One of the first cards I saw by the amazing Anahata Katkin was this one (no longer as a card, but it was awhile ago!); I loved the horizontal layers that served as the backdrop for the collage, and immediately went home to try my hand at it.

It didn't turn out nearly as well as I'd hoped.

A few days ago, I discovered the art of Michael Cutlip (via Dear Ada) and felt that love of horizontal layers come back.

My journal's thick and big, and I recently treated myself to a cute new purse...but carrying and using the journal wouldn't work with it....and hasn't been working with my life recently. I've been carrying a Moleskine sketchbook, but long ago I outgrew the size of the larger ones, and...yeah.

Now, I promised I wouldn't BUY any new journals....so I re-fitted an old one....and I mean OLD, as in a few years ago. Some new paper and a pretty new cover and WHAM! New journal.

I played with the vertical layers and WHEEE, I'm having too much fun. This one's a combination of the girl's T-Shirt in "Dan in Real Life" (the clouds), a bit of the paintings that inspired it, and a collage I've been working on in my journal.

I had a long quote on the bottom, but when I went to "seal" the cover with some gel medium (all I have!), the ink totally smeared and I had to quickly rub it off to get rid of the big black blob. BUT! It helped with the first page in the journal and another layers painting!

So see, you can take something that was originally a mistake and add it in and BAM, completely new style and love and fun!

I'm planning on doing another book binding video (I have everything ready, I just need to sit down and do it!), but is there something else? I was thinking of a tutorial on watercolor crayons (and their awesome multitude of usages), and hrmmm....I don't know! Let me know! I want to make y'all new videos! Heeee!

Well, I'm now SO running late in getting ready for work, so I'll just give you a pick of my inside cover and run off to get dressed. See ya all on the flip side!