ROD Remains of the Day Class- New Ideas for Journals

Stack of ephemera, coffee, and scissors...Ready to start!

The days errands have finally been completed and I have about an hour all to myself before I have to get Matt ready for work. That's a delicious chunk of time to get a cup of coffee, relax in the backyard while perusing my stash of ephemera for my first ROD "Remains of the Day" journal.

For those of you that haven't heard of Remains of the Day, it's an online class you can purchase that outlines a different process for journal pages. You can look it up here: http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/dispatch_from_la/rotdoci.html

I skipped over Part 1 of this class because I need to see what the book is going to evolve into before I try and create it's cover. I don't want to limit myself before I even get started. It's sad to say but we all judge a book by it's cover which is a very important element to any journal. When you pull out your journal, you want it to be special and inspiring. I have to see what the insides are before I can create the right exterior. I am also not a fan of fabric covers, so I am mulling over the alternative design in my head. I am imagining an old school buckle closure for sure.

So I am starting with Part 2 Pure Experimentation- Shabby Pages. This step requires a large stack of ephemera or old paper and a chunk of time. Let your imagination run wild with this step and don't limit yourself to conventional paper. Anything you can stitch together can be used for your signatures. You could use old sewing patterns, blue prints, envelopes, x-rays, etc....

ROD Instructions

Anytime I am working with ephemera it looks like a paper bomb exploded around me. Little bits of this and that in a precarious piles. Even the tiniest scrap of paper I hesitate over throwing away because you never know if you might need it for that finishing touch. I even question which piece of paper can be torn apart. Some of them are from late 1800's or early 1900's and the graphics are amazing. Paper for me, has been and will always be a treasure. Before the advent of computers, artists had to draw each image and create fonts. For the most part, only people in that area enjoyed these works of art. Then the digital age swept over our society and what was once inaccessible is now available for all to see and enjoy.  As we move deeper into the digital age these scraps of paper will be a lost art. It's a strange world we live in when a baby is being read children's tales from an iPad.  I wonder if the new generation of children will even know the joys of feeling a creamy piece of paper beneath their fingers as they turn the page of their favorite storybook?

Hitch the hound enjoying himself while I work

The hummingbirds were zipping all over

After you've ransacked your neat pile of ephemera you're left with scraps of images and text. I organize mine into stacks by size and content so it's easier to find what I need later. 

Even after I go through and take out all the images I still hang on to the books, etc. because on another day you might be inspired by a different color or texture and see you passed right by it in one of those books.

Everyone has a different process for creating. Some people have a plan already mapped out in their mind and outline the process before they begin. Others have a rough idea and work through their ideas during a series of steps, which is how this class has been organized. What this class did in a series of 5 or 6 steps I did in 2.  It all depends on how you process your ideas.

 I didn't sit down with an idea in mind for this journal. I wanted to have a blank slate for this first one and see how it evolved with the paper I had on hand.
When you close your mind to preconceived ideas or stereotypes, you are able to make something completely new or unexpected. 

Now that I have all of these bits and pieces together, it's time to start sewing them together creating pages for my signatures.