I Made a Book

 Morning Jo.

I  made a book. 

I collected a lot of leaves and flowers this past summer. Well I have always collected leaves and flowers but this summer my friend Tom made me a Flower press so my efforts have been more dedicated. I used to just stick leaves into a book or two, then waited to open the books and be delighted to find a leaf. No documentation whatsoever. This year I did a better job of documenting. I dated some of the treasures with notes about where they were found. But this was a summer of staying home so most of these were found in my own back yard.

The cover of my book is from our eco dye day. It's art paper that we wrapped and filled with leaves from your big stash. I love the texture and the colour. Let's do that again.

Then I started making pages for my book. I used the old trick we learned in kindergarten. I ironed a fern frond between two pieces of waxed paper. I love the way it looks.

And then some petals from the hollyhocks that I found beside my house. 

And more hollyhocks and seeds. Perhaps one day someone will plant these seeds. 

And then some leaves.

One of the surprises was the texture that appeared on my press sheet. I had a hard time getting a good shot of it but its great. I used card stock for a protection sheet under my waxed paper and it left a lovely design. I included that in my book. This is something I plan to explore a little bit. What happens when you paint over the texture sheet??? watercolour or crayon?? hmm another day.

I left some blank pages. Just in case someone want to add something.

This bookmaking can be a lot of fun. 

This book is going to be a birthday present for a friend.

Hope she likes it.