Upcycling a lost matrioshka doll

About two or three years ago, on a parking lot, I found a nesting doll. Not the whole set, just the littlest inside doll, the one that lives at the very heart of a set of nesting dolls. The poor thing was wet from the rain, the paint peeled off in flakes and it looked quite battered. I picked her up and affixed her to my dashboard with bluetack. Maybe one day I might give her a new coat of paint?

She has been living on my dash ever since, until a few weeks ago. This is her:

Not too bad one might think, but this is the true extend of the damage I found her with, the paint was all flaky.

To make he surface suitable for painting I sanded off all her old paint and gave her a good clean to get rid of all the dust.

Now, a few layers of acrylic paints and white posca pen later...

Say hello to Maddy, the shy little octopus girl...

She has the most pleasant and kind personality, in no time at all little Maddy made a friend: Armand has been with me for a good while as well. He was made by a friend I met over on Afa.com, and he immediately took a shine to the little Octopus girl. Now the two of them have a great time watching me drive the kids around from their prime position on my dashboard ;-)

DIY Sketchbooks

I had lost my creative motivation over the last couple of weeks. 

I was sick with a headcold and a cough, most of my family were also sick with the same, and to top it all off the outside of my house turned into a building site. We urgently needed to get exterior insulation and for that some of my windowsills needed to get demolished... the jackhammering noise was unbelievable (but neccessary)!

I just could not get myself to paint or even just draw something, when by coincidence (yes coincidence) I happened to pass my local art supply shop and of course I went in. They had just gotten some Canson Imagine Mixed Media paper pads in stock, my favourite smooth mixed media paper! And the big A3 size pad was also quite good value so I went for it.

When I feel down it always makes me happy to make a book. The process contains a lot of repetitive tasks and movements and I find this very calming for the nerves and for the mind.

Here are some great tutorials that cover the basics for sewing the signatures and folios together with different stitches, they are by Sea Lemon, and here is her Coptic stitch sketchbook. These two really form the basics for all my diy books.

The first book I made is an A4 size book, with hard cardboard covers. I used printed papers and some pretty duck tape for the outside and the inside covers.

The spine with the stitching.

And the inside of the cover, with some Roald Dahl themed paper...

I made two of this size sketchbook, one I gave to another member of my art group. And by coincidence her previous sketchbook was full just a day or two before I gave her mine; sometimes it feels good to be in the right place at the right time :)

I also made a couple more, smaller sketchbooks. I had found a lovely tutorial on how to make a small watercolour sketchbook with a leather cover, and the pageblock could be removed and replaced. If there is one thing I look for in sketchbooks and journals it is the reuseability of the covers. Travellers notebooks are right up my alley, fully customisable to whatever I need. This is the sketchbook tutorial I used as inspiration for the following books.

So I got out my remaining hard cardboard for the covers, fabric and I also cut some more of the Canson paper. I made 3 books in total, one with a blue japanese style fabric with a crane bird on it, the girl this book was intended for had drawn crane birds before. Then a lovely fabric with whimsical sun and moon designs, again aimed to fit the interests of the intended recipient. And I also had enough fabric of this left, that I could make another book for myself. 

This is my own little one from the front

and the back; as mentioned before this cover was made with left over fabric and ended up a little offcentre.

This journal was built to have an interchangeable paper block inside and so needed a little something to connect the front and back cover. I used a little fabric trim with insect design, the strip of trim is attached to both covers and the paper block is not; you will see that in the next picture...

This next picture allows you to see the inside of the cover with the trim holding the covers together and also the elastic that keeps the paper inside the cover.

And then the paperblock and the covers separately. I personally love most methods of binding that allow me to reuse the outside and replace the inside at will and use any paper I choose.

I hope you enjoyed my newest scetchbook process, and if you are a recipient of one of them: Happy Arting !