Just because . . .

I've been spending a lot of time away from my computer, working on this scrappy journal for the past two weeks, and have little else to show for the time I've spent in my craft room.

Because I have nothing else to show for my time away from my blogging friends, I thought I would show what I go through to get to this point. 

The first thing I do is go through my images, ephemera, and other goodies I intend to use for a specific journal.  This can take awhile, especially if it is a journal with a theme.

Once I have determined the images, etc. I want to use, I cut many things to size.

Next I make a few sub-assemblies, then I embellish (and sew) a few pages using them.  When I make a sub-assembly, I might use a different colored thread than the one I use on the page just to keep everything interesting.

Once all the pages are sewn, I stamp images onto areas that have voids, or areas I can't sew on because of what I've added to the back.  I do all my stamping at once, that way I only have to clean my stamps and acrylic blocks once.  My preferred ink for these journals is StazOn, a solvent based ink, because it is waterproof no matter what ink or paint the recipient might use on the page.

And here we've come full circle.  After all the pages have been sewn and stamped, I review each page before I add it to the signature.  I don't want two pages the same color next to each other, nor do I want two pages next to each other that I've sewn similar sub-assemblies to.

For this book (and all my scrappy visual journals), I have made two signatures.  In case you need a review, a signature is, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "one unit of a book comprising a group of printed sheets that are folded and stitched together."   Both of my signatures have 14 sheets and I have folded each sheet once which produces two leaves (each leaf is 1/2 the size of the original 8.5 inch X 11 inch sheet).  As a result, each sheet yields four pages.

These pages are for my friend Kathy, who I promised a scrappy journal to.  These are probably the most boring looking pages, but Kathy requested something simple, so that is what she is getting.  And because this is about all I've been working on, this is all I have to show and tell this week.  What have you been working on?