My final journal made from greeting cards

Before I make my second (and final) journal from greeting cards, I wanted to show you another project I made to accompany the journal.

For this project, I started with three sleeves I picked up when some friends and I went to a cafe that wrapped their silverware in these sleeves.  Instead of letting them go to the trash, I put them in my purse, anticipating a journal of some kind in the future.  I've placed a sheet of rosin paper in the first sleeve to protect the back from the front when I use these spray mists.

For this piece I'm using purchased spray mists, rather than the ones I made on Day 1 of Earth month.  The reason is, these mists have a vintage feel to them, and this gift is for my friend Kathy, who loves vintage. Bright, almost neon colors won't go as well in a gift for her.

When I went to put this book together to take photos, I was angry with myself.  Although I checked over and over, I  still got the middle backs upside down.  The middle of the book is at the bottom of the above photo.  It should be turned around because the image I used would look better turned over.  Also, the symmetry of the book is now off.

There was, however, nothing I  could do about it now, because those images from this side of the sleeve were not coming off, no matter what I did, or how much I tried to remove them.

So here is the book after I assembled and scanned it.

Stamped styrofoam hearts from Day 11.

I hope Kathy doesn't notice initially, because I'm ashamed that I wasn't more careful.  Seems no matter how many times I checked the day I made this, somehow I managed to flip the middle image upside down.

 Here are the tags I made.  Those of you who have been here all month saw the two on the ends were coffee stained on Day 2.

The middle tag was part of the resist pages I revamped on Day 4.

This book will be tucked in a pocket inside my final greeting card journal.  This one was marginally easier to make because at least I knew what I was doing this time.

The cover is unfinished because I have no idea how old Kathy is, but I think she is around 70.  The book will be "Kathy's (whatever age) Book Bash."  I wanted to imply that Kathy had a brag book for every year of her life.

Personally, I find these cards a bit boring, because I'm used to a few embellishments sewn onto pages in my scrappy journals.  One of the things I noticed when I made the last book (Days 13 and 14) was I wasn't careful about which colors were next to which when I put the book together.  I tried to be more careful with this one, hoping I didn't place too many like colors next to each other.  So, scan or flip through these pages, because I'm not going to talk you through them (grin).

OK, maybe a few words.  Like a reminder that the left page is part of a larger page I revamped on Day 4.

Even more of one of the pages from Day 4 (left side).

The right side of this scan and the left side of the following scan show paper I cut from waste paper from my craft desk.  The randomness of those colors and patterns make this paper perfect art fodder for backgrounds.

And another example from Day 4, this time on the right side.

And the last of one of the pages from Day 4.

Please note this journal was not designed to be written in, but to store photos and memorabilia from Kathy's birthday.  And my "Handmade by Bleubeard and E" isn't much better in this book, either.

Today I recycled three sleeves that originally held silverware from a restaurant, along with eight greeting cards.  I further incorporated tags from coffee stained paper, and several sheets of scrap paper.  This is Day 15, and if you live in the US, I hope your taxes are in the mail, or you won't have time to recycle anything, except your money.