Back home

We are back from our holiday in Italy. A little sad and glad at the same time. We had a wonderful time, such a beautiful country and such lovely people. I even understood some Italian this time around, though I realy should try and finish my course before I go there next time. I might even be able to say some words in Italian by then, other then bon giorno, ciao, prego and grazie =).

Back home I'm having some trouble getting back in my rhythm, so I thought I would start off with showing you what I made to take with me on my holiday.

At first I was only going to take a tiny little file folder journal, but since we bought this little printer for the holiday snaps, I realy wanted something bigger so I could journal and add some photo's at the same time.

So I made a A5 sized pamphlet stitch journal with 10 folio's and as making one is almost as time consuming as making several, I made 6. I gave one to my daughter, one to my niece, two for my sisters friends daughters, one for me and a spare.

This is the one I chose for myself.

I made some die cuts, tags, envelopes and things we could add on to the journal for each booklet.

This is the tiny file folder journal I made just for writing and while on the road.

I used a travel theme throughout the booklet.

Distressed the heck out of it, because I like that look.

I do like the effect I got by distressing the pages after assembling the booklet, which was actually an oops...

Wrote the country and the year on the tab with india ink and a pen nib.

And then got scared I wouldn't be able to do any art journalling in the booklets, because the first one was too pretty and the second one was too small and pretty...

So I quickly slapped together an art journal with 5 signatures. gesso-ed pages, sketch paper,  lined paper and book pages. Tied them to a canvas cover and decorated it a bit. Thinking I might need that.

Turned out I really didn't! It was way to hot. 38 Degrees C in the shade is not a temperature to be art journalling in. I did make one page though.

I did do a lot of journalling. I feel the writing in itself is a meditative and calming process and I loved doing it.

The books took rather a beating while there, but they held up just fine.

A bit of wear and tear, here and there =), but otherwise just fine.

I dragged them around everywhere with me and got rather attached to them..

I was a bit sad when I finished them yesterday as they now have to live in my bookcase instead of my bag.

But just in time to cheer me up, there was some happy mail from Jo (Jozart) as a while back I was her 300th follower and she sent me some goodies. Yay!

Such a wonderful surprise, thank you so much, Jo. I will put them all to good use =).

So that's it from me for now as I try to get back into the swing of things. I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Linking this to:

• Creative everyday check-in: August 5-11
• Artists in blogland: show and tell saterday
• Art Journal everyday: My paper stash