Hi friends!
It’s been a minute since there was a blog post, or an update or even an art journal page, but guess what, I am STILL on crutches and life has not yet returned to normal. There are two separate issues with my knee and I guess I am just a slow healer. The kitties are doing OK btw. I have been doing more crochet on the couch, just keeping up with my temperature blanket (366 day project) and I just finished the Woodland Wonders CAL blanket by Coastal Crochet which is a free pattern if you feel inclined to try it. It was quite a challenge and possibly I wouldn’t have considered it had I not been incapacitated, so you know, silver linings and all.
At the beginning of June I said that I wouldn’t be doing ICAD this year but I actually decided around week 6 (of 9 weeks) that I really wanted to join in and catch up, so I did! I will try and do a month-end post before the end of July, with the blanket CAL, ICAD and also Junk Journal July which I also managed to do. Blogging has been more of an issue since I can’t sit at the computer, so while it is easy to post a photo to Instagram from my phone, I don’t like writing blog posts that way. Anyway, on to the art…
Today’s art . . .
This is my July calendar page, a little later than planned, but here it is. This month I am also joining Halle from Halle’s Hobbies who is hosting this month at Art Journal Journey. Halle’s theme on AJJ this month is “I’ve got a notion” and so my calendar page is filled with them! I love sewing and have been sewing since I was quite young, first by hand and then I got my hands on a sewing machine and there was no stopping me! I made EVERYTHING – all kinds of clothes, even swimwear and lingerie, coats, dresses, trousers, you name it, I probably made it, Then I made home decor, cushions, curtains, even bedding, and later on I found I had a passion for making handbags. I’ve made a LOT of handbags lol. I still have a rather large fabric and haberdashery (notions) stash, six sewing machines and an overlocker (serger). I know, why does anyone need six sewing machines – they don’t – but there you have it. They are mostly vintage or older non-computerised machines that I’ve acquired and find hard to part with. As some point I also had a knitting machine, a big knitting machine that I picked up in a junk shop and got it working again. I do like the robustness of older, heavier machines and the fact that you can bend them to your will, whereas the computerised ones just refuse to work if you try to force them to sew something they don’t approve of lol.
So I found these two old journal pages in a box recently and decided to repurpose them. They are from 2019 and you can see how they were made on the original post here. They’ve been in a box for five years so I felt that it was better to cut them up and use them in a journal rather than keeping them in a box which I had forgotten all about. I think they were in the box because they were loose pages and also because of the flowers, so they wouldn’t get squished.
The pages I cut up:
I was able to repurpose them into this calendar page and also used the rest of it on today’s Junk Journal July page as the prompt was “Buttons”. Here’s a closer look at details on the calendar page. There is a lot of real stitching and thread on the page, plus a lot of haberdashery stamps, some tissue paper, texture paste, and some old Bigz dies for the flowers, mannequin, thread spool and buttons. The background of the page was painted with Fresco chalk paint in Lilac and I used some old glitter letter stickers for July.
Anyway, I must go, this has taken me ages to write, and everything is hurting. I’m glad to have been able to create one page for the Notion theme and sorry I wasn’t able to do more as I love the theme and could have used up some of my stash!
Let me know what you think in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading and Happy Journalling!
Ingredients
my recycled A4 bullet journal, recycled art, thread, etc
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – I’ve got a notion – July challenge
Your calendar is amazing Elle. I like how you cut up old pages. But I would never guess that by your calendar. Sorry to hear the knee is still not good enough to let you be more active. That stinks. But like you. I’ve done a lot of sewing of various items for a long time and it’s great to read there are other fanatics like me with w whole lot of “supplies”. Thanks for joining Halle’s challenge and give the kitties a pat for me. Hugs Erika
It’s a beautiful calendar Elle. I love how you re-purposed those pages.
I adore your calendar page! Love that you cut up an old journal page and repurposed it. How inspiring!!
Your calendar is out of this world. I love how you recycled the pages and turned them into this lovely calendar. It puts mine to shame., I love all the stitches and sewing you used on this. Thanks for sharing this entry with us at Art Journal Journey using Halle’s theme.