waldorf inspired creativity...

::  journals covered with 'vintage' water colour paintings!  ::

After seeing what great fun the folks over at Playful Learning are going to have with their photo journaling course I thought we would attempt something similar but on a bit smaller scale.

Over the years we have encouraged the kids to write in journals but sadly they tend to lose interest quickly.  I don't feel there's a need to force the issue but I have to admit feeling a slight swell of excitement when this new method sparked their interest!  I will be taking photos of our days and printing out the ones that they want to include in their journals.  They are are free to write, draw or glue whatever they wish into these books!

In order to make the drab journals that I had on hand more inspiring I decided to go to my stash of 'hubby's childhood waldorf paintings' and use two to recover the journals!  
Here's a quick summary of how I did it...

::  supplies needed  ::

Water colour painting, exercise book or journal,

paper cutter and/or scissors, and double sided tape.

::  turn the painting over and trim it so that it is about 3/4" bigger than the journal  ::

::  fold the 3/4" edges all around the journal, close the book to fold the spine  ::

::  cut a triangle at the top and bottom of spine and trim edges so they are beveled on the corners.  stick down with double sided tape  ::

::  finished inside view  ::

*note:  if you wanted it to look even tidier, you could then attach another piece of paper to hide all of the "seams", but I thought it looked fine and allowed me to complete the project in the few minutes that the kids gave me to do it in!  ;o)

::  ready to start photo journaling!  :: 

  
I also wanted to share a few creative corners of our home...

::  pottery turtle by A, needle felted ladybug by me, clay hedgehog by B  ::

::  the little boardbook that is shown in the photo above, 6 pages of beautiful illustrations of what nature shares with us each season!  ::

::  pottery bowl by B, needle felted acorns by me, felted bowl a gift from an amazingly talented friend!  ::

::  green silk and hand carved animals from thrift store, postcards and stand from sunrise waldorf school store  ::

::  mushroom candle holder and vase from thrift stores, the last handmade candle from our local apiary, needle felted pussy willows by me  ::

That's all for now!  Thank you for stopping by, may your day be filled with creativity!
~ joey ~