THE ART OF NOTICING SPRING 2020 TITLE PAGE

This is a super simple title page for my spring 2020 The Art Of Noticing Traveler's Notebook.

I lettered the word "spring" myself (just a black Tombow brush pen on Rhodia paper), scanned it, added "twenty twenty" in Photoshop, printed it out, cut it out on my trimmer, adhered it to my title page with a tape runner and rounded the corners with a corner chomper.

Here's a quick video of the process (it's better to watch it on YouTube because you can choose decent quality there):

And this is the free word art download:

This one says spring twenty twenty

This one just says spring

Click on the link, wait for the file to appear and click "download" in the upper right corner of the screen.

If you use it in a project, please leave me a link in the comments or tag me on Instagram (@komissarovandco), I'D LOVE to see it!

HOW TO MAKE A TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK REFILL

I'm taking part in Ali Edward's The Art Of Noticing project this week!

This notebook is currently sold out, so I decided to make my own based on this digital template.

The size of the finished notebook is 11 cm x 21 cm (4,33 in x 8,25 in). The easiest way to print it is on A4 paper, because it's width is the exact height of a classic Traveler's Notebook refill (8,25 inches or 21 cm). Here's what it looks like printed on one side:

If your printer prints double-sided, just do it, and you're good to go. My printer doesn't, so I have to turn the sheet clock-wise:

Then turn it back and insert it into the printer:

I found it easier to fold the sheet first, and then to trim it. The red line shows where I ran my bone folder to fold the sheet (using a scoring board):

Run the bone folder over the fold a few times to make sure it lies nice and flat:

And then trim it:

I printed 4 sheets total (3 double-sided and 1 single-sided for the title page), which will give me 7 spreads, one for each day of the week. 

A classic TN refill has 32 pages (thus, 64 spreads), but I wanted to do this project once a season for a week, so I only need four notebooks (spring, summer, autumn, winter) for seven days of noticing each. I'll then insert them into my Project Life album.

Now it's time to make the cover. Choose a sheet of patterned paper (mine is from a past Studio Calico kit) and mark the size of the cover (22 cm x 21 cm or 8,66 in x 8,25 in) with a mechanical pencil and a T-ruler:

Score it down the middle:

Fold it on the scored line:

And trim it from both sides using your pencil lines as a guide: 

Now it's time to assemble the notebook together. You can run it through your sewing machine, hand-stitch it down the middle, or staple it in place with a long-reach stapler. If you don't have a long-reach stapler (which I don't), there's still a way to staple your notebook with just about any stapler on earth.

Here's how:

First create a template for your staples from a scrap of cardstock. The height of the template should be exactly the height of the notebook (21 cm or 8,25 in), the width doesn't really matter. I stapled it three times using the tiny attacher, then removed the staples to reveal the holes:




































Now secure your paper sandwich: first a stack of printed pages, then the cover, then a stapling template on top. Using the template, staple it 3 times, or if you don't have a long reach staple (which I don't), just poke the holes with a piercer and insert the staples into the holes manually:

You now have yourself a pretty little notebook:

Here's what it looks like on the inside:

It all lines up so nicely that you don't need to extra trim anything. 

You may round the corners if you like (I do it with a corner chomper, which is heavy duty and can round all the pages and cover at once):

This is the front page (I'm planning to add "SPRING 2020" there):

This is what all the other pages look like (with a sneak peak of the first photo I took for this project):

Now it's time to add photos and journaling, and you're all good! I'll share mine over the next couple of days. See you then!

Altenew July 2017 challenge

I started this one off with watercoloring the biggest flower in the middle and then got stuck trying to decide which color to choose for the roses. I considered orange or yellow, but then stumbled across a challenge at Altenew, which coincidentally was all about red roses. I considered it a sign (was pretty excited about it actually) and painted my roses red. So here goes!

Simon says stamp watercolor paper, my kids' no-name #5 brush and watercolors and a gorgeous Blooming Bouquet stamp by Altenew. It's just a blank notecard, so there's no sentiment (I'm in the process of creating a set of simple white notecards with watercolored florals on them).

Loved this stamp so much I actually tried to recreate the look by free-hand painting these flowers using my brush marks and a different color combo (well, not too different, I only have four watercolors -- red, yellow, blue and green, but at least I mixed them differently this time). Here's how it turned out:

My brush is too small, I believe, a larger one would make much better strokes, but at least I tried! It was super fun and super quick, less than a minute. It took me much longer to watercolor the previous image.

Thank you very much for looking! I so appreciate you stopping by.

random cards

Felt like playing with watercolor lately, so made these two cards - one to my dear parents for their 31th birthday anniversary, and the other to my dear friend for his birthday.

The first one comes in an envelope:

The paper I used here was Prima Art Paper (some old collection) and the flair is from Everyday Vintage.

I painted the card on a Prima Paintable I've had in my stash for a while.

The number is a wood veneer piece from Ali Edwards December Daily 2014 kit...

...painted with gold acrylic paint (Studio Calico 24 karat).

I inserted a picture of all the four of us (the only one this year so far taken back in January - I should take more family portraits, really).

The greeting is under the picture but I forgot to take a photo of it.

There's a wood veneer heart on the back of the card painted gold, too.

And this is the birthday card (the same paintable, but a different background and shape and one of my favorite color combos):

This is the second time in my life I've made cards, so please don't judge too severely. Thank you so much for reading!

week in the life 2014!

Hi there!

Let me share, I have to spill it out, I'm so, so happy today! I've actually just finished my Week in the Life 2014 album.

IT'S THE FIRST ALBUM I'VE EVER EVER COMPLETED!

Isn't it something to celebrate?

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

No, honestly, I've been meaning to do this forever. I took part in Week in the Life last year in October together with amazing Ali Edwards and a whole group of cool folks, meaning I was taking pictures of our life for a week, and then I started printing them out and writing the words and putting it all together... and got stuck, and never returned to this project again.

One of my intentions for this year was to finish all my unfinished albums, and now I believe I can do it because well, I did it with this one!

I feel so excited and happy and grateful, that I decided to film a video walk-through of the album. Mind you, it's not only the first album in my life, it's also the first video in my life, so PLEASE BEAR WITH ME.

I'm filming it while holding my camera in one shaking hand and turning the page with the other. I'm nervously stammering in my far-from-perfect English. I'm also bursting with happiness and excitement of someone who's just finished her first ever album and filming her first ever video. You get the idea.

So that's it. You're watching this at your own risk. You've been warned!

Thank you so much for watching! And my hugs to anyone who'll leave a comment. They make me so happy.

A few pictures for those who prefer it this way:

Have you really made it this far?!

Love you guys.