Hi Friends!
Hope you are all doing well. I’m still watching and mostly, enjoying, the videos from the Mixed Media Expo run by Tamara Laporte. Here’s a link to the schedule where you can watch the daily videos available from 1-14 May 2025. Today I am sharing something from one of the Day 2 lessons, this time from Denise Love. She made concertina books and I have been making a lot of books lately so I had to do this lesson because it was fun!
Today’s art . . .
MM EXPO Day 2 – Denise Love
This lesson was all about painting a large sheet of watercolour paper on both sides, cutting it up and making it into a concertina book. It’s something I’ve done several times before but it’s fun to work on large sheets of paper and I was in the mood to make more books. The paper size she used was I think 18 x 24 inches which translated to A2 size. I don’t have any paper that large and I’m not buying any so A2 paper = 2x A3 size paper, so I just used two sheets of A3 size paper and made a slightly different shaped book. I ended up making two of them, they are actually supposed to be used landscape for to fit them into the same photo, they are displayed as portrait. I made the covers out of old amazon envelopes and covered them in some handmade paper from India that’s been in my stash for years. Today I am working in the more neutral book on the left.
Here are two of the A3 size papers that I used for one of the books – this is the more subdued colour scheme – wait till you see the other one – it’s wild!
This was the second one I made but the one I decided to work in first. The other side is covered in stencilling. I don’t have a photo of that before it was cut up but here it is in the book, already folded, and the other side also.
I did my first spread in the new book. I used random bits and pieces that were on top of my table.
As you can see there is a butterfly focal point and so I am linking up with Neet’s theme of It Must Have Wings.
This morning I opened the art room doors at 7.30am and at that time, the sun is just about in the right position for sunbathing – if you’re a cat! There’s a reason I have two cushions on my table and not enough room to work lol. It’s so Miss Lily can move with the sun but this morning she preferred to laze on the big pad of watercolour paper on the middle of the table – no arting for me today!
And we were treated to a visit by her brother, the elusive Mr G, who never jumps on the table but I guess the lure of the sun was too hard to resist.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading and Happy journalling!
Ingredients
watercolour paper, watercolour paint, old amazon box, handmade paper, glue, paint pens, markers, ephemera, ribbon,
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – It Must Have Wings
I haven’t made any little concertina books in too long. I know what you mean about how fun it is to make them. Thanks for the inspiration; I think I need to make some too. (And I even had a few sheets of A2 paper sitting around.) Your books came out amazing. And they are fun to see, So are the kitties hogging the space on your work table. 🙂 I actually also liked seeing the space right behind and above your art table. I love little cubbie drawer units and I see you have 2 very cool ones. Thanks for sharing these little journals with us at AJJ for Neet’s challenge. It was a pleasure to see them. hugs-Erika
I do like how you accommodate Miss Lily in your art room with two cushions for her to enjoy the sunshine on. Lovely to see the elusive Mr G, you can tell they are siblings. I take it they get on. Thanks for sharing those photos of them.
Well, back to your lovely entry for AJJ with that butterfly which is framed with the most elegant of frames. I love all the bits of random pieces you used to help frame the frame, especially those leaves, they look so authentic. Thank you once again Elle for entering into my challenge, especially with a book. I love making books but don’t get enough time these days to make them as often as I would like to.
Who has paper of that size? Wow, that would take a bit of handling and you would probably need to be on the floor to do the folding accurately. I am glad you managed to work around it and nice to see you made more than one. love the paper you used. Thanks again for entering into the challenge at AJJ, much appreciated.
Hugs, Neet xx