Seriously… this obsession has been going on since mid-week. On Thursday night I made a little “doodle book” and I’ve been filling it up. So here’s the deal. Since I agreed to teach this doodling/drawing class to the ladies at my mom’s church in March I realized that I’ll need to have some examples to have on display during class sign up. To this point all my doodles have been in my Moleskine along with my journaling and stuff. And there’s no way I’m giving that up for several weeks. So I needed a little book to fill with doodles and drawings so the ladies could see what this class is all about.
So this little book is super simple to make. I used a sheet of Basic Grey cardstock and backed it with coordinating paper (can’t remember the brand) — just using my ATG tape gun. I newly created double-layer of cardstock to 8.5×11 and folded it in half. Then for the inside pages I just pulled 6 sheets of paper from a drawing pad I had laying around and cut those to 8.5×11 too. Fold that in half (then trim off the excess on the end from the way the fold lays). I used my corner rounder to round all the corners (cuz I love that feature in my Moleskine). Punch some holds down the spine and use thin ribbon to sew it together. I left some long ribbon tails and added beads. The book tended to flop open when I wanted it closed, so I added a clasp to secure it. The clasp is just a closure from an interoffice envelope I had lying around and attached it with brads.
The front cover will eventually have more doodling, I think. I’ve done a little bit around the letters and numbers, but I’ve been eyeing up my red pen thinking it needs some color. But the inside is already filling up fast too!
I’ve been experimenting with pens too. The Sharpie Fine Point is fantastic and I love it. But I’ve also been using this other pen…. totally generic and literally has no name on the barrel of it. I bought a pack of these gel pens at Big Lots and I really like the flow of ink and the dark coverage. I need to get back to Big Lots to see if I can find them again and buy a bunch. I’ve also used my Micron pens and the Unibal Micro – both very good too.
Here’s another couple pages I finished. I made the mistake on the first page (above) of outlining the solid lines in sharpie marker (not the Fine Point I mention above, but a normal fat sharpie) — it bled through to the other page. UGH! So I copied the pattern on the second page and it’s an exact copy of the first page – then the blank spaces are filled in with different doodles. I’m also excited to be including some mandala flowers too.
And my favorite one so far? The circles! I was totally inspired by Miriam and her gorgeous circle doodles. I can’t get enough of her website and just keep going back over and over all her amazing artwork – the carpet doodle? OMG! can you seriously believe that masterpiece? So after pouring over Miriam’s circles, I decided to make my own big circle doodle page. I started out drawing a bunch of circles all over the 2 pages using a template, then filling them in with doodles. This is how my first circles turned out.
So that’s what I’ve been up to this weekend. I’m definitely obsessed at the moment. But I also know I’m under a bit of a deadline to fill up this little doodle book — I need to turn in my project sample in about 3 weeks. Not sure that I’ll actually fill up all 24 pages by then, but I’d like to have a big chunk of it done. I’ll also need to prepare a sample that will be given away as a door prize at the event – but I definitely won’t be giving this book away. So I’ll probably pick my favorite page from the book, scan it and reprint it for framing. Maybe even color the print with color pencils or… if I’m good enough by then … watercolor.
~Pam
