What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday!

{The beautiful mess that is my desk}

I’m back to making bookmarks! Last month, I discovered Aimee’s collaged bookmarks over at Artsyville, and made a few batches looking for the perfect size bookmark. Since I love making small collages so much, I find myself coming back to this bookmark project again and again. Last week, I made these, using my stash of blue papers:

Now I have a new batch in the making, using my stash of green papers. That’s the project I have on my desk, pictured above.  I'll post them when they're finished!

I am also starting to think about yet another bookmark project, inspired by the April/May/June issue of Somerset Life. Diane Rose Geer uses vintage recipe cards, both handwritten and typed, along with lace, trim, papers, and other embellishments to create “cook bookmarks”. I am toying around with a version that uses recipes from old, discarded cookbooks. I’ll post my results when I get further along in the project, as well.

Also, I used an article by Susan Pickering Rothamel and Frankie Fioretti in the March/April 2011 Cloth Paper Scissors to learn how to make restructured paper. It is yet another way to make use of the bits and pieces of papers that we end up with from other projects. Making the paper involves coating scraps with Perfect Paper Adhesive and layering them onto a wet silicone surface. (I used an inexpensive cutting board from Bed Bath & Beyond.) It’s a nice, wet, messy process—definitely saved for moments when my kids are taking naps or have gone to bed at night. No stepping away to find a toy or settle a toddler dispute with glue coating both of my hands!

Here is the result of my first effort:

I'm not particularly pleased with how it looks, but I like the fact that I tried it!  There are a lot of other features to the project for me to explore:  I didn’t leave too much open space among the papers, which would have added more interest to the final piece. I also did not incorporate cut, punched, or die cut shapes to create recognizable focal points. Nor did I use acrylic glaze to add color to the piece.

The authors suggest that the paper can be mounted on a background paper (which will show through the open spaces), or that it can be used for other collages or cards. Since the process of creating the paper was fun and there is so much room for future “play,” I know that I will be revisiting this project again in the future!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to…what's on YOUR work desk today??