Handy

I'm trying to make art that many of you could replicate using recyclable items.  We all know there are online stores that sell products we can use to make our art, but I'm hoping to keep as much out of the landfill as possible by showing what you can make at home.

Having said that, today I went a little overboard and made a complete journal from items left over from my Hands Altered Book.  I'll share half today, since I had a terrible time with my tension, changed thread about six times, and broke not one, but TWO needles in the process.

I'm also joining Valerie at Bastelmania, our host this month at Art Journal Journey, with her Geometric Shapes theme.  I'm sure you'll find a few geometric shapes here.

I had the images, but needed to add the little things.  Not sure why I didn't take photos of the left side, but you can see I added a bow I created from a piece of an old sweater, a leftover paint chip, and two postage stamps to match what looked like one on the Made in Canada image.  I made the hands years ago from a potato and a cookie cutter.  I stamped the hands (there are two on the last page, too) and embossed them using copper embossing powder.  They made a great substrate for the first page.

I fell in love with this image I turned into a pocket.  It reminded me of Valerie's theme.  Lots of geometric shapes.  It was from the cover of a magazine I got in 2003.  I never throw anything away.

On the left, the focal image is from my undergrad school.

My undergrad school colors were green and yellow.   Another geometric shape on the lower right.  You can see my tension sucked all day.

More hands, the more different they were, the better I liked them together.   Many were from trade magazines.

As you may know, I have only black ink in my desk jet printer and black toner in my laser printer.  Using colored paper became a viable option.  Yes, I stamped.  I added the stamped image in the top left when I realized I needed something more.  I removed the bar code from a clear sticker.  The flower had a copper brad for the center. 

More images, again from trade magazines are interspersed with a map.

Not sure why I couldn't rotate this photo, but after fussing with it for ages, I gave up.

You might be able to tell we are now at the middle of the book.  I was using my "eye" stamp elsewhere and decided to add it to the part of the page that was torn away.

Besides trade magazine images, I ran across a book on hand gestures.

Even a hairpin found its way into an empty spot.  More stamping completes the page.

I fussy cut the focal hand image, and sewed it, the dictionary page,

and a page from hand gestures to the middle of the book.

This is where I broke my first needle.  I suspect you can see where the thread tore.  The white marks were from the dead needle. 

This is Day 5 of 22 and I sewed a scrappy journal.  You can make one, too.  Even if you don't have a sewing machine, or don't sew, you could create one with bits and pieces using glue.  Remember, any and everything is acceptable in these books.  Nothing is off limits, as you saw. 

Bleubeard and I are thrilled you stopped by today. We hope you will also join us at Art Journal Journey with your own art inspired by Geometric Shapes hosted by Valerie.