It's Monday -- and not just any Monday. It's the last Monday before Christmas! It's been a busy month, but a festive one, and I'm finally making progress in my holiday album, thanks in large part to October Afternoon's December Story kit.
Working with a kit can help to streamline the process of compiling a holiday album, but it's also fun to personalize pages, which brings us to this week's challenge: create your own pattern! And not just any pattern, but a hand-drawn one.
With a sketchbook, an ink pen, and some watercolors, I created a series of simple patterns that I worked into my holiday album along with the items in the December Story kit. I started with the title page:
To create the pattern above, I drew a series of continuous spirals, and brushed watercolors over them. Don't even worry about precision. It's all about the charm! If you aren't interested in waiting for paint to dry, use a heat gun/heat tool to speed up the process.
I used the scraps on another page of the album, incorporating them into a grid of 2" x 2" squares (the page protectors make it so easy!).
Even handwriting can produce a pretty pattern. Find a word or phrase to repeat, and write it over and over without lifting your hand from the page until the end of the line.
I opted for the line, "Prepare ye the way," since the focal page on which I planned to use it was about Advent.
You can see a little peek of the plaid paper from the new Saturday Mornings collection here. I used it to create an envelope for my journaling, which I wrapped wtih twine and tucked into a page pocket.
If the idea of a hand-drawn pattern sounds daunting, start with a simple design, like the one that I added to the page below.
I spritzed a piece of cardstock with mint-colored mist, drew tiny circles (lopsided ones, at that), and then dabbed the tip of a paintbrush over them, alternating colors.
I graduated from circles to Christmas trees eventually, and even attempted stripes.
I didn't even bother with a ruler. Just go with the flow!
I hope you'll try this, and that you'll find it a worthwhile challenge! Not only is it fun to experiment and to play, but it's also so very meaningful to incorporate patterns that you created with your own hands into your keepsakes.
I'd love to see the patterns that you create! Be sure to share them in the OA Flickr gallery.
Have a very merry week!
-- Jill