A peak inside my new b/w sketchbook

As I don’t have already enough on plate these days, I bought myself this white gel ink pen to try out. I had some black paper scraps and started doodling. The results were very effective and loved the white marks on the black background.
So I thought I’d buy a pocket moleskine with black pages, but couldn’t find one easily, so I made my own little book (about 12x12cm) to experiment with instead.  I used this sheet of black paper and this black hemp cord to coptic stitch the pages together. For the cover I used some cardstock covered with a sheet of paper designed by Suzy Ultman for The Book for Paper Lovers 2.

Weekly art journal #1 // January to March

I started documenting my weeks this year through little watercolour illustrations. I didn’t set any specific plans for it, just painting whatever comes to mind and adding some notes here and there. This is how the first three months look like. Enjoy!
NOTES
The notebook I’m using is homemade (read more about it here)    
I will keep sharing each week on Instagram (here)

30 Days of Lists // March 2015

And so the listing has begun! After a year long hiatus, I’ve joined the 30 days of lists project back again. If you are new to this, it’s a month long online project where a prompt is sent to you every day and what you do is to jot down a list using whatever style and medium you like. Since I love paper so much, I made my own pamphlet stitch book for this challenge. It’s about 8x12cm, and I used a sheet of patterned paper from the Flow Book for Paper Lovers 2. I then used some small coloured, ruled and lined paper to glue to each page and to write the lists on. 
I will be sharing my lists on Instagram every day (@ marina_cerra) and on the blog at the end of the month. Happy listing!

Notebooks addiction

I think I can easily say that I have an addiction for notebooks, any type, any make, any size. And since I promised myself not to buy any new book until I’ve completed the ones I’ve already started (which is many), I’ve started making my own. I’ve spent the past week making these two 5″ squared notebooks, using some new fabrics I recently bought at the knitting & stitching fair in London. My inspiration was the squared journal from hand.book that Jeninne Zlatkis uses for her weekly journals. And since I’m planning to document 2014 in a similar way, I made myself a 52 weeks (26 pages) journal to fill in. 
For the inside I chose some 130gsm 100% recycled paper. I bought it from a UK based company called Ellie Poo Paper and is made with post consumer waste mixed with elephant dung. It sounds gross, but the paper is beautifully textured, does not smell if you are wondering, does not contain bleaches or detergents and the paint/pen does not bleed through. I’m so impressed with it so far.

For the notebook itself, I followed this tutorial on You Tube, almost to the letter, with some very minor changes to suit my needs.
I still haven’t decided which one of the two I’m going to be using, but once I do, I will make the other one available to buy in my etsy shop. Any preference?

Weekly planners

I’m totally in love with Jennine Zlatkis work (see my previous rubber stamping post). And now I’m obsessing over her journaling pages.  A few weeks ago, I gave it a go at making my own, and although the results are far from her beautiful work, I’m totally in love with them.
As usual, I worked with what I had available; I function much better this way than having to plan anything from scratch (too many options and I’m not good at choosing).
This is what I used:
  • 2 sheets of Fabriano Accademia watercolour paper 240gsm 27x35cm. These will make 10 10x15cm landscape weekly pages.
  • Staedler 0.3 pigment liner pen to draw the lines.
  • Watercolours for the background wash and the tiny paintings. I use artist’s Windsor and Newton.
  • Stamps, including a date stamp. I used mainly handmade stamps.
  • Ink pads. I’m currently using basic office inks + finger puppets ink, but I’m planning to upgrade to Stazon and Versacolor soon.
  • Coloured felted tip pens for the writing. I’m using Stabilo point 88.
  • Butterflies cut outs. You can download them from vintage printables
  • A ruler, scissors and a glue stick.

I have been using these to keep track of my creative activities, more like a weekly journal than a weekly plan. And it has been great! Not sure what I’m going to be doing with all of them once I’m done; I will probably make a mini book of some sort.
I already have some exciting ideas to use this type of journaling for documenting 2014; I will share it here once I have it exactly figure out how.