my art journal: fixes, leftovers into new

I'm continuing to work on my new project, Art Journal Every Day. I found this on Julie Balzer's site; anyone can join at anytime (see link). Recently, I've shared most of my step-by-steps here, but not all of them. I ran out of time! The other day after completing the strip paper background I realized my art journal was getting too bulky too fast and feared I was not going to be able to close it . . . or worse, this would wreak havoc on the spine and cause the journal to fall apart. So, I decided to treat it like I would an altered book and remove a few pages. I added a photo titled art journal surgery to my blipfoto journal, but wanted to share the rest of the photos, process and what happened after I removed them, here on my blog.

You'll need a cutting board, an x-acto knife and a steel ruler

leave about a 1/2" tab so the spine will stay strong 

-too close can cause the pages and spine to fall apart.

see the remaining tabs? I will glue those down or cover them with paper as I work.

still lots of pages to work on . . .

I removed about 18 pages! My art journal feels much better now.

The paper inside this hardcover moleskine notebook is actually pretty nice. Smooth, and thicker than the paper inside some of the other moleskines I've used. So, I decided to do something with this removed paper, besides just use it for scrap. I am hosting a little book swap and *that* was the first thing that came to my mind . . . I could make up some little books so I could play in the swap too!

I took the pages I had removed, trimmed them even and folded them in half using a bone folder.

I nestled the pages inside each other -they are about 4-1/4" x4-1/4".

I am not sure where I will go from here, but it's a start!

I still had leftover pages, so I came up with this idea . . .

I created a new journal with the removed pages!

I used cotton fabric tape for the outside seam that I could stamp on -fun!

I laid it on the outside seam of the stack of pages and folded it over; used a bone folder.

On the inside I used various tapes -tissue tapes, washi tapes- to bind the pages.

I found a lot of my decorative tapes here.

It was fun to do and I was pleased! 

I have another art journal spread in the works, halfway done & I will share it with you soon.

happy day, lenna ; ^ )