All The Pretty Birds

This has absolutely nothing to do with journal making but once I got sidetracked off to crochet, I had to do a few patterns and other little things. I love these birds so much I bought a pattern for them but then I didn't like the pattern so much so I completely rewrote it to work with #10 crochet thread after I made 2 or 3 of them. I could not find the suggested size yarn in the instructions.

And I have to tell you, they look like real birds from a distance just for the shape and colors of them. The original pattern was used for the green bird on the right and then I started nitpicking it to pieces into something I liked much better. My pattern is the blue one on the left. Similar but very different to crochet. I like my wings much better and they take a lot less time to make. I trimmed down the bird and made him longer because I thought it was a little too plump and I made other changes too.

I also changed the size of the thread and needle to give me a smaller bird. I found some very colorful egyptian cotton crochet thread to work with - that I absolutely love at Hobby Lobby. It's their brand called Artiste 100% egyptian cotton size #10 and they have a wider color selection than any other brand I've found. It was on sale for 30% off making it 2 bucks a ball of 400 yds.

I'm working on sculpting a nose and beak out of polymer clay that can be attached with just two knots. I used to raise parakeets aka budgies. I love them so much but I can't have any birds because I have cats. These are about the same size as the real ones.

I changed the feet, the wings, the body, the tail. OK, so I completely rewrote my own pattern. The almost all white ones with light shading on the wings are called lacewings. I've still got some sewing to do on this one to blend the light green into white with crewel embroidery thread.

It's starting to look like a bird factory around here! There are so many different color combinations of yellow, green and blue you can make. I've made about ten of them and I haven't made two birds exactly alike yet. These last ones are waiting for me to get the nose piece sculpted and molded. I have all the feet done. Pretty soon I'm going to have to go outside and cut me a branch for them to perch on.

I can work the pattern and make a complete crocheted bird in under three hours but it takes a little longer to embellish it. Those wire feet have to be wrapped with thread. I used to sculpt dolls with a needle and thread and you really want to know how to hide the knots when you decorate these with thread. The eyes are glass beads. I don't know how many more of them I will make but I do enjoy seeing them come to life!

Why does it feel like somebody is staring at me...

Crocheted Enhancements

You might have noticed a little crochet in the edges of the rooftops of my current journals I'm working on. Well that got me off into crochet land for a while and I've been making all kinds of stuff out of string.

I ran across the cutest little edgings that I can use for my pages but the instructions were not written well and I had to try to follow along from a video. There are several of these videos out there and these little elephants are all done a little different, depending on how you interpret the instructions. But even those are translated really, really bad - I couldn't make heads or tails out of them. Doesn't anyone know how to read and write clear and concise crochet language any more?

I love to crochet little edgings onto paper pages and I can think of a few different ways to put these into a journal, can't you? I crocheted these on the edge of a printed bag but you could also use cards or fabric. I punched my holes about a quarter of an inch apart with a small hole punch. You can also just poke holes for the foundation stitches. Wouldn't a picot stitch be cute on the edge of a page? I can use all my skills and supplies on journal making.

The best I could figure them out and adjust the pattern to my own liking is how I do them. Since people don't want to write out tutorials any more (everybody wants to be a YouTube star), I finally figured them out and took the time to write out a pattern for my version in case anyone else wants to make them and can't quite figure them out.

I'm pretty certain a person new to crochet or even if you're not new you probably want a good readable pattern. So I made a few elephants a couple of different ways and wrote down the one I liked the best. I have to turn everything into a graphic to upload it here. A .pdf is just a graphic too. This one is a .jpg and blogger compresses it but you can still read it. Just click to enlarge it first, right click and save it then print it off. Here it is. Enjoy!

BIRDS IN THE FUTURE

I've also been crocheting little parakeets out of the same string. Ok so I'm on the internet a lot looking for ideas I can use in my projects and when I run across something I really, really like, I want to make it.

The parakeet pattern I got was less than what I really wanted so I wrote my own. I didn't like the feet, so I made my own. I didn't like the wings, so I made my own pattern. I didn't like the shape of the body so I wrote my own version. I'm still working on making a polymer beak and nose but I have to make some molds when I get them shaped just right. Until then I will be sewing them on.

I will show them soon. They are adorable! I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate them into my books. I love the little birds too.

How to Make Beaded Pins

First I had to go get some pins and beads. Yes, I already had a few 2" pins but I needed more. And I already had some pretty beads but... I needed to look at some new pretty beads.

What I found was pins with no coil on the bend so I got some of those. And I wanted some gold pins but all I could find was black and silver. There's always alcohol inks. I also found some all wire decorative pins but I figured out a better way to get pins on those by bending wire and making your own if you are good at that.

Found the prettiest beads at Walmart and they were reasonably priced too. So I got a lot of them. Some are for the dangle on the book spine and some for pins.

