Thing-a-day.com

At 10:30 last night it dawned upon me that I had not yet Thing-A-Dayed and needed something fast. I frantically started pulling drawers open and throwing junk onto my desk. I found a couple of pairs of mangled underwear that I never bothered to throw out, some scrap paper and about a dozen pull-string toys. I couldn’t help but look at the supplies and think of these recycled office paper blank books.

The pull-string toys were not of much use for this, so, I put them away and immediately set to work on making a recycled notebook using my old underwear as a cover (its clean, don’t worry). I couldn’t really remember how to make a book at first, having not done it in some years, but I managed to wing it.

This can be replicated in about 30 minutes and should cost about nothing to make.

Check out the instructions here.

I silk screened the covers of these books today, and then I put the books together. It was only my second time silk screening, so I am really happy how it turned out. Check out some more pictures of these books!

Day 3 of the Chicago notebook.

Finished the inside front cover this afternoon. I wasn’t sure at first if I liked the busy colors and lines after the more muted pencil work from yesterday’s photo, but I think it works.

Above the large Chicago is the city’s flag, which covers up the “reward if found” lines which grace the inside cover of every Moleskine. I figure contact info can end up somewhere else inside the book.

I was almost tempted to draw a little Loch Ness-style monster swimming in the depths of Lake Michigan, but I’m not sure if there have been any sightings of any such creature in any of the Great Lakes. Any residents of the Midwest out there who can help clue me in?

Now on to the organization and tabbing of pages, and then the scribbled info: itinerary, restaurant listings, museum hours, etc. Fun times, fun times.

The Chicago Notebook, Day 2.

Decorating the inside front cover with vinyl sticker letters and a not-so-accurate map, sketched in freehand from a tourist guidebook. When I get it all colored in and cleaned up, I’ll try scanning this.

Just under the wire, getting this post up right at midnight Mountain Time!

I was getting some really great responses about the notebook I made, so I made another today and created a tutorial about how it was done.
Here is a link to the tutorial at my blog!