Library Makerspace: Art and Book Craft Lessons

Part collage, part book art, part mixed media exploration, the Altered Books Daily Challenge uses simple skills like cutting, gluing, inking and painting to transform old texts into new and extraordinary works of art. Creativebug staff instructors Courtney Cerruti and Faith Hale are book lovers and paper fanatics.

What is book art? It is a way to merge art and bookbinding techniques to make a one-of a-kind handmade book. With a Master’s degree in book art and creative writing, Creativebug staffer Faith Hale shares her passion by demonstrating a technique, structure, or prompt every day for an entire month

Blank books are deceptively simple vessels of creativity. In this month, bookmaker Faith Hale demonstrates a new structure, variation, or technique every day. From traditional bidings like a three-hole pamphlet to innovative structures like the blizzard book, you’ll glue, fold, and stitch your way to a library of possibilities.

Jen will walk you through the steps from making a fabric cover, creating a signature and a basic bookbinding stitch all the while making you laugh with her crafty insights and Jen-isms. Best yet, junk jounrnaling gives you some of the tools of bookbinding with the freedom of imperfection and a "just go with it" approach to bookmaking. This is a fun and freeing project for crafters of all ages.

Take a leap into the vibrant world of art journaling with Dawn DeVries Sokol. Art journaling is an artistic way of documenting your life within the pages of a journal – but instead of using words alone, you’ll be using pens, paint, and collage to express yourself and record moments from your life. Over the next four weeks,

Courtney and Liana craft artful journal entries using stamps, markers, paint and more.

Garden historian Mac Griswold poetically states that “Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts,” but this art moves swiftly once the growing season is underway. In this class, led by lifelong gardener and artist Lorene Edwards Forkner, learn how to make the most of every season by developing a personal garden journal that provides space for exploring garden dreams, stashing pertinent plant tags and seed packets, and diagraming planting ideas. Included is a practical garden log sheet: a place to record seasonal weather and keep track of bloom time and harvests, along with garden wins, losses, and discoveries. A well-used garden journal is a valuable reference when plotting for the future but you need not limit yourself to the realities of your growing region or resources; simply choose any plant that appeals to you and have some fun!