I didn’t get to do any crafting this past weekend so I still have a lot of journals in progress and I am anxious to try some new products in my art journal adventures too but I have started my lettering journal.

In The Art of Whimsical Lettering, Joanne Sharpe, starts off the workshop with encouraging the reader to start a lettering journal. This journal will be used to practice techniques, see how different pens work and collect fonts that you like.

So I took a composition notebook and started gluing a couple of pages together and adding some washi tape to the edges. Washi tape makes everything more fun doesn’t it?

You are probably thinking, where’s the lettering? Well, this as far as I’ve gotten in my lettering project. Ha. I have lots of work ahead of me for sure but in the meantime here’s a picture of a recent art journal spread I did.

I used some printed tissue paper for the background and then went over it with distress ink. I used a stencil and an ink pad to “draw” the figure, some India ink for the circles, rubber stamps and odd bits for the rest.

This was fun to do and I love how something as simple as printed tissue paper can give you an instantaneous background. I need to look through my mom’s old collection of patterns and use them for my art journaling!

The edges around the journal are a bit rough and there are spots that I missed while inking but I liked that. I actually had to go back in with another piece of tissue paper because when I was coloring with the distress stain I managed to tear off some tissue paper but in the end I like that it ended up looking a bit more grungy.

Now I can’t wait until our next bookstore visit because I got an email about some new crafty books and I’m curious to see if the bookstore has them so I can take a look through them. Plus, there’s a craft store next to my bookstore. Oh boy, talk about having to control myself. Books and craft supplies? Too much fun.

I made a quick stop at the library this weekend to drop off some books and pick up some holds. I could easily have scooped up more books but just trying to show some restraint.

Anyway, here’s what I picked up:

Aimless Love by Billy Collins. This collection features poems from some of his previous books and more than 200 new poems. I love his poetry so I am sure I’ll enjoy this. Actually this is one I probably should buy to add to my collection.

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach. From the description: A chilling and intense first novel, the story of a solitary young woman drawn into an online world run by a charismatic web guru who entices her into impersonating a glamorous but desperate woman. Sounds like a good thriller.

Lifetime by Liza Marklund. I’ve not had a chance to read any books by this Scandinavian author so when I found this audiobook I thought why not. I believe this is part of a series but oddly enough I’m not adamant about going through the books in order when it comes to audiobooks.

I’m waiting on a couple of more holds but I wouldn’t mind if they take a while longer before they are ready. I need to work through some of these first. Let me know if you’ve read some of these and what you thought.