where the fun begins . . .

Finally finished binding some new art journals this week. I've actually felt a bit "lost" not having one to grab and sketch in.

The two upper ones are Coptic stitched, both having a heavier 140 # watercolor paper in them which holds up well with this open binding.

The lower left one contains nideggen paper, a print paper I've always wanted to try. Because it is so much thinner, I also added some pages of Fabriano Tiziano toned paper --- scraps of both were used to bind the mini journal.

The landscape oriented journal is Fabriano 90 # soft press --- a paper I love but it's grain runs opposite, so I bind it in this format to get the most pages out of a sheet of paper.

I found some cardstock stickers at Hobby Lobby to stick to the fronts, making it easy to tell front from back. But some actually covers goofs --- The cover paper was from a Daniel Smith sale and was a bit thin, showing glue spots in places.

Here are all* my sketchbook journals since May 2007 when I first began. The upper 2 shelves are filled (except for two on the end, unfinished); the lowest shelf contains new sketchbooks, both those I bound and some commercial ones purchased on sale. When Bill first built the shelf to hold them, I thought I'd never fill it.

* I just realized that three sketchbooks are not included here . . . I pulled them to mine ideas for a project I'm doing for a friend.