I thought we were due some rain ...

 

Today was another humid rainfree day, though without the ultra bright sunlight of the last week.  I did my usual early morning routine of deadheading garden flowers, a load of laundry, some half-hearted cleaning & hoovering.  Then it was on to the interesting stuff.  I'd already arranged these wonky log cabin blocks, pinning them together, so it was a simple case of feeding 'em into the sewing machine and making extra sure I matched up the corners of the blocks, getting them correctly aligned.  The only real trick to doing that accurately is to use lots and lots of pins.  I have previously tried using those plastic Clover Clips, and they're handy for many tasks but in this case you're better off with long dressmaking pins.  Mine have bright yellow heads, making them easy to spot and remove while you're sewing at the machine.  

I'm not sure if this quilt's going to get any bigger, so it'll be put aside for now while I decide.  

After that I dug out the Gelli plate and acrylics again, experimenting again with patterns and layering prints.  It's quite an eye opener to combine different colours and see what works and what doesn't.  I'm thinking of keeping a notebook, to systematically record the colour combos I like and might want to re-create.  

Using a gold or bronze metallic on top of purple is especially pleasing, as was placing a bright green over a vibrant pink.  

As well as printing, I've been making yet more notebooks, including little 'uns with hardly any pages to them.  This is an ultra simple notebook - take a sheet of A4.  I used a page I'd printed on, hence the scruffy marks on the other side!  Fold it in half lengthways, then across and keep folding until you've got eight equal sections.  Then cut along the section I've marked with a crosses.  

You should have something that opens out like this.  

Take your glue stick and slather it over the blank side of the paper, then fold into shape.  

This makes your booklet, which will benefit from a spell lying underneath a heavy book, to ensure the glued paper dries flat.  If you're wondering what the practicality is of such a teeny tiny book, it's something you can make quickly and fill up with collage or drawing or painting equally speedily.  There's none of the pressure you might feel starting your creative process by cracking open a brand spanking new art journal or fancy notebook and facing that snowy white pristine page.  There's no fear of sullying the very first page with something that you don't feel is good enough.  

If you want to vary the contents of your  mini book, you could always add a few inspirational words or quotes, or even a pocket sized prayer.  (You could also make the same kind of simple construction with a sheet of A3 paper, A2 or even larger.)  

I also began filling in the blank pages of this concertina notebook.  Here is it with its gold covered elastic keeping it closed up.  

Here's the view from above of its various pages that spring out when the elastic's removed.  

I'm in the early stages of decorating these pages.  Stencils and stamps at the ready!

And one final picture before this blog post's done for today - 

Okay, I've got tea to drink and a new book to crack open, having finished a Robert Galbraith at the weekend.  'Lethal White', very twisty-turny, very enjoyable.  I'm about to begin Christina Dalcher's 'Vox', and have high hopes for it.  Enjoy your Monday evening.