Elizabeth May 3rd, 2010
Little blog;
I have a confession. I haven’t always been faithful, and sometimes when I intend to sit down and write you a post I write it in my paper journal instead.
It’s not you…
… I just really love glue sticks, paper and washi tape.
Elsie and Rachel from Red Velvet Girls are running the most incredible art journaling class right now, and I am so happy that I decided to sign up for it. I’m feeling so inspired to create again after a fairly lengthy case of “the blahs”.
The other class participants are all so supportive and encouraging, and I’m picking up little gems of inspiration whenever I look at everyone’s work. I love this stuff.
I promise to try and find some more balance, because I really do love my blog.
It must be true, I wrote it in my journal <3
Elizabeth March 16th, 2010
I’ve just discovered these beautiful handmade books by Natalie Stopka, and didn’t think it was fair to keep them to myself. I love all the work that goes into this style of binding, and wish I had the skill and patience to do it myself!
Natalie is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, and makes beautiful sketchbooks and journals using vintage handkerchiefs, fabric and embroidery stitching. No two books are ever the same, and she also welcomes custom orders on her Etsy shop Natalie As Is. I was surprised to find that her prices are very reasonable.
Photographs of her works-in-progress can also be found at her flickr site.
And, as further proof that the Universe distributes talent unequitably, she just happens to be a beautiful portrait artist as well.
I would love to own one of her beautiful books, and be able to fill it with sketches like these!
You can see more of Natalie’s work at her portfolio site, www.nataliestopka.com.
Thanks to Paper Crave for this discovery!
Elizabeth December 4th, 2006
2006 was the year that I successfully kept a journal. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do from the time I was about 6 years old, but I never had the discipline to keep at it. The perfectionist in me was probably most to blame for failing, because any sign of slacking up just caused me to wave the white flag. I have so many beautiful journals that were abandoned 20 pages in.
Embodiment is a project that was started by Crissy of dearcrissy.com. It is a community of people who have resolved to write in a paper journal once a day for a year, and was a wonderful source of inspiration for me. Members discuss their progress, offer writing prompts and suggestions, post scans or photos of their journal pages and so on. There are many very talented visual journal-writers in the community, which always makes for eye-catching posts, but I’d say that the majority are text-only or text-mainly people. Of course, you’re not required to post your stuff or contribute in any way – but if you’re somebody who has always wanted to keep a journal, or improve your journal-writing habits, you’ll find it to be full of people just like yourself.
Membership was opened on December 1st, for one month. After that time you are able to read public posts, but you can’t actually contribute. You need to have a livejournal account to join and participate, but accounts are free and full of other great sources of inspiration (and procrastination).
Here are a few scans from my journals this year:
