the journal between books on a bookshelf.

I have to confess that this is the prettiest journal I’ve had in a long time. It’s quite heavy and the covers are soft and silky to hold. All the prettiness has had an unexpected impact on me. Each night, when I pick it up to write, I noticed that my writings have become more optimistic. I’m really glad about that because I have a couple old journals that are genuine but much too sad to reread. This is the perfect journal for this time in my life, a time of transition and full of good things, all sparkled up.

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