There are two ways to get beads on the back side of regular pins with a coil. One way is to take a pair of pliers and straighten out the pin, add beads and then try to bend it all back the way it was so it will close right. That's the hard way.

The easiest way is to pull of the crimped head with pliers, straighten out the wire and put beads on it. Then bend the end a little and put the closure back on with a dab of super glue. Crimp the inside of the curve with pliers to hold it snug and you're done. That's the easy way to do it.

You can also buy no coil pins, straighten them out, add beads and just bend them back into shape very easily but they don't look as mystifying as beads with a coil end for some reason.

Another way is to get some heavy gauge wire and bend your own all wire pin into shape, adding the beads onto the back as you go but that takes a little skill to make it look right.

So - pick a way that's easy for you and make a bunch of beaded pins for your journals and other projects. Don't be afraid to experiment with fabric pieces, dangles and charms on them too. You can make some pretty stuff yourself.

House Journal #1 Cover Done

It always takes a while to get the first one done. I decided to put some beaded pins on them so I had to stop, go get some pins and get some beads and get busy. I do have the inside pages of this journal put together but not semi-decorated yet.

What I mean by semi-decorated or semi-finished is when pockets and tags and other embellishments are added to the pages. Not all the pages get this treatment because whoever gets the book will want to personalize it with their own pictures and stuff too. So I always try to leave plenty of room for that.

I did add some pins and crochet border along the roof lines on both books I'm working on. I also softened the green leaf trim with a whitewash. It was just too dark.

Still working on the cover for this one. To add the pins on both, I glued a piece of fabric scrap to the front and made sure it had plenty of room in the center that was unglued for the pin to fasten on.

Next I'll tell you how I did those pins. Lots of people can't figure them out. It's a little tricky to get those beads on the back side of the pin so you can use the front to stick the pin to something, but it's not hard to do.

House Shaped Journals

The start of a new journal has begun. I had to drag out my charms to embellish the tassel of this one. I have the cover done and the signatures sewn in so far.

I dyed the "eggs" on the front with a sharpie marker. They are half round pearl finished beads. The finish was so slick that I had time to disperse the marks before they dried. I have fancy alcohol inks I could have used but my markers were handy and they are alcohol based too.

It's hard to see but the little hummingbird was glued on at the very last minute. I hadn't planned it but it needed something. I did most of the sewing on the front piece before gluing it to the cover.

The most time consuming is always making and sewing the signatures in. Once that's done the rest is pretty much fun. I do like sewing pretty fabrics along the edge of the pages even though it takes me a few hours to get them done.

Last but not least is the ribbon tie. I like silk ribbon the best but I've used seam binding and this twill binding tape too. I haven't made one with torn fabric yet. I tea dyed this one before attaching it.

Looking forward to decorating the pages up but I'm already on to the next. It's another house shaped journal much like this one... but a little different. I like to make at least two of everything because I'm going to keep one of them.

Second Bee Book

I made another bee book. The first one is always the prototype where I make all my decisions and work out the details. This cover is yellow with a gold lame ribbon.

I can pretty much identify all of them by the covers and inside first page. No two are exactly alike. The pages have been stained with coffee and sprayed with ink. I've also stenciled honeycombs in gold on the backgrounds and used splashes of ink throughout the book. A few of the pages are digital from Nik the booksmith at The Booksmith Shop, some are music sheets, some coloring book pages, some from a garden book and some plain and fancy scrapbooking papers too. Some other ephemera is from the public domain and The Graphics Fairy.

This book has a big purple flower. The beautiful roses throughout the book just give the bees a place to land. You can't have bees without a lot of flowers!

Those Domino Books Revisited

I'm really not a collector of anything but dust. But... I admit I've been hoarding these little books for years now and it's time to bring them out, polish them up and see if I can share them. So I brought out three little books and gave them some additional images and pages to make them more interesting and turn them into itty bitty journals.

I was obsessed with making these for a while so I have a lot of them to share. I added little buttons and jewels to the front covers of many of them. The back cover is also a domino. Words or phrases added to the plain pages really adds a lot to their cuteness factor.

There is still plenty of room to write on them if you write tiny. The backs are lined and I added a signature so you can journal. It has pages you can flip! I'm working on a word sheet so you can cut out words to glue on the front pages if you don't want to write in it. It's a cutie patootie little journal that's purposeful now and not just eye candy - although I'm all for eye candy too!

They are pretty thick when they are all tied up on the sides. They are chunky at over an inch. They are little journal books all on their own and they even can stand upright. So cute! Don't know if I want to draw lines on the backs of all of these but those journal pages can be printed off pretty easily. They are held in place like a traveler's journal by elastic in the fold. I use those little transparent rubber bands you get for little girl's hair at the Dollar Tree.

There are no rules in journal making. They can be any size and made of any material. All that is required is that you have a front, a back and some pages to write in. The rest is up to you!

Apparently, I'm still in love with these little books 'cause I'm thinking of making some more of these little journals!