The Little red book

Red is my favorite color. Even from my earliest years, red was the first color out of the crayon box. I've wanted to make a little art journal with a red theme for some time now and decided the time was right after I found these index cards at a used book sale.

The cardstock is so dense and heavy -- ideal for book covers. I took 4, cut off the tabs and then painted them in reds. After the paint was dry I used rubber stamps and black ink to cover the surfaces from corner to corner.

I used a little Tim Holtz grunge board over the spine. It didn't need the extra reinforcement but I just liked how it looked, especially after I put the silver and gunmetal brads along the borders.

I used a watch piece that I attached to the cover as the fixed portion of the fastener. I glued a few "jewels" on the piece to give it a little more sparkle. On the bottom portion of the watch piece is stamped, "U.S.A. PAT. MAY. 24. 1904" It also says "7 jewels" in fancy lettering. So neat!

On the inside I have some of tea-dyed pages but also added papers from several different sources. Mostly it's recycled book pages, and art scrap pages. In all there are 3 signatures that I stitched in using the 5-point pamphlet stitch.

I wanted to include a lot more art in this journal. Sometimes I created the art myself with ink or paints, or collaging. Other times, if I found beautiful images of art or pictures from magazines that work with the page layouts, I used those types as art.

I added small bits here and there from postage stamps, pieces of decoupaged napkin, vintage lace, ribbon, postcards, playing cards, rubber stamping, a few die-cuts, and washi tape.

It's a very busy book, which is exactly what I wanted. I'm still adding to it and will be for a while.

https://youtu.be/q_CmaPpU4_k