A Journal of “Nature’s Blessings”- a book swap for you to join

It's time for a new swap!

 

Here are the details of what I'll be including and making for the swap:

*Two covers, front and back,  with a canvas spine.*

*The front cover will feature an image of a concrete garden statue angel from my own artwork.*

 *It will tie shut with velvet ribbons.*

*I will use high quality, and vintage supplies, along with scanned wallpaper from my collection layered with a printed poem by Emmerson. *

*Each book will have a millinery bloom from my garden of floral hats, lovely ribbons, lace, vintage wallpaper, and each cover will be individually white washed by hand.*

*The book will be made up of 3 signatures of 3 pieces of card stock. You will send 6, I will supply 3 blank pages for you to finish as you'd like in your own book.    This makes a total of 36 pages. *

This will be a functional journal, for you to use for notes, pictures, doodling, memorabilia. So, at least half of the pages created by swappers will be simply finished to allow you space to use in the book.  Such as stationary paper, ledger paper, an envelope, lined paper, plain paper, etc.  Borders, headers, or decorations can be added, but the page should still be usable for the new owner to fill in for themselves.  (examples below)

*Nature themed charms will be tied with a bundle of ribbon, lace, and twine to the ribbons and lace that I bind the book with.*

*I will be including a hand drawn "doodle page" for you to use in the book if you would like. (as pictured)*  

    The drawing was done on a collage of papers from old books, one is a German book about birds from 1817.  Color it as you'd like with markers, pens, etc, and glue it into your journal.

*The book title is printed on a soft, old, damask tablecloth.*

*No two book covers will be exactly the same, since I am using so many vintage elements. * 

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Here are the guidelines, if you'd like to join:
1-The theme is nature's blessings, any interpretation you'd like- plants, flowers, gardens, animals, angels, birds- it's wide open to your view of what you love and feel blessed by in nature.
2- Size is a full page of 8-1/2 x 11 card stock, folded in half to make two 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 pages with a crease in the middle.
3- Please use card stock.  Add anything creative over it, but the base must be card stock, so that I can assemble the book. Please keep the fold  ONLY card stock and clear of embellishments so I can punch the holes. 
4-  Make 6 folded sheets of card stock front and back, So that means 6 pieces of paper/24 sides total.  This sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that this is a journal.  AT LEAST HALF of those 24 sides, need to be usable.  Lined paper, pockets, old stationary, envelopes, etc, something that the new owner can write on, tuck things into, or add to.  This is a functional journal.         (please check out the examples below)  The rest of the pages can be decorated to your heart's content, but do please keep half usable for the book's owner. (or more if you'd like, but at least half)
5- Feel free to add trailing lace, and other pretty trims that peek out from the covers of the book.  The more trims, laces, and ribbons, the prettier the over all look of the book will be.
6-  Sign your work, add your blog name if you have one.

8- LEAVE ONE INCH ALONG THE CENTER FOLD EMPTY, no 3-D items along the fold, so I can punch holes.  Decorate the crap out of the rest of the page and goober it up as thick as you'd like, but please leave the center 1" for me to bind!  hmmm, I think I might have already mentioned that one…

 

 To join, please email: karlanathan@sbcglobal.net 

Please include:
 Your first and last name
Your blog name and URL (you don't need to have a blog to participate)
Your email address

 

Deadline
Pages should be to me by September 20, 2014
In your package, include:
Your first and last name, same as you provided at sign up
A slip of paper with your name, and address, if your mailing address name does not match the first and last name you provided, please alert me

$30 fee for USA, sorry, no overseas swapping this time. (I am sorry also, but do to the volume of books I'll be making, I am not able to honor special requests, or let you know when your box arrives.  I will try to get photos of all the pages and feature them on my blog as I build the books.)  

 If you would like to purchase an assembled book (blank pages ready for you to create yourself) they will be available for the same price. Comes with doodle page.

Here is a button you can post on your blog for the swap if you'd like. I look forward to seeing the nature inspired pages winging thier way into my cottage!

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EXAMPLES

Here are some links to our last shared effort, the Fairie Book, if you'd like to see my style of arranging pages. I put a lot of time into sorting the swap pages together to look like cohesive, pretty books:

1- http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2012/09/knee-deep-in-fairies.html

2- http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2012/09/the-tail-end-of-the-faery-book-swap-ill-miss-it.html

3- http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2012/09/faery-book-swap-page-sets.html

And here are some journals that I have bound the same way I will be doing for this  Nature's Blessing Journal swap:

1- http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2013/05/a-book-of-enchantments.html

2- http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2013/02/at-the-valentine-journal-workshop-and-some-free-images.html

3- http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2011/01/if-dorothy-was-a-scrap-booker.html

 

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These books are a different theme, but show some ideas on how to finish the pages so that they can be used by the new owner of the book.

a On the left-  I've covered the cardstock with pretty paper, and added envelopes.

Left- This page has added note paper.

Left- This one has a pocket for notes.

And here is a big selection of plain papers, with borders.  Lots of space to use for the new journal owner, but still decorative and creative from the swapper.

Along those same lines, a simple, lined paper with a pretty header.

And this idea is the simplest of them all.  Pretty paper, lace trim, left empty for the new owner to add a photo to.

Similar to this, plain paper to add a photo to, and an envelope with a message on the flap.

And again, the same type of look, room to write on, and an envelope to save special things inside.

This heart is a collage made by Lori Oles, I have added it to a page in one of my books, and by only gluing down the sides, not the top, it has become a pocket to hold tidbits.

These pages were done by a student in one of my classes.

Plain, pretty paper on some pages is nice too.

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Here is a detail from the doodle sheet that is included for you to tint.

And this is an example of how I color mine.

Here is an example of a past doodle sheet I've made.  It has a fairy tale theme, as you can see. I draw words and designs on an old book page, and it is copied and ready to be colored in with markers.

A nature themed doodle sheet will be included in your book for you to finish as you'd like.

Here is one with a Love theme for Valentine's Day.

 These are the charms I will be tying to the ribbons on the binding. All are nature themed, and have been whitewashed.